Touring Bengal

West Bengal, a state full of exotic natural wealth, is also home to immense cultural wealth in the form of built heritage, folk forms, handicrafts, festivals, theatre, and fine arts. However, traditional tourism has primarily focused on either natural destinations like hill stations, beaches, and the Sunderbans, or the built heritage in Bankura, Bishnupur, and Murshidabad along with Tagore’s Shantiniketan. But there is so much of its unique cultural offerings that remains to be explored!

I used to work in rural Bengal for a social enterprise, banglanatak dot com, extensively between 2002 and 2012, for community organizing and social development. Never did I realize then, that my work will teach me to see the state eventually in a new light of cultural splendor! Recently, I went back to experience this organization’s work on cultural tourism that they had started about a decade back, primarily focusing on bringing about sustainable livelihood…