Last week in Kolkata

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Trip Start Nov 11, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Jan 13, 2009

  Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Monday, January 12, 2009

(We are going back in time now to revisit my last week in Kolkata...I realise I'm a bit late with this entry, but to my joyous satisfaction it is all going to be written on an actual working computer in a nice comfy room - all spelling and lexical mistakes can only be blamed on me now)
After returning from Darjeeling early on a Sunday morning I hired a private driver to take me to a few of the places in Kolkata that I didn't want to miss before I left. It was a frustrating experience for most of the day as he didn't want to take me to the places I wanted to go, and didn't seem to know the names of any of the streets in town (but he could drive, so I guess I got what I asked for). Like everything in Kolkata, it all worked out, eventually, and I saw what I wanted over the course of seven or so hours.
My first stop was the Marble Palace. The Marble Palace is an incredible historical site. Before the capital of India moved to Delhi, Kolkata was the centre of everything. Known as 'the London of the East' the city was built by families made wealthy by the East India company. As time went by and money was squandered away or property split between numerous sons the great sprawling mansions were divided, sold off or left to crumble away into monsoon-drenched, fading edifices.  The owners of the Marble Palace are not allowed to sell or divide any of the land or property and must live within the palace itself. They have opened it up to the public instead and I'm so glad they did. It's a stunning building - a huge palace situated right in the heart of Kolkata. You can see from the link that it's absolutely European in style, and the inside is overflowing with priceless statues, paintings and objects-d'-art (the Palace's apt description). It is impossible to tell that you are in India once you are inside - everything is about fawning European worship and stunning displays of wealth and culture. It's a real taste of what Kolkata was when the British ruled with an iron fist. It was supposed to be free to enter if you had a pass, which I didn't. The guard was very nice and decided to let me provided I gave him a bribe of rs100, and the guide inside rs50. He had a spear and I wanted to go in - we all won in the end I guess! The guide was very polite and very serious about his work. He would stop occasionally and point at a small marble statue in he corner. 'Spring.' He would tell me gravely. 'Sophocles', he would say - pointing to a marble bust with SOPHOCLES written large across the base. 'Painting of Napolean', he would state indicating a large painting next to a large sign reading 'Painting of Napolean.' 
Leaving the Marble Palace we went around the corner to Tagore's house. Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature, is the most famous poet and literary figure to come out of Kolkata. People in the city are very proud of him, and they should be as his work is brilliant. His family house is very well set up as a museum and is another example of some of the stunning architectural work of Kolkata that has ben happily preserved. 
My day concluded with shopping trips to South City Mall and Fab India and a delicious lunch at Teej. My driver encouraged me to give him a rs250 tip at the end of the day but I sadly declined and gave him rs20 instead.
It was a sad week at Ankur Kala. All the girls asked me when I was leaving, and if I would come back. It was hard just getting to know everybody and then having to leave so suddenly. It was a short week for all of us as we had a public holiday on Thursday. I decided to go and have a taste of home by watching the movie Australia. It was to nice to be surrounded by the Australian accent again and see the beautiful landscape. I went back to Fab India (that and mishti - two of my biggest Indian indulgences) and spent the rest of the day on the internet, repacking my bag after buying a whole lot more stuff and excitedly reading the papers - they weren't the excited part, I was just looking forward to seeing family and friends again. 
The weekend bought the promise of a day out at a luxury spa in the city. That's right, I could afford to go to one of the most exclusive places in town, and go to town I did. I'd been collecting dirt like the rag-pickers were collecting yesterday's newspapers only I couldn't sell my lot on. I've never been into beautician treatments, but it was so good to have all the dirt and grime of the last eight weeks scrubbed and pummeled off. I emerged fresh and clean as a whistle and managed to make it to the CIMA art gallery largely unaffected by the latest strike and ban on autorickshaws. I spent some time wandering around the small exhibition and some more time in the art gallery shop. Saturday night was a wild one for me, I spent it reading Marie Claire and being frightened by larger and larger geckos creeping through my wardrobe. 
Sunday dawned with men yelling 'AHHHHHHH' outside my window and me excited by the prospect of one more day spent exploring India. After wrangling with the internet to book my plane ticket and the fax machine to fax a very important document back to Canberra my excitement subsided a little although I had a major event to look forward to that evening - a cooking class! More of a cooking demonstration actually, but it was still so much fun. Vananda our lovely host showed us how to make some typically Bengali vegetarian dishes and then we all ate everything. No, that's not true - it would have been impossible to eat everything. Vananda piled up our plates again and again despite our protests but there was still plenty of food left over. It was nice to be with other travellers again, and we all teased John who had unknowingly booked a small trip to the state of Bihar - the incredibly unsafe state with a terrible reputation that even seasoned Indians will go all out to avoid. 
Monday saw me rise early to go to Ankur Kala for the morning prayer session. I said my very sad good-bye's to all the women, who stroked me and blessed me as I walked out the door. Travelling up to the Park St Post Office I sent off my last package home and bought a book from Sunil - a former street kid who had produced his very own book of the street food of Kolkata. A quick stop at Big Bazaar at Hiland Park ended up my trip home (yes alright I went to Fab India again!) and I settled back in my accommodation for a final check of my pack and some stress about how much everything weighed. Sabatri made me a delicious and MASSIVE dinner that I could barely dent, and I gave her a present and a tip of rs100. She packed up all my leftover dinner for me to take to the airport and I said a sad good-bye to her and Sucharita as we all struggled out the door with my overloaded luggage. Luckily my bags were not weighed at the airport and I managed to exchange my rupees for American dollars with little trouble - although handing over rs1400 and getting $20US in exchange was a hard hard end to my trip. Back to the real world...Sadly I had picked up a few more exotic India illnesses in my last few days so the trip back was not exactly comfortable for me (no, it's alright it was just a simple throat infection!) but soon I was with Amy in Coogee eating her delicious and well-timed rice pudding.

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