Has anyone seen Pawan?

That's a question that has been coming up a lot in the past few weeks. Our beloved Pawan, who lives in Bolangir (Bolang-where?), has been in exile in Canada awaiting his visa renewal to return to us here in Orissa. Indian visas are a nightmare at the best of times, but the Canadian Authorities seem to be especially awkward about it all. I can't remember if I've written in my blog about the visa hassles I've gone through. It's not very interesting, very uninteresting in fact, a pain in the bum, and endless trips to the Foreign Registration Office. Back in June my office received a letter saying "the foreigner may please be directed to leave India immediately" (that foreigner being me). Luckily VSO sorted it all out and I have something scribbled in my papers to say I've applied to stay til Feb '12, so I think I'm ok.But Pawan, where is Pawan? If anyone sees a charming lad with a scientifically grooved bottom, please direct him back to Orissa. Without him, there is no Christmas party!

Kittens in the Cabinet, Geckos in the Fridge

There have been a couple of strange and saddening incidents involving animals recently in the Ravi Talkies residence.

Incident #1 - The Poor Kittens: The week before last we were packing our bags getting ready to catch the night train to Kolkata for the weekend. I heard a shriek from Juliet's room and went in to see three tiny baby kittens in her cabinet. They were the cutest things ever and we were very giddy! The window had been open and the mother cat had scouted out the cabinet as a nice spot for her new babies. But we didn't have much time before our train and had to lock all the windows while we were away, so we figured the only thing to do was to put them back outside. I transferred them carefully outside, leaving them in a bucket under the window for mama cat to find them. I waited until she was beside them and left her to it as I went inside to skype my parents. When I came back out about 10 minutes later one of the kittens was dead on the ground and the bucket was gone. I was so shocked and felt so guilty..

I realised the tom cat had been around and must have killed it. We're not sure what happened to the other two (hopefully survived..) and the bucket is a mystery. It might have been taken by our landlady's cleaner who lives out the back, but when I knocked on her door she didn't answer, and, lacking in Oriya, communication between us is limited.. I felt awful that the mother had been trying to protect her babies and I just put them back out into danger. Something about that really affected me, one moment I was holding a new little life in my hand, the next moment it was dead and I couldn't stop crying. I felt a bit silly getting so upset over a kitten and I think maybe it was the build up of 9 months living surrounded by sad diseased street dogs and unhealthy looking cows roaming the streets. It set something off inside me which made me obsesses with depressing thoughts of death on the train that night and how tough it is to be born in this country, if you're a kitten, or a puppy, or a cow, or a human.

Incident #2 - The Gecko: Another shriek from Juliet, this time coming from the kitchen. There was a little gecko that had somehow climbed into the fridge, and then unfortunately got a bit frozen. We're not entirely sure if it was dead or just a bit comatosed, so I put it outside in a plant pot in the hope that it might defrost and come back to life..

Juliet with frozen gecko

Death is very in-your-face in this country. In Varanasi I witnessed an old woman being cremated and I don't think I'll ever forget that image. I have seen more dead dogs and puppies this year than I would have liked to in my lifetime. Dead cows are the saddest of all. I don't think that's something I could ever get used to seeing. But maybe when you live alongside death, it makes you more appreciative of life.

Aaaanyway..apologies for the depressing topic (just realised my last three posts have been about death!) but I thought it was worth getting off my chest. On a brighter note, we had a brilliant weekend in Kolkata - highlights were eating great food, wandering the streets and soaking up the atmosphere of the city, and a game of Ring of Fire which turned into an all-nighter!

Kolkata at sunrise

Ring of Fire

Happy Birthday Lord Ganesh!

Just a brief post to say Happy Birthday to Lord Ganesh! Ganesh is the oh-so-popular elephant deity in Hindu religion. He is the Lord of success and remover of obstacles, the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth. Cheers to Ganesh! Ganesh puja is a holiday for most people (woo!), people get together for a ceremony to say happy birthday and show their devotion to Ganesh. I went to Ganesh puja at the Amo Vidyalaya school, and we bought this fabulous pink idol for our living room:

lil' pink Ganesh in our living room

brahmin priest doing puja at Amo Vidyalaya