A Neighborhood Tour
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We've nicknamed this man "The Blue Door Guy" for the shocking blue door of his shop, which is a gold mine of goodies. He climbs over tumbled boxes and piles of burlap bags to pull out everything from turmeric to garlic to sugar to ginger biscuits. It's like magic.
This is where all the action, and I'm betting all the gossip, happens--the veggie vendor.
Every morning, the fish merchants set up a few blocks away. Fish is hugely popular in West Bengal, and they do good business before it gets too hot to have fish out on the sidewalks.
One of the fish merchants doing his thang, with a really impressive blade.
This man with the great safari hat runs the Mother Dairy shop around the corner.
Trash collectors (who are always Untouchables) use these carts to do their work. People usually leave their trash in piles on somewhat designated corners (and occasionally in bins), the trash collectors pick it up, sort through it to take out anything they can bring to the merchants who buy back paper and glass and plastic, and take the rest of it to....we don't really know where, but somewhere else.
Leftover from the British Empire, crumbling Victorian buildings are scattered throughout Kolkata. This one is just a few blocks over and it blows our minds to think about how decadent and opulent they must have been a hundred years ago.
It's hard to see in this foto, but the blooms on this tree are an incredible red and they are also the size of my fist. Their time is coming to an end and the sidewalks are carpeted with their crushed petals.
Some sort of beautifully palmed tree holding court on the corner of our street.
Josh let himself get a bit Holi-ed...
I got seriously Holi-ed.
Mala brought Holi to us and proudly showed us (her handiwork:-) off to everyone in the building and her friends on the streets.
Some of our neighbors basking in the glow of Holi, a spring festival, which comes with bhang lassis (weed milkshakes) and a rage of colors that people toss, squirt and dump on one another. l They're laying on top of the local vegetable stand which is packed up during the heat of the day and set up again when evening comes with some coolness.
Some Bengali graffiti. Josh and I are learning how to read this script, but we're still at the stage where we can recognize sounds but have NO idea what words they make.
I think, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, that this is a banyan tree. They are an amazing presence on the streets of this city--wildly and exuberantly growing things.
One of the dozens of temples and shrines tucked into the side streets of our neighborhood. I dare someone to take on the challenge of counting ALL of the places to offer prayers within the labyrinth of Kolkata.
We're off to Bangla class but as always, send you all lots of peace and love from India.
J&J
P.S. We've begun uploading ALL of our fotos from our travels to a flickr site...it's a bit easier to manage then trying to get them all up on this blog and you can browse at your leisure:-) just click here It's a work in progress (aren't we all?) but hopefully you'll enjoy it.
We've nicknamed this man "The Blue Door Guy" for the shocking blue door of his shop, which is a gold mine of goodies. He climbs over tumbled boxes and piles of burlap bags to pull out everything from turmeric to garlic to sugar to ginger biscuits. It's like magic.
This is where all the action, and I'm betting all the gossip, happens--the veggie vendor.
Every morning, the fish merchants set up a few blocks away. Fish is hugely popular in West Bengal, and they do good business before it gets too hot to have fish out on the sidewalks.
One of the fish merchants doing his thang, with a really impressive blade.
This man with the great safari hat runs the Mother Dairy shop around the corner.
Trash collectors (who are always Untouchables) use these carts to do their work. People usually leave their trash in piles on somewhat designated corners (and occasionally in bins), the trash collectors pick it up, sort through it to take out anything they can bring to the merchants who buy back paper and glass and plastic, and take the rest of it to....we don't really know where, but somewhere else.
Leftover from the British Empire, crumbling Victorian buildings are scattered throughout Kolkata. This one is just a few blocks over and it blows our minds to think about how decadent and opulent they must have been a hundred years ago.
It's hard to see in this foto, but the blooms on this tree are an incredible red and they are also the size of my fist. Their time is coming to an end and the sidewalks are carpeted with their crushed petals.
Some sort of beautifully palmed tree holding court on the corner of our street.
Josh let himself get a bit Holi-ed...
I got seriously Holi-ed.
Mala brought Holi to us and proudly showed us (her handiwork:-) off to everyone in the building and her friends on the streets.
Some of our neighbors basking in the glow of Holi, a spring festival, which comes with bhang lassis (weed milkshakes) and a rage of colors that people toss, squirt and dump on one another. l They're laying on top of the local vegetable stand which is packed up during the heat of the day and set up again when evening comes with some coolness.
Some Bengali graffiti. Josh and I are learning how to read this script, but we're still at the stage where we can recognize sounds but have NO idea what words they make.
I think, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, that this is a banyan tree. They are an amazing presence on the streets of this city--wildly and exuberantly growing things.
One of the dozens of temples and shrines tucked into the side streets of our neighborhood. I dare someone to take on the challenge of counting ALL of the places to offer prayers within the labyrinth of Kolkata.We're off to Bangla class but as always, send you all lots of peace and love from India.
J&J
P.S. We've begun uploading ALL of our fotos from our travels to a flickr site...it's a bit easier to manage then trying to get them all up on this blog and you can browse at your leisure:-) just click here It's a work in progress (aren't we all?) but hopefully you'll enjoy it.
posted by Jessica Pierce at 3:19 AM
2 Comments:
Sounds like you guys are having a blast in India...as for here, we're preparing for the Passover festivities, yesterday was spent making the chicken broth for the matzo ball soup, and the tzimmes. next weekend's agenda includes the pot roast, and possibly some kugel... unfortunately, it being passover, there won't be any tasty challah for you to enjoy.
anyway, see you in a few weeks!
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