City of Joy

Day 137, India, West Bengal, Kolkata

My third day in Kolkata. I am getting more and more tired. It is really hot and at night I can’t really recover from the intense days and the temperatures. I am entering in some accessible areas of the Slums of Kolkata. Also here there is a lot of life. Small shops, everybody is doing something, beggars on the street, lying people on the street, children running around, people smiling to me, people looking strange because of some illnesses I have never seen before. It is however the city of joy, the city of life. For me it is so intense and interesting to walk alone around in the poorest areas of Kolkata. To feel, to see, to smell. The non-imaginable becomes reality. There is no fantasy here, everything is real. There is a lot of work for my mind. I am in a big metropolis and people still use the water supply on the street or the water from the Ganga river to wash themselves, their clothes, their dishes. It is incredible. In the city of joy you can smile and laugh and shortly after be sad because of the things you have to deal with.