Report:Weekend Shoot of Ambika Kalna 31/08/08

Venue: Ambika Kalna
Date: 31/08/08
Members:
1.Aparna
2.Aruni
3.Atanu
4.Himadri
5.Shamin
6.Rangan
7.Joyjeet (New Member)
8.Sumi (New Member)
9.Sanjukta (Guest)

We were supposed to meet below the boro ghari of Howrah Station at 7:00. but as some members were unaware of the location of boro ghari we finally met at almost 7:40. The train left as per schedule at 7:53. There was nothing memorable about the train journey apart from the perek incident (check the BabaUncle & Co thread)
We reached Ambika Kalna at 10:00. After a long barganing session with the rickshwawala we hired 5 rickshaw and set out with our trip.
The first stop was Rajbari Complex. The star attraction of the complex was the 108 shiv temples distributed in two concentric circles. The outer had 74 while the inner had 34 temples. Next we continued to the Pratapesvara Temple, this is a Deul (single tower) type temple with intricate terracotta work. The other two major temples in the complex are Lalaji Temple & Krishnachandra Temple both containing 25 steeples and intricate terracotta works. There are other minor structures like 5 Aat Chala (8 sloped roofs) temples,a rsh mancha and several other structure. We spent more than an hour phorographing this complex.
Next we moved on to the Baduri para for the Gopal Bari (25 steeple mandir), Siddheswari Temple (dochala, 2 sloped roofs) and finally to Ananta Basudev Temple.
Finally we moved on to the Hooghly river ghat for the Jaganath Temples. Three temples with beautiful terracotta curving stands over looking the river.
This was the last group of tempes covered by us and we fnally called it a day at about 1:30. After a heavy lunch we decided to drop our Pundooah leg of our trip. A long chat session followed in the restaurant (I don't remember the name, can any one help me) which was followed by a group shot in front of the Ambika Kalna station board.
This was a wonderful day out for KWS and inspite of the heat & humidity we did enjoy a lot. But it could have been for more worse, at least it didn't rain at all during the entire shot.
But Kalna had unlimited photo opertunities and one trip is not enough, so we hope to return again with all those who missed out on todays trip.
Pls TAG your photo KWSAMBIKAKALNA310808.
Trip report written by Rangan Dutta