Terry Redding
HOME   Travel   Anthropology   Web Projects  Videos  Personal  Contact Me		TRAVEL Photos Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal February 2009 (Click on an image to enlarge it. Use your "back" button to return to your place on the page.) Kolkata is not as bad as I'd thought; of course I was only in the old colonial center area. The Bengalis consider themselves India's finest artistic and literary class. This means they don't work much. The Victoria Memorial at the south end of the Maidan, the large, open park used for cricket, strolling, etc.  Opened around 1922, it is a museum stuffed full of Britannica from the colonial glory days. The Indians maintain it well and have included their own historical items. The madding crowd is held at bay from crossing by a policeman with a rope. Traffic in Kolkata is actually much better than many cities in India. Still, crossing a busy highway is always an adventure. It's how the Indians stay thin. Barges and bathers on the Hooghly River. I still do not understand the concept of how this makes one cleaner. A streetside tradesman sketches a granite sign for engraving. His partner engraves a marble plaque. Food stand wallahs. Rather than get an education, these boys fetch tea and rice. Betel nut is very popular in this part of India. When you gotta goat, you gotta goat. Even in the middle of Kolkata, herdsmen run their flocks. Sunsets cure all unseemly aspects.