Travelling Beaver
presents
INDIA
With regard to India, it is still very early for me to
give you guys really interesting news. For the moment, I am in Calcutta, in the province of West Bengal.
I have spent less than 24 hours in Dehli and so have almost not seen anything
considering that on the road from the airport to the hotel the it was dark as
in a furnace. I believe I noted on a roundabout a mini-slum, but in the
darkness, it was a ghostly vision. The day before the day before yesterday I
arrived at 1AM in Delhi, I spent a few hours at the hotel, I went to spend a
few hours in the office, and at 4PM I left for the airport to take my flight
on Calcutta. However, I missed my flight because the driver did not know where
the airport was!!!! This is India, I
guess!
Airport?
what airport, madam?
City of
Joy
Since my
arrival in Calcutta, I did not see much, I have just been
shuttling between the office and the hotel. The Indians (should I say the
Bengali) are very nice, very obliging. One feels in them a desire to please
which is per moments even a little awkward, I must say. Calcutta for the moment seems
to me far from the stereotypes that one has in mind when the city is evoked.
While arriving at the airport, I could not prevent myself from wondering: but
where are the people? I am still waiting to see the large crowds and the
rickshaw promised by the City of
Joy.
With regard to insalubrity and odors, I do not note for the
moment anything which is quite different from what I have experienced in
Africa. The odors however are perhaps stronger than I think: I have been down
with a bad cold for a while - thus I do not smell much for the moment. On the
other hand, the legendary moisture of Calcutta is very visible, the buildings
are blackened by moss, as in Conakry. Every morning, I am awakened by the
cries of the crows. It is a little sinister, but it has the advantage that I
am not late at work!
I decided to try to stop smoking yesterday. As in India it is socially
unacceptable for a woman to smoke, the context lends itself to an attempt.
My India
