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2003-12-05 / 12-06 - Calcutta (Kolkota) (Day 233-234)

The first thing that I noticed about the Sister's of Charity building was how incredibly modest the building was. Even the building itself was unassuming, in a small alley off a non-descript road. The "Mother House" as it is known is the base of Mother Teresa's worldwide organization but one would never know it from the building, or the air of service of the nuns that I saw there. There is a small spotless courtyard and then one is led into a small, rather plain room where the simple tomb of Mother Teresa is. On the walls are hand-lettered posters with photographs glued to them of the Sister's history, work that has been done and of course the life of Mother Teresa herself. I had the feeling more of a country church with placards made by the parishioners and the church choir more then that of one of a woman known in every corner of the globe and a Nobel Prize Winner. While her life and the accomplishments was amazing, it is the humble desire to help those in need as opposed to self aggrandizement that was overwhelming to me. The Mother House left me with something I did not expect from such a noble woman and her order, a feeling that all of the world's adoration is nothing compared to the value of the work they were doing in itself. One of the placards spoke about how Mother Teresa had made a deal with Jesus to use her celebrity for its own ends in that being one of the world's most photographed people; she made a deal that for every photograph Jesus would release one soul from purgatory. The whole thought brings a smile, but then again, perhaps those on the way to sainthood really can make deals with God.

I also visited the Victoria Memorial though due to the dense smog, renovation scaffolding and bad light did not give me the pictures that I had hoped for. On the other hand, I did learn that it is the "in" spot for making out and has rows of benches hidden among the trees. Apparently, most any day, especially in summer, on can find innumerable couples hidden behind huge umbrellas or open newspapers. Apparently the high-school relationship test is "Have you been to VM yet?"

Riding through Chinatown was just a depressing affair. The place was a jumble of dark dirty shops, most with shutters closed, and there seemed to be a total lack of pride in either their business or their Chinese culture. In places like Washington, New York or San Francisco, the Chinese communities have made their culture a badge of pride and passing through this mess of a section, I could only feel that the Chinese must hate it here and wish nothing more then to leave and go somewhere else. After all of the time I've spent in Chinese communities, this was a very sad place to see.

Even though I spent four days in Calcutta, I did not take hardly any photos. The atmosphere was dark and oppressive and I couldn't find much of beauty there or things I'd want to remember. Looking through my albums from this trip I find that most of my pictures are of happy cheerful people and beautiful places, but Calcutta hemmed in by smog and with sour dark feeling about it left me with little inspiration to pull out the camera.

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