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Could there be a city with a worse reputation than Calcutta? Just tell people you are going there and watch their faces. First, there's the business about the Black Hole.
India 2002 - Part One: Calcutta
Dougburnett2003-11-24 11:45:36
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and the reception desk just behind that. Farther back was the dining area which, like the reception desk, was open to the outside. This meant that you could always hear the sounds from the street - and in Calcutta the streets are rarely quiet.
The hotel was small enough that when I arrived the owner's daughter said, "You must be Mr. Burnett. We were wondering where you were." My side trip to the SITA office had probably made me an hour late. I signed the hotel registry and filled out the required government forms and was ushered to my room.
The hotel looked like something out of another age. Most of the rooms were on the second floor and on the way we passed a sitting room filled with knickknacks, pictures and painting - it looked like the collection of a lifetime. The rooms were all built well before air-conditioning and all had a high ceiling. I dropped my bag and headed out to stretch my legs.
Sudder Street was lined with small shops selling food, souvenirs and Internet access - things that cater to tourists. There were also a few hustlers who whispered offers of sex or drugs. Rickshaw wallalhs and taxi drivers sat on the curb waiting for customers.
Just around the corner from the Fairlawn was a large commercial area called New Market - that's were I headed first. Vendors cooking food lined the narrow street, as did small stands selling everything from sox to magazines. Hand-pulled rickshaws and motorbikes whizzed by dangerously close. Touts called out trying to induce me to visit their shops and beggars held out their hands asking for my generosity. As I took it all in I thought, "Ah India, there's no place like it."
Soon I realized I was hungry and headed back to Sudder Street to the Lytton Hotel for some spicy Chinese food and a cold beer. Most of the other diners were wealthy Indians and the dining room was ice cold. What a contrast
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See photographs from:
India Gallery
