The Midday Sun: Not A Walk in the Park

This Sunday afternoon walk took me about a kilometre from home down a street towards the Hooghley River, a tributary of the Ganges. The area seemed much poorer, and I know it is not, but I was affected differently. I found it tough to integrate the images of desperation I encountered. I stepped around numerous people whose pillow is literally a concrete sidewalk. And even so, I encountered smiles and laughter in the midst of their lives.

Older woman with white saree.

Kolkata is the only Indian city with man-pulled rickshaws. I wonder

what he would do if he could not earn his living doing this work?

Parasitic trees cover many of the old buildings, it reminds me of the Mayan pyramids of Tikal in the Peten Jungle. So many of the beatuiful older buildings in this city are being devoured by the jungle and the monsoon rains.

Note that many of the trees are actually growing from the INside of what was a magnificent building.

Someone's home on the sidewalk outside the mansion above.

Father and son sleeping on sidewalk. There were many people with no homes sleeping up and down this stretch of road. One and a half million people in Kolkata live like this, or sometimes with just a wee bit of plastic to call home.

During the last typhoon a couple of weeks ago six people died in Kolkata, all from high voltage lines breaking and falling into the streets. The wiring observed above is typical in the older sections of Kolkata.

The woman in the poster on the wall is Mamata Bannerjee of the Trinamool Congress party, she came to power in May 2011 and is the first party to oust the 50-year ruling communist party. 'Trinamool' in Bengali means 'grass roots' and Mamata Bannerjee has been working for change at the grass roots level for 40 years.

These "Ambassador Classic" yellow cabs are only found in Kolkata. I am not sure how they keep them in such good shape given the craaazzzzyy crowded driving conditions in Kolkata. I feel like I am taking my life in my hands each time I take a taxi ride and wish I could give each driver a medal for getting us safely to our destination!

I think I must get a colour photo printer so I can take prints back as gifts for these genuine people.

A Bengali boy.

There is plenty of fresh milk, yoghurt, cottage cheese and butter available. I wonder if it comes from these city cows?

I think sarees are beautiful.

This colourful group of women-folk engaged me for photos, they got me laughing and I felt a little better after the difficult walk up the street. I did see their living arrangements and they live so modestly. I suppose I will get used to this. They wanted to feed me, but I am still too nervous about getting sick to eat local. I am waiting till my language is better, it is all just a wee bit overwhelming sometimes.

The red mark on the woman's forehead is very traditional and indicates that she is married. But, if a woman does not have this mark it does not necessarily mean she is single. Traditions are changing.

The families put black marks on their children's foreheads to make them ugly so the demons will stay away. Note this younger woman is not wearing a saree, she is wearing the salwah kameez style outfit with a dhupata - the long black scarf. The dhupata is about two meters long and a meter wide. The salwah kameez style originates in the Punjab region of India and is not local Bengali style. But, the younger generation is preferring the salwah kameez to a saree, and sometimes dropping the dhupata entirely.