Durgapur, Kolkata, and Shillong

On 5/31, we moved to Durgapur, an industrial city northwest of Kolkata. Along the way, we stopped at Burdwan University, home of Professor Mujumder, guest professor and childhood friend of Professor Ganguly. At the university, Rose and I were part of a panel discussion with a few graduate students from Burdwan University. I spoke about the ethical dilemma faced when industrializing and providing electrical power to the 400 million people in India who do not have power. Access to electricity greatly impacts quality of life; should India provide power to its citizens as quickly as possible using coal power, or should it develop a sustainable network of renewable energy sources? Developing renewable sources will be more expensive and slower—if this option is chosen, it is the rural citizens without power who pay the price. This debate also applies to how India should industrialize: how much responsibility does India have to industrialize in a green manner and thus atone for the emissions of the industrialization of developed countries? The other panelists talked about environmental awareness, groundwater policies, environmental management systems, and the Paris climate talks.

We continued on the long bus journey to Durgapur, making a few stops before our hotel. Professor Ganguly grew up in a village near Durgapur; we stopped at his elementary school, St. Xavier’s. We then picked up another school friend of his named Apunam. It seems that everyone we meet in India is a school friend of Professor Ganguly—the chef, multiple professors, extra guides for some cities we visit. When we finally made it to Durgapur, it was dark out. We stopped at a dam where Apunam sang for us, then visited his home to see what a standard Indian home looks like. His house reminded me a lot of the Cuban house I stayed in for one night last summer. It was cozy and warm (AC only in the master bedroom). Apunam’s wife served us a green mango juice drink, similar to one that I had in Mumbai when I went to a Bengali restaurant with Professor Ganguly. It was great to see an Indian home and get a sense of how many people grow up in this country. One can learn much more from visiting a home than from days of staying in hotels.

On 6/1, we drove northwest from Durgapur to Asansol to visit the Maithon dam. Before entering the dam, we took a speed boat ride to an island in the dam reservoir. The small island had a playground and lots of strange public features, including benches whose legs were statues of two small people holding up the seat and a trash can that looked like a headless elephant sitting on a tricycle. While hanging out on the island, we saw some fisherman down below in the reservoir placing and collecting a large net. The speedboat ride was short—only 10 minutes—but very enjoyable. The boats were about 12 feet long with a few seats and lots of opportunity to be splashed to cool down. After the boat ride we had a snack of some masala chips and some fried lentils with spicy green mango chutney.

We then got a tour of the dam. The dam has three 20MW generators powered by Francis turbines, a special type of underwater turbine that utilizes pressure rather than the energy of falling water when the water level is low in the reservoir, as it is now during the dry season. I walked around with Udit and another mechanical engineering student and learned a lot about the dam from an engineer there. After the visit to the dam, we drove back to Kolkata through lots of traffic and got ready for our early flight the next morning.

On 6/2, we traveled to Shillong, a mountain city east of Bangladesh, via a flight to Guwahati and a drive up the mountain. Knowing that Shillong is relatively cool (temperatures around 70 degrees F), I wore my jeans during the travel day. Guwahati, it turns out, is not cool; it was over 90F when we landed. Our lunch stop in Guwahati was mediocre overall, but the tandoori chicken was fantastic. I am looking forward to having more of this when we go to Delhi later this week. Instead of a large bus, we took a group of small cars up the mountain to Shillong. The landscape was much different than other areas of India I have visited—green, foggy, and mountainous. The physical features of the people here are a mix of Tibetan and Indian. The food also has more East Asian qualities.

Along the way we stopped at an overlook and had some delicious small plums as snacks. I have disregarded the “don’t eat any fruit with skin” rule, as has most of the group. I also had some tea from a stall at the overlook. A large amount of sugar is added to almost any cup of tea on the street in India, so it tastes great. Tea on the street is often served in very thin plastic cups that do not look like they are made to hold boiling water. This might not be the safest thing to drink every day for a long period of time, but it is too good to pass up while I am here in India.

Pictures coming soon, I promise.