OH KOLKATA!
London journalist SHAMLAL PURI visited Asia recently.
He records his impressions of the Indian city of Kolkata,
a unique melting pot of cultures and a place with its teeming millions.
OH KOLKATA!
By Shamlal Puri
OUR flight arrived at Kolkata's Domestic Airport on schedule. It had been a comfortable flight. This was my first visit to Kolkata and the city was basking in winter. To me, the weather of 17 degrees C was very pleasant bearing in mind back home in London, it was getting quite cold,
Visiting Kolkat..was a fascinating experience for me. It is a sprawling city with its connections to Britain going back hundreds of years. It was in fact the capital of East India Trading Company, the British entity that stepped into India to trade but was used as a vehicle to colonise this vast country. To this day its unique British connections remain with the various buildings such as the residence of the West Bengal Governor, the Victoria Memorial Hall and Museum, which houses some very rare historical archives of the British rule and India's fight for freedom. One cannot miss seeing original letters written by India's colossal political giants such as Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Raja Ramohun Roy and even Rabindranath Tagore. If one is searching for history, this is the place to visit. The British colonisers left a whole plethora of well constructed buildings which stand to this day. Kolkata's streets still bear British names such as Park Street, Salt Lake, South End Park, Amherst Street, Elgin Road, Hare Street, Shakespeare Sarani, Garden Reach, West Port, South Port, North Port, Hastings, and Lake Town, though these are now being changed to suit local sensibilities.
Kolkata is a city whose engine silencer has been removed. It's so noisy that you have to get adjusted to the cacophony from motor vehicles and the masses of people on the streets.
I was impressed to see Garhiahat Market which alongside New Market boasts an impressive array of market stalls. Garhiahat Market, built in 1937, has over 1,000 shops, 204 squatters selling their wares and 150 vendors. You will find everything on sale here. New Market is reputed to be one of the world's oldest markets. Now, such an accolade can only come to an establishment in Kolkata. I am yet to find such impressive markets in London.
The people of Kolkata take part in one big mela (fair) every day. They jostle for space and sometimes you can get shoved to the side as they move around with some speed doing their daily chores. In Kolkata I was happy to be pushed around to make way for those in a hurry but in London I would have taken exception to anyone jostling me. I would have yelled at the Londoners, Oiyee! Are you blind or am I invisible?' but in Kolkata or India, anything goes!! It all adds to the spice of visiting the world's second most populous nation.
Traffic is always a major problem in Kolkata. If you are stuck in a jam, you've had it - it can take a few hours to cover a journey that would have taken a fraction of time. Yellow taxis, hand pulled rickshaws, cycle rickshaws and autowallas rule the road. Traffic on the world famous Howrah Bridge is a case in point. Traffic jams on the Howrah Bridge are legendary stuff of travel writers visiting the city, so my observation was no exception. Central Kolkata's streets are very clean and impressive with neon-lit shops luring those with the purchasing power. I could see hectic shopping was underway.
There is a cacophony of car horns of every noise of the hooter you can think of. The hooting goes on continuously as the drivers demand the right of way. At times, I thought all the drivers wished that they could press a button to make all the other motorists disappear giving them the lone right of way! One's ears are assaulted with the continued noise of hooters. No wonder, the people of Kolkata talk loudly as they want to be heard above the din and clatter of yellow taxis, private cars, and buses old and new.
I noticed that buses halt in the middle of the road to drop off or pick up their passengers. Everyone has to halt behind the bus or over-take precariously from left or right. There's always a danger of accidents as driving rules go out of the window. You've got to have a very thick skin to drive in Kolkata. If you can drive in Kolkata, you can drive anywhere in the world. Another interesting thing I noticed in Kolkata is that traffic policemen control the traffic even at traffic lights making one wonder why there was a need for traffic lights which are anyway, meant to do the job of guiding the traffic!
Kolkata has many places of interest. The most important is the confluence of the Hoogly River and the mighty Holy Ganges. I dipped my feet there. The sunset on the river under the bridge is a sight to behold. One can also visit the Birla Planetarium, Indian Museum, Gurusadey Museum, Nehru Children's Museum, Kolkata Panorama, Millennium Park, Birla Temple, Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Botanical Gardens, Nalban, Nicco Park, Science City, State Archaeological Museum, Swabhumi, Victoria Hall and Museum, Zoological Garden. For the very religious, Kalighat is worth a visit and take the blessings of Kali Mata. I visited one temple on the banks of Ganges and was very impressed by it.
A visit to Kolkata is definitely worth considering.
Shamlal Puri
Email: shamlalpuri@gmail.com
OH KOLKATA!
By: Shamlal Puri
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