Things to do in Kumartuli & Sovabazar

Kumartuli is the potters' quarter on the Hooghly where most of Kolkata's Durga, Kali and Saraswati idols are sculpted from river clay; the lanes are busiest in the weeks before each puja and photographers arrive at dawn. A short walk south is the Sovabazar Rajbari, where Nabakrishna Deb started a family Durga Puja in 1757 that is still held. Further down Rabindra Sarani are the Marble Palace and Jorasanko Thakur Bari, the Tagore family home built in 1784, which now houses the Rabindra Bharati Museum and marks Tagore's birth anniversary in May. Sovabazar Sutanuti station is about 600 metres from the Kumartuli workshops; Girish Park serves Jorasanko.