Calcutta, Mon Amour

Wow!
Who would have thought?
This city is great, far surpassing my expectations. I expected to be horrified and depressed (and at times I am, but no more than in any other Indian city). Instead, it's beautiful, semi-organized, with so much character, pretty safe walking around all neighborhoods, Indians of all classes and walks of life can be found even in "shady" neighborhoods, it's a 24-hour city and I guess it can be called the city of joy, as it is reported to be called.
The pollution is definitely the worst part of it. I have a sore throat and gooey eyes from the dirt and pollution. When I came here last week, I instantly got stuffed up and gooey-eyed, which I normally am not, and as soon as I left 5 days ago, I got instantly better. Upon my return 2 days ago or so, within 24 hours, sore throat again.
But this doesn't deter me from enjoying a city that is thriving and interesting. A mixture of old, decaying, colonial architecture, majestic buildings, lots of turn of the century buildings, a few modern buildings, the classic Indian style of geometric patterns and crazy shapes. Lots of streets have trees, lots of nice promenades, even very humble neighborhoods retain some calmness and beauty. Few people pester you here.
I must admit I expected more from the Bengali food. I had an interesting and delicious banana flower curry in my cooking class the other day but it's one of the few meals here that I reacted badly to and I eliminated from my body within the hour (ha ha - bad sweats and all). It's strange - I eat in food stalls on the street, chai from anywhere (when they get the water from the streets pumps) and never get sick but I go to a high-class woman's house and the stuff runs right out. Anyway, my body responds fast and everything was better as soon as it was out. But Bengali food in general is too sweet (always had added sugar to every dish) and not spicy enough.
All the same, I've discovered a fantastic street stall called Tirupati with lots of Korean as well as Indian dishes which takes the cake for atmosphere, nicely painted colored benches, a sweet man with tuberculosis as cook and the sous-chef is deaf. The food is great and cheap and I see a Korean film crew making a documentary on the hand-pulled rickshaws every day around there. The sweets here are great. Like 100 varieties, all based on a ricotta-like cheese called chhanna.
There are so many different and interesting neighborhoods here; the city has such character. Plus, right now it's Durga Puja, celebrating the goddess Durga, AKA Chamundi, AKA Kali, who is the big main goddess for the city (like a patron saint) and every neighborhood has huge decorations put up, all hand sculpted, decorated, painted, lots of trompe l'oeil to look like real buildings with columns, imitating all architectural styles. Tomorrow most will be immersed into the Ganges River, here called Hooghly as it's one "tributary" division of the Ganges.
The metro works like a charm here, with the same tickets as in Barcelona and trains that look even as old as the "L" trains in Chicago. But the stations are decorated with lots of art and sometimes Bengali poetry, unlike the Chicago stops. This city reminds me of NY, in that even at 2 am you'll find restaurants open and lots of shops open. It's easy to get around with all the transport, from yellow cabs to metro to electric streetcars to auto-rickshaws to cycle-rickshaws to hand-pulled rickshaws where a man literally pulls you around with his own force. I felt like I couldn't take one of these until I saw a fat Indian family of 3 (grown adult female as big as me) all riding in one, pulled by one man. I've seen as many as 4 in one so I don't feel bad about making them pull me. They'll try to scam you like any rickshaw driver but I always ask the natives how much it should cost and then give tip, which an Indian never would. It's their profession, if they don't get work, they don't make money. It's seems unjust making someone pull you along, but it works out perfectly when you're already tired from touring and walking all over and your 2 1/2 hour yoga practice.
My trip has been made even better by meeting a really neat Israeli guy 5 days ago who I've spent all of these days with. A former Israeli military officer for 8 years (that's right), he's now studying Indian Studies and has a lot of the same interests as I (as well as our mutual love for this country). Plus, there's the added benefit of traveling with a man, which, trust me, makes it sooo much easier here. Oh, did I forget to mention that he also speaks Hindi, so we have problems ever. I'm cut-throat hard about not being taken advantage of by taxi-drivers, etc and he speaks the lingo, so we get along swimmingly. So basically we've been laughing our heads off and conquering Calcutta and the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve.
Anyway, my eyes are actually watering from the pollution so I've got to go back to the hotel.
I send my love from Chowringhee, the Muslim/Bengladeshi quarter of Kolkata. XOXO.