Poverty Amidst the Fantastic - Part 2
Trip Start
Aug 04, 2009
1
139
141
Trip End
Ongoing
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Monday, January 30, 2012
Between these two cities and on the way to and from we stopped to see a few odds and ends sites. I also did some souvenir shopping for a small carpet and hand printed bed linens; also some tea esp. Masala, and Cardamom tea. I think if i were to come back to this area I would like to do a tour of the Darjeeing tea and a few other tea plantations that are located in the countryside. the cities here that I've seen are so poor.
Another case of me needing my friend Helen from Oz and her renowned bargaining skills was with the tea salesman. I may include his photo but trust me he was or thought he was slick. I once again bargained hard and got what I thought was a good deal. Only after returning to Calcutta and stopping at a tea shop to ask for directions did I find out the deal wasn't so great. The Calcutta tea man that ran the tea shop and the owner were so nice to me explaining about how to make Masala and other Indian teas that I bought a half kilo of Masala tea at less than half the cost for top of the line Masala and getting considerably more tea than at the Jaipur tea shop. Oh well sometimes retrospect knowledge isn't so great after all.
After Agra we drove back to Delhi stopping along the way to photo a few sites. I had one more night in that bad hotel and it seemed even worse after having stayed in the Laxmi Palace hotel. I can say one good thing about the Ajanta - their breakfast bar was pretty good and expansive, but that's about all I can find good to say about it. Then I flew back to Calcutta and stayed 2 days in a cool little Class 2 special (Hotel Circular). It wasn't close to the airport at all but it made for a scenic drive through different parts of Calcutta getting there. The hotel was small and the rooms were so small I thought I was back in the Harrison Hall dorm rooms at Edgecliff College. The staff made up for the size of my room - so friendly and helpful. At $22 a night I was fairly impressed. It was like staying at the hotel version of the Little Engine That Could...the Little Hotel That Could. Its definitely not for someone who wants plush and new but for me it was perfect.
The next day after a simple breakfast of an omelette, toast and milk tea, I took a walking tour of the Dalhousie area or as its now called the B.B.D. Bagh. The Writers' Building is one famous building located here and originally served as the office for writers of the British East India Company. The B.B.D letters stand for the three young Indian independence activists, Benoy, Badal and Dinesh who in December 1930 shot and killed the notorious Inspector General of Prisons who was infamous for his brutal oppression of the prisoners in the jail. The story about this is quite interesting and I will do my best here to retell the story as it was told to me by our walking tour guide. Please bear with me or skip this paragraph - I just find historical stories like this fascinating. Here goes: Dressed in fashionable business suits and concealing their revolvers, B.B.D walked to the Writer's Building, which housed the jail in the basement. After Benoy, Badal and Dinesh shot dead the Inspector General they took control of the Writers’ Building and soon a gun battle followed in the corridors of the Writers’ Building. Unable to match up with the forces of the Calcutta Police, the trio soon found themselves overpowered and cornered. Unwilling to give themselves up Badal took Potassium Cyanide and died instantly, while his fellow comrades shot themselves. Benoy died five days later in a hospital but Dinesh survived only to be hanged to death in July 1931. A statue of Benoy, Badal & Dinesh stands across the street from the Writers’ Building, showing Benoy, the group leader, pointing toward the Writer's Building.
The B.B.D area was in the heart of White Town in old Calcutta. B. B. D. Bagh continues to be like the 'heart' of Calcutta and many famous buildings housing important businesses and banks are located here. Calcutta at one time was divided into "dual cities" - "white" town and "black" town. White is where the British lived and black is where the Indian's lived. The central point of "white" town was a grand old hotel (where we met for our tour) the Great Eastern Hotel now non working. Other points of interest were the "dead" letters building, a courthouse and a couple churches but I will go into more detail on the photos themselves as I don't want this entry to run too long. Be sure to click on the photos to get more info about them.
Well thats about all of it or maybe I'm getting tired of writing it but hopefully it didn't bore you too much when you read it.
Epilogue: just as in my return from Nepal where I ate street food and anything else someone put in my face, the point being, I never got sick. But on my way home from Nepal I ate a salad from a salad bar in the train station in DC and then got sick; here in India after eating all forms of strange and unusual foods I ate some processed food (Pringles) in the airport. I think thats the reason altho it might've been a delayed reaction to something from India. Within an hour I was running to the toilet every 30 minutes. On the airplanes and still 4 days later I am still feeling the effects with what's commonly referred to as "Delhi Belly" or TD, and trust me it doesn't stand for tax deductible.
*No more trips planned for awhile with the exception of some day trips to traditional villages here near Hanoi.
I hope everyone's New Year has been a great start to a great year.
