Musings

Yesterday I ate lunch at a different restaurant. I won't eat there again. Half way through my rice and chicken masala two rats ran along the floor and the opposite wall. Think I'll eat at the restaurants I know from now on.

Last Friday afternoon I went to the Tagore family home. I've been under the impression that everyone in India can quote a Tagore poem. Not my cab driver. He didn't know who I was talking about. I had the address. He recognized the street but then couldn't believe how far we had to go on it. He even stopped to ask someone.

I enjoyed seeing the home and learning about the Tagores. Several members were artists, writers and thinkers. Rabindranath is the most famous of the family as he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I am reading a collection of his works now.

My first Sunday here I walked to the Maidan. The guidebook compares it to NYC's Central Park. Mmm....not sure I would agree, except it is a Kolkatan favorite. Especially with the young men. For as you can see in the picture this is where they go to play cricket and soccer. Amazing how many games there were that morning. The place emptied around noon but at 5 that evening I saw young men heading back with their equipment.


On that day I couldn't find a place to sit until I hit the grounds of the Victoria Memorial. My picture is not a fair representation of the grounds. By then the day was getting hot and I was taken with the trees. This week I thought I would go back for a better picture and to see the museum. But I never could talk myself into it. I seem to not care. Neither have I cared about the Indian Museum, the oldest Kali temple, the lake at Rabindra Sarovar, or Kaligat. I have good intentions in the morning and make plans but after volunteering I'm spent, it's hot, I have my Tagore book and I don't care. Guess I'm not a very good tourist.

Tomorrow is my last day volunteering. Seems I can get permission to take some photos. So that I will do in the morning and then post them in the afternoon because the following morning I leave for Dharamsala.