shanti dan.

view from an auto rickshaw

i won't lie, arriving at sun down, hard rain falling ( thanks monsoon)--i was absolutely dumbfounded, with no clue whatsoever as to what i was getting myself into. finding my red turbaned-aladdin-suited Bengali driver, we began the drive into the heart of kolkata. i felt as though everything we drove past was not real, but that i was disillusioned from exhaustion (+30 something hour travel time)...I cannot even begin to describe all that i saw--- i felt as if i was no longer looking through my own eyes, but that of a child. the poverty surrounding me, i cannot, could not comprehend it- why or how human beings could be subjected to such living. coming from being born & raised in America, which to my honest opinion i believe is a country of complete excess- technology, food, BUT to see how these people live, i just couldn't understand it. I asked a friend to describe India to me, and she used one word : intense, and that's exactly what it is- it is completely overwhelming to each and every one of your senses. 

is this all they know?

first glance of kolkata from the plane.