Hollish Diamonds

603pm
Yesterday was my "Hollish" (Dutch) friend, Evelyn's last day. In honor of it, she was a Chai waitress at lunch...


After lunch, I discovered it was also my Japanese friend Naoki's last day as well!

And after my fitting at the tailor, I stopped by a fruit stand an a Bengali sweets shop for some Chiku (a really nice indian sweet) and rosagolla (a cheese soaked in rose water, I think).


Sweets shops in India have tons of sweets... most along one of three lines (from my very limited experience).


Flour/milk sweets that are in bar forms and are pleasant, but sweet and have a nice texture that we don't have in the west.


Ball sweets, which vary from flour to cheese base, and are soaked in liquid (or were soaked).
And uber sweet milk sweets that are along the lines of caramel. And a fourth type (just thought of it) is something akin to cotton candy, but it doesn't disolve in your hands and it's more densely packed, though still fluffyish.



For Evelyn and Naoki's going away, I grabbed a jar of rosagolla and a small assortment of some others.



I also discovered that two more were leaving in the group that gathered on the rooftop... so it was general farewell party, mixed with French and English speakers.

After the French were kicked out by management (it was too late) the English speakers (myself included) sang "Sweet Caroline" to our neighbours in the Paragon hotel...

Today, I went to Shishu Bahvan and worked on our painting.

Last evening I had completed this:


Today I'm up to here...



I hate to admit it, but I'm actually liking the oil paints... GAH! I'm a traitor.

While I was painting away, a Christmas give away was happening below me...


About 250 Rickshaw "wallahs" had been found over the last few weeks and given an invitation in exchange for their names, rickshaw number and a warning that they had to be at shishu between certain set times, with their rickshaw and the invitation to receive the presents.

It seemed to go quite well.

Kolkata is getting a bit cold, today required a sweatshirt for most of it and I need two blankets to be nice and toasty while I sleep. Do keep in mind most people are still wearing sandals, so it's not that cold yet.

And for some reason "fog" as the Indian press is calling what I suspect is really SMOG (Possibly another example of sly propaganda). I suspect this, due to the heavy dusting that everything seems to form so quickly these days.



(this is two days worth of grime)

And due to the visibility at high noon looking like this:



Tonight, I go for some Bengali food for the first time... I've finally realised, that despite my time in Kolkata, I've still not had a respectable Bengali meal.

Oh and the Post office is on Strike... two days, three days, who knows...

West Bengal tends to have frequent strikes. It seems at LEAST once a month a vital public sector is affected.

Eh. What to do?
Blessings,
Edward
630pm