Famous personalities of Kolkata

Kolkata was the capital of India before 1912. The British shifted their capital to Delhi to get rid of the patriotic zeal of Bengal. Since then Kolkata became the capital of Bengal. As a result, its glamour had reduced a little but remained still in focus. The importance of Kolkata greatly increased after the Partition in 1947.

Famous Personalities of Kolkata

Dr Ronald Ross

In 1902 Dr Ronald Ross was awarded Noble Prize in medicine. He worked in Kolkata (SSKM Hospital) and invented preventive medicine for deadly malaria.

Rabindranath Tagore

In 1913 Rabindra Nath Tagore was awarded Noble Prize in literature, and in 1930 Sir C V Raman got Noble Prize in physics. Although he was born in Tanjore in Kaveri Valley, his research work was in Kolkata. Mother Teressa was awarded the Noble (Peace) Prize in 1979 and in 1998 another prominent citizen of Bengal Professor Dr Amartya Sen got Noble Prize in economics. Each of these Indian Noble Laureates had their work sphere in Kolkata.

Mother Teressa

Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teressa is another pride of Kolkata. Mother was instrumental in drawing the attention of the whole world to the innumerable problems which the citizens of Kolkata are beset with. The entire activities are directed from Nirmal Hriday, 54-A, Acharya Jagadish Ch Bose Road, near Entally market.

Mother was born in 1910 in Serbia, joined the Irish Order of Loreto Nuns in 1929, arrived at Darjeeling as a teacher and in 1937 was transferred to Kolkata. The poverty in Kolkata had shaken her and in 1948 she alone started working for the poor in the slums of Kolkata in 1950 she founded Missionaries of Charity. Today it has more than 1000 dedicated sisters. Mother built 81 schools, 325 mobile clinics, 28 family planning centres, 67 leprosy centres and 32 orphanages. Mother got hurt to find the distorted presentation of Kolkata in the book the City of Joy and presented with actual information about the city before the world. She died on 10 August 1997 and is buried in Nirmal Hriday. Even today people from various countries come to Kolkata to pay homage to this universal Mother at Nirmal Hriday. Visiting hour is between 4 pm to 6 pm.

Mother became the 1315th 'Blessed' from the Vatican City of Rome on 19 October 2003.

Satyajit Ray

Another pride of Kolkata is the Bharat Ratna and special Oscar awardee legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Although he died on 23 April 1992, he is still remembered around the world for the contribution he made towards film, art and literature. In the Nandan complex, Satyajit Archive is set up with his collections along with his film prints, equipment, paintings, manuscripts of literature, scripts of films, etc. It is an additional tourist attraction in Kolkata.

Kolkata is also proud of Ustad Alauddin whose melody even today creates a sensation.