I spent the morning reading and writing in my journal. In the afternoon I decided to go find the Indian Airlines office. I'd already realized that I wasn't going to get to go to the Andaman Islands but I didn't really have anything that I wanted to do in Calcutta and I've got to hang out until the 6th so I used the search as something to do. The walk ended up being farther than I thought it would be - about 45 minutes, I'd been thinking 15. On the way I say a couple mosques, some dense shopping areas, and a lot of decaying colonial buildings that have a sort of faded glory. Some of the building look like they've just started to be restored - it'll be interesting to see what central Calcutta looks like in ten years.
At the airlines office people were very friendly but it was the same story - flights full. I asked if it would be possible to waitlist the flight on the 8th - my theory was that since I'm stuck here until the 6th I could check to see if I got on then leave if not. But I was told that there was no reason to waitlist as I'd have to buy the ticket first and it would be very unlikely as there were already thirty people waitlisted, but she suggested that I go talk to the duty manager. As I didn't have anything else to do I waited around to go in and talk. He was very polite, poured me some tea, listed to me for about three minutes then said - go buy your ticket then come back here and I'll confirm it! About half an hour after entering walked out with my confirmed tickets for a sold out flight! I was completely amazed at how friendly and helpful the office was - it was still a massive bureaucracy, but it was efficient and friendly.
I spent the rest of the afternoon happily excited about going to the Andamans. I took advantage of my energy and started getting caught up with my email backlog. For dinner I went to the same place I went to my first night and had another delicious chicken tikka masala.
