Kolkata (Calcutta) 01/09

Kolkata (Calcutta)

Longest platform in the world 1072.5m - Kharagpur first stop out of Howrah Station. Spent a couple of days wandering around Kolkata, did not really have a plan of action – just went where the local people did, given it was a weekend.

When I arrived at Sunflowers guesthouse from Sealdah station at 6am, it was all locked up. Pigeon photos at sunrise off the roof while I waited, thinking over the last 12 hours on the train, helmeted, soldiers in full combat uniform, flak jackets & AK47s as food is served on TV-dinner-style plates in sleeper class, the hustle & bustle mixed with the normally private sounds of sleep fully orchestrated as 70 people share the same carriage to the same destination.

First I needed to get my flight back to SL changed from 21/01 to 02/02 and a repair carried out on my telephoto lens. Given the next 17hr train journey was to visit the national parks of Pench & Kanha to spot tigers, telephoto lens a must.

Ticket took 4hrs to sort between SL Air head office in Delhi and their agents in Kolkata; the lens took an hour at the Nikon service agents but only because once they saw I was using a D3 they insisted on a clean, firmware upgrade plus a call to Delhi letting them know I was there and was there anything else they could do?! Service par excellence and lens fixed, all for no cost.

Just meandered really, up towards the Hooghly River, lots of food & chai stalls to stop at, clay cups restore the traditional chai memories I have, I sample the array of foods and then move on a bar in Sudder street “backpackers’ alley” for a cold Black Label beer on the way back to my guesthouse.

Sunday wandered over to the Victoria Memorial, across a park area called The Maiden. The cricket is deadly – as you walk through the parks, games are being played on every blade of grass, the ‘boundaries’ even overlap there are so many. From the air it would look like the crushed version of the Olympic circles, you don’t know which batsman the ball comes off as he slogs for a six but the ball whistles past, either from him or off a fielder’s rocket throw towards the wicket. Walkers are forced to either dance about, trying to miss the projectiles, or face the firing squad as ball fly at you from every direction – as bad as being on the street having to thread your way across the Russian roulette of Kolkata’s traffic.

Victoria Memorial’s gates had horse and carriages sitting outside, monkeys with their handlers ready to dance, thousands of people and queues the length of the longest platform in the world! Reminded me of trips to Buckingham Palace as a very young child with my parents. Ah, nostalgia. I walked around the memorial then headed back for another Black Label.

Cities are cities, but over the other cities in India I have seen this trip Kolkata ‘feels’ the best. Busy, hectic, populous – reminded me of the cities I saw on my last trip to India 18 years ago; Delhi, Bombay, they have changed so much, Kolkata still has the India feel about it not so westernised as the others. Even found clay chai cups in use.