Basak Guinea Museum

Finding us isn’t too hard if you know where the Bank of India is on Ganguly Street. We are located at 172 Ad Ganguly Street in Kolkata. The museum is a bit tucked away, but that’s part of its charm. It is not like those big museums with security guards and glass cases everywhere. Here at Basak Guinea Museum, things are a bit more personal. We have a lot of items packed into a relatively small space. Sometimes we have to shuffle things around just to let someone walk through. It smells a bit like old wood and metal in here, which I think people like. My family has been looking after this place for quite a while. We don't have fancy digital tours or anything. If you want to know about something, you just have to ask. We spend our mornings dusting off the displays and making sure everything looks decent enough. The street outside is always crowded with people and honking cars, but once you step inside, it gets a little quieter. We get all sorts of visitors, from students to elderly folks who remember things from years ago. It is a lot of work to keep it all running, but it feels important to keep these things where people can see them. We stay open until the evening and then lock up the heavy doors. Some of the cabinets are stiff to open, but they hold a lot of history that we like to share.