KOLKATA
Trip Start
Jul 28, 2007
1
14
90
Trip End
Nov 10, 2008
Kolkata (Calcutta),
India
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Kolkata is a bit depressing. But, I had such a horrible picture of the city in my mind, that it's not so bad. The buildings are very old and all black, the buses and tramways seem like they are gonna fall apart, there are holes everywhere on the sidewalk. There are naked kids, people sleeping on the street, washing on the street, cooking their meal on the street, etc.... There are a lot of black garbage bags and plastic shelters up everywhere. Also clothes hung up to dry everywhere, a bunch of tables, trunks and I don't know what lies there for no apparent reason. Don't know if it belongs to anyone.
The first day I went to the Indian Museum (there was a power cut while I was there and everyone had to leave the room and they locked the doors until the power came back), Victoria Memorial, St-Paul's Cathedral, had dinner in a nice Indian restaurant and saw an Hindi movie! The movie is a great hit right now! Though I didn't understand anything, the crowd was quite entertaining. They all shouted when the lights went off, some guys were howling like wolves during the scary parts and when the famous actor (funny and goodlooking) came in they were screaming and signing with him.
I visited Mother Theresa's house. It's quite moving to read about her life. Her tomb is in the house and the exhibition for tourists is actually the documentation that was put together for her beatification. There isn't much about all the povery and misery she encountered, but still I can't believe someone could give so much! The house is the residence of nuns and the other parts are private. There were a few beggers outside and a lot of people living on the street on the way there.
The Durga Puja festival was on for the last 5 days. Every year, beautiful statues of the goddess Durga, her parents, Ganesh and Laxmi are made. They are housed in Pandals, a structure made of bamboos covered with cloth. There all look different. One must have been 20 feet high and looked like an Hindu temple, others are inspired by the Pyramids and the Sphinx, the Bayon in Cambodia, castles, caves, etc..... Statues are made of clay and decorated with all kinds of materials, shells, paper, etc.... Every night, people walk around going from one Pandal to another. They worship the statues, but make no offrands. On the last day it gets a bit crazy. There are trucks carriyng statues everywhere! Durga has 10 arms, so it's quite interesting to see the trucks with these arms stretching out. They bring the statues to the Ganges were they are immersed. What a shame to get rid of all those beautiful statues and what pollution! Anyways, people play drum and dance and scream as they carry the statues to the water. Unfortunately, the shore is not very wide and not many people can actually see them being lowered into the water. Most people stand outside where the trucks are. Being a foreigner, I was able to get to the river on the first night. There is a boat (saving squad) and a guy in the water to push the statues away. Even with that, it gets so crowded and there are so many statues floating around that they have to wait to immerse them at some point. There are at least 1000 statues and this went on for 2 nights! There is a price for the best statues. Points are given for creativity, material used (must be ecofriendly), colours, etc.....
