kaleidoscopic kolkata.

As we got to the city of Kolkata (previously Calcutta), also the last stop on our India trip, I felt a little blue... but also a little relieved - almost four weeks of taking malaria pills daily were starting to take its toll, and I did not feel good. But I trucked on, wanting to experience as much of my mother's hometown as I did my father's.

We had actually revolved our entire trip around the visit to Tangra, aka the Chinatown of India or, the pocket of Kolkata where you can find most of India's Chinese-descendents. Timing our trip was key, in order to be in the perfect place to celebrate Chinese New Year.

As the year of the rabbit was coming to a close, and enter the new year of the dragon, for one special week in the region of Tangra, you would hear and see non-stop firecrackers, fireworks, anything that essentially makes a loud BOOM. One of the oldest traditions during this time, are the lion dance troupes that make their way around the narrow alleyways, visiting tanneries and doing their lion dance thang in exchange for a bit of "lucky money". It's a tradition that happens on the first night of the New Year celebrations and goes on all night.

舞狮 [wǔshī] or lion dancing.

This year, I had the chance to join my cousin's troupe, the Knights. Making our way through the lively neighbourhood, what really shocked me was to find that some of these lion dance troupes were comprised of 11 or 12-year old Indian schoolchildren, having to burden these heavy drums and lion heads throughout the night, just to make a few extra bucks. Mind you they weren't amateurs either, performing with just as much agility and skill as if they were natively Chinese - probably been in the business for years.

Another thing that had changed since the old days from when my mother was growing up, girls were finally allowed to participate. This meaning pounding the drums, carrying the flags and doing the dance. For more of an accurate account of running through exploding firecrackers thrown at your feet while carrying a 30-lbs lion head all night, ask my brother who had the privilege of being the "butt" part for a whole two hours. Babies and toddlers also took part in the fun that night, either being rickshawed in a communal cart or donning a toddler-sized lion costume (très cute).


Welcome to the Chung residence.

Venturing inside the tanneries was something in itself a treat. With high walls and locked gates, the Chinese community had taken Tangra and formed it into a pseudo-fortress, segregating it from the outside world. Now, as the over 200 tanneries of Tangra are slowly being converted to restaurants, bars and other food businesses, the outside world is being welcomed more than ever into the community.

The conversion of the tanneries has come with the recent involvement of the Indian government, directing the tanneries be relocated to an area outside the city limits in order to reduce the pollution from the chemicals of the tanneries. But not all tanneries are fated to serve Chinese cuisine. One of my uncles had taken the opportunity to convert his tannery into a not-for-profit organization, teaching young mothers and children off the streets the ropes of literacy and English.  

I don't blame the Indian government for their decision, the smell of chemically-treated animal hide still lingers within the alleyways, its blueish-green run-off trailing into the nearby sewers. My own grandfather's tannery still heavily reeks of the stuff til this day. It's hard to imagine my mother, Gravol's best friend and Queen of Nausea, being able to withstand such conditions, and not only her, but her 5 other siblings, two uncles and  their families, all living under the same roof.

Despite the ever-so-often whiff that a dead animal was being shoved up my nostrils, I couldn't be more content to see old black-and-white photos of my mother and her family, hanging in what used to be my grandparents' bedroom. If anything, the raunchy stench in the air just made the experience of my mother's hometown that much more authentic.

If only blogs had Scent-O-Vision...

Before leather becomes leather.

The cemetery next door that used to
freak out my aunt F.

 

To learn more about the origins and current issues that Indian-Chinese

 people face today in Kolkata, here is an excellent article.

And don't forget about the video!