Eat with your right hand!

Another morning in Kolkata!
Yesterday I ate my first meal with my hand...my right hand to be precise!  You don't eat with your left hand as it is reserved for other uses...and if you're left-handed, it's time to learn to be ambidextrous!  It was quite fun actually...and apparently will get me points with the locals if I'm attempting to use their customs.  (Just make sure you wash and sanitize your hands well before hand.)

Lakshmi Dee (dee means sister) comes here twice a day to do some cleaning and to make chapatis for supper.  She's a beautiful woman who looks to be no more than 30 years old, yet we think she must be in her 40's as she's already a grandmother!  I watched her make chapatis last night...maybe I'll ask if she can teach me how to make them today.  Apparently it's quite standard practice to have someone to clean and cook if you can afford it...Lokey D (as the guys call her) also works for Gurji's family.
The apartment is a ways out of the city part of Kolkata and is surrounded by quite a bit of vegetation and a lake nearby.  There are so many birds and animal sounds around here to blend in with the music, the honking and the ladies calling from window to window.
The guys had some practicing to do in the evening so I just sat and listened...wow.  What beautiful sounds -- even though they tell me they are nowhere near where they'd like to be -- I was lulled into a little nap by the sounds of saxophone, bass, tabla and the drone box.

This morning the guys are off to a concert in a village outside of Kolkata, so I've got the day to explore and have some adventures of my own.  First I'll have my first "bucket shower" and freshen up...I look forward to rinsing off some of the travel grime.  You use a coil heater to heat up a bucket of water, which seems crazy to have something that's plugged into the wall sit in a bucket of water...but that's how it's done.  Then you take a cup and use it to pour the water over you.
Later I'll try my first bicycle rickshaw ride and check out some of the markets in town.  Adventure time!
Namskaar!