Weekly Photo Challenge – Tour Guide

I stumbled upon this weekly photo challenge just a while ago. The topic for this week is Tour Guide – What do you love about where you live? I was born in the capital of Bengal – Kolkata or Calcutta as the city of Joy used to be referred to as earlier but I grew up in a small town of Bengal called Berhampore. After my plus two, I moved cities for higher education and then for job assignments but whenever I use the word home, it always means Berhampore. It still does. The town is a part of the heritage district of Murshidabad.

My husband and I had come down for a small vacation here with our toddler. But this time around, I decided to take a trip down the town to discover the history and essence of the place. This was going to be part of my travel diaries. The more I get to know this place, the more intrigued I feel. Sometimes having stayed in a place for too long, we start taking it for granted. Now that I hardly get to visit this place, I realize how little I have explored it till date.

The set of pictures is taken in Katra Masjid in Murshidabad. The place houses a mosque or rather remnants of a mosque after massive destruction caused by an earthquake and a Lord Shiva Temple in the same premises. The owner of this place – Nawab Murshid Quli Khan on whose name the district town is called Murshidabad is believed to be a Hindu by birth but was sold to Muslim clergy at a tender age. While most of the pillars and interiors of the mosque have been severely affected by the earthquake, the place is still a tourist destination for people visiting the town. At a time when religion is a primary factor in dividing the world, it is heartwarming to see this historical co-existence of two religions in the form of a mosque and temple.

Author: Sonia Chatterjee Banerjee

Who am I? Ex-Banker turned Blogger/Writer/Solopreneur. Any qualifications? A Post graduate degree in Chemistry followed by Post Graduate Diploma in Management. I am still trying to figure out how and when I can connect all these dots to what I do presently. Have I done any real work? If two years in Market Research and six years in Banking (three different Banks though) as Branch Head can be considered as real work. Where do I live? After a nomadic sixteen years in Delhi, Bangalore & Mysore, I am back to where it all started from - Kolkata. My favorite things - Food, travel, books and my two and half year old toddler son What is this blog about ? Sonia's musings is an attempt to channelize emotions through words and pictures hoping they touch a chord with my visitors. View all posts by Sonia Chatterjee Banerjee