I’m leaving India by train tomorrow, going to the Bangladesh border at Bangaon. Bangladesh is the main target of this trip but I’ve made a three week stop in India on the way.

(To see these and other shots, check out my photo sharing site on SmugMug, here).

This is my eighth trip to India. Last year I was here just for a little over a week and really only in one place; this time three weeks, a bit longer, covering more ground.

I stayed in Rajkot for 10 days at the homes of two different friends. Actually they’re both from different branches of the same family (a large family, like most Indian families) but they live in contrasting parts of the city. Yogesh and his family – his father, wife, son, son’s wife and their two kids – live in a small house in what was once an educational centre established in 1921 by Mahatma Gandhi called Rashtriya Shala.

Yogesh (front row, far left) and some of the family

Rashtriya Shala was set-up to teach Gandhian ideas of self governance and non-violent civil disobedience; now it’s a dusty compound with crumbling buildings and a handful of small businesses. A few dozen families live in the compound these days. Yogesh was born there and has lived his entire life within the walls of the centre, now swallowed whole by the noisy and chaotic old part of Rajkot.

My other friend Suketu lives with his wife Nehal and daughter Reeva on the 8th floor of a modern and very comfortable apartment in a relatively posh part of town. Luckily I am able to skip back and forth as I like between the two places and always get a warm welcome (and wonderful home cooking) whichever place I go.

Freedom! Young cyclists at Rashtriya Shala compound, Rajkot

Family photos at Suketu’s house, Rajkot

Rajkot itself is very busy, hot and dry and dusty and growing all the time. Cars clog the roads and shops sprout up everywhere as the Indian economy continues to expand. There are no tourists in Rajkot (there’s very little to see is most likely why) so I get looked at a lot. The people are warm and curious.

An empty Rajkot market on a hot afternoon

I spent an excellent week with my friend Ramesh in Rishikesh. Ramesh is from the South Indian state of Kerala but emigrated to the United States a few decades ago, marrying a woman from Michigan with whom he raised two girls in Seattle. His girls have grown and are on their own and his parents are getting old so he spends an increasing amount of time in India, looking after his mom and dad and pursuing a spiritual life in the foothills around Rishikesh.

The hills and Ganges near Rishikesh

We walked and talked, Ramesh cooked delicious vegetarian meals and we visited sadhus living in caves and on the banks of the Ganges River. Rishikesh is full of would-be western hippies and yoga teachers (the Beatles started it all off with their famous visit in the ’60s), but equally full of Indians practicing a spiritual routine in the traditional ways taught by the Hindu stories and scriptures. It’s quite a contrast but it’s a lovely place with its fresh cool air and beautiful green roads and rich Hindu traditions.

Tea seller, Rishikesh

Vegetable stall, Rishikesh

Yogi, Rishikesh

The Ganges River at Rishikesh

Then a week in Calcutta, or Kolkata as it’s now officially known, though I haven’t heard one single Indian person over the age of 18 call it that. Seems to be Calcutta still to everyone here. I took a seven hour bus to Delhi from Rishikesh then overnight train to Calcutta, so it was a long day. Train travel in India has changed little in the last thirty years except that it’s much harder to get tickets. The India Railway network is enormously busy but vastly outdated. There’s nothing close to high speed, and lots of dirty carriages and constant delays. It’s slow and crowded but colourful and action packed.

The overnight train, Delhi to Calcutta

Of the four major cities in India – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata- Calcutta is my favourite. It’s the most interesting and colourful. Like all major cities there are just as many quiet backstreet squares and lanes as there are chaos-filled flyovers and garbage tips and I love the contrast of wandering through the different neighbourhoods watching people go about their daily lives.

I’m staying in an Airbnb apartment in the south of the city where it’s surprisingly calm and peaceful, but over the week have explored Calcutta top to bottom. It was for many years the British colony’s administrative and financial capital so it’s ripe with large regal brick and marble buildings (vaguely) reminiscent of London’s Whitehall area. You can just imagine the activity during the days of the British Raj, clerks and merchants buzzing in and out of the various government ministries in the central parts of town.

The British left their mark on Calcutta…

Shady streets of south Calcutta

This morning finds me with loose bowels which must mean I’ve explored the city properly. Travel changes the yardsticks one uses to judge accomplishment.

It’s been over 30 years since my first visit to India, and I suppose I’ll keep coming back now and then, checking in to see what’s changed. Some things change and some don’t, and it’s both good and bad that way.

Over a billion people in India – no wonder this guy’s shop isn’t doing well…

Next report will come from Bangladesh. I was there once in 1994, very briefly and only in the capital Dhaka so I’m curious to see how the place looks and how it compares with India.

Stay tuned!