Kali Temple

Kalighat Kali temple is a Hindu temple which draws crowds of pilgrims from across India. It is also infamous for continuing the age old practise of animal sacrifice. Not an experience I ever expected to see, but as chance would have it I arrived at the right place at just the right time to see it in action.

You have read the notice... be warned!

Animal sacrifice

The shock realisation that this was actually happening came when I realised, having left my shoes as usual at the gate, that my bare feet were paddling in blood. I stood stock still in disgust. As I was already inside I had no choice but to be swept along with the clamouring crowds as the priests deftly cut the throats of young kid goats and flung them out of the holy inner shrines to waiting helpers. They took the bleeding bodies outside, skinned them in one 'go' then cut into sections to be given to the highest bidder.

Repulsive but compelling spectacle. Although, had I not been aware of the disgusting state of Indian loos, I might have thrown up in one. As it was I escaped outside down a side alley only to find myself cut off by a canal of raw sewage. The improvised bridge of boats was too precarious for me and  I gave in  to my western sensibilities and hired a bicycle rickshaw to get back to the metro. Feeling guilty about my 'colonial' mode of transport I tipped the young lad by giving him 50 rupee (pence) instead of 30 and he was so obviously delighted I decided I'd inadvertantly done a good deed by travelling as a 'tourist' rather than a local.

Improvised Bridge

After a rest in the cool of a KFC where my guilty conscience for using a western outlet was soothed by the knowledge that this particular one is run by 100% deaf staff I wandered slowly in the blistering heat in search of South Park Cemetery. Famously haunted after dark even in daylight it still had an atmospheric eerie air. The ruins of imposing Gothic tombs from the 18th and 19th century sit alongside towering Indo-Saracenic pyramid style monuments soaring high into the shady trees.

The atmospheric South Park Cemetery

Looking pensive in the cemetery

I passed a pleasant hour gazing at half legible eulogies of those British and Europeans who shaped Calcutta centuries ago. Incredible to think that in the late 18th century this city was the second largest in the British Empire. The heritage and infrastructure is quintessentially British but Calcutta was as much victim as benefactor from our colonialism. Japanese bombing in the 2nd world war decimated the city and thousands died in the subsequent famine caused by the British diverting food elsewhere during the war.

Mother Theresa drew media attention to the crisis here in the postwar years and I have always thought of it as a place dominated by poverty. Which it is. But it is also a vibrant living entity with a unique identity.

The Newsstand. I get a paper delivered, but the locals read it pinned up in the street!