A One-Month-Old Piece of Cake

Not exactly cake, but close enough...

Homesickness is finally starting to kick in... I'm missing you all!  Sometimes I don't want to be half-way around the world and I wish India was a hop, skip, and jump away from America.  That would truly be the best of both worlds!  My friend Megan said once you have survived in another country for one month, the rest is a piece of cake, but that doesn't mean that I don't miss Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with family and friends.  Don't get me wrong, the never-ending weekly pujas are a blast, but they're just not the same... 

This weeks Kali Puja, aka Diwali

I finally watched a movie for the first time in India!  Can you believe I haven't watched a movie for a month?  Even so, Soma and I split the movie up over two different nights, setting up our own little cinema at my desk equipped with headphones and snacks of puffed rice and veg chops.  Monday movie night is becoming a trend- Jannat last week with Soma and Another Cinderella Story with Nadira this week.  Maybe I can start writing movie reviews on my blog too!  Jannat, which means heaven in Hindi, was set in South Africa where two lovers struggled to make things work as Arjun, the hero, coped with his own addiction to gambling.  !!This is a spoiler alert for all that might want to watch this movie!!  Arjun picked up the ring that fell from his pocket as he gave himself up to the the police.  The police, of course, thought he was making a move for his gun so they shot him multiple times in the chest as kool-aid blood stained his shirt.  Not really the happiest movie; it even gave me a nightmare...  The same sort of thing happened in my dream to my Dad.  I woke up and just wanted to go home...  Luckily the movie I watched with Nadira, a new office worker making a tourism brochure for South 24 Parganas, was a happier teeny-bop movie filled with dancing and young love.  

Diwali lighting at Mr. Mondal's house

Kali Puja, also known as Diwali or Deepavali, was on this week's puja program.  You might also know it as the Festival of Lights when people "light millions of lamps to dispel the darkness and ignorance, and spread the radiance of love and wisdom" (according to the all-knowing Wikipedia source).  This means that lights were strung from every house and families lit candles by the windows.  It really looked like Christmas in November and it was so beautiful!  The ephemeral beauty of the candles only last for an hour or so, but the hard work of melting the bottoms of these birthday cake-sized candles so they stand up is totally worth it, as you can see from the pictures. 

Fun Fact: Crocodiles can live 100 plus years.  Just a little something I learned from our visit to the Sundarbans ("beautiful forest" in Bengali).  It is also the home of the Royal Bengal Tigers but unfortunately you have to take a super long boat ride to see them and apparently sign a waiver saying it's alright if the tigers eat you for dinner!  Instead, we went to the crocodile project (for reintroducing crocodiles back into the wild).  Honestly, it wasn't really worth the more than three hours we spent on the motorbike so it was a bit disappointing, but on the plus side we ate lucchi and googney (potato and chickpea curry) as well as omelete.  Still wasn't worth my paining rear though!  We ate more lucchi anyways that night with Soma, rolling the dough into balls, flattening them, and then frying them with the 5 or 6 girls that returned to Ashok Nilay.  Probably the highlight of my day.  I was so exhausted that I ended up listening to music and falling asleep around 9 o'clock... haven't gone to sleep that early since I don't know when!

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...

Microfinance: A Case Study

Somehow, someway, there is always something new to say. Each week there are lots of fun, new stories to tell; there's nearly never a dull moment in Ullon village. This may surprise you simply due to the fact that it is a very rural area, but trust me when I say that these people know how to celebrate, dance, and have fun! Monday night was the final day of Durga Puja celebrations, so guess what?! Everyone went to the pandal structure to dance- to dance like I've never seen before. There was incense burning, throwing of colored powder, and intense sweating going on all around me. My face was covered in red paste that someone smeared on my cheeks and my hair was a bright, neon pink color from the colored powder that people threw in the air. Needless to say, my scalp was still pink several days later and there's still one patch on my left temple that has turned a dull pink color. The boys and girls danced separately, but that doesn't mean we didn't have dancing partners. As soon as I arrived, several teenage girls yanked me into the circle of continuous movement. At one point during the night, I danced with 6 or 7 littler girls. One of them gave the other one a little slap on the arm for taking her place where she was holding my hand. I had no idea I was so popular! It had gotten so hot and I started to get a cramp so I had to get out to get some fresh air, but I didn't want to walk back alone with so many drunk men around. As I was coyly passing through the men's circle, several asked me to dance until I found someone I knew to walk me back to VSSU. I don't think I've ever been so colorful or sweaty in my entire life!

Wednesday and Thursday morning around 7am each day, we made more field visits to VSSU's micro-finance branches. Instead of telling you about them, I will include some of my case studies so that you can tangibly see some of the work I'm doing here. Here are two of them from individual customers in Mathurapur village:

Dipak Halder is a loyal VSSU customer of ten years. He is a hard-working forty-five year-old man, with one son currently attending school in class seven. Ten years ago, Dipak began a bicycle repair shop with an individual loan from VSSU for 25,000 rupees. Now that his business has been established and he has repaid his loan, he makes daily savings deposits of 20 rupees, which adds up to 600 rupees per month. Dipak is able to live comfortably at 4,500 to 5,000 rupees per month after the establishment of his small business, repairing flat tires and broken bicycle frames.

Asit Sakari is an honest man of forty-five years with one son in the Appeline micro-finance business. He has been making daily savings deposits with VSSU for the past twelve years. This year he makes daily deposits of 10 rupees and hopes to increase it to 50 rupees as he is also making daily deposits with his son’s micro-finance business. Asit has been aloyal VSSU customer for such a long time because he is grateful for the ability to save money and earn interest, as well as benefit from loyalty gifts from VSSU such as an emergency torchlight. Since his education level is only to class four, Asit had to endure a life of poverty until he received a loan from the Finance Minister of India in the amount of 2,475 rupees so he could start his restaurant business. Now, he lives comfortably at 10,000 rupees per month and was recently able to purchase a motorbike for easier transportation to his quaint restaurant where items like omelettes, poratas, and chai are served.

Next week, I will include a case study from a women's self-help group so you can see the diverse customers that VSSU serves. I hope it tickles your fancy :) Friday night, there was yet another puja, this time in honor of the goddess Lakshmi. Although this puja was not as grand as the previous week's, there were still small-scale pandals that were festively decorated. This festival is celebrated more so in the home, and not outside in the village. Families enjoy lots of scrumptious food and sweets together, kind of like Thanksgiving dinner in America, but without the turkey and pumpkin pie. In honor of this day, Soma and I visited Mr. Mondal's wife who made us poratas and googney (chickpea and potato curry) as well as food from her prayer offerings, consisting of sweets and fruit. I had to kindly pretend I couldn't eat it all because the fruit was covered in ants, and as you might know, I don't like eating living creatures (even though I did eat that citrus ant in the Tetons, which was only one time before I went veg :P).

Saturday afternoon, Aurelie and I were invited to a football tournament. Apparently, we were honored guests because we were foreigners, so we got to sit up with the other V.I.P.'s. We were given small rose flower bouquets as a group of girls touched our feet as a sign of respect. Then, each of us raised flags to commemorate the opening ceremony for the month-long football tournament located in Lakshmikantapur, a village neighboring Ullon by two kilometers. Since we were honored guests, we were pressured to give a speech. We both looked at each other in horror and embarrassment; this was not in the plans! I went up to the microphone and said, "Namaskar. My name is Kelsy Hoffman and I am from America." I then proceeded to say a little about how I don't know too much about football since I mostly watch American football, but was excited to watch an actual match. All the organizers wanted was for the villagers to hear another language, so both of us obliged to this short speechh. We left shortly after and didn't get to see the actual match because Mr. Mondal needed VSSU's van that we had driven to the tournament. The organizers gave us some really good porata and aloo curry with sweets though, which was a bonus, especially considering the impromptu speech we had to give and the fact that we couldn't actually stay to see the match.

Queen Victoria's Royal Palace

That was no problem though, because it gave us time to plan our trip to Kolkata the next day. Soma, Aurelie, and I saw Queen Victoria's palace, the biggest colossal park I've ever seen, and some local markets (for shopping, of course). It was quite an eventful and tiring day and for the first time, I saw some other foreigners in India at Queen Victoria's palace. We ate lunch at a place called "Fresh & Juicy" (weird name, I know), where we met a lady from Canada who had been touring South Asia for the past two months to learn about yoga, surfing, and the local culture. It was really nice to be able to hold a conversation with a fluent English speaker, and she was really interesting to boot! On the train ride back to our VSSU home, I fell asleep from exhaustion. You know how sometimes you twitch in your sleep and wake yourself up? Well that's what I did as my head was bent forward in a napping position. It was only a little bit embarrassing when everyone looked at me and Soma asked what happened! Thankfully, there weren't any creep-o's on the train this time, but I'll know how to curse them out in Hindi if it I meet anymore. I only wish I had remembered that I know those curses for the last time it happened!