bicycle sari.jpg

I like watching women in saris do things like ride a bike, or some other type of physical work.  I can barely walk in one sometimes.  Even my roommate Rekha and her friends, who have grown up in India, were groaning about having to wear them for a business school presentation... they guessed that most young women (of a certain class) just aren't used to them anymore.

birla mandir outside wall.jpg

The industrialist Birla family builds really impressive mandirs (temples) all over India.  This is the one they put up in Calcutta.  Its in the Ballygunge area.

birla mandir.jpg

cpi grafitti.jpg

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has been the ruling party in West Bengal for the last 3 decades.  This is their symbol.  There are elections this month, and it seems like the Congress-Trinamul alliance is posing a real threat.  There's political grafitti ALL OVER the city.

cycle rickshaw.jpg

Hand-pulled and bicycle rickshaws have been a big controversy in this city.  Several years ago, they were almost banned due to concerns about the physically exhausting and arguably degrading nature of the work... but in part due to the lobbying of NGOs that work with the rickshaw pullers and didn't want them to lose their livelihoods, the ban never materialized. 

I visited one of these NGOs, the Calcutta Samaritans, recently.  On my way out, I took a bicycle rickshaw to my metro stop.  When I came to Calcutta, I was sure I would not ride one... it makes me pretty uncomfortable.  I don't know if I got on it because I had just been learning about it at the NGO and wanted to experience it; or because the metro stop was far away and it was hot.  I hope the former :(

park st bldg.jpg

Park Street is a business district in central Calcutta and one of the nicer areas of the city.  This colonial era building looks pretty well-maintained.  There are plenty others around the city that are almost in ruins (but still in use).

my street.jpg

The block right next to my apt building, off of Menoka Cinema road, near Southern Ave.  Its a nice neighborhood.

salt lake garden.jpg

There's a planned community in north Calcutta called Salt Lake City.  Its very different from the rest of the city.  The Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group is located there... its a research org devoted to migration issues.  I have been using their library and so have walked around the area a bit.  Mostly quite posh, with lots of trees, really wide steets, clean buildings.  The picture is of a small garden I came across... the whole area is not this landscaped.

Of course there are slums on the outskirts, and the busy bazaars, dense traffic and overall grime that is more typical of Calcutta are really not so far away.

vodaphone store.jpg

A Vodafone store, where I got my Calcutta sim card.  Notice the cricket match on.