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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2012 19:55:16 GMT -5
7 Jan, PM: Went shopping in the Gariahat Market area. The streets are lined with a bewildering variety of shops attracting an incredible number of shoppers and window shoppers every day and evening. Today being Saturday was busier than normal. Literally it was elbow room only at Gariahat junction. Crossing the street was a life-threatening experience.
As we came back, we found a huge pandal right outside our apartment. This is a temporary construction, blocking most of the width of the street. It featured a stage, lavishly decorated and equipped with grandiose chairs to seat the guests of honour. It was colourful and loud. Yes with loudspeakers on the street lamp-posts.
The organisers had been most enterprising. For two days we had found large stacks of bamboo trunks being stacked on the street outside our apartment. Now we found those forming the temporary structure that was the colorful pandal. Long festoons were hung high up from the lamp posts with huge bunch of baloons in every colour and shape. Yes shapes; including Zebra, Dolphin, Horse and Tiger. OK one zebra had stripes that no living zebra ever had, in red, yellow, green AND blue. But another Zebra was realistically striped in black and white. The Dolphin had streaks of red, blue and green. Strange one, that.
The trees lining the street were illuminated with powerful spot lights in green, blue and intense white. And of course the inevitable chain of lights. Altogether a most colourful affair.
We thought it was an advertising event to promote a local guest house. We couldn't be more wrong!
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Prashna
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2012 20:43:11 GMT -5
Sunday, 8 Jan: Dawn broke with the sound of loudspeakers. We looked out from our balcony to find a HUGE crowd of children. The street had been covered with tarpaulin sheets and lots of young boys and girls were sitting cross-legged on those. Each had an easel and tray of water colour paints and assorted pencil, erasers, ruler and paper. What was going on? It was the Annual all-Bengal Sit-and-Draw competition organised by Sankalan. Last year it had attracted 3000 competing children. It so happened that this notable event was taking place right outside our apartment. Quite out of the blue we found ourselves having a grandstand and bird's eye view. Naturally I put my trusty Panasonic in video mode. It was busy for the next hour or so. Suddenly, it strted to rain. Not heavily, just a shower. But a few courageous boys and girls took shelter in the capacious covered garage space at the ground floor of our apartment block. Naturally they continued painting, as their allocated 2 hours of drawing time was ticking by. That gave me the opportunity to take some BCU (Big Close-Up) shots of the participants. They were oblivious to the inquisitive Leica lens; they had to be to concentrate on the job at hand. I would have liked to record the evnt to its conclusion. But we had a lunch invitation with a close relative. Reluctantly we left for their home. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Again, a sumptuous meal. Fish paturi (roasted inside a banana leaf), fish fry with topse fish, fish curry with Koi fish (not the decorative variety. this is a cat fish). The dessert was the legendary Abar Khabo, (savour again) . A remarkable and nouth-watering sweet made from indulgently rich Kheer (enriched cottage cheese). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Night and the skies opened. Lightning seared across the skies from the low-slung cumulous clouds. At daytime those would be ominous, at night just dark and a perfect backdrop to the dazzling and frequent flashes of lightning. Lightning that reached us at light speed followed seconds later by the deafening roar of thunder travelling at Mach 1. A most impresssive thunder shower. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Monday: 9 Jan. The heavy downpour had left its toll. The festoons had lost some animals, the horse and some balloons were casualties. But the colorful Zebra and Dolphin were still there swinging as cars whooshed past. Water had accumulated on the street edges, so heavy was the downpour. But it soon cleared, as we made our way to our shopping expedition. +++++++++++++++++++++++ Prashna
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2012 19:19:08 GMT -5
This one is for Sadie to cry about. Yesterday, I had to discard the first green coconut in my life. It had gone bad due to overlong storage. Due to the absence of Sadie, I entered into an arrangement with a local street trader; to provide a regular supply of green coconuts during my stay here. 12- 14/week or about 2/day. Not excessive, ordinarily, but it does mount up after several weeks. Especially when I am the sole consumer. Greed perhaps; but it does help the poor street trader who gets up at 5 am to load his bicycle with 50-60 green coconuts, then pedal for over 10 miles to arrive at the streets of the metropolis where his customers may buy or not. Upon this daily toil, depends the livelihood of his young wife and children. Consumers are few, traders many, it's a hard life; far harder than my own. So I keep buying even though we have to be away often to meet family obligations. The space in the human stomach is limited, in mine even more so due to life-saving surgery. So the coconuts mount up. Even now, I have 3 huge ones waiting to be split. Outside coconut palms everywhere, in their hundreds. 30-50 green coconuts at the top of each, 50 ft out of reach of the ordinary pedestrian. But not Sadie. She would have made short work of a few coconut palms, I am sure. Here the householders can only look upwards and show off to visitors the impressive number of coconuts in their back garden. But they dare not climb the dizzying height. The coconuts ripen on the tree, to fall off in due course or early due to some deficiency. The coconut pickers are few and far between. Only the very poor dare to risk their life and limb, driven simply by raw hunger, desperate in their efforts to support themselves and their family. Such is the need for survival. Soon I shall leave this green and warm climate, rich with coconut palms. Only two days remain. Prashna.
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Post by mouse on Jan 11, 2012 6:26:22 GMT -5
are you moving for a stay elswhere or is your trip nearly over prash??? you seem to have been gone for ages
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2012 20:56:51 GMT -5
are you moving for a stay elswhere or is your trip nearly over prash??? you seem to have been gone for ages Our trip, mouse is nearly over. Today is the last day. This evening we board the long flight from the N.S.C.B. Airport (Kolkata) to Dubai, the home port of Emirates Airlines. There we take the even longer flight to Manchester Airport on board the double-decker Airbus super-jumbo. Like two sardines among some 500. The airport that serves Kolkata is named after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a freedom fighter fighter dearer in Bengal than Gandhi. There are 4 statues in the NSCB, to Netaji of course, and to Rabindra Nath Thakur, Gandhi and another. It's a small airport, served by only 3 International carriers at present, Emirates, Air India and Biman. I chose the least of the 3 evils Why evil? UAE is arguably one of the richest countries oin the world with an obscene amount of wealth. Yet Dubai airport IMO is one of the worst I have experienced, if not the worst. It's simply a huge supermarket, a well-designed International airport it is NOT. Passengers, convenience seem to have been the least of the concerns of its designers. Dubai seems to be designed to minimise convenience for passengers and maximise it for shoppers. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Post by beth on Jan 13, 2012 2:30:11 GMT -5
Thinking of you, Prashna ... and wishing you a better trip home than you expect.
Several of us have read along and really enjoyed sharing your time in India.
Looking forward to your return.
very best,
Beth
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Post by fretslider on Jan 13, 2012 8:17:07 GMT -5
Hope you had a great time Prashna. And thank you for being JT's roving reporter. It has been most illuminating - especially for people like me who have become better informed as a result.
LL&P
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2012 13:37:32 GMT -5
Hope you had a great time Prashna. And thank you for being JT's roving reporter. It has been most illuminating - especially for people like me who have become better informed as a result. LL&P Back again, Fret to the green and once pleasant land of England. It's still pleasant, mostly, but there are exceptions; as you and mouse know only too well. The trip back was smooth as fine-spun silk, both legs eventless, every timing accurate to the nearest second according to my trusty Seamaster professional chronemeter, except for touchdown at MAN being 20 minutes early; a most welcome change. Our pre-booked taxi home was waiting with a driver that was the last word in courtesy and consideration. Took us home in what can only be described as a velvet-cocooned ride. Thankfully, our home was still standing intact, despite 5 weeks of absence without any supervision whatever. The cops patrolling the school nearby had done a good job, evidently. But it was cold. Outside temp. -2 degrees Celsius, a chilling albeit welcome change from the 18 degrees Celsius ambient temp. that we were in only one day earlier. The entire fabric of the house had chilled, since the boiler pilot had gone out in the 60mph plus gales that blew across the region a week earlier. It took 3 hours of continuous heating during which we were well-wrapped, very. We must have looked like eskimos in an igloo. All warm and cosy now, but exhausted due to sleep deprivation and rapid clock/climate change. must rest. Regards. Prashna
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Post by maggie on Jan 14, 2012 14:28:29 GMT -5
Welcome home Prashna!
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Post by fretslider on Jan 14, 2012 17:06:56 GMT -5
Hope you had a great time Prashna. And thank you for being JT's roving reporter. It has been most illuminating - especially for people like me who have become better informed as a result. LL&P Back again, Fret to the green and once pleasant land of England. It's still pleasant, mostly, but there are exceptions; as you and mouse know only too well. The trip back was smooth as fine-spun silk, both legs eventless, every timing accurate to the nearest second according to my trusty Seamaster professional chronemeter, except for touchdown at MAN being 20 minutes early; a most welcome change. Our pre-booked taxi home was waiting with a driver that was the last word in courtesy and consideration. Took us home in what can only be described as a velvet-cocooned ride. Thankfully, our home was still standing intact, despite 5 weeks of absence without any supervision whatever. The cops patrolling the school nearby had done a good job, evidently. But it was cold. Outside temp. -2 degrees Celsius, a chilling albeit welcome change from the 18 degrees Celsius ambient temp. that we were in only one day earlier. The entire fabric of the house had chilled, since the boiler pilot had gone out in the 60mph plus gales that blew across the region a week earlier. It took 3 hours of continuous heating during which we were well-wrapped, very. We must have looked like eskimos in an igloo. All warm and cosy now, but exhausted due to sleep deprivation and rapid clock/climate change. must rest. Regards. Prashna Welcome back
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Post by mouse on Jan 15, 2012 4:29:31 GMT -5
welcome home prash.....happy to have you both back safe and sound
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2012 16:32:07 GMT -5
A coconut palm for Sadie with baby, medium and full-grown coconuts in the usual place; accessible to monkeys, expert pickers and sadie: and an immature fallen coconut in the hand: and the unique Floatel Prashna
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Post by sadie on Feb 5, 2012 16:41:58 GMT -5
Those are great pics!!! Thanks Prashna!!
Mmmmmmm....fresh coconut.......
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2012 14:07:42 GMT -5
I did mention the South City Mall. I can give some idea of what it looks like: And the shops therein: Note the profusion of household names from London, Paris and New York. The Mall serves the South City Development with 33-storey tower blocks, to house the rich and the super-rich. Naturally they wouldn't want their children to mix with the average children of Kolkata. So they have their own school, private naturally where the precious darlings are taught myriad skills including Ballet taught by a ballerina brought in from Paris (where else?) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Of course the South City Development, vast as it is, is not vast enough to satisfy the ambitions (greeds?) of the financiers. So they have several such in Kolkata alone as this picture testifies: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I have reduced the size of the pictures for this MB, but the full-size pics can be seen by visiting the Photobucket site where these are hosted. Regards. Prashna
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Post by sadie on Feb 6, 2012 18:33:03 GMT -5
Are those apartments in the background in the 3rd picture? I just don't think I could deal with living in something like that!!!! Need space and greenery!!!
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