Kolkata: Day 1

Our first day in Kolkata began at 1am when we arrived at the airport. We waited a little while to take a taxi into the city around dawn, asking the cab driver to stop at Yogananda's house and the Ghosh Yoga College before taking us to the hotel.

After a stroll through the neighborhood to get our bearings, we have breakfast at the hotel at about 8am. Already we feel exhausted and disoriented but the day is just beginning.

We meet with Chitralekha and Pavitra. Chitralekha was married to Buddha Bose's oldest son Ashok. She also taught yoga to the women at Yoga Cure for awhile in the 70s. Pavitra is her son, one of the grandsons of Buddha Bose. We discuss many things. At one point Chitralekha says "Ghosh didn't do yoga." He focused solely on bodybuilding. When elaborating what she thought about the surfacing of Bose's complete album and the potential of more people knowing about his yoga, she said that above anything else Bose was "gentle." He rarely touched or adjusted anyone.

We head over to the Indian National Library where we locate a copy of Bose's book Holy Kailas. He wrote it about his journeys through the holy mountains of India. In the introduction he talks about his plane crash, the subsequent back brace he was required to wear, and his surrender to God.

The day ends with a trip to Yoga Cure. We hope to meet and discuss the album with Rooma De, Bose's daughter who currently runs the school and carries the torch for Bose yoga. We are met at the gate by Avrakesh, her son, a grandson of Buddha. He wastes very little time in telling us that they are not interested in the album and swiftly brushes us from the premesis. Jerome asks "So you don't want to see Buddha Bose's album?" Avrakesh replies, "It is not up to me, but we have no interest in it at this time." We leave, baffled.