The Flight:
I think my time serving as crew leader prepared me for 24 hours of lay overs, flights, crying babies, and more. Sandwiched between an obnoxious four year old who constantly disobeyed her frayed mother and a baby who would not stop crying for hours on end, I somehow managed to get through it with only painfully swollen feet and ankles from sitting down so long. Not to mention the inflight movie was a horrible kids movie and to top it off the color didn't even work - everything was purple. On the plus side, Indian curry for plane food wasn't too bad.
Post Flight:
My worries were assuaged when I noticed a guy with my name written out neatly on a big white placard. Phew! We walk to his car and I notice the mugginess and tropicalness of this place with trees in full green leaf and palm trees all around. Good thing I'm wearing my jungle outfit! Next, as we get into his car, I'm accosted by a beggar and only realize when I am safely in the car that he tapped his handless arm on the window, still in pursuit of a couple rupees. This is is to be very symbolic of the rest of my time in Kolkata.
Driving an hour into town I notice just how ridiculous the scene outside my car window is. Protected in a nice A/C environment I notice (as we are darting in and out of traffic . . . insanely) people pulling carts down the highway, farmers working their fields, shanty towns built right alongside the road with tarps for roofs, and finally to top it off there was a half starving cow walking against traffic on the highway! Why not, I say to myself.
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