Saraswati Puja, Brahmo Samaj, Book Fair

Saturday was Saraswati Puja. It was really fun. In the morning, Lauren and I went to Piya's house to have her neighbor wrap our saris for us. (I can wrap one myself, but I don't do a very beautiful job) We met everyone at school, where we had a small worship service (puja) for Saraswati. We had bought a Saraswati statue for the classroom, and a priest came and we prayed and made offerings. All the girls came in saris. Everyone looked gorgeous, and when the puja was over, we played around and took lots of photos. In the evening, we walked around Khardah to look at the pandals. However, they weren't really pandals, they were just small shrines. Saraswati Puja isn't nearly as big as Durga Puja and Kali Puja. I did glimpse a few really large pandals in Kolkata though.
On Sunday, I went to New Alipore (in South Kolkata) to visit some family friends. They are of the religion Brahmo Samaj, and that night was the culmination of their biggest festival. I went to the "church" (Samaj) service with them. I didn't understand it because it was all in Bengali, but it followed the format of a Christian church service - singing and a sermon. The Brahmo religion is similar to Unitarian Universalism. However, from what I understand, they are monotheistic, but they respect all the religious leaders throughout history. After the service, we had a community dinner of ghee bhat (rice lightly fried in ghee), aloo dum (potato curry), roasted cauliflower, and tomato chutney. It was really yummy.
The next day, I went to a big mall and then to the Kolkata Book Fair (Asia's largest book fair) with some of the other volunteers. At the mall, I had Pizza Hut for lunch and it tasted truly American. I bought two kameez (long shirts) that both went with one salwar (big baggy pants) and dupatta (scarf). At the book fair, I bought a membership to the American Library of Kolkata. Their booth at the fair was a pandal of the white house with a big cardboard Obama out front. I also got some books in Bengali that teach English. I gave these to Piya's sister in law. (The girl whose wedding party I went to a few months ago).

~m