to start, i’m going to be organizing this year’s recap posts a little differently to last year’s. when recapping 2024’s india trip i shared day-by-day itineraries of how we spent our time, and while that was right for last year it didn’t feel right for this year.

this year i want to focus less on the itinerary of we-did-this-then-we-did-this and instead share things a little more hodgepodge. partly i don’t want the rigidity of the previous structure, and partly each stop was so different and so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. instead, the recap for each place is going to be its own unique thing, which is all to say i’m winging it and don’t have any real plan.

and yes, there is a ranga + ryan season 2 playlist to accompany our trip, thanks so much for asking. songs 1-8 come from our time in calcutta. i’ve also created a google map of all the places we visited during the trip, if you feel like taking a look at that.

if you’re still with me, let’s get to our first stop: calcutta!

the primary purpose of starting in calcutta was to ring in the new year with priyanka and deboo and their friends, with the secondary benefit of seeing priyanka’s mum and uncle again and being back in the city for the first time in 9 years.

we had a great time, spending an evening drinking at the legendary broadway; stuffing our faces at 6 ballygunge place; shopping to our hearts’ content at dakshinapan, byloom, and sienna; enjoying chai from clay cups [sarah’s one request]; celebrating the start of a new year on aparupa and jit’s terrace; going for morning walks around rabindra sarobar lake and victoria memorial; learning about durga and her importance in west bengal; taking in the famous christmas lights on park street; feasting on a delicious and decadent dinner back at sienna [thank you, rochelle, jake, and shuli!]; becoming goat herders for 10 minutes; laughing along with the christmas music [on january 2] while having breakfast at flury’s; catching up with sidharth; and enjoying a famed kathi roll before heading out.

but more than all that listed above, we loved bookmarking our trip with visits to priyanka and deboo [we stayed with them in bombay at the end of our journey] and hope to make that an ongoing tradition whenever possible. i particularly enjoyed having time with them in calcutta outside of their wedding — their celebration remains one of my favorite weddings i’ve ever attended, but because there was so much going on we barely had any chill time together. not so this time, where we spent plenty of time sitting around and chatting, enjoying our leisurely walks, and generally enjoying each other’s company.

and as an added bonus, their friends maanvi and andy were also in town visiting maanvi’s parents, and they joined us for many of our activities. i had only met them once previously, and i so enjoyed getting to know them better [and they will make a return appearance once we get to bangalore]. i’m going to overuse the word lovely when talking about this trip, but it really was so lovely to spend so much time with them and to have time with other friends as well.

calcutta was exactly what we needed to kickstart the trip. a few laidback days with friends, a lot of delicious food, some cool [for india] weather to ease us into the country, and so much laughter.

next stop: a quick pit stop in bangalore and then on to surat!

xx