(cross-posting from my notepad written post)
My plan was to spend half the day in going around Calcutta, having got a taxi to take me around I was excited about the day! My morning was beautiful. Sukanya woke me up at 6.30. Had some coffee and then got ready to leave. Hunted for this place called at Maharani to have Calcutta's famous breakfast, Kachori Subzi. To add a bit of trivia, this place is very near the guest house shown in Kahaani. V argues that Maharani serves very good Kachori Subzi and not Kuchudi Subzi (which is more bengalisized version). Grabbed that and then headed for Babughat. En route we saw Eden Garden decked up in the new face of KKR. Glimpsed at Victoria Memorial and found a beautiful cathedral, St. Pauls. Eventually turned out that I couldn't go to Dakhineshwar Temple since there's no direct ferry from Babughat, one has to go to Howrah and then take another ferry to Dakhineshwar and the entire thing would take 2 hours which I wasn't sure I had.
So I came back to the cathedral and clicked a few shots and then found my way to Park Street.
Went to Oxford Bookstore, resisted the temptation to sit at the Cha Bar there and went to Flurys instead. Sat there for the better part of 45 mins because I had to kill time till the officials at the Christian Burial Grounds came to work so that I could get a permission to click photos in the South Park Street Cemetery.
The cemetery is beautiful. I was struck by the heritage feel of the entire property. It was huge in terms of its expanse too. Took me the better part of two hours to cover all the areas within it and all of those two hours I was on my feet walking around. The feel of the old monuments dating from 17th century onwards built in the European style of domes and structures instead of plain tombstones made my day literally! I didn't want to come out of that place. The paths were well laid out, most of the domes and monuments had been cleaned and restored to ensure that you could walk around, read the plaques, and take in the place. I kept walking through the paths, finding odd pieces of history. After the first few structures, I stopped reading the plaque being as I am always interested in the building more than anything. Most of the area was cleaned of dry leaves and had green grass growing. There was one entire quadrant which was extremely messy and was totally strewn with leaves which needed cleaning...
I kept walking around, clicking lots of photographs and just admiring the lives of the people who built these structures. What is probably one of the most striking things about the cemetery is its location. It's right in the heart of the city, on one of its busiest, contemporary streets, and it's pristine, sheltered and calm. It reminded me a lot of what I used to feel in this temple at Andheri E station. It was right on the main road, but in some weird way, the moment you stepped in, the noise and the chaos was cut out. It's almost like the calmness and the peace inside, shuts out the chaos and the noise outside. I sat for some time on one of the benches and contemplated writing, but knowing my struggles with the notepad, I decided against it.
Eventually I had had such a brilliant time, that I decided to head straight away to the airport. On the whole, I thought my Calcutta day had been amazingly spent. Little did I know what was in store for me. In hindsight, it was probably the calmness of the day that eventually managed to help me stay grounded through what followed.
I reached the airport and went to the Air Asia counter to check on my baggage being through-checked-in. Surprise surprise. I was told that I will not be allowed to board the flight at all because I didn't have a Malaysia Transit Visa! I told them that it didn't make sense and asked for them to check. They spoke to a lot of officials and my US business visa wasn't a good enough justification for me not to have a malaysia visa! I was completely thrown off guard and didn't know what to do. I started getting panicky and managed to get V on the line who was at his place trying to pack to catch his flight. He said acc. to what they had found out, I didn't need a visa, but then after 2 hours of trying to speak with multiple officials in KL it was determined that I did need that visa and there was no other alternative. The kind person at the Air Asia counter asked me to go to the Thai Airways office and check what flights they had available via Bangkok to Cambodia and maybe I could apply for the Malaysia Visa from Cambodia directly. I checked with my friend in Bombay who said that this was a risk and it would be better for me to instead delay my trip by a day, fly to Bombay, get the visa and then go to Cambodia. So after much crying and panicking and feeling miserable, I decided to get a ticket to Bombay and apply for a visa the next day and then taking a flight to Cambodia via Bangkok. V kept me sane for most of the time and I dried up all my tear glands. The CCD waiters were totally horrified and I'm sure were bursting with questions about why I was wailing so much, but to their credit, they kept a totally calm face and served me my tea and walked away. I called up my parents and told Dad that I was coming home for the night because I had to get a visa the next day and then fly out the next evening... And again, my parents being the epitome of support, didn't ask me questions on why I hadn't thought my trip through or why I was coming at this time of the night or anything.. just said, "It'll be great to see you home for dinner!" :)
Flew to Bombay and thought that the worst was behind me and that in spite of all that happened, I'll still see V the day-after and life will be good. I was in for another surprise. The next day, my friend tells me that the embassy is not accepting applications today and hence my visa will only come the day-after and not on that day. This meant that I would miss on 2 days of Cambodia (out of an existing 4). That totally shattered me all over again. I was wailing, crying, feeling miserable and my maid was going mad seeing me like that. Poor thing, kept asking me if I wanted tea, dosa, bread, something, anything... until I managed to calm myself enough to tell her that I didn't want a thing. V was already in Cambodia and was probably going berserk at the scheme of events. I think I was testing his patience, and eventually he asked me if I wanted him to leave everything and come to Bombay, seriously. :(
After some time, he managed to calm me down (again) and told me to take a chance by going to the embassy directly. What was the worse they could do. He was right. I took an auto, and went to the embassy. Found the kindest soul on the planet there, who heard me out and after some crying and my hindi-film style drama, spoke to the counsel and asked me to submit documents, photographs, a DD so I could get a visa in 3 hours flat. I got my friend to book and issue me a ticket for the night, ran to my parent's local bank in the neighborhood and got the DD, pulled strings wherever I could, and got him all the stuff he needed in 45 mins and then heaved a sigh of relief and went for some well deserved lunch with my mom and sister. Came back post lunch and picked up my visa. Went for some shopping with Mom, got back home, slept off for a while and then it was time for me to pack up and head to the airport. :)
I was finally on my way to V and Cambodia.
The rest of my trip wasn't this eventful, at least in the stressful way. So I'll blog about that in my next post. Link to my photos from the trip will be added soon.
Phew! Recounting that experience makes me want to take a deep breath! :)
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