Kolkata Experience Today

Today I hired a cab driver to bring me to some places I wanted to see in Kolkata: Mother Theresa's Mission, the Indian Museum, Kali Ghat and Victoria Memorial Hall. The Mother Theresa Center was very stark and really showed the way she and her sisters immersed themselves in poverty while serving the poor. Her room and tomb are at this location. I made a donation and had some time to talk with one of the sisters. It is wonderful that Mother Theresa's legacy lives on. Her sayings were posted in one room: "So let us be one heart full of love in the heart of God and so share the joy of loving by sharing, helping, loving and serving each other."

Next I saw the Victoria Memorial which is an extremely impressive building (in need of repair) which serves as a historical museum and art gallery. It is the big white building in the photo set.

I should mention that there were several really disturbing incidents where I was chased by women holding their babies pleading for money to take care of their babies. We gave them money at the last minute before getting into the cab, which seems to be the best strategy because a crowd gathers if you stop to give money in a public place.

I was also chased by women holding babies after visiting the Kali Ghat, which is a Hindu Temple to Kali. The priest allowed me to see the Kali statue, attach a rock to the holy tree in the temple, showed me the location where goats and buffalo are sacrificed, recited blessings, wrapped a string around my hand, and we gave a hibiscus wreath offering to Kali. After a donation my cab driver rolled his eyes at me and soon afterward we had a large group including baby toting women chasing after us.

Next I had lunch at a Bengali Restaurant. The place became packed. A couple from Jaipur with excellent English and an elderly gentleman were very friendly and kind to me. I told them a bit about Water for People and why I was on my journey.

We also visited a crafts store and a textile market. My driver was looking worn from hours of dealing with traffic. Pedestrians jumping out and constant near misses with automobiles, trucks, buses, and rickshaws hauling cement. Near the Kali Ghat temple I remember (in addition to all the smells and filth) workers using a really narrow long ladder constructed of bamboo. The whole city feels to me like that ladder with it's flexible tough resourceful use of basic materials to stretch toward something greater.