Archive for ◊ September, 2009 ◊
Print This Post
This is some weird Bengali dance where they beat the drum and wave around some pots of incense. There is no real reason for it to us, but it means something to them it seems. Whats funny is the way the people run around picking up the hot ashes so the dancers dont step on them, its actually more fun watching the ash pick up people.
Print This Post
Need I say more!
This is on a signboard at our apartment complex, they have the Puja sponsored by lots of companies who have posted ad boards all around the complex.
Print This Post
Well its loud, how loud, really really loud. I don’t know why it has to be so loud but it is! We are on the 11 and 12 floors of the building and watch the video you can see how loud it is!.
This is the Puja Idol at our apartment complex:
Every day from about 10am they start singing and dancing, talking over the PA and dancing and wailing thru the speakers. It must be fun for them but its not for us.
Driving down the street last night, it looks like christmas in the west, all the buildings have lights and music, and lights…oh did I mention music, its like the competition is to have the loudest music.
Anyway here is some of the dancing spectacular last night (if it doesnt load I am working on it);
Print This Post
Pumpkin not so happy after getting a wash. She managed to get some insect or mite on her this week which has bitten her all over, poor girl
Take a look at this, would you walk across this drain/sewer, there is a homemade bridge they are walking on but its submerged with the recent rains, and look on the road there, can you see the garbage neatly laid out on it! I have no idea why or how its there, but the next morning it was gone.
This is the Puja pandal, where the idol will be placed this week at our apartment complex…it looks like some kid has made something out of some bamboo!
From our balcony we can see some rice paddies and people toiling away in the midday heat
Print This Post
Well last night we went to have dinner with Kim who Cindy worked with in Evergreen at Friendship Bridge, the non profit that gave micro loans to women in Guatemala , Kim now works for Water for People and they have a office here and serve the poor people here giving them fresh water and toilets.
So Kim was staying at the Tollygunge club, a old colonial era golf club, which also for some reason has a small hotel on its grounds called the enclave. The company I work for has a company membership at this club and we as employees can use it, but we dont as its 40km away, and as last night proved it took 1.5hrs to get there and 2 hrs to get home! And to we left at 10pm to drive home and it took 2 hrs!!
The club as you can see is pretty much stuck in a time warp. It has about 5 restaurants, hard to find they are, just like the hotel. There is absolutely no signage in this place, and for some weird reason there are hundreds of stray dogs lieing around the pathways. The place looked pretty cool, but was not anywhere near as cool as the last place we went to the Calcutta Cricket Club. It has a lot of amenities, pools both indoors and outdoors, tennis courts, squash courts and the golf course . And there were people everywhere, so really I wouldnt like to be a member as I doubt you could ever use the facilities. We also found something strang inside there, a Spencers supermarket…why is there a supermarket in a members only club is good question we will never get answered. It also had shops, like a icecream shop, a bakery and some clothing stores, like a little tiny town all by itself.
Dinner was different, there appeared to be only 2 places to eat open, one inside and cool and one open air restaurant. So we choose the air conditioned restaurant, which turned out to be chinese food, well indian chinese food… The food was cheap, but so was the quality, the menu wasnt vast, and we are still wondering what the Honk Kong Chicken is, or was!
But for a mere Ruppees 700 ($14) we got dinner for 3 and a fair amount of beer, so it wasnt too bad, I wouldnt rush back there, but I would go back there.
