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This morning started like any other day with Denish collecting a car load of students and Angela to take to school. Then we waited for his return. An hour went by, and thanks to the gift of WhatsApp she had let me know they had arrived at the school, but we had no real sense of what was taking Denish so long. There was a very big hole in the road on the regular route so we were having to take a narrower route alongside the river - this is not a scenic riverside experience as you might imagine. Alongside the river people live in hovels, made of cloth and discarded wood or corrugated iron and held together with dried mud or clay, they have not been designed or have planning permission they just cling to the riverbank. The cause of Denish's delay was that they are dredging the river. Huge clumps of mud are being hauled out of the river by JCB's precariously perched on floating platforms. The mud is placed in lorries and taken away. The road is hardly wide enough for a car let alone two lorries and when the second group finally set off in the car we ground to a halt as we came up behind this exact problem. When we finally arrived at the school Denish received a round of applause. As we were having breakfast Dan called me to say that Anup had decided to feed the last carload breakfast and arrange for us to meet them 'beyond the hole' which sounds like the title of a Neil Gaiman book. This meant that those us who had arrived at the school were asked to walk back up the road. It was actually wonderful to be able to get closer to life that I have seen over and over along that road in the times I have come to the school. For example the women who were washing their clothes on the edge of the large pond, and the fish stall which is on the corner of the road that we turn down.
The last car load were waiting in the shade for us, and for our bus for the day to arrive. We finally got on the bus and headed off into Kolkata for our other cultural day. This time to see Victoria Gardens and Paul's Cathedral in the morning have lunch at Haldiram and then Belur Math in the afternoon.
Victoria Gardens and St Paul's Cathedral are very typical examples of colonial British architecture and landscaping. The gardens are traditional formal gardens with a large lake, lots of benches and beautiful planted borders, the azaleas in particular are very striking at the moment. The differences are that instead of British trees we are used to there are Mango trees to provide the shade and instead of overfed grey squirrels there are overfed chipmunks.
As we came out of the gardens we walked just down the road to St Paul's Cathedral. This again is very British architecture, reminiscent of a combination of old St Pancras station and Westminster Abbey where the Victoria Museum has a dome like St Paul's Cathedral.
Lunch at Haldiram was a great experience and like an Indian version of McDonalds and ZaZaBazaar but with a huge sweet shop as well. I enjoy trying different things that I don't know what they are, which means sometimes they are super spicy. Ivy and Christina took this to a whole new level with so much food that it didn't all fit on their table, whilst others had the option to go more western with pizzas and grilled cheese sandwiches. And of course much sweetie shopping was had.
After lunch we boarded the coach and headed off to Belur Math, the Hindu temple built in honour of Shwarmi Vivekenanda. It is quite a busy complex with lots of people coming to pay homage. In some ways more like a church than a Hindu temple without so much ornate decoration inside. The added bonus is that it sits on the Ganges river so many people come and wash hands, feet or the whole of themselves in the river. It is filthy, which is a striking contrast between honouring Mother Ganges and the fact that it is one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
Once back on the bus we headed back to the school. About 30mins from the school we were pulled over by a policeman who asked the driver who was on the bus. When it was explained that it was a group of foreign students the policeman asked for 50rupees as a bribe (about 50pence in English money) and sent us on our way, although he made us go only one route which took us about half an hour extra than it should have done.
I received a phone call from John and Anup and was dropped off at Behalla market to help purchase sweets to accompany our evening meal. I got to try khali jamon, which is like the orange gulab jamon but black. Suraj and Madhu described it as a little bit burned and I had interpreted this as caramelised but in fact they were right it is a little bit burned so very sweet but caked in charcoal.
We all ended up in Anup's apartment, where he played a great host to a party and at midnight we celebrated Amber's birthday.
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