Let's Meet Up Tours on Le Soleil (Quebec), a French-language daily newspaper in Quebec City
about  Le Soleil: a French daily newspaper founded in 1873

 Dans ce contexte, les femmes sont réticentes à voyager en Inde. "Nous avons augmenté le nombre de femmes guides au sein de notre agence, confirme Indu Elahi de Let’s meet up tours à Calcutta. L’aspect sécurité importe davantage que le prix pour les voyageurs dans le choix de l’agence avec laquelle ils feront affaire"

Translation: In this context, women are reluctant to travel to India. "We have increased the number of women guides in our agency confirms Indu Elahi Let's meet up towers in Calcutta. The security aspect is more important than money for travelers in choosing the agency with which they will do business.

www.letsmeetuptours.com

The Bazzar walks by Let's Meet Up Tours.

The Bazzar walking tour....

19th century Calcutta had quite diverse sec­tors of retail trade. At the one extreme stood the exclusive shops of European tradesmen dealing in imported goods and fashionable bespoke orders. At the other were the 'informal' activities of itinerant hawkers and businessmen and the unorganized street bazaars which sprang up near residential areas. Between these were the privately owned market areas where individual stall­holders could rent space and the streets of stalls and shops, such as Old and New China Bazaar Streets.

Only in the last quarter of the century did Calcutta build a public (municipal) market, the Stuart Hogg Market or New Market.

The bazaar life of Calcutta has always been a prosperous one. A growing popu­lation with many distinct communities having their different food needs, clothing styles and lifestyles called into being diverse and busy markets.

1830: there were some 30 food markets in Calcutta but only two were for Europeans and the wealthy Bengali babus.

One was Dharamtolla Bazaar on Dharamtolla Street, owned by a wealthy Bengali native, and the other was the Tiretta Bazaar which had been started by a Venetian. Both were very old, having been established in   1794   and   1788    respectively.

In 1871 a municipal report stated: •The Dhurrumtollah Market is situated on the corner of Chowringhee and Dhurrumtollah Streets.

This market was full of cock­roaches and flies; refuse was thrown about and lay rotting in cesspools. There was no control over the quality and display of the meat and fish sold there. Charges were made that dis­eased cattle which had died in the fields were sold in the market. It was said that the conditions were such as to change any meat eater into a vege­tarian.

The health officer of the Calcutta Corporation felt that it was impossible to   enforce a   clean-up.   These were private markets; there was no public control. The Calcutta Corporation had established slaughterhouses for the sanitary killing of cattle, goats, pigs and fowl but could do nothing about how the produce was marketed. By the 1860s the European residents were up in arms about the spread of gastro-erteritis and intestinal disease in the city. They brought pressure on the Corporation about the markets but the private owners were reluctant to invest large sums in redesigning the markets and the Corporation lacked the power to interfere.

Thus was born the concept of a municipal market, to be built and ad­ministered by the Corporation of Calcutta.

 

 

                                                 A fruit seller

   our Guest from U.K on a Bazzar walking tour

                                                women from the suburbs travel by local trains to sell their goods in these local markets and return back home.

 

                                                  Every Bengali kitchen has potatoes.... and pati lebu(lime)

 In Bengal people believe that chiles should never been put directly in another persons hand as you might buy a fight or quarrel with the person, rather put it in a basket or put it down for the other person to collect it.

                                                       Masala or Indian spices

                                               Tamarind is used in fish curry.

 During summers the locals prefer to eat a cucumber everyday. you will find hawkers selling cucumber on the sidewalks....especially in Dalhousie,new market,in front of schools and colleges and small street as well...."beat the heat with a Cucumber"

                         Chicken or Murgi is a sunday thing in most families....lol

 Bongs don't mind fish throughout the week.

                                        crabs crabs and crabs....

                          Jaggery or palm candy..used in cooking rice pudding (Payesh or kheer)

how to detect if it is a fresh fish...check the eyes if they are milky white its a fresh fish and if is yellowish then walk up to the other shop...

                             Tour expert Indu in the market...

                                   Brooms and brooms

To book a bazzar walk with us mail us at tours@letsmeetuptours.com or call at 9051201818/1717visit our website www.letsmeetuptours.com

Kolkata Slum Tours

Kolkata Slum walking Tours

by Lets Met Up Tours

Our mission is twofold; to help slum dwellers eradicate poverty by empowering them to become independent and help improve life for their families. Secondly we aim to help educate and inform a wider community about the challenges of informal settlements, and one of the ways we are achieving that is by arranging walking tours of Kolkata slums, whereby we encourage positive impact on the slum dwellers lives, on the basis if people aren't aware of the issues, they can't help.

We aim to engage in local projects, initially supporting educational development by providing essential lighted space where children can go and study; cook stoves for individual dwellings and communal kitchens; and better access to clean water.

We feel that this is our collective social responsibility and want to inspire people globally to provide aid and help alleviate the appalling conditions in Indian slums, either by encouraging them to become involved and share knowledge or provide support. Knowledge is sometimes more valuable than financial support, as knowledge of the privileged educated class can often help informal communities have access to better living conditions.

In order our tours are sustainable and provide a positive impact on the community, a proportion of our revenues are distributed to communities, directly supporting education, health and well being for the underprivileged children.

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                                          Our Guest from New Zealand on a Kolkata Slum Tour

                                     We distributed rice,fruits and soap to the slum children

 

                                               Tour Expert Indu with Guest and a slum dweller

                                                   Abid the Rikshaw puller poses for a pic.

We encourage our guests to donate fruits to these children as most of them are malnourished.

This is a small classroom where we teach English language to the children.

 Distributing rice...

Kerosene stoves and charcoal ovens are used for cooking which emits carbon  therefore we educate them about the ill effects & health hazards. we will soon be donating solar oven to these slum dwellers with the support of our guests/customers.

This is a hand pump, the slum dwellers use this water for drinking,bathing,washing clothes and cooking.

       Water supply by the government....it is supplied thrice daily.

                               Our guests from U.K.. discussing about how we can introduce
                                 eco friendly water filters to the slum dwellers.

                                                 A shanty house.

                                              storage of drinking water.

                                                            slum dwellings

                                     5 family members share this same room...cooking is done in this room as well.

Qualification to be a volunteer " Love and a desire to help the less fortunate"
Come join us all you need to do is spare 3 hours of your time to teach English language to the children and on weekends you may participate in cooking for these children, if you are a tourist and do not have enough time..... you may also donate vegetables,rice,fruits,oil,spices...etc
Please drop in a mail to us at tours@letsmeetuptours.com or call at +91 9051201818/1717