We arrive back in the City of Joy as Kolkata is known, late in the evening and very much ready for our bed.
We are staying in the same place as before, the Moira B&B which is very comfortable and will give us a great base from which to explore this great city.
Formerly the capital of the British Raj, Kolkata is packed full of land marks and crumbling British-era buildings and it’s undeniable that more than any other place we’ve visited in India, the mark the British left behind is still very visible.
Having said that, Kolkata is not a product of the Raj, on the contrary it is very much its own place.
Its sultry climate means there are lots of pockets of lush greenery…
…even where it shouldn’t be!
Our plan today is to go to look at the old colonial buildings in the BBD Bagh area. We take one of the old yellow Ambassador taxis.
Once a dominant mode of transportation in the city, these taxis are being phased out as many of them near the 15-year regulatory lifespan - and stringeht pollution regulations have been introduced. It's good that the pollution issue is being addressed, however it seems a shame that the city will loose these iconic taxis, it’s already lost all bar one of its tram lines.
The Ambassador is in a sorry state, every time we move off the clutch slips and the shaking and shuddering is alarming!
A/C is unheard of, there is a fan strapped to the side pilar, but that’s more for show than anything else.
Quelle surprise, the meter is ‘not working’ but having had two taxis refuse to take us already, beggars can’t be choosers and we agree a price we’re all happy with.
We’re dropped off at the Writers’ Building which was used to house junior clerks of the East India Company in the days of the British.
It’s now the official secretariats' building of the state government of West Bengal. A crumbling shadow of its former glory, it looks more French than British.
We then get swept up in the vibrancy of life in India, forget that we are here to view old colonial buildings and go wandering through the streets and market stalls.
There are people and vehicles everywhere, porters carrying loads on their heads, impossibly overloaded cycle rickshaws,
buses with people jumping on and off as they’re moving, it's chaos but we’d expect no less of India.
We see a nun from Mother Theresa’s Order of the Missionaries of Charity which reminds us that the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary is nearby and ever optimistic, we try to visit but this house of God is only open on a Sunday!
Janette is always interested in visiting places of worship and hunts down a synagogue, which seems to more accommodating - and the history of the Jewish community in Kolkata is fascinating.
There are three synagogues in Kalkota and we visit Beth El. You could so easily miss this place altogether, there are market stalls right across the entrance.
You have to dive in between them to find the stone steps leading to it.
The doors are locked but a man comes to open up for us, we assume he’s Jewish but no…
He tells us that the Jewish population in Kolkata has shrunk to just fifteen elderly people and he’s rightly proud of the fact that all of the caretakers of the three synagogues in the city are Muslim and have been so for over 100 years.
He explains this acceptance of other faiths by saying ‘if you need a blood transfusion, you don’t stop to ask the religion of the donor, we are all the same underneath’ how right he is!
We decide to carry on walking to Howrah Bridge, an iconic landmark in the city.
The bridge crosses the Hooghly River and is one of the longest suspension-type, balanced cantilever bridges in the world. Construction began on this amazing feat of engineering in 1936 and it was completed in 1942.
About 100,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day and many more pedestrians. The bridge has no nuts and bolts, it was constructed by riveting the whole structure and it consists of 26,500 tons of steel. It has an overall length of just over 655 metres with a single span of 457 metres. It expands by about 11 cm in the heat of the day and contracts by the same amount at night. It bends slightly in high winds and has been built to withstand earthquakes. It certainly vibrates a lot when we are standing on it!
At the foot of the bridge on the city side of the river, the Mullick Ghat Flower Market, one of the biggest in India, has been operating continuously every day and sometimes all night since 1855!
We don’t venture into the labyrinth but the view from the bridge is superb, the place is full of colour and activity.
This evening we select a restaurant within walking distance, Soba Sassy. We arrive at where we think our destination should be but it’s a parcel processing depot!
The men working there point us in the right direction which turns out to be the dark alley down the side of a building, can this be right? There is an unmarked door and when we go through, we see a sign for the restaurant - phew!
We find ourselves in a very trendy establishment, rap is the background music of choice, the walls are trendily dark and there is a fake cherry tree in the middle! The waiter who looks after us is lovely, the place is busy with locals and the food is great, we really enjoy ourselves. An advantage of big cities is the choice of good restaurants is almost limitless.
Today we plan to visit the Victoria Memorial Hall and to call in at St. Paul’s Cathedral en route.
You have to pay to go into the cathedral but as it is less than 10p we don’t feel too hard done by!
We chuckle to see, in the cathedral grounds the nativity all ready for Christmas except the figures look as if the have been shrink wrapped! Presumably they want to keep them in pristine condition until the last moment but they do look a bit gruesome.
The cathedral is the epitome of English Anglicanism both inside and out, stained glass windows, wooden pews and memorial plaques on the wall, all very familiar.
When we sit on a bench across the lawn from the cathedral and look back at it, we could be in a market town in England….
save for the two mongooses in a nearby woodpile and the tropical palm trees all around; it all feels a bit surreal.
The Victoria Memorial is something else. Of course we’ve seen photos of it but we hadn’t reckoned on its sheer immensity.
It is the largest monument to any monarch anywhere in the world, rising to 56 metres.
The Memorial was started in 1906 and completed in 1921 and it is a mixture of British and Mughal styles built entirely in white marble. It stands in 64 acres of immaculate gardens.
Given that this is the greatest monument to British Rule in India we’re surprised by the large number of Indian tourists visiting, you’d think they’d want to tear the thing down.
There is certainly no whitewashing in terms of the atrocities committed by the British but the Indian people we’ve spoken to don’t appear to bear any grudges, we’re humbled by their generosity.
As we are sitting in the grounds of the Memorial, eight military helicopters fly over and land in the nearby Maidan. We rush over along with crowds of others.
Historically the Maidan was an area of jungle which was flattened by the dear old British to give the guns of their Fort William a clear line of fire. The Maidan still belongs to the army to this day.
The helicopters land and a number of soldiers disembark. They all fiddle about there for a bit…
...then they take off in a cloud of dust. No idea what that was all about but it was fun to see.
The Maidan has been high on our list of places to visit in Kolkata, it’s a 400 acre expanse of green right in the heart of the city (second largest urban green space in India).
It’s famous as a venue for locals to meet for impromptu cricket matches and to generally hang out. It’s also home to various sporting venues including the Eden Gardens cricket ground (third largest in the world) and the Kolkata Racecourse.
There are a number of cricket matches taking place today as well as picnickers enjoying themselves and numerous horses knocking about, some just grazing, some available for rides.
We’re feeling a bit hot and footsore so we retire for the day to a nice restaurant and enjoy a cold local beer which we are told is brewed round the corner!
Today is our last day of our trip, so we meander through the city… of course avoiding the herd of goats being driven through the busy streets! We want to visit some landmarks and there are some old colonial buildings we especially want to see.
Our first stop is the Indian Museum, the oldest and largest museum in Asia. It’s in a gracious building set around a central courtyard.
The archaeological section is vey impressive, intricate and sophisticated stone carvings dating from several hundred years before Christ.
It is amazing that the stonemasons from that long ago time had the skill to make such finely crafted pieces with such relatively primitive tools.
The geological room is a delight, rows and rows of glass cases containing dusty, old bits of rock, it’s very reminiscent of the museums of our childhood and we find it charming.
We move on to St. John’s Church another piece of England on foreign soil.
The former cathedral is set within peaceful and well maintained grounds, there is a team of gardeners hard at work.
We discover the unexpected fact that this cathedral is linked to Coventry Cathedral as part of the Community of the Cross of Nails which is a worldwide network of 260 Christian institutions dedicated to ‘Healing the wounds of history, learning to live with difference and celebrate diversity, and building a culture of justice and peace’.
The High Court of Calcutta as it is still known, is a magnificent building, its design loosely based on the Cloth Hall in Ypres. It is the oldest high court in India.
Janette would very much like to look inside to see the Indian legal process in action but we are told that foreigners are not allowed inside.
We’re sure this isn’t right and we consult Google which confirms that indeed foreigners are allowed to visit.
Nick knows how much Janette would like to see the court and he forces the issue. He explains that Janette used to be a solicitor and would like to see the court as a matter of professional interest.
Several heated conversations and a telephone call later, a uniformed Sergeant turns up informing us that he has received orders from the Registrar General (a vey big cheese) to give us a guided tour of the court - we’re in… but strictly no photography allowed!
It’s such a familiar environment for Janette, so much is the same or very similar to courts in the UK. Registrar General, Chantal Chatterjee generously makes time in her busy day to meet us and she and Janette chat for a while about the Indian and the British legal systems. We are very grateful to her for allowing us to visit this august institution.
We don’t feel a visit to Kolkata would be complete without a visit to the Infamous Black Hole. This is the site of a dreadful atrocity which took place in 1756 when the Nawab of Bengal having taken Fort William from the British, imprisoned the surviving British and Indian soldier and civilians in a cell measuring 4.3 m by 5.5 m. By the next morning most had died from suffocation and crushing.
We had envisaged that we would be able to view the cell and that there would be an information board on site telling us the salient facts. Not a bit of it. The site is up a small, gated side street, the gate s locked and through the bars we view all that is left of the Hole - its litter strewn floor. A bit of an anti climax to say the least!
Next morning it’s up early and off to the airport for the flight home. And so that’s it, our amazing, trip is at an end, it’s hard to believe it’s over as we spent so long planning it and looking forward to it.
India has been everything we hoped for and more. It’s a cliche to say that to experience India is to experience an assault on your senses but that’s what it is.
Our chosen six week itinerary has been pretty intense, but the organiser of our trip - Ravindra from Tailor India Tours http://www.tailorindiatours.com
has done a superb job in balancing the travel days with the time we’ve had to explore the amazing places we’ve visited. Surendra has supported him with logistics and driving throughout... although you'll remember, his sand-driving skills need a bit of practice!
There are too many kind and friendly people to mention. People that have made our trip to India such a special experience... a BIG thank you to you all!
Even though we’ve journeyed great distances, visited numerous places and met so many amazing people, we’ve still barely scratched the surface of this immense country. It’ll certainly take a while for us to process everything!
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog, thank you for coming along for the ride. We hope to return one day to explore this truly wonderful country futher, but the world is wide and there are so many places to see, so who knows.
One thing is certain the memories we have from this journey are precious beyond measure.
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