It is 5:30 in the morning.  I have been awake for about 2 hours.  Last night I fell asleep at about 4:00 and slept for most of 12 hours.  I took two sleeping pills in an effort to sleep until about 7, but they are not working.  I just posted the pictures from the flight and from Singapore, so now it is on to Kolkata.

After leaving the immaculate and modern Singapore, it was a bit of a shock to walk off the plane in Kolkata.  The airport was old and musty, but the people were very friendly.  I was a bit worried about Indian immigration/customs because there were so many restrictions on the embarkation/disembarkation form, but I passed through without any problem.   After collecting my backpack I went outside to a throng of people.  I immediatley say a man holding a sign with the logo of one of the vendors I am visiting, his name is Ismail and he will be my driver for the next couple of weeks.   With him was Shamil and Subrata, also employees of the vendor company I am visiting.   Subrata is the team lead and Shamil is a relationship manager.

On the way out of the airport a young girl, probably 7 years old, came up to me and said "please sir, just a little money" and kept repeating it as I walked to the car.  I was so taken aback by her that I almost reached in my pocket and gave her some money.  Good thing I didn't because all I had were 1000 Rupee notes (about 23 dollars).   I have refrained from giving money to beggars since a confrontation with a homeless advocate in San Francisco about 12 years ago.   In that incident I talked/argued with this man for about 45 minutes about the cause, plight and possible solutions homelessness.  He convinced me that giving money to beggars does not help them in the long term (ie giving them a fish vs. teaching them to fish).   My guidebook also discourages it and lastly, but not least, I promised Arnab that I would not give in to temptation and give money to beggars, no matter how compelling their case.

We climbed into a TATA Sumo SUV (nice vehicle) and made our way to the hotel.  There are only minimal traffic control features, occaisional stoplights and very few road signs.   There are not any clearly marked lanes, so the road accomodates as many vehicles as can fit on it.   The drivers are pretty expert in squeezing through gaps in the traffic.  There is constant honking of horns, which means "I am going to pass you".   At first glance it is pretty chaotic, but it is actually governed by a discernable set of driving rules.  

We finally arrived at the hotel, I was really nervous about getting checked in because I knew that my credit card had been locked in Singapore by BankOne's fraud detection program.   Luckily they didn't run the card.  I got checked in and after a quick login to send email queued up on the flight and to call home on the Vonage soft phone, I fell asleep.