When I tumbled out of bed at 6am after the second bell of the morning I did expect to be the first one up, however to my immense surprise and to the shock of any parents or college staff reading this (I know you won’t believe me so the photographic evidence will be in the photo section of this blog) 4 of our students - specifically George, Joe, Jack and Brian were all out of bed and sitting at the table practicing the Bengali they had been taught the night before, testing each other and making sure they had the correct pronunciations. They then went downstairs to join in the keep fit session.

After breakfast we all bundled into taxis and headed off into Kolkata to visit some sights. This truly was a magical mystery tour as we had no idea what place we were heading to next or, if we thought we had an idea where we might be going we would arrive somewhere else instead.

From the moment we pulled out of the gate of the school we realised just what an oasis of calm this place is. The noise and smells of the village came bombarding us through the open window. When we arrived on Monday I hadn’t been able to pay attention to the village. It is fairly rural being on the edge of the paddy fields. In comparison to the people in the heart of Kolkata people seemed to be quite poor.

As we drove further into Kolkata the roads got wider, there were less animals in the road the buildings looked less run down, the market stalls on the street side looked cleaner and the people seemed generally better off. Obviously these are just perceptions I have made from the backseat of a taxi. Oh and talking of the taxi - the driving is quite mad. There are traffic lights and they seem almost arbitrary in some places, cars turn out from junctions very fast and almost play chicken with the on-coming vehicles. There is a cacophony of beeping which is could be considered as the modern sound of Kolkata, imagine Italian driving but without all the irate shouting.

We pulled up outside our first destination and a little sign on the end of the building showed us that the first stop on the magical mystery tour was the Motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity. In brackets and small letters underneath it read (Mother Teresa’s Tomb). There was something quite familiar for me about all the nun’s dressed in white. A male priest was celebrating the Mass for a group of visiting catholics and people were coming in and out and paying homage to Mother Teresa at her Tomb (right next to where the mass was being celebrated. I was humbled by the size of her cell where she lived and died, they say she declined even a fan as part of her vow of poverty. In the museum is the actual document of her Nobel Peace Prize alongside a wide selection of photos and memorabilia from her life and service. Although it was a busy place with lots of pilgrims coming and going, one mass ended and the next one began whilst we were there and upstairs there were sisters in constant prayer, it felt like an oasis of calm in a crazily busy place. There was a peace about the place that in my experience only comes when prayers are regularly said there over a long period of time. When we left we were each handed a pilgrimage token and a photo of Mother Teresa. Whether they are kept as momentoes of something deeper one thing I do know is that most of our students were quite moved by the place and the story of an amazing lady.

Whilst waiting for the return of our taxis we had quite a discussion about Peace Signs versus Swastika’s as one of the Hindu symbols for peace is a reverse swastika (or is it that the swastika was a reversed peace sign?). Back to the magical mystery tour and the next building we pulled up outside looked like a re-creation of the British Museum, but if it had been built on Trafalgar Square. There were lions, and other statues although no Eros. What gave away that we were in India was that at the gate house there weren’t beafeater guards instead there were men khaki uniforms brandishing spears! I sm not sure they whether they were for use in anger or just decorative but we made sure all the students stuck close to the rules in order that we didn’t find out.

The place is known as the Marble Palace as was built by an old Indian artistocratic family. They were deeply influenced by European Culture and had statues to Greek and Roman Gods in the house, Italian marble floors, statues of great world leaders and kings such as Napolean and George V. There was a small private zoo which was sad because the cages seemed very small and the birds and animals were not happy, but also odd because some of the creatures were European and are ten a penny in England but not native to India and therefore in a zoo - rather like Elephants and Tigers in the zoos of the UK.

Before we piled back into the taxis we had our lunch of cucumber and tomato sandwiches which for some reason were far more tasty that if I had eaten the same at home, and the most tasty sweet bananas I have ever had. I am beginning to see why the Hindu religion started out by worshiping the bananas.