Easter and such

On Saturday night I went to the big field with the girls. A huge screen and been erected and they were showing Bengali movies all night. I stayed only for an hour or so, but I think it went on for quite awhile, and possibly on more nights than just one. It was totally free. It felt like a drive-in without the cars. But it was kool to see that so much of the Khardah community turned out to watch movies together on the lawn. It was a real small town community event. I liked it.
Easter was a fun day. Sealdah went smoothly. Bobby and Arpita stopped by the flat in the morning just to visit. Bobby is always telling me that in India, its ok to drop by people's houses univited for a visit. In fact, people don't invite folks for a specific time, they just expect them to drop by when its convenient. But this is the opposite of how it is in the US, where its considered rude to just drop in on people. So I never do here. I wonder if part of why Bobby dropped by was to prove that its ok to do... Anyway, we enjoyed having her there.
The girls came for computer class. They finished reading the Wizard of Oz and started watching the movie (if you think we already did that, it was with a different class. A different group of students.) At school/camp, I did a GK on air pressure and the kids made their own barometers. Then we colored Easter eggs, which they really liked. They also made "collages" which were pieces of paper cut into shapes and glued to another paper to make a picture. They were cute though.
That evening, the other volunteers and I went out to eat at the Penguine Inn, which was yummy as always. On my way home from there, I ran into Riya, a girl a little older than me who lives in the same area as Piya and some of my other students. I invited her to the flat for a bit. She gladly came, and we all talked about movies, marriage, school, etc. She turns 19 soon, but she's been married since she was 16. Her husband's family is paying for her schooling now, so that's good, but she says sometimes she and her mother-in-law argue over whether she should stay in school. She wants to be a doctor. I hope she gets to, but as she said, a woman's place in India is at home.
Today I went into Kolkata and bought a whole bunch of Hindi and Bengali movies. The girls came over to watch one, and they chose to watch Welcome, a Bollywood movie starring most of the same cast as Singh is King. I liked it quite well, but the power went out just before the end. With nothing to do at the flat without power, I came here to the Iway. Hopefully by the time I return to the flat, it'll be back on. I have just under 7 weeks left here, and I'm starting to feel the pressure of everything I want to do here before I leave.

~m