World's longest railway platform
Gorakhpur, a sleepy city in Uttar Pradesh not far from the Nepal border, is home to the world's longest railway platform at 1.355 km long. The previous record-holder was a platform at Kharagpur in West Bengal.
west bengal
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Did you know?
Cool Lava
Travelling about 80kms from Darjeeling and to an altitude of 7200 feet gets you to the cool climes of a hill-station named Lava.
Bahadur and Ella
The person credited with discovering legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald was a Bardu Ali, his name a corruption of Bahad(o)ur Ali. He was the son of a peddler from Bengal who had settled in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century.
Dum-dum bullets
Dum-dums are bullets which are designed to expand upon impact. They are so called because they were first produced by the British Indian Army at the Dum Dum arsenal in Calcutta.
Ledikeni
Ledikeni, a Gulab Jamun-like Bengali sweet, was named after Lady Canning, the popular wife of Governor General Canning. It is apparently a slightly larger version of the Pantua.