A day in Kolkata

I thought I would take you through a day in the city of joy.

You wake up at 7:30am to the sound of people selling things from the street as they walk past the house. The milk boy rings the doorbell at 8.30am and the rubbish truck with its loud siren comes past at about 9am. This city is certainly not quiet.

Then say for instance you needed to pick up some buttons (that you have ordered) and some thread. You would have a quick sandwhich lunch and make your way into the village which is starting to shut down as it is the Bengali seista betwee 2pm and 5pm.

You go to the rickshaw stand and ask to be taken to the metro. The journey involves multiple judder bars, potholes and various other uneven surfaces. Over here might is right so more often than not the rickshaw will be squeezed out of the way by a taxi or another car.

10 minutes later you arrive at the metro. Hopefully your journey goes a lot more smoothly than the one I experienced today...

Dad and I arrived at the metro in good time, I got our tickets (using my very limited Bengali) and we then ran down the stairs as the train was approaching. I was feeling very confident and had just finished saying to myself that this was easy, when it all turned pear shaped.

Dad managed to get on to the train, unfortunately as I stepped on the doors closed. My arm got jammed in the door and as a result once opened again I took a step back to clear it. When the doors opened again dad went to jump off and managed to get his head stuck in the door (thankfully there was no damage done). The train then left, dad was on it, unfortunately I was still on the platform. I wasn't sure if dad was going to get off the train at the next stop and then come back to me. I waited for about 10 minutes and saw no sign of him. I then decided to get a train to the next stop in case dad was waiting for me there. He wasn't. I then went back to the original stop and also saw no sign of him. The other factor to all of this was that I held the tickets. After another 10 minutes I decided to go to the destination that we had been planning to go to all along. I arrived there 20 minutes later but couldn't see dad. It turns out that he was at the other end of the platform and was on the phone to mum asking her to go down to our metro station and see if I was there. Thankfully we saw each other in the distance so it was all fine. If I had been a few minutes later dad was going to get on the metro and go back to the original spot. It was an interesting journey.

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Upon leaving the metro your first stop is the dab man. Dabi s a drink that comes straight from the coconut before it becomes the white milk. You drink straight from the coconut. It is a really good drink for hydration and is packed with wonderful vitamins and minerals.

You then walk for about 15 minutes until you come to the corner of MG Road and Borro Bazzaar. At this point you jump on a bus (quite literally as the bus keeps moving as you get on). You then wait as the bus makes its way up the busiest road that I have ever seen. It's packed with shops, stalls, rickshaw pullers, people washing themselves, men carrying huge barrels etc on their heads. Upon arrival at the main market you jump of the moving bus (being careful to ensure that you do not get hit by a car that is overtaking the bus).

Upon arrival at the button place you count and check the quality and numbe of the buttons while people push and shove past you. The store is not large.

You leave this store and make your way to the thread seller. He takes your order and you wait for about 30 minutes while his man goes to the "go down" (a storage area down the road). You are usually offered a cup of cha to help with the wait. It's fascinating to watch the goings on of the market place as you sit there. It's definitely a man's domain and I saw very few women.
You then head to the little store that sells Limka (there are generally hundreds of them around). Limka is very similar to Lilt. You have to drink it there and then as you have to give the bottles back to the seller. I can now drink very quickly.




You then pick your way through people, dead rats, men carrying huge packages on their heads and also crazy bus drivers and rickshaws. You eventually makit back to the bus stop and head back to the metro. It is now probably approaching rush hour so you won't get a seat on the metro. More often than not your feet will be stood on and you will be shoved several times. You finally reach the rickshaw stand and are almost home. This has probably taken you three hours and you probably feel as though you have run several kilometres in a steam room.


Once you are off the rickshaw you order six singras (simosas) from the man who knows you really well as you are a regular there. You go to the greengrocers (see attached picture) and purchase the evening's vegetables and fruit.

As you are walking back to the house you are suddenly plunged into darkness. It's the standard night time load shedding. You stumble home and wait about 30 minutes for the power to come on, in the mean time being attacked by mosquitoes whose approach you can't see.

You have dinner, watch a DVD and play scrabble and then head for sleep. Usually about 1am you are awoken by a loud whistle andthe tapping of a stick. This is the neighbourhood guard who makes all of this noise for your protection.

So that's a typical day. Please remember that you will only get the true experience if you imagine constant horn blowing and yelling throughout...

In my next blog I will describe my office Christmas party for this year....