La Francophonie, La Bling

Interesting things are bound to happen in an International relations class. Our professor wanted to know if we knew of any Neo-Marxists. And then a yell from the back of the class - Rojha Lugjhemburg! Scared the wristwatch off of me!

The mall at Salt Lake City has a densely delightful junk jewellery stall. The place is loaded with the stuff - beads, silver, gold, bracelets, colour, shine, bling, glass, plastic, wood, earrings, rings, women who take too long to go through the ring tray, cheap necklaces and expensive bangles. I am a Bling fanatic. And I was completely overwhelmed. So overwhelmed in fact, that I actually came away without a single purchase. Go figure.

I've seen a Mime Academy in these parts. An entire academy for the silent art goes to show how liberal Kolkata is about its mainstream. The offbeat and the uncommon in metropolitans like Delhi finds itself pedestals and devotees here.

Go to Saurav's if you want genuine Bengali cuisine. But go to Caught n Bowled at Salt Lake to feel crickety. And while you're there, check Haka out. The furniture and decor of the place are so East Asian, it's like the real thing. Haka, by the way, is a Chinese place.

I believe Mark Twain has spoken poorly of the German language. The University has offered to teach us one of the two languages - German and French. I had frankly wanted to study the former; it sounds so much cooler. But the utilitarian world we inhabit has its own considerations, so French it is - more widely spoken, one of the U.N. languages and generally more useful than German.