Calcutta-Kolcatta-Kolcutta in TWO days?

Arati is the maid, and she seems to like me a great deal so she came into my room this morning to do her vegetable chopping and peeling.  This was as close as she got to a great big smile.

Once we missed our stop on the Metro and ended up in North Kolcutta, we wandered aroundand this fellow was counding his rupees.  When I looked over at him, he immediately turned around so that I couldn't see how much he had.  I wonder if  he thought I might steal his money...

 We wandered amidst the screeching, honking cars, busses, rickshaws and three wheeled autos, and this motorcyce just propped up within this little enclave looked enticing enough for a photograph.

 We spent almost two hours rambling through Rabindranath Tagore's famiy house (Rabindra Bharati Museum) where we were not allowed to take photos; I may have learned more from Afroja than I did inside the gigantic house, there were sections dedicated to Tagore's Japanese connection, his paintings, his death bed, his wife's kitchen, etc...  We loved nipping into the little galleries that showed anything special because each of them was air conditioned.

And on our way out, we saw this Jesus-like image with the advertisement for 92.7 BIG FM radio!  Good to know.

 We wandered, drank some hand squeezed pineapple juice that was sour, sour, sour, and then took a cap to the Victoria Memorial that sits right across from the Maidan (pronounced Moidan).  Foreign visitors pay 150 rupees and locals pay only 10 to get into Victoria Memorial.  Once we got in, we sat in the cool shade, enjoyed the breezes and I watched this worker gather his bucket and walk away from his spot where he must have been doing something...  One hopes.

The museum was vast inside, all of the materials written in Engish and Bengla, and there was an exhaustive historical chronology that I spent ages purusing, only to forget everything once I got outside, loading with the questions that I wanted to ask Afroja, all of which I'd forgotten.  I MUST travel with pen and pad.  ALWAYS.

 This is coming out of the Memorial and looking out over some of the grounds.  It is a lovely spot, clearly a major building in the city, but goodness knows there are many more pressing issues that need tending here!

We kept Joymala, the cook, waiting because we were so late getting back home today, and when we arrived, she was just sitting on the tile floor in front of the fan.  Once we arrived, she set to work organizing our breakfast for tomorrow, tireless woman that she is.I pretty clearly have a real fetish for doors, and this one around the Tagore house caught my eye and my spirit.

I couldn't really pass this sign when we got to the center of the city (Esplanade stop on the Metro).  Wine and Luggage?  What on EARTH is the connection here?  Perhaps that question is better unanswered.

Random photo of girls eating late this afternoon, around 4:00 when just about everybody had stopped to have something to eat, people sitting on walls, steps, chairs and lined up at stalls for their favorite treats.

Enough for today, a day that I was able to keep my eyes open for all of the time, but I admit to being extraordinarily tired now; we leave early tomorrow morning for a group adventure to Shankiniketan where Tagore began his school!  Time to rest up for another day of new sights, sounds and senses.