Kolkata

Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in West Bengal is one of the jewels of the British colonial period. Sort of. Who else but Europeans would build on a flood plain? Here I had a very strange experience when Times Guest House kicked me out after two nights. I asked for a receipt for my visa registration, and because their computer was "broken", they couldn't give me one and told me I had to leave. Sounds really improbable, right? Especially since the power goes out so often in India, no one relies solely on computer for their business. (In fact, the power went out while I was writing this!) I suspect that they didn't register me properly (whether for a legitimate or an illegal reason), and because I needed proof I was staying there, the paper trail would get them in trouble. At the least: Inconvenient! Yeah, I made a scene.

I took a worthwhile day tour with West Bengal Tourism. The most worthwhile part was the air conditioned bus. The temperature was only 36 degrees here, but the humidity: about 90%. The Sheethalnathji Jain Temple was a colourful confection of architecture with one really strange statue. I took darshan (seeing and being seen by the goddess) at Ramakrishna's Kali Temple, where I also saw the tide come up the Hooghly (a branch of the Ganges River Delta). We also visited the Vivekananda temple complex, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Police Museum, and saw the biggest reservoir in the world.

The Netaji Museum is in Subash Chandra Bose's former house. He was involved in the Independence movement, but we don't hear much about him in the Western world because he advocated violent struggle against the British. (We also don't hear much about how effective violent resistance sometimes was in achieving India's Independence.) Promoting Gandhi's nonviolence movement is much more popular for managing contemporary colonies.

The Victoria Memorial is surprisingly tasteful in white marble, and had an interesting art exhibit inside, showing colonial travelers' impressions of India.









The Indian Museum's collection of religious sculpture included Buddhist sculpture from circa 2nd century Afghanistan, where the Buddha sometimes grew a moustache. My favourite was a 5th century Buddha which looked surprisingly realistic in comparison with the stylized sculpture that was normal at this time. The museum also had some creepy bottled babies.

The last day I saw a good play called Wire put on by Jadavpur University English department. I also hunted down the flower market, which is popular for photos. This guy caught his friends trying to put all kinds of flowers in his hair while he was posing. On the way there I was much more delighted to find the FRUIT market, where a banana auction was happening!