Pride Parade
Nilaudry is a Calcutta University professor who came to the Fulbright/American Councils place to give us a lecture on Kolkata. He was brilliant, hilarious, and inspiring, and we learned so much about our surroundings from that talk. He gives walking tours of North Kolkata and we will all be going on one later this month. Nilaudry is very involved with the gay rights movement in Kolkata, which is part of the larger movement against gender-based violence here. He invited us all to walk in the Pride Parade, and the Director overseeing our program from the US Consul also asked us. He said his whole staff marches in the parade, which made me proud. Last year the visiting teachers helped carry a big US flag, but this year we were far from the Consul people, up in front with the rainbow flag. The parade doesn't really have a big cheering audience lining the streets--mostly impassive stares, but that seems to be a common reaction to many kinds of unfamiliar antics, as travelling with this group of young teachers I have had a chance to note. Everyone said the parade grows each year, and the marchers, mostly young students from the art school and university, were very excited and enthusiastic. I represented for individual freedom and true American values, and I am much to be commended, because it was hella hot, hella far, and extremely slow.
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| Nilaudry, and Drew from my group |
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| One of Nilaudry's students with Caitlin, our Resident Director |
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| Sarah, Alexis, and Dan from my group |
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| Some very courageous White Lady with a strong resemblance to Martha in the George and Martha books. |
The Oberoi Grand Hotel
One of the many amazing things about this trip is how everyone treats us as if we were extremely important. The American Consul people in Washington and here talk to us as if they think we are a crucial part of Indian-American relations. Our schools have received us as VIP's/honored guests, and everyone we encounter in India seems to revere teachers. The brusque and uncommunicative owner of the camera shop where some of us went for extra passport photos completely transformed when he heard who we were, offered us tea, and spoke at length on the value of our work and our visit. Nothing sums up this feeling more than our hotel--I still can't believe they put us here (although looking around at some of the other nearby rather terrifying lodgings, I do realize there isn't a lot in between squalor and luxury in Kolkata; no middle class; no Courtyard Marriott--beware, America! It is a famous place, probably the top hotel in town. It is always cool, smells delightful, has an amazing pool, and a huge staff all wanting to help you all the time (which can be a little awkward, truthfully, when you're not used to that) This building started out as a rooming house for Hon. East India Co. business travellers, was a guest house for visiting British dignitaries during Victorian times, and was purchased by Mr. Oberoi with his enormous proceeds from providing for partying British and American soldiers during WWII. Although the pool has replaced the wartime nightclub, on the whole it's more maintained rather than restored. Its very glamorous and nostalgic, and the free breakfast is fantastic! It has a huge buffet, or you can order what you like from the menu. It has Indian breakfast, British breakfast, whatever you like. It has watermelon juice and mango juice! They have a famous spa where we get a huge discount and then half THAT amount during certain hours. After a very long draining day at school, followed by the steamy one half hour in an incense-filled taxi on a trip which is soon to be added as the next death-defying thrill ride at Great America, it is truly like heaven to enter this hotel. I can hear celestial choirs as soon as the doorman does his namascar and opens the door for me.
Rath Yatra
So Kolkata is a city of great religious diversity, and it seems there are many pujas--festivals, and today, we learned, was Rath Yatra, a big day for followers of Jagannath, whose statue in the principal's office at school looks kind of like a luchador. In the staff room we had special papars--delicious fried flatbread crackers made from lentils--like papadum, if you've had those, here made by the cranky tea lady. All the teachers complained because, since it isn't raining, it's still hot, and usually it's cooler to eat these crackers--they are like a change of season food. On the way home our cab could not move any more, so we got out and walked and enjoyed the dancing, parading, and everyone's attempts to get a hand on the rope to pull the boat float, so they will have helped Jagannath, who I think is going on a sort of vacation or family visit for some days. Weirdly, the chanting was very familiar, and a man on the street told us that many in the West have adopted this religion--they are the home group of the Hare Krishna airport solicitation people!
Dubai
The world of Rollerball is real, and Dubai is its capital, or at least its Switzerland. You know how history tells us that large German and Allied country corporations kept trading right through World War II? In Dubai you get that sense right away, of the real government of the world, with power in the hands of the enormous banks and companies freed, out in this desert from even superficial concessions to all those irritating rules with which some countries ineffectually try to restrict their activities. I will write more about the earlier part of my trip next time, and also tell you about the BSS School. Blogging is as time-consuming as I feared, and I MUST go and prepare now for tomorrow, as I will be taking the Principal Ma'am's class on gerunds and participles, for which she has now declared me qualified. Even though an engaging or interactive lesson is not required or even desired, I still feel compelled to produce one--you try that with verbals!
Here I am in front of the Burj Khalil, still the tallest building in the world, I think... Incongruously I kept thinking of a quote from Mansfield Park, “I am something like the famous Doge at the court of Lewis XIV.; and may declare that I see no wonder in this shrubbery equal to seeing myself in it". It's really hard for me to grasp sometimes that I really am in these places where I never expected to go!
We had 10 hours, so we bought Metro "Gold Car' tickets (Air Conditioning!). Some teachers went to the giant mall where you go to get your blinged-out burka, but I rode all the way to the end of the line, hoping in vain for any glimpse of desert.
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