KOLKATA West Bengal India

In 2011-12 i had spent there many months but around 1 full year in general,living almost all of that time in a Paying Guest facility,because this is how a small privately owned home for guests/temporary visitors who mpay rent is called there.Paying Guest facilities are most times separate houses,most times completely privately owned.I lived in such a facility too,a small cheap local hotel,situated half an hour off Kolkata northwards by local railway in Bally town upon the banks of Ganges river.Bally being 1 of many west Bengal numerous towns,it had its own river bathing spot,or how indians call it GHAT.Paying guest facilities are small hotels,inhabited mostly by students that live far off Kolkata permanently,but need to get to the city for study and you can easily find them around Kolkata in advertisement,most of such though are in the local bengali language,only bits translated into English too,but the later english language ones are pretty hard to find,advertisement for them is only in small paper pieces around the city,most of such done in locally widely used bengali language.Hindi this main indian language is almost never in use in Kolkata.Bengali language is the tongue of the entire Bengal area,the West Bengal part of it simply being a part of India,while well over 95 % of Bengal is making a separate contry that we know as Bangladesh.''Bangladesh'' means ''The Bengali Land''.This way do also live students in Ukraine by the way,saw it myself as i was studying in Lwow city in Ukraine,just that no such entity as a Paying Guest small hotel does exist in Ukraine and the students that come to study from village areas need to rent a room from a private owner instead,but this principle of life of students off their homes in a completely different city is very much active in many countries.Ukraine students simply do never encounter this socialized version of a place with TOO many students living in 1 same place;they only have small rooms they PERSONALLY managed to rent and the country does NOT get involved with ''paying guest'' facilities springing around as a result.English IS widely spoken in Kolkata(the current name of what in their days here english knew is Calcutta)and most every public servant in Kolkata is able to use english to a normal for understanding degree,i witnessed this very good form of english speaking among state employees myself,ordinary people mostly without capacities of using it though.It is very simply explained by the fact that right untill 1948 english was the MAIn language in use.Also,in almost each spot with local authorities present,be it train tickets' buro,a large store etc,i was always able to find understanding among the workers,THIS high was the level of understanding of the language in Kolkata offices/stores/public spots.Prices in India are the lowest among prices in many countries i had been to and are amazingly low for most everything,but specifically low are prices in Kolkata,because the price for a life good in different India cities varies very considerably,just as most other life necessities do differ too.Prices differ very considerably city to city around India as i witnessed myself travelling through it in 2011.As an example,in Delhi(the capital city)its real different from the Kolkata one:a bus ticket is 7(Kolkata)and 50(Delhi)rupees correspondingly,showing a very serious difference in prices(and much more different things as well)among different regions in India,a presumably well united but TOO large for this possibility a country.Not that i noticed any regional authonomy organizations propagating around the country,one thing i was surprised to see that way-in what was once known as Soviet Union(i was born and lived in it till i was 19)tendencies towards autonomy and independance are MUCH stronger.In Kolkata each price is always mentioned in the original bengalese coin Taka,which is still in use under that exact name in Bangladesh the closely neighbouring to Kolkata country.According to the maps(I never attempted to enter Bangladesh even as prices there are considerably smaller than even very low Kolkata ones)the distance from Kolkata to the bangladeshi border is minimal.Whichever good of life do you try to buy in Kolkata,its price is always announced in takas,not in rupees the currency of upper Ganges valley historically and India as a whole.The state of India does exist for kolkatans,but only inside offices and none mostly happens there.Kolkatans live in Bengal and never mind the differences in borders etc.During the held by the departing english elections of 1948 the areas that voted for a state that was based upon hinduism made one country and those that voted for a muslim islam based country made the Pakistan nation,out of which shortly appeared Bangladesh as a result of misunderstanding between western Pakistan and what now is Bangladesh with India violently interrupting the war between the two on the bangladeshi side.This area of the west Bengal simply chose a hinduist state over a muslim 1 predominantly,even being like Bangladesh the neighbouring country in most EVERY respect possible,and SO becoming a part of India during the referendum that England administered to establish the borders between hindu and muslim countries of the region they were leaving in 1948.The only difference english were able to notice was this division by religion,indeed a very basic one,yet not the only one as the events of the war among India,Pakistan and what is currently Bangladesh showed very clearly.The funny thing that some later led to the war in the entire 3 countries' region was the difference in class of living english never took to consideration,between the western Pakistan and its eastern part nowadays Bangladesh called part.This difference in the way of living(sandy dry desert like life in the western Pakistan along with rich soil,humid swamps like and rich on perfectly growing vegetation life in the eastern one,the division that showed itself to be the MOST important one as the later wars DID erupt shortly,yet english failed to notice it anyway)resulted later in additional wars among Bengal,India and Pakistan,proving that the difference in social classification and the area's climate not only DOES exist,but is even having a more serious importance and stronger anyway,just the way communism the presumably bankrupt ideology attempted to persuade us while UK its former manager refuses to acknowledge it even nowadays.The wars themselves showed that the religion upon itself is NO main factor in life and decisions taken,but the conditions,in which the life itself proceeds on a daily basis IS.Like english were only busy with things higher by perception,failing to notice lower truths,that in reality ARE the most important ones among the inhabitants of the main Indian subcontinent part the rich Ganges river valley.The south of India is yet another world by their habits and lifestyle and the impression after visiting the both(i spent like a full month in the southern India(Kerala state)town of Kochi)is that ALL that unites them is the common currency and government only,most of smaller life details being ALL very different,along with large difference in prices among India regions.What to speak about the amounts and the names of foods 1 can find upon a market,these all were very different,and such things are very decisive.The immense state of India's government YES attempts its best to hold pleased SUCH a different by lifestyles country,all consisting of very different regions and people that do prefer speaking a separate language each,showing us the difference DOES exist;the main factual characteristic the way of preferred life different very considerably.A Kolkata bus ticket was costing me around 15 US cents,or only 7 rupees(1 $ was=42 rupees),this was happening along with a Delhi bus ticket costing me 50 rupees of this very same country India,food was costing even less in Kolkata,being of excellent quality I never found even in Israel and its levels of food quality are very high,what to speak of countries,situated further north,and i had seen life in several of them too.About each day's morning saw me using a local train to either see the city or visit the great by size city markets,and the largest of those is very close to the main Kolkata railway station Howrah,a very sizeable junction of railroads indeed with numbers of people using it amazingly high and not reminding ANY other railway station i ever saw,including much higher populated countries' ones of Ukraine and Russia.A monthly pass through local trains(allowing free no charge passing by local near Kolkata driving trains costed me around 1.5 US $$ or like 70 rupees,a very cheap price for a foreighner,and ALL i saw of those foreighners inside of the western Bengal area for i'd say like 12 months i spent in Kolkata itself(-the holy cultural spots sure)was no more than 10 people,most of them speaking the UK variation of english language and looking accordingly.While Varanasi the famous religious centre of India held maybe 3 %% of folks around the city that were foreighners i would roughly estimate(saw them there pretty often),those foreighners in Kolkata were almost completely absent.The thing with tourists is that they only visit spots that hold nicer architectural structures or such,ignoring natural interests of local populations completely instead,and the main such interest of the West Bengal area is much simpler and runs around things very basic like food,moving through railroads and upon buses etc.My OWN impression was that local trains' system is used too often among Indians,the most loved transportation method around(the second one being motorbikes,used by numerous indian folks a lot),people using trains in quantities i never witnessed in ANY other country i had been to.Trains are next followed(by popularity)by motorbikes,easier used throughout India than they are in other countries i had been to.To be able to drive around the area a motorbike is a highly prestigious thing among average indians,popular and easily used even among deep villagers(seen this in indian villages too),what to speak of larger cities' inhabitants.Motorbike is the most used kind of transportation methods for locals around small villages(all of real India the Ganges Valley villages inhabitants are well in love with motorbiking around.The amount of passengers,using local trains,is amazingly high for a country in general in Kolkata,but is quickly reducing as 1 exits the closest city suburbs and even becomes about nonexistant(i drove far north off Kolkata sometimes too,interested to watch local village life)well north of the city,1 of largest ones in India and the largest in its eastern half,home to several millions of people.Normal life well off Kolkata city northwards is even less crazy/dependant on a large city than it is in,say,Varanasi,yet more peaceful and ''crazy'' for a stable soil picking and small life occupations one might find around his home and the small piece of land.A large city like Kolkata may be the "presiding deity" around the area,but I would say much more than 99 % of the population of that area the lower Ganges valley Bengal still lives in this rural area,through which I often was passing upon local trains,where harvests are very good simply because of all the water,passing through the Ganges river and adding new soil to it along its way.As i was to a Ganges valley village even myself(once to the family of my local friend),i may say that the people there never care about any thing they might obtain in a large city,completely engrossed into their peaceful lives right upon that very village spot,and i recall even myself after several days spent in it becoming indifferent to pleasures of a large city and interestingly well satisfied with the simple life of the large village communion that inhabited that village just like a large widespread family normally does.Crazes of a large city then just tend to gradually evaporate into nothing,leaving you busy with small life details instead.Speaking of deities,ALL of the Kolkata temples have only those of Durga,a very low situated in Hinduism deity of a female goddess that kills male nastily looking demons and holds numerous sabres and spears in her several hands.Interesting that no temple room even,and i was to many while in Kolkata,holds ANY other deities,VERY rarely only those of Hanuman the closest ally of Lord Rama too,but these also are very small in number among Kolkata temples.But as i was to the middle of Ganges valley area along with my friend,whose home base is there,they hold many different deities in there,and Durga is not among those at all.Hanuman,according to the legends,was the super strong leader of the army of monkeys the serious attachement to Rama's army(the story of Ramayana poem that appeared much before christianity did)that followed Lord Rama into his conquest trips,most notably into his victorious island Lanka conquest,showing itself the worthiest of his many warriors.Another let us say "deity",easily and often seen inside the city,is the communist symbolism items like red flags,red 5 angle stars etc showing the continuing interest in the socialist ideology among the inhabitants of particularly the lowest part of the Ganges river valley its delta as i never witnessed this interest to the communism ideology anywhere else around India,and i had been to many spots around it,even as for a short time each.No complicated religion items like Vishnu deities(normal and prevailing even in upper Ganges valley religious spots),complicated temple paraphernalia,are ever foundable around Kolkata,the area that borders a predominantly muslim country of Bangladesh,and that country holds the lion and largest part of the bengalese population that simply prefers islam more than hinduism,and the very populous Kolkata city is some i would estimate rougly 50 kilometres away from the border with Bangladesh.The population of this lowest Ganges delta area(this is exactly the simple denomination of the Bengal region)is remarkably indifferent to any religions,if not counting as such land cultivation and small cash earning activities,which ARE the religion of well-to-do people of Bengal.In numerous Kolkata city spots I was able to buy a glass of on the spot juiced sugarcane juice,its price always ten rupees a glass(i often used this freshly juiced drink there)no matter what the spot on the map was,be it even small towns around Kolkata as i had been through a series of trips around those too;the price of a glass of sugarcane juice was always announced as "dos taga" or ten takas(10 indian rupees in the wallet understanding of it),which is ten takas in bangladeshi both language and currency.No matter what exactly Delhi politicians believe(things are never close to the reality of life in any country capital),the populace keeps using the historical bengalese(used in Bangladesh even now)currency name,the common to all of Bengal bengalese language AND the most important of all those,the very same lifestyle,which WAS the real reason of events around the wars of 1970-es among Bangladesh,India and Pakistan,and i use this enumeration from lower areas to higher ones exactly,the division by religion proven NOT the most basic of the ones around.And even in case it IS a far less an important factor for english people,the lower reality of life things DO have the profound influence in Bengal even now,making up for the MOST important life factor that circumvents ideology etc upon its way to the real power over events there.This mistake of UK in reality was THE starting point to wars among the 3 countries around 1970 or so.1 thing UK leaders DID fail to observe and introduce as the law in India before leaving it.The area north of Kolkata is both completely plain rich by nutrition elements black soil with no even a hint of not only mountains,but even smaller hills,intertwined by numerous small rivers and lakes,evidently full of soil moisture and densely well inhabited by people with no spare spaces,where a wild forested area would ONLY appear in case it could not be used agriculturally(never seen an unused soil patch there,ALL of that land is actively agriculturally developed),and I often was throughout the bengalese provincial areas by local trains),but almost all of it is under crops and other vegetation people normally use into food,the land is well worked over with no spots,not managed correctly,with small villages very common but well spread around this very well agriculturally used and rich in perfect black soil land.Villagers that live far away from Kolkata city give the impression that they keep to their villages almost all of the time or never leave the localities they inhabit, the rich cozy village type with vegetation and each foodie they ever need in nice abundance.The type of an Indian village dweller is only interested in visiting a larger city once he needs an industrially produced complicated equipment and such needs are very rarely appearing.Once I even was participating in the life of a Ganges village dweller myself,when going with my friend from a Kolkata high school to his parents that were living in 1 of those villages in the middle of the Ganges valley,the spot was situated not far from the border of Nepal.The impression from the area is that peasants are well satisfied with their village life and never care about any cities at all.The largest impression was that those people were never interested in any of a large city crazes,having all they might need either right on the spot(and local traders are very good at fulfilling their needs all along their ways)or after visiting a small areal centre a 20 000 people populated town.Once we left the house of parents of my Kolkata friend to come to the local area centre a town of maybe 15 000 population judging by its interior ,using their motorbike as the transportation means.The town reminded me Dalit Ha Carmel,the Arab centre for villagers upon Carmel mountain in Haifa,that completely non centralized,lacking any serious architecture and reminding a very large village the town was.Long wide streets with many small shops upon them and large masses of peasants,passing those streets,trying to reach their small mostly agricultural destinations,houses small and too practical for any city,physical activities too evident and intellectual ones about abscent.The village we lived in was a very small one in the middle of the valley,but closely situated to Nepal the neighbouring to the place country.Once we with both my Kolkata student friend and his close relative of our age even went to the nepalese border upon their motorcycle and were bathing in that river named Dandak the border itself.Right behind it were pretty high mountains,which as I was explained were already the territory of Nepal.Dandak is a very small river with pretty harshly moving across it water,not a stably moving one at all,the definite sign of a mountainous terrain.All the travel to Dandak took from us maybe 3 to 4 hours in one direction,the passage there was through very simple scarsely inhabited terrain that lacked the general for Ganges Valley dense population and well worked over agriculturally land.Motorbikes are transportation means number one among Ganges valley villages' population,and even this sort of transportation is mostly not used among village dwellers,visibly not interested in any moving off from their rich in agriculrural events small provincial life.Its like a city doesnt exist for them-no interest to central country matters ever visible around the village we lived in.Interestingly,they had no centralized electricity power at home at all,using kerosene lamps I saw in movies about the end of 1800-es and went to bed as early as 2 hours after the sunlight faded away.Most of contemporary equipment was around the house minus things too modern,but no TV watching or radio listening was prominent and even was used just a little if at all.When in Kolkata city i needed to live like half an hour north from Kolkata itself by local train in Bally town(maybe 10 000 people populated)as exactly this position of home was the most benefitting me financially,situated upon a Ganges river bank,where real life looked like a small village 1-the way bengalese locals actually prefer to live averagely and Kolkata itself is AS reminding West Bengal in general as Tallinn reminds Estonia(lived there once too)-very remotely indeed and being much of a foreign higher developed country piece with both all the weird for locally living bengalese things in it and higher prices for goods.Unlike in other countries though,Kolkata city witnesses no serious additions in the form of new clusters of homes,constantly built up by industry to house people that work in the large city and almost all of them simply prefer(and are not forced to,as in other countries it generally is)to live constantly in smaller village like towns outside the Kolkata city,which is also not actively added with new houses,generally built up elsewhere.My impression was that even as announced otherwise,a small indian village is THE real personage of the indian life,not caring about cities in the least,and cities themselves only hold weird exclusions of this main rule of life in India,the rule of well pleased in ways provincial or village life.Towns of the sort Bally is,that small town i lived inside when residing in West Bengal around 2011,where life is very peaceful and each good is easily obtainable from lots of local small stores,just at a somewhat higher price.The less comfortable and cheaper lower class houses(the preferred household there)as I noticed,were all built still during the British rule times,at least that was my own impression of those houses.No large multilevel block houses are visible built anew,which leaves the impression that the area is either extremely conservative by habits or(my own impression)is not experiencing the large need of modern built high leveled houses,most likely being fully sufficient with both the current housing and the slow speed of village type life.It certainly looked like an average bengalese was in love with the village style life,''no noise/many folks around-fully large village style'',and coming to Kolkata strictly on business sometimes.Small villages around the province all hold very numerous peasants' houses that are not many levels holding at all but rather smaller 1 to 3 levels structures,evenly distributed through their immensely rich soil,which has no mistakes at all in the form of mountains,hills,or even larger lakes or forests-all of it seems very much put into nice use by humans,no patches of territory arent looked over or more wild than averagely the land is,such is the level of elaborate work over the land there is-the amazingly contrast picture from other lands I visited.But while Kolkata amazingly contains minimum of newly built up modern multifloor houses and mostly holds badly maintained houses of local poor people that somehow escaped the village life but did not manage to find a useful way of life on their own and so now need to live in communally used very old housing structures as other ways of life arent fitting them well.These people are most noticed as bathing upon the central city streets under the water from public sources(no economizing of it is ever visible among them only)and i did not percieve them doing any serious city activity,and i had a chanse of watching them for a very long time as i was throughout Kolkata city on numerous occasions.This said,the phenomena of this communal housing is ONLY recognizable inside of Kolkata itself,every of smaller towns around it(had been to many,walking freely upon my own feet researching their habits then)never holding any of the ways to live,reminding those actual COMMUNES i just mentioned.My own guess is that the principle of communism that WAS a principal invention of the XX-eth century even as rejected officially around the world,is YES well in use even now throughout India even as not announced at all.Even as never announced publically(India shuns and avoids this traditionally),such commune living together with all common to it IS a reality of life there but ONLY for those particular individuals that somehow DID manage to fail to join the mainstream organization of the indian society.These FACTS of life in India are simply never announced publically,yet they DO exist,and even myself,a complete foreighner to India,easily noticing these life realitites.This life of a COMMUNE of socially injured people in a commune with ALL common to it-money,living quarters,managers,water etc only exists for large cities like Kolkata,because i never saw this thing a commune around any small villages,and i yes had been to many,strolling around those upon my own feet as my age DID allow me such physically demanding feats then.This principal invokes common living in a single funds/resources/whatever else based communion of individuals that ALL profit from one single source of income,occupations and whatever else people do need from life.I personally suspect that the main and the lion part of the expenses such communes NEED to be having is covered from the funds of the country in general,somewhere from funds of the government and its branches.The style they live by must be reminding a large communal society with common food/occupations/whatever else,including most likely the income sources as well.Knowing the traditions of the government of India i percieved around media sources,it must channel into such communal households very sizeable amounts of money from the country resources.Not to mention that the very centre of Kolkata is very old,all seemingly built up at the end of the XIXth century(that age DID witness a boost of living quarters appearing,judging by the look of those),and houses inside of it at this time arent well fit for contemporary life needs and so are best used as such a refuge for such locals that arent doing too well externally anyway.The city centre holds an amazing quantity of beggars/people that look completely broke yet enjoying the role of dirty holders of nothing anyway,or else people with no visible source of income,which can be easily seen by their street behaviour and dirty never exchanged clothes.More,to be a dirty,lazy and cashless man is a sort of a pleasant tradition inside of Kolkata city,1 seemingly entertained by a considerable Kolkata inhabitants group.Some people(they DO look that way too unlike the israeli ones,who DO get every cash they might need from the government just AS well)of Kolkata(and my own guess is that Delhi or other cities' ones are even more numerous and taken care of)are obvious professional doers-of-nothing type,this interesting principle i noticed NEVER spreading into smaller towns around Kolkata themselves,where everyone seems(been throughout such towns often during my on foot trips around those)very well occupied,even as with smaller life tasks of visiting markets,doing this and that too,only main family members busy upon more complicated economy objects throughout a day.Here in the city centre operate actively only either small organizations offices like accountants etc or complete strangers to the city local province peasants that enter the city to proceed with their own agricultural occupations like selling vegetation upon immence city markets.My own impression of the region held that every wise or well situated local was living constantly outside of Kolkata itself on a small distance from it,easily reachable by local trains that operate there very actively indeed and lots of people use them every day.Thats by the way exactly the way both Estonia and Israel life is built as well.In India(in Estonia my birth country funnily too)the large city the centre of the region is like another planet for the rest of the province,holding things,too amazing and complicated for an average province dweller,that is MUCH more developed in many ways than average villages of the country in general as i was riding through too many local train stations sometimes for simple fun then,walking around sometimes inside the towns too.Bally town,where I lived most of my West Bengal tourism time(close to one full year if accounting each and every day of it),is covered within 20 minutes of brisk walk from side to side of it,and much reminds a very large village but with very nicely and comfortably made and peaceful contemporary housing of up to 5 levels,no more and mostly less(in most cases 3 or 4 only)and generally less(this is the way locals love to live around Bengalese provincial areas)and narrow long streets,frequently interrupted by small stores,but it has a railway station,its own ghat(an organized spot for Ganges river bathing that is daily used by many people,always very neatly maintained as I saw ghats in many towns,attracted by a chanse to bath in the Ganges river),many small stores,where most locals buy every type of food and another home necessity they need at home and more(as in most railway station towns).My feeling held that village locals prefer to and almost never do leave the province for the city.A near Kolkata situated bengalese town is only like 5000 people populated averagely,it looks like a complete village with all peaceful,and contains every sort of necessity one needs at home,which is performed by an amazing quantity of small stores that sell them,the largest percentage of stores in a town of all the countries I ever visited.Bengase locals(all of them peaceful homelike types)just hate to cover large distances in search of small life necessities and easily lose additional money by making almost all of their needed things' purchases inside of their own small town,enjoying the life there.Best quality life for a foreighner/local dwellers too in Bengal is only achieved living in such a smaller town just outside of the Kolkata megapolis.There ARE hotels inside Kolkata city itself sure,but the price i'd pay there was much higher than in provincial "paying guest" places anyway with living conditions very much reminding them and mostly even less comfortable anyway.More,the price,requested by a Kolkata hotel would be like twice costlier than that of a very similar(even more so by life quality)a small town situated hotel would hold.More(i never used it as advertisement almost always goes in the local bengali language),there ARE options for richer folks with more cash upon their hands,to rent privately a room from an owner of a local house.THIS sort of housing i attempted as i lived in Sri Lanka,renting the entire upper floor of their small house from a well-to-do local family.The cost of such a place indeed though was a much higher 1 than what i paid while in the ''paying guest'' Kolkata facility.In short,real Bengal is its either village or small town and its peaceful life(my impression about every country i ever visited by the way)and its capital Kolkata is a quickly getting old and overused museum of old badly maintained and gradually failing buildings.Also the old structures of hotels are less comfortable in many contemporary ways,offering sky rocket prices anyways.In West Bengal to live in its capital Kolkata is a serious mistake and bengalese inhabitants are well aquainted with this rule,almost everyone preferring life outside of this "area capital" in smaller Bengal towns.After living in Kolkata for 3 full months(its what Israel allows to be out of its borders without dire consequences i would definitely regret later)i each time returned to my home city of Haifa not only with any lack of funds,but with a considerable financial GAIN instead because prices in India(and in yet poorer Kolkata in particular)are amazingly low in comparison.And this all was after i paid for a "to and back" ticket from Israel to India by plane,which itself is a very serious cash expence,SUCH is the difference in prices between the 2 areas,Israel and West Bengal(again,New Delhi prices are several times higher than Kolkata ones,difference among different areas of immense India in prices and most everything else amazing).The Bally town market is on,very well managed and organized,but it exists for lazy locals only(I noticed that most westerners i saw throughout India in my travels there preferred the completely non bengaleze life method of constant movement by transportation means),but it is nothing useful in comparison to the immence Kolkata markets-both prices and quality of foodies upon those grand ones are very low and good in quality,but then i often went to immense Kolkata markets and SO had all the food i needed for miserable costs.Both largest Kolkata grocery market and the most populous ghat(indian for "bathing spot")on the Ganges river were very closely situated to the main Kolkata railway station Howrah-a very large railway station in comparison to any railway transit station that I EVER saw in my life-that many people are actively using it upon a daily basis.The amounts of passengers i saw using Howrah station(the main railway 1 in the entire eastern India)are larger than those in both Ukraine and Russia,and these latter ARE considerable ones too.Both quality of food and the price of it improved very seriously this way of coming to the central city market,just as did the amount of time i spent to find it though-i liked to browse every grocery stand before buying,and this took from me about 1 full hour on itself.Both the taste of fruits like papaya,cocos nuts and more thingies i never ever saw inside western countries' cities + more increases for AS much as you are willing to spend upon going to larger city markets and the price of the food you buy there decreases very considerably too.Papayas,sold here,are something special by taste,a much better one than the Israeli ones have,and is also sold by many sellers,coming from many private farms around Kolkata.The choice that i had(like 40 different private sellers of papaya at a time i recall)made for a very nice characteristics to this central city market and the quality of that particular food i was searching for.Cocos nuts are real fresh,just off the cocos tree and are simply trashed over a stone floor(learned this art from using it local inhabitants)or any other hard surface instead and in this way are deprived of their hard casings(a hard dark brown 5 mlmtr or so hard to crack thing;sweet inner juice drank out and white nuts part is easily chewed by one's own teeth even if these are well injured(mine were).This is because the sold cocos nuts are AS fresh as just taken off a palm.When finally out of visiting India Kolkata,my favourite homebase in the land,i was still holding for a considerable while to 2 things,well abscent in other countries while perfectly on and vividly flourishing as amazing characteristics to bengalese life,that got attached to me during that long Kolkata city stay and that was:1))love to extremely spiced foods that simply burn inside of your mouth even as not dangerously overheating your mouth passages all along interestingly,THAT good locals are at making them up,that completely occupy Kolkata public eating spots,which ALL serve foods well spiced,and it is most times a plate of rice and some protein vegetables,sauced with spiced mixtures too,and 2))attachment to pulling my luggage,even if heavy 1,upon my own head,the favourite way of transporting weights among Kolkata inhabitants.These 2 particularies i almost completely lost about AS soon as returning to Israel for good(around 2012).Funny thing is that the thingies funnily are ONLY in play as THE rules to follow in India itself somehow.This latter tradition of behaviour by local bengalese,also got attached to me while in that city.I still remember with a feeling the amazing way i felt as i was crossing upon my own feet 1 of only 2 bridges over Ganges river with a pretty heavy bag with groceries upon my own head-this way of behaviour i never enjoyed that much throughout any of my passages through countries.To avoid its misuse and then comfort the head during carrying heavy weights upon the head the locals use a strip of material(always a brightly multicoloured and never a dark one with the well required lots of smaller alongated lines upon them),easily bought around Kolkata for a small indeed price.I had bought myself there both the material(very easily purchaseable in the city)and another complete need for a household inhabitant thing-a large bag,completely made up of super strong threads of chemical origin just to hold through large weights pulled around in them,the bag i continuously used inside of Israel long after returning to it till the moment i just lost it off-THAT impossible to tear it up was the bag!A small piece of such cloth is placed directly between the head and the weight to comfort the head.They just love to pull visibly heavy weights around the streets upon their own heads,everyone visibly pleased and taking it as a must for a city/town street alike.For that end kolkatans have a very interesting need to have between the head and the weight a several times folded brightly coloured cloth that completely takes off any aches one might otherwise feel.Up to this day 1 of the strongest appetitic moments of Kolkata i did percieve as a nice comfort for a local is vividly rememberred by me as walking along one the two great bridges over the Ganges river in Kolkata with my head holding a considerably overweighted bag with something heavy inside of it.Another one of exquisite Kolkata features is a lot of communist agitation and symbolism,noticeably present upon its walls,many communist symbols often publically displayed unlike in the birth country of communism Russia,where it never is a welcome guest in public spots,everyone visibly pleased and never disagreeing with it-it is never a subject of interest there.Another funny thing about Kolkata is its amazing love to dirt and wastes laying openly around;my impression had been that the sight is something of a need for locals,only after seeing which they keep feeling at home.Another example of this ''nice art of living miserably'' as i would name it,is when many railway stations for instance have small dirty lakes,situated real close to the platforms,where people are entering/exiting local trains.Such lakes often sported home held excusively dirty pigs,plowing around in hope of a foodie to be found,everyone seemingly fond of this situation with pleasure among the people noticeable.The impression is that the people have this need in such shows upon a daily basis there.These dirty ponds happen also inside towns like Bally where i lived and they coexist very piecefully with nice well kept houses along its shores.Speaking of home animals,i only missed many cats,often sporting western cities' streets there.Interestingly,homeless cats arent common throughout Kolkata at all,dogs more numerous and sometimes openly wild and homeless,even behaving in a wilder fashion there.Another i would call it ''home animal'' of India,and only seen inside western villages one,cows are only abscent inside Kolkata city itself,most likely kept out of the way for their own safety by people,while inside smaller local railway towns(i had been to many just to spend some time out of my Bally town home)they are often freely engaged in their normal ritual of walking around the town and collecting its grass,not in any way making contact with people.People always pass by them and notice them not.Cows in small habitation spots are something like cats in western cities-they walk around freely and none cares about them.Once i decided though to do a rougher move to a cow just to check its reaction for this very rare aggressive action towards it(seen the local attitude well by then to cows).So to check this idea of a somewhat rougher cow treatment I pushed a cow intentionally rough by my hand from behind and in return got the very sudden and completely unexpected for me completely aggressive move by that passing around cow to push MYSELF off the way with its own lower corpus.After this sudden move against me the cow stopped(it had been moving in the direction i was following),turned to me and started to agressively watch me up.This amazing feat by a cow that I never ever witnessed around the countries I had been to was a complete novelty to me,and those were several,not numerous ones.In ALL the countries of the west cows are well confined to animal breeding spots,never leaving those or intertwining with humans around.Of which i made the amazing conclusion that cows are REALLY unaccustomed to ANY rough treatment from humans in India,taking them just as other street objects around them,cows always have their complete respect and tolerance instead.Inside the Kolkata suburban area towns i often saw cows,pasturing around a wild or grassy spot,which hints that their owners simply fear not about their possible disappearance or stealth.Up to this day i have a photoe i made by a chewing grass upon a town street cow with locals passing us and openly smiling.Wild monkeys,freely running around,I had only seen upon the Varanasi the religious capital of India railway station,not even in its own centre at all.In other cities/towns they are completely out of the human life picture,most likely because religious simply are not the type to attack those,while regular inhabitants might be dangerous to monkeys themselves.And it isn't only the holy status that Hinduism gives cows the account to this,but also naturally visible acceptance of this condition by locals,which all take a cow as just another domesticated animal,the way cats and dogs are in the west.In temples of India I saw diffreret deities,but inside West Bengal and Kolkata itself only the deities of Durga were present,the deity that isnt considered any height but a much lower one in traditional hinduism.The amount of Muslim mosques was amazingly high in Kolkata too,both the religions visibly going very well along each other.The neighbouring to the India part West Bengal region is a completely Muslim dominated country Bangladesh,which exists since the departing India English masters made a referendum among locals,asking them whether they wanna live in India or in an independent Islam based state and the results of that referendum made the borders between what was then Pakistan(the current 1 plus its former province Bangladesh,which is in its own borders now after some bloody civil unrests shortly after its creation started)and Hinduism based India.What is called now West Bengal India simply voted predominantly over a Hindu state while Pakistan and Bangladesh all voted for an Islamic state.It all exists during the reality,in which kolkatans are AS much believing to be bengalese as bangladeshees do and all market(and so real life)prices are up to this day announced in the historically accepted bengalese money coin Taka,not in any rupees as the official Delhi government wants us to believe it all is counted in,coins and banknotes Rupees printed in Delhi anyway.And unlike in many places I visited in West Bengal the national and state feelings and controversy are very much limited and have no large importance in public life,most of such agitaton coming in the form of communist symbols and propaganda,which up to this day is well percieved upon the city streets.Politically the locals of are pretty much passive,engrossed instead into the products of their extremely rich river delta soil products exchange.Politics isnt the thing for a good bengalese inhabitant to pursue,none showing any interest in it visibly.