HENNA! (Almost wedding time)

Mehendi is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration and its traditional for Indian brides. Since my sisters wedding is only a couple of days away now (tomorrow eeeek!) I thought I'd take a quick moment to post the photos from her henna day..

inspecting the work

future father-in-law gets a quick peek

Waiting in the sun for the henna to dry can be tiring work!

Syamalika and Lali

The young girls get in on the action

Waiting in the sun

Siblings

First time all together in three years.

Tickets booked

So my tickets are finally confirmed for my visit to Australia and New Zealand. For all my friends and family in the Gold Coast, be prepared, Ishaan and I are rocking the city for seven whole days! And then we fly to Auckland for Jen and Damian's wedding... and finally back to QuakeChurch city by March 26th. Watch out, the John-Ta'ala duo are back in town (almost).

Photoshoot

Last week, someone from the tourism department here in Mayapur called me up and asked if Mandakini and I could be in a tourism advertising campaign to get people visiting Mayapur. It was organised through the tourism department of the whole of West Bengal, so it was kind of a big deal, and it basically involved us meeting the head minister of the West Bengal Tourism department, as well as his daughter, and then put on our best saris for a quick photoshoot. The photos would be used for advertising on billboards, magazines, posters, etc, and encourage people in West Bengal to visit wonderful Mayapur.

The ministers daughter Priya came to be in the photoshoot with us too, and we had fun dressing her up, doing hair and makeup etc, and putting on her sari. We even managed to swap phone numbers so when I go to Kolkata next, we can meet up and she can take us to some good shopping spots.

We probably won't see the final advertisement for a little while, but here are some shots of the day.

Priya, me and Manda

Syamalika is heeeeere!

She arrived early this morning, about 5am, along with Abhi (her finace), Radhanga (Abhi's mum) and Vrindi and Vani (Abhi's brothers). SO happy to have my sister back. And then when Pita gets here in 3 weeks, the whole family will be in the same place at the same time. Its a miracle I say.

Happy New Year!

With love from our cosy set-up on the balcony of our apartment, complete with fairy lights, candles, a bonfire and a wonderful group of friends.

Bring on 2012.

Chillin' on the roof

I don't really spend much time on our roof. Except for my birthday party earlier this month, I don't think I've spent more than ten minutes up there at a time - and thats usually to say hello to someone up there, or to collect Ishaan and bring him home. There's not really any reason why I don't go up there much... probably cuz we have quite a large balcony attached to our apartment so I just hang out there if I want to go outside, and also because our rooftop is full or dusty dirty corners and isn't really looked after.

But Mandakini's roof is a whole different story. Her and her mama have beautiful plants and flowers and trees up in their rooftop, its painted a clean white and has hardly and dusty corners with sand and dirt accumulated. Yesterday, in light of the fact that Yoginee is leaving us today, her and I (and Ishaan) joined Manda on her roof for a relaxed afternoon with chilled nimbu-pani, delicious cookies, a few pillows, a blanket, a camera and some henna...

Ishaan's sports day

Highlight of the day - he came SECOND in the sprint race in his group. Other than that... a pretty fun and exciting day had by all! Lemon and spoon races, potato (ball) races, beanbag races.. Ishaan loved it all!

Ishaan leading his group and his teacher to the first race.
(with his bag of lemons)

The boys waiting their turn

The girls lining up for their first race.

The rules of the lemon and spoon race are being explained
(and no one seems to be listening!)

Ready boys!?

GO!! Try not to drop your lemon!

No holding it in place Ishaan, thats cheating!

Oops, dropped it!

The lemons were dropped at least a dozen times!

Next race - balancing beanbags on their heads.

Go!! No touching the beanbags!

Its slipping, its slipping!!

On the way back, trying not to touch it!

The "potato" game - collecting the potatoes (plastic balls) in a bucket

and racing back to the start

Balls collected, running one way with the bucket full.

And back to the start WOOHOO!

More racing - with sunglasses this time!

And back again...

Getting ready for sprint race

RUN ISHAAN RUN!!!

Showing off his yellow ribbon for second place in the sprint race.

So proud.

Certificate AND 2nd place ribbon.