City Love Companions

I always associated Kolkata (named Calcutta before) with nun and missionary Mother Teresa, known in the Catholic church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Born of Albanian parents in Skopje in 1910 as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she moved to India to devote her entire life to caring for the sick and poor. And when I say poor, I really mean the poorest people in India you can imagine: orphans, handicapped and homeless, and people literally dying from HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis. No wonder that in 2016, nineteen years after her death, Mother Teresa was canonized by Pope Francis during a special mass in St. Peter's Square. Kolkota, or the City of Joy, is easily the best place for your first contact with Indian culture. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still India. Mayhem, crowds, dirty streets, traf...

Delhi will make you ask questions like: “How do people even live here?”. It’s a colossal beehive that will chew you up and spit you out. It won’t kill you, but it comes damn close. Delhi is a megalopolis with, quite possibly, the worst traffic in the world. You might think you’re prepared for it, but you’re not. It was even worse before 2002 when the metro was built. You couldn’t even reach certain parts of Delhi. We often use traffic as an excuse for being late for work, but the struggle is real here. It’s one of the reasons why apps like Uber are so popular in Delhi. Same thing with bike rentals and guided bike rides. Whichever means of exploration you choose make sure you set off early. Schedule ahead and take your time sightseeing. There’s nothing worse than being stu...

Indian comedians are my guilty pleasure. Not only they’re funny as hell, but they managed to achieve the impossible. Everyone jokes about their accent, right? I am sure you are familiar with the memes about Indian customer support employees. They turned those jokes into their greatest strength and that’s very admirable. That chaotic, happy-go-lucky attitude is apparent all over Mumbai. My generation resonates with Bombay more, but they changed the name to Mumbai in 1995. Bombay Hollywood? Bollywood? Rings a bell, right? Bollywood cinema appeals to worldwide audiences: from Latin America to Africa and from the Middle East to the Far East. My *cough* friend likes to download movies from torrent trackers. The sites crash every time a Bollywood production is leaked out by pirates. Indian m...