Calcutta Wrap Up

I have been so lazy about writing the blogs!! Yikes! But I have to catch up, so I can move on with other things, like planning for the Himachal Pradesh trip, which I am getting very excited about. More about that later.
Back to Calcutta: we next visited the Kali Temple, which I enjoyed less than the Taj or The Golden Temple due to the uncleanliness. From there we took a ferry boat ride down the Hoogly (Ganges) river which allowed us to see more of Calcutta in a breezier place, and we caught the sunset, and a bather..
After the ferry boat ride, we went to a famous sweet shop, KC's and sampled their rasgulla, which are basically cheese-balls soaked in syrup. Rasgulla is known as a Bengali sweet (and Calcutta lies in the Bengali district). It is not easy to find these places in an unfamiliar city in another country. However, a friendly local led us right to KCs.....he and Navjot got to know one another, using Hindi, while the rest of us followed. Others in the group could converse while being led through traffic, but I am quiet when walking about...just something I noticed about myself.
Next, we visited Birla Planetarium, supposedly the largest planetarium in Asia. The exterior looks impressive, but the interior is third world....even LCC's planetarium is nicer! I was exhausted from the heat and moving so when the lights dimmed I took a nap. After the show, Navjot and the others said the announcer yelled at people: one to turn off the cell phone, and another to remove their crying child. I felt fortunate to have had a useful nap for this destination (...but I do love astronomy, but these circumstances were not encouraging the love..)
We regrouped at a fellow Fulbrighter, Versha's, family home. Versha, her aunt, and uncle were very kind to let us stay for the evening.
The next day we visited the Missionaries of Charity, where Mother Theresa lies in a marble tomb. The work of the charity continues, but there is a timeline describing Mother Theresa's life. This timeline was challenging to navigate, but it presented the information thoroughly. Theresa's experience of faith intrigued me. After she began her work at the Missionaries of Charity, she felt a real 'absence' of God, where before her MOC work, she was certain of his closeness. There is a good article about it:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415-1,00.html
From there we found the Indian Museum, which was supposedly the largest in India and the oldest in Asia. For such a large museum, the bathroom facilities were quite third world, and I behaved in a rather infantile way, making a comment about this in their suggestion book, and uncomfortably viewing the displays, pouting, by myself. Navjot, though surely a little disappointed in my behavior, linked up with me later on and brought me back to the original bathroom, and 'stood guard' which I really appreciated. The Museum had a very impressive collection of rocks, a geologist would have enjoyed these rooms. I liked the textile room where they showcased the weaves from different regions of India. One weave featured was Benarsi (of Varanasi) and the suit (gold thread weaved into silk) I wore to my reception has the same weave. Some wood-carved furniture also helped to cheer me up.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully, we had to board our train at 8pm. We were taking the overnight train to Varanasi. I had never taken a 'sleeper' train so I was a little excited to experience travel on The Doon Express.