Comments | drunkpotato: Kolkota, rambling serious post

drunkpotato

Kolkota, rambling serious post

Oct 04, 2007 11:03

Kolkota (Calcutta), Tues, 2 Oct 2007

I arrived this morning at Howrah Station by train, AC-2, after a comfortable and nap-filled journey. The trains here run on time, which I always associate with fascism.

( Philosophizing and such. )

Comments 2

goteam October 4 2007, 21:15:30 UTC

I keep thinking about the sheer magnitude of the day-to-day poverty I see.

One of the Nepal guidebooks I picked up at my friendly local public library actually concludes a paragraph about culture shock and mental health and suchforth with the line, "If you have trouble adjusting to conditions in Nepal, don't go to India." Holy cats! Like I said over IM last night, I am so looking forward to talking to you about this stuff.

drunkpotato October 5 2007, 05:02:07 UTC

Lots of cats! But they are wild.

I think the most shocking thing is going from the depths of poverty to the heights of affluence and Western-style decadence in a single afternoon, and realizing that the people you talked to an hour ago will never be able to take a simple cab ride to an air-conditioned restaurant. Well, sort of talked to, since I don't speak Hindi communication is a distinct problem.