I got married!

alternative title: Best night ever

yesterday really was the best day ever.

let's see. where to start....

Well first, we'll start with death. The cemetery was so beautiful; you stepped through the gates and it was like stepping back into another time. Like and Indiana Jones kind of time with giant tombs and monuments covered in jungle vines and moss and palm trees. It apparently was the East India Trading Companies cemetery so all the graves were british, and many seemed to have died very youg: 23, 25, 27, 28 years old. Many babies as well.

And then I got married.

We took the metro to the kalighat area. And it was insane. I sincerely believe that half of the city was trying to cram themselves on there at the same time. It was utter chaos (and horribly hot as the humidity has been at around 95%) We were packed so tight and still people were yelling and pushing. I was enjoying myself for reasons unknown. Especially seeing how I'm usually horribly claustrophobic. But for some reason I was really unphased.

And then we got to my stop. People were pushing and shoving trying to get out and a nearby Indian man turned to me and said, "you want off here?"

I nodded, and he swooped me up by the waist and jumped off the train with me into a sea of people. It wasn't necessary. But made it much more exciting.

But I didn't marry him.

Instead I went shopping for more moomoos! My housemates have been impressed by my house-dress and wanted ones of there very own. It's funny actually, because they were asking me questions in all seriousness "what do you recommend...what do you think about this one?" as I have become some sort of expert in lounge wear. makes me laugh.

The Kalighat area was a sea of people all celebrating the last day of the Puja. We decided to stop in a few more pandels and unknowlingly went into a small blue one that looked like a castle. It turned out to be full completely of women (in beautiful saris of course) and they all had small trays of red paint or dye in their hands. And they descended upon us. It was hilarious. At first they started with making just the red bindi mark on our foreheads and a red mark at our hairline, but they soon proceeded to cover our faces completely in red. We were laughing so hard and they were laughing and it was like a giant red paint fight with a hundred women.

And when we left the panel there were more women on the street and all around kali's temple and they all came up and laughed and smeared more red on us. Until we were completely covered. And best night ever.

Later, one of the brahmin priests was telling us that the red bindi and hair line mark is the sign of a married woman, so he was joking with us that we all got married last night.

(Though today, in retrospect, I've decided that being married sucks because some of the red won't come off my face, and now I have orange stains, mostly on my chin that really won't come off. I've scrubbed and scrubbed!)

So we walked all around and it felt like the whole city loved us - everyone that saw us cracked up laughing and said, "Oh so beautiful! Very nice, very nice! Happy Puja!"

And driving down the steets were giant open trucks carrying the Durga's to be thrown in the river. And each truck was full of a couple dozen people playing music and dancing. So we jumped in a taxi and followed the procession to the river and watched as they danced the statues down to the river and plunged them in (apparently, the story goes that when Durga is submersed in the river, Kali will rise back up in her place). And it was a huge party, and everyone was dancing and laughing!

Then we headed back to a rooftop restaurant with our bright red faces to greet the laughing waiters and drank beers to toast our marriages.

Best night ever.