My lovely room-mate-for-the-second-year-in-a-row, Danielle Marie Goetter recently sent out a mass email to her family and friends. Lethargic to re-hash the past week or so of our lives, I've decided to merely let her narrate to you, with added illustrations from my SLR. Alas, Danielle...
"Hi family & friends!
"Our mid-term break is officially over, and I can’t believe we’re already at the half-way mark for our program. We spent the first 3 days of our break on a class trip with our two younger teachers in an area called Bishnupur, famous for its handicrafts. After 4 hours on the train, we pulled into the town and settled at a hotel. Our first afternoon was spent touring the multitude of red, terracotta temples built in the area in the 1600’s, every inch of each one covered in intricate patterns and reliefs depicting stories of the Gods.
"Our next two days were spent driving out in our trusty SUV to villages where different handicrafts are made. The villages were pretty removed from life as we know it, and with my international health studies I was curious to observe the villages. I gladly held my fair share of babies and we were able to speak in Bangla with the locals about their handicrafts, their families, etc.
"We returned on Tuesday night exhausted, and planned to leave early the next morning for the Sunderbans – aka tiger country. Andi woke up sick on Wednesday, and I was a mess on Thursday – we initially joked that we go back and forth being sick, but the joke gets less funny as it proves to be more and more true. Still hoping to get out of Kolkata during our break, we called our landlady to see if she could make recommendations about visiting her husband’s family home. He is related to Robidranat Tagore – i.e. the Bengali Shakespeare – and their hometown, Shantenikitan, is the site of Tagore’s famous university. As it turns out, our landlady was planning to go for the weekend and offered to not only take us with her, but put us up in her house! We arrived in the afternoon after a few hours on the train, and she set us up at her home and spent the weekend with her cousin, letting us explore at our leisure. She even arranged for her cook/maid – Bunni, whose smile never failed to light up the room – to take care of us for the weekend!
"The town’s name translates to ‘abode of peace’, and it proved completely true. Our house was set off a small red dirt path, and sitting on our porch in the morning I saw more goats amble by than people. Winding, red dirt paths led us to the center of town, which offered little more than a cluster of stalls and shops, and a main road running up by the university.
"We wandered, enjoying the fresh air and quiet, picking our way home in the dark. Our power was prone to ‘load shedding’, which meant one candle on the kitchen table and another inside the kitchen for Bunni. Being out in nature also meant for some creature encounters – my feet, arms and even face were devoured by mosquitos at night until I climbed under the bed-net for refuge; small bats flew in through grates high up on our walls, but at least two were no match for our ceiling fans and had to be swept away the next morning by Bunni; and of course, our only alarm clock was the chirping birds in our garden.
"One of the big draws of Shantenikitan is the Saturday Market, held far outside of town where the woods open up to wide, low fields. We convinced a bicycle-rickshaw driver to let 3 of us climb on, though the seat barely holds two, and bumped down to the long path to the market. We arrived early but were able to watch the vendors slowly roll in on bicycles, motorcycles, rickshaws, unfurling tarps and setting out piles of hand-embroidered fabrics, delicate wooden jewelry, local artwork and hand-made instruments. We wandered up and down the path, deciding what to buy, taking a break for cha or fuchka (still my two favorite street foods!).
"Clusters of Bauls, a gypsy-like Bengali group famous for their traditional music, were scattered around the edges of the market. We sat in the field listening to them play as the sun went down, leaving with the crowd as darkness fell to return home, enjoying a final peaceful night. I sat on the porch during our power cut that night, happy to see the stars which are all but invisible in Kolkata.
"Upon our return to Kolkata the next afternoon, we climbed in a taxi to head home and began the crawl across the Howrah Bridge. We’ve been told it is the bridge that has the most traffic – both vehicles & pedestrians – in the world, and it was a reality check for our return to the bustle of Kolkata!
"I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying the summer.
Love,
Danielle"
...and love,
me!
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