KOLKATA, INDIA
Have just returned to the family home in Birati from visiting both Ramakrishna Mission and Dakshineshwar Temple earlier this evening, located on opposite sides of the Ganges, from the banks of which we dipped toes into the roiling waters. Oh, the humanity…!
My sixth visit to India and Kolkata specifically since 2000, and I think I’m finally beginning to be able to maintain a relatively steady heartbeat in traffic. Breathe in, breathe out and repeat. It helps that my brother-in-law Partha is a better-than-competent driver, just assertive enough to compete with the lunatics on all sides.
I have great and growing affection for this undulating human gumbo called India and am feeling overwhelming gratitude to have this family, both the immediate and the genomic, in my life. Would that I could transmit the impressionistic tapestry that fills my senses with pungency and cacophony. These leave me overwhelmed as well.