Mayfair & Savera Hotel Kolkata (Calcutta)

... hilarious!

Mar handed out 5 disposable cameras to the older kids with the assignment of photographing their daily life and work. She offered to pay 50 rupies for the best of each person's photos. They were so excited they couldn't stop taking pictures - the only problem was they kept taking photos of us, lol! Christopher tried to get them to understand that that was defeating the ...

... folk and freaky, weird characters all of whom seemed to love to stop at our compartment and stare at me for a few seconds before moving on. Unfortunately for me, as a nice addition to the show a friend of Mr Prickly Rash named Mr Crazy Fever joined the hullabaloo of a circus and began to rage, heating my blood to the point where i thought i was going to pass out, quite a scary thing when you're alone on an ...

... needs our time and attention. It has to become a process. Without our time and attention, however significant something like this might seem at the time, it will sift to the bottom of our consciousness in the flood of our day to day lives. It will get lost in the plethora of our every day comings and goings and doing. We have to chew on it, so it can be fully digested, completely assimilated. "Don't neglect that process with something as important as this,"

... less likely to stir the pot and mess things up with my reactivity. I would be able to be more present and appropriate to the situation and the person in front of me. We meditated a bit and finished our tea. I pranamed with a silent prayer to be better able to take it all of this in, these times with him, what he says, his energy when he says it. "Grant me the consciousness, God, for what I am receiving here." Then we went back to our computers.

... far more planned than Delhi. The British put some big money into this city and it's clear from the wide paved streets and footpaths and the huge colonial buildings that line the streets. There are open parks, less beggars and few touts impeding my progression down the streets. The streets are (relatively) clean, and the rubbish seems to get cleared away regularly, meaning there are fewer piles of rubbish and dirt drifting across your paths. Also, no open sewers! Ahhh, my nose twitches ...

... her face!! Tsch.... some people hey.... any excuse to get out of work!! hee hee. Day 3 & 4 - After some quick computer engineering fixes to the Dutt computers we headed out to Kolkata from some shopping therapy and visited the local market, a food place that does these chicken rolls that are to die for (courtesy of Aunty Vini) and then onto KFC (courtesy of Mehak and Mike) for some Zinger burgers.....yum yum. Afterwards Mike just had to do some shopping at the local ...

... McGregor is Sexy". And how). It's a shame that altough the cultural and family values are strong, materialism prevails in such a recently developing nation. On the flip side, Ankit struck up this conversation with a 14 year old kid who loves science and is in the 11th standard and later on in the night an adorable 10 year old girl who loves maths. This made me immensely happy, though without tons of universities (nor perhaps the means) in Kolkata, I ...

... taking around 40 minutes away from our lives) trying to buy a ticket to Darjeeling. Finally at the last counter, the person attending us told us, "no ticket here, go foreign ticket counter." It turns out that the foreign ticket counter is a completely different building and very far away from the railway station. Eventually we bought a ticket, but for the next day. We booked a hotel (right next to an open air market-Smelled HORRIBLE). Kolkata looks like a city that you ...

... here don't take no for an answer, and follow you, women and children, and mock you when you tell them to leave you alone, and get in the way of your walking. Seemingly normal people eventually show their colors and want you to buy them things, give them money, or sell you some junk you don't need or want at inflated prices. I have been burned, fleeced, ripped off, scammed, lied to, overcharged, forced to tip for nothing, and much more. Strangers I would ...

... Auslaender haben. So liegt der Eintritt fuer Inder zum Taj Mahal in Agra bei 10 Rupien (2 Cent), wohingegen Auslaender 750 Rupien (15 Euro) zu zahlen haben, dafuer aber immerhin eine kleine Wasserflasche geschenkt bekommen, die die Inder nicht erhalten. So unbefriedigend dies manchmal sein kann, so ist es verstaendlich, ist man doch als Tourist oder Traveler finanziell in einer besseren Lage als die meisten Inder. Auch wenn der uns gelernte ...