Playing Catch-Up

I am almost a week behind in my blog posts! Eek! And Mom told me last night that she sent this address to family and friends, so hi! You'll keep me motivated to post regularly and keep it interesting :D

I suppose that I should set the scene for these posts, to give you an understanding of how I experience the city. The easiest way to express my feelings about Kolkata might be...sensory overload. The city is absolutely teeming with people, 14.7 million according to my guidebook, so that's almost twice the size of New York. I already described the traffic, but maybe not the sensation that some of the drivers seem to be actually aiming for you. There is no sanitation service in India whatsoever, so there is trash absolutely everywhere, and lots of mud besides, creating overpowering smells. Just walking around is a regular obstacle course! It is also loud, mostly from the street noise and the honking horns. The poverty is sprawling, squalid, ceaseless. I've already refused more beggars than I have in my entire life in the US. Kolkata is dirty and polluted - I wake up every morning with a stuffy nose and sore throat from breathing that air all night. I sweat constantly, and smell pretty bad for it - it's a struggle to stay hydrated and I probably drink 4 liters of water a day. I use hand sanitizer as much as possible. And it's indescribably hot and humid, which has only gotten worse with the arrival of the monsoon.

And yet I LOVE this city! It's absolutely beautiful in all its glorious, decrepit, picturesque decay. There is no better place in the world to people-watch, I guarantee it, because at all hours of the day and night the city is alive.

After the first day of sweetsweet sleep and trying to get over my jet lag, we went to lunch at the home of Walia and Irani. The group of Robertsons in Kolkata this summer are Julia, Chris, Yousef, Maggie, Anjali, and I, plus one older Robbie who is not working with us - his name is Aaron. We were able to meet the NGO heads with whom we would be working and slowly grew accustomed to the Indian accent. It can be quite difficult for me to understand, as I'm sure my accent is to them. It's actually best to speak English with an Indian accent if you ever hope to be understood, and to keep it very slow - I am actually surprised that more people do not speak English here. Yet most people are multilingual - Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, I even heard some French in Bodhgaya! The lunch was delicious, but towards the end Walia received a phone call that Kolkata would be under a banh - a strike - for the next two days. After dispersing for lunch, we all went to our separate homestays.

I will be living for the duration of my Kolkata adventure at the home of Saraj and Opie Dhali (I hope I'm spelling that right) with Maggie and Anjali. I'll post pictures very soon, as they're dear people and we're so comfortable with them. They are vegetarians, so I've had Saraj's amazing vegetarian food for a full week now! Maggie is a very slender girl, and they've already made it their goal that she gain 2.5 kilos while she's here. After unpacking and a nap, Maggie and I tried to entertain ourselves, but by the next morning, we were pretty much staring at our navels. During the banh, the entire city shuts down - no public transportation, taxis, or shops - and we had no clue how to navigate our neighborhood and weren't sure of our safety even if we could. At about noon we called Aaron, who has been in India since early May, and the next adventure began...to be continued next post!