MOTHER TERESA IN KOLKATA  JAN. 9

The breakfast was amazing and I was disappointed to find out that tomorrow we leave at 6 a.m. so get just a boxed breakfast!! That’s my favorite meal of the day and it was just spectacular!! Oh, well! With all the poverty I witnessed today, I should be grateful I had even that one meal!!

We first meandered through traffic (they have a guy who sits up with the driver, looking out the other side of the van, with 3 different mirrors, to help him negotiate through the traffic) There are no lines that anyone follows. I would never try to cross a street here. I commented that Pat B., who was so nervous crossing in China, would NEVER make it across here!! She’d be frozen to the sidewalk!! :)

Anyway, our first stop was the “Mother House” where M. Teresa set up her Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She worked for nearly 50 years crying for the ill, destitute and dying of Kolkata. She was from Albania, at around 20 left her loving family and trained to Ireland to learn a new language and become a missionary, requesting to be sent to India. She arrived in 1933 and worked as a nun in a school as a teacher. But she felt a second “calling” to work with the very poor. So she left there and started, almost single-handedly to work in the poorest areas of Kolkata. She would take dying people off the street into a house and comfort them until they died. She set up orphanages and “small schools” for children. She changed her regular nun’s habit for a white with blue trim sari that her community now wears. Our guide said during 1939-1945 Calcutta was suffering a human-made famine where 2 million people starved because all the food was going to the British war effort against Japan. 

She received several awards during the 50s and 60s and on until finally receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. (India has received 3 other Nobel prizes: one scientist for discoveries about prisms; a poet for Literature; and an economist who is now a professor at Harvard) She died at her mother House at age 87 in 1997 and we visited her tomb. It was very moving! A humble, simple place! One of the nuns gave us holy cards and these “miracle medals” that Sr. Teresa would distribute. 

I think I have it clear now how the British ever came to have this as part of their “Empire.”  For 200 years, from 1773 until 1911 the British East India Company set up their trading empire here in Calcutta, its capital until 1911 when moved to Delhi, and is a port on the Huggli river, a tributary of the Ganges River, and 130 KM from the Bay of Bengal. Between here at the Bay is a delta of water and forests. We rode by the river, where Pilgrims were gathering, temporary tent/shelters had been set up for them, in anticipation of some festival on the 14th. Suvenda told us we’d see many monks (we saw some in bright orange robes) and we might see very elderly ones totally naked (we missed that!). 

Our next stop was where statues made of bamboo, straw and clay were being formed and then brightly painted, of some of the 33 million Hindu gods and goddesses. There are 3 main gods: Brahma- Creator; Vishnu-Preserver of balance; Shiva-the destroyer. Shiva’s wife (black face) is shown standing on top of her husband, looking fierce.  I didn’t get all the significance of this! We followed him through a maze of alleys where men (we saw only 1 woman working) were putting these frames together. This is in anticipation of Republic Day, Jan. 26, when India was declared a Republic. These statues will be sold, displayed and after the holiday thrown back into the river where the clay comes from - recycling!! 

He told us that Hindu was originally NOT a religion but a way of life. It had 4 stages: first, you were a child, living with your family, learning;  second, you married (usually and still often, arranged by your parents; thirdly, when children went off, parents often lived apart and separate lives; and then the fourth, when, continuing separate living, they reflect and get ready for the afterlife, mostly living like a monk, focusing on the spiritual. BTW, he mentioned their is no welfare system, no pension or medical insurance provided by the state for elderly. It’s up to the family to take care of elderly. 

Facts:  Hindus eat no beef or pork. The railroad is a vast network in India and biggest employer. 

Caste system:  still evident in the countryside, not so much in cities (I’d read it was illegal) Brahmins or priests at top; Kings or rulers next; Business people third; Untouchable at the bottom. You could only marry within your caste. No upward mobility here!

Mother Teresa's statue

Her tomb: I took a few petals that were offered that had been on the tomb.

Huge wagon of potatoes

man drawn rickshaws - usually run barefoot! Poorest of the poor, said our guide. 

Shiva's wife, standing on him!

One of the goddesses

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One of the goddesses of power, with many arms, riding on a lion

Intricate paperwork to be added on

Came across Buddha!

Little statues of Ganeesh! Want to find one for Sarah's collection of elephants!

Frequent STOP HONKING signs that are TOTALLY ignored! REally hurt my hearing aids, all the honking! Accomplishes nothing! Nobody moves, or pays attention!

This was in the colonial part of the city. I think it was the "Dead Letter" office, now the post office!

St. John's church. Founder of Calcutta is buried here.

See the St. John in green to the right of Christ, with artist's wife's face!

Playing the Scottish pipe organ

and the little piano in the church

He talked about the Communists who had been in control here for 34 years. One of the good things they did was free education for all through primary school. Also promoted good things for farmers and industrial workers. But many strikes happened and at one point unemployment was 42%. It’s now 18% so things have gotten better. One of the negative things he mentioned was they deleted Math and English as subjects in primary schools so there was a whole generation of people who suffered that lack. They are less strict and less in power now it seems. 

There are 30 states in india, this is Bengal. 15 million people in Kolkata, 1.3 billion in India; 70% Hindu, 23% Muslim, 4% Christian and 2% other (I think the few Buddhists must be included here)

We observed many cricket matches going on (it’s Saturday here so crowds were in Victoria park and elsewhere). They are NUTS about the game here. 

Only car produced in India - the Ambassador, cute design, never changed in 40 years, most yellow taxis are Ambassadors. 

The money (we FINALLY just got some, although Barbara still can’t get her card to work!)

1000 Rupees = about $17

so 100 is about $2

They will take rupees or dollars in Bhutan

They grow and eat tons of potatoes here! We saw trucks loaded with them. Also trucks loaded with big tins of mustard oil that they cook with. Gives a spicy taste to food. Fish is very popular here - “sweet fish” which means river rather than salt water fish. 

Another stop was St. John’s Anglican Church, built in 1758 or so. Has a famous Last Supper painting where “John” next to Christ looks like a woman. The artist was depicting John but put his wife’s face on it! There was an amazing pipe organ and there were visiting children of some high official. So one of the two people who can play it was playing a couple of songs on this organ transported from Scotland. He also played on a piano nearby. Our guide said maybe 1 in 12 groups that he brings here ever get to hear it played so we were the lucky ones!

Our last stop and least interesting was the Victoria Memorial, a huge park jammed with people enjoying the weekend, built around 1920 after Victoria had died. She never visited India.