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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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temples, but I saw them draped over the fronts of cars and trucks - maybe for luck.
I was in heaven - there were great photos in every direction and no one seemed to mind my camera. Men and women cutting, arraigning, packing, carrying and selling colorful blooms. There were also vendors cooking and selling food and barbers shaving men.
In one small courtyard I found a man with several low baskets. First, he played a large gourd flute to collect a crowd. Then with great fanfare and much theatrics, he pulled out a 3-foot long reptile. It was one of the oddest-looking snakes I had ever seen. It didn't have the clearly defined head of a poisonous viper, but looked more like a 1-meter long worm. On the ground it tried to crawl under the baskets instead of rearing in the customary manner.
After more talking and grand gesticulating, several more of the thick, sluggish snakes were laid out on the ground. As this was going on another man picked up one of the snakes and stated threatening the audience with it. Of course, as the only westerner, he ran at me with it. I dutifully tried to get away but he caught me and rubbed the cool, smooth snake on my arm. That over, I returned to the circle to lots of laughter from the Indians - they were enjoying the show as much as I was. After more talking, and a few more snakes, I lost interest. I left a small tip and took off looking for other things to photograph.
Next to the river there was a ghat - a set of steps that lead down to the river - where men and women were bathing and washing clothes. Despite what westerners think, Indians are very clean and you never see a source of water where there aren't people lathered up or washing their clothes. In fact, Indians have mastered the seeming impossible art of bathing modestly in public. The don't strip down and plunge in as some of our Northern European cousins might, instead they remain,
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See photographs from:
India Gallery
