Arriving: A First Glance at Kolkata
First photographic impressions of the city that will be my home for the next 7 months
Ten days ago I arrived in Kolkata, in the Indian State of West Bengal, where I am to spend the next 7 months. Most of the time I will be volunteering for an NGO, but there will be enough spare time to enjoy Kolkata, and to travel around India.
This is far from my first visit to Kolkata or to India, and I have already written an article about my impressions of this country and my reflections of being a visitor here (read the article here), so I will try to not rehash what I already wrote about India, and how I see myself being here. But, contrary to my past experiences, this is the first time I will be truly living here. I’m in the process of getting registered as a foreign resident, I will get my own place to stay in a couple of weeks, I’m finding out how daily life (shopping, laundry, getting a haircut…) functions, and I’ll start work pretty soon. Right now, ‘though, I am still arriving. Still being a visitor, staying with friends, being wined and dined thanks to the great Indian hospitality, being shown around town. And since I won’t work yet, I have a lot of free time on my hands, most of which I spend roaming around the city, much of it on foot, with a camera in hand.
I was thinking hard to come up with an angle on how to approach potential articles about Kolkata. People had asked me to blog about my experiences here, what it is to live in India as an expat. That’s not really my thing: I don’t want to make these stories about myself. Nor do I want to go in the direction of “oh ain’t it quaint here”. We are all quaint in the eyes of strangers, and there is no need to perpetuate stereotypes. So instead I will be focusing on other aspects of this great city: the people, the religious and ethnic diversity, the customs; and other topics that will come up along the way. Maybe also some articles related to my work with the NGO, and yes, possibly even some more personal ones about my experiences here – after all, I can’t take myself totally out of the equation.
However, as a way of introduction, I thought I’d start with a background and general impressions of Kolkata.
I first visited Kolkata back in 1986 (it was still called Calcutta back then). The trip was … a nightmare. The friend I was travelling with ended up in hospital with dyssentri, and instead of travelling around the country as planned, we were stuck in the city which back then was, well, as bad as its then-reputation. It was extremely overcrowded – people had been fleeing the impoverished countryside in masses and ended up as squatters in Kolkata. The city was polluted and smelly (mostly from the cow dung that was used as fuel for fire) and traffic was perpetually congested; though the worst aspect were the groups of beggar children, many with limbs hacked off by unscrupulous gang chiefs, that assaulted car passengers at every crossing. I literally still had nightmares of the place and those children months after being back in Europe. It took me almost 30 years to come back here, but when I did, in 2013, I found a place much changed for the better. It is a lot less crowded, and it is less dirty and hectic than Mumbai for instance. I have been returning here almost every year ever since, which tells you how fond I have become of the place.
Kolkatans take pride in that their city is different from other Indian cities, and indeed it is, even though, as an outsider, I may find it difficult to judge just what that difference is, although I dare say I will find out in the upcoming months. Kolkata is relatively young, of course; it dates back to the 18th century only. It used to be India’s most populous city, until Mumbai overtook it, and during the British occupation, it was the capital of the British Raj until Delhi became the capital; and it is also the birthplace of early Indian nationalism and the fight for independence. On the surface, it is the British past which characterises Kolkata to a large degree – certainly in its architecture, from the Victoria Memorial on down to the grand administrative buildings and the many stately villas, many of them now sadly crumbling or being demolished. But of course, Kolkata is more than it’s colonial past. It has a rich religious and ethnic diversity, and it is a city of cinema, literature and other arts. Oh, and it is a city of great food – I am certainly enamoured with Bengali cuisine.
For this first article on Kolkata, I chose photos that offer a general impression of the city (I will cover more specific topics in later articles). This is not meant to be a travel guide, and many of the landmark sites are missing from the collection. Instead I have included images of those places which interest me the most.
India is a country famous for its colours, of course; but it is also a country of light and dark, which makes it so attractive for black and white photography as well; hence the mixture of both styles in this selection of photos.
All photos © the author, 2013–2019
