Holiday Diary Day 5: Rest day in Kolkata

Day 5:

Today is the day of rest for us. But I was up as usual around 5 and around 5:30 I noriced that work life starts very early in Kolkata. There were labourers out at this time putting up a fence along the road.

Work day starts early at 5:30 am

View from the window

The others woke up late. Late breakfast. Lazy swim. And we packed up for our departure tonight. Akshaye took this snap of an eagle / kite perched on the hotel window.

Avian visitor

We decided to take in a movie, we took a cab and asked for Metropole Mall which was supposed to be close to this hotel around 6 kms. The cabbie was an old catankerous soul who scowled at us and said Rs 150. We decided to take him since there was no one else around. He drove his cab like a tank and blocked the traffic on the byepass by taking a U-turn on the wrong side and making all the drivers brake and curse us.

He barked at us for asking him more details about the mall and what other malls are there in the vicinity and said the hold up in traffic is because of our incessant questions. We held our peace and allowed him to skeeter skatter towards our destination. He finally stops at Metro (the massive wholesale store) and tells us that this is it. We refused to buy that and said he has to drop us only at the Metro Mall. We'd given him exact directions and landmarks such as Opp. Peerless Hospital thanks to the GPS on my phone and he couldn't fool us on the lack of a metro mall. Finally after asking passerbys for directions we reached the mall fought with him when he asked for more and sent him off. I'm glad we did it because the metered charge was only Rs 120 for this distance.

Metropole is a small mall and the  theater there didn't have properly functioning Airconditioning. So we hopped on to another cab to go to South City Mall and this time insisted on meter. For just Rs 90 we travelled a 5 kms distance and we discovered the secret of handling the Kolkata cabbie. Just insist on using metered taxi and you'll be fine. It's really cheap. Cheaper than our autos and in slightly more comfortable conditions.

South City Mall was a blessing for our heated up souls and we loved the cool interiors and the massive layout of this place. And yes Fame Cinemas are here and though we couldn't get Ironman which was our first choice, we got Star Trek and this was first day for that movie here. We hung aound eating junk good till our show at 5:00 pm. The theater was like any of our Escape or other screens but the 3D was fantastic. Many a time we blinked, ducked and moved about as though we were in the scene. Did I tell you though that the ticket costs Rs 280 per head. On a friday. Thank God for our theaters which are still affordable. here the theaters are expensive and the malls are prohibitively priced. Wondered how our Sundarband folks would have reacted to this place and its prices.

The movie was fabulous and we had a great experience of 3D here, but we were getting late for our train and had to hurry to get to it in time. Grabbed a metered taxi this time, picked up our luggage at the hotel and reached Sealdah Station by 9 pm for our 10 pm train, the Darjeeling Mail.

But we haven't had time to grab dinner. So I leave my family on the platform at the far end where our bogie was to stop and trudged back almost a km to the food stall. It took me half an hour to get the food because of the crowd, the mismanagement of tokens, the lack of packing materials, etc and I just barely managed to get back to the train.

I noticed that in restaurants here in Kolkata and in Sundarbans, they don't seem to stock up enough for the day and are always running out of items. Also the people who are the bottom of the employment ladder do not behave as savvy and street smart as our Tamilian counterparts. This was an observation after several such interactions with waiters, peons, drivers, shop keepers, etc. The educated ones are supposedly so bright but the uneducated ones seem to be missing some common sense.

Ok, no offence to any of my bengali friends, I may be completely off the mark, but this was the impression I was left with after a few days in West Bengal.

Tonight we spend on the train and tomorrow we reach Siliguri (NJP station) to go onwards into Gangtok and Sikkim.

Holiday Diary: Day 4 - A day in Kolkata

Here we are in the "City of Joy" and we were determined to find out our joys for the day. We were not planning any hectic outings and wanted to just chill and visit a few places without crowding the day too much.

So after a late breakfast, we went out for a swim and warmed ourselves up with a few laps. Akshaye was starting to get more confident in the water and was trying out laps. It was a good thing for us because he had not yet mastered the art of swimming and was not willing to be tutored in it. So to see him actually do a lap without holding on to the sides was a big triumph.

The places we had decided on visiting today were, Victoria Memorial, St. Paul's Cathedral, Howrah Bridge 1 and 2 and Birla's Planetarium. We were lucky to get an ac cab outside our hotel who was willing to take us to all these places for a reasonable sum. So our travel was far more comfortable in spite of the heat.

The driver took us first to the new Howrah Bridge called the Vidyasagar Sethu. (Vidyasagar Setu (Second Hooghly Bridge): Commissioned in 1992, it is the longest cable-stayed bridge in India and one of the longest in Asia connecting Kolkata with Howrah) Vidyasagar Sethu is a majestic structure that towers over this part of the city and can be seen from many kms away.

After a drive through this beautiful bridge we drove through Howrah and were treated to a good look at the Hooghly River. At one point there were bathing ghats and we asked the driver to stop here since we wanted to get closer to the waters and dip our feet there if possible. Luckily he obliged and parked in a no parking zone to allow us to rush down

This place was so well organised for people to come down and have a dip in the Ganga with changing and wash facilities. Radhika and I got to tip our toes in the waters and drank in the beautiful views.

We returned from the Hooghly River to drive through Howrah. We passed the iconic Howrah Station and this foto captures the building with a yellow cab in the foreground another iconic symbol of Kolkata

After that we passed through the 2nd planned attraction of the day - the Howrah Bridge. This one was really crowded and OLD.... It's called the Rabindra Sethu and ia a suspension bridge about which we would have all learned in school. It's a famous symbol of Kolkata and West Bengal and was commissioned in 1943.

The Howrah Bridge

We moved away from this old lady and went towards the city and passed through the Maidan before coming to our next destination, the Victoria Memorial.

This is such a beautiful building that it's no wonder many young couples are dotted around the campus, drinking in its beauty and enjoying the peace and tranquility of this wonderful place.

This place deserves a much longer stay than what we gave it that day. It took us one hour to go through the art gallery and the museum carrying snippets and artefacts of Kolkatta and British India's history at a rapid pace. We had no time to linger in the beautiful gardens since we were on a schedule to finish a few more visits for the day. I hope I'll be able to spend a full day here some day.

Right outside this monument there is a circle which is heavily guarded by riot police who had water cannons and a very military looking combat vehicle. Wonder why so much security for this place. The cops in Kolkata seem to be well kitted and equipped compared to our men in khaki

And on the opposite end of that circle, there was this beautifully done up horse-drawn carriages. A quirky mix of images in the same place

Cars were not allowed to be parked here and it took our cab 15 mins to reach this place after we called him in. So we had good time to look around and capture these images. After Victoria Memorial we went to Birla's Planetarium and found that we just missed the English session and had to wait 4 more hours for the next English session. We decided to give it a skip this time around and went next door to St Paul's Cathedral.

This Church is the head of The Church of North India and is a beautiful edifice both outside and inside. Photography is not allowed inside so I could not take any snaps there. There were pews which had the insignia and the flag of every regiment and province of British India. It seemed to be oozing history and was such a magnificent church.

This was the last stop for our outing today and we returned to our hotel by 4.30 pm and decided to call it a day.

Tomorrow is a day of rest and we will be travelling to Gangtok tomorrow night by train.

Holiday Diary: Day 3 - Return to Kolkata from Sundarbans

Day 3:

Up again early, but no woodpecker today. A bunch of stray dogs were milling around though. This pack was given biscuits yesterday by Anand and they decided that they needed to give us company for as long as we were around probably hoping for a few more treats. Today my wife Radhika woke up early too and decided to join me for tea. Since she was up too, we decided to leave the kids asleep and go for a walk.

We pottered about a little within the resort. I've not shared those pics with you.

A little bridge to divide the south and the north of the small resort. Over the regulation water body:)

Yes, Sunflowers!!!

Chotu and Ali joined us so we had our guides for this walk. Our resort is almost on the banks of a river and we walked along it to get a good look at the expanse of waters and explore the inland areas that we couldn't do yesterday..

The bunds are made of mud and sand with occasional reinforcement of bricks and was about 6 feet above the water. This was built just a few years back after a cyclone wiped out settlements along the bank. In fact the school building is still visible as you can see in the photo below. You can notice that the earlier extent of land extended upto that tree and piece of land on the right of the picture below.

the abandoned school building

the land gobbled by the sea post the cyclone

The Govt had got the bund raised to this level to prevent any further tragedies like the previous one.The human settlements were moved 200 mts inland.

We went through that village and marvelled at how simple these people's lives were. They lived in mud huts with the regulation dugout pond in front of each house. They owned livestock such as sheep, ducks and occasionally chicken. They harvested fish from the banks and some of them were breeding prawns.

Simple eco friendly homes

the regulation water body in front of their home

sheep for livestock

Both Radhika and I wondered how it would be to live like this, with no cares in the world about EMIs and traffic and myriad other pressures of the city life. Here it's about the tides, the weather, the crops or the harvesting, about social life and chatting with family and friends. It seems so idyllic and we wondered whether it is possible for us to live like that.

We wended our way back to the resort and got our kids ready for our travel back to Kolkata. After breakfast, yes , you guessed it, aloo parathas, so aloo again, we lugged our baggage out. We had an entourage to accompany us to our vehicle.

the faithful four

Our first transport for the day was the local equivalent to the taxi, bus and private car.

our vahanam for the day - the kuppavandis

We bumped along (un)happily for half an hour missing a few near collisions with oncoming speeding vehicles and almost knocking down a few unsuspecting pedestrians. We passed a barath (a wedding party that was headed to the marriage) in a procession of local taxis and limos (hic). But seriously, it is really cute to see that all of what we do is done, but in a more eco friendly, simple and non ostentatious manner. Lovely life style. Showed us how else life can be lived.

We finally reached the dock in one piece with all our bones intact.and found that today our boat was the larger more stable variety than the one we got when we reached this place. We were grateful for this and were told that today the waters are choppy and the smaller craft may be unstable or unsafe.

Anand loves being photgraphed, as you can see :) with Radhika and Ali

There were only four of us and Chotu and Ali on board on this big boat. We saw other boats that were loaded to capacity with 50 people or more and we were told that this is the local ferry bus that carries passengers across for Rs 1/- per head. Unbelievable piece of news. Now we know how far one rupeee can carry you.

Finally we arrived on the mainland and happily boarded the Tata Sumo that had been parked there by Ali two days back. And we headed back into Kolkata.

I must share with you my impressions of Kolkata traffic. Every driver behaves like he has the right of way and ploughs along irrespective of who else is on the road. There were so many close missed in that 4 hour drive that I must have developed 40 more gray hairs in that journey. In one instance the car actually pushed a lady who was walking and she turns around and glares at Ali but he just ignores that look and continues as before.

The cops are not bothered when someone drives in a one-way or cuts the red light and the drivers are aware of it and breaks all traffic rules with impunity. Chennai seemed like a safe place to drive, so you can imagine how bad it must have been.

We reached our hotel by 1.30 pm and sent off Chotu and Ali with fond farewells tinged with regret that we didn't get to sight our tiger or any other respectable animal that we could have shown off as trophies of our visit to the Sundarbans.

After lunch we were not allowed to rest for a well-deserved nap since Akshaye didn't want to be deprived of his moments in the swimming pool. So we dragged ourselves into the pool and after a 2 hour gruelling time in the pool got back to the room for a bath and lie down. This hotel has a pool in the basement and the waters are so cold even on a hot day that our teeth were actually chattering for the first 30 mins.

In the evening we took off by taxi to New Market which is in old Kolkata because we wanted to get a taste and smell of this great city. We were lucky to get our first glimpse of the tram,

the old and the not-so-new - the tram and the yellow cabs

This city's roads is ruled by the yellow cabs. All Ambassadors of varying vintage, they are lords of the roads and can turn where they want, stop traffic when they feel like and run down vehicles if they get in their way. Wow! They don't have any suspension and are as bad as our autorickshaws. But they are dirt cheap. A trip to New Market from Landmark Hotel (near Science City) was only Rs 150/- A distance of about 7 kms. As cheap as our autos. And as uncomfortable.

New Market is actually a really old market with an annexe that is the new new market. New Market was opened for the English populace on January 1, 1874. New Market was formally christened Sir Stuart Hogg Market on December 2, 1903 and is filled with so many shops selling everything under the sun. It reminded me of our Moore Market in Chennai where we could bargain to our heart's content.

Then we took a ride in the metro to get a feel of the famed Kolkata Metro. It's only when we entered the train did we realise that this is a non AC version which is similar to our MRTS except its underground. It was packed to capacity and we quickly got out in the next station and took a cab back to our hotel.

Day 3 is over and our Sundarban trip was over. Tomorrow and day after we are to spend in Kolkata. See you tomorrow:)