Calcutta the "City of Joy"

coconut juice for breakfast anyone?
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Calcutta (or Kolkata) is an 18hr plane ride from Delhi. So, when some friends and I found cheap plane tickets for a long weekend, we decided to go based on the fact we would probably never see it otherwise. Eiad’s birthday was Thursday, so we had his party then headed off to the airport afterwards in the wee hours of the morning.

After the 2hr flight, we took a taxi then the city metro to get to the center of town. It was still early morning when we began our search for a hotel. We stopped first at a coconut stall to have a refreshing drink before going any farther. The seller skillfully turns the green ball in his hand as he hacks away at one end with a machete. After freeing one end, he pops a straw into the hole, and you have fresh coconut water.

"kolkata" rickshaw
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After checking a few places we settled into the "Modern Lodge" because we were able to get rooms on the rooftop. We took a few minutes to enjoy the sunshine on the roof then went off to find breakfast. I had read in the guide book about the "curd corner" which is supposed to have the best fresh yogurt in town, and it happened to just be down the street. So, we met Sunny. I don’t know if that is the proper spelling of his name, but it is an apt description of him. He is a young, exuberant, shop owner who will help you start your morning with the hiss of an old Italian espresso machine, a bowl of fresh yogurt with bananas and museli, and a broad smile. We went back every morning.

katha on our roof
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Once we got out into the city, I found out that Calcutta is what I thought Delhi would be like before I came. Maybe in the west we see more of Calcutta in movies and press than other Indian cities, I don’t know. But it’s definitely a more European-looking city. The British were in Calcutta for much longer than Delhi and their influence in the broad streets, towering dome of the Victoria memorial, and the high steeple of St. Paul’s Church are all evident.

We did a lot of walking through the city, which is the best way to get a feel for a new place. The weather was perfect so the many large parks in the center of the city were a welcome avenue. At first we didn't’t really look at the map. We just looked for the pointed tops of the bridge to head towards the river. It took us about an hour walking, but we made it over there and happened upon one of the ghats where people were bathing.

sunny and liv in the curd corner
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In a society where women are supposed to be so feminine and conservative it amazed me that women and men were separated into two groups, but still bathing side by side in the river. We sat and just watched for a good 30minutes all of the women washing their hair, the men praying and throwing water over their heads, and the wet children being dragged around. Equally puzzling to us is how people can bathe in a river where there was a trash dump literally 50ft away. Most of the time we get stared at for being the oddity. At least this time, we were watching them as they watched us.

sheep grazing in the park
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After a cup of chai out of a tiny earthenware cup we proceeded further down the shore and happened upon some boats. We hired one and went out to float on the river for an hour. The sun was out, the water was peaceful, so we all ended up paying 80rp a person to take a nap on the bow of the boat. But, a really quality nap is priceless.

Though the food in general in Calcutta was very good, it was hard to find the native food of the state, Bengali food. Bengali’s are famous for their love of seafood because West Bengal is on the coast, so I was really looking forward to some good fish. We finally decided to look up a nice restaurant and sample some real Bengali cuisine. It was expensive, but the thali I had at the Ahemlia??? restaurant was amazing. There was a coconut prawn curry, hot and intriguingly spiced vegetables, rice, green fish curry, dal, rice pudding with cardamom, papads, and more. I was stuffed, but because we eat at nice places so rarely it was a real treat and worth the money. Liv ordered "small river fish" which turned out to be about the size of your pinky finger and are eaten whole. Lets just say she didn't’t finish it, but it was an interesting dish to try.

calcutta river
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Our second day we decided to do a pretty crowded schedule of tourist sightseeing. After breakfast at the curd corner I dropped off a pair on sandals that had broken the day before to be fixed and I continued on wearing my plastic bathroom slippers. We walked through the HUGE park and went to see the Victoria Memorial. Part way up the steps to the memorial my bathroom slippers broke so I spent most of the afternoon walking barefoot through Calcutta. The Victoria Memorial is a gorgeous, white marble, domed structure surrounded by manicured gardens and glistening pools. The museum inside was housing an Indian/Italian art show and a museum exhibit of the cities history.

group bathing
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After enjoying the gardens for a bit, we made it over to the planetarium in time for the 1:30pm English language show. Again, many of us paid to take a nap. In our search for lunch afterwards we discovered Kathi rolls. These are a speciality of Calcutta and an ingenious street food. They take on of the roti’s and crack an egg on it. You turn the bread upside down to fry the egg onto the bread. Then fill the roll with potatoes and chutneys, and you have a hot, delicious lunch for 20rp.

Sunday is not a religious holiday for most Indians, but it is regarded as a general day of rest here. The first time we went to Sunny’s shop I noticed a picture of a large group of people among palm trees on the back wall. He explained that it was his garden in a village outside of Calcutta and that we were invited if we wanted to go. So, after our normal breakfast in the curd corner we bought some fruit, and boarded a bus heading out of town. After a pleasant 40min ride watching the green landscape of the country we arrived at a tiny village. Sunny’s garden was set amidst tall palm trees, mango trees, pineapple plants, and many things I didn’t recognize. After we watched a boy scramble up a tree to pick us some coconuts, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon playing badminton, laying on a blanket under a tree and reading, and napping of course.

disposable teacups
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We were having such a nice time relaxing and reading that we decided to do the same thing when sunny had to head back to town in the late afternoon. So, he went back to to work and we headed for the large park. We had another round of Kathi rolls for lunch and spread out our blanket to enjoy the afternoon. It wasn’t quite as peaceful in the city as crowds of inquisitive locals would periodically surround us just watching us. It can be funny, but understandably uncomfortable as well to just be unashamedly stared at for long periods of time. At one point we decided if you can’t beat them join them, so we took the crowd of young men that had formed and played a football game with them while Liv played badminton with one of the families. (The family was quite poor and we ended up leaving the game with them.) Our crowd of 30 football players turned into a crowd of 200 or so onlookers once the game began. We played until it got dark then Katha and I went to the church service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

katha and lene on the boat
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Monday was spent largely in the gardens around the Victoria Memorial. We had breakfast with Sunny then packed up our new badminton set and some fruits and headed for the park. Looking back on it, we spent a large part of the weekend relaxing in gardens, but I’m ok with that. This day was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend. The weather was perfect, and because you had to pay 5rp to get into the gardens, the crowd was much less so we didn’t get bothered nearly as much. We all caught up on some reading, napping, and Jurgen and I perfected some sweet tricks with our badminton skills. When lunchtime rolled around we had a badminton playoff to see who would have to go get lunch. We only left the park when the sun finally started to disappear and it got a big cold.

jurgen and liv on the boat
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When we finally had to leave Monday night is was actually quite sad. We’d made many friends in our short visit by chatting in the curd corner. It also turned out that the family we had given the badminton set to lived near our hotel, so we saw them several times as well. We exchanged email addresses and smiles and several people saw us off to our cab.

You will hear the generalization that people in Calcutta are more friendly than people in Delhi. In my experience at least, this was true, and if anyone is going there, I would recommend searching out the Curd Corner for a bowl of fresh yogurt and new friends.