The City of Joy

aNa
Here we are again staying at Auntie Nupur's, with Uncle Kunal… and their lovely son Lattoo…. and the 2 grannies…. and the ladies who help them with the cleaning and cooking…..to sum up we are again living with another 10 people!!!! they are lovely making sure we are ok I mean feeding us every half an hour!!!!!!! Who said you lose weight when you go to India?????!!!!! Bollecks!!!! Anyway….we tried to go to the cinema twice but for some strange reason we kept on missing the shows!!!!! The two of us!!!!! Weird innit?!!! ;o) anyway instead we ended up going for a boat ride and for a cold and nice….BEER!!!!!! That wasn’t an easy mission, as here there’s hardly any bars selling alcohol it seems that they prefer their chay (tea) always with some tasty and lovely snacks…..and SPICY of course! Anyway the only place we managed to find was the bar next door to the cinema (inside this big new and western style mall) it was dark and empty not many girls and the only ones were with their partners, not like us!! “2 strong independent women” ;o)

Saturday we went to the Kolkata book fair (the biggest one in Asia) and guess what was the theme this year…???? SPAIN yes these bloody Spaniards are everywhere!!!!! So believe it or not the Spanish stall was packed and with a long long queue so I went straight to the front asking if there were any Spanish writers, and the guy at the door realizing that I was one of them (Espanola) let me in straight away!!! some benefit I should have for being Espanola innit? The fair was huge and very crowded, of course we really enjoyed it!!
After that went back home for some food, we were starving imagine more than 3 hours without eating anything!!! But after dinner Rash didn’t feel too well so she stayed in and I went out with Lattoo on his bike! Check me out!!! We went to the only place in Calcutta where they play live music so it was a band playing covers they were really cool and it was shocking watching all these Indian guys requesting Nirvana!!! After that went to the only 24 hours restaurant in Calcutta where we met up with 2 of his friends, had some tea and kebabs and after that home on the bike again! yujuuuuu!!! what a night!!!!!
I LOVE INDIA, HAVE I TOLD YOU THAT BEFORE??

Rash
Sunday we went to a sports day with Amitav, a dude who runs an organisation that helps street children in Calcutta. We’re staying with Auntie Nupur, friend of my mum’s (everyone here is Auntie or Uncle whether related or not) and Amitav is an old friend of her family.
BANCHBO - his organisation - www.banchbo.com - run classes and do various activities with the kids. Next Saturday we’re gonna go with them to Sunderbans, a strange-sounding area near Calcutta that is half-water half-jungle, where the land meets the Bay of Bengal: “A mangrove forest that is home to a profusion of wildlife including Bengal tigers”, which are man-eating apparently. So we get to meet the animals and hang out with the children. Yeeha!

The Banchbo sports day was FAB. Reminded me a bit of the Screenplay e-games tournament cos there was absolute joy and riveted attention from all, both kids and grown-ups. We'll put up some pictures of it. Honest.