A whole new meaning to "Disco, Baby!"

Monday was Christmas eve, and what an odd place to be spending it! Aileen, Susan and I visited the riverside flower markets, where a man offered Susan a rose. When she rejected it (he would probably have asked for payment then) his friends all laughed hysterically - something we hadn't anticipated. The bright marigolds and roses at the market were gorgeous, and stood out even more next to the haze that hung over the river. Then we visited the Jain temples that we had missed the previous week. Knowing nothing about the religion, we read a brief summary in the first temple. I was surprised to read that there were two sects of the Jain religion The differences, according to the text, were so minor that they were not major divisive factors - one sect believe nudity was a part of worship (don't ask me how), the other doesn't and one believes women can be saved, the other doesn't. Just minor differences.

After our instruction on fine religious points, we went home to relax and get ready for our Christmas Eve buffet dinner at the Hyatt. Debbie joined us again and regaled us with more stories. Our favorite this time was about an American woman calling the consulate in Marseilles late at night, in a panic because she was out of water. Debbie's friend took the call and tried to determine what the problem was, even calling the hotel to make sure there wasn't a water problem there. Reassured that there wasn't, she called the woman back who said, yes, there was running water in the hotel room but she still had three days left in France and had run out of the bottled water she had brought with her. From Kansas. Sigh. Why are stories like this always about Americans???

Debbie headed off to her church service and Susan, Aileen, Rahul and I headed for Christmas Mass at the church near their apartment. We were told the service would begin at 11pm, but at 11:10 there was no sign of it starting. We finally asked and were told it was starting at midnight. Rahul, the only one of us who had worked that day, couldn't keep his eyes open and headed home. Then the 11pm service that we were then told would start at midnight started at 11:30. Of course.

The choir stood to start off with a hymn, and the director turned on his electric keyboard as accompaniment. Which wouldn't have been THAT remarkable if it hadn't been for the "boom-de-boom-de" backbeat that was reminiscent of "1980s Abba cruise-ship," as Susan described it. The choir sang a number of hymns we had never heard of to this as well as a hip hop type beat and a tune I was certain went with an old country western song. "Away in a Manger" was quite the rockin' tune here. Susan had noticed as we entered the church that there was no manger or baby Jesus in the nativity scene and remarked that it looked like everyone was worshiping the beach. (The nativity scene had a sand floor.) Halfway through the mass a procession brought the baby Jesus and manger in and placed them in the appropriate spot. As they did so, Christmas lights wrapped all around the stable lit up and flashed wildly. "They lit up baby Jesus like a disco ball!" was Susan's description. The lights eventually faded, only to come up every five minutes or so for more rampant blinking. Susan, Aileen and I couldn't even look at each other for fear of laughing. I don't know that it put me in the Christmas mood or tugged at my heartstrings, but it did keep me awake!

Finally in bed at 1:30, Christmas morning came early to open presents with Xochi. It was fun to see a little one playing with her new toys, even if she wasn't quite old enough to fawn over Santa. Aileen gave Susan and I both stockings, which made the holiday more real for us. We all had another laugh at the Christmas tree we were sitting in front of. Aileen had contemplating buying an artificial tree before they left for Calcutta, fearing they wouldn't get such trees there. She was told that of course they were available and was even more pleasantly surprised when Rahul procured one for ten dollars. Until it arrived - the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. You know it's bad when you can easily count the branches and have to select only the lightest of ornaments (and use them very sparingly) so as to not break those few branches off. The tree was actually left over from last year - not a cut tree but planted and kept alive for the following year. So it was only $5 year!

Our last few hours in Calcutta were spent at Rahul and Aileen's "club." We had dinner coupons for a prawn cocktail starter, a dinner and a dessert each. The starter was actually a few very tiny shards of prawn in a Thousand Island type soup. We all passed on that. Lunch was fine, but the dessert was a slab of sickly sweet strawberry ice cream from a carton. The entertainment more than made up for it - a cheesy twosome playing "Country Roads," "My Way" and even a little Doris Day with "Que Sera Sera." You know, your typical Christmas fare. We had a great time laughing each time they began to butcher another oddly placed song, such as the entire back catalog of Huey Lewis and the News. The weather was also gorgeous, so we just enjoyed sitting at the outdoor tables and thinking about Christmases spent in freezing cold. Then a quick dash back to the apartment and Susan and I were off to the train station for our overnight train to Varanasi! An odd ending to an odd Christmas...