Page 284 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

282  EASTERN INDIA

w Park Street of Rose Aylmer, an early love
Cemetery of the poet Walter Savage Landor.
Her tomb, a spiralled obelisk, is
Bounded by Rawdon St & Park St.
Open Mon–Fri. inscribed with lines by Landor.
Also buried here is Colonel Kyd,
A romantic, overgrown haven founder of the city’s Botanical
of Raj nostalgia in the middle of Gardens (see p285).
the city, the Park Street Cemetery
was opened in August 1767 to
receive the body of John Wood, e Alipore
an official in the Custom House Bounded by AJC Bose Rd, Belvedere
of the East India Company. From Rd & Alipore Rd. Alipore Zoological
that date till the first half of the Gardens: Open 9am–5pm Fri–Wed.
A Sister of Charity outside the 19th century, it served as the Closed Thu except on public hols,
Mother House resting place of many important when the following Friday is closed.
Europeans who died in Kolkata. & National Library: Tel (033) 2479
q Mother House It was this graveyard that gave 1384. Open daily. Closed public hols.
Park Street its original name, & Agri Horticultural Society: Tel (033)
54A AJC Bose Rd. Tel (033) 2249 7115.
Open Mon–Sat. ∑ motherteresa. Burial Ground Road. Its name 2479 3580. Open 7–10am & 2–6pm
org Donations: are tax-exempt. Park Street was derived from the Mon–Sat (only to members and their
park that Elijah Impey, the Chief guests). ∑ agrihorticultureindia.
The city of Kolkata is inextricably Justice of the Supreme Court, com _ Flower Show (Jan, Feb, Nov).
linked to the name of Mother established in the area. His
Teresa. At first, she was a grave is in this cemetery as well. Best described as the city’s
teaching nun at Loreto Convent, William Jones, the great scholar most fashionable address,
but the death and devastation and founder of The Asiatic the suburb of Alipore in south
she witnessed in the city during Society, lies under a pyramid- Kolkata is a sylvan world of tree-
the famine of 1943, and Partition shaped tomb. Henry Vansittart, lined avenues, with palatial
of India in 1947 (see p60) made one of the first governors of houses surrounded by well-kept
her leave this cloistered world Bengal, is also buried here; so lawns. Kolkata’s zoo, the Alipore
and dedi cate her life to the poor. too is Henry Louis Vivian Derozio Zoological Gardens, was
The Missionaries of Charity was (1809–1831), a Eurasian teacher established here in 1875 and has
a new order she formed in 1950, at Hindu College in the mid-19th a large collection of birds and
with the Mother House as its century, who died at the young mammals. Situated nearby, the
headquarters. This simple age of 23. Derozio inspired Belvedere Estate has a broad
building is today also her final his students to question all expanse of lawn and also houses
resting place. Her grave is on the established traditions and was the National Library. This is the
ground floor in a hall. It has no one of the pioneers of what country’s largest library with
ornamen tation, only a Bible has come to be known as the over two million manuscripts
placed on it. On a board on the Bengal Renaissance (see p264). and books. The library has been
wall are two words, “I thirst”. The best-known tomb is that shifted to the Bhasha Bhawan,

Weathered tombs in the tree-shaded Park Street Cemetery
For hotels and restaurants in this region see p697 and pp710–11

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Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
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Date 12th July 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm