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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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from the humid, noisy streets.
After walking around for an hour more I headed back to the Fairlawn for a final beer while I worked on my journal. Then to bed - I was still running on US time.
Calcutta, Sunday, February 10
I was scheduled to leave Calcutta just after noon, so I got going early. Setting in the Fairlawn's open dining room, I was surprised to hear birds chirping in the trees that surrounded the courtyard. The street noise wasn't loud enough to drown them out yet.
I had a single goal for the morning. I had read there was a "colorful" flower market just below the Horwah Bridge - it's one of only two bridges that cross the wide Hooghly River. Outside the hotel the first taxi driver I met said he knew where I wanted to go, but he wanted to wait for me. "It's better for me," he argued.
Well, of course it was. It meant that he would have a rich, overpaying passenger both ways, but it wouldn't be better for me. I was planning to just wander around and didn't want to be specific as to when I would be back. In the end, after much bargaining, he agreed to take me for 100 Rupees - about $2.00.
It turned out the bridge was fairly close and we were there quickly as the streets were mostly empty - it was still pretty early on Sunday morning. We drove parallel to the Hooghly River and finally we turned off onto a muddy path.
I immediately saw piles of orange and yellow marigolds woven into long garlands. There were also gladiolas, dahlias, roses, orchids and lots of flowers I didn't recognize. Porters with large loads on their heads shouted to clear a path through the muddy, leaf-strewn lanes. On both sides were faded wooden shacks with rusty metal roofs where men and women sat weaving various blossoms into the long garlands. I guess they were to be used as offerings in the
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See photographs from:
India Gallery
