Wikipedia:Wikipedia Takes Kolkata V

Wikipedia Takes Kolkata is a planned photo scavenger hunt in the spirit of Wikipedia Takes the City held in Kolkata. This event is aimed at increasing the coverage of free photographs involving the city of Kolkata so that they can be used in Wikipedia articles which need pictures, as well as promoting awareness of Wikipedia.

Wikipedia Takes Kolkata is held every year during the winter. This is the fifth season of this annual event. We'll cover several historical buildings including churches, mosques, temples as well as the street scenes in and around Kidderpore area.

Schedule
The photo walk will be organised in Kidderpore area.

Starting Point and Time
In front of Khidderpore Tram Depot 7:30 am

Subjects

 * Bhukailash Rajbari
 * St. Stephen Cemetery
 * Kabi Tirtha park (residence of poets: Micheal Madhusudhan Dutt, Rongolal Bandhopadhyay, Hemchandra Bandopadhyay)
 * St. Thomas School
 * St. Stephen Church
 * St. George's Gate
 * Nanda Kumar Hanging Well
 * Hasting Chapel
 * Army Tank and Air Force Plane
 * Dargah
 * Lascar Memorial

Pre-requisites
The participants are requested to carry the following.


 * Digital camera: Please carry a digital camera, preferably a DSLR.
 * Enough memory: Please ensure there is enough memory on your card.
 * Additional lenses: Please bring additional lenses as you feel necessary.
 * Tripods Tripods are welcome. Please don't hesitate to bring your tripod if you feel it would be necessary.
 * Food & water This is not at all mandatory. However, if you want to carry your own food please feel free to do so.
 * Laptop: Please bring your laptop. After the photo walk there will be a session for uploading the photos to Wikimedia Commons. At the point of assembly there will be a safe custody where you can leave your backpack and other belongings without any worry.
 * Dongle: Please bring your dongle. Though Wifi will be provided during the uploading session, it will be better to carry dongles, just in case there is a bandwidth issue.

Dos

 * Remove time stamps while taking snaps.
 * Note down the subject that you photograph.
 * If you wish to leave early please inform the co-ordinator of the photo walk.

Don'ts

 * Do not take pictures of people, unless required as a subject. Respect others privacy.
 * Do not take photographs where it is prohibited.
 * Do not loose your cool if some police or security guard prohibits you from taking snaps.

Contributing images in commons

 * All are requested to upload the images in commons
 * Please use the Category: Wikipedia Takes Kolkata V

Participants

 * 1) Rangan Datta
 * 2) Biswarup Ganguly
 * 3) Santanu Chandra
 * 4) Sujay Chandra
 * 5) Jayanta Nath
 * 6) Kalyan Sarkar
 * 7) Ananya Mondal
 * 8) Amitava Sengupta
 * 9) Kinjal Bose
 * 10) Tapas Deb
 * 11) Deepanjan Ghose
 * 12) Sumit Surai
 * 13) Indrajit Das
 * 14) Samrat Chatterjee
 * 15) Sk. Sohail
 * 16) Arup Chowdhury

Report
It had been a great and superb day for some sixteen participants at the fifth annual event of Wikipedia Kolkata yesterday morning at Kidderpore. It was a chilly day in Kolkata and the city was still sleeping as it was Sunday morning. But the participants arrived in front of Kidderpore tram depot at 7:30 am wrapped in woolens and armed with DSLRs. After a light breakfast coupled with hot tea, the team under the guidance of our coordinator Sri Rangan Datta, started for the photo walk. The city was still sleeping and this was evident from the less number of people in the streets. The roadside tea shops were already open and catering to the needs of the customers. The team went straight to St. Stephen’s Cemetery and from the front gate it was evident that it had carried the memories for about two centuries. Some of the graves there were very old.

After spending some time there we went straight to Bhukailash Shiv Temple. There were two two temples in the complex with a pond on the front side. A beautiful statue of an ox was in the middle of the two temples. The participants were busy taking snaps of the shrine from different angles and some even went straight to the temple to offer prayers to Lord Shiva. By then the fog had dispersed and the sky was almost clear. The reflection of the temple had fallen upon the pond water making it a photographer’s paradise. We would like to spend a little more time there to witness the beauty but as there were so many other subjects still waiting for us, we moved on.

Our next destination was Patit Pabani Durga Mandir which was there nearby. The temple had Goddess Durga as the main deity. We were spell bound at the beautiful architecture. There were two canons made of cast iron on either side of the stage. All of us were busy capturing those moments in their cameras. We spend some time there. Later we moved to the residence of Michael Madhusudan Dutta, the famous Bengali poet, in Kidderpore. On the way we came across the house of another poet Rangalal Bandopadhyay. This house was well kept. From there we went straight to the home of another Bengali poet Hemchandra Bandopadhyay. The front portion of the house was dilapidated. This house which once produced so many literary works was in ruins. The trio of three poets (Michael Madhusudan Dutta, Hemchandra Bandopadhyay and Rangalal Bandopadhyay) came to be known as Kabitirtha or the pilgrimage of three poets. On the way we even took photographs of some houses which had carried the taste of time.

It was almost eleven and we are feeling hot. Some of the participants removed their woolens. Our next destination was Lascar War Memorial which was a hundred feet tall monument built in Indo-Mughal style. It was unveiled to the public by the then Governor of Bengal Lord Lytton on 6th February, 1924. The memorial was well kept and the ambience was fine. One could even witness the Vidyasagar Setu (Second Hooghly Bridge) from there. We were offered tea and snacks inside the monument premises. We spent some time and went round the memorial. It was a beautiful piece of architecture. It was midday then and it’s time to go back home. The participants enjoyed the day very much and more so because the photo walk was beautifully coordinated by our beloved Rangan da.

Post Event Blogs etc

 * Bong Blogger
 * Sumit Surai

Other Seasons

 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata I
 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata II
 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata III
 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata IV
 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata VI
 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata VII
 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata VIII
 * Wikipedia Takes Kolkata IX