Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Darjeeling:  cold weather, fresh air, mountain hiking, time to think, be, and reflect on how much I have to be thankful for.  Thalis were a nice substitute for the usual Thanksgiving feast.

Fog rolling in like San Francisco

Durga puja

(A little late posting this, as Durga puja was October 20.)

Mother Durga comes down out of her Himalayan home for an annual visit.  West Bengal celebrates her return by building elaborate pandals to house statues of Durga and her four children.  Made with bamboo and cloth, these very intricate pandals are erected for about a total of two weeks in every local community, and people spend each evening pandal-hopping with family and friends all over the city.  Similar to Christmas trees and decorations, it’s pretty amazing how much work, thought, and planning goes into creating these temporary structures.  Some are very traditional; others have a modern flair.  No matter the style, every Durga idol is submerged in sacred waters to return to her husband Shiva at the end of puja.  The festive spirit is in the air, along with constant music, drumming, and firecrackers.  Durga puja marks the start of about a month of puja celebrations!

Simple pandal

Elaborate pandal

Traditional Durga idols

Modern Durga idols

Remnants of idols floating in the sacred lake

Living Your Values

It’s easy to compost in a city where the green bins are clearly marked, and it’s collected every Tuesday.  In this city, “organic,” “local,” and “fair-trade” are synonymous with “trendy,” and after purchasing one of these products comes the pat-on-the-back-feeling of environmental-consciousness.  I hate that I prefer shopping in the corporate stores here, where I can browse the big, air-conditioned, fluorescent-lit aisles with a buggy and fewer stares.  Instead of running around to different markets, asking the owner to retrieve each item from shelves behind a counter, and bargaining for the price if the MRP isn’t marked, it’s easier to be a sell-out here. 

My friend, an American expat who has been living here for 15 years, chooses the path less traveled.  The city has made slow progress to be environmentally-friendly.  Implementing a charge for plastic grocery bags is enough to make me remember to bring my own every shopping trip.  My friend goes a step further and brings her own teacup on the train, refusing to add to any plastic consumption.  However, not all Kolkatans understand the idea of public space and how it is the responsibility of us all to keep it clean.  Very little thought is given to what happens to trash, where it goes, who takes it there, and why it’s not good to throw it on the ground.  My friend, the green crusader, has taken up beautifying her apartment complex, turning trash heaps into flower beds, and using her own compost to grow a garden.  She is cleaning out drains filled with sludge and swarming with mosquitos.  She is clearing a decade-old pile of used sanitary napkins.  She is picking up trash every morning.  I admire and aim to be more like her.  It is easy to live your values in a community who believes the same things, but how much more effort is required to continue to live what you believe in a place that doesn’t.  She says it doesn’t matter, that she is the same everywhere she lives:  an environmentalist.

No Smoking

“This is your brain.  This is your brain on drugs.” Remember that commercial, where an egg was cracked into a frying pan and allowed to sizzle for a few seconds before the anti-drug campaign gave you a hotline number?  Well, India’s version is played with the trailers before any movie in the theater and has a hand squeezing black goop from a sponge into a beaker, illustrating how much tar accumulates in a smoking lung per year.  I am all in favor of the anti-smoking campaign, but it does seem a little over-kill when for the rest of the movie there is a cigarette/pipe/cigar in any scene, the words “Smoking is injurious to health.  Smoking causes cancer.” appear in the right corner of the screen.  Evidently, the bus driver hasn’t been to the movies recently.

Gas Prices

In one week, the same bus ride went from six rupees to seven to eight.

The taxi rate went up to 2.4 times what the meter says plus one rupee.  I like math, but this seems a little absurd. 

Value of Money

What is the rupee worth?  My bank says it’s a little less than a penny.  Seven years ago the rupee from the dollar was a little better for Indians; now it is a little better for me, although things cost more rupees than they did on my first visit.

What is the rupee actually worth?  To those who have drivers and air-conditioning, it is pennies.  To those who have not, it is more.  Street performers and corner solicitors in America would scoff at a couple of pennies thrown their way.  Lepers and beggars in India only ever expect a couple of rupees.
How do you convert the gap between those who find this coin to be worthless and those who use it to count their daily wage into the gap that exists in the land of the dollar?  The bank doesn’t do those conversions.