Kolkata

I used to have a personal term called the "Yemen effect." What is the yemen effect? It is when you goto such a bad place, that the next place you visit, no matter how bad it is, seems like shangri-la.

For example, I am probably one of the first foreigners to have landed in Cairo and thought, "wow, this place is very nice!" while driving from the airport to downtown. No likely it was due to the fact that I was in Yemen for the previous 5 months prior to that. Cairo is very nice compared to cities in Yemen. Over time. I came to realize that Cairo really wasn't that pleasant and that my perception had been distorted due to my time in Yemen.

Why do I bring this up? I believe the same thing is happening to me here in Kolkata. It has a reputation of poverty and being very dirty. Well I know this much: driving through the rich parts of Kolkata is a lot nicer thang driving through the high-class areas of Dhaka. The central business district of the former has decent sidewalks, stop lights, and a sense of order. Dhaka's main business district? A disaster zone for the most part.

This morning I was walking through Kolkata and thinking, "wow, this place is divine. I hear English being spoken, many signs are in English, yay. Where is all that bad stuff I heard about? Where are all the beggars? Where are the sites that make me sick to my stomach? BRING IT ON INDIA!" I had to remind myself that I will no doubt have my hands full of all of that elsewhere in the country.

It is also a little strange for me here. The local language is the same as in Bangladesh (bangla/Bengali) and a lot of the signs are in bangla script. The food is the same. The differences are the aforementioned English, the lack of rickshaws, the large # of cars (compared to Bangladesh), and the neatness of the place. It is a bit like going to a disneyfied version of Bangladesh.

I will end this entry with this: if you want a "easy" way to be introduced to India, Kolkata isn't a bad choice. The center of the city isn't that bad, the traffic isn't total chaos, and there is nothing to make you ill (well maybe the food, but so far so good). But remember, I came from Bangladesh and therefore the "yemen effect" is in full force right now, so perhaps my opinion is a little biased.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I shall be finally composing my mass summary of Bangladesh.

Cheers.