Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Calcutta, or Kolkata, or whatever the Bengalis are calling it these days, embodies everything that is good and bad about India. Calcutta was built by the British during the days of the raj, and enjoyed great status as the capital of colonial India and one of the great trading cities of India. Today it is tarnished with the reputation of its slums, many casting as just another city with awful poverty. The poverty is widespread, but I think that this reputation is unfair. Calcutta is like a post apocalyptic London, complete with all the chaos beyond what you might expect to find. Its old buildings are in a crumbling state of disrepair, and many have been reclaimed by nature as trees and vines have grown into them. You can also get a man drawn rickshaw here - they are everywhere.

I am glad that Calcutta is my last port of call here. It would have been too much in my early Indian days. Plus it is soooo bloody hot here. Given the heat most of my days are spent hiding from it. I enjoy chai at roadside stalls, air conditioned mall whenever possible, and the magnificent monuments, especially the Victoria Memorial. I decided that after months of watching cricket, an unparrelled national obsession, on TV with locals, that I would go to the legendary cricket shrine, the Eden Gardens, to see a cricket match while in Calcutta. The IPL (Indian Premier League) was founded this year with teams competing all over India owned by India's richest businessmen and most famous Bollywood stars. This has coupled India's national obsession with its boombastic film industry, the embodiment of dreams in this country. The league means a lot to Indians as it is really something that has been entirely Indian in India with worldwide exposure. Almost a coming out party for a "new" India. I went to see the Kolkata Knight Riders owned by the god-like Shah Ruhk Khan (the most famous of Bollywood actors, probably the most famous actor in the world), play the Rajasthan Royals, a team captained and coached by the legendary Aussie spin bowler Shane Warne. Warne is legendary also for his womenizing and partying, but the Indians seem to accept him saying he is a "great cricketer, but a naughty man." He is the undisputed bad ass of world cricket. Really a top guy who makes cricket interesting and hilarious.

The match was attended by 50,000, a small crowd in the cavernous Eden, which seats 100,000. The spectacle was amazing. Shah Ruhk Khan wasn't there, I think he was off filming another of his gazillion films or commercials (he reps for every product here) in Bombay. I do think I was the only white guy in the crowd. Whenever something happened people would jump up on their seats and start dancing emulating the latest moves from Bollywood films to the blaring music of the loadspeakers. Occasionally crowd disturbances would sporadically break out amongst the frenzied faithful, and police wielding long bambo canes would launch into the crowds to sort things out. Usually the police would just tell people to shut up, then get lazy and give up, but sometimes they even beat people. There is also scantly clad cheerleaders, a sensation in India, a nation renowned for its piety. This has caused some anger amongst the more conservative in India, papers have been full of complaints. The cheerleaders though have to be the worst dancers I have seen. Some kind of mix of drunken British chicks and professional stripping. I kind of enjoyed it though. Back to the game, in the end the Knight Riders were demolished as they didn't hit for enough runs, losing by 6 wickets to the high flying Rajasthani side from Jaipur. This was disappointing, but a crazy experience none the less.