India

Hi All...

My first proper entry in this blog...perhaps I should start by answering some questions, about where I am, what I am doing, and how the hell I ended up here in the first place.

As for where I am, I am in Kolkata(formerly Calcutta) in India, sitting in an internet cafe in lake view road. This cafe is not at all unlike the internet cafes i've been using in my Berlin neighbourhood, Kreuzberg, so I feel right at home....

How did I end up here? The genesis of this trip lies within a previous one, and within a complicated web of friendships and visits that all have their genesis in York. It was York that I met both Sanhita and Dave....Sanhita rang me in July to tell me that she was getting married, and while I thought about going even then it did not at all seem like any kind of real possibility. I did want to take a holiday that summer, though, and Dave was in Rome preparing apparently, to depart imminently for Kenya to work for the UN(in true UN Style, however, he is still in Rome). During my visit then, Dave told how much Sanhita would love to see me at her wedding, and we really started talking about going....I arrived back...looked at my post Italy finances and despite the fact that they were looking pretty devastated I thought, what the fuck and booked anyway...the flight cost me over 800 euros(damn berlin for not being connected to anywhere by air) and I did want to see more of India so I booked for the longest possible time I could manage, 1 month....for all of those in Dublin, yes this does mean that I will not be home for christmas....

Where will I be, then..... wedding related events stretch on for the next week and a bit or so, and after that I'm off across the country by train, possibly stopping in a place or two before hitting Bombay and Goa....

From when I booked mid october, till my departure now at the end of november I also worked as many hours as karen, my boss could possibly give me, over 120 hours in november alone of standing in front of people, teaching... along with my other side projects, this has kept me more that occupied in the last couple of months... this also meant that I thought little about India before coming here. I did little research, did not think too deeply about what awaited me here and while I did listen to others advice I have come here pretty much as an innocent as far as India is concerned..... in my next entry I'll tell you all about the first impressions of an India innocent....