Week Ending December 29, 2019

Christmas, Kolkata & Santiniketan

(Our last Christmas in India!)Monday night we attended a Christmas party for all the senior couples and the mission president and his family at the home of Praveen Beesa, first counselor in the mission presidency and owner of a very successful tour business.  It looked, felt and tasted like Christmas at home.  Front: Melissa Beesa, Member for MX , Beesa Son, President Hansen.  Middle:  Sister/Elder Toone, Sister Hansen, Sister Beesa, Praveen Beesa, Sister Skidmore, Sister Plater. Back: E/S Hurst, Elder Skidmore, John Hansen and Elder Plater.

Part of the Light The World campaign had the elders, sisters and members caroling in Priya Market.  Note the riot police in the back - protests over the governments new citizenship laws resulted in outlawing gatherings of more than four person.  But the police seemed to enjoy it anyway.

Christmas Eve festivities began at a little neighborhood after-school school operated by our friend, Rohit Prakash.  Cute kids - sang Christmas songs, made paper chains and told the Christmas story to the cute little Hindu children.  We also taught them how to make paper airplanes and they sang and danced for us.

From there we went to visit our dear Udayan girls in Mehrauli.  There we made paper chains, played “Don’t Eat Pete,” distributed 35 beautiful hats that Kathy Hurst had crocheted and ate chocolate cake, banana bread and stollen.  

Thanks to Kathy for the caps!

Afterwards we visited Aman and Vivek Kumar and their family in Neb Sarai where we made paper chains, played “Don’t Eat Pete” and watched The Christ Child video.  We were fed a delicious meal of pani puri and a vegetable curry.  On the way out we met this little caroling group accompanied by this little Santa Claus. It was a perfect Christmas Eve. 

We flew to Kolkata early Christmas morning to help with the Branch Christmas Devotional. (First we had lunch at Sonar Tori, our favorite Bengali restaurant.)  The open house was a success.  We had about 25 visitors, mostly Hindu, and 8 members.  Grant spoke and I played the piano.  It’s a tradition in that city for everyone to visit Christian churches on December 25 and they came.  They especially enjoyed the carol singing.

Thursday morning we arose early, met Mousmi Das, her sister Tapasi Das Hazra and school friend Maitreyi Basu at the Sealdah Station and took the Kanchanjunga Express 135 miles north to Bolpur.  Below is the amazing RR station in Kolkata early in the morning with farmers/wholesalers bringing loads of good to market from the rural areas.  Quite a show.

From there we took an auto rickshaw to Santiniketan where Rabindranath Tagore established Visva-Bharati University in 1921.  We arrived on the last day of the PoushMela.  

  We toured the campus, listened to bauls (Bengali minstrels), shopped for Bengali handicrafts down by the river and danced with adavasi (indigenous) or “tribal” people. 

 Middle - friend of Mousmi and her two helpers.  They operate a small by-appointment only restaurant where we took our meals.

In the evening we went to the Mela itself where we enjoyed performances, treats and shopping. 

 Sweet treats made before your eyes

There were more performances by “tribals” and part of a jatra, a popular form of Bengali folk theatre.  The latter began with the story of Durga defeating Mahishasura the evil buffalo demon then took a contemporary turn and became a commentary on women facing and defeating abusive men.  

 Jatra - sound man.

 Jatra with prompter who sat in the front of the stage.

Prompter who mouthed nearly every line and subtly directed with face and hands.

 Giant deep-fried prawn which looked delicious but looked better than it tasted.

Road in front of the guest house where we stayed.

Friday we did more shopping and wandered around a small village near our guest house.  It was sunny and mild and so nice to be out of the city!  

 Roadside monkey!

Dung patties hand formed and placed on the walls to dry.  Later to be used for cooking fuel.

Traditional kitchen - small volcano looking thing is the stove where the dung patties are burned to heat/cook food.

 Rice straw

Saturday we had an amazing visit with Romi Hirawat, the first president of the Branch who has been estranged from the Church for nearly 20 years.  He was welcoming and very open to coming back.  Sayantanee Saha prepared us a lovely dinner in the afternoon which we shared with Amrita and Manasi Kundu.  We had a good, relaxed visit and were able to talk about many points of Church culture and doctrine together.  This morning Grant helped confirm Tumpa Gosh, the newest member of the Branch.  Romi was there as promised with his wife and three of his kids.  We both spoke with no notice but were glad to have a chance to share our testimonies of the Savior, the Plan of Happiness and the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  It was our holiday spiritual high.

We returned to Kolkata that evening, arriving back at our hotel at 1 a.m.  This is a baul singing for money on the train.  Yes, we gave him a little.  Notice the bells on his right foot.