Kolkata with Sue Perkins

HORNS BLARE

You're driving into people! There must be some law!

There's actual human people!

You're a very brave man.

I've never been to India before and I thought,

rather than dip my toe in the water and slowly acclimatise,

I thought I'd just dive in and this is Kolkata.

All I know about it is there's a Black Hole and Mother Teresa,

neither of whom are here.

Neither are any of the traditional Indian stereotypes

of chicken tikka masala, dysentery, call centres -

it's like an exploding grenade of colour and sound

and quite a lot of smell, if I'm honest.

-HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

-Absolutely!

14 million people live here

in what was once the absolute jewel in the crown of the British Empire

so welcome to the City of Joy.

I'm so sorry, I think I just punched you in the face!

He's not very joyful.

Kolkata - known to the locals as the City of Joy, although, for me,

it'll always be the city of a billion car horns.

-CAR HORNS BLARE

-It's India's most chaotic,

overcrowded and exhilarating city,

where people from every corner of the Earth

have come to make their fortune.

-SHE LAUGHS

-That's wrong. I know that's wrong.

These teeming streets tell the story of India's past, present

and shiny new future.

I bring good news. You have won India's Moustache of the Year. Mwah!

It was once the grandest city in the Orient,

it's been a byword for Third World poverty

and now it's one of the fastest-growing megacities

in the world, riding a property boom to rival London's.

You don't see Judith Chalmers going into an open poo pit! Bleurgh!

SHE LAUGHS

Its citizens are unique - eccentric, joyful and ever so slightly bonkers.

THEY LAUGH

I want to discover the secrets of this extraordinary place -

to get under its skin

and to understand how Kolkata transformed itself

from Black Hole into one of the most exciting cities on Earth.

Welcome to THE CITY OF JOY!

I think they got that.

Once upon a time,

Kolkata was a sleepy little village minding its own business,

until the British turned up

and decided it was the perfect place to start an empire.

Its location on the Bay of Bengal

meant it was ideal for shipping good British types in

and vast wealth back to where it really belonged - in Blighty.

It became the seat of British imperial power

and the home of the mighty East India Company.

'In return, we brought tea so that's all right then.'

-Cheers!

-Cheers!

'Hang on, didn't we nick that from the Chinese?'

-How's that?

-Well, it's got everything going on, hasn't it?

-It's bitter and then really sweet at the same time.

-Strong and sweet.

Strong and sweet! Bless you.

'This is Abhra, fellow tea fanatic

'and authority on all things Kolkatan.

'He's going to show me the ropes, but, before we start,

'we need to get one thing straight.

'What is this place called?'

Calcutta - Kolkata. Which one?

Well, speaking in English, we'd say "Calcutta".

-In Bengali?

-"Kolkata".

-And in Hindi, "Kalkahta".

-"Kalkahta"?

-Yeah.

-So, basically, the English mispronounced Kolkata.

-Yeah.

You can get your own back, though.

You can come to the UK and say the Queen lives in Wandsor.

Just start randomly switching around vowels.

It's your turn now, we've done enough of that.

'The name was changed back in 2001,

'along with the names of other Indian cities,

'as a way of reclaiming it from the old colonial masters.'

I come here as an English person

sort of embarrassed and ashamed by appalling colonial aggression,

but it seems to me that you're done with that.

Yeah, I mean why are you embarrassed? What's so embarrassing for you?

What's so embarrassing?

Because we sort of rode in

and we completely ripped the natural resources from the ground

and we subjugated the people

and we tried to carve out a sort of little Victorian England

in a foreign land and I think that's very uncomfortable.

We don't have the Empire anymore, we've just got guilt.

-But you're saying we should just get over it?

-Yeah, of course.

I mean, it's passed, you know.

Whatever is left of the Empire

are the old buildings, the tram, the train.

-The tea.

-The tea. It's all ours now.

Now, that's just showing off.

Tea - or chai - is a Kolkatan obsession,

drunk hot and sweet throughout the day in these little clay cups.

They are the last word in recyclable sustainability.

Once you've finished, you simply chuck them in the gutter,

where they're washed away by the rains back to the Hooghly River,

from where the clay was originally collected.

It certainly saves on washing up.

Every day, more clay is dug

and delivered to Kolkata's army of teacup makers

and the whole process begins again.

Namaste!

You've been busy already. Look at this!

I'm Sue. Nice to see you.

So these are all the pots you made yesterday?

How many do you make on average every night?

3,000! And YOU make 3,000?

-With your own hands, every day?

-Every day.

They all live and work together in this tiny compound.

The people here have come from villages in the country

in order to make money to send back to their families.

So, what does this bit do?

'Guddu's aunt Vimla is letting me help out

'with the first job of the day.'

Already I can hear sniggering!

There, you see? That is Play-Doh smooth!

I'm going to get me some of that! Mmm!

That's GOOD!

That's got Laurel and Hardy written all over it

if I get anywhere near it.

OK, I'm sort of making a light sausage. I think this is excellent.

This is the beginning of my apprenticeship!

So, how long have you been rolling clay for?

Do you want your daughter... How old is your daughter?

11 years. Do you want her to grow up and do this for a living?

What would you like her to be?

Vimla has the face of an angel and the strength of Geoff Capes

and that is a devastating combination to be up close

and personal with, I have to say.

There's such an intensity about what she's doing

and a love of what she's doing and a commitment to it

that if I take my eyes off her too long,

she gets really annoyed and I get a lump of clay thrown on me.

They work an 18-hour day for 15 days at a stretch

to put their kids through school

and give them a chance for a better life.

And if this day wasn't hard enough for these guys,

it's now started raining,

which has turned the whole of this alley into a mud slide.

They've got to quickly work hard

to get tarpaulin on all the clay before it just washes away.

I want you to enjoy this moment because this is the moment

Kolkata got a brand-new shape for its teacup.

He's Patrick Swayze to my Demi Moore.

SHE LAUGHS

Now, that's wrong. I know that that's wrong.

I don't know if that's a drinking vessel that India's ready for.

Ahhhh, no! There's a lot of pressure now.

This is his livelihood, it's not just The Generation Game, you know.

Why is it doing that? Aaaaargh!

I got him square in the nuts!

Yeah, that went right up the old man-skirt.

Yep. Aaargh!

What's that?

I know, I'm angry as well! We're all angry!

There's a storm outside.

SHE SPEAKS IN HER OWN LANGUAGE

'At this point, I think the translator has decided

'to spare my blushes and is no longer telling me what's going on.'

It's over? It's gone? You're leaving?

No, don't give up! You're giving up on me.

You can't!

In my head, I thought it would be sexy time, a bit like Ghost,

we'd make a couple of phalluses together, we'd laugh

and then suddenly I would just, with a tiny move of my hand,

just be able to make an extraordinary pot,

a sort of career-defining teacup

that would change the face of Kolkata

and, as you can tell from the fact that everyone's just left me

and they've cleared away everything, that hasn't really gone to plan!

'Their daughter Protima has been waiting for me

'to help her with her English homework.'

Now, out of all these words, when I am tired, I like to go to...

-SHE SNORES Place.

-No.

SHE SNORES

-Sleep.

-Boom, perfect! Right, that is excellent. You are...

-Clever.

You are clever. You are never...

-Bad.

-You are very...

-Good.

-I am very...

-Old.

How dare you!

How DARE you!

I'm trying to teach her, I'm furious. Furious!

Fired to perfection overnight,

Guddu's 3,000 cups need to be delivered across the city

to the tea shops of Kolkata.

Is it heavy? Heavy?

-No.

-It looks heavy.

Heavy! Really heavy!

I felt like Atlas there!

He's being really macho there, saying that's not heavy.

That's REALLY heavy.

'Thankfully, I'm not Guddu's only hired help.

'This is where Kolkata's famous rickshaw men come in.'

-Namaste!

-Namaste!

I bring good news. You have won India's Moustache of the Year. Mwah!

'The hand-pulled rickshaw is a controversial icon of Kolkata.

'Banned in other Indian cities, there are still 6,000 of them here

'plying their trade around these chaotic streets.'

Whilst I absolutely would never get in one of those as a passenger,

these rickshaws are vital,

particularly in the streets of Kolkata,

which are so narrow that they can't accommodate a normal vehicle

so this guy with this rickshaw

can provide all the essential services

for the millions of businesses that line these streets.

'These rickshaw wallahs are the delivery boys,

'the taxi services and the school buses

'for millions of everyday Kolkatans as they go about their business.

'They earn about £1.50 a day, just enough to survive on.

'They're joined on these insane streets

by every other form of transport known to man,

'all of them honking horns and ringing bells

'as if their lives depended on it.'

You'd think with this volume of people and traffic

that there'd be fights breaking out all over the shop,

there'd be road rage. There's none of that

and the only thing I can deduce from that is this chaos,

which may appear like chaos to us, is actually a system.

It's a system that works, people tolerate this

because these rickshaws and bikes are the lifeblood of the city.

They work through these tiny little capillaries

and provide the necessary tools for existence.

While it looks random, it's actually a pretty effective system.

But imagine what a congestion charge could do for this place!

-..which is situated near the river.

-Yeah.

HORN BLARES

Also near the river...

'As you wander the streets of this extraordinary city,

'you see the legacy of empire on every corner.'

And what a grand legacy it is.

The Victoria Memorial, built by George Curzon

to honour his beloved Queen, is like St Paul's...on steroids.

This place was sumptuous - wide boulevards

and ornate buildings, assuming, of course, you were the right sort.

Back when the Brits ruled the world, Kolkata was a thriving port

where fortunes could be made.

Immigrants flocked here from all over the world

so, to avoid any unpleasantness,

the British divided it up according to colour.

There was the White Town where the British lived

and it looked a bit like Kensington on a very hot day.

There was the Black Town, where the Indians lived

and then there was this place, called the Grey Area,

where everyone else lived.

It's now called Bowbazar

and it's still full of Armenians, Chinese, Jews and Arabs,

all rubbing along together nicely.

That's the best thing - they all happily co-exist.

Because, you see, the main thing is they live next door to each other.

They go to the market together, they go to the tea shop together

so what I feel is, they stopped hating each other

so they love each other and they're happy!

ALARM CLOCK RINGS

We're all awake now, we're all awake.

You can put the alarm down any time.

HE SINGS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

Suddenly it's Chinatown.

Yeah, it's a Chinese temple-cum-club

so all the Chinese friends of mine hang around here.

'The Chinese community has been here for 200 years,

making a fortune in the leather goods business.

'There were once 20,000 Chinese here.

'Now, the population is down to around 2,000 or so,

'but the temple is still going strong.'

I'm Sue, by the way, it's nice to see you.

-My name is Ah Ta.

-Ah Ta.

-My full name is Ho Yen Ta.

'Ah Ta offers to tell my fortune.'

What do I have to do, I have to shake three times?

You have to bow three times and shake one.

-You have to say your name, your age.

-Say your name, what you want.

I have to say my AGE? This is very difficult for me!

-Silently, just to the god.

-OK.

-Telepathically.

-Only God does know my real age.

-For your luck, just for anything.

-OK.

-So I'm going to say my name and my age.

-Say your name, what you want.

(My name is Sue and I'm 45 and now I'm going to...)

Not a lot coming out!

-Oh, we have a winner!

-What did you ask?

-Oh, I didn't ask for anything!

-You have to ask!

-I'll do it again,

I'm really sorry. Let me do it again.

It's your name, your age

and then you have to say why you are looking for the fortune.

I was so traumatised by having to say my age to the lady goddess

that actually I forgot. Right, I'm going to do it again.

All right, here we go.

-Got it!

-Which one was the first? OK.

So, lot 68 - "A lucky day will bring great celebration.

"A family so generous, prosperity forever glows.

"A fruitful year for farming and marriage."

I'm all over farming and marriage.

"And for the sick, cure comes at last.

"Spring - the family is prosperous, safe.

"Lawsuits will go in your favour, missing things will be found..."

-It's all good, isn't it? I'm delighted with that.

-You're lucky.

CALL TO PRAYER

It's Friday afternoon and a few blocks away, past the church

and the synagogue, the imam calls the faithful to prayer.

10,000 men work a minor miracle and stop the traffic.

When the British finally left in 1947

and India became independent,

the state of Bengal was divided along religious lines -

Hindus remained in West Bengal

and most Muslims were packed off to the newly created East Pakistan,

now known as Bangladesh.

Despite this brutal divide,

Kolkata still has the largest Muslim population of any Indian city.

Abhra, what's the quintessential personality

-of your classic Kolkata resident?

-Well, they are inquisitive.

-Yeah.

-They are curious about everything.

-Does that mean nosy?

Yeah, to a point, yeah.

I mean, if we are having lunch or dinner in a restaurant

and we are having a conversation, anyone from the table beside us

can break into our conversation. That's perfectly all right.

Can they eat our food? Is that acceptable?

Sometimes they can try it!

I'm forewarned, then, I'm going to be eating like this

while I'm here. "Get off!"

In the midst of the multicultural melting pot that is Bowbazar,

there is a corner of the city that is for ever England.

Bow Barracks was once a garrison for the British Army

before the First World War

and is now home to one of Kolkata's most intriguing communities -

the Anglo-Indians.

-Morning, nice to see you. I'm Sue.

-I'm Marion.

-Really good to meet you, Marion. Hi, there!

-John.

-Nice to see you, John.

-How's things? What are the names of your dogs?

-One is Kerry.

I thought you said "scary", I was about to back off.

And she's Brooke Shields.

'Yes, he really does have a dog called Brooke Shields.

'The Anglo-Indians - or Eurasians -

'are the offspring of marriages between British men and Asian women.

'They occupied a strange niche in colonial society,

'neither Asian nor European.

'They are, however, still fiercely proud of their Britishness.'

My grandfather is British, captain of the ship.

-I've never seen anyone look more British than this man.

-That is true.

And they were both torpedoed off Sri Lanka in World War II.

And did he lose his life in World War II?

Yeah, and my father was the only survivor.

-Of the whole ship?

-Of the whole ship.

-This is...

-Oh, hello. Nice to see you, I'm Sue.

-Really good to meet you.

-John.

-Hi, John.

-This is...

We come from Elvidge, descendants of archbishops.

-So you've traced yourself way back?

-Way, way back.

Way back and we may be even royalty because, you know,

the kings had so many women.

Henry VIII had Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon and so far...

You think there were more?

And more even and to make them happy,

they made their sons bishops and archbishops.

-Well, I never!

-Thank you.

-Oh, look, the three lions!

-Yeah!

-Amazing!

I can only apologise for how bad we were in the World Cup,

I'm very sorry.

'Their good English often meant

'they got favoured jobs in the colonial government.

'But when the British left, many Anglo-Indians felt abandoned

'and now long for their return.'

So, what would it be like if you got your way and the English came back?

-What would change?

-Oh, many things.

We'd be delighted, we'd be really happy.

Do you observe all the English festivals?

Yes, yes, we do - Christmas, Easter...

-And what do you eat for Christmas dinner?

-We have a roast.

-You have roast turkey?

-Yes, yes. We have Christmas cake.

Right now, I have one cake which I made.

Oh, my word, this looks amazing!

That is a delicious Christmas cake in the height of...

-Merry Christmas to you!

-Thank you, darling.

In the height of summer in Kolkata, who would have thought?

Merry Christmas!

'What a strange place Kolkata is!'

The British left behind them a complicated mess of religions,

cultures and politics, but somehow, with goodwill and tolerance,

the people of this city are making it work.

Nobody's 100% anything.

People have just cherrypicked what they like from other communities,

other belief systems, from the past

and made it fit what sort of best suits them so...

And there's also such a culture of celebration, thinking,

"Well, why limit yourself?"

Why limit yourself to one thing when you can have Christmas

and Easter and Diwali and you can celebrate a sort of lady goddess?

You can have everything.

You can feast your way witless 365 days of the year

and have fun while you're doing it.

Surely that's the whole spirit of multiculturalism in a nutshell -

every festival, all the time.

Kolkata, like the rest of India, is changing fast.

Its population is exploding with new arrivals

and the city needs infrastructure to cope.

There's building work going on everywhere

and the old icons of empire are crumbling and falling.

But there is one place deep underground

that makes you truly proud to be British.

There is a reason that I am dressed like an extra

from The LEGO Movie, other than the fact I like it.

I'm about to go into the Kolkatan sewers.

Some may say that I've finally reached my level.

It's my own personal Black Hole. Excuse me.

Believe it or not, Kolkata's sewers were once the envy of the world.

Built in the city's Victorian heyday,

they stretch for 90km beneath the city's streets.

They are now 130 years old and in need of some vigorous sluicing.

My nostrils, in one inhalation, have been blasted.

I will never breathe the same way again.

In charge of this epic project is the splendidly named

Mr Nilangshu Bhusan Basu from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

He doesn't look entirely comfortable on that ladder.

I'm going to show him how it's done.

Oh, God! It's scary, horrid, smelly and evil!

Bleurgh!

They don't show this on the holiday programme.

You don't see Judith Chalmers going into an open poo pit. Bleurgh!

-One more step.

-Are you the welcoming committee? This is lovely!

Step over here because otherwise we will lose you.

I don't want to be lost, not in this.

'Restoring the sewers to a smooth flow is, dare I say it, a big job.

'Each night, legions of men armed with poo buckets

'are sent deep into the bowels of the city to literally shovel silt.'

How long will these guys work for?

At night, what are their shifts?

They normally work from 11 o'clock at night

to five o'clock in the morning

because, immediately after five o'clock,

people start using their toilets and other things,

it is very difficult to overcome the water that is coming into the sewer.

So as soon as people wake up and have their first coffee,

you need to run for cover.

-Basically, all hell breaks loose.

-Yes.

This sewage system was built in 1875 for a city of just a million people.

There are now more than 14 million people in Kolkata

and a traffic system that its designers could never have imagined.

The demands of a thriving megacity

are taking their toll on this marvel of Victorian engineering.

As you can see, there are cracks there.

-What, you mean the crack above my head?

-Yes.

I mean, the mortar has gone out of that

because these are here more than 130 years. That you must understand.

We could have stood just over there!

No, no, no, don't worry, it has got four layers. It will not fall.

'And then I made him move.

'Ironically, not all of Kolkata's 14 million daily movements end up here.

'Many toilets are simply not connected.

'But all that is changing as this city modernises

'and rebuilds itself for the modern age.'

-Are you SURE this is the right way?

-Yes!

The success of the Raj was built on the close relationship

between the British Empire and powerful Indian dynasties.

These noble families became rich beyond the dreams of avarice,

and Calcutta was home to some of the most fabulous palaces on Earth.

But when India became independent, Kolkata began to change,

and these great houses began to fall.

This is the Tagore Palace, once the swankiest postcode in town.

-Hello.

-Nomoshkar.

-Nomoshkar. Welcome.

-Thank you so much.

-Pleasure.

'Saroja Tagore is a professional dancer and teacher.

'She's lived in the palace since she was a young girl.'

So what was this place like when you were a child?

Well, it was very different from what you see now,

the reason being that it was...

'As we enter the palace, we are transported into the past,

'a world of culture, wealth and power.'

It's just so elegant.

'This house was once exquisite.

'There was a priceless art collection

'and the family entertained

'the world's greatest artists and intellectuals.'

Now I'm going to take you to the space where we had music concerts.

-Like an entertainment...

-This was basically... Yes, for entertainment.

Ah! It's impossibly grand, though, isn't it?

These are all my ancestors.

These are all, you know, one after the other.

Saroja is the great-niece of Rabindranath Tagore,

winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

and one of the most important figures in Indian culture.

The house has kind of lived through its ages,

it has contributed a lot to the development of not only

Bengali culture and Bengali art but Indian art and culture.

Following the partition of India,

great families like the Tagores fell on hard times.

The division of Bengal hit them hard -

they lost half of their estates.

Kolkata was flooded with refugees and the grand palaces of old

Kolkata were swamped by the new urban sprawl.

You can see a very strong contrast

inside and out.

It's sort of mind-blowing for a visitor.

This tiny strip here is this incredible dividing line,

for me, between tranquillity and chaos, between have and have-not,

between, you know, modern, busy, bustling India

and that sense of the past, and its...

-And there, just poking out, a castle!

-Yes.

Do you love this Kolkata, or do you love this Kolkata, or do you

understand that there is now a total fusion between the two?

-I understand that there is...

-And you love the two?

-Absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I work. I'm a professional woman, I'm an artist,

so I cannot just remain inside, shut down everything and say...

Like Miss Havisham.

I would be Miss Havisham, yes,

and you would find me one day with my white gown and...

-Cobwebs.

-..my frizzled hair,

and I'm dying, you know, with my dead body near the fireplace. No, I...

I want this to have its vibration. I want this place living.

I want people coming here, I want people to gain something from here.

I want artists to be born in my house.

Can you see the other side of the coin, which is

people who are struggling, people who are in poverty,

people who lack housing, looking, going, "Well, there's just

"all this beauty for just a few people -

"let's knock it down and build a high-rise and we can house..."

-Absolutely.

-I don't know - "1,000 people"?

See, there are two ways of looking at it.

Sometimes I feel that this is something which is very grand

and people want to feel that when there is so much poverty and

when there's so much dearth of living spaces,

how is it that one family has taken up such a huge space?

But you have to understand that life is not about just having

a space to live.

Give them...give them culture.

I'm extremely mentally bewildered right now.

This family want to preserve this building because it reminds them of

better times. Many of the people on the streets there would like to

see this building torn down because it represents for them a kind of

shameful history that they don't want to be part of.

It's an India they're embarrassed about, because it conflicts with the

new idea of progress and development that's so integral to this place.

The sentence that really stuck with me was,

"Living is just not about housing,"

to which I wanted to reply, "It is if you don't have a house."

That evening, Saroja dances

for an invited audience of Calcutta's great and good...

..and Tagore Palace comes alive once more.

What is the plan for tonight?

We are going first to one area where people live on the street.

-There are families that have spent generations living on the street?

-Yes, yes.

Kolkata has long been synonymous with desperate poverty.

The city became notorious in the '70s

when Mother Teresa was working with the city's poor and homeless people.

While much has been done to alleviate the worst of it,

sadly, there is plenty left to do.

That work falls largely to charities like the Hope Foundation.

Each night, Gita and her team run patrols, checking on children

and vulnerable families living in the most desperate conditions.

First, they are survivors.

They are domestic workers in different houses,

and at night, they sleep on the street.

So they work in other people's houses by day

-but they don't have a house of their own?

-No.

This is the Hastings Underpass, a ten-kilometre stretch of road

and wasteland that provides shelter for up to 10,000 people.

Because they live under the flyover, there are big rats moving around.

You see the garbage and that. They don't have a proper floor.

There are just rags on top of the rags. So under the rags, what are

-there? It can be anything.

-So it's just an open sewer, basically?

Open sewage. On that, they put a plastic sheet and sleep.

-Oh, God.

-We really get children who are really in a very bad shape.

There are a lot of children who actually with malnourishment

have died. We could not save them.

We have also got mentally ill mothers delivering babies.

-So can we speak to this young woman here?

-Yes.

-Hi, namaste.

-Namaste.

-How long have you lived here?

She is born here.

What is it like as a woman here?

All the men pee...

They tell me that two years ago,

a young girl was abducted from here and murdered.

She slept at 2:30 at night, protecting her children...

So you're constantly very fearful, very anxious? All the time?

For them, it is like they have nobody to talk...their problems.

They have nobody to say, so it's...the night-time is that

it helps them. They share their problems,

and then they at least try to see how we can work with them

and place them in various places.

Oh! Grr!

CHILDREN CHATTER

'At the next location, the mood is very different.'

-Show me where you sleep. Show me where you sleep.

-CHILDREN SHRIEK

Argh!

That's the most exercise I've had all day!

That is their prayer room.

That is their kitchen.

That is their room.

That's their bedroom.

# Twinkle, twinkle, little star... #

CHILDREN CONTINUE IN SAME TUNE

-CHILDREN:

-# No, Papa...

# No, Papa

# Open your mouth

# A-ha-ha! #

That was a new one on me. I like what you've done with it.

-Is today a happy day?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Yeah?

He's happy because you have come.

Just change and a little bit fun.

Are you happy today with what you've seen?

We know we cannot give everybody a home, house, but we can

give them education and give them fun,

loving and help them to dream.

-So how many of these kids are in school?

-All of them are in school.

Very good. All right. Be safe. Be safe.

No, darling, I can't take that. That's yours.

'Just as we're about to leave, Gita spots a little girl

'that she's been keen to check up on.'

Where is your friend?

Where are your girlfriends, where are your boyfriends?

-Puja...

-Ah, Puja - where is she?

-Where's Puja?

-They're all sleeping.

How old are you?

SHE TRANSLATES

-She's ten years.

-Do you like school?

Yes?

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

If she becomes absent, she doesn't like.

No, you have to go every day.

When you finish school, what would you like to be

when you are grown-up?

SHE TRANSLATES

What a way... What a way to make somebody proud.

Will you be a brilliant doctor? Yes?

Will you be the best doctor in all of India?

Everybody will know. Yeah?

I will come back to see you and I will say, "Where has she gone?"

And you will say, "I don't have time to see Auntie Sue

"because I'm too busy being a great doctor."

-No, no...

-She will give time.

She's going to sleep. Sleep is boring.

So there has been plenty of times tonight where I've just

wanted to cry my eyes out at the things I have seen

and the things I have heard, which have sometimes been too unbearable

and probably too difficult to broadcast, but at the end of it,

we have someone like Rakhi, who is, through the Hope Foundation,

getting an education, speaking English and wants to be a doctor.

And it is now past midnight and you are going to bed, young lady.

Off you go. This way. It's bedtime! Sleep time. Sleep time. It's very...

It's very late. Come on, I'm taking you to see Puja. Where is she?

There is, thankfully, another Kolkata,

away from the dreadful cliches of poverty and homelessness.

Over the past few decades, India has changed beyond recognition.

Life expectancy has doubled, literacy rates have quadrupled.

And ten million people each year move from the country to the

city in search of work.

India will soon have the biggest

and the youngest workforce the world has ever seen.

As you drive away from the city centre, you see

the transformation that India's economic miracle is delivering.

And when you think of Kolkata, you think perhaps more of

poverty than excess, but that is starting to change.

Recently, voted to have the third highest

concentration of the super-rich in India after Mumbai and Delhi.

You can see the landscape transitioning from those

sort of low-rise buildings, shantytowns,

into this brave new world here of high-rises.

All the money now is in real estate,

so I guess they wouldn't call them high-rises.

They would say "opposing buildings with far-reaching city views."

And some people are doing very nicely out of it, thank you.

Hi, I'm Sue. Really nice to see you. Anish, very nice to see you.

Nice to see you.

This is the Supercar Club, a group of wealthy young men who meet every

Sunday morning to take their fancy new cars

out for a spin on the fancy new roads of the new town.

Why these cars? What do these cars say about you?

Passion, driving pleasure, kind of stress reliever for us.

Driving in Kolkata is stress relieving?

Go to the highway, the roads...

What speed can you get up to here? 30, 30, 40?

I guess, for the camera, 30, 40 is good enough!

Anish is the son of a wealthy family,

now making his own way in property.

When you come home, how many women are just on your bonnet?

-How many women are throwing themselves...

-I just make sure

no-one is there, I like it clean.

-Oh, I see, they're not allowed.

-They're not allowed.

Get off, ladies. There's only one girl for you. She's bright red.

You think this particular car has been really important, don't you?

-Yeah.

-So why is that?

This car is so beautiful, it should inspire other people to work hard,

to be honest, and to be successful in life.

That should be the message.

So this car is a sort of symbol of the changing face of Kolkata?

Absolutely, absolutely.

Praveen is a 32-year-old entrepreneur

and already has a fleet of supercars.

He's made his fortune by expanding his father's small plastering

business into one of Kolkata's top real estate developers.

-I bet your dad is a very grateful man.

-Yeah.

-He's very happy with you.

-I just lost my dad a few months back.

-Oh, I'm so sorry.

-I'm so sorry.

-A few months back I lost him, so...

Well, he would be very proud.

Yeah, because he thought, and probably he's watching me from...

Because you took a family business and you developed it,

and that's all a parent wants.

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so truly sorry!

-I didn't mean to bring it up but he would be very proud.

-Yeah.

-To see you driving around in this amazing car.

-Yeah.

And, you know, being so brilliant.

OK, let's give it a rev. Let's feel it, let's feel...

ENGINE REVS

I could grow a beard just from the amount of testosterone

that's in this vehicle just now.

Oh! I feel you!

Oh...

-This is a beautiful car.

-Thank you.

What I love is you can really feel it being driven. It is so low.

-Everything is just hard and...

-It's so raw, isn't it, and rough?

Oh, it's just great.

HORN TOOTS

Come on, let's open this thing up!

Sorry, my clutch has gone.

SHE LAUGHS

-Have you blown the clutch?

-Yeah.

-I guess we'll take the other one.

-All expectation, no delivery.

-Has it literally gone?

-Yeah. Yeah, my clutch has gone.

Well, that was that, then.

Clutch has gone.

Don't laugh!

Oh, but we did.

I can't help but feel that

this scene would be very different at home.

We'd think they were too flash by half with

their bright orange Lamborghinis.

But here, they do seem to be an inspiration.

Get a good education, work hard, make your parents proud,

buy a supercar.

People like these - young, educated, fiercely ambitious -

are transforming Kolkata.

This is the new town.

Mile after mile of shopping malls,

smooth new highways, apartment blocks and hotels,

spreading in a vast ring around the city.

The investment and the ambition here is staggering.

This is a property boom on a superhuman scale.

So this is one of how many projects?

-One out of 17.

-17?

-Yeah.

Do you know how much that totals

in terms of accumulated wealth from all those sites?

£120 million.

-£120 million?

-Yeah.

It has just started. If this stops, my life stops.

-Really? So that's how closely connected you are to it?

-Yeah.

It's about passion, it's not just about money, it's passion.

If the passion stays, you're living. If the passion dies, you're dead.

Oh, there's literally no windows there! I was about to lean forward.

This is great, isn't it?

See, I look out at that and I think that is stunning,

and you look out on that and think, "Mmm! 500 million!" £500 million!

Save a little bit, Praveen.

-Save a little bit of green just for me.

-Surely. Yeah!

You lead the way.

'These apartments cost 60 grand,

'but for Praveen it is just the beginning.'

OK, this is how the project is going to look like.

-Gosh, it's got a home theatre!

-Yeah, it has got a big home theatre

and it'll be getting a library, a community hall, a gymnasium.

There will be a place to park all your Lamborghinis,

by the looks of it!

Well, they are delighted.

They are very happy with it.

Your father was obviously a massive influence on you, wasn't he?

-Yeah.

-So much is placed on the son, that he must succeed, make money,

be in business. Do you feel that pressure?

I do feel that pressure because

my father has created a name, and...

I have joined hand, and after him, I have to make his name even bigger,

even 10 times, 20 times, 100 times bigger, and that is a big pressure.

So I'm now starting to really see the scale of development in Kolkata,

the way that this place is just exploding,

that the frontiers are being expanded, this city is just,

you know, it's growing almost in front of your very eyes,

and this place is symbolic of exactly that, this new frontier,

and the fact that people will spend money on this project,

these beautiful homes, when there isn't even a road,

a bypass or any of the infrastructure you'd expect,

just shows you how much people are

banking on the fact that tomorrow is going to be better than today.

This is the Kolkata of tomorrow,

a brave new world of middle-class affluence.

The old Kolkata is being buried beneath a landslide of progress.

The heritage buildings are falling and a new city is being born.

But in this rush to modernise, some people are making sure

that Kolkata retains its unique eccentricity.

LAUGHTER

Out in the city's sprawling suburbs, something strange is stirring.

So it's seven o'clock in the morning

and it's fair to say the only time I've ever laughed before it's 7am

was when the person who woke me up tripped over.

But to laugh is why I'm here in this sort of Surbiton of Kolkata.

Ready?

HAAA-ha-ha-ha-ha!

THEY LAUGH

Rest.

(Quite strict.)

Ready?

ALL: Ho-ho, ha-ha!

Ho-ho...

'Concerned that life was becoming too serious,

'people began to set up laughing clubs all over Kolkata.'

ALL: Ho...

Oof!

Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha! Ho-ho...

'If laughter is indeed the best medicine,

'then these ladies are pure Prozac.'

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

'They think that laughter cures all sorts of elements, from anxiety

'to arthritis, and strengthens the immune system to boot.

'Personally, I'm here for the biscuits.'

This is ridiculous!

'So how long have you all been going to the laughing club? How long?'

-12 years.

-14, 14.

-14 years.

-14 years?

And you've all been going that long?

Together? And why do you like it? What's good about it?

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

Good health.

THEY LAUGH

So have you noticed that Kolkata has changed a lot

in the last few years?

Right, that confused me, then,

because you were doing the international sign for "no".

There was a lot of "no" action there. Yeah.

'Since being in Kolkata, I've heard the term "adda" being used

'to describe a uniquely Kolkata phenomenon.'

I don't know what adda is.

Can you explain to me? I keep hearing about it but what is adda?

ALL TALK AT ONCE

Oh, now, OK! Oh, it's good?

-Adda, adda.

-Is this it? This is adda?

-This is adda.

-This is adda.

-This is adda?

-This is adda.

I'm in the middle of adda right now?

THEY LAUGH

-This is adda.

-So what is... What is it? Is it just a feeling?

Is it a... What is it?

Story, story. Variety, story.

What, so what does adda - one word, what does adda mean to you?

Freshness.

Freshness? I like that. How about you?

Fresh air? I'll allow you that as one word cos we'll hyphenate it.

Energy?

I like!

Just one word!

-Happiness.

-Happiness.

-Happiness.

-Happy.

-Happy.

I've just spilt a lot of tea on me

but it doesn't matter, I'm in an adda frame of mind.

No, it's good! It doesn't matter!

That's OK.

Where I come from, we're not very bright.

We think you drink like this.

What's wrong with that?

This is adda, this is adda!

THEY LAUGH

We're doing a remake of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

WOMEN ULULATE

In this city of change,

the past, present and future of India co-exist.

But there is one thing that is constant -

God. Or, rather, gods. There are hundreds of them everywhere.

The Hooghly River is a branch of the mighty Ganges

and Hindus consider its waters to be just as holy.

Religion flows through every part of the city's life

and is the reason that Kolkata exists at all.

Before anything, before the British Empire, before partition,

before Lamborghinis and high-rises

and the accursed invention of the car horn,

there was this place - Kalighat Temple.

Kalighat Temple is one of the most important spiritual sites in India.

A million pilgrims from all over the subcontinent flock here every year

to make offerings to the great goddess Kali.

I actually think most of them are here today.

So Kali is a domestic goddess,

a little bit like a Hindi spiritual version of Nigella Lawson,

and people come here for very practical things,

like, you know, they want a new fridge-freezer or, in my case,

a new system of traffic management.

Before I leave, I'm going to brave the crowds

to try to make an offering to the great goddess herself.

No-one's ever filmed in the inner temple before.

We've got billions of permission slips

but I have absolutely no idea if any of them are going to be valid.

I mean, what idiotic country gifted India their bureaucratic system?

I'm here to meet Vutha, a priest and temple guide.

This is offering to goddess Kali,

and holy tree, for your family person's name, peace and happiness.

-So when I see Kali, three eyes.

-Three eyes.

-Black tongue.

-One long tongue.

-I give the flowers, and I light the incense.

SHOUTING

Single, single, single, single!

'Once inside, it's mayhem.

'A heaving, pushing, pulling mass of bodies trying to

'crush into the inner temple to make an offering to the Kali idol.'

-Come.

-Absolute chaos.

'Apparently, Kali's in there somewhere

'but it's so packed we can't get through the door

'and the sheer volume of people sweeps us past.'

SHOUTING

I'm not sure if Kali got my... my prayer, but she did get my money.

'In the relative calm of the second altar chamber,

'beneath a holy tree, we make another offering.'

-Namaste Kali.

-Namaste Kali.

-Namaste Shiva.

-Namaste Shiva.

-I come to you.

-I come to you.

-Pray to you.

-Pray to you.

-For my family.

-For my family.

-In our world.

-In our world.

-Peace and happiness.

-Peace and happiness.

-Om shanti.

-Om shanti.

-Om shanti.

-Om shanti.

-Shanti shanti.

-Shanti shanti.

Shanti means peace and happiness.

Om shanti.

-OK?

-I feel very blessed.

It's a quintessentially Kolkatan experience -

chaotic, bewildering and extraordinary all at once.

So in the West we're used to religious experiences being quiet

and contemplative things, in locked and cool churches,

but here it's a cross between a market, a rally

and just a plain old-fashioned bunfight. It's...

All your senses are simultaneously bombarded, which is ironic,

I suppose, since Kali is the goddess who purifies your senses,

so I'm in need of huge purification right now.

It's the perfect end to my adventures

in this most beguiling of cities.

You know, I'd be lying if I said that I'd enjoyed all my time here.

I found some of it extremely difficult, challenging

and painful to be a part of,

but the feeling I'm left with

is of this volume of people living in a small space and coexisting

no matter what their race, creed, what their social status is,

and you know, Kolkata may not be able to teach us

anything about peace,

but I do believe we've got a lot to learn from it about tolerance.

Kolkata is changing at an astonishing pace,

emerging from its colonial past into a prosperous new future.

It is a dazzling place, truly a City of Joy.

I just hope that as it develops and grows, it can hang on to

the beautiful, crazy eccentricity that makes it so unique.

I haven't met one person, whatever their social circumstance,

not one person that hasn't had a smile on their face

or had something good to say about the world, and for that reason...

I think the future of India is radiant.