A sudden torrential downpour threatened to ruin the second day of Puja. Fortunately it stopped all in good time. This is a picture I took of the lights reflecting off of the wet pavement.
This is a picture of the masses of crowds that come out for pandal-hopping. And this was only at 8:00, not even near peak time for viewing (midnight or later). Calcutta just has soooo many people in it!
Yes, there was a lego pandal. It was pretty amazing.
Sunday was the last day of Puja. Jarrod and I met some friends at the ghats (steps leading down to water) on the bank of the Hooghly to watch the immersion of the idols. It was pretty crazy, and packed with people--I'll put up a few pictures later.
The last two days have been pretty busy. We met some people staying in Calcutta for a few days, and have been showing them all around the city, only it's been really hard because everything is closed since Puja is over. Seriously--everyone is catching up on sleep.
Right now Jarrod is up by College Street, in North Calcutta, with Jordan (one of the other two Fulbrighters) and Dave (this may not be his name), one of the tourists who is leaving tomorrow. Actually, I think the girls we hung out with on Sunday evening have left the city already. We didn't meet up with them on Monday because they wanted to watch a Bollywod film. And in West Bengal!
(Let me clarify this last statement to you. The part of the country I am in is Bengali-speaking. Everyone here is Bengali. Of course, many people also know Hindi, but there's even a Bengali film and soap opera industry. What I'm saying is that Bollywood, the Hindi film industry based in Bombay, isn't really what most people come to Calcutta to experience. But whatever)
Anyway, College Street is supposed to be a really neat place with tons of bookstores and everything. I decided to stay back and chill. It's been so hot here! Besides, I've been up there once before. But not to College Street, exactly. I was headed there, but I turned the wrong way off the metro, walked for a half hour, and then decided to go back home. Actually, that was when I had my last cold. Man, that was killer.
So, yep. That's what's been going on here. Classes have started back up, so it's nice to have something to do finally. I'll keep you all tuned for anything exciting.
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