SUSAN: Dave actually wrote a few sentances, and then got pissed that the computer kept switching over to Mandarin, erased them, and retreated to the hostel leaving me to write this entry. Sorry Rachel, and the rest of yall Davoo fans out there. He is elusive and mystical as the wind, that one.
Well, we arrived in Kolkata last night at 2am after a lengthy delay due to "engineering diffuculties"--never a good thing to hear, and espeacially when you are flying on a really cheap, rickity-sounding airplane in India. The pilot said "The flight was almost cancelled, but knowing that all of you have your schedules to meet, we decided to pull through with it anyways". GULP. Thankfully all my fears were unfounded.
Sooo, you know all those sci-fi movies that depict a post-apolcalyptic future in which the scant remainders of humanity are left to dwell in dark, giant, crumbling cities stewn with garbage and rubble, in which delapidated buildings are plastered with peeling advertisments depicting a utopian world that couldn't further from reality?...picture Blade Runner. Well, that was the surreal universe that we were teleported into as we drove through the streets of Kolkutta at 2.30am. Only this world had an added dimension of extreme rural survivalism blended into the decaying urban landscape: our taxi actually had to veer through massive herds of goats walking through the city streets!
We passed gaunt people carrying impossibly large bundles of vegetation on their heads, and a street completely covered in coconuts being prepared for market. This isn't the mention the scores of bodies who were occupying sleeping space on the sidewalk, or beside their rickshaws. We quickly realised that here, there are rickshaws that are not only driven by motor or bicycle, but are actually powered by people, running, often barefoot!
But as we went about out business this morning, it became clear that this city is very colorful, vibrant, and alive. Just like every other place we've seen, it has it's particular mix of the good (smiling faces, beautiful colors, resilient people), the bad (toxic heaps of burning garbage), and the ugly (poor little chickens in watching thier neighburs get turned to sausages before their eyes!)that makes India so magically surreal and amazing.
Namaste!
Love, Susan (with some last-minute over the shoulder contributions by Dave)
