Kolkata, India

This was my breakfast this morning: Chapati. It was FANTASTIC fresh from the skillet! (Kolkata, India)

I'm currently in Kolkata (Calcutta), where Mother Theresa was... And her work was cut out for her! The poor are EVERYWHERE--beggars and amputees and gypsies and aggressive touts who want to "take you shopping"--so they get a commission on any shop you walk into...

You can taste the pollution in the air--the urinals drain to the gutter--coal fires burn, heating pots of oil--flavors of saffron, tandoori and sag mix and waft about... People run businesses from their homes which are small--basically ledges in walls.

The streets are largely unpaved (or simply unmaintained for decades) leaving dusty patches that have been filled in with small hills of rocks and garbage. Rickshaw wallas without shoes pull their human cargo around these streets without complaint. The gutter is the garbage can here.

Ramshackle Ambassador taxis from the 1950s bumble about the bumpy roads belching low-grade diesel with extra-high axles--no air conditioning, and no maintenance for two decades. They rattle and bounce, wires stick out of the dash... And the honking is ceaseless.

There is evidence of the British: buildings from the colonial era have not been maintained and they are slowly tumbling to the ground, making a photogenic dilapidated mess while they turn themselves over to gravity--disassembling themselves brick-by-brick. Nobody here will stop the process.

The heat is sweltering. A/C is not common--the hostel doesn't have it, the internet cafes don't have it, no restaurants nearby have it--only fans. My face glistens constantly, and when the breeze from the fans stop... I drip.

The whole place feels like it's falling apart.

It is sensory overload, and my body has responded by getting sick ... My throat only feels good when it's eating, so I've been snacking a lot today. I will hole myself up back at the hostel a little later and plan to read and sleep a lot. And maybe get an ice cream...

I got up early this morning and went for a walk. LOADS of homeless were sleeping on the sidewalk (Kolkata, India)

This man types business letters with an ancient typewriter on the sidewalk under an umbrella (Kolkata, India)


One of the many deteriorating colonial-era buildings (Kolkata, India)


Smoke rises from the coal-fired street-food vendors. The mess in the foreground is typical. (Kolkata, India)


This is my room at the Paragon Hotel off of Sudder St, Kolkata. I pay 170 Rupees a night. (That's about $4 USD). I have a shared toilet (no toilet paper) and a shared shower (no hot water), and a ceiling fan. No A/C (Kolkata, India)



This is the view from my hostel's second level (Kolkata, India)


Here's the most public "public urinal" I've ever seen. Note the mess on the stuff that looks like toxic waste on the left-hand side. That's where the waste goes--into the gutter (Kolkata, India)