Kolkata: Part 1

I hope to do several posts in the next few days reporting on our stay in Kolkata and the wedding. What follows is an account of our first few hours in Kolkata : the city formally known as Calcutta.

Our late night arrival in Kolkata is marred by a clueless taxi driver who could not find the address of Simran’s family home. We race through the empty late night streets. A hazy pall hangs over the city; a polluted mixture of dust, exhaust and the exhalations of 18 million people. We speed past piles of trash, ramshackle buildings, and the tarps of makeshift “houses” of the countless Kolkata homeless. Kolkata at night is a daunting place yet we are told it is generally safe. However, I am suspicious of roving packs of seemingly semi wild dogs.

We stop to ask a group of rikshaw pilots for direction. They seem as clueless as our driver with two of them giving conflicting directions. Deb is intimidated by their stares at her camera and bag. I watch in amusement as an errant frog hops down the middle of the street unconcerned by taxis careening past. After an hour and a half “tour “of the city with many turns, twists, misinformation and I suspect downright stupidity we finally accost a motorcyclist who directs our driver to the address we have been looking for in vain. We finally arrive to the worried looks of Simran and her family.

We stealthily enter the family apartment to avoid waking family members sleeping on mattresses in the dining room. It reminds me of some of our holidays and events at home where at times every available horizontal space contains a sleeping body. We are graciously offered a variety of curries, rice, and chapati, but I was not hungry and politely declined until I heard the offer of a large, cold, Kingfisher beer. We slipped off into one of the bedrooms and commiserated with some of the younger members of the family along with our daughter, Kate, who had arrived a few days earlier . After some lively conversation and much teasing and joking we reluctantly bid everyone good night to totter off to our room for a much needed nights sleep.

I awakened the next day and as as I took stock of my surroundings I was impressed by the apartment . Marble floors stretched across the apartment to the floor to ceiling windows which offered panoramic views of Calcutta from fourteen floors up. I staggered out of our bedroom to find Deb engaged in a conversation with our hostess, Sobhra. I was offered a cup of chai which cleared out the cobwebs of our late night flight through the city of Kolkata. We trundled down two flights of stairs to the family apartment to find a lively scene. The family was in various stages of dress and were quickly given a seat at the table and offered savory pancakes infused with finugreek and other aromatic herbs and spices. These were topped with butter, yoghurt, pickles, chutneys and fruit. Endless cups of tea were offered and we were soon filled to the brim and ready for our first day in Kolkata.