Map: India’s Tea Belt, North Bengal, and Birpara

September 7th, 2005 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

Some will find a hint of the exotic exuding from the place-names and mountain ranges in this latest cartographic creation. Others will see the map-maker’s psychological travails, his attempt to define with a few lines and colors his position in the world (geopolitical and otherwise). Knowing that his incipient skills with the medium can only be improved with practice (i.e. drawing more maps), he nevertheless presses on, painting India’s Tea Belt a young-leaf green, saving mysterious shades of purple for everything beyond unknown borders.

But something went terribly wrong with the map-making experience!
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Sittable Feast: What We Eat

September 5th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

And why not follow beverage with food? Why not place a steaming, yellow plate of egg curry on the floor in front of your crossed legs, the old standby we eat at least once a day? Or how about a starchy, sticky mound of kichuri, a.k.a “hodge-podge,” the Bengali social equivalent of mac-n-cheese? Or a tray of momos, those delectable dumplings I’ve been mentioning since Dharamsala? Yes, today we will feast, here at Chez Akhil Bhavan, where the concrete floor is your dining room table and your right hand is your silverware.
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Cha: Pouring the Perfect Cup

September 3rd, 2005 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

The suffering of the Dooars tea workers notwithstanding, tea remains a perfectly tranquilo topic. I’ve been focusing on its production (or, in the closed gardens, the lack thereof) but now a word is due on tea’s consumption.
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The Bengal Bunch: Meet the Cast

August 21st, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Call it “Four’s Company” or “Leave it to Birpara,” but there’s no doubt: not since the Managua Pimp Tower have I found myself in such a perfect setting for a real-life sitcom. Here in our flat of the Akhil Bhavan building, Tay and I spend each day amid a host of colorful characters. Allow me to introduce them:

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Arrival in Birpara

August 20th, 2005 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

By Indian standards, Birpara (pronounced with the accent on the first syllable: BEER-para) is indeed a small town – 39,000 souls, a number which rises dramatically if you include the tens of thousands who arrive to do business each day from the surrounding tea gardens and communities. Still, anything under a million is considered small in the world’s most populous nation.
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North to Birpara

August 19th, 2005 | By Joshua | 4 Comments »

Our journey to North Bengal began with a hectic and hot ordeal in Calcutta’s Sealdah Rail Station, where, despite our confirmed a/c sleeper coach and berth numbers, I was required to stand on a long line of frustrated individuals. I pounded one liter of water during my hour on line, and felt like I’d sweated out two. We’d hired a porter who guided us through the process, and he’d planted Tay in a grubby “first class waiting room” where she endured dirt, heat, and constant staring while I sweated it out downstairs.
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