Taste of India

This Tuesday, I’ll be jumping on a plane and flying out to Kolkata, India. Why? Because Child In Need Institute (CINI) have asked me to write an article on the work they do to support malnourished families. I’ll be finding out what it’s like to be a mother in a country where a child dies every fifteen seconds. Hell, I don’t even know what it’s like to be a mother back here. Am I nervous? Terribly.

But I’m also intrigued. Lonely Planet describes Kolkata as ’Simultaneously noble and squalid, cultured and desperate…a festival of human existence.’ That sounds like a night at Poetry Unplugged. From the preliminary research I’ve managed to establish that whilst Westerners find the poverty immensely shocking, it seems that many of the families who live those lives don’t actually realise that things could be different. Several of the local doctors point-blank refused to believe that there are countries out there where malnourishment isn’t a major issue.

Is this shocking, or is it just life? I’ll be going to find out. Watch this space…

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