31st December-1st January: An exciting New Year's Eve in Khardah

31st December

Early on Saturday morning, we met Boby and Gopa on platform 2 of Khardah station and took the 6am train to Sealdah station to distribute food to the kids living there. Gita, another member of Crawl, joined us on the way. Since Derya had arrived at the volunteers' flat late on Friday night, after 24 hours of travel, we left her to rest knowing that we would likely be back before she woke up.

The kids were really sweet. To get over the language barrier (our Bengali was limited to a few basic words only), one of the young girls was enthusiastically mimicking what she saw (e.g., a bird, a funny advert), which was lots of fun. We spread marmalade in between two pieces of bread, and distributed one sandwich with a pack of peanuts to each kid. I was on sandwich duty, John was in charge of the peanuts. As some sandwiches and peanuts were left, we went around the station and it was not hard to find hungry mouths to feed. I would always leave Sealdah quite frustrated as, due to the lack of space, it is not possible to spread a mat on the floor as at Dum Dum and distribute drawings and crayons to the kids. Time spent with the children is thus unfortunately very brief. At least we could leave with the comforting thought that this morning they had eaten breakfast.

Derya, the new volunteer, woke up a little before lunch. She was from the Netherlands, studying social work, and had already been a volunteer in orphanages in Brazil and in Africa. Compared to her we were very much amateurs. She was very friendly and easy-going, which was good news as we would have to share the small flat with her for more than a week. We told her about our short experience with Crawl, and the few things we had learned about the village and the flat.

The flat's hallway; the profiles of the schoolkids were very useful for remembering names

In the afternoon Subhamita, the president of Crawl, came to the flat to welcome Derya. Subhamita is temporarily away from Khardah looking after her young son, and we thus took that opportunity to ask her a few more questions about Crawl. In the evening, we cooked some veg. masala with rice and went to bed early. The party was just getting started in Khardah but we needed to get some rest before the 5am wake-up call.

-----

January 1

We woke up at the time when the party would be reaching its peak in Europe, when champagne bottles would pop to celebrate the new year. But it was 5am in Khardah and time to get ready for the Sealdah project. We had tried earlier to find a small bottle of champagne for a morning celebration, but had not been in luck.

The train was surprisingly crowded at 6am on January 1, although a lot of the passengers looked very sleepy and had likely partied the night before (Boby and Gopa had both managed to stay up past midnight, putting us to shame). In Sealdah, we collected several loaves from the "bread shop" (a little stall in the middle of the station). Boby walked around the station to wake the kids. They gathered at the usual place and we distributed the sandwiches on which we had spread some jam. Some kids collected a few to share with their brothers and sisters. They ranged from around 1-2 years old to about 15 years old.

We had brought small backpacks with us to spend the next two days in Kolkata. After enjoying a chai (tea that is boiled with milk already added) outside the station with the Crawl women, we headed towards the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity, the huge organisation established by Mother Teresa. This was about 20 minutes walk down one of Kolkata's main roads, past a small Catholic church where mass was about to be celebrated. Beggars lined the pavement outside the church.

Catholicism, Indian-style

At first glance, our destination was a plain white building, which we would probably have missed if we had not noticed the little board that read: "Mother House". It was really quiet inside, and we were among the few visitors. 8 am was definitely the right time for a visit. In the first room was Mother Teresa's sober tomb, which a nun was decorating with flower petals (forming the letters of Happy New Year with the petals). The adjacent room hosted an exhibition on Mother Teresa's life and on the Missionaries of Charity, telling the story of the incredible sacrifice and leap of faith undertaken by Mother Teresa and her first companions, leaving behind the security of the convent for a life in the slums. Both John and I were surprisingly moved.

Mother Teresa's tomb

Some of Mother Teresa's former belongings were on display, such as her sandals and her bag. More disturbingly, there was also part of a respiratory tube that had been used when she was in hospital. One of the signs explained what relics meant and how they should be used as part of Catholic worship. A nun then showed us to her former room, which has been kept intact. The simplicity of the bedroom was striking. There was a tiny wooden bed and one desk that she would use to work at night. Distributing food in Sealdah and the visit to the Mother House were together a very moving experience, and a special way to spend the start of 2012.

The hotel we had booked this time was not as fancy as the one where we had stayed for our previous "holiday" in Kolkata, but it was clean and comfortable enough. We were able to check in early and had a very enjoyable nap for about two hours. After this unscheduled snooze, we strolled around the tourist district of Kolkata in search for a restaurant. We could not find the one we had picked from the Lonely Planet's list and given the queues in front of the nearby restaurants, we walked back in the direction of the hotel and went to a restaurant serving typical Bengali food (called Radhuni). For the afternoon I had planned to take John for a little sari shopping expedition, but luckily for him all the shops along Park Street (the main commercial street) were closed. Instead, we walked to New Market. The smell and the sight of dead chicken took us by surprise. As we were already there, we had a look at the intriguing red and white building but rapidly retreated away from the stench and the persistently intrusive touts. The few shops around New Market sold poor quality saris for a very high price; Khardah was clearly a better place to buy them.

We then went for another stroll down to the Victoria Memorial, through the Maidan.  The park was packed, unsurprisingly, for new year's day.  We had to stay alert to dodge the balls from the dozens and dozens of cricket games that were going on (many using hard balls rather than tennis balls).  Our plan to visit the Victoria Memorial was futile; we had rather foolishly not considered that on 1st January there would be a huge queue to enter the grounds.  This video gives a very limited idea of how busy it was.

Cricket on the Maidan

The very crowded Maidan, with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

For dinner, we chose a slightly more upmarket restaurant called Mocambo and celebrated new year with a cold bottle of Kingfisher (Indian beer). We were lucky to find a table as the restaurant was filling up, a sign that this was a good address. The clientele was mainly Indian and the tasty food confirmed that this was a good choice.