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Hooray, Pictures!  And maybe Videos

First, the first daytime veiw I had of the city from the Ray’s apartment on Allenby Road, looking South.  The giant towers far in the background are South City, which is close to where I live now

Now, we lose all time: these next are not chronological, at all:

The famous College Street Coffee House

A mosque up near the Esplanade, northish

A random building I kind of liked near BBD Bagh, also northish

On Goriahat near Ballygunge, where I stayed for a week

The Man himself, Professor P. Lal, at the 50 Celebration for Writer’s Workshop

And here he is at the same event with Chief Minister Buddhachev Bannerjee, a very powerful man in India (in white with grey hair).

Now, I’m going to get into Durga Puja Pandals.  First, here’s one being built near Elgin Road–I got a picture of it completed, but not uploaded quite yet.  Here’s an interesting thing about these Pandals: they are temporary structures made for one week of celebration only, then torn down.  All of the labor for this comes from Muslims–really, the Pujas sustain a large community of Muslim workers.  Not that the Hindus who organize the puja have and connection or community with the Muslims, but that the two are very interconnected.  It’s this kind of interconnection that Kolkatans claim makes their city less a target for terrorism.  Inshallah.

I think that this was my favorite pandal.  It was right near the place on Allenby road.  During the Puja (this was just before), they had a ferry to take people out to worship on it.  I didn’t do that.

the entrance to that Pandal

Another Pandal, down on Hazra Rd.  I’m not sure why I’m putting the locations for people who don’t know the city–I guess to prove that I walked my *ss all round the city during the Puja

the entrance to a Pandal complex that guard wouldn’t let me in before the Puja started

So the Pandals are just the temporary buildings, the purpose is to house the Durga idols, which are made elsewhere (Smitha got some great pictures of them being made, I didn’t go), and installed.  On the first night of the puja, divine life is breathed into the goddess by painting the pupils on her eyes, so she can see–conciousness.  I got a picture and some really bad video of this guy painting the eyes on–I’m not going to bother with the video just now.  This one was down by Southern Avenue

I call this one: almost getting hit by a cab while taking the above picture:

This is the Evergreen Pandal in the wealthy neighborhood, it was the biggest one of the pandals.  It was way over the top, in ways this picture doesn’t quite do justice to.  The crowds were intense.

uploading is slow…

This one wasn’t too far from my future (current) home

this is the completed version of the one I put earlier that was under construction: It turned into a mountainscape in the middle of the road!

keep in mind that these are temporary:

‘

In this pandal:

Deatail of Ganesha from the one above

Can someone please tell me what that sign says?

Just a quiet street in North Kolkata I took a picture of:

There was this totally absurd zoo pandal where they had paper-mache animals, way up north

Sometimes you need a picture of a good trash pile:

Then there was this cool one that was made up of a million million little dolls sewn on, also way up North

Then, while I was up there, I circled around and checked out the Flower Market, which isn’t quite as awesome as my guidebook promised.  It’s just big.  All around India, Hindus demand fresh daily malas (flowers threaded together) to offer to the Gods, and so the infrastructure of the Flower industry is really quite daunting.  There’s a lot of people who spend their lives threading marigolds.  And this flower market is the central distribution point where they come into this part of the city.  I didn’t feel like stopping and taking pictures like a tourist, so I just walked through once with my camera on, and literally shot from the hip without holding my camera up or looking where I was shooting.  I got two good ones.

OK, Post-Puja

Kali Puja!  This is the only icon of Kali with her mouth closed and her tongue in.  Just to be different.

This is what my bookshelf looks like:

This is the just post-Puja shrine in the office of my apt.  So, I was wrong: the family did two pujas, one in their house and one in their “place of work” which happens to be where I live.  They’re not really working these days.  The gods that all these things are being offered to are back behind there buried in a huge mound of flowers.

There’re a lot more, but I’ve got to go to work.  There’s no idea that Saturday should be a day off here. Sucks.  I’ll do more this evening.