Bengali sweets and headless goats

Vendor of Kali Images by the Kalighat temple

Sara, Andrea and I after visiting the temple

Man in lungi carrying table on head, Calcutta

Pomagranates on on a street of fruit vendors

To end my time in India with a Bang, I decided to jump on the opportunity to see the northeast with Andrea, Sara and Naomi. We started in Calcutta, where I was told to expect more poverty than in Bombay, (not particularly true) The city has a very different flavor than both Bollywood Bombay and Capital New Delhi. Calcutta, (or Kolkata) meaning city of joy has also remained the cultural hubof the nation. The major monuments we visited included the Victoria Memorial, giving an account of British rule from an Indian perspective and the Kali ghat temple. Where Mumbaikers love Ganesh, the god of wisdom with an Elephant head, Calcutta has a special attachment to the wrathful and destructive goddess Kali, who is depicted wearing a necklace of bloody human heads. To satisfy her, , goats are regularly sacrificed at the Kalighat Temple. We went one morning to see the slaughtering. Poor little goats, they must have thought it was a special day, going for a walk and getting a special bath. Before they knew it, someone is holding their front legs behind their backs and putting their neck on the guillotine, in one quick motion their heads are chopped off while their headless bodies are still kicking away.
Down the street, I also got a chance to visit Mother Teresa's home for the dying destitutes. Other than that, we spent most of our time on Park Street eating at Flury's and visiting local sweet shops for their famous Bengali sweets. YUMMMM
Our stay in Calcutta lasted only 3 days. The truth is, in the end its just another Indian city. We were ready to get away from the noise, the traffic, the people, the pollution and the heat - and we did just that. After a 13 hour sleeper class train and 3 hours of winding up the mountains in a 11 person Jeep, we arrived in a alternate reality of India - the tea plantation paradise of Darjeeling.