Observations

I usually try and go sightseeing around Kolkata on my days off, though I must admit, there's been nothing really remarkable that I have seen. I went and saw a lot of the old British colonial buildings and a few temples. There are a few statues dedicated to various British and Indian people and there is one really large building in the middle of a park that could easily be a state capital building. It's called the Victoria Memorial and it's a dedication to Queen Victoria. It is a pretty amazing building to see and the gardens around it, while not fantastic are the nicest area in Kolkata. I went on a Sunday and waited in line for hours to get in. The inside of it is now a museum. Other that the grounds, I found it interesting that Indian people would come and pay homage to a past British imperial ruler who they fought to get out from under.
That being said, there was a black and white photo exhibit that showed photos of Kolkata back in the 1940s-1950s, just around independence time. It was amazing. The streets were clear and clean and orderly. There were only a few cars on the road and they all seemed to be in line. There did not appear to be a trace of garbage anywhere in these photos. It looked like somewhere you would go to vacation. What happened to that city? Who is to blame? Is it corruption that keeps the money from going to civic things to keep the city up and take care of its citizens? I don't know. More than likely, I think, it's over population. I believe that the cities population more than doubled since that time and the cities infrastructure not only didn't increase, it was left to decay. It makes me wonder if the average Kolkatan feels that there are too many people here. Even if all the people on the street were given enough money to pay rent or buy a place to live, there simply is not enough places for people to live here, it's that crowded and overpopulated.
I will say this, though. It amazes me of the resiliency and the ability of people that live on the street adapt. They have found a way to live in every nook and cranny of this city. Every little spot of the city that doesn't have a building on it is being used by someone else to live on. And they get by on the discarded items of the rest of the people. At times Kolkata seems like what it will look like after civilization collapses. And if it does, I think the street people will have the best chance of surviving because they're already making it on the scraps of society.
Before leaving on this trip, I watched a documentary on how long it would take for signs of civilization to disappear after humans were gone. The scientist who was on said that it wouldn't take very long. He said that the reason things stay standing is that we are constantly up keeping things and if we stopped, they would quickly begin to fall apart from weather and animals.
This effect is already taking place in Kolkata and there are still people here, a lot of them! Many of the colonial era buildings are either collapsed or falling down. Those that aren't literally have trees and brush growing out of the cracks in the sides of them. There are occupied buildings here that have small trees growing out of a crack in the side of them. Some of them have entire balconies that are covered in brush that is growing. At times it reminds me of The Planet of the Apes or Logan's Run after humans return to the surface to see how everything has devolve. There was just a news report that said that bands of wild monkies are terrorizing Dehli here in India. They're gonna rise up I tell you. I can already hear the battle cry, "Now get up and fight like apes!!"
That being said, the newer architecture is the same as it is everywhere else in the world in poor areas. It's the mass produced, concrete block buildings that are divided up into shop fronts with roll up metal doors. And the stuff they sell in them is the same too: same old jewelry, nick naks, jeans and back scratchers.
Another thing I've heard and experience for myself is that Indians are so bent on trying to be polite that if you ask them directions they will give you the wrong info because they don't want to seem rude. A bunch of us from work tried to go to a temple one day in a cab. We asked the driver if he knew how to get there. He said yes and off we went. We drove and drove. When we realized that he didn't have a clue, we now had no idea where we were. We had him bring up back and we got out. We had been driving around for about an hour. The driver wanted the full fare. We told him off and gave him a quarter of the fare. So much for the trying to be polite thing.
I washed my clothes in a bucket this week. Water was filthy black when I was done. I really need to do this more frequently.
The pig foot has been giving me a bit of trouble, especially on days when I'm sightseeing and walking alot. I've got my mom mailing me out my orthotics. We'll see if they get here.
My last observation. The other day, after a long day of sightseeing, I tried to cut through a neighborhood to make it to my guesthouse. It was nighttime and dark and I just wanted to get home. I knew that I was directly west of my guest house but the map wasn't detailed enough to show me what was between me and it. The map basically showed that I should walk way to the south until I hit a main road, then walk east and cut up again. I figured I would just go for it and cut through this neighborhood. As I got deeper into this area, the road turned to an alley way. After that I was in a labyrinth of alleyways, some no wider than my outstretched arms. All the while, the alley ways were lined with shops. There was a whole little world back here of shops and apartments that cars never make it to, it was really interesting. Eventually, after zig zaggin left and right many times and trying to remember which direction was east, the alley way opened up into a small courtyard. The courtyard was lined with really young Indian girls all dressed in traditional Indian robes. The young girls looked at me as I passed but didn't say anything. At the far end of this line of girls were three Indian girls who looked to be in their 20s and wearing western clothing of jeans and blouses. One of them caught my eye and said hello, then offered a sexual solicitation. It was then I realized that I had stumbled into the brothels and these little girls were prostitutes, literally sex slaves. I quickly turned my glance away from the older girls and quickened the pace. As I did, I heard them start to loudly hiss at me. After getting back to my guest house, I thought about it some more and realized that I must have looked like a customer for sure to them, being the only westerner in that maze of alleyways. It was really weird but luckily I made it out of there with my virtue and clean medical record in tact.