Grave Thoughts in Kolkata

I have to admit it - I'm a graveyard buff! If the graveyard is an old one, that is. Kolkata, the city formerly known as Calcutta, has one of the finest 18th century graveyards I have visited, the South Park Road Cematary. Earliest entries seem to be around 1750, and the latest in the 1820s, so a lot of water under the bridge.

In Ye Olde Days, people put a lot more information on gravestones than nowadays. And the epitaths make some riveting reading at the best of times. Harsh conditions are reflected by the many tombs of very young children, young mothers, young men.

The eulogies of some wives read like Charles Dickens' most aimiable characters. Others get quite a brief review - I wonder if this reflects the state of marital bliss, or merely the stinginess of the surviving partner, who is unwilling to pay the stonecutters for a longer text.

And always the end did not come gently, but also wars and mutinies play a role in filling the plots of old graveyards. Well, in all too many contries of modern graveyards too. There was clearly a catastrophic uprising in 1857 as reflected by this tombstone in the Kolkata Cathedral wall:

To the Memory of
SIR MOUNTSTUART GOODRICKE JACKSON, Baronet
Of Bengali Civil Service
Asst. Commissr. at Seetapur in Oude
Who at the age of 21
After many months of privitation and suffering
Was murdered at Lucknow
On the 16th Nov 1857
           also of
AMELIA GEORGIANA JACKSON
Aged 20 years
Sister of the above
Who in escaping from Seetapur
Was separated from her brother,
And, after suffering and exposure,
Perished at Lucknow in the
Massacre on the 24th Sept 1857

Another memorial plaque was for Captain George Thomas Gowan, who "fell whilst endeavouring to recall the mutinous sepoys of his own corps to order and obedience" in June of 1857. Clearly Captain Gowan lacked a certain rapor with his sepoys, because they duly then went on to "cruelly murder" the captain's wife and infant son.

Call me ghoulish, but I do find these texts fascinating. They tell of the history and conditions of the place, of disease, dying in childbirth, dying on the return ship home to England (which happened surprisingly often - one wonders if people were put on the ship as a last resort when they grew gravely ill), sinking ships, mutinous sepoys and assassinations on the steps of the high court. In their own way, these epitaphs paint a picture of their times.

Another reason I like these old graveyards is that they often form an oasis of calm and peace in roaring metropolises. In Kolkata this was especially appreciated, since the pace, pollution and the noise on the streets is quite something.

Blowing the horn here is even requested - you're supposed to blow your horn to alert others in the road of your presence, thereby avoiding collisions. That's the theory. The practice is that you just blow, baby blow, and keep on blowing, all up the block and down the street till the worlds end. And blowing is not so much a polite, "ehrm, excuse me I would like to pass", as it is a proclamation of imminent death to pedestrians, unless they GET OUT OF THE WAY. I made the mistake a few times of imagining they would not actually plough into a cluster of pedestrians trying to cross the street. My mistake - only very nimble moves on behalf of the pedestrians and myself saved life and limb. And judging by the many limping dogs and humans here, not everyone was so lucky.

Tomorrow I leave Kolkata. I have been here three full days, but the first day I was under the weather and stayed in the hotel to get myself back on track. The second day I was waiting at the hotel all day for DHL to deliver my new credit card. Even a seasoned traveller can make a blundering mistake - so I left Finland with a credit card, which expires 01.2017. Since I intend to travel till the end of February, getting the new card delivered to me seemed like an excellent idea, (Thanks to Katri on the home front for making it happen!) So today has in fact been my one and only day for sightseeing in Kolkata.

Kolkata is a medley of Christmas lights,

Street stalls and cows,

Cricket matches in parks,

Amusement parks,

Also there are remaining traces of the city's important collonial past - for many years the capital city of the British Empire in India. A most impressive monument for Queen Victoria tops the list.

However I won't be too sad to head off South tomorrow to villages by the sea. These big cities of India are a challenging breed.