Hooghly

The district of Hooghly is just 47 km north of Kolkata and is steeped in history and heritage. Dotted with several small but important towns, the district is testimony to the rule of foreign settlers-the British and Portuguese at Hooghly, the Dutch at Chinsurah, the French at Chandernagore, and the Germans and Austrians at Bhadreswar. The Portuguese were the first to settle here in 1537, but were defeated by by Shah Jahan in 1632. The British East India Company then followed and set up a factory here in 1651. Chandannagore (Chandernagore) was once a French colony and is still under the influence of French language and culture. Chinsurah was a Dutch settlement from 1656 to 1825. It was later exchanged by the Dutch for the British-held Indonesian island of Sumatra in 1825. The Hooghly, as the Ganga River is called here, dominates the landscape and people use ferries to cross from one town to another.

South Dinajpur (Bolla Kali Temple)

The village Bolla is situated 20 km away from Balurghat town on the Balurghat- Malda Highway. There is a famous Kali temple named after BOLLA Ma Kali. The story behind the temple says that a Zamindar was arrested by the British as he could not pay the tax for his Zamindari. Goddess Kali came to his rescue and the Zamindar was freed the very next day. As a token of gratitude, he built a temple of Goddess Kali and started worshipping her.