It's hard not to come up with a cliche line to describe my first impressions of India. Nothing can prepare you for it. The place is a sensory overload that to date writing this post has not ceased. Arriving in Kolkata airport at 12:30am wasn't the greatest plan, but unavoidable. i didnt know the area, I didnt know anyone in the city, didn't have any rupees on me, and there was no ATM in the international terminal.
I'll just note here that I am finishing adding to this post over two weeks after arriving so some of the cultural insights written come from slightly more than 5 days experience :)
A Night at Kolkata Airport
My friend Lakshman (Liam) was in Delhi and was flying into Kolkata the following morning. He had booked a room at Hotel Airways, aparently right by the airport. But as i walked out of the terminal, I was confronted with at least a few hundred taxi drivers who's eyes all lit up with hope as they saw this somewhat lost foreigner loaded with bags looking around for some clue as to where gate 2 was. very shortly i found myself back inside the terminal (you're only allowed in with a valid ticket) and spoke to the guy with the biggest gun. He told me the nearest atm was only 300 meters away at the domestic terminal but also that my hotel was about a 10-15 minute walk away. He then added that if he were me, he'd stay here in the terminal for at least a few hours 'to be safe'.. hmm ok i think i'll take that advice mr giant gun. After sitting down for about 30 seconds, a lone white girl with an expression on her face i assumed similar to that found on myself a few minutes earlier came by and asked if she could sit with me for a few minutes as she'd just had the same experience. Her name was Sabrina, she had arranged for a hotel to pick her up from the airport but they didnt show, after letting her know what mr gun told me, we agreed to wait it out together.
Not long after we migrated to where a french girl Sarah was sleeping, the only comfortable looking piece of real estate in the airport. Turns out she was sleeping there until 11am waiting for a flight out. By that time I'd decided that considering Liam was flying in at 8am and these girls were there on their own why not wait it out til morning.
Morning arrived and Sabrina and I said goodbye to Sarah and met with Liam before taking a prepaid taxi to Sudder St, the traditional cheap backpacker area of Kolkata.
First Day In Kolkata
Wow. Driving in Kokata (and anywhere else in india it seems) is an amazing experience. The method, as i hear is common in many asian countries, seems to be roughly to use your horn not to alert danger, but instead to let others know where you are while doing whatever you feel you need to do to get to your destination. In practice this means the horn is blarlng pretty much constantly. Strangely enough, I felt completely at east the entire ride and have every time i've been on the road since arriving. There is a flow and awareness that just works. I think it may be tougher to be at ease on bigger roads with faster traffic but in the rickshaws and taxi's i've been in so far it's not a problem.
Liam is a devout Vaishnava (hare krsna), and wanted to visit his spiritual master in Kolkata, I joined him at another devotee's house where we were able to eat some delicious, homecooked indian food prepared by the devotee's sister. Amazing.
Eventually we retired to our cheap hotel and I was able to sleep after being awake for over 36 hours and being punched in the face by india for an entire day. Loved it.
Impressions Of Culture
The next 5 days saw me adjusting to the culture that is India, or more specifically - Kolkata. The people interact and behave so differently compared to our Western counterparts, for the unaware there could be some serious freaking out happening. India is a tough tough place to live. Everyone can assume this much but experiencing it is simply phenomenal. Kolkata is one of the few places left that actually has human powered rickshaws. These guys are seriously hardcore. So skinny they have ribs showing, no shoes they pull people around the city for pittance. This is a country where (most) people are very aware of what it means to do a hard days work, with many people I spoke to working more than 16 hour days.
As a result of the tough life, generaly speaking have a pretty touch exterior. A hardened outer shell which is simply necessary to get by in everyday life. But there is so much heart underneath. I would imagine many visitors to India never looking beyond this barrier. As a foriegner in the country, you are confronted with outright staring and stern face that initially seems to say 'What the hell are you doing in my country' you give a smile in our familiar western fashion and get absolutely no response, just the same piercing stare that seems to penetrate through to your core. But with a few handy pieces of cultural knowledge it isn't hard to get people to show their hearts, and often huge smiles alongside. Reading Shataram in the month prior to arrival was imensely helpful, as was watching Liam deal with locals after visiting India so many times. The most prominent tip I gained from reading that book was most definitely the explaination of the infamous head-wobble. For those who havent read it, Shantaram goes on to explain this phenemomon. It is primarly used no so much as 'yes' but more as 'I agree with you', but in terms of dealings with strangers, as an initial interaction it somewhat states 'I am a peaceful man'. I tried it immediately and tho it's a hard physical action to master, I'd put it at about 95% of the time returned with a subtle wiggling response and usually a beaming smile to go with it.
It seems everyone is an entropeneure. Business exists on every level imaginable. From the foodstands serving up delicious and extremely cheap food, freshly cooked, to the guy on the side of the street who's invested his money soley in a small amount of mothballs to sell, presumably in hopes of making a little more money to purchase something a little easier to sell. Slowly this seems to be how people make something of themselves on the street. With the amount of people swarming the city, it is very easy to imagine anyone selling anything here could do well..
I spent 5 days in Kolkata, but more than see the sights of the town, as indicated above I was more focused on absorbing the culture. Liam and I visited a couple of temples one Kali temple which was pretty crazy, jam packed with people pushing and shoving to give their offerings, and another Gaudia Math temple that was astonishingly humble in contrast, we also looked at an incredibly old cemetary and a few other sights.
We then booked a train and headed north to the ISKCON (Hare Krsna) spiritual centre - Mayapur.
A Few Photos (see facebook...)
I'll just note here that I am finishing adding to this post over two weeks after arriving so some of the cultural insights written come from slightly more than 5 days experience :)
A Night at Kolkata Airport
My friend Lakshman (Liam) was in Delhi and was flying into Kolkata the following morning. He had booked a room at Hotel Airways, aparently right by the airport. But as i walked out of the terminal, I was confronted with at least a few hundred taxi drivers who's eyes all lit up with hope as they saw this somewhat lost foreigner loaded with bags looking around for some clue as to where gate 2 was. very shortly i found myself back inside the terminal (you're only allowed in with a valid ticket) and spoke to the guy with the biggest gun. He told me the nearest atm was only 300 meters away at the domestic terminal but also that my hotel was about a 10-15 minute walk away. He then added that if he were me, he'd stay here in the terminal for at least a few hours 'to be safe'.. hmm ok i think i'll take that advice mr giant gun. After sitting down for about 30 seconds, a lone white girl with an expression on her face i assumed similar to that found on myself a few minutes earlier came by and asked if she could sit with me for a few minutes as she'd just had the same experience. Her name was Sabrina, she had arranged for a hotel to pick her up from the airport but they didnt show, after letting her know what mr gun told me, we agreed to wait it out together.
Not long after we migrated to where a french girl Sarah was sleeping, the only comfortable looking piece of real estate in the airport. Turns out she was sleeping there until 11am waiting for a flight out. By that time I'd decided that considering Liam was flying in at 8am and these girls were there on their own why not wait it out til morning.
Morning arrived and Sabrina and I said goodbye to Sarah and met with Liam before taking a prepaid taxi to Sudder St, the traditional cheap backpacker area of Kolkata.
First Day In Kolkata
Wow. Driving in Kokata (and anywhere else in india it seems) is an amazing experience. The method, as i hear is common in many asian countries, seems to be roughly to use your horn not to alert danger, but instead to let others know where you are while doing whatever you feel you need to do to get to your destination. In practice this means the horn is blarlng pretty much constantly. Strangely enough, I felt completely at east the entire ride and have every time i've been on the road since arriving. There is a flow and awareness that just works. I think it may be tougher to be at ease on bigger roads with faster traffic but in the rickshaws and taxi's i've been in so far it's not a problem.
Liam is a devout Vaishnava (hare krsna), and wanted to visit his spiritual master in Kolkata, I joined him at another devotee's house where we were able to eat some delicious, homecooked indian food prepared by the devotee's sister. Amazing.
Eventually we retired to our cheap hotel and I was able to sleep after being awake for over 36 hours and being punched in the face by india for an entire day. Loved it.
Impressions Of Culture
The next 5 days saw me adjusting to the culture that is India, or more specifically - Kolkata. The people interact and behave so differently compared to our Western counterparts, for the unaware there could be some serious freaking out happening. India is a tough tough place to live. Everyone can assume this much but experiencing it is simply phenomenal. Kolkata is one of the few places left that actually has human powered rickshaws. These guys are seriously hardcore. So skinny they have ribs showing, no shoes they pull people around the city for pittance. This is a country where (most) people are very aware of what it means to do a hard days work, with many people I spoke to working more than 16 hour days.
As a result of the tough life, generaly speaking have a pretty touch exterior. A hardened outer shell which is simply necessary to get by in everyday life. But there is so much heart underneath. I would imagine many visitors to India never looking beyond this barrier. As a foriegner in the country, you are confronted with outright staring and stern face that initially seems to say 'What the hell are you doing in my country' you give a smile in our familiar western fashion and get absolutely no response, just the same piercing stare that seems to penetrate through to your core. But with a few handy pieces of cultural knowledge it isn't hard to get people to show their hearts, and often huge smiles alongside. Reading Shataram in the month prior to arrival was imensely helpful, as was watching Liam deal with locals after visiting India so many times. The most prominent tip I gained from reading that book was most definitely the explaination of the infamous head-wobble. For those who havent read it, Shantaram goes on to explain this phenemomon. It is primarly used no so much as 'yes' but more as 'I agree with you', but in terms of dealings with strangers, as an initial interaction it somewhat states 'I am a peaceful man'. I tried it immediately and tho it's a hard physical action to master, I'd put it at about 95% of the time returned with a subtle wiggling response and usually a beaming smile to go with it.
It seems everyone is an entropeneure. Business exists on every level imaginable. From the foodstands serving up delicious and extremely cheap food, freshly cooked, to the guy on the side of the street who's invested his money soley in a small amount of mothballs to sell, presumably in hopes of making a little more money to purchase something a little easier to sell. Slowly this seems to be how people make something of themselves on the street. With the amount of people swarming the city, it is very easy to imagine anyone selling anything here could do well..
I spent 5 days in Kolkata, but more than see the sights of the town, as indicated above I was more focused on absorbing the culture. Liam and I visited a couple of temples one Kali temple which was pretty crazy, jam packed with people pushing and shoving to give their offerings, and another Gaudia Math temple that was astonishingly humble in contrast, we also looked at an incredibly old cemetary and a few other sights.
We then booked a train and headed north to the ISKCON (Hare Krsna) spiritual centre - Mayapur.
A Few Photos (see facebook...)
No comments:
Post a Comment