After a hot 17-hour drive across NH2 in Ronen's non-AC yet funky van we arrived in Kolkata or Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal and the third most populated metropolitan in India, around 10 pm only to find out that all the budget guesthouses on Sudder Street, the backpacker area, seem to be full and the only one that had vacant rooms for us was Paragon, rightfully described by Lonely Planet as "deeply depressing" and shamelessly charging 450 Rs for a tiny, dirty (there were actual stains on the bed sheets!), rather jail-like room.
Not having much choice we settled in for the night, and me and Ronen went for dinner at Taj Continental Restaurant "no beef" that offers extremely cheap and nice Indian food. Surviving the dreadful night at Paragon we gladly moved the following morning to the friendly and relatively clean (can't completely escape the Calcutta cockroaches) Modern lodge (500 Rs with shared bathroom) where we stayed for the remaining 2 weeks in town. During our stay we met some wonderful people in Modern Lodge, among them some Kolkata veterans, long time travellers and fellow volunteers. Together we enjoyed many great nights of beer, music, and conversations on the roof of the hotel, where we also had some delicious "potluck" dinners and also celebrated Passover improvising a nice Sedder together with Ronen and our new (non-Jewish) friends from the "lodge" who were happy to learn about the holiday tradition.
The main reason we arrived in Kolkata was to volunteer in Missionaries of Charity that was founded by Mother Teresa where I (Daniel) spent a month volunteering five years ago and fell in love with the city. We signed up for a morning shift in Daya Dan and afternoon shift at Kalighat aka Nirmal Hariday, a "home for the dying".
Daya Dan is a house for orphan children who are mostly mentally or physically disabled, some on the autistic spectrum. Maya worked on the second floor where there are mostly girls and I worked on the first floor whose residents are mostly male and also a bit more functional. A big part of our work consisted of the glorious task of washing clothes, but aside from laundry (piles and piles of it) we were helping to feed the children, playing with them, walking around with them working to improve their mobility and independence, and basically giving a hand in whatever was needed.
Maya, with her background as as a medic and being a medical student also helped at Daya Dan's dispensary which offers free medical help to people of the neighbourhood, often very poor or homeless.
At Kalighat we attended to the needs of the elderly patients, not necessarily "dying" as the name of the house suggests but often suffering from the common perils of old age including various health problems, some degree of function loss and mental health deterioration. We helped feed the patients who had difficulties eating by themselves, gave them massages and pretty much did anything else to comfort them (on the ladies' side they painted their nails for example). On the men's side I often had to wash and clean patients who were physically incapable to use the bathroom, I was told the women were generally more independent.
If you find yourself wondering how two Jewish (not religious but still) Israelis found themselves volunteering in a very Christian organization, you're not the only one. More than a few eyebrows were raised, by the sisters and fellow volunteers, upon hearing that we are from Israel and that we are not Christians. We did find ourselves in some strange situations like Daniel being assigned to clean a huge statue of Jesus before Easter or recieving confused looks when we didn't attend Mass with the children. But all in all we felt welcomed, and actually the fact that we are from Israel was usually met with great excitment. Maya even recieved pleading requests to send back mud from the Holy Land. Above all we were happy to contribute our small part to a cause we believe in and we do feel that the organization does important work despite all the criticism that is said about it. Scroll down the page for further discussion on the subject.
On our day off we decided to do some sight-seeing and visited Victoria Memorial (10 Rs entrance fee) which was is an impressive building (unfortunately it was under maintenance). We only walked aound the surrounding gardens skipped the museum inside. Later we took a taxi to the overwhelmingly colorful Mallick Ghat Flower Market near Howrah Bridge where loads of orange and yellow garlands of flowers, used to worship deities at Hindu temples, are being weaved, carried, and sold everywhere you look. We continued walking around the area and connected with our Jewish roots at the Magen David Synagogue, maintained by a nice guy who opened the place for us and showed us around. He told us that there is still one Kollkata Jew (the Jewish community today is around 19 people and declining) that comes every Saturday to pray.
Kolkata offers some of the cheapest Indian and Chinese food you can find, both in restaurants and on the street- you can get a veg kati roll for 15 Rs or a plate of veg chowmain for 25 Rs! After 17 days in Kolkata we have sampled quite a few restaurants and street vendors and can recommend a few:
- Hotel Sideswari Ashram is a wonderful hidden gem near New Market that serves delicious Bengali food in good prices, you need to bring your own drinks. Ask for their mango chutney it is amazing!
- Maria Food Center- the best kati roll on Sudder Street in my opinion.
- Blue sky- First of all, there's AC (which is nice in Kolkata's crazy humidity). Other than that it has an extensive tourist-targeted menu and is a bit overpriced but their Indian food is really good.
- Raj's Spanish Cafe- nice pizza and overall nice to hang out there, good wi-fi.
- the food stalls at the corner of Sudder Street and Jawaharhlal Rd near Park St metro station offer a wide selection good snacks including dosa, uttapam, and chowmein.
- The blue chai stand on Sudder Street is run by a lovely and honest man that makes good strong coffee (30Rs.) and great ginger lemon honey tea (30Rs.)
- Prince restaurant on Mirza Ghalib Street has nice Bengali food especially tomato barta though the service needs improvement.
- Fire and Ice Pizzeria is definitely not a cheap place to eat but for our anniversary we decided to splurge a bit and it was worth it since this place offers some of the best Italian dishes in India.
- We found even really good Pita bread at Nahoum and Sons bakery in New Market which went along great with tehina we made (also bought at New Market) and potato pakora. Nahoum (נחום) who recently passed away was one of the few Jews left in Kolkata and the bakery, establsihed in 1902 by his father who emigrated to Kolkata from Iran, is widely popular and a household name in town (and we thought India only considered the Germans good bakers).
Special thanks to some of the great people that made our stay in Kolkata amazing: Ronen, Collin, Rick (check out his phenomenal and inspiring photos here), Adam, Molly, Leidy, Therese, Vince and Maraid, Matthew and Rob.
We will miss you mother India!
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| On our way To Kollkata |
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| Seder plate- the Indian version |
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| A short visit to the almost abandoned Synagogue |
My complicated relationship with Mother Teresa:
After a little over two weeks volunteering at Missionaries of Charity, I learned that there is a lot of criticism(1,2,3) pointed at the organization. But personally most of it I don't agree with. Here are some of the accusations made and what I think about them:
- "The health care provided (specifically in Kalighat) is insufficient and the staff is medically under-trained, to the degree of irresponsible care and danger to patients"-well let's start with the fact that at least they provide some medical attention to these patients who otherwise would not have any medical help, not to mention a roof over their head and sadly, will most like be dead. Secondly, Kalighat was build upon the idea of providing a basic need, a place for people to die in dignity and nothing more. Its intention was not to be a hospital. Third, most of the critics are western foreigners judge the quality and professionalism of the health care given to patients by western standards and not as though they have seen the conditions and standard care in the alternative local hospitals and clinics in India.
- "The organization is missionary and tries to convert patients and volunteers to Catholicism, engaging in such aggressive acts as baptizing people before their death with disregard to their religion or consent" - First of all, the organization is called Missionaries of Charity and they don't try to hide their fundamental beliefs and agendas. From my personal experience and being a Jew I haven't witnessed preaching or attempts at guiding me to accept Jesus as my savior. That being said, the baptism accusation is true and they even take pride in it, and I am sure other similar practices are taking place. So I have to say I might not agree with their action and obviously the organization is guided by another, maybe even higher, agenda other than simply helping people, BUT (and it's a huge but) I feel that the good outweighs the bad in this case. Today the organization acts as a placeholder for a void in Kollkata that sadly the government or a non-religious organization has yet to fill, and until that day will come I find it hard to criticise them even keeping in mind such questionable acts as mentioned above, because at this moment there is no alternative.
- "The staff and sisters are often too rough and aggressive or on the other hand neglectful in caring for the patients"- I absolutely disagree with this statement, as the sisters that we met during our work with the organization were caring, compassionate, knew personally each patient, their story and their condition and how to treat them, which they did with immense love, devotion and patience and unfathomable mental strength. The Indian staff, called mashis or helpers, in Daya Dan were absolutely wonderful as well and cared for the children as if they were their own. Maya personally saw some problems with the staff in Kalighat who seemed reluctant to do their job and only did the absolute minimum they had to, which was troubling to see. But the sisters were aware of this situation and were doing their best to take care of it, and either way these are common problems that can and unfortunately do occur in any organization or hospital for that matter.
- "The organization accepts short-term volunteers for even just one day, which is unprofessional and can be disadvantageous for the patients"- In my opinion every additional volunteer there is one more smile, one more hug and a little more attention to be given to the patients and that is always a good thing.In addition it ensures a constant flow of eager and able volunteers that otherwise might feel weary or burnt-out, and it gives the staff and the long-term volunteers more space to breathe.
In conclusion I would be happy if one day and hopefully soon there will not be a need for Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity because other non-religious organizations or most preferably the government would step up and take over, but until then I will continue to support their admirable work and give them the credit they deserve.
לחברים והמשפחה שבבית ובחו"ל,
הבלוג הזה בעיקר נועד בשבילכם ולמענכם על מנת שנוכל לחלוק אתכם את החוויות שלנו וכדי שתוכלו לעקוב אחר המסע שלנו באסיה.
אתם מוזמנים להצטרף אלינו לכל מקום בשארית של הטיול שלנו :)
אצלנו הכל טוב, אנחנו מסיימים חודש נפלא בפיליפינים ומתכננים להמשיך לבורמה (מינמאר) אחרי עצירה בבנגקוק כדי לקבל ויזה. מבורמה התכנית היא להמשיך לצפון תאילנד, לעלות צפונה ללאוס ואז להמשיך לסין כנראה. בכל מקרה למסע שלנו כבר יש תאריך סיום והוא ה-7 לספטמבר ככה שבקרוב נפגש .
אנחנו כל הזמן מתגעגעים ואוהבים מאיפה שלא נהיה
נ.ב.
Kudos for your good volunteer work; hats off! And, a very fine and thoughtful discussion/reflexion of Mother Theresa. - Cheers, Matt (almost on my way back to Ontario).
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