The third day of the Sundarban trip dawned clear and blue. We packed up and got ready to leave. We had been told that we would need to leave the guest house by 7 in the morning. I wasn't quite sure why, and the explanation that was offered didn't make any sense to me. I think it actually had something to do with the Israeli family who weren't returning to Kolkata, but were instead going to another town to catch a train to their next destination. But I wasn't sure.
We got on the boat and headed back to the place where we had started out, and had left the bus behind. The sun was warm and the day was beautiful. We were enjoying the morning. We had some breakfast. I was taking photos of life by the river. It was very interesting watching people walking to and fro with various errands in mind or places to be. At one point, I lay back on the deck of the boat and just basked in the sun. And then...
And then... When I lost my other camera, I bought a new one in Brisbane. Eventually I bought a camera case for it. It was quite a good case, and held my camera and accessories well. There was just one problem. Occasionally it would overturn and be upside down. The first couple of times it happened, I hadn't been in the habit of latching it closed. The camera would fall out and land on the ground and I would fear that something might get broken. Eventually I started remembering to latch the case closed whenever the camera was in the case. But when I lay back on the boat deck, I neglected to latch the camera case closed. Later I sat up and leaned forward. The case overturned and the camera fell out. It bounced once on the boat deck and hopped through the railing and into the water of the river. I tried to catch hold of the strap or the camera or anything to keep it from getting away, but I just missed and my camera, only six or so months old, sank beneath the waters of the river. I was bummed. And stunned. How could that happen? Again? I felt quite bad and stupid for quite a while, particularly as I would see something that would make a nice photo pass by on the shore. And each time that happened, I would see the camera splashing into the water flash before my eyes once again.
But there was nothing I could do about it. The camera was gone. So I endeavoured to enjoy the rest of the boat ride as much as I could.
We reached the boat dock and got into our respective vehicles. The Israeli family was going in a different van because they were going to a different place. We said our goodbyes and off we went. But we went in mostly the same direction for a long way. We passed them and they would pass us. Eventually we reached a spot where the other van was supposed to head to the other town. Only they didn't. This caused Om and our driver a bit of a headache. They sped forward (at some peril of life and limb as we were really close to a head-on collision at one point) and caught up to them. Then we proceeded together to find the right road. Eventually Om got out of our van and waited by the road for the other one that we had somehow lost. I gather they waited for an hour or so for it to get to them. When they finally got to the town where they were trying to find, the train they wanted was full and they had to wait two hours for the next one. I think it would have been much easier for them to return to Kolkata and catch a train from there. But they didn't. I wonder if there was any gnashing of teeth over that.
There rest of us returned to Kolkata and I sat in Rajesh's office and looked dejected. I asked him where I could find a camera buying market of some sort. He told me where to go and off I went. I think he was a bit worried about me. I got to the market (called the Fancy Market). I tried to find camera shops, but initially I only found one sandwiched in amongst a whole bunch of phone shops. They had a cheap Nikon camera that seemed reasonable, but I wanted to see what Canon cameras I might be able to find. So I searched around for a while and eventually found the real market with many camera shops. I looked about for a while, but the Canon cameras were far more than I was willing to pay at that moment, dejected as I was at how I couldn't seem to keep hold of a camera for any length of time. So I decided that for the moment I wasn't going to invest in a really nice camera, although I will probably change my mind before long. I just really like having a good camera with a good optical zoom. But I also found that the price of the very first place I tried for the Nikon camera was the best, so I went back and bought it.
Then I got on a bus and headed back to Rajesh's shop, stopping first at a shoe store he had told me about to replace the crappy pair of Slatters sandals I had bought for way too much money in Australia. The new pair of sandals that I bought cost about 12 dollars and feel really nice. And then it was back to Rajesh's shop to wait for the time to go to the train station. Rajesh is really cool. I like him a lot. He told me about how some years ago, he had next to nothing. He had 20000 rupees in his pocket and nothing else. And he had gone to the Sundarban reserve in the face of criticism from all quarters about how stupid that was, how he couldn't afford it and how could he even think of doing something like that. And from that trip, he was given the suggestion to start taking people there on touring trips to the reserve. And now he has a successful and growing business that is different and offers something really special and different from all the other tour companies because he takes his guests to stay in a local village away from the tourist circus.
He also has a son who has cerebral palsy. And he is a really cool kid. I liked him a lot. In fact, as part of the package that came with the camera was a watch pen set. It was a nice watch, but I don't wear watches. And I have a digital watch that I use as my alarm. There was really no way I was ever going to use the watch. So, with Rajesh's permission, I gave the watch to his son. His son really appreciated it and I had started to feel loads better about how the day had started. It was only a camera. And because I am fairly conscientious about transferring my photos to my computer daily, I only lost the few photos from the boat trip back and the ones that I never got to take because the camera was lost. And I had never been really impressed by the camera anyway. So now, when I'm ready, I can have a good look at cameras and I can get one that I do like.
Shortly after that, it was time to get a cab to the train station for the trip to Darjeeling. I left Kolkata with an ending that wasn't ideal, but having had a really good time in this very interesting city.
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