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Diwali

Yesterday we celebrated Diwali here in Mayapur. (For more on Diwali, or Deepavali as it is sometimes known as, check below the photos for a description.)

It was beautiful. The whole neighborhood was lit up with small tealight candles and clay diyas (lamps) lined up along the balconies, along the windowsills and scattered everywhere in the gardens. The area looked like a night fairyland. We lit small clay lamps with ghee (oil) in them and put them all over the house to light the place up. We had no electricity going, just the warm glow of the maps. I took a few photos - Diwali is photographers dream, everywhere you look there are gorgeous photos to take.

Later that night there was live music down at the local restaurant and snack shop, and the kids were lighting fireworks here there and everywhere. What a beautiful evening.

"Diwali is the day when King Rama's coronation was celebrated in Ayodhya after his epic was with Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. By order of the royal families of Ayodhya and Mithila, the kingdom of which Rama's wife Sita was princess, the cities and far flung boundaries of these kingdoms were lit up with rows of lamps, glittering on dark nights to welcome home the divine King Rama and his Queen Sita after 14 years of exile, ending with and across-seas-war in which the whole kingdom of Lanka was destroyed.

On the western calendar, Diwali can be anytime during October or November, and falls on the no-moon day during the dark half of the holy month of Kartika."

Go mighty All Blacks!

Of course I knew the world cup was happening in my home country while I'm halfway across the other side of the world. I didn't really keep up with the details too much - unless my rugby-mad brother asked about them - so I didn't even realise New Zealand was in the final until a couple of weeks ago. I checked the RWC website as soon as the semi-finals ended, and was super excited that NZ made it through to the finals. WOOHOO!!

So on Monday I was at the dob (coconut) shop buying a dob to drink the juice and some sugarcane juice too, and chatting away with my oh-so-strong kiwi accent. Someone overheard me, and asked where my home country was.

"New Zealand" I said

"Have you been following the rugby at the moment?" he said with a strong South African accent.

"Yeah I have in the past week, and yes I know we have a final this weekend! So proud to be a New Zealander right now"

"I'm getting sattelite tv at my place for the weekend and me and a few friends are going to watch the game.... if you want to join in with us maybe?"

Maybe? MAYBE?? Of course I want to join in! We swapped phone numbers and I arranged to find out the exact time of the game local time and get back to him with details.

So of course today was The Day. The end of the past 6 weeks of game after game, NZ coming out victorious each time. Surely they could win this one without a hitch right!? I prepared for the day - wore an all black sari to the temple in the morning and even put Ishaan in a black kurta with a white dhoti. We made signs saying "Go All Blacks" and "Go ABs" and (Ishaan's one) "TRY!". I even drew a creative bindi on my forehead (see below for photo) and wore it with proud all day long.

There were a few visiting Hare Krsnas from New Zealand who were staying with us for a few weeks so they joined with us in watching the game. It was nerve-wracking there for awhile... we were all sitting on the edge of our seats yelling and cheering and gripping the armrests of the chairs. It was nice to be associated with something from home.

All Blacks. Winners of Rugby World Cup 2011. Supporters all over the world. Including in a small house in a tiny village in Nadia, West Bengal, India.

Kolkata with M&M

There's nothing quite like the experience of leaving the safe haven of Mayapur and spending a day in the hectic streets of Kolkata. You come back feeling exhausted and grotty, like the smog and dust that hangs in the air somehow attaches itself to you and refuses to come off with a light scrub. I always spend at least 45minutes in the shower when I get home, and sleep in till 7 or 8 the next morning. But the goodies you can come back with after a day in Kolkata are plentiful and they usually make up for the downside.

Early morning chai while waiting for the train.

Local train from Krsnanagar to Shealdah

Yesterday Mandakini and I left in the early morning mist to catch a train and meet Mani in Kolkata for a spot of shopping. The train ride was pretty uneventful - we took the ladies carriage and sat ourselves on the top rack where the luggage usually goes. We had a great view of the train hustle and bustle - including the eunuch that strolled through giving us doe eyes for money and slapping her hands in true diva fashion, the yelling of the women fighting over a seat or dropped luggage, the vendors yelling out their wares and trying to convince you to buy from them.

Our friend the eunich (the he/she) giving us her diva hands.

The fan about a foot away from us on the roof that looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the train was built.

We arrived in Newmarket at 11am and met Mani outside the Oberoi Grand Hotel. Getting a taxi to the Oberoi is a mission in itself - the taxi drivers assume because you are pretty white girls heading to the rich hotel, you must have money, and therefore they will try to charge you an arm and a leg, just to rip you off. But then, thats all part of being in India.

I'm going to paint two Indian flags on the back of my car in NZ and have this slogan. Along with "Horn Please". This is on practically every truck and bus on India's streets.

Enjoying a sweet mosumbie (orange) and pineapple juice before meeting Mani

Newmarket was just as busy as ever, and the familiar streets and stalls called us with their colourful scarves, saris, jewellery, bags, shoes... you name it, Newmarket has it. We headed to the Bombay Silk Store - recommended to us by a friend - and bargained our way through a few dozen saris. Mandakini and I left with a new sari each (for me it was the first nice sari I'd bought for myself in almost 10 years), pleased smiles on our faces with the great deals we got.

Mani and I checking out some cloth for punjabi suits.

Next we headed to the cloth stores, where layers and layers of patterned cotton were piled high and stacked on all sides, waiting to be rifled through and sorted. We spent ages choosing fabrics, matching patterns and deciding on cloth for new skirts and punjabi tops. There was so much to choose from that I didn't even end up buying anything for myself but Mani and Manda both chose some gorgeous pieces to be made into outfits. We then headed to the dhupatta shop, where Mani ummed and aaahed over the right colour scarves to match her outfits.... while Manda and I took photos outside and ate street food... and our work at Newmarket was done.

Cloth stacked high throughout the shop. There were about 5-7 shops all the same, lined up next to each other.

Manda and her beautiful contagious smile.

The puchka-guy. I love puchkas.

Did I mention I love puchkas?

The unstoppable queens of Newmarket striking a pose

Me, Mani and Mandakini, "bffs fo life yo"

Now to Forum. Basically Forum is a shopping mall, and if you didn't realise, you could probably imagine you were in a mall anywhere in the west. Apart from most stores being full of Indian clothing, bangles, bindis, housewares etc. We didn't buy anything, just window-shopped for an hour or so... and then our tummies told us it was time to eat.

Let me just explain something. When you live in India, you don't really feel like eating Indian food ALL of the time. Don't get me wrong, the food is awesome and I love it... but its always available and sometimes all you feel like is some good old pizza or pasta with delicious parmesan cheese and black olives. So thats exactly what we did. We went to Fire and Ice, the best Italian restaurant in Kolkata. A million photographs and a pizza and pasta and some orange juice later... and we were fully satisfied. Perfect way to finish our day in the Big City.

Fire and Ice Pizza. Just what the doctor ordered.

We parted ways with Mani (she was staying in Kolkata with her family for a few days), and headed back to Howrah to catch the 5.30 train back to Mayapur. When Manda and I got to the train station, we found out our train left at 6pm, not 5.30, so we headed up to the AC foodcourt to kill some time. There we met three British girls, travelling around India on a three-month tour, and whose train to Darjeeling had been delayed for 5 hours. It was a nice way to spend the next half hour - chatting to young Engligh-speaking girls about the glories of India and why we (and they!) love it so much. Shame they were nearing the end of their 3 month India tour, they could've stopped through Mayapur for some spiritual healing!

By 9.30pm we were tucked up safely in our Mayapur beds, after making some young Indian friends on the train home, peeking at every train stop for the last half an hour checking we hadn't missed the Navadwip Dham station, chanting, listening to the ipod, playing games, arguing with the rickshaw-wallah between paying Rs100 and Rs40 to get to the boat dock, and almost falling asleep on the boat ride home in the dark.

All in all a fabulous trip to Kolkata with fabulous people.

Muslim Party

Mani rung me up the other night and was laughing down the phone

"I'm having hahahehehe a party hahahehehehahahehe...come.hahah..come over haha bring a dhupatta hehehe with you haha a dhupatta hehehe" (yes, thats what the conversation was like. I could barely get a word in with her laughing)

This is the results of our "Muslim Party"