April 29 Kolkata Subway

We decided to try the Kolkata subway system known as the best in the country. It was clean and cool and extremely cheap (about .25 per ride). The cars were full of people but the system worked well. Our first stop was the Sitambara Jain Temple. It was an oasis in the middle of Kolkata. Beautiful spacious grounds, a pool, well maintained, and a lovely glass ceiling in the main temple. There were few worshippers, but lots of polite security guards to guide us through the procedures. The biggest problem was burning our feet on the pavement since we took our shoes off too early. Photography was not allowed inside the temple.

The second temple was a total contrast. This was the Kali temple, I should have guessed there would be trouble when personnel were posted at every corner to guide us to the temple. It was a total con job with a leech guide who said he was free because he worked for the temple. He took me from post to post buying flowers, blessing flowers and then insisted on a major contribution to feed the poor. At this stage I bailed and he trailed me way out into the street insisting I pay him. I didn't and Joan and I left.

The third place was the Nakhoda Mosque. Again we had an escort, and he took us through a locked door so we could wander the second and third floors of the Mosque. Later we were allowed to wander in the courtyard but not the ground floor of the mosque. Kolkata is suffering from a major heat wave and when I looked in the main entrance theplace was full of people sleeping on the cool floor.