LTDM80J Episode 03:
Mumbai to Calcutta (Via Allahabad, Benares)
While Phileas Fogg travels through India, we ‘ll listen to contemporary music from the country that Verne describes as a great reversed triangle of land. The railway traverses the peninsula from Bombay to Calcutta in just three days. But as the railway was not yet complete, our heroes are forced to get off the train and reach the next station with the only available means of transport they found, an elephant. Travelling through the forests of the Vindhya Mountains, Phileas Fogg will risk his life and the success of his tour, and Passepartout will get an answer to his question, “Is there a heart under the icy exterior of Phileas Fogg?
— The passengers of the Mongolia went ashore at half past four P.M.; at exactly eight the train would start for Calcutta.
— Mr. Fogg […] left the steamer [..] and,with his regular gait, which beat to the second, like an astronomical clock, directed his steps to the passport office. As for the wonders of Bombay,[…] he cared not astraw to see them.
— Left Bombay
— But Phileas Fogg, who was not travelling, but only describing a circumference, took no pains to inquire into these subjects; he was a solid body, traversing an orbit around the terrestrial globe, according to the laws of rational mechanics.
— The passengers of the Mongolia went ashore at half past four P.M.; at exactly eight the train would start for Calcutta.
— Mr. Fogg […] left the steamer [..] and,with his regular gait, which beat to the second, like an astronomical clock, directed his steps to the passport office. As for the wonders of Bombay,[…] he cared not astraw to see them.
— Left Bombay
— But Phileas Fogg, who was not travelling, but only describing a circumference, took no pains to inquire into these subjects; he was a solid body, traversing an orbit around the terrestrial globe, according to the laws of rational mechanics.
— During the night the train left the mountains behind, and passed Nassik, and the next day proceeded over the flat, well-cultivated country of the Khandeish.
— The train entered the defiles of the Sutpour Mountains, which separate the Khandeish from Bundelcund, towards evening.
— The next day […] the train stopped, at eight o'clock, in the midst of a glade some fifteen miles beyond Rothal.
— The project was a bold one, full of difficulty, perhaps impracticable. Mr. Fogg was going to risk life, or at least liberty, and therefor the success of his tour. But he did not hesitate.
— Arrived at Allahabad
— Her shining tresses, divided in two parts, encircle the harmonious contour of her white and delicate cheeks, brilliant in their glow and freshness. Her ebony brows have the form and charm of the bow of Kama, the god of love, and beneath her long silken lashes the purest reflections and a celestial light swim, as in the sacred lakes of Himalaya, in the black pupils of her great clear eyes. Her teeth, fine, equal, and white, glitter between her smiling lips like dewdrops in a passion-flower's half-enveloped breast.
— The train entered the defiles of the Sutpour Mountains, which separate the Khandeish from Bundelcund, towards evening.
— The next day […] the train stopped, at eight o'clock, in the midst of a glade some fifteen miles beyond Rothal.
— The project was a bold one, full of difficulty, perhaps impracticable. Mr. Fogg was going to risk life, or at least liberty, and therefor the success of his tour. But he did not hesitate.
— Arrived at Allahabad
— Her shining tresses, divided in two parts, encircle the harmonious contour of her white and delicate cheeks, brilliant in their glow and freshness. Her ebony brows have the form and charm of the bow of Kama, the god of love, and beneath her long silken lashes the purest reflections and a celestial light swim, as in the sacred lakes of Himalaya, in the black pupils of her great clear eyes. Her teeth, fine, equal, and white, glitter between her smiling lips like dewdrops in a passion-flower's half-enveloped breast.
Her delicately formed ears, her vermilion hands, her little feet, curved and tender as the lotus-bud, glitter with the brilliancy of the loveliest pearls of Ceylon, the most dazzling diamonds of Golconda. Her narrow and supple waist, which a hand may clasp around, sets forth the outline of her rounded figure and the beauty of her bosom, where youth in its flower displays the wealth of its treasures; and beneath the silken folds of her tunic she seems to have been modelled in pure silver by the godlike hand of Vicvarcarma, the immortal sculptor.
— Arrived at Benares
— The railway,on leaving Benares, passed for a while along the alley of the Ganges. Through the windows of their carriage the travellers had glimpses of the diversified landscape of Behar, with its mountains clothed in verdure, its fields of barley, wheat, and corn, its jungles peopled with green alligators, its neat villages, and its still thickly-leaved forests. […] The panorama passed before their eyes like a flash, save when the steam concealed it fitfully from the view;
— Calcutta was reached at seven in the morning, and the packet left for Hong Kong at noon; so that Phileas Fogg had five hours before him.
— “Arrived at Calcutta”
— The railway,on leaving Benares, passed for a while along the alley of the Ganges. Through the windows of their carriage the travellers had glimpses of the diversified landscape of Behar, with its mountains clothed in verdure, its fields of barley, wheat, and corn, its jungles peopled with green alligators, its neat villages, and its still thickly-leaved forests. […] The panorama passed before their eyes like a flash, save when the steam concealed it fitfully from the view;
— Calcutta was reached at seven in the morning, and the packet left for Hong Kong at noon; so that Phileas Fogg had five hours before him.
— “Arrived at Calcutta”
Alternatively listen here︎︎︎
![[Calcutta], ship 'Bombay' & ss 'Mauritius' - The British Library](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9348b4147633e90540db910d53ff4d26248c4d1edefea3494e47b1e1f30addf4/ship--Bombay----s.s.--Mauritius--1865.jpg)
