India Part IV: Kolkata

We arrived in Kolkata late at night and knew we were in for something different here. The bathroom in the airport was as (un)clean as it was in Jaipur train station and our driver almost left us behind as he ran ahead and left us to carry all of the bags. His huge, poorly installed speakers rattled in the back as we bumped over city streets. When we arrived at our hotel, which was much more expensive then our previous ones, the club was thumping and there was a large crowd of young people smoking outside. We were shown to our room, which was smelly and had twin beds. When we complained, we were taken to the room next door, which was equally smelly but louder, but had a double bed. The problem was that someone had lost the room key, so we had to get a staff person to lock and unlock the door if we wanted to leave the room. When we requested a different room, the person at the desk who spoke better English explained that he had picked that room specially for us. Nevermind the fact that we were shown another room first and the other guy told us they were the only two rooms left in the hotel. But, seeing as it was late, Kristen opened up some Lush bath products to get the room smelling better and we went to sleep with the dead bolt locked. The next morning we complained about the service the night before and were taken to two different rooms before we found one that was the least smelly. Mike’s take on it was that all of Kolkata might just be smelly. Fortunately, we later found places that were less smelly and were able to air out our room sufficiently to be mostly not smelly.

Our days in Kolkata were very relaxed- we’d get up just in time to make it before breakfast closed, then we took our time getting out of the hotel. We’d wander through colonial buildings and museums and eat good food. The nights were when we really hit the town because we were there for the mother of all Hindu festivals in the city- Durga Puja. The festival celebrates the slaying of the buffalo demon by the goddess Durga. People honor the occasion by putting up displays depicting the act. Neighborhoods and organizations create huge displays called pandals all around town and everyone spends the evening going ‘pandal hopping’. It reminded us of going around town to look at Christmas lights in the States, but on foot. We joined the fun and the massive crowds and went in search of the best pujas.





We saw some great ones- with lights, music, tinsel and paint. And crowds. The police were out in force to help with the flow of traffic and the subways were mobbed. The crowds were so intense the subway doors couldn’t shut, which caused delays. The solution to this was to get Boy Scouts and others to literally push people inside so the doors could close. We braved the subway twice, after which we decided it was enough. We were very proud though that we had managed to get both on and off at the stops we wanted. It was quite the feat. There was no friendly voice over the intercom reminding us about our good subway etiquette as there is on the Boston T- it was every person for themselves. We did meet some very nice people while waiting for the trains though. People who wanted to practice their English and were curious about where we were from and what we were doing. And one group of teenage boys that wanted us to take their picture with Mike so they could see it on the digital display. We also met a very nice family who helped us during our first puja experience. Apparently we had our neophyte hats on and they quickly adopted us, helped us score VIP passes so we could skip the big lines, and took us to see our first display. They invited us to keep going with them, but we had to pass because we wanted to catch a traditional Indian music concert next door. But we were very grateful to them for showing us the ropes.



We stayed in Kolkata for the full festival and went on the last night to see the grand finale- the dumping of the pujas in the Hoogly River. Groups would bring the pujas in on trucks, pull them off using bamboo poles, bring them to the river, spin them around a few times, and then dump them in. The noise and crowds were spectacular and overwhelming. We had never seen anything like it and were fascinated. Satisfied we got the fullest puja experience we could as tourists, we headed home to bed, for the next morning we would be on our way to Kathmandu.