Kolkata Kolkata Wahe Guru

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you know I arrived safely and happily into Kolkata (Calcutta), India, yesterday. The trip was grueling because it was a 6am flight... which I discovered after I bought the ticket. It turned out to be in Bhutan's Drukair Airlines. To avoid paying a huge taxi fare, I took the last airport bus from Khao San Rd in Bangkok at 11pm. I was sad to leave Thailand. I was dreading India. It can be so intense and I remember the worst of it from my previous visit. Yet, my pendulum and spirit called me to go on to India.

I spent a sleepless night in the airport. The flight went smoothly... on the plane I slept. And in 2 hours I was in Kolkata at their International airport which was small and grimy and looked ancient. Customs/immigration went smoothly. There I met Martina, a Czech woman, who asked if I wanted to share a cab. As we awaited our baggage at the carousel, I laughed at the sign that read "in case of missing baggage, fill out a 'Baggage Irregularity Form'!" That sounds like bueracrat-speak for "we lost your bag". Martina's bag turned out to be "irregular" in the sense of being missing. She laughed about it remembering that as she packed she considered consolidating things into her carry on, and that she had been thinking it would be nice to travel lighter. She practices Buddhism and the important things in the missing bag were just prayer items. The official who helped her fill out the form, gave the standard reply "have no worries, relax... no problem"; they always say that when you have everything to worry about and they have nothing to worry about. I envied Martina as we walked from the airport and I carried my 30 lb backpack.

I had watched the Indians in the airport, the mannerisms, and was wondering what I am doing here. Such a crazy place. Maybe I would just turn around and go back to Thailand. As we attempted to walk a couple of km to the bus stop, every taxi and rickshaw stopped to ask us where we were going and did we want a ride. Martina was wearing down in the heat and the attention. We got to the bus stop and got such confusing information, that we finally negotiated with taxi drivers. Martina wanted to go to the Mother Teresa House to see about volunteering. I was curious to check that out, but also wanted to check into a hotel on Sudder St (the backpacker/cheap accommodation ghetto). Finally we negotiated 150 rs for Mother Teresa's, and 180rs to take one of us there and one to Sudder St. As we drove off, the taxi driver laughed and talked to his friends in Hindi, holding up two fingers. I realized he was going to try to cheat us by claiming it was 150 rs each instead of total. Now I remembered the advice of the Indian guy we asked for information: "make sure you get a metered taxi". Hindsight is always the best. The traffic was horrendus and drivers drove as they do only in India: never look back, never back up, always move forward, always honk your horn. Four lanes like this... well not really lanes because any place on the road is fair game for merging and swerving. They always manage to get twice as many cars/vehicles in the space as we might think would fit. Clearances between vehicles is inches. In one of the merges, a taxi hit ours. Our driver cursed and got out, but no damage was done. Martina and I could only laugh with adrenaline as we saw near accidents. We passed a cow ambling down the highway. Then we passed a man squatting and peeing (an Indian technique for being discreet) in the sewer drain in the curb of the meridian. Our driver yelled out at him as we passed.. just for the fun of harrassing him.

I decided to just go with Martina to the Mother Teresa House and hope it was close to Sudder St. We arrived there. Turns out there are several "houses"/locations. We arrived the place where the Sisters/Nons live. We got to see Mother Teresa's tomb. Then some local men who were in some sort of Christian organization took us for the five minute walk to a children's infirmary where we toured with some others through the facility. It was strange... I felt like I was in a zoo. The wards had cribs and one was filled with children with conditions that looked like autism and ms. Though it felt strange to be touring through, some how the atmosphere was very good and seemed ok for the children. We went to another ward where the children seemed healthy. Several adopted me to play with a ball. One rascal started climbing up the wire mesh on the door to work the sleve bolt latch!

Overall the energy and atmosphere seemed very nice and very beautiful and healing. Volunteers watched the children and cleaned beds etc. As we were leaving one of the Sisters said I would be very handsome without my piercings, and said I ought not follow others! I laughed because if I were following others, I wouldn't have piercings at all! Funny how some Christians can be so judgmental.

Martina and I walked through the streets... 30 minutes to Sudder St. It was intense, and hot. Many stares directed at us. And always the rickshaws and taxi drivers jabbering at us to see if we wanted a ride. Some children grabbed onto us begging for food, pointing at their bellies, pleading in English. We were wavering on giving in, though we only had big bills from the ATM. The children said and a man said "no money, food!" The man came along saying we should buy them food. As we stopped a the first shop, all there was were biscuits and cookies: white flour, white sugar... nothing healthy. Martina nearly bought a package, then the man came up and said we should buy something else next door. The shopkeeper yelled at him. I realized the ploy then. You buy something for an inflated price, the product gets returned to the store, and the whole gang makes money. It took a few minutes to loose the whole crowd.

After a long 30 minutes we found a hotel with a dorm room on Sudder St. The last 50 meters, a tout walked along with me trying to get me to see the 300 rs rooms. We got dorm beds for 70rs. I went out walking. I found myself bubbling with joy inside. Something here for me I guess. Interesting sights on every step. Alleys with goats, human powered rickshaws, barefoot children, women in sari's, and men in dress slacks and button shirts. Smells of charcoal for the food stands, urine, incense occassionally waft up through the overwhelming exhaust fumes. A bizzare mix of poverty in a world culture. Pavement and dust, barefoot and dress shoes, human powered rickshaws and Chevorlets. The men who pull the rickshaws seem as content as anyone else. Some work barefoot. Others in flip flops. Street vendors sell western clothes that look much like they wear in Thailand; made in China I guess.


Funny, in January I had a vision that I was to return to India. By the time I left San Francisco 7 weeks ago, I was really wanting to just stay in San Francisco. And now that I am here everything feels right. Just being here, I feel like I am in a meditative state, and everything feels clear.

We went to a free dance program listed in the Lonely Planet. Turns out it is a dance school where they teach traditional Indian dance to children. We got to watch a rehearsal for their recital on Saturday. It was beautiful and cute. I thought of Kim and Paul and Sarah and Mom in their recitals!

Then we went to the Planetarium. Luckily they had a show at 6:30pm in English, not Hindi. An older Hindi woman narrated through the program in very proper English. It took her a whole paragraph to say "turn your cell phones off". Midway through the show, she saw someone turn theirs on, and she went on a two minute spiel asking the to turn it off, explaining that cell phones disrupt the show, and that if they can't go without their phone for 30 minutes, they should leave. Well, she was right, that cell phone sure did disrupt the show! All this was in the Queen's English with an Indian accent. Her monologue about the stars and planets was nonstop and a bit hard to understand and at times I felt a bit dizzy with it all. When the show ended and we walked outside to the mayhem of 6 lanes of cars following the Indian rule of the road "no matter what, always honk you horn", I thought to myself how nice the peace of the planetarium was, but then I thought how it wasn't really that peaceful with the Hindi woman's monologue.

As we tried to navigate our way back home to Sudder street, a nice Hindi man pointed us the right way, suggested we walk on the park side of the street... it was much quieter and better air than the other side of the six lanes of exhaust belching cars. He said he was walking our way. And chatted. And I thought how nice it was to meet a simple kind soul without the pretext of money. Then he suggested some sights to see and conveniently pulled out two handwritten sheets of sights in Kolkata arranged by compass direction and along with bus numbers. Pretty soon he suggested we might buy him a drink as he was between jobs. He was one of the sweetest hustlers I had run across. Quite helpful. We gave him a few rupees.

Today, Martina and I walked through the traffic and heat and crowds to the Railroad Ticket Office and then had to fill out a form for a ticket request. After an hour, we got a ticket for tomorrow night to New Jalpaiguri (the way to Darjeeling). We ran into a group of three, an Argentinian couple from the plane, and a guy from Belgium that was in my guest house in Bangkok. They got tickets to Darjeeling as well, but apparently we got the last tickets for tomorrow; they had to get tickets for the next two days.

We roamed around with them. I introduced them to some Indian foods. As we walked back we dodged the crazy traffic crossing the roads. We stopped at a bank so they could get some smaller notes. As I waited a security guard came up and asked what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for friends to change money. He said they can't exchange money (foreign) here. I tried to explain that they were changing 100rs notes for 20 rs notes, and he said they couldn't do that. Meanwhile they were at the teller doing exactly that. I finally said, "No tension, no tension, no problem!" And laughed at myself finally able to use that Indian line on an Indian!!!!