Last stop: Kolkatā

Kolkatā (new name of Calcutta) was such a pleasant surprise of a major Indian city.  Yes, it's huge (4+ million  people in the city proper; 14+ area wide)  and yet it felt manageable.  The story of how I ended up coming through this city lies in the first 2 weeks of my trip to India.  In a desperate attempt to get myself 6 hours north of New Delhi to the town of Rajpur, I'd miraculously made the night bus that ended up an 11 hour trip.  Sunil was the nicest gentleman I could have been so lucky to be seated with on this arduous bus ride.  He was on the way (in his last minute plan) to visit his daughter at a boarding school in Mussoorie.  We ended up chatting quite a bit of the 11hr journey, especially since there was little chance of us getting any sleep in the most bumpy, noisy and cold bus ride ever!  With his warm Nepalese nature, he'd invited me to visit with his family should I be going through Kolkatā...and so I did!  

Aparna, Sunil's wife, was able to show me around the city for the 3 days I was there.  It was great fun getting to see the city with a "local" companion.  The highlight of my trip here was visiting Mother Teresa's Mission of Charities.  Much of the rest of my tourist sightings were seen from the car ride through the city, which was such a contrast to my experience in India until then!  Eating masala dosa and Mumbai coffee (y.u.m.) in a very modern shopping center was almost surreal.  I still don't get the whole idea of discarding the cute little red earthenware cups from which I downed much deeelicious (and what I believe to be doped up) chai.

There is just so much life here. So much grandeur.  So much poverty.  So much pollution.  So many people.  So much trash.  So many colors.  So India.