New market or Sir Hogg’s Market. It is a market I went to as kid in Kolkata. People talked it as you find every thing: Toys, Sarees ,Salwar Kameez…. To me as kid in the 1980;s visiting India from Jeddah Saudi Arabia was : I love it ,even though this place is primitive ,but lots of relatives here. The luxury of Jeddah, Saudi might not have been in Kolkata. But we never stayed in the city ,we went to the Villages: Hooghly. Trying to find a cold drink: Gold Spot— Equivalent of Mirinda or Bangladeshi Fanta. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knZpch5N30Y Well the cold drinks was two companies: PEPSI Company was popular in Saudi in the early seventies to mid 80’s. They had the following drinks: Pepsi Mirinda 7Up(bottled by PePsico) I used to thin as kid Pepsi owned all these brands. In Kolkata, really used to look for drinking a soft drink. It was either Campa Cola or Thumbs Up or Gold spot. These were not easily available. But it was a diffent world then. An age where there was no smart phones, cell phones or anything wireless. In 3rd grade I learned of CB.(wireless) . My Scottish teacher with a large mustache […]

Kochi is a place in Kerala. It is like never heard of this place. Not much in Google. Well actually name was Cochin and with Policies of Indian Government; names of places changed. The first was Bombay, it became Mumbai. Then Calcutta became Kolkata. Well Bengalis were calling it Kolkata anyway. Cochin was known to the Greeks and Romans. Specifically, the Ionians and that is why they are called Yavanas. The state of Cochin came into existence in 1102. Zeng He ,the Chinese Admiral came to deliver tablets from the Ming Dynasty. This was since Cochin was a protectorate of the Ming Dynasty. http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/4sub8/item45.html Kochi(Cochin) is 4 hours drive from Calicut, the Port city. This where Vasco De Gama landed in 1498. The earliest documented reference to Kochi(Cochin) in history is by Chinese Traveler Ma Huan in the 15th century with the Chinese Muslim Admiral Zeng He. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/in-keralas-kozhikode-a-hunt-for-a-chinese-legend/ A short historical summary: 1102- Kingdom of Cochin formed. 1440-Italian Traveler Niccolò Da Conti visits Kochi. 1500-Portugese Traveler Pedro Alvares Lands. 1503-Kingdom of Kochi is taken over by Portuguese 1663- Portuguese overthrown by Dutch. Mysore King Hyder Ali ,father of Tippu Sultan conquers Kochi. 1814-Anglo-Dutch city transfers city officially to United Kingdom. […]