Kolkata aka: Calcutta

When I was a teenager, I dreamt of traveling to Calcutta. For awhile, I had a Bengali penfriend named Sanjay Churiwal with whom I corresponded for about a year and, later, exchanged letters with S. Banerjee, who I met in DumDum airport upon my arrival in Calcutta in 1999 – and with whom I traveled in northern India for about 2/3 months.

I was in Calcutta for about three weeks – waiting for my friend to finish some exams. The first night, I stayed in an itty bitty room right on Sudder Street, and still recall its coffinesque bed…and the grafitti on the walls – concrete walls that captured the midsummer heat and converted it to a fine, damp steam that made it nearly impossible to sleep there.

The next day, I moved to a small hotel on nearby Free School Street, which provided an interesting view (fourth floor) of the bustling road below. Finally, my friend found me a fantastic room down a little alley off Sudder…I’ll never forget its sparkling black & white floor tiles, fantastic HUGE private bathroom, and lovely toilet.

A good toilet in a cheap Indian hotel is a godsend.

While in Calcutta, we strolled around the Maidan (their version of Central Park), watched a movie (VERY cool experience to watch an Indian flick in an Indian movie theater), and ate pizza (Flury’s) & Chinese almost exclusively, except for the time he invited me to his & his Mother’s flat. THAT was interesting. I think his Mom felt threatened by me because, although she was gracious, I think she suspected I would steal her son away from some nice Indian girl she had in mind : D (she was right to be concerned at the time but he is still single as of now). I also had my hair dyed jet black by some east Asian women in a little salon.

And did you know that Calcutta has a subway system?

One of the more curious things to see in Calcutta is its Portuguese church.

And I personally felt that taking a train out of Howrah station was one of the highlights of my entire trip to India.

_{(I would have more photos, except I made my trip in the pre-digital era of photography…you know, we had to conserve film. :P)}

The People are really very good….
They are caring,... and the best thing is they mind their own business… and so be the first one to ask them..

Very Friendly City. Here peoples are always ready to help others to find what they want. I remember, we were going to some relatives place and don’t know the place very well as we were new to the city, so we asked nearby walker to just tell us the way. He not only told us the way but also took us to the place.

“mneh… mneh… monday. wednesday” – gopal

Cheap and best…..staying and eating won’t going to cost too much on you rpocket.