Dying to get to Varanasi

For me, travelling is a chance to expose myself - to a new and random set of research topics arising from beautiful sights around the world.  A great question may spring to mind from the plane I board, the city I visit, or any sight, sound, smell, taste or touch .
The Ghandi quote on a school gate in Darjeeling expressed it eloquently: "Live as if you are to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

I have often joked that my ambition is to be a corpse with the most complete cosmic perspective I can manage.

Darjeeling: Mountainous Schools

Darjeeling and surrounding areas are dotted with prestigious schools that mimic the British Public School tradition.
Beautifully groomed children swarm through Darjeeling streets at various times of the day in a kaleidoscope of brightly colour blazers, pants, dresses and scarves.

To my eye, their faces - male or female - seem far more beautiful than my experience of Australian children.
Indicators of their affluence range from beautifully spoken English, through ubiquitous fiddling with data phones to queuing for the ATM.

Darjeeling: Separating the Gorkha

We watched and listened to a large and long Gorkha separatist march through Darjeeling.

The local police (who wear military style uniforms and carry automatic weapons in addition to large batons) were out in force.

Women comprised the first 100m of the march chanting in unison slogans supplied by the sole male in the centre with a megaphone. The men followed up.
Around Darjeeling, many shops display "Ghorkaland" prominently above their shops. During the recent strikes, virtually all businesses in Darjeeling either shut down voluntarily or through social pressure. Tourist trade tanked and many parents reassessed their enrolment in prestigious local schools.
Luckily for us, the ensuing tourist season saw economics trump culture, and a peace deal was struck providing relative calm.

Darjeeling: Arteries and Lungs

To the amusement of other travellers, we paid Rp2000 each way for a comfortable 4WD trip from Bodagra to Darjeeling.   The trip is not for those prone to carsickness as the road clings precariously to the slopes through 42km.

For the last 30km the rail line shares the cuttings and criss crosses the road with no barrier. Indeed, dogs are tied to the rails; locals cook breakfast and wash themselves on the roadway; front doors of houses open directly into the rails of the roadway.

Darjeeling: Getting high in the hills

As we were driven from the Bengal plains into the mountains above Siliguri in our aircon 4WD by a happy Gorkha, I was thinking of how strenuous this journey must have been in the early 1830's, when Arthur Campbell, Surgeon, British East India Company Forces went in search of a Hill Station.

The British created hill stations all over the empire to enable the British high command to continue ruling from a healthy air condition office during summer months.

Kolkata: The Urchin and the Maidan

The maidan looks green on the maps, just like some manicured botanical gardens might look in another country.  In Kolkata, green means bits of groung left to fend for themselves under the relentless priority of masses for somewhere to sleep. Given this, the maidan is amazingly well respected as public space for impromptu soccer matches and contemplation.

Tourists in Kolkata seem to be a significant curiosity to the locals who tend to cease conversation and stare until we pass, then chatter and laugh after we passed: "We were born here, but what bring them to this decayed backwater ?"

Kolkata: The Last Ambassador

As we walk Kolkata, nothing is more ubiquitous than the sight and sounds of the yellow taxis.

The past British domination echoes from every curve of their bodies and beep of their horns. Although made new up until 2011 by Hindustan Motors and called the Ambassador Classic, they have remained a very close copy of the 1956 Morris Oxford II.

In 2011, they could not meet more stringent pollution standards and Hindustan Motors is now going broke fast.

I have confidence that economic necessity will force the poor taxi drivers to keep them serving as British ambassadors on the streets of Kolkata for at least another decade.

Kolkata: A capsule of western reassurance

I deliberately chose Hotel Kempton for its unapologetic attempt at offering first world amenity in walking distance of Kolkata's best sites.

The staff were awake and attentive at 1am and we were pleased to find a sanctuary from which to rest and ready for Kolkata explorations.  Yeah, well, almost. The sheets had rather disturbing and strategically located stains, so we asked for a fresh lot of linen which was quickly provided without complaint. On the new linen the stains were much fainter and not so confrontingly located.....

A good nights sleep ensued until the morning light, noises from the suckling dog litter next door and incessant car horns raised my interest.  My wife's dedication to sleep is far deeper.

The contrast of our room and the life waking outside was dramatic and fascinatingly illustrated in our view.

I wonder if the shaky bamboo scaffolding tied with hemp rope reaching up to our 4th storey is for cleaning our windows?!

Kolkata: the shock of the back streets

Leaving our hotel compound, We experienced the immediate full chaotic shock of the Park Street area of central Kolkata. I felt more like a voyeur than a tourist. Viewing beauty provides its own justification, but there is little beauty here. Just the fascination in seeing live animals beside dismembered ones, animal parts in all stages of preparation, cooking, and the final product being described to us a constant loud unintelligible rapid fire.

The contrasts 10m from our hotel gate are mind-boggling. The ancient and primitive sit right beside a modern ATM. Cheap handmade bangles and baubles are sold right next to the latest phones and SIM cards. The English speaking technician sells, installs and tests our purchases faster and more efficiently than anyone I have encountered in Oz!

Kolkata: Culture keeps commerce civil

Kolkata has a lower crime rate that other major cities despite having higher rates of extreme poverty.

I walked at close quarters past many people living in horrendous conditions, and probably drove past thousands more. There was no sense of hostility let alone threat. Instead of looks of envy, there was more the look of curiosity. I often had the sense that kolkatans thought I was literally from another planet.

People so destitute and yet so resigned. Some even looked content. Others were laughing, smiling and talking as they shared the side of an freeway pillar.

Here in Kolkata, parents happily load their beautifully groomed grade 2 children into a rickshaw pulled by a wizened old man they have never met and send them off to school.

In thousands of similar ways, values are inculcated.

In Kolkata, Indian wealth is constantly at close quarters with Indian poverty.

In other countries, such conditions are assumed to be the primary cause of crime ranging from petty theft, through assault, murder and even international terrorism.

The cultural lens through which so many of the Kolkata poor may interpret their world seems to lead to far less conflict.

Kolkata arrival

Kolkata airport was new and empty at 11pm.... 

Only intimation of Third World was the fact that the one ATM did not accept any of our cards.  Just as well we had some Australian Cash with us.

Kolkata Taxi

Kolkata hit us with a jolt as the police regulated pre-paid taxi system allocated us a driver.  His smile was charming but his driving took years off libby's life as passed on either side of anything from heavy trucks to goats, and maintained an amused disregard for contraints like red lights or one way streets. Google has to take some responsibility for the one way streets because it guided us through Kolkata to our hotel. Our driver smiled constantly, spoke fluently and fast - but just not in English. He was equally amused at the irrelevance of our hotel address as he was at any form of car repairs.  

Thank Apple for the geolocation built into iPads and the offline map caching built into Google maps app, or we would still be smiling and laughing.... and driving around Kolkata....

As we arrived at our security gated hotel in the midst of squalour, we snapped a pic and gave him Rp100 (AU$1.40) at which there was a definite widening of the eyes...

Off to India

Starting an adventure from a railway station remains excitingly evocative.

A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth)

A sprawling and self-indulgent feast of family and social interactions that wonderfully illuminate the Indian cultural, social, and political landscape of 1952.  Religious tensions, urdu poetry and music, family hierarchy and mating rituals and challenges, religious tolerance and intolerance interwoven with politics, the legacy of the Indian aristocracies and the emerging aristocracies within bureaucratic universities and parliaments.  There is ample space for everything in a book that is said to be the longest single volume novel in the English language.
The size is not for the faint hearted, and little is lost by using "speed reading" techniques.
A rich treasure.