What makes a busy man run when he does not need to run for his bread ?

An ignited passion or an inclination to explore something which is captivating yet unknown to many. Seldom, when I look into myself I often nurse this question & honest enough to confess that I never get to arrive on a convincing conclusion.

Being born in an era which was not dominated by smart phones, Domino's Pizza, 120 TV channels in home, multiplex, on line chat, MP3 players, Google search engine and many other things we seemed to be a doomed unfortunate generation in many ways. Really were we ?

No way - our generation was perhaps the last who explored their world in "Quiz time" show of Sidhartha Basu & "The world this week" of Pronoy Roy beamed in our good old Doordarshan.

Above all there were library in each school & local club where our souls were bonded like a slave. There were soccer in maidan & cricket in Eden Gardens that engrossed us like intoxicated soul. There were Rahul.Dev. Burman, Kishore Kumar tune playing on Vividha Bharati and at almost every Puja Pandal - there were enough reasons that could make life rocking.


Much later in 1996 when an amazing thing called Discovery Channel first appeared in Indian household the world for us changed overnight. Life was never insipid & crass.

With all these I was little more fortunate to have a father who with his limited ability used to encourage me for traveling & documenting the same as much as I can.That opened a window somewhere in my mind which I never tried to shut till now.

Today when half of the life is over & I myself a father, I still love to spread my wings even if there is a break of 2 hours from daily business of life.

Anything that is coveted to see, good to be recorded & fit to be photographed magnet me. Be it a dilapidated temple in a nondescriptive village at Bengal-Bihar border or a sunrise over Kumayun Himalaya in a quite hamlet in Uttaranchal, I am game for all.

With my very limited knowledge of photography & even more limited command over writing I have tried to share my experience with all through some small articles mainly published in various Calcutta based dailies.

While selecting a spot for writing I always focus on places within Bengal as I feel tourism in Bengal is very poorly marketed to the world. However in the photography section I tried to cover where ever I could draw my footprint.

This website is that small window in my mind that provides me required oxygen to my heart & brain. I am sure atleast some of you ( if not all ) will not find it a waste of time.

Come - let us draw some foot print together.

Brief Biography


Cutting teeth in hand written wall magazine & printed little magazine from his early days Somen finally took logistics management as his higher study after completing his graduation from University of Calcutta.

In 1991 while in Plus 2 level, Somen started conducting documentary features in Bengali for All India Radios' Calcutta station and later on moved to the English quiz section of the same. From 1995 onwards he started contributing now defunct Calcutta based English daily Amrita Bazar Patrika as freelance journalist mainly covering cultural events, quiz & interviews.In the same year he got a break in The Statesman in it's popular quiz column then used to publish in its supplement "The Saturday Statesman".

Once a regular name in Calcutta's quiz circle Somen is now a contributor in travel pages of The Telegraph,The Statesman,The Hindustan Times, The Pioneer, The Hitavada, The Tribune & The Asian Age.

41 years old Somen is a graduate from St Xavier's college Calcutta & a post graduate diploma holder in management from Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management Calcutta. He is employed with a reputed MNC .

He has formed a small group of friends from different walks of lives with Shyamal Chatterjee, Amitabha Gupta, Amit Guha, Rangan Dutta, Banani Bhattacharya, Arindam Bhowmick, Devashis Nandy and others who are regularly documenting historical data & photographs of various historical monuments of Bengal in form of newspaper articles, blog, web page development & print media.

In his leisure Somen indulges himself in immortal composition of R.D. Burman. Reading fiction based on historical background and novel written on human relationship are his favourite reading material. No wonder William Dalyrimple and Shirshendu Mukherjee are his favourite author. Somen is an adventerous foody too.

Son of a school teacher mother & corporate employed father Somen is married to Anamika for last 14 years & have a 12 years old son Aranyo. Somen's only elder brother Avijit is a CA & presently employed with a corporate house in New Jersy..