The Semester That Was - Chug, Chug, Chug...

Let me begin by wishing Happy Holidays to all. Speaking of holidays, I wonder if any of you heard about the controversy in the US - Bill O'Reily claimed that good Christians are offended by the phrase "Happy Holidays" replacing the more traditional "Merry Christmas". He went on record and said that liberal pussies like Jon Stewart were waging a war on Christmas...need I say more?

Well, the semester is over and I'm back in Calcutta for the winter. A lot has happened since my last blog. I shall provide brief accounts of them in this blog... a nice way to wrap up the year I suppose.


First up, I never wrote about the crazy Diwali celebrations we had at Ham this year. It was really great and I ended up earning the title of "The Drunken Swordmaster" by the end of the after party, but that's a different story all together.

Anyway, then a bunch of made a very interesting trip to New York City for Thanksgiving. Apart from our car running out of gas in Brooklyn and spending way too much time on the subway and taking wrong turns, it was a fun week. The highlight was, of course, the little party we had at Shraddha's sister's appartment... Yeah, that was a good party alright...

Snow... and lot's of it. Hamilton's been submerged in a few feet of snow in the last couple of weeks. Most of exam week, I spent cooped up in my room because I was too lasy to put on my snow boots and trek across the tundra to the dining halls.

My foster family... Gabi, Elena and Quang all went home for the break... I hope they bring back some good presents for me.

Megha got into Med School. We had a nice little farewell party for her. I think the gift we bought for her is still in the car boot!

I met Sethia in Calcutta and drove around and talked about life.

My flight from Newark to Cal was also very interesting. Met some old acquaintances...

Alex has not tried to kill me in recent history. And now I find myself submerged under a ton of editing work to do for my professor and answering millions of previously ignored emails et al.

However, I did find time to read both Eragon and its sequel Eldest. Kinda hard to swallow that the author is only a couple of years older than me and is already signing movie deals... I also managed to read Bill Bryson's "Sunburned Country" - a hillarious account of his trip across the Aussie outback. Next in line is Mishima's monumental (been a while since I've used that word) tetrology "The Sea of Fertility"...

Recently I figured out something very interesting about Bongs and why Christmas is celebrated with a lot of panache in Cal. I was driving down Park Street in Cal and I was happy to see that the street was as well decorated as any street in NYC... Although Calcutta has lost a lot of its indegenous Christian populace over the past few years under mysterious circumstances, Calcuttans still celebrate Christmas regardless of religion. After all this is the city of Mother Theresa and St. Xavier.

My guess is that because most of the good schools in the city are missionary schools like La Martinere and St. James', St. Xavier's et al... even non-Christian students inculcate a sense of Christmas spirit. However, it's still celebrated at a superficial level. I mean, unlike Durga Puja etc, families don't come together for Christmas. It's limited to an excuse for kids asking parents for presents and eating out and cakes and sweets! Nevertheless it's a fun time to be in Calcutta.

Calcutta and Bengalis are an enigma. Calcutta, during the British rule was the intellectual hub of India with the headquarters of the Indian National Congress and the Moderates (admit it, it was!) and 6 out of the countries 8 Nobel Laureates (as we bongs love pointing out). Bengalis took pride in the intellectual environment of the city and the westernization of the Bengali culture. Educated, English speaking Bengalis became, what I like to call, "brown sahibs". This colonial hangover still lingers over Calcutta although Bengalis have been outnumbered by the Marwaris. Even today you'll find gentlemen's clubs where women aren't allowed and English style pubs, a penchant for jazz and western classical, Voltaire, Marx, Milton... little things that one would associate with an educated sophisticated Englishman. Calcutta is perhaps the last stronghold for such people, for it is a city that still affords all these and actually encourages them. I feel so out of place in my own city.

Well I've droned on for a while. My glasses broke this morning but I also found out I did pretty well on my Finals...so it's win some and lose some I guess. Hope you're all having a great winter.