Travel Day 869 – Kolkata, INDIA
Besides the surprise Tabla class every day and the usual routine, one other item started to break up the day and make the stay in Kolkata quite special, the afternoon walks…
Badminton Kids with Parents in Kolkata
While it was absolutely necessary to get up, stretch and walk far a while after sitting crossed legged all morning and afternoon long, it was also very welcome to have a change in scenery. The morning was always spent in the classroom, the afternoon on the roof, but the late afternoon, when the sun slowly started to set, became the perfect time to walk and explore the local area as well as the local culture…
We obviously tried to see something new every single day and walk different ways through the maze of alleyways that started behind our guesthouse and seemed to stretch into infinite distances. Usually we didn’t even cover much ground and just went from one local chai shop to the next store while conversing with some locals or shopkeepers who were capable of communicating in English, but today we ended up walking especially far and in an area between two train tracks that was best described as local ghetto…
In every other country walking into very poor neighborhoods might have been an actual danger for foreigners who look like tourists, but not in India. Not only did it feel to absolutely safe for us, but also all the people seemed to really appreciate that we came to their area to visit them…
Local Shopkeepers in Kolkata, India
Well, we technically didn’t go with the purpose of visiting anyone in the beginning, but the further we walked into the ghetto, the bigger the crowd of children seemed to get that were following us. All of a sudden we had a group of people walking behind us, observing what we were doing while others knocked on all doors to announce our arrival to everyone who wasn’t quite aware of it yet. Everything was a little bit strange in the beginning, but then it turned into an amazingly fun experience after someone found some badminton rackets…
We certainly became the biggest attraction of the day, if not the week of the month when we started having a badminton match with all the kids of the slum. Literally every single kid had to take turns on the rackets to play against the two tall foreigners while the parents were watching laughing. Everything was almost indescribable and it felt absolutely surreal when the kids walked us hand in hand out of the slum after the sun had set…
Not only were we fortunate enough to have seen a little bit of the open friendly heart of Indian culture, but we also certainly made the kid’s day and gave them something to talk and smile about for time to come… : )
Leave a Reply