Indismart Hotel Kolkata (Calcutta)

... up, by me) Pre-wheel Before the wheel was invented, the closest predecessor of the rickshaw was the contraption shown in the picture on the right. This has to be the dumbest form of transport ever. It takes 4 humans to carry just 1 passenger. What kind of human to passenger ratio is that?! Even walking is more efficient than this (human/passenger ratio is 1:1). As you ...

... very little. So a little disheartened we looked to our lonely planet for some inspiration. Kolkata is a large city even by India's standands with an excess of 13 million inhabitants but as we spent the morning strolling among the streets viewing the variety of classical English buildings in various states of dilapidation toward the enormous great park in the centre of the city I got the sensation that it's a lot ...

... room where I sit. and the Mission's medical compounder, Madhavi, sits in a small office between Baba's and Amalendu's and Photik's offices. Madhavi is an absolutely silent woman who comes in, works for hours compounding and putting away her medicines, and quietly leaves. She is the image of quiet, contained dignity. I hang out with Baba Lokenath in the temple whenever I can, reading, writing, meditating. I am beginning to work on a comprehensive brochure on all of the ...

... Sealdah and Dum-Dum. Later Annemike, a<br>girl from Denmark joined as and we started doing the things together.<br>When I say we &#8211; it does not mean that we did it only together, other<br>workers existed. I and Leaven were living in the same hotel and every<br>morning we were doing the same procedure over and over again. For me it<br>was about 30 days than I ...

... that makes very tasty products that are sold in the showroom and at exhibitions around the state, and baatik, stitching, tie and dye, silk-screen printing and drawing areas that all create beautiful pieces that sell very well. Ankur Kala instills a very strong work ethic in it's women - they all work very hard. The women all complete a two year training course, during which they receive a salary, meals during the day and the support of the centre and reading, writing and English language ...

So, first of all, thanks to everyone for reaching out to me. As some of you have heard (and I just learned this only an hour ago after stepping off the train from Varanassi), there were massive terrorist attacks in the Colaba region of Mumbai, where I stayed barely two weeks ago. The Taj hotel, Mumbai's largest luxury hotel and a place I had lunch on my first day, was one of the places under seige and as many as 15 foreign hostages were held by gunmen. Again, I am fine, and there are no ...

... center for all this. Let me explain some: Durga is one of the 108 manifestations of the goddess Parvati who is the partner to Shiva - one of the three main gods of the Hindu religion. Kali is another of the manifestations of Parvati. Parvati and Shiva had four children, Ganesh (the elephant headed child who creates obstacles and also does away with them), Saraswati (the goddess of learning and music), Laxmi (the goddess of wealth) and Kartik who ...

... is the hotel we stayed at for the last two nights. The Fairlawn is a famous hotel in Kolkata and run by an eccentric old lady Violet Smith. Her parents bought the building in 1936 and after they died Violet and her daughter took over the running of it. It's a funny place with vast amounts of tat everywhere and lots of photos of Felicity Kendall on the wall. Anyway I will say no more other than you have to visit the website: wwwfairlawnhotel.com

We landed safely in Kolkata yesterday morning and with only 30 minutes of delay, impressive given the airport workers' strike which took hold nationwide for 2 days. Our 2 1/2 hour flight was followed by a cab ride into the city which was nearly as long (1 1/2 hours) ... Calcutta, it must be understood, is really a ...

... that he had been arrested. But he appeared - apparently he'd been to Kalighat and after walking through the sacrificial blood in his socks, had to wash them. Fair enough. He said he'd tell us the story of his embassy trip yesterday if we got the permit. Off we went, on the metro. We decided that if we got it a celebration was in order. A khati (not sure on spelling) - a greasy roti-like roll with stuff inside. And an apple pancake. Yes. We got there early ...