Kolkata and the Sundarbans

Upon arrival in Kolkata on 5/28, I had two delicious kathi rolls for lunch. I had heard a lot about kathi rolls before reaching Kolkata from a few people who came to India last year and ate a lot of them. A kathi roll is a circular flat bread fried in oil; after the dough is placed into the oil, an egg is cracked on top of the roll. The roll is then flipped so the egg can cook, then toppings including onions, lime juice, hot sauce, and potato or chicken are added. The concoction is then rolled up and served like a burrito. Over the next couple days in Kolkata I had kathi rolls from a a few different places. They were all very good, but I found my favorite was the one that was the saltiest and had the least hot sauce. It is hard to go wrong with fried egg and dough.

After lunch in Kolkata we had some dancers visit our group to perform. The three women who visited performed different classical dances from around India—this was similar to the music presentation we had in Mumbai, where we heard samples of traditional music from all over the country. Later in the evening we went on a boat ride on the Hoogli River, a tributary of the Ganges. The boat was called a “Floating Entertainment Center” and featured live music. We all danced to the songs, whose lyrics were in Hindi and Bengali. Most of the songs were upbeat, but we learned after the fact that a couple of the slower songs in the middle of the set had been sad songs. Not understating the lyrics and thus not grasping the sentiment of the songs, we danced as if the songs were in celebration of a great victory. It was dark out during the boat ride, but dark does not mean “cool” in India—it was above 85 degrees F.

On 5/29, we began the day with a few guest speakers. My favorite of the talks was about the sewage system in Kolkata. The system is a combined system for wastewater and storm runoff. Sewage from each of three main lines travels to its own pumping station. At each pumping station, water is transferred from an underground reservoir to a canal above ground. The canal then drains to the East Kolkata Wetlands where it is treated. These canals can only be opened to drain to the treatment areas for 12 hours of the day due to tidal water levels. We also heard a talk about the water treatment in the wetlands—water is collected into large pools and algae is added. After 10 days, the nutrient-rich water reaches safe contaminant levels and can then be used for fish cultivation.

Back to the sewage system: during the dry season, pipes are rarely overloaded; during the monsoon, flooding occurs often. If any of the three main lines is blocked, there is a potential for flood anywhere upstream of the blockage. Another cause of flooding in the city is overloaded pump stations. The volume of water that needs to be pumped could exceed the pumping capacity or a pump could break. If the canals where the pumps discharge water are full and cannot be opened because it is high tide, the pumps cannot be run; this also results in flooding in the city. In any flooding event, wastewater can come up through storm drains and manholes in affected areas of the city. In addition to smelling bad and flooding city streets, this wastewater can also cause a health hazard as children like to play in the water that rises up through manholes in the streets.

After lunch, we visited one of Kolkata’s pump stations and two temples. It was really interesting to see the pump station after hearing such a great talk about how the sewage system works. We visited Mother Teresa’s tomb, a Jain temple, then a Hindu temple. I read a bit about the contradictions between Mother Teresa’s teachings and her personal life—her work was not necessarily as great as it was purported to be. The Jain temple we visited was beautiful and ornate. The subsidiary buildings in the courtyard were painted bright pastel colors and the temple itself had inlaid tile and glass on every wall. The next temple was much larger and not as ornate. The most interesting part of this visit was the large pictures of the Ganges River in one of the hallways. Seeing these pictures made me want to travel farther northwest of Kolkata to see more of the Ganges. On the way back to the bus from the temple, I had a kulfi from a guy with a street cart. Kulfi is ice cream, generally flavored with cardamom and nuts. It was creamy and refreshing after our long wait in line to enter the second temple.

On 5/30, we went to the Sundarbans, a collection of islands south of Kolkata at the Ganges delta that are already being greatly affected by climate change. The Sundarbans are a Unesco World Heritage site. The islands are vulnerable to both sea level rise and the heightening intensity of storms that erode away the islands. A large portion of the people in the villages are either illiterate or have minimal school; the vast majority of inhabitants rely on natural resources for their income, resources that are quickly disappearing due to climate change. The Sundarbans are also one of the last places in the world with wild tigers. As Professor Ganguly said many times, “you will probably not see a tiger when you visit, but the tiger will see you.” Upon our arrival, we took a boat ride and visited a small animal preserve with some crocodiles and monkeys. The boat ride was relaxing after the long bus ride to the islands. It was an interesting bus ride, as explained below.

We left our hotel to head for the Sundarbans a few minutes after 7:00am. As with most roads in India, the road we were driving on was a two-lane road barely wide enough for two buses or trucks to drive past one another. These skinny roads are shared by pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, cows, cars, trucks, and buses. There are no rules for passing except that you must honk your horn loud enough to convince the oncoming cars that they must stop for you.

At 9:15, traffic came to a standstill. Just 100 meters or so ahead of us, a truck carrying a full load of sand coming in the opposite direction had tipped over sideways on the road. It tipped in such a way as to block any traffic larger than small cars from passing. Thus, our bus was stuck for two hours begin the backup. It did not appear that the traffic was going to clear any time soon, wo instead of continuing to sit and wait for the road to clear, our guide walked past the blockage and asked another bus if it could transport us the final 38km to the Sundarbans. It was then that we boarded a pink bus and sped toward our destination. There was no door on the bus and the driver was incredibly fast. We drove at least twice as fast as we would have in the tour bus on the same road. This bus driver had no qualms with passing into oncoming traffic or around corners—the horn was not used sparingly during the 45-minute ride. Riding on the fast pink bus was a highlight of the day for many of the students. The bus ride back was less exciting and took longer because we rode the tour bus the whole day.

Announcement: Internet will be slow for the next many days: I'll post pictures when I get a chance.