Communists, Cathedrals, and Couchsurfers: Kolkata!

After a very quick flight from Bangkok, we made it to Kolkata, India. Kara was so excited to finally be back in India! Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta under the British empire) is located in West Bengal state, just on the border of Bangladesh. It was the first major outpost of the British empire in India and the monuments of the colonial era are still some of the most recognizable landmarks of the city. Though most international attention has focused on Kolkata's poverty and the efforts to alleviate, most notably through Mother Teresa's charities, Kolkata was and is still an intellectual, political, and cultural focal point of India. During the 11 days that we stayed in Kolkata, there was no less than 5 "bandhs," or strikes that we knew of. Pictured above is propaganda graffiti of India's CPI-M (Communist Party India, Marxist) who are currently the controlling party of West Bengal.

Our wonderful hosts, (from Right) Buku and Romy, and their cousin Choton. We met them on couchsurfing and immediately hit it off. The night we arrived, we entered their parents house where we were told to sit down on the bed with the rest of the family and just hang out. We pretty much mastered the art of hanging out by being with these people. Romy and Buku live in Berlin half of the year, and have an interesting and unique perspective of their country. Despite living abroad, their hearts are in India. This photo is from our first night at their beautiful apartment. We started with drinks at 9 pm, ate dinner at 1 am, and just when we thought it was time to sleep, they took us out for lassies (yogurt drinks) and a car tour around Kolkata at 3 am. Apparently going out so late helps to avoid Kolkata's infamous traffic. It was a great introduction to the city.

The first day we decided to walk around, we were swarmed by packs of children. The strike was on, and the streets were filled with impromptu cricket games instead of cars. It was a paradoxical introduction to India with no traffic, few crowds, and little hassle. We weren't able to do or see much during the first few days of our time on account of the strikes, but we enjoyed walking around and hanging out at Buku and Romy's house where we spent a lot of time watching Discovery Channel documentaries about India in Hindi.

This is an average serving of rice (before seconds) at Buku and Romy's house. We ate such wonderful food there.

The group of Muslim boys who lived close by. They spent most of their days playing various stick and ball games in this alley. They always paused and stared Kara down with curious eyes whenever she walked by and were surprised and delighted when Max "salaam alakum" -ed them.

Victoria Monument, Kolkata's biggest landmark and largest physical remnant of the British empire. It is a memorial to Queen Victoria of England and is now a museum.

Not far from the shiny marble edifice of Victoria Monument, the slums of Kolkata spread out along the railway tracks. Kolkata became notorious for its teaming masses of poor after the partition of East and West Pakistan from newly independent India in 1947. Another wave of largely Hindu refugees fled into West Bengal after mostly Muslim Bangladesh was created in 1971. Though Mother Teresa's missions and charities made the plight of Kolkata's poor known to the world, 70 years later, the slums and poverty still persist.

Speaking of the Christian influence, seen above is St. Paul's cathedral. St. Paul's has served Kolkata's Christian community (currently 0.88% of the population) since 1847. The building has withstood several earthquakes and renovations. Mass is held in both English and Bengali.

Waiting outside of the Birla Planetarium, the first and largest in Asia. The signs at the planetarium itself boast that its the largest planetarium in the world. Our program was about the planets, and though we didn't learn any new information about our universe, we enjoyed it nevertheless. We particularly liked our elderly speaker who insisted that all parents take crying babies out of the auditorium and stopped her speech numerous times to scold cell phone users. We were painfully reminded about Pluto's demotion to a dwarf planet number 134340. Can you spot Maximilian among the crowd?

After days of the bus strike, we finally caught one home at the fraction of the price of taxis. The insides resemble the bowels of a ship.

Walking around Kolkata one day, we stumbled upon this illegal market. The sellers, seated on straw mats above sell monkey skulls and other animal parts for spiritual and medicinal purposes. Kara was shunned when she tried to take photos up close and had to sneak this one from afar. She hopes that some poor monkey head is not being carved up to curse her.

Our first taste of Pav Bhaji, what Max deems as the Indian vegetarian sloppy joe.

A highlight of our time in Kolkata was spent with Kara's old friend and travel buddy, Lauren Clark. She had been living in Hyderabad for the past year and made the couple thousand kilometer journey up to Kolkata to meet up with us before moving back to the states. Here we are seen half way into our double-double gin and tonics. Just to clarify, if you order a double at the Moulin Rouge bar in Kolkata, you will receive two hefty glasses of alcohol each. Later that night we found the best street food in Kolkata and ate it on top of Lauren's friend's car hood, not pictured for discretion. Lauren is one of the most intelligent, fun, and lovely people in Kara's life and we were so happy to meet up with her. In spite of several years of sporadic communication between the two women, and having never met Max at all, we immediately fell into natural conversation and had a blast.

Romy's father Manuel, pictured center, was about to undergo major heart surgery as we arrived in Kolkata. Despite the eminent-life changing operation, Buku and Romy insisted on hosting us, and welcomed us into their lives as part of the family. A couple of days before the surgery, the family threw a party for Manuel in which all of his closest family and friends attended. We were honored to be there. Highlights of the party included singing and dancing. When we were asked to sing an American song for the group, Max and Kara drew a blank. For some reason they remembered the Hebrew chant of "The Four Questions" traditionally sung during the Passover Seder. So that was interesting. It was well received. Manuel's surgery was a success and he has recovered quickly and well.

Howrah Bridge, rush hour. Lonely Planet describes it as the busiest bridge in the world, and we can believe it. At any time of the day you will find porters carrying massive bundles of who knows what alongside cows, cars, buses, and businessmen.

After a week of acclimatizing, we were ready to continue our journey in India. We were excited to move on to Banaras, one of the holiest sites in all of Hinduism, "just" 24 hours by train from Kolkata. When we had originally booked our flight from Bangkok to Kolkata, we had planned to move on as quickly as possible. We never would have spent so much time learning and exploring in this cityscape if we wouldn't have met Buku and Romy, and for that we are grateful. Being that it is one of the most important cities in modern India, Kolkata is not a place to just stop through. So much so that we ended up taking the 626 km ride back to Kolkata just 10 days later for Romy's birthday.

See you on the great Ganga River,
Kara and Max