Kolkata

Part of the flower market.

 Amazing how they put them all together in garlands.

Washing in the river.

 The wrestling Guru.

 Swinging weighted bats.

 Mud wrestling.

 Living on the street.

 St. Paul's.

 The Victoria Monument.

 Having fun with Nico.

At the end massaging his back.

Wednesday, April 11^th.

Happy birthday Mike!

We only had the one full day in Kolkata and Nico and his wife Judith (who flew into Kolkata to join him for this tour) wanted to make the most of it. He hired a car and driver for the day from the hotel and planned to visit the flower market, a wrestling temple and a couple of other spots. So, Liz and I decided to join them. We set off at 6:30 for the flower market. It was interesting because our driver didn’t speak much English so if we had a problem communicating Nico would type into his phone and play him the Google translation, or we’d phone the hotel and they’d phone the driver with the translation. Technology.

When we arrived at the flower market we found a rabbit warren of narrow alleys and passageways with people sitting in the sun or shade with bundles or strings of flowers and other plants or leaves of plants. As with all places in India there was filth and garbage all over the place, but most of smell was of the fragrance of the various flowers. We watched the people bartering and trying to sell their flowers. I wondered how much money the vendors make sitting there all day and the basic existence that they have doing that day after day. We crossed a bridge and went further into what is reputed to be the largest flower market in India, perhaps Asia. Nico was doing his usual thing, taking videos of people and scenes for his ultimate use in making a promotional video for Dragoman. He spends a long time doing that so we just looked around and wandered not too far away, we didn’t want to get separated here. At one point we took an alley that went to the Hoogly River bank. Nico wanted a shot of the men bathing in the river, as this is a typical Indian scene. So while he was doing that I just watched the goings on. A number of men came out individually and relieved themselves on the concrete stairs leading to the river, adding to the already pungent odour of urine. Then I noticed a little further to the left dozens of fresh deposits of faeces. Add to that the constant stream of spittle. It begs the question, why? Why doesn’t the government build a proper toilet block and hire a couple of people to keep it clean? Why, do people bathe and swim in the water when all of this excrement is so close and will obviously wash into the river. Why have the people not made the leap to proper sanitation habits? Again, satellites, nuclear technology and yet a large portion of the populace is still shitting in public places. It definitely adds to Pulak’s opinion that the government needs to prioritize its agenda and make health and sanitation one of the main focuses. All of the smells and visuals definitely took away from the delicate fragrance of the flower market.

After Nico was finished, we went to the next spot which was only about a 100 metres further along the river bank. This was the wrestling temple. Here we found a square arena about the size of a boxing ring with a mud floor. Behind it were two little temples and a sandu holy man who was leading some chanting. We met two men, one of whom spoke English very well. When Nico asked he explained that they were finished for the morning session, as they wrestle when it is cooler. When Nico explained what he wanted to do (take videos), they became quite interested. The English speaker introduced us to the teacher and National Wrestler Guru Jwala Tiwari who showed us a few newspaper clippings and a National Geographic that had a feature on him and the sport. They volunteered to demonstrate their practice techniques. They stood wearing nothing but a very small loin cloth and their sizable bellies hanging out and swung two large weighted bats around their heads to build shoulder strength. Then they explained the sport and gave Nico a little demonstration. The floor is wet, but not saturated, mud. They smear themselves with it and stand legs apart, pat hands and then begin. It is the same as most wrestling, with the grappling and trying to trip or throw each other to the ground. The winner is the one who pins the other on his back. Nico had a great time filming all of that. They asked for a donation to support the club. Then they told him if he came back at 4:00 there would be more to see.

We went back to the hotel for lunch and to pack up and check out. Will was having a briefing meeting with the new people. There are two women, Tui and April from New Zealand, an older couple also from New Zealand and a thirty something woman, Jenn, from Washington. With Nico, his wife Judith and me, we are now eight, and I have my own room. We left our bags in the storage room and headed out in the car again. This time we went to St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, which is white and was the first English cathedral built outside of England. The stain glass windows were impressive but the rest of the interior was pretty plain and the ceiling, which is usually a highlight, was nothing special. I found a grave marker of a man who had served the British government and served in Jamaica, Canada, China and India in the 1800’s. It really made me think about how much more interesting and or difficult travel would have been back then.

Then went to the Victoria Monument. This is a huge marble structure built to memorialize Queen Victoria. It was built just after her death. I wonder who built it, the British or the Indians, I suspect the former. Inside were a couple of rooms full of pictures, paintings and explanations of the British rule in India.

Will called and expressed interest in seeing the wrestling, so we went back to pick him up and Jenn. The six of us went back, walked through the flower market again and found the wrestlers, who were already wrestling. They were delighted to see Nico and said he was a man of his word as he had come back. They told him that he could film in the arena only if he put on a loin cloth, as it was a holy place and part of their ritual. So, Nico did. Then they proceeded to have a couple of fights between wrestlers of various weight classes, with Nico bouncing around taking videos and trying to stay out of the way. When he was finished, the head guy proceeded to give him some lessons in technique. It wasn’t long before he was as muddy and dirty as the rest. They just played with him and then had him try climbing a rope for strength training. He did quite well, but they called him down as they didn’t want him to fall. They wanted him to wash off the mud in the river, but after what we had seen he declined. We all said goodbye and headed back to the hotel.

When we got there, we met the others and had a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant, and then saying goodbye to Liz, who is flying home to England later that night, we loaded up into two hotel vehicles for the ride to the airport. The traffic was horrendous and it was a pretty long drive and I could see Will was getting nervous about missing the train. When we got there, the train, which he had heard was on the platform, was gone. He found an official and found out it was late. In fact it was about three hours late. We waited and talked until it finally arrived at 11:00. Then it sat there for another hour with doors locked. It wasn’t until the door opened and a man inside swept a pile of rubbish out that we realized they were cleaning it. Then we boarded.