I’ve been to #Kolkata ten times and often wanted to know more about the city. When I go to Kolkata I sometimes use the Metro. From where I stay it’s easy to get to Kavi Nazrul station. The picture, not the map, is of the street that leads to the station entrance. To learn a bit more about the remarkable city I had in mind to know who, or what, the different Metro stations were named after, at least on the line I use. I’ve made a start. In time I expect I will use other Metro lines and learn more about the City. I am also looking forward to the Metro reaching Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport where I always arrive.
Who’s Who on the Kolkata Metro starting in the south of the city?
Kavi Subhash: named after poet Subhash Mukhopadhyay (kavi means poet!). The picture is of the street that leads to the station’s entrance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhash_Mukhopadhyay_(poet)
Shahid Khudiram: named after Khudiram Bose, Bengali revolutionary, hanged aged 18 yrs and 8 months! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khudiram_Bose
Kavi Nazrul: this is the station I use most often! “My” station is named after Kazi Nazrul Islam a Bengali poet, writer, musician and revolutionary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazi_Nazrul_Islam
Gitanjali: is named after the famous ‘Gitanjali’ or Song Offerings, a collection of 103 English poems, largely translations, of the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore who was awarded one of the first Nobel Prize for Literature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitanjali More about Rabindranath Tagore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore
Masterda Surya Sen: named after Surya Sen a Bengali Indian independence activist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Sen
More about the station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterda_Surya_Sen_metro_station
Mahanayak Uttam Kumar: was an Indian film actor, director, producer, singer, composer, and playback singer who predominantly worked in Indian Cinema. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttam_Kumar
Rabindra Sarobar: is an artificial lake in south Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. The name also refers to the area surrounding the lake. The naming is a tribute to the great Bengali writer and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindra_Sarobar
Kalighat: this is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in South Kolkata where there is a famous temple dedicated to the goddess Kali consider synonymous with Kolkata and the city’s patron goddess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalighat
Jatin Das Park: Jatindra Nath Das was an Indian independence activist who died in Lahore jail after a 63-day hunger strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatindra_Nath_Das
Netaji Bhavan: is a building maintained as a memorial and research centre to the life of the Indian nationalist “Netaji” Subhas Chandra Bose, who was an “Indian nationalist whose defiant patriotism made him a hero in India, but whose attempt during World War II to rid India of British rule with the help of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan left a troubled legacy.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netaji_Bhawan
More about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose
Rabindra Sadan: named after an artificial lake and nearby auditorium as well as the surrounding area of south Kolkata. The naming is a tribute to the great Bengali writer and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindra_Sarobar
Maidan: named for the Maidan (is it pronounced my-den?) the largest urban park in Kolkata, it is a vast stretch of field that includes numerous play grounds, including the famous cricketing venue Eden Gardens, several football stadiums, and the Kolkata Race Course https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidan_(Kolkata)
Park Street: located on Jawaharlal Nehru Road at Mother Teresa Sarani, previously called Park Street after which the station was named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Street_metro_station
More about Jawaharlal Nehru the first Indian Prime Minister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru
More about Mother Teresa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa
Esplanade: This is not a conventional esplanade in the sense that the place is not exactly situated alongside a waterbody. However, the river Ganga, also known as the Ganges or the Hooghly, flows nearby. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esplanade,_Kolkata
More about the Ganga or Ganges (that I have rowed a boat on at Varanasi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges
Chandni Chowk: not to be confused with the metro station in Delhi by the same name! this is named after the local market which used to be the main centre for electrical and electronic goods (before Amazon came in). You could get goods from both the black and white markets making it a must visit for gizmo lovers of yesteryears Station details https://en. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandni_Chowk_metro_station_(Kolkata)
Central: There is a road called Chittaranjan Avenue on which this station is based. That road used to be called Central Avenue which may have been the reason behind the station name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_metro_station_(Kolkata)
Mahatma Gandhi Road: no prize for guessing who this station is named after, “a national hero with numerous monuments” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
Girish Park: Girish is a Hindu name which means “lord of the Mountains” in Sanskrit. I guess there’s a park by this name nearby but I have never been there https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girish_Park
Shobhabajar: this area used to be the village Sutanati which is one of the 3 villages which came together to form the city Kolkata (the other two being Kolikata and Gobindopur). This part of Kolkata is very old and that’s where the station gets its name from. Shobhabajar is famous and infamous for many things – it is close to one of the biggest red light district in the country and also home to the erstwhile zamindars of the city (Raja Nabakrishna Deb) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shobhabazar
Shyambazar: it’s a neighbourhood in the north of Kolkata and the name may relate to Shyam Rai (or Gobinda), the attendant of the goddess Kali https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shyambazar
Belgachia: a neighbourhood of north Kolkata where you will find the “Shree Digambar Jain Pareswanath Temple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgachia
More about the Temple here https://www.kolkatacitytours.com/digambar-jain-paraswanath-temple-kolkata/
Dum Dum: it seems there is North Dum Dum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dumdum
And South Dum Dum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dumdum
But also it’s the name of an Expanding bullet! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanding_bullet
See the disambiguation of dum dum, one relates to the production of expanding bullets!
Noapara: is a neighbourhood in Baranagar municipal area in Barrackpore subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is a part of Kolkata Urban Agglomeration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noapara,_West_Bengal
Barrackpore (which is not on the map so I hope I have not included this in error) was the first British barrack or cantonment in India built in 1772 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrackpore
Thanks for reading this far!