India - Kolkata!
By Red Sox Steve
Kolkata
The last mega-city I was in before Kolkata was Delhi. Don't get me wrong - Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi all had the feel of large cities - tons of traffic, populations well over a million people, busy train stations, and multiple lodging/food/shopping options. But the mega-city triumvirate (Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai) is different. These places are even more massive, chaotic, crowded, and intimidating to a novice like me; having been in multiple cities provided me with a basis for comparison. With the amount of time I would spend sitting in traffic to travel a short distance lugging my heavy backpack, I had to make sure I was going in the right direction after I got off the train.
Kolkata is the easternmost major city in India; as I was walking through the train station, an electrifying thought made me laugh out loud: this was the farthest from home I'd ever been. I had to travel east to get to Delhi from New York, and east again to make it from Delhi to Kolkata. I had covered a lot of ground at this point, also realizing I was now closer to the end of the trip than the beginning - it was a psychological turning point in my journey more than anything else.
For me, thoughts of this city instantly evoke abject poverty and Mother Theresa - that was the only thing I had heard about Kolkata, and I knew I had a lot to learn. First, though, I had to get to my hostel; after looking at a map and asking a couple of folks, I surmised that the easiest way to get from Howrah Train Station, over the Hooghly River and into a section of Kolkata called Chowringhee, was to take the bus. After checking out the Lonely Planet to confirm all this, I made my way through the extremely busy train station and out to the bus park. I hopped on a bus, which had to slowly wind through a ton of traffic, and, with the help of a couple of passengers, was able to make my way to the hostel.
Kolkata, including its suburbs, has over 15 million people. The streets are filled with cars, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, busses, trucks (and even a trolley service in some sections) while various vendors and pedestrians crowd the sidewalks. The neighborhoods we passed had plenty of evidence of the poverty and neglect widely associated with Kolkata; on the other hand, I was on a bus full of people on their morning commute headed into parts of the city like BBD Bagh.
I found my hostel, in Chowringhee on Royd St. I checked in, unpacked, got some food and took a nice hot shower - the best feeling after an overnight train ride! It was hot here, and I was tired but I decided to head out anyway; I only had a couple of days here and thought it wise to use the daylight and crash at night. I immediately looked in the Lonely Planet to see which sites were closest to me, and found that Missionaries of Charity was a short walk away - this was where Mother Theresa lay entombed; it is a functioning charity whose work continues to this day. I made my way east, avoiding the trolley (which scared the daylights out of me when I first saw it) and other traffic, making my way down the crowded, winding street, before making a left onto a main drag.
I quickly approached the Missionaries of Charity building and went inside. It was quiet and there were nuns wearing white habits, exactly like that worn by Mother Theresa. After quickly looking around to make sure it was OK to enter, I made my way to Mother Theresa's tomb. It is a large, white marble structure, laid out in the middle a room on the ground floor. There were only a couple of other visitors there, so I was able to take my time, snapping as many photos as possible. The tomb was adorned with flowers and photos, and there was also a large painting of the canonized nun next to the tomb. I'm not spiritual, but I am curious, and was in awe that I was in the same room as Mother Theresa's body.
There are few places a tourist can go once inside the mission, so after spending a few minutes there taking photos and looking around, I was satisfied I had seen all I could. I made a donation to the charity (the nuns were eager to solicit the tourists), and headed back out. It must have been the fatigue of traveling overnight, or maybe the heat, or maybe the hustle and bustle around me... I was very tired. I meandered back to my hotel, and, although I had the rest of the afternoon to explore, I found it much easier to rationalize a long and necessary nap. The city would have to wait.
The next morning, I headed south down Jawaharlal Nehru road from my hotel towards the Victoria Memorial. On the way, I passed statues of both Indira Gandhi and Nehru, before coming to a magnificent structure dating back to the colonial era: St. Paul's Cathedral. St. Paul's was built in the mid-19th century, and is the first Episcopal church on the sub-continent. According to various travel guides, it incorporates British, Portuguese and French styles, and inside colonial families are honored with marble statues and memorials.
Just down the road from the Cathedral is the Victoria Memorial, a large marble structure built in the early part of the 20th century to memorialize the deceased (1901) Queen Victoria. Although it evokes thoughts of a European government building, its architecture is not exclusively European, as it incorporates some Mughal elements, like the large curved domes at its corners. Its construction was funded exclusively by revenue from the British Indian states and private individuals, mainly to curry favor with the crown. It is surrounded by majestic gardens and lawns, expansive reflecting pools, and, in the pathway that leads to the main entrance a monument depicting a seated Queen Victoria.
Inside the memorial is a museum containing art from the colonial era, and, directly in the center of the main hall, a marble statue of a standing Queen Victoria. I was not allowed to photograph anything inside the memorial, so to recall specific paintings months later is a bit challenging - however, there are pieces depicting both British and Indian dignitaries as well as scenes of historic Indian conflicts and royal visits.
For me, though, the best part of the museum was the exhibit on Kolkata's history. Like so much of India, Kolkata has been inhabited for about 2,000 years. Before the European powers arrived (British, French, Dutch & Portuguese), the area was occupied by three small villages. Kolkata became the headquarters for the British East India Company in 1690, and thus the seat of colonial power for over two centuries. Mostly because of its exclusive contact with Europe throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, it also became a center for culture and political movements throughout British India; Kolkata was the flashpoint for the Indian Revolt of 1857, and one of the earliest locations to adopt the Indian independence movement.
After independence and partition, however, droves of rural dwellers descended upon the city. Refugees went in both directions as Hindus headed for Kolkata, and Muslims sought sanctuary in the new nation of East Pakistan (Bangladesh in 1971). Furthermore, because of famine, hundreds of thousands of rural laborers continued to move into the city looking for work; for the first few decades after Partition, poverty in Kolkata continued to increase. In 1950, Mother Theresa started Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, and continued to serve the poor for 5 decades until her death in 1997. Today, Kolkata has massive numbers of poor and underserved, but, like most of India, its economy is buttressed by the emergence and rapid growth of industries like Information Technology.
I spent the entire morning around Chowringhee and inside the Victoria Memorial, then decided I wanted to head back north, into the busier and much denser section of Kolkata, BBD Bagh. The colonial imprint here runs fairly deep - both the Writers Building and the General Post Office here were built during British occupation; the post office building was constructed over the site of the first Fort William, a military installation constructed by the British. I also saw Eden Gardens, a small park which is home to a Burmese pagoda and a number of Buddhist statues. Although I spent time at the Indian museum, I don't recommend it - many of the exhibits are poorly displayed and maintained.
After two days in Kolkata and a quick trip on a rush-hour subway to break my itinerant tendencies, I packed my bags, and went back the way I came. I hopped on a bus that took me back over the Hooghly River bridge to the train station ( (I found out at the train station that I forgot my sandals, but if I went back for them I would miss my train). I was about to board a train that would take me directly to Mumbai... a trip that would last about 30 hours.
