It's cold. It's clean. It's quiet. Everyone is white, speaking English, and standing far away from each other. There is a garbage truck that drives around streets and picks up everyone's neatly packaged trash, and brings it to somewhere we don't have to see it. The government pays for this service. My room is full of stuff I don't need and never use.
My breakfast cost 250 rupees, which is 17 plates of noodles, which could feed either me for two weeks of dinners or a family for a whole week. Or it could be seven plates of noodles, and a sari. Clothing and dinner for a week. Or it could be two shirts, two pairs of pants, and seven plates of noodles. Clothe two kids and feed 'em for a week.
The average wage for an agricultural worker in (and around) Kolkata is 50 rupees a day. I spent five days of work on three pancakes.
Mmmkay, that's all for now.
