hot

calcutta is hot. i thought it was hot before, but now i know, THIS is hot. hot as in: i'm wilted by the time i walk the short four blocks to catch a cycle rickshaw to school around 8 a.m. hot as in: a cold shower, which we long for now rather than just deal with like we did before, is impossible since the water storage tank outside is heated up to around boiling by the midday heat. as in: a cold drink that i buy just down the street is lukewarm by the time i get it home and open it. as in: the air conditioned restaurants we treat ourselves to on the weekend are pure heaven, an undeniable luxury. hot as in: sidewalks sizzle, laundry dries practically instantly, dogs lie in limp-boned piles on every street corner, piles of trash steam, kids run around naked, and i want to run around naked. well....maybe not run. a slow saunter is more like it. it's too hot to run.

but in spite of the heat, calcutta is an amazing city. though i'm fully looking forward to cooler, greener, less populated darjeeling in april, there's so much that will be hard to leave behind. of course there are the delectable restaurants we've discovered, the weekend rituals we've established, the zipping around the city on a shared auto-rickshaw, crammed in seven-deep and somehow still finding it impossible not to move with the blasting bengali techno and strobe lights affixed to the rickshaw's ceiling. you know--typical city stuff that's always fabulous. then there are the people we've met: people who have impacted my life even if our only interaction is greeting each other every day while passing through our respective lives. there are the teachers at tiljala primary school, beautiful, fun, big-hearted women who try to teach me bengali, who insist that i rest after my sweaty but short walk to school (they who travel by train and bus two hours each way to get to school), who, i think, love the kids as much as i do even if they don't show it. and then there are the kids, the kids! these amazing and resilient kids who live in the filthy, chaotic maze surrounding the school, yet who show up on time every morning, clean, hair oiled, perfectly attired, so excited to be at school and genuinely eager to learn. each of their names is poetry, sitting cross-legged on the floor with them while they eat their rice-and-dal lunch is a joy, and helping them learn english (their THIRD langauge, after hindi and bengali) is a privilege. i'm learning as much as they are, if not more.

so. yes...it's unbearably, uncomfortably hot. i don't enjoy my clothes sticking to my skin or tossing and turning at night under my stifling mosquito net. but i'd never take back my time here. in the end, i think a little heat provides a lot of perspective.