| | Several people have asked me where Kolkata is. It might help if I told you that this city of sixteen million people used to be named Calcutta and was only recently renamed to Kolkata for political reasons. Then you'd probably know that Kolkata (Calcutta) is somewhere in India and was the residence of Mother Teresa. What can we add? Kolkata is a cultural center for India, as well as being either the second or third biggest city here, one of the big four along with Mumbai (used to be named Bombay,) Delhi, and Chennai (used to be named Madras.) Geographically Kolkata is in the northeast corner of India, at the top of the Bay of Bengal which separates India from Southeast Asia. Just a few miles to the east is the border with Bangladesh, 80 miles south is the Bay, and 200-300 miles immediately north are the Himalayas, including Mount Everest and K2. Like most of India and Southeast Asia, the climate is basically tropical, with wet monsoons. There are mangoes and pomegranates and other interesting fruit for sale, and bittermelons and other vegetables whose names I don't know.
Enough of Geography, now for politics! Today is not just the feast of the Assumption of Mary (woo-hoo!) (and woo-hoo for St. Maximilian Kolbe, martyr priest of Auschwitz, my confirmation saint, whose feast was yesterday!) It is also India's 59-th birthday! This seems to be celebrated mostly with flag raising ceremonies, where the Indian flag is raised, and then the national anthem, and then dancing or marches or singing of special songs. I saw this at the mother house this morning - after mass and breakfast they brought some of the orphans in from Shishu Bhavan, dressed in military dress and beautiful saris, and after the anthem they did marches and dances, it was very very adorable. Then going around my neighborhood and to work I saw where they were preparing for other local flag-raisings. When I got to work they had already done the flag-raising but I wasn't too late for the nice snacks.
Sunday I moved into an apartment! I feel much more culturally authentic, I walk through small "streets" far too small for even the smallest car to get there, am surrounded by four mosques because it's a Muslim neighborhood, and see the young men slaving away making shoes in some of the apartments along the way. At night there seems to be a soccer match going on though the field has to be only a third or less of the width of a regulation field. My apartment is basically a room (with adjoining shower, toilet, kitchen) in a four story building owned and inhabited by a large extended Muslim family, complete with several generations, from the two year old boy up to the bride-to-be (henna on her hands, less than two weeks till the marriage) to the aunts and uncles, even a crazy uncle! I've been enjoying it, and especially having a place I can relax and sleep, it's much better than the dorm where I was staying for the last three weeks. It's very close to the mother house, so if I'm still tired after mass and breakfast I can come back and take a nap.
I am well on the whole, but certainly still very challenged by life here. I'm glad to be here.
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| | Posted 8/15/2006 9:59 AM - 23 views - 0 comments
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