The Diwali Polka

Before I start another one of my weekly news updates, I wanted to inform everyone of my adorable little sister's fashion blog, High Street Holiday. She is very passionate about all things fashion, so her blog is chock full of pictures of high style. And thanks to the help of one of my bestest friends, I've discovered that I was using the old blogger editor so I couldn't add captions to my photos.  I hope you enjoy the newly renovated Zindagi Do Pal Ki, which by the way, means life happens in two seconds, which is very fitting because it never seems like I can crank out these blog posts fast enough.  There is so much to talk about and so little time to write it all down!

As promised from my last post, here is a case study from a women's self-help group from one of my first VSSU branch visits to Diamond Harbour:

The Ausum Women’s Self-Help Group located in the small town of Diamond Harbour on the banks of the Hooghly River, is made up of nine women members who have been taking loans of five to ten thousand rupees from VSSU for the past three years.  Dipti Bhuinyais is a young woman of twenty-two years who has one small daughter, pictured sweetly hiding in her mother’s lap.  She lives with her husband’s parents in this small town and has been leading this group for the past year.  This is her third loan from VSSU of 7,000 rupees that she put towards buying a rickshaw for her husband to grow his business.  Previously her husband had leased a rickshaw, paying daily rental charges, therefore decreasing his earnings.  With the loan, her family has increased their monthly income from 1,000 rupees to 2,000 rupees, allowing them to create better lives for themselves.  She hopes to start her own sari and ready-made business in the future so she can contribute to her family earnings and raise their economic status even more. 

By now, you can probably guess each week's regularly scheduled activities.  Of course, this week's itinerary included puja celebrations for Lakshmi, branch visits, train travels, and shopping adventures.  Have you heard of the Diwali polka?  It happens a week or two before Diwali (November 5th) where all the creepy crawlers come out to play.  You wouldn't believe the amount of crawly things with wings that gather around any light they can find.  Beware when you turn on any fluorescent bulbs, because these insects party it up and can sometimes even discover a path through the tightly-woven mosquito nets to find your bed.  I even saw a gigant-o crab crawl out from underneath the stairs that led up to my room, but I think the grossest moment of all was when I was non-nonchalantly showering and felt a tickling feeling on my leg to discover a behemoth cockroach crawling on it!  The only positive side I could find in that experience was the fact that I didn't have my glasses on so everything was blurry.    

Kali Temple

And so, my magical butterflies, Soma, Aurelie, and I took the rickety train once more to Kolkata on our Sunday holiday.  This is the first time I saw a temple in India; it was splendiforous!  As you can see from the photo, the Kali temple was grand in size and ornamentation.  This picture really doesn't do it justice; there was a huge courtyard in the center, dotted with varying sizes of temples on the outskirts.  Since Kali Puja, or Diwali, is several days away, a great crowd came to make offerings of flowers and prayers.  It was so crowded that we couldn't even get in to see the biggest temple (I think we would have had to be as famous as Aishwarya Rai or Shahrukh Khan to enter with ease).  Instead of spending hours and hours on end waiting to see the adorned Kali Goddess, we decided to see the River Ganga and wash our feet in the cleansing waters.  From here, we took a boat to Belurmath.  The day wouldn't have been complete without an infamous  'Kelsy klutz' moment though (is that why people call me KK?)... as I was rushing onto the boat, my left foot lost its grip and slid under me.  A bit painful, but I got over it soon enough to see the Ramakrishna Temple on the opposing side of the River Ganga.  This time we were able to enter inside to the cathedral-sized temple of mass proportions.  I was a bit of a rebel-rouser that day, taking pictures of the temple when there were clear signs in English stating that absolutely no photography was allowed, and I almost got off scot-free, but one of the Hindu priests spotted me and let me go with a warning.  It was definitely worth the risk though because I got some great photos!  

 

Ramakrishna Temple in Belurmath

We took another short train trip and then a teeny-tiny rickshaw to find Soma's house (as you can see, we really had to squeeze together... Aurelie even had to sit on Soma's lap)!  Aurelie and I wanted to buy some sweets for her family, but Soma being so hospitable, almost didn't let us.  We stealthily bought a couple sweets to bring to her family and took them along with us in the rickshaw.  Her father opened the gate to their flat and then Soma invited us to sit at her dining table, serving us aromatic basmati rice and an Indian omelet along with the sweets we brought.   With very full tummies and happy hearts, we left to go to a market near the Sealdah train  station, but surprisingly I didn't find anything except mango pickles to spice up the daily meals of rice and potatoes served at VSSU.  I met with a happy surprise when we returned from our excursion; a meal other than plain potatoes!  This time dinner was served with paneer, a type of Indian tofu cheese.  So delicious!  I couldn't believe my eyes the next morning when we were served something other than toast and bananas, and to top it all off ,it was my favorite breakfast- lucchi!  I was sitting on top of cloud 9 :)  

We didn't quite fit in the rickshaw...