Firstly, although I hate these kind of things, I'd like youto think a little of all the people who've died in Mumbai during the last 48hours. Being in Europe makes the terror attacks less serious, they won't affectyou besides maybe filling a few newspapers for a few days. Being here in India,the situation is different. Everyone traveling here knows someone who'straveling southward, maybe even someone staying in Mumbai. People are talkingabout it everywhere, hotels in Kolkata are upping security, even the poor aregathering outside television stores to get the latest news about the attacks.
And with that said, let's get on to the more cheery part of Simon E'sadventures: Kolkata, City of Joy. I really have no idea why Kolkata is called this - Ithink it's an old term, back from when it was the Brits Indian capital - 'causethere sure is a lot of unhappiness here, too. Yesterday was a funny day. Well,really I should start with the day before, the 25th.
After leaving the internet café on the 25th, I had dinner with this Slovenianguy I was talking about. I try to keep away from too much alcohol + meat whilein India, but Kolkata and I think all of Bengal (the state I'm in) has got somany delicious meat dishes, especially their fish and seafood dishes. Mmmhh..Well anyway, we had some of the best chicken kabab I've ever tasted plus someTibetan Veg Momos (veg wrapped into small steamed dumplings). After that webought beers (beers are ridiculously cheap here, only 45Rs. for 650ml) and gotdrunk talking about his life and how he wants to cheat the Slovenian tax systemwith his girlfriend. :) A very attractive Korean girl passed by after the last beer, and pigs as wewere, we followed her up to a wacky dress-party. Loads of young people from thearea, most of them working for the Mother Theresa cause, were having a partyand I met some really nice people. Great times, especially one American girl.We had a long talk about DK's politics and of course the American elections. The 26th arrived far too early. Indian beer gives you the strangest hang-oversand I wasn't at all up for an early morning. BUT! I'd agreed on going around toa few sights with the Slovenian guy, so 8.30 it was! :-/ We started of by going to China Town, a part of town that was once inhabitedsolely by Chinese, but which is now full of all sorts of cultures and religions- the Chinese are actually a minority now and only about 2000-3000 remain. Therest have fled to Western countries, seeking the riches that are to be hadhere. God knows why The Lonely Bloody Planet recommends this place, but we arrivedand found the restaurant we were looking for - we thought. The thing is, TheBook says you should find the Nam-Kim Restaurant (or something like that) andnear to that, you'd find great heaps of rubbish wherein people lived. I wantedfor some bizarre reason to see this, but when we closed in on the area, werealized our driver had no clue and had taken us to the wrong place, TheNam-KING Restaurant. But no worries, the owner of the restaurant had just come back from travels inNagaland. He was a really friendly bloke and took us to the local Chinesetemple. A very modern building, the temple in itself was nothing special. Whatwas special was the reception that greeted us there: a young woman, herbeautiful little daughter, a funny old guy and his wife, plus their spiritualteacher from Taiwan. :) We were served green tea, which I normally loathe. Butthis time, in the company of connoisseurs ;) I really enjoyed the watery drink.Marie biscuits (they are very popular over here) and apples in salt water (tokeep them from going brown) were put on the table and we had a really niceconversation about the Chinese community in Kolkata. Finally breaking away from their extreme kindness, we left the dining area, andlooking out the window we noticed something very strange: hundreds of cow hideswere being dried and cured (?) on the surrounding roofs. It had been lessstrange in any other country, but since the cow is about the holiest beast inIndia, the sight was quite unsettling! :-/ Especially since many of the leatherworkers were Indian - people working with leather are basically outcasts inIndia and have very hard lives. Okay, well after this, our new Chinese friend helped us to find one of the reallypoor areas in Kolkata. They didn't live in rubbish heaps, but their homes weremade of scrap metal, plastic bags, etc. Walking around in the stench and dirtof such a place, you can't but feel slightly humbled - and very lucky thatyou're from a country where such things are basically impossible. I said my goodbyes to both of my new friends. Slovenian tax-cheater was of toBangalore, Chinese Indian-hater (he told us all kinds of nasty things aboutIndians and made it clear that we should never trust an Indian. Christ!) was ofto his restaurant to get ready for the evening. Personally, I went back toSudder Street (the main tourist living-area I'm afraid to say), had lunch andthen went to Science City: Science City, what a bloody joke it was. To be fair, the park is mainlyintended for children and youngsters. But some of the attractions were soabysmal that even children would puke. Firstly though, good things: a majorpart of the 'city' was their space and dynamics building. Here they had allsorts of funny gadgets (in the hundreds I'd say) that you could try out. Amirror maze nearly killed me (it is brilliantly disorientating to walk aroundin a mirror maze, though the risk of hitting your head is also quite high!),and I tried out all sorts of 3D-shows and spaceship-simulators. :) Arriving at about 2pm. I didn't leave till 6, so it wasn't all bad, of course.I wandered around for hours with a gigantic grin on my face - happy to be 9again! ;o)
God, I can't wait any longer, I have to tell: the sole reason I went to ScienceCity was really because I was going to a concert in their auditorium. JethroTull was playing and I had a pretty good seat booked! Wow, I was so exited andwhat a concert.! I should start by saying: Jethro Tull is amazing, still. Sadly, this can onlybe said about their instrumental skills. Ian Anderson, the main singer, can'tsing to save his life. It was surreal to hear his new takes on old classics -he obviously tried to make it sound intentional, but failed embarrassingly andjust ruined many of his best songs. Ah, but ruined is being to harsh. Cause asI've said already, the instrumental part was breathtaking. Anderson plays theflute like a true master. Starting of the concert, he stood in the classicJ.T.-stance, one leg bent and resting on the other knee. He then playedone-handed AND of course made crude flute-movements between his legs. :) But this was no one-man show: beside the rest of his band, Anderson was joinedby sitar-player Anoushka Shankar. Her father is famous and she's no slouchherself. She actually kicked of the concert, playing for 40 mins straight - 2different so-called ragga's at a breathtaking tempo'n'skill. She played for 40 mins, J.T. played for about an hour, and then the specialpart of the concert started: the two very different artists joined hands in aAsia-meets-The-West. Both Anderson and Shankar had written music specificallyfor this concert. Anderson's 'Tea with Anoushka' and 'Celtic Cradle' weresomewhat successful, but Shankar's mix of Western classical music and up-beatsitar playing didn't work at all. The concert ended with a fantastic version of 'Locomotive Breath'. The guitar soloswere masterful, the sitar worked relatively well, and Anderson showed that he'sthe true master of the flute. I will stop at that. I've got quite a few points of critique, mainly the timingof the concert and the egocentric and slightly ridiculous behavior of IanAnderson, but hell, who wants to hear about that anyway. All in all, it wasfantastic. For 1000Rs. I got to experience old classics like 'Thick as aBrick', 'Mother Goose', 'Aqualung', 'Heavy Horses', 'A New Day Yesterday'.'Living in The Past', etc. Fantastic, really amazing.
That's all for now, but I'm quite sure I'll have loads more to tell soon, sokeep checking the blog - and get on writing me some guestbook messages! ;o)
India