We had a nice stay in Bangalore at our cousin's house. She has 2 daughters so Jasmine was happy. She warmed up to them very quickly and they got along great. We were only there for one day but it was a good one. Our cousin, Chetan, was a bit surprised to learn that Jasmine and I can't eat chilies and was worried to death that the food didn't have any flavor at all every time she cooked for us. The food was actually delicious every meal. She was also shocked to see us make tea using coconut milk instead of cow milk. That's also really good when you have the right proportions, but she didn't believe us and wouldn't try it. I'm not trying to single her out, though. This has been the reaction of everyone across the board here. Milk is such a huge part of the hindu lifestyle that they really have a hard time understanding how you can not have it. It's an interesting perspective they have. They feel that they must have milk for 2 reasons. One is that they believe it's very nourishing, and the other is that they believe the cow represents the mother, or God, and to refuse the milk is to turn your back on God. That's my understanding of the situation anyway and I apologize if I got any part of that wrong.) The sad thing is that the horrendous practice of torturing cows to get large quantities of milk and then slaughtering them once they can longer produce milk have made their way into India now, too. Most people here aren't aware of that, though. It used to be that dairy cows were very well treated here, according to everyone we've discussed this with, but along with the "bottom line" mentality of the west that crept into India has come these shameful practices. Anyway, I digress. You really stopped here to read about Trains and Temples so let me move on.
The train ride was nice. The train itself wasn't spectacular, but it was clean and comfortable. There are 4 beds in each compartment and we ended up not sharing the room with a 4th passenger so we had the entire compartment to ourselves. It was nice to be able to completely relax and to get up and walk around as much as we wanted to. They served meals and snacks throughout the journey so we never got hungry. We saw some beautiful scenery along the way. There were lots of beautiful green fields, several lakes and rivers and lots of little villages. At a couple of places along the way we looked out the window and saw these huge piles of boulders all stacked up into mountains. They seemed to be naturally occurring, but really looked as if some giant had made big stacks of what would have been pebbles to him. There were a couple of places where you'd see a huge boulder sitting on top of a larger one, balanced on a small corner or something. I think I got some pictures of that so I'll try to get them uploaded soon. When we got to the different stations we inevitably saw scenes of things like cows grazing by the railroad tracks and at one station I looked up and saw a huge pig come walking across the tracks. That was a bit surprising. I'm used to seeing cows everywhere here but I haven't seen a lot of pigs walking around. A little further up the way there was a group of pigs, including a nursing mom with a few piglets having a snack. Oh, and at one station we finally saw some monkeys.
When we got to the station in Kolkata our niece, Pooja, was there at the train to meet us and we had no trouble getting to the car (which was parked right at the train) and getting to her home. It's been very nice staying here. They have a beautiful house with a lovely garden in the back and two Dalmatians. They also have a parrot, a small pond full of goldfish and a small aviary. Jasmine has been having the time of her life here. Every morning the whole family (there are 3 generations living in this house) goes out to the garden to have tea and spend time with the plants and animals. Jasmine has been going with Pooja's father-in-law to walk the dogs every morning before I even wake up. We've really been enjoying spending time with Pooja and her new family. They are really very nice people and we all get along so easily.
The house is only a couple of blocks from the Birla Temple here in Kolkata. This is a famous temple built by a successful businessman who has erected several of this Krishna temples in different places. We walked up to the temple yesterday for a visit. It's very beautiful. The architecture is really interesting and has lots of beautiful carvings all over it. The energy there was peaceful and relaxed. We all enjoyed it very much. However, as many of you probably already know, Kolkata is the land of Kali. So, we obviously had to visit a Kali temple while we were here. This morning Pooja's mother-in-law took us to the major Kali temple here in town. It turns out that Saturday is the day of Kali so it was very, very busy. Just getting into the temple ground was a bit of a maze. We made our way up to the actually temple with some effort and squeezed our way in toward the door where we got wedged into a traffic jam of people moving in both directions. It was really chaos. Poor Jasmine got so overwhelmed at one point that she started crying. There was no way we were going to be able to get into the actual room to do puja so we prayed from outside looking toward the Kali (which Jasmine finally got to see by standing up on the ledge but Vikas and I never did) and then made our way out. It was madness. So, Auntie took the offerings we got to give at that temple and took us to a smaller temple they call the Lake temple and we did puja there instead. It was completely different. Very easy going and peaceful but powerful feeling. When I go to a Kali temple I always get a surge of emotion and energy when I stand before Kali. That obviously didn't happen at the big temple today, but definitely did at the second one. It was good to experience the difference between the two places and it all ended up being quite a nice experience.
So, now we're getting ready to go to a private club with everyone for dinner tonight. That means I have to wrap this up for now but I'll be posting pics to go along with the blog either later tonight or tomorrow and will have plenty more to blog about.
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