"Victoria Hall, built in 1905 in memory of the first Empress of India.
As a city Calcutta was a mess, with many people living on the streets and some very depressing slums. But it also had much of interest, I met a local student in a cafe and the next morning he borrowed his family car, and their driver, and he gave me a tour of the city and the botanical gardens, with its great banyan tree covering a large area, its branches spreading out and dropping down to take root. The large park in the city centre was also a great place to walk and watch people play cricket. At on end was a racecourse where I saw my first horse race, but by this time the novelty of India had, for that trip, worn off and all I really wanted to do was move on to Thailand, and as soon as I got my money from the bank (which turned out to be on strike, and after a week and getting about 10 signatures I got my money, all £50 of it) I was able to book a cheap flight and leave from Dum Dum Airport the next evening for Bangkok." - MH