Take me back to the motherland: Kolkata

  Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I touched down in Kolkata Sunday evening, Oct 5th and after waiting in an hour line for the prepaid taxi made my way into town to meet up with Ankit at the hostel.  Being night time, the entire city was lit up brilliantly with loud music playing everywhere.  Like all large Indian cities, there were cars/rickshaws everywhere and every bazaar/store/restaurant was buzzing with life.  I did not immediately experience the destitute poverty and squalor or pollution that is now what this great city is known for.  Dubbed the City of Joy, Kolkata has recently become infamous for overcrowding, absurd levels of poverty and houses the Mother Theresa Missions for Charities.  It finally sunk in what I am doing as I drove through the streets of Kolkata.  What a wonderful feeling. However, I reserved judgement on the sadness of the city until I was walking around by day.  Every single traveler that we have met while here absolutely adores the city and I soon found myself in the same camp. 

Kolkata was founded by the British on what used to be villages as the initial capital of British India and as an export center for the area's cash crops.  Kolkata, and West Bengal (all of Bengal really) is the cultural heart and soul of India.  Home to many brilliant scientists, politicians, artists, poets, authors and musicians - such as Rabindranath Tagore, Nehru, Amartya Sen - it was also revolutionary town that offered up some of India's greatest Freedom Fighters.  Bengal represented a stronghold of independent thought, words and guns and to this day this is maintained through their long running Communist Party leadership (despite a virtual monopoly by the Congress Party and rise of the Hindu Nationalist BJP party both regionally and nationally).  Gandhi's Hind Swaraj - self rule for ALL India - slogans reflected his want for Indian unity and love and respect for all that Bengal has contributed:
1. God is good (in Arabic-for the Muslims)
2. Bande mataram: I bow to the Mother [land] (in Bengali, nod to Hindus too)
3. Hindu-Muslim Victory

Ankit and I were joined by two lovely girls - Juliette (French) and Rafaela (Italian) - for dinner and we hope to rendez-vous with Juliette and her bf in Darjeeling.  Rafaela is beginning research in a comparative literature doctorate that focuses on Muslim women writers in Bengali and Hindi and has visited India five times over the last eight years.  She would accompany us later in our stay as we became TV stars - more on that in a bit.  Typical of all hostels, we chilled out with the travelers on the roof terrace my first night back in India with my first opportunity to play a six-string in quite some time.

Monday, Ankit and I set out on foot to explore the city, beginning in southern Kolkata near the Maidan, Victoria Memorial and ending up at the Howrah bridge in northern Kolkata.  The city is split by the Howrah river (Holy Ganges feeds into this) with most of the sights towards the east bank.  I was amazed - there is TONS of green space in Kolkata, leaving the city devoid of the suffocating pollution and allowing an escape from the madness of the streets.

Maidan

We saw couples, likely the only place they can truly be alone, having romantic picnics, tons of families and kids and able-bodied men sleeping absolutely everywhere.

Passed out Bengali

At first thinking that the entire city is full of jobless fools (which it is), we soon came to learn that we had luckily ended up here during the annual pooja festival of Dassara and there was a week long holiday.  Much more on this in the next entry.  The Victoria Memorial is one of the loveliest buildings in India, alas representing so much that is abhorrent.

Victoria Memorial

The rotunda is fashioned like the US capital, with neoclassical columns lining the walls, but the corner towers are designed with Mughal-style conical tops.  In walking through the Memorial gardens, we came to remember that Indians like to stare - a lot and really close like sidlers.  I decided that two can play at this game and particularly the younger Indian men reacted quite awkardly to someone staring right back at them.  It was like a kids game of chicken.  However, this led to one of my Bushism moments of this trip: "I feel like a dirty old man staring back at the girls, but young boys I have no problems with". 

Moving on, our course was an aimless wander, taking us through slums under an overpass, which were pretty self-sufficient with running water.  It was still quite depressing, but no worse than in other parts of India.

Girl living in slum under overpass

Eventually, our wander took us past many Indian army guards (protecting the city's cricket grounds in addition to military facilities - they take it very seriously here) and through Milennium Park.  Full of kids and adults at dusk, the park runs along the Howrah River with fantastic views of both bridges.

Howrah River at sunset

There were kids seemingly playing organized games in a chaotic frenzy in one of the plazas.  We saw wannabe "gangs" of young kids emulating their Bollywood stars with flashy (but horrendously tight and tacky) clothing.  I was reminded of Shashank as a first week freshman at Cal ("Ewan 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 wonder if these kids will have to work at a young age or will find the opportunity to study further and break the cycle.  At the core of it, this is one of the main reasons for my change of career; to use the good fortune and skills gained in my life to help out on a grassroots level one person or kid at a time.  I read something interesting in my cousin Sweta's Social Policy lecture notes (she is a professor) that basically stated one of the core tenets of a social worker is the person you are helping is not a helpless victim, nor are you a savior.  I absolutely agree with this and see the potential not to rescue, but simply enable hard working and driven people without the same opportunities I've been blessed with. 

The next entry will focus on the last day or so surrounding the Dassara pooja festival and our birth as TV stars. 

I will upload a full album of pics once I have a not-so-abysmally-slow internet connection. 

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