Day 22 - Kolkata & a visit to see Mother Teresa

Which women would you put in the top 5 most influential women across the world in the second half of the 20th Century - Oprah? Hillary? Indira? Golda? Margaret Hilda?

Interesting question.

Whatever you may think about her, her politics (vehemently anti-abortion) or her religion, Mother Teresa must rank up there in the top 5 (Good Housekeeping has her third after Oprah and Hillary).

I first read her biography when I was thirteen and it probably added to my desire to read Theology and become a vicar, if I didn't end up being a musician.

Thus the backdrop to my half hour Sunday morning stroll through a quietly frenetic muslim quarter of Kolkata between my hotel and the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity, where Mother Teresa lived for more or less 50 years, died and is buried.

It is a completely unassuming place, sitting quietly, almost anonymously between private apartment blocks, beside the noisy 6-lane Bose Road and opposite the Indian government's Finance Office.

On knocking and being allowed entry through a tiny side-street doorway by an even smaller nun, you enter a small courtyard with staircases and rooms heading in all directions.

I had arrived after closing time (12 noon until 3pm is quiet time - I had arrived at 12.05!), but the sisters were happy for me to browse and see her room and the exhibition, before seeing her tomb, and willing to wait until I had finished.

Apart from a handful of nuns going about their daily business, incredibly, there was no one else around - I had the place to myself. And I have to say, it was incredibly humbling and moving. Even now as I type this, I am in tears.

Her room is small (12 feet by 8 feet) with a low table as a bed with a thin mattress and single pillow on it, a wooden desk, a small rough-hewn table and 2 benches, crucifix and bookshelves. From here she led the Order for almost 50 years - the worst room in the place (it's above the kitchen), with no fan.

Her tomb is equally as simple. A single lit candle on top of a polished plain cream marble block with just her name and dates in the centre. Inscribed into the marble above are the words from St. John - "Love one another as I have loved you" and written underneath in fresh, bright orange marigold flowers "Come be my light".

It was an incredibly peaceful place. Awesome in the fact that such an influential person could do so much with and from so few material things. Her driving force and motto were simplicity itself - "Hands to serve and hearts to love."

Truly moving. Truly challenging. Truly inspiring.

xx

Mother Teresa's work and final resting place, Kolkata

Rickshaw puller getting a shave and haircut

Market lad wanting his picture taken!

Sunday afternoon is family bath time!

Magic moments ...the day that changed my life?

Greetings!

If I was looking for a spiritual moment, or some situation that was meaningful in some way during this trip then today for me was it (so far).

I'll leave the pics to talk about the day. I'll use the space to talk about another small but significant event. So grab a coffee, tea, beer or glass of wine and share.

Preface
a) If you don't already know, when I go for a walk (usually with Julian and friends) and pass a church, we usually go in and I take it as a boyish challenge to unlock the church organ and play it (currently a 75% success rate!).
b) What you probably also should know is that I have emailed 6 schools in Calcutta and Darjeeling, trying to arrange official school visits to no avail. I have called in successfully, on the spur of the moment, to two schools in Jaisalmer and Varanasi....
c) Also, if you don't already know, religion / philosophy, kids, school and education, people, history and music are all important to me (but you knew that already...).

So this afternoon, on visiting St John's Church, the oldest church in Kolkata and the one picked to hold the mausoleum of Job Charnock ( the founder of Calcutta - born in London!), I was looking around the church and could see no mausoleum, so I asked an attendant who called a lad over to take me into the graveyard and show me the mausoleum.

We chatted - he was 16, studying English at school and had exams next week. It then transpired that his school is next door to my hotel (!) and so he gave me the name and number of the principal, so I can call her and arrange a personalised visit on my last day in India!

He showed me Job Charnock's mausoleum as well as the memorial to the people who died in the Black Hole of Calcutta, and then left.
I went to the church for a quiet moment, laughing to myself that I had randomly met a kid who goes to the school next door to my hotel and have a school visit sorted as a result, when a voice behind me says "Did someone explain to you about the picture and the organ?" It was him again!

The picture is of the last supper, by the way, and caused a scandal in it's time. The artist painting local personalities as the disciples, unfortunately depicting the local auctioneer as Judas Iscariot who then subsequently sued the artist for defamation of character.

So I responded that as regards the picture, yes - the organ, no.

"Would you like to play the organ?"

Of course! He goes and asks for the key to the organ, but no-go, and offers me the piano instead.
Hmm. He then explains that the only reason they said no was because they'd like some money.
"50 rupees (75p) OK?", giving him the note. He tries and succeeds.

The organ is ceremoniously opened up and I have a thoroughly enjoyable play for 15 minutes, thanked them all, and tipped the lad.

As I was leaving, out of the blue came a chap from central London who came up and thanked me for the enjoyable music in the church. It ends up that there's a business trip from the Wellcome Foundation in central London to Calcutta and they happened to be in the church at the time.

I know it's not much, but it's the coming together of it all - in the oldest church in Calcutta, in a completely unexpected way that was so special.

Hoping all is well with you.

Love and happiness.

xx

The old Flower Market

Third largest suspension bridge in the world - the Howrah Bridge

Biggest rip-off in the world - The world's largest banyan tree, having had it's trunk removed in 1929.

If you can explain how a tree can be a tree without it's trunk - please let me know.

The oldest church in Kolkata - St. John's 

 

Kolkata - Day 20

Morning all,

Museums, galleries and walking the streets of Kolkata today!

And I have to say, we have a lot to thank the Victorians for.

Have a think about what we live in or use today that was invented, created etc. by them.

I was moved (had a tear in my eye) on two occasions today - both speeches by women.

The first - Queen Victoria's address to the Indian nation on her inauguration as Empress of India. A master class in political writing. The second was by a local writer on the British in Calcutta, writing in the Calcutta museum, that no other city in India profitted so much under British rule while they were in power and no other city paid so high a price when they left.

At their best, both societies have a great entrepeneurial drive, which is what made the East India Company so successful. At their worst, both societies are hugely divided by class and continue to contend with this issue.  

Bought some artwork, got chatted up (first time all holiday, I may add - read into that what you will), ate in the equivalent of an Indian Burger King (fantastic! - come on, allow me some time to do cheap and cheerful!) and relaxed - sleeping well and the hotel have been fantastic.

Hope all well in blighty.

xx

Spot the difference - Four images of the establishment - London or Kolkata?

Royalty / aristocracy - The Victoria Memorial

The Church - St. Paul's Cathedral 

The Law - The High Courts

Politics - Government House

Day 19 Part 2 - Calcutta = Old School

Civilisation!!!
Three very sound reasons why Kolkata currently gets the prize for best destination of my visit so far.....

1. Gin and tonic and nibbles before dinner; Linen napkins and sparking mineral water with dinner!
2. No cows, dogs, dung, goats or tractors on the roads nor a strong smell of urine or smoke pervading the place!!

3. Traffic that (mostly) sticks to the designated lanes, thus while incredibly heavy, doesn't look chaotic or feel the need to have car horns blaring 24/7 !!!

So Calcutta - and I should stick to modern day parlance - Kolkata - so far? It feels very Indian in a very British way, like an Indian version of London (which for me is home from home, for others, I guess may feel too full on, but you get my drift).

Think similar to Buenos Aires or what I imagine Havana to be like.

Loving it.
There's a custom here, hitherto unmentioned, that has happened to me frequently on the trip and especially today - people wanting to have their photo taken with you. Now getting used to it - including being mobbed by local school kids - that I have started returning the compliment.

So, some of the sights covered so far...

Maidan Park - similar to Hyde park - and the sound of cricket, chatting, clapping and cheering with the smell of GRASS (and I don't mean weed - shame on you for even entertaining that thought) for the first time on the trip.

Victoria memorial - beautiful formal gardens; the Ashutosh contemporary art museum and the British museum of Kolkata - the India museum - complete with examples of Minton donated by the good people of Stoke on Trent!
A good day - long may it continue.

And not one hint of animosity to my patriotic humming.

Hope all is going well with you.

Cheers!
M. Xx

Ambushed by a school trip at the India Museum

The Victoria Memorial from Maida Park

VR

Ambushed by a family at the Victoria Memorial

 A nifty way of fleecing tourists and lining the civic coffers - someone should tell Boris.

I knew I should have put my khaki outfit on.

Day 19 Part 1 - before dawn. On night trains.

I don't mean to be rude...

But what's the aural equivalent of a trompe l'oeuil?

You know - that way of painting something (e.g. a solid wall) so that it looks like something else (a window).

What would be the aural equivalent when something we hear in reality gives the impression of being something else?

Trompe des oreilles? An aurage (as opposed to a mirage)?

I'm sure I had bought a ticket that told me I was to be sleeping in a railway carriage last night, but my three other co-dormeurs, with their eating etiquette and their snoring, succeeded in creating an incredibly realistic impression that I was actually sleeping in a buffalo byre.

And please don't chastise me for being rude - I (and my beloved partner) have been known on occasion to eat louder than usual and also on occasion (though obviously not the same occasion) snore.

It is natural.

However, this was in a league of it's own.

The counterpoint of their vocal exhalations between the three of them was so well executed, that there was never a hiatus in the soundscape for me to relax and nod off in eight hours. Once.

Now, as a good research student should, and In an attempt to follow in David Attenborough's intrepid global footsteps, I have recorded 3 x 30 second samples of it for further analysis, or posterity, or just for anyone who wishes to hear such an incredible aural feat over eight hours.

Oh - and the super-duper train I was promised by the guide.... What arrived was exactly the same as the other trains I've been on, only two hours late.

What my estimable guide meant was that this train was the mail train and therefore special. Special meaning unique - not better.

So, with the two hour delay, got chatting in the waiting room to a lovely lad from the Punjab (mechanical engineer for an energy company, with a sister living near San Francisco - I didn't know her).

Arrived in Calcutta and the hotel at 9.30am. Whilst being functional, the hotel is so completely functional, it fulfils all travel requirements!

How good is that?!

Laters.

Day 18 - Varansi continues

Good afternoon reader(s)!

In answer to yesterday's question - can you think of a similar city to Varanasi - the answer, given by a great couple I met over breakfast whilst comparing notes on Varanasi, was that it was similar to Jerusalem in intensity, history and religious symbolism (amongst other things).

So there you have it. All other answers gratefully received!

Today, got up early again to enjoy the sun rising over the Ganges and it continues to hold a particular magic - the stillness, the new day quietly beginning....

Just pottered about for the rest of the day, as I have the next overnight train to Calcutta to catch in a couple of hours time. According to the guide, it's a super duper train, not like the ones I've been on so far. Will let you know......
So - still no Delhi belly, nor mosquito bites. and interestingly, for so many people, there appears to be no crime (assuming you don't count fleecing tourists a crime).

More pictures taken yesterday of Varanasi, but no room to squeeze them in then, so here they are.

Next stop Calcutta (or more accurately, Kolkata) and the capital of the British Empire in India.

I'll hum a few patriotic songs - you know, Rule Britannia, Rockin' all over the World....see what happens.

See you tomorrow.

xx

The Ghats I - The Laundry Ghat

The Ghats II - The Cremation Ghat

The Ghats III - The Buffalo Bathing Ghat 

The Ghats IV - The RE Lesson Ghat

Day 17 - Varanasi

I don’t know where to start.

The beginning I suppose.

Got up at 5.45am for the sunrise (just in case all you thought I ever did was eat curries and lie in) and went on the early morning row boat with guide and boatman.

I have probably taken more pictures of the sun rising on the Ganges than I have taken of anything else. Truly serene, grand and peaceful. A blissful juxtaposition with the ghats, on which all life and all death is lived in full sound and in full colour.

It is safe to say in my experience, like other topographically unique cities in the world, and the people that make those cities – New York, San Francisco and Venice in particular, Varanasi is in that
league. It is that amazing.

Everyday life is brought to the sacred river and given meaning and value by it and through it. According to Hindus, Varanasi is one of the sacred places on earth where, if you die here, you will immediately achieve enlightenment and never need to be reincarnated. Hence, whenever anyone has any money in India, they buy a place in Varanasi so that when they are too old and infirm, they can come here to die. Not only that, everyone in India has a ghat connected with their town or to their caste or to their family and so all Indians at some point in their life come here for pilgrimage.

And the list of what I have experienced today is too numerous for this space, but the top three which I will never forget would be the dozen or so smoking or blazing pyres with bandaged bodies being cremated on the river bank whilst other gold enwrapped, flower festooned bodies were being
brought for burning on the shoulders of chanting mourners; the ritual washing at the start and at the end of the day by people like you and me, who then come out of the river, get dressed and head to work; the absolutely multiple usage of the water and the horrendous implications of that, from washing in it and drinking it to cleaning oxen and washing away unburnt body parts and ashes into
it.

All that can be experienced in life and in death is experienced on the Ghats. I don’t think there is another place on earth like it.

Let me know if you can think of one.

xx

Dawn on the Ganges

Sunrise on the Ganges

Sunlight on the Ganges

Morning bathers on the Ghats

Varanasi Junior Cricketers on the Ghats