Jhender

Back to Kolkata. [on this maroon screen filling up with straight little lines of yellow text. WriteMonkey is a good typing app.] Anyway, yes i’m back in Kolkata, India, land of the 1 billion. Hello White Tiger, I am here again, once again visiting your land of drivers, horns, confusing traffic and overwhelming street life. Who knew that I would be back so soon, travelling the same few roads, the familiar roads. I went past Shakespeare Sarani Police Station again, silly as the name sounds it was a comfort to recognize roughly which street I was in. Starting to trust the cab drivers more.
Somehow, perhaps, in a little way it is reassuring to see the same things on the street, to see that the flyover is still where it is, that the police still man the junctions (?why), that the area outside the hotel is still the busy messy bazaar, and that life still went on here, in the same crazy manner, which I was away.
I saw, rickshaws rushing by, sometimes with the flow, sometimes against. I saw the odd tout still pestering foreigners, although 99.99% of them hardly bother, thankfully. It would be unbearable to have to fend off every single one. I saw other shops, sweet shops, food shops. We walked underground through the metro underpass, a warm stuffy space confusingly guarded by security – no photography, and bag checks, and with Booking counters to buy 4 – 8 rupees tickets. Lassi, Adidas, Taxis, Beggars, A world where everything is out there in your face, right out there. And there was a bus terminus, filled with a mess of long-distance buses stuffed with people and luggage overhead. No thanks I’m not going to Siliguri, nor Digha, nowhere else thank you. No we do not want head massagers and that whoever guy in a white shirt is not our brother who bought one earlier. And we do not intend to come back later, but we’re not going to tell you that, and you don’t believe in it anyway. The elevator, does not have a Close button.
+ 2 little teacups of chai.
I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

When I was on the plane, I read one of SIA’s inflight magazines, it had a 24-hr introduction to Mumbai. It was a pretty awesome itinerary, one that any tour agency might be proud of, or rather one that any adventurer would truly be proud of. One thing I remember from it is the recommendation to experience the humanity. Standing at the roadside, I feel like its hugely alive, like this ‘rustic’ ‘laid-back’ Indian city is so packed and in so much of a rush compared with perhaps Beijing or New York. The TV just showed an ad for a tough luggage bag – ‘Survive Mumbai. Survive the world.’

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Some unrelated feedback about my new lens, you know, the big white shark. I feel extremely conspicuous carrying it around, and definitely have to expend considerably mental and physical effort caring for it. Dramatic loss of wide-angle view is the biggest drawback. but it compensates with addictively fast zooming, focusing, sharpness and good aperture at range. The good aperture and IS helped to get some nice photos, although I still had to delete half to two-thirds. It would be better if I didn’t feel so conspicuous and unsafe. I think 1500 of good photos at $1 each would be a good return, if I can reach that.
The lens isn’t that big, really.