Christmas Wedding in Kolkata

Last week, Jeff McManus and I met up with our friend (and Jeff's best man) Jeff Weaver and his friend Prabhat for a wonderful trip to Kolkata. Our colleague and friend, Mihika, invited us to her wedding to Projjol, which was on Christmas Day and was ridiculously gorgeous (see the photos at the end).

Clementines!

Thanks Mom! And Merry Christmas!

The Kindle is not a bomb

Although we're not celebrating Christmas at home, we still get to enjoy some of the insanity of trying to mail Christmas gifts, Indian-style. I set aside a generous hour to mail my three packages to the US (two packets of gifts for family, and one damaged Kindle being returned to Amazon). By now, the DHL/Blue Dart people on Boring Road should know me very well; I'm their only non-Indian client, I'm often accompanied by my adorable little street puppy, and my mother's packages may be their only US mail ever. However, Indian bureaucracy is a law unto itself.
 

Feels like Christmas...

Jeff and I knew that this Christmas would feel very different, because we're not going home for the holidays and we live in a place with very few foreigners or Christians. We're actually going to spend Christmas Day at the wedding of a JPAL Policy Associate - our very first Indian wedding! - so that should distract us a bit from missing home and our families. We already celebrated Christmas with my dad when we were in Nepal; he brought a whole bag full of chocolate, dried fruit and American cereal in enormous quantities, gifts from Jeff's family also. 

View from our office

What could possibly make this scene more Indian?

Ahh there we go:

KathmanUS!

The super cheesy title is the result of over a thousand* repetitions of this exchange, always initiated by Jeff: "KathmanWHO?" "KathmanYOU!" "KathmanUS!!" I apologize for inflicting this on the rest of you.

Dog-Eat-Dog World

Puppy season is the best of times and the worst of times, a spring of hope and a winter of despair. In a recent post, VA highlighted the best, the spring. I now present to you the worst, the winter.