National Library History, Hotels, Facts, Fare And More
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PERSONAL INFORMATION
NAME
National Library
COUNTRY
India
ADDRESS
Belvedere Road, Block A, Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal 700027
NATIONAL LIBRARY PICTURE
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About National Library
The National Library of India as the name suggests is a library situated in Kolkata. The building was founded in 1836 but was converted into a library in 1953. Before that, it was the house of the Governor-General of India. It is the largest library in terms of volume and public records all over India. It has about 2.2 million items consisting of books, magazines, newspapers, journals, maps, stamps, patents, prints, manuscripts, and much more. It is managed by the Ministry of Culture which is a part of the Government of India. The library remains open from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm from Monday to Friday while on weekend it opens from 9:30 to 6:00 pm. It remains off on national holidays which are Independence Day, Republic Day, and Mahatma Gandhi?s Birthday.
Some Lesser Known Facts About National Library
- The Hindi-speaking people must be proud to know that the library has safely kept all the books that belong to the nineteenth century including the first-ever books printed in Hindi.
- There are some secret rooms discovered by archaeologists in the library. It has a secret-ground floor room but they found no opening of any kind. The ASI still not found the entrance to the room and bore a hole and found the room was filled with mud. It is speculated that the British officials used that room as a punishment room or to keep treasure or it was just an effort to stabilize the building.
- It was the house of Warren Hastings at one time. It is believed that his spirit wanders in the library. It is also belief that he is searching for a black bureau that contained papers to prove his innocence. As he could not find this when he was alive that's why he is still finding that. Though the ghost has not attacked anyone.
- The guards on duty there; always have a copy of the Hanuman Chalisa (holy book) to keep any spirit away from them. Despite that many people claimed that they have seen a faint apparition of an English man.
- Also, there are stories of Lady Metcalfe's ghost that is believed to haunt the corridors of the building. Many people had the feeling of being watched while their visit.
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