India

INDIA – October 1994

I had come to India primarily to be a volunteer in a facility started by Mother Theresa and her Missionaries of Charity; I also had a few weeks to be a tourist in a small part of this big country.

I flew from Boise, Idaho to Calcutta, India and I had been told about a little place to stay in Calcutta, called the ‘Maria Hotel’ located on ‘Sudden’ Street. Now, this all sounded rather quaint to me until the taxi I took from the airport deposited me at the end of ‘Sudden’ Street; because the road was not wide enough to take the taxi up it. I was not prepared for this hovel type building, but I did deposit my luggage in this cell type room which had a small window and a single iron bed with a mattress that was so dirty and I was sure there were cockroaches all over the room. There was a grungy toilet right next to the bed. Now I was scared and wanted to go home.

I paid my $2 for the night, and immediately got into a Rickshaw and went back to the main road, near the Motherhouse for the Missionaries of Charity where I hoped to talk with the Sister in Charge of Volunteers about finding a decent inexpensive hotel.

I ended up staying at the Anglican Mission house called “Monica House”. The lady in charge, was the wife of the retired Anglican Indian Priest and she gave me a cup of tea and arranged to have a taxi go back and get my things from the Maria Hotel. I started feeling better about my situation now. I was given a bed in the Woman’s sleeping dorm and with breakfast it was $3 per night, it was 500 times better than the Maria Hotel. However, this facility is located on the A J Bose Road which is a very noisy road, the cars honk constantly and it is festival time and loud music is played during night. I think there is always some type of a festival going on in India. Calcutta is extra crowded due to this festival, which is called “PUJA” and it appears to be as big as our Christmas. There are colored lights all over the place, all depicting some sort of objects or scenes. The lights are not colored as we are use to, but are pieces of colored paper wrapped around the small lights, and you can make your own scene.

I am finding my way around Calcutta now, even back to Sudden Street where the Post Office, the Money Changer and a marvelous Bakery are located. To-day along with a few of the other volunteers I am off to visit a Leper Colony, which is run by the Brothers of the Missionaries of Charity. We took an Indian Train for one hour and we are traveling second class. We were jammed in (standing) like sardines and there were people with basket of fruit on their head and hawkers ramming their way through selling hot tea and food, I thought one time I was going to get hot tea down my neck.

Once we arrived at Titagarh we walked to the Gandhiji Prem Nivas Leprosy Centre. This was started by Mother Teresa in l958 and she started it for an already existing community of people with leprosy and it was a mobile clinic under a tree on an outpatient basis. Eventually over the years they received land and buildings were erected to there present day Centre. They are a self supporting unit and also provide shelter to 140 families who live happily in and around the centre. In the picture above you see a family home and also this next picture depicts a Leper family. Only one member of the family has to have had leprosy. The rest of the family are fine and while there, we saw a new baby born to one family.

They also have a feeding program which provides a full plate of cooked rice to about 500 people who come to the gates each day. Children of leprosy patients are encouraged to go for their education in the nearby village. The residents of this facility are not contagious and we were able to tour this entire self supporting community. We spent the day there and it was a marvelous experience.

To-day the festival is taking ‘PUJA to the river and we are off to visit the Ramakrishna Missions at Bolu Math, this is the mission headquarters, and is the Ramakrishna reform religious movement. He was a Brahmin and renounced his heritage to embrace all religions and preach unity of all mankind, without regard to cast or color. There are 119 branches in India and abroad. There are thirteen temples; in the big one dedicated to Kali Sri was where Ramakrishna had his vision of religious brotherhood. We did not go in all the temples; they were basically the same, just a different God to worship. What really impressed us was the quietness about the grounds, lots of people, but no noise, so different from Calcutta, it had beautiful gardens and the quiet time we were seeking.

Getting to this Mission Site was a hoot, we were on various busses for two hours and we crossed over the “Howarth Bridge” which at this time was the third largest bridge in the world. The bridge was jammed packed with people and vehicles. There is some astronomical figure of how many people cross each way on this bridge each day.

The trip home was also an experience, we came down the Hooghly River, which is a tributary of the Ganges and it empties into the Bay of Bengal. We did this on a series of Ferry boats and each one was jammed packed. The boats were decrepit and they would not have been the type I would have normally ridden on at home. However we had a marvelous time.

Another day we went to the Botanical gardens, another quiet place, here we saw the biggest Banyan tree in the world. This time we went over by taxi and back by bus and then to lunch at a very nice hotel. It was a very nice quiet day.

I have now finished my work at Mother Theresa’s and it is time for me to leave Calcutta and I am going to Darjeeling for a couple of days to trek. The flight to Darjeeling was uneventful, but the four hour bus ride from the Airport at Bagdogra to Darjeeling was very interesting. You go from elevation 0 to 7000’ and it is a real winding road. The Indian towns here are built on steep hillsides and Darjeeling is no exception with its many tea plantations all growing on the hillsides. I was glad to leave the humidity of Calcutta, but now it is just the opposite, it is very cold and I am wearing lots of clothes.

Darjeeling is at the end of the line for power, which means you have very little. The hotel I am staying in must really be at the end of the line, there is no power and no hot water in my room. The weather here has really turned sour, it is cold and damp and a big fog has been hanging on the mountainside for a week, they say this is unusual for this time of the year and the treks are not going out due to this weather.

I did hire a car and went to see the Tibetan Refuge Center where they make excellent carpets, woolen goods etc. The Mountaineering Institute and the Everest Museum including the memorial for Tenzing, were all first class. I also went down to the Buddhist Monastery Ghoom which is a typical Tibetan Monastery; it enshrines an image of the Mitreyee Buddha (the coming Buddha). I went to the Zoo where they have a breeding center for the Snow Leopards. On a very clear day it is worth the effort to get up early and drive to Tiger hill at 8482 ft and see the views of the sunrise over ‘Kanchenjunga’ and the great Eastern Himalayan Mountains, sometime you can even see Mt. Everest from here. However, this time I was not able to see anything due to the heavy fog in the area.

I have decided to leave Darjeeling a few days early, and make my way to New Delhi and see if I can connect with my friends Pete and Norma Walker. I will contact the Travel Agent in New Delhi and see what he can do for me.

I arrive of course, on a Festival day called Dewalli and end up at the Park Hotel at $140 per night. Here, it is a Great Happy Dewalli with fireworks, orderves by the Pool, and loads of friendly people. I have a marvelous time and end up taking two hot baths before retiring.

Luckily, the Travel Agent was in his office the next day and he moved me to a different hotel, which is just great with lots of hot water and a lot less expensive... He is arranging for me to meet the Walkers tomorrow in Agra, they do not know I am coming, they think I am still trekking. Next day, the agency sends a car for me and I am taken to the train station and put into a reserved seat, and two hours later I was met in Agra by another Agent and driver and taken to the Hotel ‘Novetel” owned by the Oberoi group. This is a really nice hotel with a swimming pool and various salons. I now have a car and driver available to me for a few hours this afternoon, so we drive around the area and I went shopping and purchased a few things. I surprised the Walkers that evening at dinner.

The next day, the car comes for the Walkers and me; we are off to be tourists. We went first to the Taj Mahal, this was fantastic and the entire building is done in white marble with semi precious stones, set into the marble in very intricate designs. The four tall Minarets are all leaning two degrees away from the Taj Mahal, in case of an earthquake they would then fall away from the Taj. Everything is carved very symmetrical, each big panel will have a middle seam then each side is carved exactly. It took twenty years to build and all the marble comes from the quarries in Jaipur not too far away. Agra is well known for its marble carvings, and they are sold all over the world.

Next, we went to the Red Fort and the Palaces within it. It is steeped in history and the part where the harem lived was fantastic, especially if you used your imagination and our guide told us a great love story. The next day the Walkers left for another tour and I chose not to go, I will meet up with them later. I have the car and guide coming for a half day and we went to see the abandoned city of Fathpur Sirri. In the 1500 –1600 century it was the Capital of India, it was all built with pink sandstone. It was abandoned due to the lack of water.

Norma, sitting in the Harem's Pool

On the way home I saw dancing bears and my guide was really disgusted with them. Apparently they capture these animals when they are cubs (which is against the Law) then put a ring in the bears nose and lead it around constantly, training the bears to dance on two legs. If you stop and take a picture, then you must pay the owner.

WalkWay into the Old Capital, made wide for elephants to enter the abandoned city.

To-day we are all back on the airplane going to Varanesse. After lunch the guide picks us up and we are off to see Sarnath. This is where the Buddhist religion was formed; it was in Deer Park that Buddha preached his first sermon. The area reminds me of a smaller version of Calcutta, dirty and crowded and lots and lots of cows right in the middle of some terrible traffic jams.

Varanesse is the holiest of the holy cities on the Ganges River; it is a place where every Hindu must visit in a pilgrimage at least once in his lifetime. The next morning before the sun came up; we take a small boat out onto the River and watch the people float their offerings out on the water just as the sun starts to appear. This part of India has really been most fascinating. It is only a small part of India and there is so much more to see.

The picture shown above is a very small section on the Ganges River and the buildings were the summer palaces belonging the the various princes. I think they have different uses today.

Next we are off to the Airport and the flight to Nepal and a trek for a few weeks.

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