Women preparing for the tasks of the day provide a daily alarm clock...metal dinner ware clanking as they wash dishes on their stoop...closer to the water canisters that have collected rain during the night. I live in a mixed neighborhood of old & new...property boundaries from rice paddy ownership delineate ancient from modern - chickens & a large sow stroll the street next to my set of six flats forming Saila Nibas complex. Small, contemporary homes are nestled amongst the taller complexes & clay/wattle homes. There's a particularly beautiful small home I can see from the room where the shrine & meditation space resides...I have it on my list to visit, hoping the residents speak enough English to understand how much of a visual oasis their home represents in the noise & clutter of a bustling Kol neighborhood.
I open the house each morning, the windows widely to the day since there are no screens on them, turn on the fans, & as instructed by Mr. Sakar, "air out the house from the night's thickness", lighting incense on both ends of the flat & letting the sun pour in...it's cool enough to do this now...come April such a habit will mean letting in heat with the freshness.
Conversations around the public water pump, half a block away, with equally as public Bengali music piped to the masses starts @ 6 a.m...children bounce across the street to take a quick "bath", a bucket shower used by many, even for those who have standard "geysers" or shower heads installed, giggling as their parents scoop them up to get ready for school & women carry tall water containers on their heads back to their homes.
The distinct blast of a conch shell horn announces 6:30 each morning & 6:30 pm, right after nightfall. If you haven't heard it before it can have a strident tone like the horns that became so rampant during the last World Cup, but in the hands of someone with skill it has multiple simultaneous tones that weave in and out as breathe diminishes....i already know this will be something to miss once I return to Minnesota....it's a anciently iconic way to begin a day.
Vendors of all kinds begin by 7 a.m. They hawk their wares with loud cries of a carnival barker, often ending in a phrase which strikes me as "Best in Kolkata - guaranteed!", each with his own cadence & timber, alerting those who want his wares or services to step to the street...the pumpkin vendor & fresh bread bicycle trolley driver calls are already recognizable without seeing them for me...fresh vegetables, water, ice cream, fabric goods - rugs, comforters, sheets & sari material -shoe repair, bicycle repair, barbering services complete with a portable seat, pots & pans, clay dishware, ready wear shirts, newspapers, rice, grains, sweet desserts & even a flat bed of assorted, tall, blooming house plants in intricately colored pots have all been carried or wheeled under my balcony! Some, like the individual sales items pumpkin, rice & grain, are carried on the head, in large, woven baskets three feet across. Multiple items - veggies, bread, desserts - are either bicycle pulled on a flat bed cart or pushed in a carrier like you'd see at a zoo or New York street corner.
Car horns alerting pedestrians to beware begin to squawk around 8:30, as the complex residents roll out from under the flats in their cars & taxis stream towards the city in long lines over bumpy dirt roads, soon to be paved, it's been promised, once the building along each new road is completed.
Stores open between 10:30 & 11:00 a.m....cooking meals for the freezer has monopolized my first few mornings, taking advantage of the coolness in the small kitchen, which really heats up once gas stove top is lit. It's simply too hot to cook dinner @ the standard American dinner time - in fact most Bengalis eat lunch after the hottest part of the day - around 4 pm - & then don't eat dinner until 10:30 pm, once night as truly cooled.
There's thankfully a very well stocked grocer nearby - about a 15 minute walk - so that's perfect! It will be my primary shopping spot, with a weekly jaunt to a new location planned by taxi as I get better & better @ directing non-English speaking taxi drivers back to my home!
A trip to shop at the nearest larger mall takes 30 minutes roundtrip, with hailing a taxi & time to check your bag at each store. (Most stores larger than street vendors have metal detectors & a door guard at each entrance. This caused a bit of anxiety during our first visit until we realized it's often a function of employing people & demonstrating you can afford a metal detector vs. a requirement for safety. Indians are very conscious of terrorism, though, both external following the Mumbai bombing in 2007 & internal as factions struggle to maintain legitimacy in a political structure they feel is becoming far too consolidated in Delhi versus recognizing the long held tribal & class distinctions of the past. The reality, then, is that most public locations require you to walk through a metal detector each time you enter, i.e. there's only one way to enter a store or mall or hotel...which is confusing for those of us used to strolling in dozens of doors! You also have to leave your purchases from other stores - not your purse, though - at the main door...& I always sound the alarm since my purse is made for travel, with wires embedded into the straps to keep it from being easily cut off should someone wish to steal it that way. I've yet, though, to be stopped...they nod their head & smile, motioning me forward with no concern. Bengalis are stopped though, so unsure if guards are deferring as a sense of respect to me as an older, female American or utilizing some form of racial profiling when they stop the locals.)
Children return from school starting around 3 pm, just as I'm shutting down the computer for my main meal of the day. Yoga & meditation end my "work" day, with some reading to relax.
Commuter horns break through the relative quiet again around 6:30, as the sun goes down...families stroll, eat dinner on their rooftops, play games in the streets & unwind until 11 or so, when the night closes in, lights go out, & quiet, as light rain each night dripping off palm leaves to the window sill, lulls all to sleep.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Kolkata, West Bengal
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