The Darjeeling Mail “Express”

Greetings!

As you might imagine, July has been an absolute whirlwind so far. We are half way through the program and just returned from a much needed mid-semester break!

Thus far July has brought an Amartya Sen lecture at Jadavpur University, a visit to Kumortuli where idols for the Hindi দুর্গাপূজা (Durga Puja) celebration are made, a Murder and Mayhem walking tour, and an amazing (though way too short) séjour to Darjeeling!

We attended (or attempted to) the Amartya Sen lecture at the beginning of the month and there was a line literally across campus. 12 of us attempted to attend and after surviving a mosh pit level crowd, only 3 of us made it in. My economist heart swelled at least 3 sizes seeing how much people care about his work! Without a doubt I was in awe of seeing him speak in person.

Kumortuli was one of our class organized field trips. It is in North Kolkata and is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. It is next to the Ganges River and local artisans spend about 3 months preparing for the 9-day long দুর্গাপূজা celebration which occurs annually during September or October. These craftsman make idols of all sizes, mostly beginning with straw and then covered with clay. They are without a doubt works of art and people come from all over the world to celebrate দুর্গাপূজা as well as to Kumortuli to ship idols home.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I went to North Kolkata early on a Sunday morning (read 7:30 am) to participate in a walking tour which covered interesting historical murders, investigations, and the way the city changed in the 19th century. As a true crime junkie, I was in heaven, and as an added perk I got to see a lot of little nooks and crannies of the city that I may not have otherwise.

Finally, yesterday I returned from a 3-day trip up into the mountains of Darjeeling! If you’ve heard of Darjeeling you know it for tea, which I drank in masses. Darjeeling and this area of West Bengal is also absolutely gorgeous and notoriously difficult to traverse. Due to its location in the foothills of the Himalayas, Darjeeling can only be reached by a 3 hour drive through winding mountain roads during certain parts of the year. (There is also a train but it usually doesn’t run during rainy season (now) due to risk of landslides). So I took an overnight train from Kolkata (12 hours), which despite the 2 hour delay in arrival, was one of my better overnight train experiences, mostly because the availability of fresh চা (cha = tea) and what at least seemed like truly fresh linens. After we arrived in New Jalpaiguri we had a 3 hour drive through beautiful hills, waterfalls, and tea fields which were almost gorgeous enough to distract from exhaustion and the never-ending giant cliffs.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While in Darjeeling I did a bit of hiking, sloshed around in the rain, and once more enjoyed the almost forgotten feeling of being “cold” (i.e. it was 65 degrees). I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery when the fog cleared, eat some amazing food (especially Nepali “momos” or dumplings), and visit the Himalaya Mountaineering Institute which has some amazing memorabilia from the various brave souls who have adventured into the Himalayas over the past several decades.

The return to reality today has been a bit of a struggle. Luckily I returned by plane so the trip home was slightly less arduous (still had the 3 hour drive though). Now we jump back into about 4 more weeks of classes before we take our final exams and see how much Bangla we’ve managed to force into our brains.

Thanks for coming along for the ride and feel free to check out this photo album or my Instagram for some more pictures if these didn’t quite satisfy you! 🙂

দেখা হবে (Dekha hobe = until next time),

Bethany