India September 1981
My one visit to India had me visiting the right hand side of the sub-continent and in particular Madras, as it was called back than (AKA Chennai) and Calcutta (AKA Kolkata) or more precisely Rishra a little out from the centre. Chennai is where our major factory was located alongside the biggest beach in India and possibly Asia. My first impression was tainted by the sight of an elderly man squatting down and then using his hand and sand to `clean` himself! At least the Indian custom is one hand for food and the other for the arse. Hmmm. Squalor was everywhere as were the flies. I saw clusters of flies just sitting on a metal hinge warming themselves. My visit took me to the very top of the factory (Picture in the gallery below) where you could not only look down on the beach but also the encroaching roughly built shanty homes which tend to appear close to any potential place of employment - particularly western owned establishments. On my trip from hotel to the works site I was struck but the ubiquitous Amassador taxis which were based on a familiar 1956 Morris Oxford and still in production locally. Tata (locally produced) trucks were everywhere and few if any western vehicled apart from the Oxford clone. I soon became aware that India is not a single state but a federation because West Bengal and Tamil Nadu were both conducting `bandhs` against the ruling central government policies in the form of regional strikes of public service employees. One thing the caught my eye was cigarette sellers would also provide you with a light by way of a long smouldering string. When my Chennai job was complete I managed to squeeze in a day`s tourism before I could get up the coast to Kolkota and sampled a crocodile sanctuary and a spectacular Hindu temple.
The onwards up the coast to Kolkota and Hotel Oberoi - this is now a well know Indian hotel chain which now has locations all round the world. My particular branch had an `interesting` history though. During the typhoid outbreak in Kolkota in the 1930s the hotel "lost" six paying customers. The drainage system was blamed and the hotel was shut down from 1937-9 after which Mohan Singh Oberoi initially leased it before buying it outright eventually in 1943 leading to the establishment of the major international hotel chain. I had a day to kill before I could visit our small local factory located at Rishra on the outskirts of Kolkota. The locals told me that if you consider Kolkota is the arsehole of Indian then Rishra is ten miles `upstream`! ! ! So I paid a visit to the Victoria Memorial which was very grand. Built between 1906 and 1921 and at a time when the British Empire still existed it has now been converted into a very nice museum and tourist spot. It`s located on the Maidan (grounds) by the bank of the Hooghly River There`s a picture of me outside it in the gallery. Being a Thursday there was no red meat or alcohol available in the hotel - not that it bothered me particularly. There was a lot of activity going on in Kolkota as they were busy building their first underground railway line. It finally was completed 3 years after my visit.
And finally, although I was roughly in the right region of India the one thing that I need to go back there for was to experience the ghats because I couldn`t get there on this trip. The ghats of the Ganges were mostly built in the 18th century and essentially consist of no less than 88 ghats - riverfront stepped terracing leading down to the sacred river at Varanasi. Most of the ghats are puja ceremony ghats or bathing, while two ghats are used exclusively as cremation sites. In Hindu traditions cremation is one of the rites of passage and to be able to do so in the sacred river is the ultimate for many. However the Ganges has become so polluted during the 20th century that the national government has been actively trying to reduce the average 80 cremations per day that have contributed to the problem. If you ever see a film of the ghats you will realise that all of human life and death occurs on them and they are quite unique to India. But there is so much life in India. You would need a lifetime to explore all facets of this diverse country as my gallery will show you. Whether it is the temple dedicated to rats, the golden temple of Amritsar, the many languages and creeds, the spices, the wildlife, the Himalayas, the food, the tea growing hill country, the cricket, the temples, the sacred cattle, the smutty historic carvings. It has to be on your bucket list but not if you can`t handle poverty and suffering. As I said earlier - I really need to go back and spend more time exploring
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