-- De Bodhgaya à Kolkata

I passed most of the morning of the 18/12 in company of Cédric TINEO in the Mohammad Café. Then I finished the preparation of the publication of a page of my website. I have the surprise to receive the visit of a German-speaking Swiss who proved to be the couple traveling with Vario by Mercedes. I had seen him during my parking with Hajipur. After exchange of information, their vehicle was parked with two other motor homes at the Chinese border of Torugart Pass, (Sprinter by Mercedes and Pinzgauer).
At the end of the afternoon towards 17:00, I accompanied Cédric at the village Bakroar (Sujata) where he installed a data-processing laboratory in a school. In the evening it trains two teachers who then transmit their knowledge to their pupils. The equipment was entirely sponsored. A new building was built with a financing brought by Japanese students allured by the village at the time of a tourist visit in Bodhgaya.

The 19/12 I had coffee with Cédric and we decided to have an appointment in Kanyakumari (Cap Comorin) to make me visit villages of fishermen having undergone the effects of the Tsunami. He brought them his expertise of project management independently of NGO’s. I left Bodhagya about 10:30 to join Kolkata by the NH2. I stopped little before the night on a service area after having driven during 258 km in six hours stops included. The NH2 becomes a toll road starting from Dhanbad.

The day of the 20/12 was dedicated to the visit of the temples in Bishnupur. I left the NH2 in Ranijang to take the NH60. It is in good condition until Bankura and becomes much degraded until Bishnupur. The temples are interesting because they have an architecture that reproduces the Bengali hut. They date from 16th and 17th century and are built out of bricks with terra cotta sculptures representing the founder’s myths of the Hinduism. After three visiting hours in cycle rickshaw, I took again the road to go to Kolkata. The timeliness of finding a bivouac in nature are non-existent, I should once again satisfy me with a service area.

The day of the 21/12 was one day of rest. The road is good but many villages with battered speed reducers made drive painful. I decided to stop before entering Kolkata to have rest and prepare my visits. I had made 58 km in two hours and half.

The 22/12, I was at 57 km from Kolkata where I entered while crossing Hooghly by the bridge of Daschineswar. I was about 11:00 at the Sealdah Train Station in front of the tunnel under Acharya Prafulla Chandra road of which the height under the vault did not exceed three meters. I could not go to Our Lady off Dolours Church. An Indian helped me, in vain, to obtain the authorization to park on the carpark of St Paul's Cathedral. However, Bishop refused due to Chrismas. I turned over to Gangully St to go on the carpark of Carey Baptist Church whose Pasteur had accepted my presence.

The 23/12, I visited the administrative center of British Raj around Dalhousie Square. Then while directing me towards Indian Museum, I saw Ocherlony Monument and I traversed New Market. The visit of the India Museum was rapture with blue schist sculptures of Gandhara, bronzes and the balustrade of Bharhut. Admittedly the building is old-fashioned but the collections are worthy of interest. Then I went until English Cemetery and I returned towards the park of Maidan to see St Paul' S Cathedral and Victoria Memorial who is undoubtedly not an architecture very inspired. I turned over towards the centre while passing by Fort William, Assembly Hall, High Court (so British) and St John' S Church. Except some buildings that preserved their original function, the others are in a abandon state. British Raj lost its gloss of yesteryear under the effect of the monsoon and for lack of financial means to maintain this vast real inheritance.

The 24/12 I undertaken the visit of the Bazaars of Kolkata in the quadrilateral from Rabindra Sarani to Chittarajan Avenue. It is a melting pot of the various religions of India, Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, Armenian… I visited two mosques, Tippu Sultan and Nakhoda. Then I stopped lengthily in Marble Palace, work of an Indian aesthete set on European culture. The rooms are an accumulation of sculptures out of marble, crystals, a vase in ruby and paintings of Murillo, Corot, Rubens (The Guide Bleu affirms that are reproductions). I liked this palace in the process of old-fashioned dilapidation and its park where I strolled among the birdcages. I always saw a descendant of the Mullick family owner of this fabulous palace. I believed transported in “Died in Venice”.

The 25/12 was a working day to prepare the publication of this page of my website and to have rest before taking again the road.