18.10.2018
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta, which was the official name until 2001, is the capital of West Bengal. Situated on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India’s oldest operating port and its sole major riverine port. The city is widely regarded as the “cultural capital” of India, and is also nicknamed the “City of Joy”. The city has a population of approx 5 Mio, while the population of the metropolitan area is approx 15 Mio, making it the third-most populous urban agglomeration in India.
Kolkata is not really an easy city to like, especially not for an India newbie like some of our guests. We were lucky to start the cruise in the Sunderbans, so they had time to acclimatize and take in small glimpses of India before being thrown into the big city. Kolkata – you cannot take at all in in just one day.
I came to Calcutta for the first time in 1995 and actually spend my 26th birthday here – yes, I am that old – and I hated it – Calcutta, I mean. I rarely left Sudder Street. Backpacking alone I had already on arrival in Nepal 6 weeks before adopted the habit of wearing a long skirt over my trousers. Back then it was not suitable for women to wear trousers. And every time I left the guesthouse I felt as if I was being followed – and sometimes I was. maybe it was the back-then equivalent of taking selfies with the foreigner….. Travelling on a shoestring I stayed at the rooftop of a guesthouse which had mattresses lined up and tarps for shade tied on the corners of the next roof – everybody who stayed there called it refugee camp because we were all waiting for a flight out to the beaches of Thailand or a train to the beaches of Goa or whatever – to spend Christmas somewhere nice.
It took me 16 years before I came back to Kolkata in 2011 and I have been back a few more times since and every time I like it a little more. It has changed very much since my first time here, though. Maybe it helps that nowadays I travel not on a shoestring anymore… Nevertheless, there is a lot to take in – the heat, the dirt, the deafening noise of the traffic, the grime and chaos, but amongst it all there are the people who make the city to what it is, the friendly people of Kolkata, that celebrate great festivals, take a hand-pulled rickshaw so that an old man can make a living and smile into the faces of grimacing tourists.
Being up early I enjoyed my working place with a view and a cup of tea again. After breakfast we started at 08:00 for our city tour. Our country boat took us across to the Outram Ghat Jetty where we boarded our midi bus. The first point on the agenda was a visit of the B.B.D. Bagh, formerly called Dalhousie Square, which is the shortened version for Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh. It is the administrative and central business district in Kolkata.
We got off the bus at the High Court building. It’s design is apparently based on the Cloth Hall Ypres in Belgium. The neo-Gothic building was constructed in 1872. The Calcutta High Court is also the oldest High Court in India.
The administrative district was very quiet this morning. Festival times are holiday times and especially for the civil servants it means days off. We walked from the High Court around the Treasury building just adjacent to the Town Hall in between. The gigantic and beautiful building was constructed in 1884 during the tenure of Lord Ripon who was the Governor General of the British India. Originally it was meant to accommodate the offices of the finance department of British India. Now it houses the main office of the Principal Accountant General of the Government of West Bengal.
Opposite we could see the Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the Governor of West Bengal, behind the gates in the distance.
Walking along the street we took a glimpse through the gates of the North entrance of it around the corner. Built in 1803, it was known as Government House before the independence of India. The guards were obviously in festival mood letting us stick the cameras through the gates to get better photos.
Just across the road we visited St. John’s Church, originally a cathedral. It was among the first public buildings erected by the East India Company after Calcutta became the effective capital of British India and served as the Anglican Cathedral of Calcutta till 1847, when the see was transferred to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Construction of the building, modelled on St Martin-in-the-Fields of London, was completed in 1787.
On one wall of the St. John’s Church hangs a painting modeled after Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper. Painted by Johann Zoffany, it is not, however, an exact replica of Leonardo’s masterpiece.
From there the bus took us to Lal Dighi – meaning Red Pool – a body of water in the middle of B. B. D. Bagh, earlier known as Tank Square or Dalhousie Square – and dropped us off at the General Post Office, which was built in 1864 and is notable for its imposing high domed roof – rising over 70 m – and tall Ionic-Corinthian pillars. An alley – which we did not visit – beside the post office was the site of the guardhouse that housed the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta, a small prison or dungeon in Fort William where troops of Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, held British prisoners of war for three days in June 1756.
We took our photos and walk the few meters to the Writer’s Building, which is 150 m long and covers the entire northern stretch of the Lal Dighi water body. It is the secretariat building of the State Government of West Bengal in India, but originally served as the office for writers of the British East India Company, hence the name. Built in 1777, the Writers’ Building has gone through several extensions over the years. It did not even fit on one photo….
Our bus had followed us and we got back on. Traffic was very light to non-existent on this holiday this early in the administrative district. Coming out of the district however it picked up.
We went to visit the Victoria Monument next. The museum opened at 10:00, but already at 09:45 there was a long queue at the ticket office. Off the bus we waited in the shade a few minutes, while our guides went to get the tickets. They jumped the queue and when the other people protested they made this grand Indian impression again – We buy tickets for the foreigners and pay Rs 200 while Indians pay only Rs 20! We cannot have them wait in the line for this price!
The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building which was built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) who was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death. In 1876 she adopted the additional title of Empress of India. On her death in 1901 the Viceroy of India, suggested the creation of a fitting memorial. He proposed the construction of a grand building with a museum and gardens. In 1912, before the construction of the Victoria Memorial was finished, King George V announced the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to New Delhi. Hence, the Victoria Memorial was built in what would be a provincial city rather than a capital. We took a walk through the garden towards the big Bronze statue of Queen Victoria which sits on her throne right in front of the Memorial Building.
We had to go around the building to the back side then, because due to constructions going on, the entrance to the museum had been moved again. There were a lot of people here today, more than I usually saw when I was here. That is probably due to the holidays.
Apparently there are 25 galleries in the Victoria Memorial Museum. Only 3 galleries, however, seemed to be open – or we just visited the 3 galleries on the ground floor – those where the central hall, the paintings gallery and the Calcutta gallery. We had approx. 45 min time and guests could either go by themselves or with our guide Amit. Some did so, others did so. I had been here like 3 times and just took a quick round through the galleries. My favorite is the paintings gallery, though.
Once we had collected all our 9 guests again, we took the back entrance of the garden out and our bus picked us up. Next point on the agenda was Mother Teresa’s House. Usually it is open every day except Thursdays ….. today was Thursday …. The guides and I contemplated, if we skip it at all, because if it is closed then there is not much to see, because it is just a residential house. I had told the guests so, but of course, they wanted to see it anyway …
So we took the bus through the increasing traffic and stopped in front of the house for a quick photo. Surprisingly enough, the window shutters were open and when I peeked inside there were visitors in there. Meanwhile Amit had the same notion and had gone to check the entrance door. And the house was open despite of it being Thursday!
I quickly called all the guests out of the bus to come for the visit. I know they usually close at 12:00 noon for lunch and it was already 11:30.
The former residence of one of the most iconic women of India, Mother Teresa – the Missionaries of Charity’s Mother House ist a very simple house and a must place of visit of almost all tourists in Kolkata. Mother Teresa was laid to rest in a tomb on the ground floor of the Mother House on 13th September, 1997. It is a holy place of pilgrimage and was established by Mother Teresa in 1950 with the purpose of selfless service to mankind and to uplift the plagued humanity towards the path of salvation. Inside the house is also a small museum named “Mother Teresa’s Life, Spirit and Message” which displays for example Mother Teresa’s worn sandals, battered enamel dinner-bowl, sari, crucifix, rosary, a few handwritten letters and spiritual exhortations. Mother Teresa, known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta after she had been canonized in 2016, had received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.
There was a sermon going on, probably for the holidays and probably that was the reason why the house was open on a Thursday. Mother Teresas’ room, however, was not open for visitors. But the guests were happy they could see the house and tomb and I was happy that is was open at all! Photos were only allowed by the tomb but nowhere else in the building.
Our last stop of the city tour was Kumortuli, a traditional potters’ quarter in northern Kolkata. The bus ride was a bit more than 30 min through even more increasing holiday traffic. A couple of times we had to detour because a street was blocked off by police for a Durga Puja. At some point our Amit went out to chitchat with the police man and actually convinced him to open the barrier to let us through before complete closure. And it work!
Somewhere along the way a guest pointed out a huge billboard with the photo of a famous German soccer player wishing the people of Kolkata Happy Durga Puja. A big discussion broke out immediately – Does he actually know what Durga Puja is or did he just take the cash for it?
We reached our get-off-the-bus-point in Kumortuli and from there took a walk through the main alley in the quarter all the way to the riverside. The city is famous as a sculpting hot-spot which not only manufactures clay idols for various festivals but also regularly exports them.
The entire process of creation of the sculptures from the collection of clay to the ornamentation is a ceremonial process. Though for example the Durga Festival is observed post monsoon harvest, the artisans begin making the statues months before, during the summer. The process begins with prayer to Ganesha and to the materials such as bamboo frames in which the statues are cast.
Clay forms the base, which is combined with straw, kneaded then molded into cast made from bamboo. This is set like any clay pot, layered to a final shape, cleaned, and polished when ready. A layer of vegetable fiber called jute, mixed in with clay, is attached to the top to prevent the statues from cracking in the months ahead. The heads of big statues are more complex and usually cast separately. The limbs of the statues are mostly shaped from bundles of straws. Then the local artisans hand-paint the statues and the goddesses are dressed in fine silk saris.
I wanted to buy a Durga statue – last year I had found a beautiful Ganesha there – but no more Durgas where to be found there. The workers were already busy preparing for the next festival which is Lakshmi Puja coming up in end of October/early November.
Unfortunately many of the workshops were closed due to the holidays, but some were open and busy and great to look at.
On the way to the jetty we passed many small alley ways in the mostly residential neighborhood. We met quite a few hand-pulled rickshaws here. This very old mode of transport is now unique to Kolkata and has almost become an icon of this city. A friend pointed out to me that India is a country which has for example more highly qualified IT professionals than we have in Germany, Kolkata built the first metro way before any other city in India and Asia’s first and longest-running luxury hotel, the Lalit Great Eastern, is situated here. Yet, Kolkotta is also the last bastion of the hand pulled rickshaw! Apparently, there are still approx 8000 of them plying the streets of the city and they form the livelihoods of an estimated 35000 people. In 2006 the authorities tried to ban hand-pulled rickshaws completely, but those rickshaw walas put together and contributed from their minimal earnings towards a union which opposed the ban in the high court. And despite what looks like shocking inhumanity to a Western mind, hand pulled rickshaws are of invaluable service of those Kolkata residents who would never be able to afford a taxi or auto-rickshaw. They are mainly used in residential quarters and serve those corners and narrow alleys where taxis and busses cannot go. They are also reputed as the best form of transport in the monsoon, when taxis cannot pass the flooded streets.
You see the old men with their rickshaws on the street corners. They are being used by many a resident for short rides. We have seen young teenage boys being pulled by skinny, toothless old men, whole families getting shuttled from A to B and also goods being transported with the hand-pulled rickshaws. The weathered faces of the men looked hopeful towards us – tourists pay better fares than residents … Who wants to decide which is worse – a perfectly able person to be pulled by a barefoot old man through the dirty streets of Kolkata or the same person denying him the chance to earn some money?
We did not go on a hand-pulled rickshaw, we walked past chai shops and Durga Pujas to the jetty where our country boat picked us up and brought us back to our luxury cruise ship – colonial style with a hand-pulled rickshaw as decoration on the sundeck….
Whenever we came back on board we got welcomed by the crew with cold towels to wipe off the dust of the country and a cold juice. We had to take our shoes off – they would be cleaned so we did not carry the dirt of the city into the ship.
Over lunch ABN Rajmahal sailed up the Hooghly River to Barackpore where we took a stroll in the afternoon. It used to be a British military and administrative center in the 18th century. After the British crown assumed direct control of India, the sprawling Government House and the Government Estate were built in Barrackpore to provide the viceroy with a suburban residence 25 km outside of Calcutta.
Near the river there is a big garden where on this holiday many families and couples spent the afternoon. We walked along the wide streets to take a look at the old Flagstaff House, which is now a government house and therefore closed to the public. Behind the high garden wall we could catch a glimpse of the many British statues and the Seramphore Tower – a former watch tower. Walking around the outside of the compound we also saw – over the garden wall – the Temple of Fame which kind of looked like an old Greek temple.
After the hustle and bustle of Kolkata it was peacefully quiet in this part of Barackpore where mostly administrative buildings were located and those were closed for the holidays.
The most unusual – or funniest – this afternoon were the “loveboats” lined up in the middle of the river. First we thought those were fishing boats. But no! The fishermen had found an easier to make income! They had cleaned up their boats and took young couples for an amorous tête-à-tête – a kiss & cuddle out on the river. They anchored there boats in reasonable distance from each other and pretended not to hear anything while watching the river…..
Back on board the ship sailed further up the river to Chandannagar. We watched the sunset and had dinner. Some guests took the opportunity to watch the fitting movie “City of Joy” I put on in the evening. Some of the crew rather went ashore for a bit, because it was the final day of the Durga Puja today.
