What a splendid idea! This Christmas sounds fun. I fully endorse it - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Christmas in Kolkata... An experience to say the least!

Girls on Film!

Patrick and I had originally intended to leave Kolkata Christmas week and spend Christmas on some tropical beach, drink in hand. But when we debated extending our stay by 5 extra weeks, the deciding factor was Christmas Day on our own or Christmas day with all the kids. A bit of a no-brainer really!

So at home in Ireland (or even in the western world) Christmas is a big deal. It's all about the build up. Weeks before the day, lights are put up, songs start coming on the radio and before you know it, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. In Kolkata it's a bit different. Predominately Hindu, the Sub-continent chooses to celebrate Christmas for a number of reasons. These include;

    1. The lights are pretty
    2. They get to eat Christmas cake
    3. They love a good party
    4. They wouldn't like the Christians to feel left out

So for these reasons (and maybe a few more) Christmas is celebrated in India. And those celebrations begin on Christmas Eve and finish on Christmas day. That's it - a two day celebration. Kinda hard for us when at home some houses have been known to put up the Christmas tree after Halloween...
But we were determined to bring a bit of Ho Ho Ho to Kolkata, everyone did their bit. Our flatmates put up Christmas decorations, the kids rehearsed for a Christmas concert (we had been listening to Jingle Bells being practiced on the keyboard for weeks) and Patrick and I made Christmas Lanterns. Lots and lots of Christmas Lanterns.

Elaine, Papiya and Pinky

Easy enough to make - involves colouring paper, cutting it and stapling it in a certain way - you'd swear we invented the wheel the kids were so excited. Armed with 200 sheets of paper, crayons, markers, scissors and the oh so important stapler, we headed to SEED Girls Home, Howrah De-Addiction Centre and my evening Nabadisha to bring about some Christmas spirit. It was a week to Christmas and we figured it was the right time, not to early to excite the kids and not to late. When we got to the projects the teachers were looking at us like we had 6 heads. "Christmas isn't till 25th you know, it's only the 17th - too early!" But they let us do it none the less (tutting at us and muttering to each other how crazy we were) and once the kids realised what they were making they were thrilled - really getting into it with the design and competitiveness. It was humbling to see how much happiness a sheet of paper brought them.

Patrick and fan club

So they days marched onwards to Christmas and before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve (we went to Midnight Mass that was so crowded they had to turn people away for safety reasons) and then we woke up and Santa had come - thank you to everyone for the lovely cards and presents!
Swasti (our neighbour) offered to dress myself, Amy and Stephanie in our Indian Saree's, which was very kind of her as putting on a Saree is an art form (one piece of material 6 meters long, wrapped around the body and held together by 2 safety pins and a prayer) and without her we would have have come undone after two steps. So we put on our Saree's, our decorative jeweled bindis and our bangles and away we went - to HOPE's Annual Christmas party with all the Hope kids from the full time homes (about 80-100 kids).

Getting a picture of the crowd and up pops Puja!  Our new best friend

It was a lovely day. We arrived to great fussing over our Saree's and all the kids were up to hug us and show off to each other that they knew us. In fact it got very competitive with lots of "this is MY Elaine Auntie, this is MY Patrick Uncle". The Seed girls claimed us once we arrived and after admiring their lovely Christmas clothes (Courtesy of a kind donation - thank you Mam) they let us sit down to watch the entertainment. Most of the children had some dance or song or poem to perform and it went on for most of the day.

Scary Santa

Dinner time

Then came the strangest Christmas dinner I will ever eat in my life. We were brought downstairs where about 20 tables were arranged and all the kids, houseparents, Hope Staff and volunteers were eating in rotation. We sat with Seed Girls, where we were served rice with vegetables, fried onions, mango chutney, papad and mutton curry on banana leaf plates with no utensils but the use of our right hand only. (Pinky was very strict with the non use of the left hand. She'll make a wonderful dictator some day). No I won't say I prefer it to ham, turkey and a bit of gravy but it was certainly different...

Punorjibon Christmas Gathering

We went home stuffed and tired. After a little nap (in my Saree which I couldn't take off because I had no way of putting it back on) we went to party number 2. Punorjibon didn't go the party earlier that day so they were putting on their own Christmas concert for us. They had been practicing for weeks and any time we came to watch we were escorted out and told we'd have to wait till Christmas Night. They had decorated the recreational area with decorations, a tree and a crib and were all dressed in their brand new Christmas clothes. We were given cake and tea and sweets and after a few minutes of chitchat the program had started. Three hours with lots of dancing and acrobatics later we were all in a sweat! They had danced, sang and performed their hearts out for us and in return insisted we danced for them. Now I don't know how many people reading this have ever danced with an Indian person before but let me tell you that the most talented dancer in Ireland would look like they are having an epileptic fit in comparison to an Indian person dancing. They are graceful and funky and all so talented. We on the other hand were doing the side to side shuffle with the odd clicking the fingers move. Smooth...

Party in full swing

We left Punorjibon exhausted but with no time to rest. Party number 3 beckoned! Our neighbour Swasti (of the Saree dressing fame) had again so kindly offered to have a Christmas Party for us - or as she called it, party with a big picture of Jesus Christ. We told her there was no need but she went out and got a picture to be the centerpiece and even painted a bindi on to it - a red dot on the forehead symbolising enlightenment.
After fixing our Saree's so we were presentable we went upstairs to the party. We sat in the Ladies room (with Patrick of course) and the men sat in the Mens room. After a while we mixed but as this is Indian tradition we stayed this way for a few hours. We had more fab food and then the music  got louder and we were dancing to the newest Bollywood songs for the rest of the night.
Not your average Christmas huh???

Elaine (27th of December 2010)

Friends, rodents, quadrupeds, lend me your rears! - Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)

Well hello and welcome to another blog entry, today we are going to focus on something I'm sure everyone will love; animals and insects. To break things up a little I decided to give you all a brief look into the wonderful wildlife we have had the privilege of living alongside for the last few months and how they differ to what we have at home.

The Cow: Here the cow is king, they can go where they like and do as they wish as they are not restricted to large grassy fields, milking parlours and cow sheds like home. Instead you should never be surprised to round a corner in Kolkata only to be confronted by a unimpressed looking cow munching away on a pile of rubbish. 

As for traffic it's like this: pedestrians give way to cyclists, cyclists to rickshaws, rickshaws to autos, autos to cars, cars to buses and trucks, and buses and trucks give way only to the cow....

The Dog: Kolkata is overrun by dogs, no matter where you go during the day there will always be 3-4 of mans best friends cooling himself in the shade. At night however you will be confronted by packs of roaming furry fighters, each looking out that nobody is moving in on their territory.

Best course of action here however is to just ignore them and they'll ignore you.

(what is difficult to ignore though is their great big grand-daddy balls swinging from side to side as they toddle off)

The Cog: Hailing from the dog family it's definitely in a category of it's own. This female canine has unfortunately bore a few too many litters and now resembles what looks to be a cross between a cow and a dog; hence the name. A common sight strolling about with it's udder like nipples inches from the pavement, the cog is generally accompanied by two pups  far too old to be feeding from their mother!

The Puppies: Every week Kolkata is graced with hundreds of adorable puppies, each hailing from over burdened mothers. These little cuties can be great fun but beware, the older they get the more fun they have trying to nibble your toes.

The Ant: A moody creature - the ant, sometimes he won't leave for days while other times you won't see him for weeks. One thing is for certain and that's if you have something sweet that hasn't been closed properly he'll definitely come calling and he'll bring friends. 

The Termite: Okay so I don't know for sure if these guys are termites or red ants but the live in the wooden door frames and are rather different looking, so for the sake of this they're termites. These guys, like the ants, show up when they like but when they do they bring the entire family to help raid the fridge.

The Cockroach: Ranging from the size of a small beetle to the size of a small rat, cockroaches are everywhere no matter what you do. We have been lucky that they rarely visit our flat but once I had to use a bucket and the top of a large Dominos Pizza box to get rid of one. It took a half an hour and I'm still having nightmares...

The Rat: Always within earshot you'll hear this little character scurrying about in the drains and rubbish heaps due to his less than stealthy size but he isn't shy either and will quite often cross your path in a bid to say hello.

The Spider: Surprisingly small the spiders here are harmless and very entertaining, these little guys are so fast you don't see their legs move so it seems like you're watching some very bad stop motion animation.

The Gecko: What a friend to have (when he's not shitting all over your kitchen) the gecko. This little peach will hang out on the walls all day and night, scurrying about eating any bugs that take his fancy - none to little and none too big. Disappeared as of late but I'm sure he'll be back.

The Chicken: Can be found wandering freely (but always within cooking distance) the chicken generally isn't one that you'll get to know second time round, as you'll probably be snacking on him the next time you see him.

The Pony: This poor emaciated creature can be found dragging about glamorous carts for tourists up by the Maidan. Even considering that the poor sod eats grass he is unfortunately still bottom of the food chain in Kolkata.

The Crow: Cocky little fellows who will nip in and steal you scrambled eggs and toast the second you turn your back! (just ask Elaine)

Oh and here is a lovely ugly fly I caught one day!

Yet I'll be completely honest, although you can't help but see these things upon arriving, after a few weeks you'll hardly notice them at all. Hope you enjoyed the brief nature lesson and after some more travelling I hope to have more fun creatures to feature!

Patrick (14th of December 2010)