Thankfully I received my passport at the airport with my visa to enter India just a few hours before meeting my Thai Yoga teacher for our scheduled flight. Leaving Thailand from the Bangkok airport on Christmas Eve seemed strange as the normal hustle and bustle of Christmas was somehow lacking… no travelers with big bags of Christmas gifts, but many passengers going to India had BIG flat-screen TV’s that they were checking onto the flight to Kolkata (Calcutta). After a short two hours in the air I was in India for my first time.
A blue Christmas tree welcomed us at the hotel but the rest was not so good as the room was exceptionally tiny and the bathroom very dirty with no hot water, so on Christmas morning we transferred to another, more expensive ($200.00 US) but clean hotel.
So much for India being inexpensive. There are clearly two classes… poor and rich! Even a contrast in lobby Christmas trees. However I was surprised to see Christmas everywhere. Loud hawking vendors were selling red Santa hats in the middle of the streets and frantic people were buying and wearing them.
Huge lighted displays of holiday symbols; Christmas trees, Santa, snowmen, carolers, candles and over the top decorations with multitudes of lights covered block after block. The honking horns, screaming cabbies, overcrowded streets and deafening traffic noise felt like New York City on steroids. 
Doing the tourist thing, we visited the Indian Museum, an old-fashioned museum with many thousand year old Hindi sculptures and an incredible overview of India’s history. We paid a small fee to enter and another fee if you wanted to take photos. I enjoyed seeing the local people in their brilliantly colored Indian saris almost as much as the varied exhibits.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was the Marble Palace. Built in 1834 by Raja Rajendra Mullick, over 126 different kinds of Italian marble in the palace created an extravagant backdrop to a most extensive and eclectic collection of art. As a compulsive and avid collector of objects d’art from all over the world his trust stipulates that it will be a FREE museum for visitors to enjoy the palatial 19th century mansion. The palace houses an exquisite art gallery and museum with statues, paintings, bronzes, clocks, and unusual artifacts. Magnificent floor to ceiling Belgian mirrors with carved gilded frames reflected enormous cut crystal chandeliers in the dining hall. Sadly we were not allowed to take photos as descendents still live in part of the palace. So the Raja clearly enjoyed his collecting mania, spending millions, yet it continues to bring delight to others. Most impressive to me was that his trust still feeds over 600 poor people on the front lawn daily. What a legacy!
Another kind of legacy is that of Mother Theresa who tended to the sick and poor in the streets of Calcutta. I was surprised when our driver stopped and said, "you need to go see the Mother House." Walking down a tiny dirty alley we had no idea what to expect, except our driver had been right about the Marble Palace, so we followed his advice. After a short distance a tiny old gray cement building appeared and it turned out to be the home and final resting place of Mother Theresa. Her tomb is in one room and another room chronicles her amazing life dedicated to helping others. Upstairs was her simple camp cot, well worn sandals and enamel dinner bowl, a moving reflection of her life. No wonder it is ranked #1 attraction in Kolkata.
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| They call this Temple the mini Taj Mahal |
Sending Love, Peace, and Blessings from India
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