We are now submersed by continuous traffic jams on big avenues. The
>cabs,cars, autorickshaws, colourfull trucks, bycicles, motorbikes,
>bikeshaws, buses, and trams are competing, beeping, swearing at each other.
>Instead of 2,3or even 4 lines there's a huge homogenous mass of transports
>hurring, crashing, fighting for space.
>
> When we stop at the traffic lights the driver turns off the engine and
>miraculously the all world outside my window becomes suddenly alive. A
>young seven year old holding her baby sister extends her hand to me, her
>dark eyes begging money, looking deep into my own eyes. "madam", she
>mumbles. I look for a ruppee but I have no change. I say"no" and look to
>the other side but in the opposite window there are 3 kids, between 7 and
>5 years old, fighting for space to smash their faces against the glass
>window. The taxi driver sends them away and I look at the goats on the
>sidewalks eating the rubish on the pavements, trying not to look, not to
>feel guilty, Knowing I can't change the world.
>
> I buy the newspaper at arrival, and rest in the skanky hotel ignoring
>the dust on my noisy fan. There are lots of things to do in the big city of
>Kolkata- a lot of cultural programmes are listed in the paper in different
>sections: drama, dance, cinema, performance, bookfairs, music, bars, clubs,
>restaurants, bookshops, shopping malls.
> I am surprised with the variety on offer, and smile with the special
>excitement that urban chicks like me get when arriving to a New City!!!
>
> We go for a walk down Park street and admire its life. There are many
>modern shops, hairdressers, nice looking restaurants - we have a coffee at
>"Barista", and we feel like we could be in London.
> Fresh conditioned air, wood tables, the smell of cappuccino with foam,
>the latest pop hits playing. If it wasn't from the glass windows looking at
>the outside we would be in London or NY!
>
> Outside there's a man staring through the glass window while I drink my
>fresh apple juice. He looks dark and dusty and it's obvious he lives on the
>streets. He stares at me while I write this with no embarassement, just
>staring, dreaming, wishing, knowing that never in his life he will be able
>to come in here, sit at the air conditioned wood tables, have a coffee with
>foam. He knows there's no hope for the ones like him, he knows he can be
>run overnight while asleep and no one would notice, a lot of his
>compatriots would actually be glad, no one would give a damn there was one
>less of them, less one beggar, less one frickshow, less another sample of
>the poor India, the no hope, no modern, no independent- the real India!
>
> Yes, Kolkata is a big city full of choices- shopping malls, cultural
>shows, restaurants and bars- but only for those who can, like us, because
>we are really fucking lucky, you and me, I tell you, so fucking lucky we
>don't even know it. But for many out there there is no other choice, and
>there won't be, and that's that. That's the world we live in, that's
>reality!
> No Mother teresa can change Kolkata, India, or the world- it is
>corrupted, inflamated, rotten.
>
> And while religion, politics and economic power will be having such an
>important growing place in our societies, the number of poor ones will also
>be growing!
> And that's the issue we need to tackle.
>
> Cause that is what's happening: NOW!
>
>
>