Capital Guest House Kolkata (Calcutta)

... the perpetrator being beaten close to death by a gang of angry Indian police men. Fate will get them I'm sure.

So anyway Kalkata. This is where I leave India. I only really came here to get the cheap flight to Bangkok. I did a bit of sightseeing but I didn't fall in love with the city. I didn't have enough time, was ****** from being robbed and just wanted to get out of India. It was also proper dirty. Its a ...

... so much new music and material to learn, practice and internalize that we know that it will take us years of focused and steady practice to even digest the beginnings of this ancient music. We've all seen that learning in this setting with Guruji is how and why the Indian Classical musicians are the most disciplined and refined. We've been so lucky to have a Guru that not only teaches in this way but shows us by example, as he is the most disciplined ...

... not easy to get the bass around and we think he scared some people when he pulled it out of the car, but the whole concert was so well received! We feel so fortunate that we have been able to reach the audiences with their own music, even though it is being performed in a very new way. At home we are very used to seeing new things and experimenting with new sounds and approaches, but in the Indian Classical music world, we are treading a new path each time. This is so ...

... and these giant reptiles attacked all things living including human in water. Now it was clear to us why did we see so many people, young, old and women without limbs in the Sundarban. Unlucky ones had become dinner of crocodiles. Day light broke beautifully. We could see many birds around the waterways and land. There were Spoon-billed Sandpipers shifting mud for food. We heard cuckoo singing and saw flights of shining green parrots. Cool and wind blue in from the Bay of ...

Thursday was Dashimi the last day of Durga Puja and the day for immersing the idols in the river. The day was full at the Puja house with many prayers, undressing the idols, eating traditional lunch served on a banana leaf and then going to the river with the huge idol carried by about 20 men with bamboo poles on their shoulders - through the busy streets with drums beating furiously all the way. We were following in two cars ...

... it -I didn't take pictures because it just seemed wrong, but it's like thousands of whole families living in shacks and tents in a four block neighborhood). There are 400 students at the school and 4,000 school aged children in the neighborhood. The neighborhood, although poor, was full of laughter and love. Children were running up to us to say hi, people wanted to shake our hands, and they were welcoming us in their homes. It was so nice ...

... and somehow my little room had a TV in it with HBO, so in my spare time (note: my entire life right now is spare time, in fact) in the evening I would pop a beer and watch some good movies. It's the small things in life. My guest house room was perched above a busy little side street where there were several food and chai stalls, and people occupied these little wooden benches in this dirty alley continually. Let me assure you, it is damn hot here ...

... bridge is said to be the most used bridge in the world. They built another one but put a toll on it so the first is still the busiest. Further up river I went to the Queen Victoria Museum. That is a pretty impressive building but they want 150Rp to get in. I just walked past the guard he said "hello" so I said "hello" and kept walking. Then the cops came up and said "hello" I ignored them and kept walking. One of them caught up to me and said, in a strong ...

... if it belongs to anyone. The first day I went to the Indian Museum (there was a power cut while I was there and everyone had to leave the room and they locked the doors until the power came back), Victoria Memorial, St-Paul's Cathedral, had dinner in a nice Indian restaurant and saw an Hindi movie! The movie is a great hit right now! Though I didn't understand anything, the crowd was quite entertaining. They all shouted when the lights went off, some ...