Kolkata is the 3rd most populace metropolitan city in India and also the most important and busiest place of Eastern India. It is placed between 22°33'N to 88°20'E in the state of West Bengal and it covers an area of approximately 1480 Sq. km. on the bank of Hooghly River. Kolkata is the eighth biggest city in the world with a population of 4486678 according to the census of 2011.

(Victoria Memorial, Kolkata)

Kolkata was known as Calcutta up to 2001 but it was changed by West Bengal Government due to its incorrect pronunciation. The city has a great historical value from the ancient age. During the time periode of British rule Kolkata was the capital city up to 1911 and several great freedom fighters of India was born in this land. In the time of Indian independent Kolkata became the capital town of West Bengal.

Kolkata is a city where different types (religions) of people live from ancient age. The major religions of the city are Hinduism (73 %), Muslims (23 %), Christians (2 %) and the rest are Buddhists and Jains. All types of religion followers in Kolkata city celebrate a number religious festival in their own custom.

The main religious festivals of the city are Kali Puja (Hindu festival), Durga Puja (Hindu festival), Jagadhatri Puja (Hindu festival), Saraswati Puja (Hindu festival), Lakshmi Puja (Hindu festival) Christmas Day (Christian festival), Good Friday (Christian festival), Holi (Hindu festival), Janmastami (Hindu festival), Shivaratri (Hindu festival), Eid ul-Fitr (Muslim festival) and Moharram (Muslim festival).

Beside of these festivals, three more national festivals are also celebrated here with a great enthusiasm. These festivals are – the Independent day of India, The Republic day of India and Gandhi Birthday.

The weather of Kolkata is unusually the tropical wet-and-dry types. Mainly three type of weather seasons are found here.

The summer season is continued for long time from March to July. In this season the temperature increases extremely high up to 48° C and a destructive storm locally called as Kal-Baishakhi run over the city. It enters from the northern sea of India called Bay of Bengal. The average temperature of Kolkata in summer is approximately 36° C.

The Monsoon season appears at the end of July and continues to mid of September. During this season temperature vary from 25° C to 40° C. The average rainfall of the city is approximately 1,582 mm.

The winter season starts from November and continues to middle of February. The minimum temperature during this season is 12°C and the average temperature of Kolkata in winter is approximately 18° C.

Languages of Kolkata

The people of Kolkata mainly use the Bengali dialect as their spoken Languages. But many other languages are also spoken here. These are Hindi, Urdu, Haryanvi, Rajasthani, Bihari, Tamil, Assamese, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati. Bengali and English are used as written language as well as official language.