summer'04
summer'04: quite an eventful start it was, that i boarded a plane for the east all battered and bruised.
travelling is always fun especially when you dont know how to get there. its useful to know where you are going, though sometimes that can also be unknown. a few things a traveller must remember when flying long distances such as cross pacific - don't eat too much and relieve yourself as far as possible before every one else. I was fortunate to have the muscle reflexes work while every one was still in bed. post everyone waking up the the reflexes simply cease to trigger – you can only imagine the state of the toilets.
Fortunately the twenty-five hour boring flight breaks in Hong Kong where they have some of the cleanest lavatories I have seen this summer. quite a luxury these are, and the temptation to miss the flight to spend a few more minutes in here is simply irresistible.
The few good things about long haul flights are you can watch as many movies as you can humanly do, there is a lot of wine and liquor to go round as you may be the only one drinking (drinking alcohol should be avoided on flight) and you keep being fed. The down side to all this is when you step off the plane finally you are scarcely different from a gasbag.
Once I was in madras inhaling the warm homely fumes of the desi vehicles, dealing with the draught situation in the state and the general sweat and grime of dealing with people here, I soon got into to gear and hit my first stop the crocodile bank and asked them for money and drank a whole lot that night. Its great to be back with friends, these are people that I have been out with in the wilderness and had near disastrous beach landings. Great to get back here, reliving the experiences we’ve had, it was soon time for me to go on duty
But first, I spent a few days at home with my parents and brother, sufficient to keep them satisfied that the boy still has some senses and still knows the way home. Good home food cooked by Ma, and petting and pamperng from both of mom and dad. followed by a few sessions of nagging the lil boy and riding through the city trafic in the most reckless manner on my friend's motorised two wheeler exploring the new spots that grew out of nowhere in this crowded city and the old spots that have stayed long past a few generations of youngsters.
my first destination was the old city of Kolkata. Until recently it was officially known by its anglicised name - Calcutta. The head quaters of the British East India Company, set on the banks of the Ganges that is locally known as the Hooghly. magnificent city this was once, just due to its history. but the history is long past and today the population is spilling into the river quite literally. The city is a contradiction, a surprising one that knocks your eyes open. Quite incomprehensible it is that in this same city you have the thriving rich driving their fancy imported cars through mazes of narrow roads. roads that are not just narrow but also swarming with pedestrians. the pedestrians as they swarm seem discernible as a prevalaent middle class and an obvious poor. so poor that it shocks you. Obviously the poor of Calcutta have been the most obvious of the poor in India that Mother Teressa adopted the city and set up her mission here. Ironic it seems to me, and at first thought I concluded that this is a conspiracy. I am convinced enough about this conspiracy theory that poverty seen today in this city is not the same as that seen fifty years ago. The city administration is encouraging poverty as it brings in a genre of tourists ...(To be continued)
to be continued/completed (written some time in the summer of 2004)
travelling is always fun especially when you dont know how to get there. its useful to know where you are going, though sometimes that can also be unknown. a few things a traveller must remember when flying long distances such as cross pacific - don't eat too much and relieve yourself as far as possible before every one else. I was fortunate to have the muscle reflexes work while every one was still in bed. post everyone waking up the the reflexes simply cease to trigger – you can only imagine the state of the toilets.
Fortunately the twenty-five hour boring flight breaks in Hong Kong where they have some of the cleanest lavatories I have seen this summer. quite a luxury these are, and the temptation to miss the flight to spend a few more minutes in here is simply irresistible.
The few good things about long haul flights are you can watch as many movies as you can humanly do, there is a lot of wine and liquor to go round as you may be the only one drinking (drinking alcohol should be avoided on flight) and you keep being fed. The down side to all this is when you step off the plane finally you are scarcely different from a gasbag.
Once I was in madras inhaling the warm homely fumes of the desi vehicles, dealing with the draught situation in the state and the general sweat and grime of dealing with people here, I soon got into to gear and hit my first stop the crocodile bank and asked them for money and drank a whole lot that night. Its great to be back with friends, these are people that I have been out with in the wilderness and had near disastrous beach landings. Great to get back here, reliving the experiences we’ve had, it was soon time for me to go on duty
But first, I spent a few days at home with my parents and brother, sufficient to keep them satisfied that the boy still has some senses and still knows the way home. Good home food cooked by Ma, and petting and pamperng from both of mom and dad. followed by a few sessions of nagging the lil boy and riding through the city trafic in the most reckless manner on my friend's motorised two wheeler exploring the new spots that grew out of nowhere in this crowded city and the old spots that have stayed long past a few generations of youngsters.
my first destination was the old city of Kolkata. Until recently it was officially known by its anglicised name - Calcutta. The head quaters of the British East India Company, set on the banks of the Ganges that is locally known as the Hooghly. magnificent city this was once, just due to its history. but the history is long past and today the population is spilling into the river quite literally. The city is a contradiction, a surprising one that knocks your eyes open. Quite incomprehensible it is that in this same city you have the thriving rich driving their fancy imported cars through mazes of narrow roads. roads that are not just narrow but also swarming with pedestrians. the pedestrians as they swarm seem discernible as a prevalaent middle class and an obvious poor. so poor that it shocks you. Obviously the poor of Calcutta have been the most obvious of the poor in India that Mother Teressa adopted the city and set up her mission here. Ironic it seems to me, and at first thought I concluded that this is a conspiracy. I am convinced enough about this conspiracy theory that poverty seen today in this city is not the same as that seen fifty years ago. The city administration is encouraging poverty as it brings in a genre of tourists ...(To be continued)
to be continued/completed (written some time in the summer of 2004)
posted by ceirius at
10:06 PM
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