e kotan

its been a couple days, but we have acomplished so much i have immediatly fallen into coma mode as soon as we get back home. we woke up early on monday morning to finally get the most important part of our story- an interview with sonya- the young girl frmo the slum. we arrive at the school and begin to set up our cameras. during this time sonya is looking very shy and will not even make eye contact with us. danny and i exchanged worried glances and ask the teachers if she is all right and everyone assures us she is fine. we tell them we are ready and the teacher begins to conduct the interview. silence. sonya is refusing to speak and she remains quiet for about 10 minutes. we had a feeling this might happen as she was always the most quiet of the bunch....he younger sister is called over to comfort her and begins to talk to us about her family...i quickly readjust the frame and decide that her younger sister will be our new subject. thank god she had a sibling otherwise we wud be screwed! just goes to show how anything can go wrong....
crisis averted.
We feel great on the way home and decide to go out for drinks with our team and some indian students. we have a great time at dinner where the men are especially happy bc we are seated in the "family section" which apparantly is more spacious and it is the section where you are seated if you are accompanied by women. the director of the comm school (a woman) comments on how she is surprised that the 2 young girls sitting behind us were served wine. she says that it is common for restaurants to refuse to serve women if they are not with men. crazycakes.
on the walk home an indian man curses at danny and i because we are in the way of his motorcycle path (the sidewalk). i laugh and move out of the way while his passenger apologizes.

the next day we get up at 5am to film our new younger participant going to school, we see a lot of young muslim girls on their way to school wearing burkas. we film at the school- probably the hardest session we have ever filmed because we are mobbed by the little girls who instead of playing at recess decide they all want their picture taken 50 different times and they just want to stick their face in the camera. i am forced to find high ground where the girls cannot physically reach me and so they decide to maybe play instead. they finally catch on to the fact that we like to film them if they go about their business and so they give a great performance. we follow sonam to here home in the slum where we film a short interview with brother and sister who are both now working after completing the same sort of school regimen as their younger sister.
at night, danny and i feel elated that we had such an awesome day (almost all our filming done in one day) BLAP.
back home we meet a photographer and a writer/professor who are staying at the guest house as well. after talking they inform us of a music festival taking place and we join them and head over. we didnt really know wat to expect but i have never been around so many guys in my whole life. no exagerration it was lik 500 dudes and about 10 other girls all chaperoned by watchful partners. danny i decide to go backstage which we do so with no problem and once the band begins to play i decide to sit in front of the stage to take pics. THEYRE AWESOME! probably the best band i have seen live for a really long time, indian/cumbia.crazy fusion. we have a blast. later, i have to hide behind danny and beg him to stop being so social bc the men feel the need to circle around me lik vultures, but it was an awesome time.
today we went back to the best mall in town for the rich peeps of calcutta, and did some filming of the elite. abhijit informs us that the mall has also a school for elite children and so he ventures off to ask permission to film there and works some magic with the principle who is delighted to have us so he can show off his wonderful school. we are given a brochure which lists all the amenities-yoga room, meditation area, jacuzzi, pool, dance hall, etc. 2moro we go to film and interview a primary school child in hopes to paint a larger picture on primary school in the region.
we are everyday closer to our indian friends who we joke around with constantly and have an awesome time being around. after the mall we cross the street and are caught in the median between traffic (very common) and we try no to be run over. one of our indian friends
smokes a cigarette. a cab driver driving down one lane stops his car and yells at her for smoking a cigarette-because she is a girl. she stares at him and yells back wat the hell is your problem. tis a whole other world.
anyhoo, thats enough for this session (sorry if it was a little less entertaining than usual but these last couple days have been business!!) i have some crazy things planned for the next couple days which i am sure will give my mother a heart attack but ill just leave her on the edge of her seat for now! toodles!