Park Street and New Market, Kolkata

Today, after numerous classroom days spent repeating kya aap Park Street chalenge or is kaa daam kya hey, Seorin and I decided to venture into the streets of Kolkata by ourselves - without MCC staff, without Uber, without a SIM card, and with little confidence in how far our Hindi phrases would take us. Within minutes of leaving MCC, we had successfully waved down an idling taxi, delivered our well-rehearsed Hindi phrase to the driver, repeated the name of the location several times, and then climbed into the worn leather seats towards Park Street.

We had a very productive day! Seorin and I bought books from Indian authors at a bookstore, compared our cultures over Starbucks, and followed each other tightly through markets streets on a crowded Saturday afternoon. Although we had in many ways left the compound to regain a sense of independence and autonomy, the city of Kolkata held our hand as we began to learn how to walk in this new country.

One woman saw our timidness and stepped in to physically guide us through moving traffic, two young girls came over to scold people who were trailing us at the market, and several English-speaking acquaintances pointed out reasonable stalls and gave us advice on prices. Ironically, independence may have been what we craved today, but a reminder of mutual dependence and sharing was what we were gifted.

One final thought though. On our ride back to the guest house, just after 30 minutes of arguing with taxi drivers about the fare, a bare-footed man hopped on the back of our yellow taxi. He rode on the back for about four blocks before climbing off and continuing on his way. The driver made no objection and neither could we. A short moment in a long day but a jarring one.

Although I was tempted to offer this as another anecdote for today's lesson of mutual dependence and community, that seems over-simplistic. It seems incomplete to neglect the inequalities in wealth that may have made transportation affordable for one and not for another - even if it would have made for a more optimistic blog post. Reflecting back, it also seems incomplete not to mention how inequalities likely prompted people to come to our assistance in ways not as readily done for the people that use the backs of taxi cabs. Everyday in India offers a tiny glimpse into the complex social, economic and political structure of the country, and I hope to be able to learn more and more.