India pt 1 Kolkata-Kharagpur-Khurda Road

This was a journey that has been a long time coming, returning to India with Dad to see some of the places from his childhood.

We met up in Kolkata (Calcutta) to those of us who haven't upgraded, in a great BnB with views which made us feel very much at home, it could have been Dhaka!

Except when outside it clearly wasn't!   This is a person powered rickshaw - no bike, just a man running and pulling - these were only in some neighbourhoods

On our way to the park with the Victoria monument we spotted a pair of mongoose

 

In front of the Victoria monument

what is the collective noun for Ambassadors?

We spent a couple of days acclimatising, and getting some things organised that we hadn't been able to online

hot snacks in New Market 

One of our to-do list was to visit a restaurant in New Market called Nizams - Dad had a memory of going with his dad when he was young for a kathi roll - and Nizams is the place which claims to have invented them.  Kathi rolls are essentially a paratha (indian flaky flatbread) with a one egg omelette cooked on one side, this is rolled round a skewer of grilled meat (mutton) or chicken and some spiced onions.  They are very good, and are now found all over the subcontinent in one form or another - we used to eat regularly in Dhaka.

grilled kebabs

 First taste after 60+ years!

Ambassador cars are still everywhere in Kolkata, mostly as taxis, as cute as they look, they aren't that comfortable to sit in, and we much preferred the ease of Uber - airconditioned at a fixed price

 after more bureaucracy than we felt strictly needed we became the proud owners of some railway tickets

and caught a train to Kharagpur, a town where Dad had lived

 at the house he grew up in - we were invited in for a cup of extra sweet lemon tea

 We were welcomed at Dads old primary school too  with more tea, and an enthusiastic tour, almost everything was as the 'Britishers' had left it, including the bookcases which they were very proud of

a previous home in Kharagpur 

and in 1997 when we visited!

 We spent a long hot day in Kharagpur before heading back to the train station for our sleeper train to Khurda Road

 It was very very late

"Our" bench where we spent many cold hours waiting

Instead of heading straight into Khurda Road after our long night, we checked into our fancy hotel with a hot shower in Bhubaneswar and booked a car to take us to Khurda road the next day when were fresher

 
This is the railway town where Dad was born.  Walking round here and in Kharagpur with adult eyes, we saw that the railway colonies were a place of privilege, where Anglo-Indians and Britishers (whites) lived in much better circumstances than the Indians who were excluded from many areas.

easier than using the foot over bridge?

another former home

Sacred Heart Church 2017

and 1997

altar boy

 

 Bhubaneswar