Arriving in Kolkata and Getting a SIM card in India

My previous knowledge of Kolkata (Calcutta) was of reading about the black hole of Calcutta when I was a kid.  As you’ll recall this was where the British Army was defeated by a local Sultan and 143 British POW’s were jammed into a cell designed to hold about three.  Three quarters of the British soldiers died of heat, dehydration and general yuckiness at the situation.  So not the best image when coming into a new place.

We arrived after dark and after a bit of a hassle getting a taxi driver to actually take us to where we were going at the agreed upon price, we proceeded into a city that was celebrating Diwali-The Festival of Lights.  It was sort of a combination of Mardi Gras and the Fourth of July.  Fireworks, people dancing in the street, strings of colored lights hanging from every tree and building, candles glowing on little shrines set up on the sidewalks.   It was amazing.

This is a very poor place, however,  the first place I've been since Madagascar in 2004 where I've seen people lugging buckets of water home from pumps on the street because they have no running water in their houses.  And people bathing and washing clothes at these pumps for the same reason.

I’ve been getting local SIM cards for my phone as we go along  as it’s much cheaper to do this than to pay T-Mobile exorbitant roaming charges.  For example, called a friend for a four minute call in Saigon and it cost $24.  So, getting a card in India.  You need a note from your hotel, I guess to confirm that you’re not sleeping on the street, your passport, a Xerox copy of the front page of your passport, your visa and the stamp on your passport saying you actually entered the country and a passport sized photo.  Then you have to sign every one of these pages as well as a government form.  Then the phone guy has to call someone to authorize it all.  Did I mention that this was done at a kiosk on the street and the phone guy did not speak English. Then I got a SIM card and minutes and it all seems to work.  Total cost ten bucks and about an hour of my time.