Friday, 1 November 2013

Upma, Loochi and Coal India.

Hello again,
Ok so I have a lot to write about today but I'll try and condense it!

The morning started with... blowing my nose because yes that pesky bloody cold is still here. I then got to try Upma for breakfast, another South Indian delicacy. After breakfast it was back to Ballygunge campus (where my stuff is and the room is that you can see in my first blog post) for day two of training. Yet again I struggled and my half-sitting position is only quarter-sitting apparently. I'm hoping that eventually I manage an hour of practice without having to stop every 10 minutes! It must be so irritating for my teacher! I am also constantly being told to drink less water, which is not something I am going to find easy!

Anyway after training I was to practice by myself for another half an hour, then shower and be picked up to go back to Aunty's house for lunch. Oh I should mention that Aunty is what everyone (and I mean everyone) calls my teacher here. After lunch I got to try Shondesh, a typical Bengali sweet. That stuff is good. After lunch I attempted to fill in my online form for foreign registration in India but alas it failed (shocking) so that will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday now.

This evening I went to Coal India's 39th Founding Day Celebrations because one of my teacher's senior students was performing a Bharatanatyam solo. I went with my teacher's son, who is also a musician. He went to help out and so I got the guest ticket and sat in between VIP and Press! It was an amazing performance! So inspiring. When she was portraying one of the Gods killing a demon I was genuinely scared and when she was showing utter bliss in giving herself to the Gods you could feel it.

The event was held at one of India's top Science museums. It's an amazing building from an architectural point of view. Sorry no photos though! After the show, which was on the other side of Kolkata, we went to the dancer's parents house. Her parents are absolutely lovely, the fed me some Bengali specialities namely Loochi and fried aubergine. Her mother doesn't really speak Hindi so alas I got some more Bangla practice. I'm beginning to understand so much more Bangla than I thought I would in 4 days!

So then we drove through Kolkata back to Aunty's house in Ballygunge. The city is currently preparing for Kali Pujo, a festival that is particularly celebrated in Bengal, and then also Diwali is happening at the same time. I'm yet to work out if Kali Pujo has something to do with Diwali... Anyway the city is covered in fairy lights and way more than in England at Christmas. I'll try and take some photos tomorrow. Also for Kali Pujo there are these huge shrines that have been set up all over the city with huge idols of Goddess Kali inside. They're like one room houses really, and some have long walkways leading up to them, and they're all covered with lights. Some also have these huge almost gate-like structures of lights depicting scenes from Hindu mythology and folk images in fairy lights. And of course amongst the daily car horn discussions there are now fireworks that sound more like the Blitz!

That's all for now! I might be going to a Kali Pujo tomorrow which should be fun! For now here are a few photos...

Lights ready for Diwali, later I saw the mother and daughter of this house putting candles all along the balcony.

This photo to me just sums up night-time in Kolkata, taken in Ballygunge, South Kolkata. 

My guest ticket!

Backstage...

Ok so this my dears is a soap dispenser. Basically it twists completely upside down and from that thing you see at the top the soap pours out. I took a photo because I've never seen anything like it... shhhh don't judge me. 

Anyway Happy Kali Pujo guys!



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