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Independent candidate Rajendra Kumar, dressed as the mythical demon king Ravana, signs his nomination papers in Allahabad.

We were in India for the entire election process, and we saw a lot of campaigning and a lot of news coverage about the parties and their candidates.

This picture ran on the front page of the Calcutta Telegraph's election day edition. It shows BJP loyalists prematurely celebrating victory by blessing an idol of their party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In fact, after the votes were counted, the BJP lost the election to the Congress party. Lead by Sonia Ghandi, the Italian widow of assasinated Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi,
Congress came from behind in the final stretch to win enough seats to form a strong majority coalition. In the week following the election, as minority parties traded their votes for government appointments, it looked as if the post of Prime Minister would pass from the Hindu nationalist Vajpayee to the foreign born liberal Sonia Ghandi. But in a dramatic decision Sonia asked her coalition to elect Manmohan Singh instead. In so doing, she appeased her critics who felt an Indian national should lead the government, and simultaneously comforted her many admirers who worried that she might meet an untimely and violent end as her husband and his mother did.

This is what you see from inside the tiny three wheeled autorickshaws that are the primary means of transportation in Chennai. I wrote more about the experience in a previous entry.

Poonamallee High Road, Chennai. The busiest road in Chennai, but that doesn't keep the laborers from building a new wall. Also, notice the basket of jasmine flowers on the back of the motorcycle.

Back in Chennai, we went to church at Santhome Cathedral, the seat of the diocese in Tamil Nadu. It's thought that St. Thomas, the doubter, travelled to South India as a carpenter. After a prolonged stay in Kerala, he settled in the city now known as Chennai, where he preached on the highest hill and lived as a hermit in a cave. He was eventually killed by local political power.

Thomas' tomb, under renovation. When the renovation is finished, a the chamber will contain a relic of the saint himself.

On one of the busiest sidewalks in India's third largest city, these two boys were playing with this equally juvenile goat. The election was held two days later. I wonder if the goat really voted for the CPI?

This fellow is wearing the equestrian helmets that motorcycle riders in Calcutta wear to satisfy the helmet law.

Bananna market, just off Chitteranjan Road

Rabindranath Tagore, the great Bengali poet and dramatist, is still revered in Calcutta. We saw more literature and art in Calcutta than in any other part of India. I love this poem he wrote.

My song has put off her adornments. She has no pride of dress and decoration. Ornaments would mar our union; they would come between thee and me; their jingling would drown thy whispers.

Mullick Lane, Calcutta

We felt the sophistication Calcutta's famous for as soon as we arrived at Howra Station. The city is filled with three and four story apartment buildings, many of which were built in the colonial period.

Mullick Lane, Calcutta

A colonial mansion

The Ganges

Roof of the restaurant across from our hotel. Here this concrete slab is being used as a chair to watch traffic on the street below. Earlier, it was a table for cutting vegetables, and later, it became a bed. It was a good restaurant, too.