mr. potter goes to pot

I'm back in Calcutta. And it's puja season (hindu festivals)! That means lots of noise, lots of people, lots of food, and lots of pandals- seemingly permanent but actually temporary huge displays all over the city with images of durga, her husband and children. Every neighborhood has at least one pandal, some of which are theme oriented and some of which just house images of the Gods. People go to pandals to eat, pray, sit, talk with friends, look for marriage matches for their children, participate and watch the prayers in the mornings and evenings, be seen in their latest sari or kurta pajama, or just gawk at the artistry. This year, one of the pandals is dinosaur themed, one was created to look like Machhu Piccu, another was done up a la Harry Potter style. Apparently a huge market of book buying Indian parents and the spread of Harry Potter hegemony is not appreciated by one Ms. JK Rawling and Warner Brothers. Because. . . (this is almost unbelievable) both of these entities have SUED the neighborhood association that created the Harry Potter pandal, for breach of copyright!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7040191.stm. So, a neighborhood group in Kolkata, India, that is constructing a fake Hogwarts school and train made out of paper, glue, and paint, in honor of both their love of Durga and Harry Potter, is being sued by multi billionaires who make a killing off Indians who go to the movies, buy the books, and now even buy the Halloween costumes. I can't even imagine who these myopic greedy bastards are going to try to sue next. . . Amusingly, I can only imagine that this greedfest will backfire and become a poor PR move, at least in India. . .or at least in Calcutta.

Of course, after hearing about this Harry Potter pandal I had to see it. So, a friend and I drove out to Salt Lake City and asked everyone and their mother where Sector FD (it was actually Sector FB!) was located. We were led on a wild goose chase, which nearly ended in frustration before we arrived at our desired destination. However, having gone so far we could not let our itch go unscratched. So, we decided to change the demographic we questioned for directions. We originally asked chai wallas, side of the road washermen, taxi drivers, and rickshaw wallas. Instead, we decided to say "Bohot barah Harry Potter Pandal?" (Really Big Harry Potter pandal?) to young kids and teenagers. We were met with success! It took only 5-6 kids to lead us to Harry Potter. And then. . .uh. . .hmm. . .errr. . .the pandal was not very intriguing. The outside structure was indeed interesting to look at, but the inside- the part with the paper mache statues of Harry Potter, et al, neither looked like any character I recognized nor was well done with any particularly artistically impressive inclination. The statues looked like something high school art classes might put together for a local play. This left me perplexed and angry about the arrogance of Harry Potter and Co's lawsuit, and also somewhat embarrassed for these people, who are suing for poor renditions of their work. As two guys walking behind us in the pandal said, "These Harry Potter people don't have any sense of humour."