Author Archives: bufobufo

Kolkata part 1

Kolkata is made up of numerous qarters, each of which is distinct.  The south Indian quarter, the old quarter, the book quarter … you get the picture.  People have come from all over India to populate Kolkata and generally settled with people from their own community so you can go to particular areas to sample various regional cuisine.  Tonight we went to the South Indian quarter and had masala dosa and idle (pronounced idlie) which was particularly good. I am staying at Golpark which is near to the market area where the streets are strung with market stalls full of kurti (blouses), jewellery, throws and shoes.  I have no idea how many kurti there are in Kolkata, but it is quite a few! The streets in this area area packed with people weaving through and around the stalls in the steamy heat, to the sound of car horns.  The intersection is a huge and terryfying roundabout with the Rama Krishna mission sitting in an orderly manner on one ‘corner’ and a riot of shops, stalls and street food sellers on the other sides.

Gol park

The guest house (in a quiet side street)

Rada krishna centre

Rada krishna garden

Two days ago Ronita took me to the old quarter where we visted her friend in her home which is one of the traditional old family homes in Kolkata.  We visited because they were holding a puja (religious festival) and so we saw a little of that and I was shown the house.  It is actually seven buildings joined together, occupied by the extended family.  Built around a very large courtyard, open to the sky, each floor is galleried with rooms leading from the gallery so that family members have a small suite of rooms to themselves but otherwise live communally. The gallery has a view into the central courtyard of course.  The building was beautiful, with oranate railings around the gallery and spiral staircases and small corridors leading maze like in every direction.  It is currently occupied by 70 people but apparently in the last generation there were 200.  As every where else as people go to uni and get careers the number of offspring is falling sothe  future of this lifestyle is not clear. The pujas that this family hold are famous through out the city so I was lucky to see it.

Kolkata house in the olf quarter

Puja – in which Shiva pushes his luck with his wife by demanding food rudely and brings about famine across the land as well as disillusionment with the gods.  Here he is begging her to start providing food again – at the behest of his fellow gods who are not best amused.

Offical start-up

The project was formally agreed by signing the MOU with Registrar in the office of the VC Academic.We are now going through the process of setting up the financial structures. Next step is have a partnership meeting with the government officials of the Agriculture Departments of Tripura and Orissa which we are doing on Monday.  The fun bit was going up to the newly added top floor where the university has built a Centre for Modern Biology in which a number of other centres are nested (mostly molecular) and where we will have our Centre for Pollination Studies.  Its not furnished and the partition isn’t up yet but the room is there! (see below)

Signed!

CPS room is through that window – you can’t see it but there is a great view.

We don’t get all of it!  It will partitioned and part of it will be workshop space that any of the Centres can use.

Our corridor… err, on second thoughts perhaps not that interesting!!

Settling in

I arrived on Tuesday morning bright and early and found Kolkata airport to be quiet and restrained. No crowed of Taxi drivers calling, just a few people milling about and some sunshine.  I expected to come out into a furnace but tropical heat doesn’t seem to be like that.  Its not like the Nevada desert where you feel you’ve been sandwiched in a George Foreman grill, it is more subtle.  It feels comfortable and then you realise something is bothering you and you realise you are HOT! Very very hot.  However, AC is everywhere, although I am practising at doing without because  the forest next week is unlikely to be airconditioned!

Parthib and his student Priya met me at the airport and whisked me off  the guest house where I am staying.  Its about a 15 minute walk from the University.  Its light and airy with everything I need. They are massively looking after me. After a couple of hours sleep (I had managed 6 in the last 48 hours) I went to the University and met other students in the ecology lab (see pictures).  It is great fun working with these guys, they are all involved in fascinating ecological studies out in remarkably remote areas.  They couldn’t have been more welcoming and I feel quite at home.

We haven’t been biding our time though.  On the second day Parthib and I did some of the official buisness, formally signing the agreement between GWCT and University of Calcutta with the Registrar and obtaining official permissions from the Vice-chancellor etc.  Will post photos when I have sorted my card reader out.  The main campus, where the VC is based is the original building.  Incredibly grand, with an ENORMOUS marble staircase.  It is the oldest University in India, originating in colonial times.  Apparently it has over 60 buildings scattered around Kolkata, all donated by wealthy alumni.

For the last two days I have got up early to work on UK stuff, gone into the lab at about 10.30 and then returned to the guest house at about 7.30 to finish UK bits while everyone is still at work.  Tomorrow I am determined to walk around a bit – i now know how to walk to the uni so I might try and make it through the heat in the morning.  Will post pics tomorrow.