Portraits from Topsia

Photo of the Day

I've recently plucked up the courage to use off camera flash. It requires far more preparation and time when taking the shot, but it gives you much better subject-background separation and shadows on the face where you want them. I'm using an SB-600 with a Lastolite Micro Apollo mini softbox thingy held in the left hand, with the camera in Manual mode, ISO 200, F10 at 1/200, with the off camera flash set to TTL mode.

At Work

That's Elena and one of the girls that helped carry the table to the clinic from a nearby shop.



Helen, nurse from Preston, UK.



Having her temperature taken.



Chilling with Nadeem.

Black and White

I always have difficulty deciding whether to keep my pictures in colour or black and white. Here are a few in high contrast black and white.



Smoke break



Mealtime

Breakfast

Chana and toast. 10 Rs. Yummy.

Around my place

Couple of photos taken within a 5 minute walk of my place. Some nice old markets as well as new fangled air conditioned ones.















And this is another one of my regular breakfast place.

Roadside Barbers

More from Dharpa

Kids around Dharpa

Cleaning Day

No clinic today, so I spent the day cleaning. First up was the medicine storeroom, which is in the same building I'm staying in. We've got quite a lot of drugs and creams and bandages, slightly messy with some stuff long-expired. Attempted to sort through some of the shelves today. Think I'm about 20% of the way through. I might come up with a sort of catalogue/stocklist to make it easier to ask for donations.

Next up was my room. Wiped down all the surfaces, mopped the floor, (tried cleaning the window sills- completely caked with dirt). And then finally did some laundry. Bushed!

Cooked lunch for myself today too. Maggi mee- masala flavour. Tasted like the curry flavour we get in Singapore. Theyhave a curry flavour here too so will try that next.

Will spend the rest of the day lying in bed, me thinks.

OT: Amazing Landscapes

A little off topic. Amazing panoramic landscapes.

Tracks

Backseat

The Cost of Things

Some people have asked how much stuff is over here, so here goes:

1 Singapore dollar = 32 Rupees (Rs)

Cup of chai (milk tea) 2-5 Rs
Egg Biryani 16 Rs
Cab ride (and the formula is the number on the meter multiplied by 2, plus 2) around 40-80 Rs depending on distance
Bus Ride 4-6 Rs
Metro Ride 2-6 Rs
Veg Fried Rice 16 Rs
Small bottle of water 10 Rs
Internet 15 Rs per hour
Kathi Roll (plain paratha with stuff inside it) 10-15 Rs

The other clinic at Dharpa

Every Wednesday we go to Dharpa in East Kolkata for a clinic in a school there. Dharpa is the rubbish dump of Kolkata, quite literally, with a giant mountain of trash there. Every day yellow municipal lorries drive up the mound to empty their contents, which are then sorted by the people living nearby.



That's the approach to the school.



The rubbish mound in the distance.



One of the teachers, Elena, a kid and Nadeem, one of the other workers at the organisation.



The school, underneath the trees.

Old room, New room.

Just moved rooms again. The intermediate one was whilst I was waiting for one of the long-stay apartment rooms upstairs to be free. 500 Rs a night, and really nice, with my own bathroom and tv complete with almost a hundred channels (most of which I couldn't understand-but with BBC, HBO, Star Sports/Movies-darn I'm going to miss that!). It had just finished renovation and smelt of fresh paint.

So this is where I'll be staying for the next month. 5000 Rs a month, decently clean and breezy, and unlike the first room, the windows don't open out to face a wall. There's also a courtyard and kitchen that are shared by everyone, just outside my room. Some of the people here having been in Kolkata for years!

Yucky Moments

1. I was using a scalpel to burst this boy's pus-filled blister when it popped and spurted on my cheek.

2. The stuff that comes out of my nose is usually more black than... the usual colour.

3. Those funny bugs crawling over my face at night.

to be continued....

Around Topsia

This is the street right outside the clinic.

Around Sudder Street

Sudder Street is right in the middle of Central Kolkata and is where most backpackers and budget travellers end up. It also attracts a fair number of hippies, beggars (who apparently work for a large syndicate which eat up a large proportion of their takings) and drug pushers.



The internet cafe I'm sitting in right now. 10 Rupees (32 Singapore cents) for half hour, 15 for an hour.



Little row of chai stalls and provision stalls on a perpendicular lane.




Taj Restaurant. Has decent rolls- plain paratha with stuff rolled inside it (about 10 rupees onwards) and decent rice and veg dishes.



And this, Sudder Street itself.

More from Topsia