Kolkata you ain't as bad as you look.

At first glance Kolkata looks like hell on Earth, the wildest display of humanity you could ever imagine. In Kolkata privacy is not an option. People are eating sleeping, defecating, and essentially living out in the open, on the side of the streets. Life is not hidden in doors but happens all around you whether you like it or not. Kolkata is as in your face as it gets. The poverty, the crime, the drug use, the good, the bad, and the ugly spills out onto the streets. Everywhere you look there are beggars, insane taxi drivers, make-shift shanty towns and anything else you can imagine. To one side you see a vendor making lassis next to him a cobbler fixing shoes and then across the way a barber cutting hair on the sidewalk and a "dentist" cleaning teeth on stool outside a restaurant. The city is bursting with energy and chaos. Crossing the street in this hectic city without a scratch is a major feat. The traffic, the noise, the regular power outages and the horrendous smell of human feces all add to the persona of this old British Colonial Capital. This is the city of Mother Teresa, The Victoria Memorial and more professional beggars than you ever thought possible. But beyond all that squalor is a vibrant city full of colonial charm and metropolitan conveniences.Kolkata is a diamond in the rough mostly because of the Bengali people. They are by far the most genuine and hospitable people you will encounter in India. Our first night arriving in Kolkata an Indian man from Kolkata helped us get from the train station and into a taxi going to our guesthouse, it was completely unexpected and appreciated. Kolkata is a city that keeps on surprising you with its unexpected character and warmth.The longer you stay in one place in India the more you begin to become to understand all the madness and you stop just being part of the scenery. Kolkata made me a true fan of India as a country and made me realized the Indian people are what keep travelers back again and again despite everything else.