Post card from Calcutta ( West Bengal) 1981

 

 

Rickshaw pullers in Calcutta ( Kolkata)

 West Bengal a Marxist state is also famous for art, poetry and literature. The capital, Calcutta ( now know as Kolkata), with its chaos and the struggle for human survival was there in front of me  on my arrival to the Howrah Railway platform. As I tried to walk out of the station, I had to avoid putting my foot on human waste and sleeping human bodies which littered the platform, unforgettable sight!! Calcutta was the only city in India where I saw, men pulling their rickshaws to earn a living. Watching a very thin bare feet human, in the midday sun pulling his rickshaw with one passenger who was over weight well dressed  with an umbrella to keep away the heat from the sun, was not what Karl Marx had in mind??

 

 

My guide was not keen for me to see the squalor, the city has been well known for and promoted by Mother Teresa. Since Calcutta was British creation, I was given a guided tour of the British Raj remains: St. Paul's Cathedral, Victoria Memorial museum with grand statue of the Queen, the zoo and few parks. All these reminded me of my home in England!!

A day in Calcutta was enough for me, I was ready to move to another place which looked less like my home I left behind!