I am becoming more and more proud of this blog. I think that the quality of the posts have improved. The quantity of the posts is quite large so I am providing more and more information which, I hope, is being appreciated. I am getting more and more readers, and from more and more countries. Earlier, I thought that my blog was banned by the Chinese government (as I knew they banned many websites, and I had only a handful of readers from there in the past two years). However, I am beginning to get some pageviews from there. It is nowhere near the amount that I get from India or even the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia, but since China and India have an equal number of people I am hoping that one day soon, I shall have as many Chinese readers as I do for those in India. I have some people who actively follow my blog and I receive some comments on various blog posts (all of which I have viewed as being favourable), and I hope to have more and more followers and favourable comments.
One such comment was recently made to my Genealogy (December 2012) post. In it, the writer asks me to assist him(?) in finding a specific grave-marker at St. John's Cemetery in Sealdah. I was honoured to be asked to help. I have often desired that a family member or friend in the United States would write to me and tell me that he/she is visiting me here in Kolkata. I would then write a blog post describing all the things that they should do and consider in his/her trip to Kolkata, and which could be useful and applicable to other cities in India and which (I feel) would be useful to any reader coming to Kolkata or other cities in India. Unfortunately, none of my friends or family has done this. The comment by Anonymous, however, has impelled me to write about other things that I have wanted to mention.
Although I wanted to provide a solution to Anonymous, I did have a few concerns:
1) He (there is no tangible evidence of the sex of the writer, so I shall just make it a "he" for the sake of simplicity) does tell me that the cemetery is in the district of Sealdah. We have recently shifted our residence, and Sealdah is now closer to us. However, I did not know where exactly was the cemetery.
This may, or may not, be surprising. I have been in Kolkata for almost five years, so I ought to know a lot about it (especially as I am writing about it). However, Kolkata is nearly the same size as London in area so there is a lot that I do not and can not know. Moreover, I do not do the "touristy" things. In fact, I have never been to Victoria Memorial; the closest I have been was during my first visit to Calcutta. However, we (myself, Caroline and her family) saw a sign stating that cameras were not allowed, so it did not seem to be worth the effort. Now, I simply go about my life doing the things that I need to do each day.
Fortunately, there is Google. I searched, but could not seem to find it. I searched some more, and it seemed to be on Lower Circular Road. I had heard of that but did not know exactly where it was. I searched for it and it seemed to be far from Sealdah. I then searched again for St. John's and found it in Sealdah on...AJC Bose Road! This surprised me. I know that very many of the streets in Kolkata have changed their names and, in many cases, I know both the old and the new names but I did not know that Lower Circular Road was the former name of AJC Bose Road, which happens to be not far from our residence.
2) When would I go? In Kolkata, there are only two types of weather: hot and humid, and rainy, and these are not good conditions in which to walk. There is also the cold climate; it is not intrinsically cold (the lowest temperature is 10°C or 50°F--and that is only at night or in the very early morning) but it is cold by the standards of Kolkata. The cold temperatures are actually ideal in which to walk to somewhere, but they will not begin until about three months from now [I began to write this in September], and I did not want to wait that long.
Of course, I could take a taxi but I have had horrific experiences in taking a non-prepaid taxi in Kolkata. I could take a bus but I would have to walk far to the bus stop, and I am not certain about its destination. In both cases, St. John's Cemetery is not significantly far, and one foreigner told us that she often walks to and from the Sealdah train station (close to the cemetery) so if she can do it then so can I.
The weather this year, though, has been peculiar. The monsoon began in May (the month in which it is normally very hot and humid) and has not ended. [As of mid-November, it has ended.] In the past, when there is rain the temperatures drop significantly. When the rains stop, the rest of the day is very hot and humid. This year, when the rains stopped the temperatures remained cool. This is ideal weather in which to walk.
When I read the comment of Anonymous it was during such ideal weather. However, when I read the comment I was working frantically on many projects. When I thought that I was ready to go to St. John's the weather became hot and humid again. I am hoping that ideal weather will return soon.
2) When would I go? In Kolkata, there are only two types of weather: hot and humid, and rainy, and these are not good conditions in which to walk. There is also the cold climate; it is not intrinsically cold (the lowest temperature is 10°C or 50°F--and that is only at night or in the very early morning) but it is cold by the standards of Kolkata. The cold temperatures are actually ideal in which to walk to somewhere, but they will not begin until about three months from now [I began to write this in September], and I did not want to wait that long.
Of course, I could take a taxi but I have had horrific experiences in taking a non-prepaid taxi in Kolkata. I could take a bus but I would have to walk far to the bus stop, and I am not certain about its destination. In both cases, St. John's Cemetery is not significantly far, and one foreigner told us that she often walks to and from the Sealdah train station (close to the cemetery) so if she can do it then so can I.
The weather this year, though, has been peculiar. The monsoon began in May (the month in which it is normally very hot and humid) and has not ended. [As of mid-November, it has ended.] In the past, when there is rain the temperatures drop significantly. When the rains stop, the rest of the day is very hot and humid. This year, when the rains stopped the temperatures remained cool. This is ideal weather in which to walk.
When I read the comment of Anonymous it was during such ideal weather. However, when I read the comment I was working frantically on many projects. When I thought that I was ready to go to St. John's the weather became hot and humid again. I am hoping that ideal weather will return soon.
3) Would they let me in? When I go to the cemetery of my in-laws, it is usually with Caroline. I have gone several times on my own (which is usually when I take the photos for my other Genealogy posts) but I seem to have become somewhat familiar to them. Moreover, they seem to let anybody in. We once saw a group of Muslim youngsters (in the Christian cemetery) climbing a tree to get its fruit! However, I did not know the policies and procedures of the new cemetery, nor how they would view me.
4) Would they let me take photographs? Caroline's family's cemetery is extremely large, and a large portion of it is away from the entrance (where the offices are located). Recently, I took some photographs of headstones near the entrance, and the security guard objected. St. John's Cemetery is most likely much smaller, so there could be a greater chance of an objection.
5) Most importantly, could I find the grave-marker? Caroline's cemetery does seem to have a system whereby individual graves can be located. My impression is that there is a fee for this service, but I do not know how long it would take to locate it, I do not know if I have enough information on this specific grave, and I do not know if they would provide that information to someone who is not related to the deceased. I have no idea of what are the policies and procedures of St. John's, nor of how many graves there are, and of how difficult it may be to find the specific grave-marker.
6) Would Anonymous see this? He seems to not be at Google+, or if he is then he did not not sign onto the account when he sent the comment. Finding a specific grave-marker seems to take a lot of time and effort which may not be worth it if the intended beneficiary will not see the results. However, I am hoping to take many photos so even if he does not learn of the information provided then I hope that others, who are also looking for distant relatives or ancestors, will benefit from this post. In any case, after publishing this post, I shall link this as a reply to his comment, in the hope that he will get an email notification.
Finally, in response to his other statements, I would like to say that I admire your perseverance. I do not think that I could do anything continuously for 37 years.
Do not worry about not (responding to) blogs. I have blogged but I still do not know how! (Ha ha) I consider myself a good writer and have felt this for about thirty years. In the beginning, that is what I did: I took pen to paper and wrote. Now, I have to worry about fonts, font size, placement of photographs, inserting videos, links, word count, labels, promotion and many other things.
6) Would Anonymous see this? He seems to not be at Google+, or if he is then he did not not sign onto the account when he sent the comment. Finding a specific grave-marker seems to take a lot of time and effort which may not be worth it if the intended beneficiary will not see the results. However, I am hoping to take many photos so even if he does not learn of the information provided then I hope that others, who are also looking for distant relatives or ancestors, will benefit from this post. In any case, after publishing this post, I shall link this as a reply to his comment, in the hope that he will get an email notification.
Finally, in response to his other statements, I would like to say that I admire your perseverance. I do not think that I could do anything continuously for 37 years.
Do not worry about not (responding to) blogs. I have blogged but I still do not know how! (Ha ha) I consider myself a good writer and have felt this for about thirty years. In the beginning, that is what I did: I took pen to paper and wrote. Now, I have to worry about fonts, font size, placement of photographs, inserting videos, links, word count, labels, promotion and many other things.