In search of an STD

One of the first missions I had when arriving in Kolkata, India was to find an STD, commonly know in England as a sexually transmitted disease. Luckily, this is not what I was in search for, in India an STD is a telephone which I needed to contact my parents and the school where I will be staying. Just one of the funny little 'Indianisms' that has made me chuckle over the past few days.

When I say one of the first 'missions', I really was being serious. When you are backpacking around India, the simplest of tasks becomes an intriguing challenge and you can either go with it and accept its going to be complicated, bureaucratic and unnecessarily time consuming or you can really get angry, frustrated and worn out. Being a newcomer I am obviously aiming for the former, but it is incredibly difficult to not let the latter prevail when you are hot, bothered and alone in a completely different place.

Yes in many ways Kolkata is noisy, disgustingly dirty, hot and there are so many people everywhere. However, in contrast to Delhi, the people are incredibly friendly, you are not hounded everywhere you go, there is colour, life and vibrance among the dirt and it is cheap and cheerful. You can get some of the most delicious Indian food here. For instance I had a delicious breakfast yesterday for just 30 Rupees (less than 50p). Ironically it is South Indian style (Poori Sagu), however its is so y

ummy - being able to eat spice for breakfast is one thing I mastered last time (though ask me in a few months and I'll be craving fry ups, cereal and croissants!). Burping out loud after eating also seems to be acceptable so I am sure some of my male friends would like it here.

Not that I have been greatly hungry today, I am leaving to catch the night bus to get to the school (Dakshinayan) where I am volunteering but for some reason I am quite nervous. Perhaps its the fact I am the only volunteer at the school in this rural area (in the district of Jharkhand) leaving literally all of my home comforts behind! This includes electricity, choice of food, the internet, a comfy bed - maybe I am really 'pagel' (crazy in Hindi). Well it is probably slightly true in many ways however I am sure it will all work out and I will be back to singing the schools praises like I did the last time I went. The kids there last time were brilliant and it will be so nice to get some peace within the beautiful surroundings.

Looking back, its been an emotionally charged few days, but there have been some funny times that could only happen in India! On my first day, I had only had about 4 hours of sleep and I arrived at 8am, so I needed to try and stay awake to adapt to the time difference. The Sunflower Guesthouse where I was staying, is quite nice, basic but clean. The first thing to make me laugh was the absurd number of switches that there always seem to be on the walls of the places where you stay. I have tried them all out, yet only three out of about ten, actually seem to do anything. Yet there is still one light in my room, which appears to be off, until it gives a brief flash, about every 10 seconds, which I have failed to work out how to turn off!

I was lucky enough to meet a girl as soon as I arrived who had lived in Delhi working for the French embassay for 6 months. However she turned out to be mycomplete opposite who I ended up hanging around with just until I was a bit more confident. She was nice enough to me, but it turned out she really didn't like backpackers, told anyone that got in her way to 'fuck off' and was really snobby and looked down on a lot of people (e.g 'South Indians are ugly' or 'I hate the way Indian women dress - they have no style!').

Why is she here you ask? I think to schmooze with India's high and mighty upper class. Seriously, if you get in the right circles here then you can be wined and dined for absolutely nothing. Yesterday we went for Chinese (strange I know but I wanted a nice meal before I start eating rice, daal and vegetables three times per day). We were seated next to an Indian man who we got chatting to - he was a software engineer (probably a millionaire) who offered to pay for our meal, with the girl having just said she work

ed for Cartier (no of course she doesn't!). But apparently it is rude to refuse, well fair enough pay for my meal then, I can't complain, but I still think its ridiculous how I can get away with so much just by coming from a Western background. So if you get in the right circles you could probably live very comfortably for free.

Anyway, this girl is very good at knowing her way round which was useful as we literally have walked all over the city which has been really interesting. I have been doing some shopping and visited one of India's famous stores called Fab India, to get some Indian style clothes. I want to blend in whilst I am here and I think that is the best way. Buying the clothes was another exhausting task - not only did it take about an hour of walking around in the mid day heat to find as everyone kept telling us different directions, I felt completely overwhelmed by styles, colours and different patterns of clothing which I had to try and mix and match. I brought a few things but have no idea of how it looks as I don't have an eye for Indian style. For all I know, I may look completely ridiculous! But to be fair, most travellers look ridiculous as you end up wearing things you could not get away with in your own country.

Trying to get a mobile was also difficult but I have managed it (my parents will be so happy!). Whether it works in rural India I have yet to see, fingers crossed. For some reason you have to wait half an hour and then they need to see your passport, visa and proof of address. Then you must provide a photo of yourself, to give the number of where you are staying (they ring it to verify you are there) and of course, you must say who your father/husband is. Although I have to say that Kolkata does seem to be a very forward thinking city, I have even seen Indian girls wearing skirts and shorts. Back to the phone, the 'Make Fake Calls' feature is a bonus I had not expected. According to the manual this can be used 'to stimulate an incoming call when you want to get out of a meeting or unwanted conversation'. I have a feeling I will be making use of that feature.

I had a lovely meal at Mitali's house who is one of the teachers who sometimes works at the school and it was good to meet Siddarth again who is the headteacher and organiser of the project. It was nice to learn more about how the project started and who works there, I am going to go in comletely open minded and willing to learn. I felt very privelleged to get an insight as to what it is like to be in an Indian's home, although I was hoping all the time I wasn't going to make any cultural faux pas that I wasn't aware of. Think I did okay!

I should go now as it has become a bit of a long one. I bid you farewell, Namaste! P.s for some reason my camera is on panoramic (which I will try to change)