A Concise List of 10 Things I Learned from My Experiences in West Bengal

1. Food, gossip, poojas, family, and friends are the most important parts of life.  Oh yea... and more food, especially rice and potatoes!  Definitely an all carb diet!
2. Bengalis are crazy for their sweets- you should see the variety and plethora in the sweets shops!  Chocolate is replaced here by tiny balls of sugarry goodness!
3. Bodily functions are not an embarrassing part of life.  Rather, they are natural occurrences; everyone does them, whether it's hocking a loogie on the side of the road, finding an "Indian toilet," or releasing gas from different parts of the body.  I wish my room was sound-proof...
4. Staring is not rude.  Taking pictures of white people isn't rude either.  Whether you're in a crowded Pooja festival or walking down the road, you are free to completely stop whatever you're doing and let everyone in your group stare at the foreigner (probably 'cuz most rural Bengalis have never left the state). 
5. Everything takes fooorrrever... (say that just like Yeah Yeah from Sandlot).  Ok, maybe not everything, but the big, important things are very tough to find a path through the bureaucracy, corruption, prejudices, and jealousy.  The rickshaw vans are super duper slow and so are the trains, but it's better than congested roads right?  Can you imagine the streets if every person in one of the most densely-populated countries had cars! 
6. Some things are much easier to do though, like finding food or soap, or altering your clothes (and much, much cheaper).  But, of course, it takes time to get to the shop you need to go to.  Medical care is easy to find as well.  The other intern bought glasses for 400 rupees, less than $10! 
7. Time is different here.  Life is more easy-going and relaxed, but when a Bengali is ready to leave, they are ready to blow that popsicle stand!
8. Nobody, I mean no one around VSSU sleeps late (except the interns).  They're up at the crack of dawn and busy as bees with their work.  Life is always bustling, except when it gets dark and everyone hits the hay!
9. Unfortunately, poverty is a normal part of life.  Wherever you walk in a village or city, you can find someone sleeping on the ground in the train station or a child begging for money or bunking school to make a living.  Education is considered a luxury for some people...
10. I will appreciate the modern amenities, like clean water and proper sanitation, I have in America 100 times more when I come back home.  I miss toilet paper!   

A Day in the Life of Kelu

So long it's been since I've visited you, dear blog!  Not too many new updates are available this week (can you imagine no poojas!), but I do have a few stories to share.  Last Wednesday, we went to a wedding reception with Soma and Mr. Mondal's wife, Mitali-auntie.  The funniest part about that night was the unknowing walk to use the "Indian toilet," aka the side of the road, while some of the women jokingly flashed the torch-light on one another.  Corby, a sweet 13-year old girl, escorted me around by holding my hand, urging me to sing "English song" for her.  I was glad to have her help on that pitch-black walk to visit Mitali-auntie's uncle and the "Indian toilet."  

Me, Mondira & Mitali-auntie at the wedding reception

Just this last Monday, a retired Planning Commissioner named Mr. Mustafi (I remember his name by thinking of King Mufasa from the Lion King) came to visit VSSU for one week.  He is an older bald man who always carries toffees in his pocket for any children he meets.  His smile is very sweet and as much as I enjoy his visit to VSSU, I will be glad to have his room next door vacated because I cannot sleep in the morning with his wheezing coughs and gas.  Let's just say the rooms are definitely not sound proof.  On the bright side, I have been able to meet the children in the government school adjacent to the Home for Children though, which has always seemed like a distant mystery because sadly, these children do not interact with the Ashok Nilay ones due to caste differences. I have also been able to visit the Ramakrishna Mission, another ashram for destitute children, located in Meetali-auntie's hometown.  We took so many sweets and chai tea when we visited her Ma and bhai, or brothers.  Can you say sugar rush?

Mitali-auntie's family

JNV Government School Visit with Mr. Mustafi

A day in the Life of Kelu (Monday- Saturday)

Guess which bed is mine?!

Our lovely bathroom and shower buckets!

Look at all those pretty cards on the wall!

9 am: start office by singing the Indian national anthem and drinking chai tea

Soma is hidden behind that behemoth computer...

1 pm: lunch-time (usually some variation of a potato curry and always, yes, you guessed it! rice!)

Most of those are potato curries!

 4:30 pm: visit the children at Ashok Nilay on some days, but not before taking more chai...

 

6 pm: office work finishes so I have time to either go shopping in Lakshmikantapur, see the children, or relax

8:30 Dinner is served in the dining room

You've already seen the case studies from when I went on branch visits, so I'll give you a sneak-peak of the proposal Erin and I have prepared (but are currently in a bit of a rut).  Besides these works, I am a beginning Hindi speaker (yay!) and a blogger on the side.  This is how I'm spending a wee bit of my time in West Bengal: The Home for Children Proposal abstract:

Many of the children at VSSU's Home for Children (Ashok Nilay) dream of becoming nurses, teachers, or engineers to better their family's economic conditions and contribute to the advancement of society, but they have a difficult time finding the means to higher education due to the fact that they come from backgrounds of poverty and social backwardness.  Our goal is to raise enough funds in coordination with [insert organization name] to offer scholarships that cover tuition and living expenses for the children living at Ashok Nilay who wish to pursue higher education.  By doing so, the students studying at Ashok Nilay will become productive members of society who will generate economic activity for their communities and families.  The project will be conducted and maintained in yearly stages to determine the number of children graduating from secondary school, wishing to attend university.  As the oldest children are in class 9, there are still three years to develop the project and raise funds until they graduate.

You can see where the obvious glitch in the proposal is, located inside the brackets [insert organization name].  Once this hole is filled and we make that most-important partnership with a non-profit organization, we can begin to raise funds for these gifted children.  What a happy, sunshiny day it will be when the children can have the opportunity for higher education where nothing existed before.  Their happiness and well-being is reason enough to do this.   

Everyone's Infected with Disco Disease

Party all day.  Party all night.  Dance like there's no tomorrow.  Dance like no one's watching.  This is the mentality of the rural villagers in West Bengal during the month-long pooja festivals.  After one pooja ends, another begins and the festive mood never seems to end.  The Jagadhatri Pooja is the biggest one I've seen in the village by far, with a classic carnival feel.  People come all over South 24 Parganas to experience the elaborate, colorful lights and streets filled with shops and carnival games like shooting balloon targets with a gun.  

The only difference between the American carnival and this Indian pooja are the shops filled with jewelry and dishware as well as the mouth-watering food- there aren't any cotton candy stands or funnel cakes.  They are replaced with stands boasting a plethora of sweets as well as temporary restaurants for chow-mein, lucchi, and poratas.  Music plays all day and all night too; I don't know when people get any rest...  Another difference I noticed was the speed of the Ferris wheel which was going along at an alarming rate.  I thought Ferris wheels were supposed to be a smooth, relaxing journey to the top for a beautiful view of the festivities, but the one here wanted to throw people out of the small two-person cars!  I opted for the spinning ride that threw my neck around on the basis of safety, rather than risking my life on the wheel of death.   

Wednesday was the Eid al-Adha Muslim Festival, also known as the festival of sacrifice, commemorating the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael out of obedience to God.  Muslims celebrate this day by sacrificing an animal, which is then distributed among family, friends, neighbors, and the needy (thank goodness I didn't have to see this).  Mr. Mondal took me to a Muslim village to visit with an up-and-coming rural development organization owner.  His building is still in the process of being built with money he received from the government of India.  We received the royal treatment, being served at least four different types of sweets, two each, and green coconut water.  I normally don't like green coconut water, something about the taste makes me want to gag, but this coconut almost tasted like Sprite; I think this one had magical healing powers.  Later that night as I was walking with Soma to the Home for Children, we were diverted by an invitation to visit one of VSSU's branch manager's house for Eid.  Since there was food, Soma of course accepted the invitation (I swear, she'd kill someone for food).  Since I did not take the cow meat for Eid, the branch manager's wife drew mehindi on both the top and bottom of my left hand. 

From left: Suman, Me, Tagari, Soma, Pabitra

I was in for a pleasant surprise Friday night when I watched GLEE with Nadira- they referenced Singin' in the Rain and sung two of the film songs!  Although the remix of Singin' in the Rain and Rihanna's Umbrella weren't up to my par, the dance with the yellow umbrellas and dancing (and singing) in the rain definitely were.  Check it out if you haven't seen it yet, it'll knock your socks off all the way to Mars!  It's a visual treat that will surely put a smile on your rosy cheeks!  Speaking of rosy cheeks, I've become the childrens' barbie doll.  I had so much kajol and mascara on my eyes, my left hand was dressed in baby pink nail-polish while my right in glimmering white, and my hair was a new style never-before-seen in fashion magazines.  I love how these kids make me feel like a kid again though; I don't have to worry about anything but being a 10-year-old kid again myself.  The boys are naughty, pure-hearted kids.  One little boy with big brown eyes named Pabitra taps me on the shoulder then looks the other way, pretending I don't know, and then holds my hand down the road as I leave their Home.  Tagari, one of the smaller girls of ten years, tries hundreds of ways to put two or three different hair-clips on my head and affectionately calls me "amar auntie," or my auntie.  They're all so adorable and have their own unique, individual personalities.  I love, love, love them!