Calcutta has been in my travel consciousness for so long I forget the impetus. My combined fascination with the British Imperial period and India made Calcutta the obvious location to start traveling.
With over fourteen million people, Calcutta is India’s third largest city behind the metropolises of Mumbai and Delhi. The city’s “birth” dates back to 1690 when the East India Company received a trading license from the Nawab of Bengal, the local ruler. Soon after the East India Company expanded military operations and with a victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 gained control of Bengal India and eventually the remainder of the regional rules came under Company Rule. Calcutta served as the capital of “India” until 1911 when the government functions were transferred to Delhi.
Calcutta is an intellectual hub and Bengalis are known for their involvement and support of education, science, and art. The trade-off has been that while other regions of the country have received significant investment, Bengal’s “intellectual bureaucracy” stifles and delays economic progress - Tata Motor’s 2008 closure and relocation of their Nano production facility illustrates the different objectives of capitalists and the local Bengali populace.
For geographical economic comparison, India’s Northwest Industrial Corridor from Mumbai to Delhi is the country’s powerhouse and the area Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisions turning into India’s equivalent to South China’s Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. In contrast, India’s Northeast Corridor from Calcutta to Delhi contains the country’s poorest states and receives little domestic and international investment. The Nano production facility re-opened in Gujarat, within India’s Industrial Corridor...Modi was Gujarat’s Chief Minister at the time.
With over fourteen million people, Calcutta is India’s third largest city behind the metropolises of Mumbai and Delhi. The city’s “birth” dates back to 1690 when the East India Company received a trading license from the Nawab of Bengal, the local ruler. Soon after the East India Company expanded military operations and with a victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 gained control of Bengal India and eventually the remainder of the regional rules came under Company Rule. Calcutta served as the capital of “India” until 1911 when the government functions were transferred to Delhi.
Calcutta is an intellectual hub and Bengalis are known for their involvement and support of education, science, and art. The trade-off has been that while other regions of the country have received significant investment, Bengal’s “intellectual bureaucracy” stifles and delays economic progress - Tata Motor’s 2008 closure and relocation of their Nano production facility illustrates the different objectives of capitalists and the local Bengali populace.
For geographical economic comparison, India’s Northwest Industrial Corridor from Mumbai to Delhi is the country’s powerhouse and the area Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisions turning into India’s equivalent to South China’s Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. In contrast, India’s Northeast Corridor from Calcutta to Delhi contains the country’s poorest states and receives little domestic and international investment. The Nano production facility re-opened in Gujarat, within India’s Industrial Corridor...Modi was Gujarat’s Chief Minister at the time.
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It doesn’t take long to immerse in the Calcutta crowds. In less than a five minute walk down Sudder Street I was confronted with 1,000s of Bengali’s walking past - they were participating in the Calcutta Marathon / Fun Run. Judging by the pace, the conversation, and photo taking...I was in the Fun Run Section. I joined the flow and proceeded south along Jawaharlal Nehru Road. With some minor diversions, the marathon route passed through The Maidan, Calcutta’s largest park. Cricketers played matches on every available green space. In a far corner new army recruits received performance instruction on the Indian Army’s high leg march. We passed Victoria Memorial, Calcutta’s landmark building, which contains several Thomas Daniels landscape paintings. Daniel's art depicts scenes from the 1700s which provides an historical context for the city and region - museum placards complete the Bengal history lesson through present day.
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Calcutta Fun Run
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Cricket on the Maidan
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Victoria Memorial
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Fun Run Finish Line
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I spent the rest of my Calcutta time in the quadrant of Circus Avenue to the South, The Maidan to the West, Mahatma Gandhi Road to the North and Mirza Ghalib (Free School) School to the East. Each morning I walked a different route to watch Bengalis rise and begin their morning routines - the destitute starting a fire to cook breakfast, foraging through trash, and washing dishes in wastewater. Calcutta’s distinct yellow with a blue stripe Ambassador taxi cabs lined up at a red light then raced off as soon as the light changed color. Human rickshaws, street performers, sadhus, and a man with monkeys were all part of the sensory overload street scene. Nothing seemed out of place.
Morning Market
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Calcutta Streets
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Street Performer Balancing Act
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The walks revealed Calcutta’s colonial past - on either side of the city’s major thoroughfares massive and grand edifices rose overhead. The once magnificent buildings looked as if they had been bombed out, or more likely, suffered fire damage. Everything taken together created the feel that you were walking through a living museum. Even the pollution haze enhanced the experience - it added a grainy, “old-time” filter over the moving images. In the evening I went to Park Street and settled in to either Oxford Book Store or Flury’s to soak in the city’s intellectual vibe.
Calcutta's Colonial Buildings
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Park Street - Oxford Books
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To escape the city, I headed south to the Sundarbans, the world’s largest tidal mangrove biosystem, which just like Calcutta, had a slot in my future travel consciousness thanks to a 60 Minutes segment on the region’s man-eating tigers.
Human encroachment in the form of over population, habitat destruction, and poaching has pushed the Royal Bengal Tiger’s habitat to the Bay of Bengal shores. The male tiger’s living territory may range from 20 to 40 square miles. In the Sundarbans this area includes a labyrinth of waterways - fortunately tiger’s are strong swimmers capable of swimming over fifteen miles per day. Unfortunately for the Bengal Tiger, all of the surrounding Sundarban’s water has a high level of salinity. It’s believed that the Tigers' saline water drinking supply scrambles their mind and contributes to their man-eating tendencies.
Human encroachment in the form of over population, habitat destruction, and poaching has pushed the Royal Bengal Tiger’s habitat to the Bay of Bengal shores. The male tiger’s living territory may range from 20 to 40 square miles. In the Sundarbans this area includes a labyrinth of waterways - fortunately tiger’s are strong swimmers capable of swimming over fifteen miles per day. Unfortunately for the Bengal Tiger, all of the surrounding Sundarban’s water has a high level of salinity. It’s believed that the Tigers' saline water drinking supply scrambles their mind and contributes to their man-eating tendencies.
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The night of arrival, I was awoken late in the evening. On a stage in the hotel’s courtyard actors wore masks and danced to a band’s rhythmic music. I learned the next morning that the performance told the story of Dukhe, who was exchanged for honey and left in the depths of the Sundarban’s. As a tiger was about to eat poor, little Dukhe, the Goddess Bonbibi appeared and with the help of her crocodile returned Dukhe to the safety of his village. Dukhe built a shrine to Bonbibi and others followed suit after hearing his tale hoping for similar protection from the tigers.
As I walked through the Sundarban village I noticed several miniature temples dedicated to Bonbibi. I said a quick prayer hoping to be protected from tigers, although not too much protection...I did not want to be so protected as to not have any chance of seeing a tiger. |
Bonbibi Temple
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For an area prone to devastating monsoons, villages homes had aesthetic qualities beyond the necessary wind and rain fortifications. A common feature was a water hole in front of the home made from the excavation of mud which was used to construct the homes and water breakers. Most of the morning activities involved villagers washing their dishes and clothes in these watering holes. Even though the living areas were made of dried mud, they were free from dirt and debris.
Village Home
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Village Home
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Monsoon Breaker
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The afternoon activity was a boat ride through the the mangrove estuaries. I placed a plastic porch chair near the boat's upper floor rail and peered over, focusing my eyes through the dense mangroves in hopes of catching a preying tiger. What I saw instead were a series of nets that effectively prevent a tiger from crossing the main estuary to the villages on the other side - a modern day Bonbibi. We eventually meandered farther into the mangrove forest to areas without net protection - by this time I realized that the boat engine noise gave fair warning of our presence and would have scared off any tiger. I traded in the chair and laid out on the boat's upper deck instead of visually hunting for tigers. The only thing missing from a relaxing afternoon boat ride were a few bottles of Kingfisher.
The boat made a stop at a Tiger Observatory tower. I passed through a heavily reinforced gated area, half expecting someone on the other side to greet me with a "Welcome to Jurassic Park." When I reached the top of the 50 foot tall observation tower and looked down to see a man made watering hole with grazing deer I thought of Michael Creighton's book again..."Tigers don't want to be fed, they want to hunt." Even with this generous assistance a nearby tiger siting tally board indicated it'd been over a month since anyone had seen a tiger.
Next time I'm going to gamble on my safety and skip the sacrifice to Bonbibi.
The boat made a stop at a Tiger Observatory tower. I passed through a heavily reinforced gated area, half expecting someone on the other side to greet me with a "Welcome to Jurassic Park." When I reached the top of the 50 foot tall observation tower and looked down to see a man made watering hole with grazing deer I thought of Michael Creighton's book again..."Tigers don't want to be fed, they want to hunt." Even with this generous assistance a nearby tiger siting tally board indicated it'd been over a month since anyone had seen a tiger.
Next time I'm going to gamble on my safety and skip the sacrifice to Bonbibi.
Sundarbans Cruising
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Lots of mangroves...no man-eating tigers
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Sundarbans Cruising
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