Kolkata/Calcutta :)

When Katie and I left Darjeeling, we finally parted ways after spending two full months together in Nagpur at Nav Jeevan Sanstha. Katie’s visa was ending, so she traveled back to the USA through Mumbia via plane. I on the other hand traveled back to Nagpur via train through Kolkata. While Katie and I were sad to end our time together, we will meet back in New York in a few weeks with our Alma College Model UN team for the annual National Model UN Conference.

Howrah Bridge

After an overnight train to Kolkata, I stepped out onto the platform into the past. The train station in Kolkata was filled with old-time yellow taxi cabs, waiting for a rider to zoom into the traffic. The rising sun lit up the dust all around me, floating through the air. Being only 5:00AM, I decided to wait a bit in the railway station. My plan unfolded as I called Dr. Amitsava Biswas, a friend of Dr. Raju Wilkinson. Dr. Biswas is the director of a renowned eye clinic in Kolkata. He kindly arranged for my time in Kolkata, and I was to meet him at his office across the city around 8:00AM. I first perused the Times of India, used the sometimes working free wifi in the station, and then found a taxi. With an app called Here Maps on my smartphone (Thank you Katie…) which uses the phone’s GPS to pin point your location on the map and give you directions, I guided the taxi to the eye care clinic.

Inside, Nurse Molly and the clinic staff guided me to the clinic’s private recovery room where I was allowed to take a shower, rest, relax and have breakfast. After meeting with Dr. Biswas, I learned that the staff would be spending the day with 7 patients from small, impoverished villages outside Kolkata that lack access to eye care. Each needed an eye surgery that one of the clinic doctors would provide free of charge. After helping Nurse Molly take and record the patients’ vitals, I took a nap before lunch. During the night, I had not slept much due to not wanting to miss my station in Kolkata!

After a nice lunch in the clinic kitchen with Dr. Biswas, I joined the doctors and nurses in the operating theater to observe surgeries. The patients all suffered from very advanced cataracts that needed to be cleared from the eye. The doctor would then insert a new, synthetic lens. According to one of the surgeons (both of whom I watched were female), the surgery she was performing, small incision cataract surgery, is no longer common in the United States. Lasers are used in the United States as people generally do not have such advanced cataracts as to require full removal. Two patients also were experiencing an overgrowth of the conjunctiva onto the iris and lens of the eye. The surgeon said that normally she would excise the conjunctiva affected and replace it with a piece of conjunctive tissue from the other side of the eye. Since the patients were seeking free treatment though and did not have means to return to the clinic for follow up, the best she could do for them was to remove the obstruction and hope for it not to recur.

Mother Teresa's place of rest, adorned with flowers and a Rosary

After a nice night of sleep, I spent the time before my train departed seeing two of Kolkata’s most famous sights: the Mother’s Home and Victoria. Mother’s Home is probably better known as the home and tomb of Mother Teresa. It serves as a home for Roman Catholic Novices and a memorial in Kolkata for the service Blessed Mother Teresa did for the poor and to inspire charity throughout the world. When I entered, two novices greeted me and welcomed me. They made sure I stopped to see both Mother’s place of rest, right inside one of her own, simple chapels, and the small museum of her life and work. Mother Teresa kept a map that was on display in the museum. It seemed to me the best representation of all of her legacy as it had lines from Kolkata to places all over the world where she hoped to save souls and assist the poor. The United States was no exception.

Victoria Memorial

The second place I visited briefly on the way to the train station was Victoria Memorial. A great, imposing marble palace built in the early 1900s during the British rule of Calcutta, Victoria Memorial has been taken over by India’s Ministry of Culture as a museum. British Viceroy of India, George Curzon, built Victoria as a testament to Queen Victoria of Britain upon her death in January of 1901.  

Guess who was waiting at Nav Jeevan for me?!

Varanasi!

Dashashwamedh Ghat

For the past week during the Hindu festival of Holi, Katie and I have been traveling across India! We have enjoyed time in two cities, Varanasi and Darjeeling.

Red is for welcome

Setting out from Nagpur by train, we arrived in Varanasi after one night. Our train, thankfully, was right on time and we had no trouble finding our accommodations called, Zostel Hostel. Zostel, we learned, is a chain of backpacker/hipster hostels with locations throughout India. It specializes in catering to foreigners for short stays and offering local guides for the city and groups for touring. Right away we learned that Zostel really did offer just what we needed, when the guys at the desk gave us a map to find breakfast (we checked in early in the morning) at a place called “Brown Bread Bakery!” If you know Katie and me, you know that anything with “bakery” in the title is perfect.

After a great, relaxing time at the bakery, which was really just a restaurant with nice bread, Katie and I meandered the streets of Old Varanasi. Much like Delhi, India’s capital, Varanasi has a new portion and an old portion. We stayed in the middle where the two sections mix, and found that New Varanasi was preferable for sleeping and getting around, while Old Varanasi held the winding, filthy, colorful streets leading to the Ganges River and the ghats.

Varanasi is one of 7 holy cities in India for people of the Hindu religious tradition. It is situated on the River Ganges, or Ganga, and on one side has many sets of steps called ghats. Pilgrims from all over India come to the ghats, only exposed in the dry (non-monsoon) seasons, to bathe, wash their clothes, swim, and pay homage to the gods. Each ghat has a specific meaning and dedication. For example, each evening on Dashashwamedh Ghat, there is a ceremony by Hindu holy people to give thanks for the River Ganga.

During the dry season, the Ganges River seems like a stream, but the monsoon season causes its waters to rise over the ghats so they aren't visible at all. 

The most famous ghats, however, are called the Burning Ghats, where Hindus believe bodies should be burned and their ashes floated into the river. A portion of Ghandi’s ashes were celebrated in this way, as are countless other men and women each year. Eating lassi in a famous shop called “Blue Lassi,” Katie and I witnessed the parade of a crowd of men taking the body of their loved one to the river side on a stretcher. This was a common site, but only men go with the body. We learned there are laws banning women from attending burnings as the practice of sati (a women throwing herself on the funeral pyre of her husband/loved one) became a concern.

The Nepali Temple is the only temple with wood (mango) on its facade in Varanasi. 

On a tour of the ghats from the river, our guide mentioned that there is a perpetual fire, at least one body always burning, on these burning ghats. Interestingly though, only a small distinction in the castes of Hinduism exists after death. People of lowest caste are burned closest to the river and highest farthest, with middle caste burned in between. For people who have no family and are still hoping to be burned on the ghats, a tenement loams nearby in which they can stay. Frankly, one local told us people go to the tenement to die to ensure their place on the burning ghat with their brothers and sisters of Hinduism. Some people, though, are not burned at all, like the man Katie and I saw floating near the river’s edge with his back in the air.

Katie and I had a private concert of tabla! 

Burning Ghat

A boat ride in the Ganga

Katie and I especially enjoyed Varanasi’s rich temple heritage. From the Monkey Temple, to the Nepali Temple, to one of the oldest Hindu temples in India, Kashi Vishwanath Temple (the Golden Temple), beauty prevailed in many forms. Though we could not enter the Golden Temple as we are not Hindu, we got a look through the gate by combing our way through the line of faithful pilgrims, gripping their cups of milk and strings of flowers and incense with which they would honor their gods. The Nepali temple also proved interesting! When walking there, a small man approached us in a leather jacket, telling us that he would show us the temple. Thinking he desired money, we denied his assistance, until we realized that he was a student of the temple, learning to be a Hindu priest. The Nepali Temple is the only temple in Varanasi made of wood. According to our new friend, it is made of mango wood only from Indian Alphonse mango trees (Alphonse mangoes are famous for their juiciness!). The carvings of the gods on the temple uniquely depict what our friend called “god yoga” but we later learned (thank you Wikipedia….) were images of the Kama Sutra. Nonetheless, the mango wood, the intricate carvings, and the view of the Ganges from the temple court yard were well worth the time.

Thank you for your support! Read all about Darjeeling in our next post! J  

Temple goers brought flowers, milk, and coconut to honor their gods.

This yogurt is called lassi, topped with bananas, coconut, and pistachio.