Kolkata: Mother Theresa, Kali and Queen Victoria

We fly to Kolkata for the last part of our Indian experience. We have a strong desire to visit the home site of Mother Theresa who lived and worked with the desperately poor there.  There are many, many interesting places to visit in Kolkata and so little time.   Because of proximity we start with a visit to a Jain temple. Incredibly ornate, decorated with chips of mirrors, crystals and porcelain the temple radiates light and color. The some of the chandlers are from Venice and Belgium. We cannot take pictures in the altar area, too bad, we are there to watch the priest’s morning ceremony. He covers his mouth to make sure he would not harm even an insect. The Jains have been around since about 600 BC and are about 3% of the population. They are as pacifist as the Amish and do not allow conversions so their numbers are dwindling. 

Jain Temple

 

We visit the Anglican Cathedral which was built in 1764. The walls are lined with memorials to the religious, military, East India Company and government service people buried there. A remarkably large number of them died young, in their 20s or 30s and most had served less than two years before dieing taken by the diseases of the day.  Near to the church is a monument to The Black Hole of Calcutta which was a prison where all the British defenders were lost in a battle.

The Black Hole of Calcutta

The area where Mother Theresa’s establishment (church, hospital, orphanage) sits was once the worst part of the city. Development has caught up and the area now looks a lot like the rest of the city. We visit her grave and see exhibits about her work. She was born Albanian,  an Indian citizen, daughter of the world and a child of Christ. We could see her room where she lived most of her life and died.  All her work was service and prayer, serving ‘the poorest of the poor’. Every day they have flowers on her grave the petals are arranged  to spell out  a holy statement of hers “You are precious to Him”.  Visitors are invited to take home a few petals to  remember her. We are moved to tears by the holy presence here.

Mother Theresa's Grave

We drive thru a craft area where workers are preparing thousands of clay figures that will be used in a religious parade in a few days. We go for a walk along the river. Hindus are taking ritual baths and we can see the layout of the old parts and newer industrial parts of the city. There is a large suspension bridge similar in size to the Golden Gate bridge that our guide was very proud of. 

Clay Figures

In sharp contrast to  the peacefulness of the Jain world and the calm at the Anglican Cathedral and Mother Theresa's the world around the Kali temple is rancorous and even violent. Kali is the goddess of death and destruction. Hindu followers of Kali still practice animal sacrifice. We arrive in the temple area and there is a trail of chicken blood. Our guide is clearly uncomfortable taking us here. Our guide gives us instructions to say absolutely nothing, come in and bow and then leave quickly and don't even think about a camera. We follow his instructions but almost get caught up in an altercation between devotees who want to be close to the idol.We leave quickly, the place just feels creepy.

Our last activity for the day is a visit to the Queen Victoria memorial. An imposing building on the scale of a railroad station. The surrounding gardens are large as well. This building was built around 1920 to commemorate Queen Victoria although she never visited India. The exhibit inside is interesting including early maps and paintings of British and native officials. One painting of interest to me depicts a 1787 meeting of British Lord Cornwallis with a Hindu king where they are making a trading treaty. This is the Lord Cornwallis who surrendered the British claim to the US colonies to General Washington. At the time of American independence Britain was extending its influence in India. We head back to our hotel tired and reflecting on India while preparing for the 5:00 AM call to start our journey to Bhutan.