Plus, if I roll my sleeves up like this, you can see my "Victory" tattoo

I was flipping through the Times of India this morning over my coffee and made two shocking discoveries. The first is that the paper runs a "Tween Times" supplement (hopefully only on Thursdays?). The second is that the child that plays Arjun (the abandoned and emotionally screwed son of Shah Rukh Khan at his most abusive) in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is actually a little girl. Also, she's horrible. She's nine years old, and goes on and on in this interview (yes, I read it) about how she's very good at balancing her personal and professional life and says that she leads "the typical tweeny lifestyle--shopping, talking to friends, chocolate craving, etc." I strongly feel that no one in this world should use the word "tween" self-referentially. I also am coming to believe that the existence of this term is creating the social space for hoardes of bizarrely sexualized and materialistic young girls to run around the world's malls unchecked. You're nine. Return your thong and pink cell phone and go play in the dirt or something before you convince me never, ever to have children.

I took a taxi to Alipore today to see the South 24 Parganas District Magistrate for permission from the government to enter the Sundarbans, the delta region south of Kolkata (and the world's largest Mangrove forest, I believe) where I'll be doing my thesis research. I had an appointment to meet with her, but the address I was given was for the wrong office and I ended up wandering around what felt like were the entire perimeters of two different city jails, looking for the DM's house/office. Directions in Kolkata are a bit tricksy, as many roads have more than one name and if you use the wrong one even the traffic cop on the corner of that road standing 10 feet from the sign won't know what you're talking about. I must have asked 300 people where this office was, as many people seemed to point in a completely random direction just to get rid of me. I was quite late for the meeting, but that doesn't really matter here, and it looks like permission to enter the area (it's restricted to foreigners for security purposes) should be no problem. This after being told by countless people when I was in the U.S. that going would be impossible. My advice to all of you: JUST GO. Everything is easier to work out in person. And everything will be fine.

Apparently driving in Kolkata is not nearly as exciting for me as it used to be. Where did my fear go? Perhaps it will return the next time I'm in a taxi that hits a dog.

Yesterday I bought a copy of the film Amu, which I'd never heard of but stars Konkona Sen Sharma, who I generally love. Amu is about an Indian American girl who goes to Delhi to "discover her roots" and in her quest to find out how her parents died uncovers details of the highly organized massacre of Sikhs following the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. It was a relatively well-made film, and by the end of it I was sobbing pretty uncontrollably alone in my flat next to half a mango and an empty bag of Kurkure Masala Munch. Typical.