Kolkata

Hey folks —

I still have a post to finish from varanasi – with pictures but since I cannot find wifi anywhere in Kolkata, I am stuck without the pictures and not able to post yet.

Instead, I will tell you about Kolkata!

I was a little nervous about taking the train – as it was my first first experience with it — but when I got to the station, I had a seat and waited – I accidentally got there several hours too early – so I had some time to people watch.  Or should I say – I gave people time to watch me?

When I sat down on my pack, I noticed I had a group of about 15 women (little girls, their moms, and their moms!) watching me.  And by watching – I mean STARING!  I tried smiling, but they just kept staring.  It was slightly uncomfortable, but I just kept giving a little smile and then looking away until finally I got eye contact with one of the little girls.  I gave her a little wave, she gave me a little wave and they all started to giggle.  After exchanging some smiles and waves – they waved me over.  I pulled my bags over and they formed a half circle around me – just staring!  Then they started to speak to me – in Hindi.  Which I obviously did not understand…  I smiled, told them I did not understand, which made them respond to me, again, in Hindi.

Finally – a boy sitting near by translated for me – they wanted to know if I was traveling alone.  I told them I was – which shocked them.  By this point, the boy who was translating for me – part of a group of art students who were at at the train station drawing – was sitting with me talking to me – as well as about 4 or 5 other guys.  I had a crowd of about 20!  Every time I spoke – they just stared.  wait, i didn’t even have to speak — they just stared.  We spent a lot of the time smiling and laughing…  Finally, it was time for them to go – at which point all the women wanted to shake my hand!

I was not able to get 3AC or 2 AC for my train down (which is a nice compartment) – so I was in sleeper — which is very open and dusty and loud.  My ride was suppose to be about 10 hours but was closer to 12 or so…  I won’t go into details – but did i mention that it was very dusty and loud?  not a whole lot of sleep happens there… and it was overnight, so I also did not sleep all that much!

I have spent the last couple of days exploring K9lkata = here are some highlights:

• Victoria Memorial – big stately building with beautiful groups and an interesting historical museum inside
• walking the street markets – where everything possible is sold
• walking through the flower vendors – where they make the marigold garlands and all sorts of other flower arrangements (and this is evidently a place a lot of tourists do not go, as evidenced by the surprised looks I got)
• walking the very cosmopolitan streets = past the apple store and the mcdonalds and the Bose and Reebok store.
• sitting in a coffee shop and have a gaggle of beautiful school girls come in in their beautiful salwar kameezes but having them giggle and gossip and talk drama – just like an other 10th grade girl!
• seeing the poverty of kids and women and women sleeping on the streets and begging
• the Ambassador taxis (probably one of my favorite things!)
• the sweet shops = Bengalis are known for their sweets
• the street food — the kati roll – which is like a hot wrap – i had one with paneer and egg for lunch.  very good!
• the buildings — you can definitely see the English influence in so many of the old buildings.  And it is a diverse city – everything from churches to temples to mosques.

I leave tomorrow afternoon and take a 26 hour train ride down to Chennai — I will spend a little time visiting Chennai, Pondicherry, and Mamallpuram before I take another train to the other coast, to Kochi, but I won’t be doing that until later in the month.  It will be good to get to smaller cities.  I like Kolkata – but it is definitely a large city!

Hope everyone is well!  take care — love – aurora