more crafts!

I collected toilet paper rolls for weeks, hoping to use them for some sort of to-be-determined craft project. Neela thought I was crazy and threatened to throw my stash out in my sleep if I didn't do something with them. Finally I came up with the idea of cutting cross sections and making a map of India on our living room wall out of them. Bangladesh (what what) is prominently displayed using bright orange origami paper. Take a look at the pic from this post to see where it is in relation to the rest of the room (its in the left corner).

.

BTW, can you tell yet that I use origami paper for everything?

do lizards make out??

... cuz that's totally what these two on my kitchen floor look like they're doing. Either that, or one's eating the other's head.

squares

Picture of the Guggenheim + Rasterbator + origami paper = memories of NYC on our wall.

let the countdown begin!

Two more months 'til I'm back in the states and see the fam! Above: my parents, unknown date (though from the look of my mom's sari and the thickness of my dad's hair, I'd guess sometime in the 70s).

crafts crafts crafts!

I love crafts. Neela has these bowls, which I commandeered I when I realized the colors match almost perfectly with origami paper I brought with me from Muji. It took a while for me to decide what I'd do exactly, but I finally settled on origami lilies. Pretty!

symbol of a home-away-from-home

Having been brought up the US, where we're inculcated with a sense of revulsion at the mere mention of communism or socialism (until you attend an uber-liberal university, that is), living in CPI(M)-stronghold West Bengal and seeing the hammer and sickle everywhere was a bit of a shock at first. However, like all things, they eventually just become a part of the scenery.

But now that the communists have suffered major losses in the last election, I guess we'll be seeing fewer CPI(M) flags and posters and graffiti. I'll kind of miss it. Every time I travel outside of West Bengal, upon my return I really know I'm back in Kolkata when I see those hammers and sickles everywhere. Strange what we equate with home, or home-away-from-home in this case.

apartment pic

Here's a photostitch of the living room of our apartment. Now that I'm moving back to the states, it's probably the nicest place that I'm going to live in the next ten years. Sigh.

RIP, jasmine blossoms

I bought a jasmine plant months ago, and it quickly seemed to have blossomed all that it was going to for this year. But then some weeks ago, a few new buds appeared. I was excited for these to finally blossom and once again fill up the part of the living room that they inhabit with their gentle scent.

About a week ago they were on the verge of blossoming, but their young lives were cut short when savage winds from a freak thunderstorm blew them clean off their stems. Poor buds; they'll never have their debut as lovely, fragrant, fully blossomed jasmine flowers.

gottapostgottapostgottapost

I just put up my mandatory post on the AIF Service Corps Fellowship Blog (recently renamed the W.J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India), which made me realized that I hadn't posted on MY blog in almost two months. Even though I'm leaving India in another two months, I'm hoping to start a posting FRENZY, starting.... tomorrow.