After about 50 hours of traveling (with a little 8 hour rest in there), I arrived in Durgapur, about 3 hours drive northwest from Kolkata on the Grand Trunk Rd. Early in the 1900s Durgapur was developed as a planned steel town. Interestingly, the city suffered a lot after India's independence from the British Empire, as the citizens of West Bengal voted in a Marxist government, which favoured strong labour unions. Consequently, a lot of industrial production shifted from Bengal to other Indian provinces ... with cheaper labour.
As an interesting side note, Bengal's Marxist party -- which was the longest standing democratically elected communist government in the world -- was ousted in a landslide election just five days prior to my arrival. There's an interesting anticipatory air to the place at the moment.
For my stay I am based out of St. Michael's Church Compound in Durgapur. It's kind of a cross between a school, the synod office, and a monastery. Those of you who know me, it is not a far cry from the dream I have for the Church back home in BC. There are a lot of interesting people here, although quite a few are not that fluent in English. Consequently, I am picking up bits and pieces of Bangla (the Bengali language). I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a good bookstore because I could use a decent Bangla grammar and a dictionary. Though, I probably won't need it for my farming and dining vocab. Isn't it funny how incentives can push one to learn a language.
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