Frosty the Snowman (in Kolkata?)

It's hard to think about snow when we are in Kolkata, although lots of the men around here wrap scarves around their heads and necks to keep warm in the cool temperatures of the area. What, about 20 degrees Celsius at the coolest? They obviously find it cold. I even saw a pair of wool gloves today at a department store we wandered around in.

However, we have been reminded of snow and Christmas today with a message from our daughter Holli and Grandson Devan. First we have a picture drawn by Devan showing the three of us, (Gramps Facey, Poppy Pottle and Devan) at the Taj Mahal. It's a work of art and it's nice to know we are thought of.

Art by Devan

And then there is snow. Seems it did a little of that in Vancouver early in the month and Devan got to do a little playing around. Think of this as our Christmas card. The last photo is of some mini snowmen with carrot noses that Devan made. Wow, an artist and a sculptor!







Please note the hat Devan is wearing. It's the skull hat I made for his birthday and I'm glad to see it's come in useful in snow. (It's a skull hat because Devan's birthday celebration had a pirate theme.)



Meanwhile in Kolkata:

Kolkata or Calcutta as we have known it has obviously gotten a bad rap. I'd been dreading it for some time because of that and the fact that we have had less than wonderful experiences in the other cities we have visited. The beggars, the touts, the crowds, the cow dung, nothing is like home! However the area we are in Kolkata is definitely not like the horrifying images we saw in the film City of Joy. Instead it has been one of the most hassle free places we've been so far.

We are staying in the Sudder Street area which is a bit of backpacker central, and as you know, we moved hotels after our first day here. But even on Sudder
Street the hassle's are few and I have yet to see a cow anywhere. It's funny though to see the goats and sheep being herded across busy intersections where the humans take their lives in their hands - that's one big problem - the pedestrian is definitely low on the totem pole here. Unlike places like Bangkok or Rome, the drivers make no effort to give way to pedestrians. In those other places you can do a dance with the drivers and get across the street by making eye contact and moving from lane to lane watching around you. Here the drivers just honk their horns to get you out of the way. They have all the right of way there is.

But otherwise, this is almost a sane city, with busy people on their way to work, or working on the streets. There's very little begging - a few women with children asking for money for "milk for babee". I had two rupee coins in my pocket which I gave to one of them, but she didn't think it was enough and kept begging. However, if we gave money to every begger who asked we'd be penniless soon enough. The other annoyance is the touting at the New Market. It's a big market and looks very interesting - an architectural point of interest, but the touts won't leave you alone outside the building. As new blood they latch on to keep telling us that there are craft shops inside. If we went in, they would get a commission so they are really aggressive and don't take lightly to "NO", so we have yet to venture inside because it's so annoying.

We went off to the Victoria Memorial today. Seems we weren't the only ones with that idea. We walked which took at least 45 minutes (we went the long way around the building to find the entrance) and when we got to the front door we were faced with a huge line up - all local, all looking less than prosperous. Their entry fee was 4 rupees, we got to pay 150 rupees each! We waited diligently in line while it snaked to the front door (there have to have been a thousand people ahead of us) until we were almost at the steps when one of the guards told us we could jump the line - 150 rupees has its privileges it seems.

Inside was a zoo of course - everyone stayed in line, snaking around looking at the exhibits, but at speed, so it was difficult to stay and admire. We did our best. The Memorial was started in 1906 to celebrate the reign of Queen Victoria. As a very appropriate aside, we read today in the paper, that as of tomorrow, Queen Elizabeth the Second surpasses Victoria and becomes the oldest reigning British Monarch! Not bad, Betty!

We are hazarding a guess that most of the people at the monument are in Kolkata because of the big demonstration planned for tomorrow by a group of Maoists who want a separate state for Assam. We ran into some of them yesterday when we were navigating the Maidan, the huge green space along the river and train tracks. They are marching under their hammer and sickle flags. It seems incongruous for them to hang out at the Vicky Memorial. Another big story in the paper today talked about a group of the Maoists who occupied a train heading to Kolkata, displacing all of the 500 fare-paying passengers who had booked the train. These folks mean business.

Tomorrow we are heading to the airport to fly to Chennai and on to Mamallapuram where we are going to spend our Christmas hols! We may go early since the paper said that the area near us would be jammed with the demonstrators by noon and would cause havoc in the traffic patterns. Our flight is not till 7:30 pm, but we are advised to leave for the airport two hours ahead of when we want to be there if we do it during the day. It only takes an hour at night!

I'm sure we'll make it as usual. We are keeping ahead of the troubles quite well so far. Until the beach...