Yes, you're at the right place

So I made a new blog design. It's still in progress, but we're gettin' there, slowly. I was just sick of the completely un-unique Blogger design that I randomly picked out without feeling like putting any work into it at all. But now things are changing.

Anyway! I've been good...not posting much, har har. Dr. Ahmed's daughter, Rachel, has been staying with us for the last week while the family she usually stays with was on vacation (it's Puja vacation for her, so she's out for almost a month). We took her back to her their house today, but it was a lot of fun having her around and hearing her opinion on things.

Today I am introducing a new feature to the blog: MishtiQuest 2010. It's not so much a quest to find the best mishti (sweet) in all of Kolkata, but to try them all. So, here is today's Mishti:



I call it the Rose-Flavored Cheese Thing. I don't know the Bangla, obviously. It's alright...no, I won't lie. I don't like rose-flavored things, so I wasn't a fan. Jarrod really likes these though, almost as much as gulab jamun, the fried balls of "milk solids and flour," as Wikipedia puts it, drenched in syrup. So that's that. I didn't say I was a food reviewer.

Durga Pooja is in the air. It starts tomorrow, and everyone is out around Gariahat market doing last-minute shopping. I got a few pictures of the craziness.





Just for the record, the above picture comes from the most delicious lassi store in all of Kolkata. Not that we've tried any others. We're just too thrilled with this one, which smells exactly like Jamba Juice and may actually be better than it. Just sayin'. Plus, the little girl at the bottom corner was really cute. She had wet mehandi (see below) on her hands, and was trying to scratch her face and not mess it up.

The mehandi guys. So, American college students call this "henna", but henna is actually what you put on your hair to dye it reddish, and mehandi is what you put on your hands. Found this all out from Rachel, actually. Indians put henna in their hair not as dye, necessarily, but to keep it healthy and soft. It takes the right blend of eggs and yogurt to keep it from changing your hair color. Interesting!

Durga Pooja means, literally "Prayers to Durga", one of the goddesses. People set up pandals, decorated structures where idols are placed, around the city and then go "pandal-hopping" at night to see them all. One of the big ones is right by Protima Didi's house, and we got to see it open last night.



Side note: I didn't realize how much India truly is an assault to the senses until I saw thumbnails of all of my pictures. I guess I'm just adjusted to it now, because everything seems so normal. Like these goats. In the middle of the city.



My attitude about things has been changing recently, though--like, I'm beginning to really love the chaos. Today we took an auto ride from Park Circus to Gariahat on the way back from dropping off Rachel. Since the main road was so darn crowded, the auto took this tiny back alley that wound through a Muslim section of town with Urdu signs everywhere, random goats and cows rummaging through the piles of trash on the side of the road, kids running around, everything. It was so fun.