CALCUTTA, INDIA
I’ve heard plenty of good things about Calcutta – it’s fairly organized, increasingly modern and a center of Indian culture. Most people who have spent some time in India seem to find it a pleasant town.

I’ve never been to India.

Calcutta is a nightmarish city for a newcomer, especially if you’re coming from Thailand World (The Most Magical Place on Earth). Its streets are lined with the destitute and deformed, the skyline is an endless procession of ruined colonial buildings and the pollution is so thick that sunny days make no difference (these photos were taken on a clear day). It might have been the junkies wiping off a needle with newspaper and shooting up next to a naked baby, or maybe the feral dogs eating a goat, but at some point in my two days in Calcutta I realized that the stories I’d heard about India weren’t exaggerated.