Back in Kolkata

Well, well, well. A year has passed. And here I am again, back in Kolkata. This time, I'm not staying in Khardah and not working with CRAWL. I'm here on a scholarship from the State Department, studying Bengali at the American Institute of Indian Studies. I'm staying with a host family in South Kolkata, in an area called Kalighat.

I arrived around midnight last Saturday, and have been settling in since then. Obviously, there isn't any culture shock (or near none, compared to last time) to deal with this time. I'm just getting used to the way classes work at AIIS, to living with my host family, and to finding my way around Kalighat and Ballygunge (where the school is), which I didn't spend much or any time in last year.

The school is really great. There are actually only three students here right now (and no more are coming), all three of us from CLS (the state dept scholarship). The other girls are Andi and Danielle. They were both in Dhaka for CLS last year. There are three teachers at AIIS, Pratimadi (Her name is Pratima Dey; didi, or di, is a respectful term attached to the end of someone's name, that means "older sister"), who is the head teacher, Priyankadi, and Proshinjitda (same as didi, dada means "older brother"). So there is the potential for us all to have individual classes, which I do, but I think Andi and Danielle take most of their classes together because they are at the same level. I'm in slightly more advanced classes.

There are four class periods in a day, each an hour long. We have two classes, then a tea break, then two more, then lunch. After lunch is "zero hour" where we can get extra help if we want. So far I've had pronunciation class, reading, listening, tutorial (where I can choose the content, but last time I read), journal correction, and movie watching. It's awesome to get so much individualized help, let alone to have a Bangla teacher at all.

I'm living in a room with a wealthy, older family. My host mother is Maitrayeedi (pronounced Moi-tree) and my host father is Gorada. Their last name is Mukharji. There are quite a few staff people around, but the woman I see most (and who makes my food) is Sondhadi. Maitrayeedi's mother also lives here. "Grandma" in Bangla is didima, but we call her didi for short (though this is not the standard way). They have two children, a son and a daughter, but both are married and live elsewhere. The son lives a little bit far away. The daughter lives pretty close, and she comes over quite alot (I have seen her every day since I've been here). Her name is Gangidi. I am supposed to speak only Bengali with them, but they often speak in English. I need to be more strict with myself, haha. The first story of the "house" (building they own and live in) is their mustard oil factory. The second story is mostly offices (including the computer room I'm using now), and the other two (I think there are only two more) are the living quarters. I live on the third floor.

I have some homework to get going on, so I'll explain the rest later, and get to the interesting part - what I've actually been doing.

~m