The City of Joy

Street barber
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After a short flight to Chennai and a 30-hour-long train journey north, I arrived in Calcutta. I left this part of my trip for last, as I knew the city and my volunteering would be difficult. I wanted to get used to India to prepare myself for Calcutta. It was a wise choice.

Calcutta (it was renamed Kolkata a few years back) is not called the City of Joy for normal reasons. If you just come to enjoy the city, you will most likely leave disappointed (I do recommend reading Lepierre’s book to understand the title). Calcutta is one of the grimmest cities in India. The poverty is omnipresent. This is a city of street people - the homeless, the crippled, the lepers, the poor merchants selling cheap Chinese toys on the sidewalks. People live on the streets and die on the streets. Calcutta is the last city in India to use human-pulled rickshaws. The buildings are crumbling, the open sewers are nauseating, and the communist city government is corrupt. Even in the realm of the animals there is a poetic sadness, as dogs and black crows permeate the city searching for food through the garbage.

If you just come to enjoy the city, you will most likely leave disappointed.

Bathing on the streets
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The poor are numerous and desperate. Mothers with infants follow you around, begging persistently. Small children grab you by your hand and won’t let you go. Your heart sinks seeing such misery. You want to give money, but the minute you reach in your pockets, there are literally five or ten people swarming around, pulling on your shirt, holding your arms and legs, besieging you until you give away everything you have. If you are not ready for Calcutta, the city will drive you into depression or madness in a matter of days.

Sipping chai
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There is little to be joyous about in Calcutta. Life goes on here like elsewhere in India. There is energy to life among the people, but you get the impression that the energy comes from fear of ending up in the gutters, rather than from love of life.

Calcutta used to be fabulously rich, thriving on jute manufacturing and trade. Then, the split of India paralyzed Calcutta. Four million refugees from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) choked the city. Jute manufacturing and trade declined, as the jute growing area was precisely Bangladesh - a hostile nation after the split. If that wasn’t enough, the Communist Party of India took power in the city, ruining whatever remnants of wealth remained.

Children of Calcutta
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Despite all this misery and desperation, Calcutta can really be the city of joy. It can leave you with memories of love and serenity. You just have to know where to look…