Friday 14th February - City of Joy

There are a couple of interruptions in the night. The chaps upstairs get off the train at around 03.00, somebody looking for a berth shines a spotlight on us at 04.00 but it is not too bad really. Our coach has at least one flat spot on a wheel, increasing the noise and vibration considerably. D wakes just before 07.00. Mr Big is horizontal in the lower side berth, snoring up a storm. The family with three small children in the next bay are just starting to stir and the chant of "Chai, garam chai" can be heard along the corridor. R is comatose amidst the hubbub so D has the first chai of the day alone. Very good it is too. We wouldn't normally touch tea that sweet but on a train it is an early morning essential.

The first stop is Rourkela where we are an hour and twenty minutes late. R wakes up and we convert her berth back into a seat. Mr Big has also woken and greets the day with a traditional display of hoaking and choking, before switching on his phone to watch the news at full volume. We are most grateful when the signal drops out. He returns to berth 13 to sprawl but this frees up the side berth and D takes that to give R more space. We resist the temptation of the breakfast offered by various vendors and have another chai with our biscuits. As we get closer to Kolkata the coach empties out.

At this point we realise that we are in some kind of modern 2AC coach that does not have fans!  How controversial. Where will future iconoclasts store their shoes? By Tatanagar we are a further twenty minutes behind time. There is some better running from there but also some severe speed restrictions when crossing bridges. Approaching Kharagpur we come to a dead stop. This where we join the busy East Coast main line between Chennai and Kolkata. Being so late we will have missed our timetabled path and need to wait for a gap in the traffic. When we are admitted to the Station we pull up alongside the Puri - Howrah Shatabdi, a prestige train that will get priority over us.

The Shatabdi pulls out and to D's surprise we start moving moments later. A quick spot of door riding reveals that we are proceeding on yellow signals, as close behind another train as is safe. Yellows become Double Yellows and then Greens as we accelerate to the point where door riding is not comfortable. There is again some fast running, possibly up to the 130 kph permitted maximum, but also regular slacks for bridges. The track has been quadrupled in recent years, so slower trains should not be a problem. The big question is whether Howrah station will have an empty platform for us.

And the answer is - Not immediately. We have to wait a few minutes while the empty stock for the Coromandel Express is shunted in alongside us. This is another old friend from a previous trip, when we did the 26 hour journey down to Chennai. Our train then gently slides into Platform 18 where we politely turn down the porters who want to relieve us of our luggage and most of the contents of our wallets. We follow the crowd out of the station and find that there is barely no queue at the prepaid taxi counter. For the second year running they attempt to short change D for Rs 100 but this year he spots it and the missing note miraculously appears.

Our job is given to one of the old school, who drives a really beaten up yellow Ambassador. After a wait that matched the time the train waited to arrive, the traffic lights release us from the Howrah (SER) forecourt. In only a few minutes we are making a truly impressive entrance in a chauffeur driven Ambassador across the Howrah Bridge, the Gateway to Kolkata. The city is buzzing in the afternoon sun as we drive over the Brabourne Viaduct and progress southwards through the markets, past the Writers' Building and BBD Bagh towards the Maidan. Park Street is in afternoon mode,  permitting traffic to head south east and we join in until our driver takes an unexpected right turn and starts asking passers by for directions. 

One group have decent English and D is able to explain a) where we want to go and b) that he knows how to get there. Our driver clearly does not hold with modern ideas such as SatNav or pink people who know where they want to go, but the chaps on the pavement get him back on track and D is able to finish the job. The Ivy House is as we remember it and we are even given the same room as last year, Marigold, winner of the prestigious R's Bathroom of the Year 2019 Award. The attached Karma Kettle cafe is all dressed up for Valentine's Day, a big thing here in Kolkata.

We shower away the train grime, book in a load of washing and head off uptown. This involves a walk due south, a share auto ride due west, a metro ride due north and another walk, vaguely east but skirting the bounds of the New Market. We hope that the polite young lady who squeezes into the back of the auto with us has made a full recovery. The driver is a hoot, calling other drivers names and using words that might even make PP blush. On the Metro a young couple give up their seats for us and we spend the journey trying to improve our Bengali pronunciation. Just to recap - all of the As are Os except for shingara and Pork Street. At S-Planet station we get off the train and process through the colonnade down Chowringee. Some of the vendors are working hard to sell this year's Valentine's must have.

We discovered Jimmy's Bar & Restaurant a few years ago and really like the relaxed atmosphere, good food and cold beer. It never seems to be frantically busy but there always a few tables in play. The waiters are phlegmatic but professional and you don't wait long for anything. We had won tons, spring rolls, Singapore noodles and Jimmy's Special Fried Rice with pork. All great but more than we can eat.

We stroll through the back streets to Sudder Street and take a peek at the Fair lawn that used to be our regular haunt. It looks to have been rather gentrified and has probably moved out of our price bracket. Some of the shops around look to have been smartened up as well. We head out and down Chowringee to Park Street Metro on our journey back to the mean streets of Ballygunge. The southbound train is packed but a chap gives up his seat for R. Outside the Kolighot metro station a share auto is waiting for punters who wish to travel east. How far east is not quite clear but we go for it and finish up with a walk through the pavement market at Gariahat. From there it is nobbut a stroll back to the Ivy House.