{"id":15539,"date":"2014-11-23T10:09:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T15:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=15539"},"modified":"2021-11-14T09:37:44","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T14:37:44","slug":"india-loves-12mc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/india-loves-12mc\/","title":{"rendered":"India Loves 12MC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Twelve Mile Circle noticed increasing visitor traffic from India over the last couple of years and particularly within the last several months. Maybe that’s a recognition of growing Internet access within the subcontinent and perhaps a general improvement in its technological infrastructure. I’d prefer to think of it in simpler terms: India loves 12MC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wasn’t the first time I’ve focused on people who love 12MC<\/a>. I’m always on the lookout for new constituencies who appreciate this humble little geo-oddity site. There aren’t many of us. We need to stick together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visits
Twelve Mile Circle Readership from India in 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, India is a nation of more than 1.2 billion people, and 12MC can only attract a few hundred visitors during an entire year? Does that sound like love<\/em>? Well, everything is relative of course, and the readership has much improved within that geographic area. That’s a fact. Also traffic wasn’t coming from a single person returning to the site day-after-day. Hits were coming from all over. The larger blobs on the map represented numerous readers from metropolitan areas such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kolkata<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Kolkata.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m not sure my culturally insensitive mind will ever fully switch to the name Kolkata. Instead, my brain reflexively seems to drive towards the westernized colonial imperialist version, Calcutta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, Kolkata sounded too much like Cold Cuts<\/a> to me. It compares favorably with other foodie-sounding places like Turkey and Chile (and why not Hamburg and Frankfurt while I’m at it). I’ve really gone on a tangent this morning. I’ll see if I can pull it back together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I noticed that Kolkata fell within the West Bengal State, an area of peculiar geographic shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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West Bengal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"West<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

West Bengal included two narrow necks of less than 20 kilometres across as it ambled north from the Bay of Bengal, past Kolkata, and onward towards India’s borders with Nepal and Bhutan. Bangladesh pinched West Bengal from the east and other Indian states pushed from the west. I took a closer look at the lower neck in the Murshidabad District, a place anchored by Farakka on the Ganges River. They called one corner Farakka Barrage Township (map<\/a>), which I considered an unusual name that might benefit from further investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Farakka Barrage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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