I know some twenty capitals. Bah! But then there is Calcutta.
-A Barbarian in India, Henri Michaux
I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere, man. Crossed the deserts bare, man. I've breathed the mountain air, man. Of travel I've a-had my share, man. I've been everywhere.
I've been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota, Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma, Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma, Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarilla, Tocopilla, Barranquilla, and Padilla, I'm a killa.
-I’ve Been Everywhere, Johnny Cash version
We went to Calcutta in the summer of 1979 for a bit of rest, squeezed between getting off the morning train from Patna and onto that same day’s evening train to Puri. It may have been a mistake. I think we spent most of our time in an air conditioned tea shop. But we did check a lot of boxes that summer. Delhi, Agra, Srinagar, Khajuraho, Benares, Bhubaneswar, Madras, Madurai, Trivandrum, and Cochin. Somehow we missed Bombay. And before that there had been Colombia and Chile. Barranquilla, Padilla, La Paloma and Iquique, Antofagasta, and Tocopilla in between.