Kolkata Two

Day Two in Kolkata

Walked up to the Victoria Monument, the Raj's homage to the Empress Queen. Wonderful to get away from the traffic for a while, an oasis of quiet. Difficult not to be impressed by the arrogance of the Imperial Rulers. 

Curzon's vision: ""Let us, therefore, have a building, stately, spacious, monumental and grand, to which every newcomer in Calcutta will turn, to which all the resident population, European and Native, will flock, where all classes will learn the lessons of history, and see revived before their eyes the marvels of the past."

Somewhere was written the quotation  from Edward Said “here for all to see is the arrogance and opulence of Empire”

Difficult to disagree with. 

 The building houses a fascinating museum providing an excellent history of Calcutta from first European trading posts to just before Independence, surprisingly sympathetic to the Empire. There were also lots of old oil paintings  to which  I gave only a cursory glance. 

Victoria monument

Must be more statues of Victoria around the World than anyone else

And still going strong

Another profitable business. 

My  plan was then to walk to Princep Gaht, on the river, across the Maidan, which according to my map was an open, green park but turned out much of it was fenced off, a racecourse in one area, army barracks in another,  so it proved a long and not particularly pleasant trek along busy roads and underneath an expressway interchange. Finally got there and while it was pleasant enough, with lots of young people relaxing, the view of the Hooghly River didn't inspire me. 

Boat on the River

It's a big river but not particularly attractive so I walked along it for a short while before deciding to get a taxi to the India Museum where I was expecting to find a cafe for a cup of tea to revive me. But the cafe was closed so I just looked at the archaeological section  showing amazing sculptures mostly from the 2nd to 15th centuries. Mostly Hindu but several Buddhist ones too. Had a brief visit to the coin section but decided I could live without the fossils and textiles. 

Beautiful Statue in the Indian Museum

Beautiful Statue in the Indian Museum

Described as an "Amorous Couple"
Who is number three?

Taxi back to the hotel. Feeling quite groggy with a cold,  so had a nap until checking out and went off in search of dinner. Not many options along Park Street which has plenty of sari shops but few restaurants. Peter Cat looked clean and salubrious so ordered a chicken korma and Darjeeling tea. The service was leisurely, which suited me since I had time to kill before my overnight train to Darjeeling. However, the chicken korma was almost cold so not impressed. Found out later I should have had the Chelo Kabab. Obviously popular with young, affluent Indians queueing to get in as I left. 

Final thoughts on my first couple of days in India. I was expecting to see poverty and squalor but I have been shocked at how pervasive it is. Perhaps there are "nice" parts of Calcutta where you can walk on pavements that haven't been churned to rubble and filled with garbage, where the traffic isn't deafening, and where desperately poor people aren't huddled on the streets but I haven't found them. I realise I haven't seen a single convenience store or supermarket. Such a contrast to Bangkok, Beijing,  Hanoi or even Jakarta. Sixty plus years of independence and democracy don't seem to brought the benefits I would have expected. Another thing that is very noticeable is that there are far fewer women around than men. Yes, there are women on the streets, some on their own and some in groups, but they are far outnumbered by men. Many of the men, typically quite young, working age, seem to be just hanging around, on a week day. Maybe they all work nights in call centres?