Pampering in the former home of British empire

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Trip Start Feb 27, 2006 Previous
Entry Trip End Mar 29, 2006

  Kolkata, India
Monday, March 27, 2006

I took a cheap Air Deccan flight up to Kolkata mostly to save me a day of travel on the train. I shared a taxi into the centre of the city with a French Canadian guy and I was surprised at how quiet and clean parts of the city were. Many people know Kolkata as a one of the slummiest, filthy, frantic cities of India as was depicted in the film City of Joy and I'm sure that part of the city still exists but I didn't see much of this in the most central part of the city and decided not to seek it out. Kolkata in its day was the one of the richest and most important cities in Asia on the key trading routes and chosen by the British as the capital of its Indian empire. When the British pulled out it fell to rack and ruin and has been for many years under a communist local government.

It was slightly cooler but not much in Kolkata and I found a cheap room around the backpacker area of Sudder Street. I spent the afternoon wandering along the main streets up to the former administrative buildings of the British rule - it felt like a minature London with a lot more grime, noise and pollution (if that's possible compared to central London). I was amazed at how clean the centre of the city was, people walked on pavements (yes pavements) - I suppose the traffic was so heavy they had to! I met up with the Canadian guy and he bought me dinner in a posh, trendy restaurant on upmarket Park Street (well if you can call £3 a head expensive) surrounded by the richer element of Kolkata. A whole other world.

My final day in India, I visited the Victoria and Albert memorial, an impressive domed building commemorating the former monarch set in beautiful grounds.

New Market in Kolkata

I met an American guy who was on his first day in India about to start a 3 month trip (strange time to visit as so hot). We arranged to meet up later for dinner - another upmarket affair! I spent the remainder of the day wandering down Park Street amongst the boutiques, shops and bookshops - it felt like a Western town. I had lunch in a business restaurant surrounded by nicely dressed business people - men and women - talking in English. I finished off the day in a nice salon getting my hair, nails and feet pampered - always a great way to round off a hot, dusty, long journey!

The next day I flew home and it's taken me a few days to adjust to the rather clinical, quiet, clean, organised, time pressured world of London. I know I will miss the aliveness of India, the kindness of people, respect and manners of the children, the slower pace, the eye-contact and smiles, the religious devotion, the crazy logic and of course the cows. There is much to be changed in India - inequality of women, treatment of lower castes, education, religious tension, sanitation, trying to live on 60pence a day, political corruption - whilst much of this has been addressed by legislation, the reality is quite different. My fear for India though is that with the industrial growth (second fastest growing economy) and emancipation of women, the family unit will break down and religious traditions ignored, materialism will consume the support, helpfulness, community spirit of Indian life and they will end up trapped in our somewhat selfish, pressurised, materialistic world. You can already see this happenning in the upper middle classes of India and it's not a nice sight! So it's a bit of dilema as the growth of the economy and changes in women's rights is a good and bad thing.

I hope you've enjoyed this journey and I'd encourage you to visit India before it changes beyond recognition.

Om shanti and namaste!

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Victoria and Albert Memorial

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