Kolkata

So here I am in the city of Mother Teresa and after three days I think I am getting used to it. It's taken a bit of time to settle into the way of things and there's still plenty to work out.

The practicalities are one thing and once you understand the system it's not difficult to use. The biggest psychological adjustments are to the traffic and the lack of privacy. Kolkata is 5.0 million people (or 7.8 million, wikipedia seems to have two different figures) cramed into 185 square kilometres. The Melbourne I'm used to is 3.8 million people spread across 8800 square kilometres. In density terms Kolkata has 27,000 per square km compared to Melbourne's 1,500 - so no wonder I'm noticing the crowds! Depsite that, it appears that Melbourne has about 4 times the number of sky scrapers, which I guess says something about the comparative wealth of the two cities. In every day terms this doesn't necessarily mean it's a permanent squash of bodies. This is still the exception rather than the rule but just imagine that the small roads are like queen vic market on a busy morning with motor bikes riding through the crowd. It's difficult to find a place to sit down anywhere in public because all the vaguely clean places are already taken. The thing about the traffic is not really that it's unruly or crazy. I actually prefer it's style which essentially a form of anarchy that favours maximum efficiency over safety and pleasantness. The thing that gets me is the constant blowing of horns from bikes and cars trying to maximise that efficiency by pushing people out of the way with their really loud horns. Thank God for quiet hotel rooms - the only real privacy I've found. I guess the large Midain (similar in size and location to melb's alexandra gardens would be a great place to hang out most times of the year. But during the current monsoon season they're mostly a bog growing plenty of lush grass and their aren't enough horses to keep it under control. I guess that when it does dry out enough to sit on/in it will also become crowded but one can only hope.

So apart from sorting out the practicalities I've been getting a few essential Indian experiences under my belt. Day 1 involved throwing up food I'd eaten at a street stall - so I'm sticking to restaurants for the moment. Day 2 involved getting completely drenched in the monsoon rain. I think that rain would have to top even what I experienced in Papua New Guinea as a kid. The drops are just so big and so closely bunched together it's surprising the resulting flood was only ankle to knee deep. Getting soaked was actually rather fun and a I swapped a few grins with other drenched foreigners caught in the same predicament. It's still 30 degrees of course and being wet is fine, it's getting cold that's the problem - but not here. The locals though, are over it or perhaps they just foresaw the coming flood so they don't tend to mess about or just find shelter and wait it out. So with a lot of things closing down my adventure became how to get back to my hotel through the flood. I wasn't keen on wading through it over the uneven roads, even if my shoes were already soaked through. I managed to get most of the way via a few detours before getting stuck provided the perfect excuse to hire a rickshaw runner to take me through the final flooded stretch. Aparently Kolkata is the last bastion of the rickshaw pulled by foot, and they are not expected to last becuase they slow down the traffic to much. They will be a loss for those who use them for carrying large loads but there are cycle rickshaws (now becoming more numerous in London) and auto-rickshaws to take their place. So that pretty much ate day 2, along with an evening walk to find the flood had mostly subsided. Chalk it all up to experience, oh and I've now purchased an umbrella and a pair of sandals :-)

No rain since though, so I'm not sure what's happened to the idea of day after day monsoon rain. I understand it's a bit of a problem actually, with a lack of water meaning less hydro power and more power failures. However I don't think they can claim this for the day 3 city wide power failure. This resulted in some places shutting for the day and others just adding to the general noise and smell by starting up their generators. Interesting side note here is that there is certainly some consciousness about conservation of energy use, not anymore than Australia but it's at least a recognised issue. From the Australian press you'd think India (and China) were just recalcitrantly burning fossil fuel. However various billboards indicate that the government here has tried to educate the public and seek behavior change and I guess the simple fact that energy is unreliable here contributes to an attitude among at least some people that energy shouldn't just be blindly wasted.

The other essential experience is getting ripped off on various purchases. However while the discrepencies are in the order of 100% the actual amounts are so small I don't really mind. The difference in wealth is so great it's impossible for me to estimate how much things are worth here simply based on my Australian knowledge. They need our money though so I just see this as contributing to the levelling process - as long as it's not just up to me though!

Anyway that probably gives you enough of an idea of my Kolkata experience. I'm trying to make train bookings to visit Bodhgaya and Orissa in the next few days before meeting Dad on Tuesday. However the population density means you normally have to book trains well ahead, so it's touch and go and pay a bit extra at the moment - all part of the adventure!