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Kolkata

tram in Kolkata with dancers

India’s tramway turned 150. But it’s on its last legs.

Infrastructure

​​​​​​​Kolkata’s 150-year-old tram system is limping along. It’s down to just two lines and there is little political will, or room in the city’s crowded streets, to bring the streetcars back to their former glory days. The tram does have a small but loyal band of supporters who want to keep it alive.

Kolkata's artists had to burn the midnight oil to get their Durga pujas ready early for the special art preview for visiting dignitaries. 

Art and religion remix at this goddess festival in Kolkata

Religion
A protester walks past the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021.

‘The death of American exceptionalism’: Views from abroad on US Capitol attack 

Global Politics
A group of children from the Shaktimaan group pose together in a slum in Kolkata, India, convincing child dropouts to go back to school.

Child ‘superheroes’ free children from child labor and marriage

Culture
Mother Teresa statue in Kolkata

Songs and celebrations in Kolkata for Mother Teresa’s sainthood

Belief
An artist applies the finishing touches on an idol of the Hindu goddess Durga in preparation for a yearly festival for Bengali Hindus.

For Bengali Hindus, radio is an unchanging part of a religious tradition

Media

Reporter Rhitu Chatterjee woke up yesterday in New Delhi to the sound of something she hasn’t heard in years — a radio broadcast heralding the start of the Hindu religious festival of Mahalaya. It turns out the program has been the exact same recording for decades, uniting generations of Bengalis.

An American teacher in India enjoys the traditions of a Bengali wedding

Arts, Culture & Media

In which city in West Bengal, India, would you find a traditional wedding ceremony where a bride covers her face with a betel leaf and where guests blow on a conch shell to celebrate the couple?

Taxis, buses and other cars stuck in the honking traffic in Kolkata, India

Bicyclists in crowded Indian city fight to take back the streets

Environment

Can you name an Indian city where authorities recently banned bicycles, along with hand carts and other non-motorized vehicles, from key roads and streets during the day.

BBC project saves endangered sounds

Environment

Save Our Sounds, a new BBC project, features an online map of sound clips uploaded by people all over the world.

Kids Improve Lives in Kolkata Slums

Business, Economics and Jobs

A community organization that aims to improve living conditions in the slums of Kolkata, India, takes an unusual approach. It relies on local children to hold elders and political leaders accountable.