Our final destination on this 'North India Unplugged' tour is Kolkata. Formerly known as Calcutta this city was originally established by English merchants as a trading post then later evolved into the capital of the British Indian Empire.

We pulled into a rainy Kolkata railway station at 11am - it was supposed to be 8am but you know IST. The rain continued for the rest of the day, so much so that Indian version of 'The Independent' newspaper had photos of a flooded Calcutta on its front page the next morning.

Kolkata is a big, congested, busy, polluted city - as we left the station we passed rows of shacks constructed out of plastic and metal with half naked children sitting and playing next to the road whilst mad traffic thundered past - it is both frightening and sad to see! When we were stood at one set of traffic lights we were surrounded by street children, some were playing on the road (in the middle of a busy intersection I might add), some were sleeping in the central reservation and some were moving from car to car banging on the windows with hand outstretched begging for money. Failure to acknowledge one young boy resulted in a swift show of the finger before he moved onto the next vehicle. It is so sad but we have been strongly advised to channel money through appropriate charities to ensure that it is used properly and not to give directly to beggars.

With intemittent rain throughout the two days we spent in Kolkata we did very little by way of sightseeing. One place we did visit was Mother Theresa House which I found extremely moving particularly as her body is actually buried here and there is a permanent shrine. The sisters have created a little exihibtion which documents her life and her charity work through the 'Missionaries of Charity' order she established. The exhibition explains how, whilst in a convent, God visited Mother Theresa and told her that she had to leave the convent and go and help the poor and needy. It took her over a year to convince the priests of her new calling but she was eventually released and moved to Kolkata to start her charity work. Once the order had been established Mother Theresa confessed that she became empty inside and could only see darkness, an affliction which continued for the rest of her life. She believed that God was simply making her understand the suffering that both Jesus and the people she help endured. I found the whole visit completely humbling and realise that I just would'nt have the strength of character or courage to do what she did.

And so our trip to India has come to an end, so what can I say - well India:
- Is full of colour wth amazingly beautiful women
- Has taxi drivers who love to point out any 5 star hotel they pass
- Is a place where money counts as extreme poverty and affluence live side by side
- Is a country where a red light can mean stop or alternatively it can mean go!
- Has millions of stray dogs, cows and pigs which roam the streets foraging for food at will
- Is a country where people actually do say hello to you and give you big smiles
- Is seeped in amazing history and rich culture
- Is a country where the vehicle horn is seriously overused!
- Has a major litter problem
- Is a country where a businessman in a top of the range BMW and a man in rags pulling a handcart share the road
- Is overcrowded, hectic and noisy!

According to a statistic I saw somewhere, India's middle class is larger than the entire population of the US, so my question is how can such abject poverty exist! What is India doing for India? It's all too easy to put your hand out to the tourst but that is only a short term solution. I think maybe I need to research this subject a bit more!

Well I guess that's why the Indian tourst office use the strapline 'INCREDIBLE INDIA' because that's just what it is! It's very difficult to put India into words so my advice would be to come and see for yourself - you may be pleasantly suprised - we were!