February 15, 2008 To the western eye at least, it is both a shocking and humbling sight. Less than 10 yards from the entrance to Royal Calcutta GC -- founded in 1829 and the oldest in the world outside the British Isles -- an elderly man covered in soapsuds is washing in the river. Next to him a woman is cleaning what is, one assumes, the family laundry. Not six feet from her, a stray dog urinates into the putrid water that doubles, judging by the foul smell, as the local sewer. Inside the club gate, of course, a very different world unfolds. "Old" golf in India, introduced by the British forces stationed there during the days of the Empire, is populated by the affluent few in a country where the ever-rising population already exceeds 1.1 billion souls. But the incongruity continues, as the rings of barbed wire around the course's perimeter testify. Literally next door to the "rich man's game," the Kolkata slums are home to those a lot less fortunate. snipped from http://www.golfdigest.com/golfworld/columnists/2008/02/gw20080215huggan ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India