LETTER FROM INDIA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1832, 17 April 1907, Page 42

LETTER FROM INDIA

A LADY’S IMPULSIONS. TITSO V G’H K! vW ZEALA XI) SPECTACLES. CxALOITTA, Ja. mi ary 2. Mv first impressions of Calcutta arc anything but pleasant ones. Dirt in ©very shape reigns supreme. Wo had come from Madras, where everybody for the most part, is spotless, and where the very coolies are more than moderateh' clean; where coolies and ga’riwallahs alike understand English pretty well, even if they do not speak it, to the city about which so many rave, to Calcutta the Magnificent—and wo could not find anybody on the great station that could understand an English quest ion! Them we drove through dirty streets being cleaned by dirty men; and through dirty, brokendown bazaars. Wo naturally were not overwhelmed with delight, and our stay did not improve matters, for the further one went in and around the best part of the city the more dirt one saw. Taking the people as a whole whom we saw about the streets, in clothing and person they were inexpressibly dirty. Calcutta lends itself to that, for the earth is a dirty grey - asli colour ; factories abound, belching out clouds of coal smoke, and the water everywhere is turgid and dirty looking. The climate is mool and comfortable at this time of the year for nearly six months, but we experienced on Sunday might one of the fogs which

are a drawback to Calcutta, an acrid, smoky, evil-smelling fog that irritates the throat and nostrils, and renders speaking a difficulty. We have trammed it everywhere we had time to go, but three days are not enough in which to do the whole of Calcutta, and we will spend a day or so here going back. We visited an exhibition organised by the Indian Congress for the pux-pose of displaying Indian manufactures, a most interesting collection, which gave us an opportunity of observation that wo might not have enjoyed in any other way.. We were especially pleased with the agricultural section, in whioh every economic plant grown in Indian was shown. Although Calcutta has many fine blocks or warehouses and other buildings, it has no architectural beauty such as wo saw in Madras. Tire big buildings in the south are few-, but every ono of them has a beauty of its

_own. BENARES, January 3. Leaving Calcutta by the East Indian railway train, we travelled on through, rather uninteresting country, with mile after mile of the same kind of crops, and not an acre of waste land. The villages for the most part were away from the railway and the ground was cultivated up to the very edge of tlio line. Railway stations are as thick as peas in a pod, and very big, giving evidence of a dense population. Everyone seemed to feel the cold greatly, and men'.were wrapped in wadded quilts. Some of these quilts were filthy dirty. During the night we passed through a rich ooal district; on every side banks of coal blazed merrily in the process of being burned into coke, while the station at Asinol which served the ooal district was brilliantly lighted by electricity. From Asinol to Moghal Serai, where we changed trains for Benares, the country was dreary, the soil ashy-grey in colour, the few villages and small towns we saw squalid and dirty, and the people more dirty if that were possible. No food was to be had unless ordered by telegraph, so we would have been badly off indeed had we not' taken the precaution to bring a tiffin basket with a good supply of provisions in it. Birds were very scarce. In one place we saw a dozen pretty green parrots perched on the telegraph wires, and in another half a dozen vultures prowling round a field—evil looking things they are too. There were some of the commoner sort of birds as well, but very few. Probably it was cause there was no jungle, and in many parts no trees at all, that birds were so few. At Moghal Soria there was a large number of ipilgrims waiting for trains to take them back to their several homes. Among them there was a number of Girigerati women, laden with ornaments. I oounted ten bangles, each half an inch wide, on one woman's arm below ;{&© elbow,, and she had three above aa. ■well, awhile Cher i ankles were adorned with several rings of various sizes and

shapes mado of silver. Later, when passing along a road in Benares, we saw a woman who had so many that no trace of her arm could bo seen between tho wrist and elbow. We crossed the Ganges just below the city, and got our first view of the famous river front, one mass of temples, mosques, and monasteries on tho •top of the bank, with huge flights of steps, called ghats-or ghauts, leading down into the water for tho convenience of worshippers bathing. To-mor-row morning we are to take a boat and go down the river and up again, so as to see the bathers worshipping the Ganges. I was rather disappointed with irv first sight of Benares. One sees such beautiful photographs of it, and, consequently, comes with wrong ideas of things. No doubt when we get out on the river itself, we shall seo that it is quite as beautiful as it is said to be. BEiXAiREiS, January 4. We have just returned from a tour round tho city. First wo visited a famous old observatory, which has existed since the days of Qufcen Elizabeth. All the instruments are made of stone and are in a good state of preservation. From .there we descended a groat-flight of stone stairs to the ghat, and took a boat, in which wo wore slowly rowed up and down the river front, so that we could see everything. Certainly it was most interesting. It is said that there are more idols in Benares than inhabitants, and one can easily credit it, for there are gods in bunches, and gods in. rows, and gods on shelves, gods on trees, and gods on stones, in temples, in houses, on roadsides and on river-bank—gods everywhere, small and great, wood and stone, silver and gold, iron and lead. The people worship the Ganges and make offerings of marigolds (African marigolds) of every possible shade of orange and yellow. Baskets of them exposed for sale everywhere mado glorious sriots of colour, and we noticed that when a man had finished bathing and prayers he hast a small wreath of them on the surface of tho river before going away. We saw tho Brass Bazaar, in which brass-wares, one of the specialties of Benares, were exposed for sale, and I was tempted to buy one lovely pot. We are going to see some more sights this afternoon, and to-morrow morning start off for Agra. We are having plenty of travelling. From Calcutta to Delhi alone is 950 miles, and we shall have travelled another 300 or so on branch lines, making about 1200 miles at this’end. To Madras and back is -2052 miles, making a total of 3252 miles of railway travelling on this one trip.