The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2014

98 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LOCAL LENS BY JEFFREY ELLIS n KOLKATA, INDIA Enter your favorite, recent photograph to be featured in Local Lens! Images must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi at 8 x 10”) and must not be in print elsewhere. Please submit a short description of the scene/event, as well as your name, brief biodata and the type of camera used, to locallens@afsa.org. I n the Kumartuli artist neighborhood in Kolkata, a worker puts the final touches on a handmade Ganesh statue. The clay-and-straw statues are immersed in the Hooghly River during the annual Ganesh Chaturthi festival in the fall. The neighborhood is a veritable assembly line for such statues, also providing likenesses of the goddesses Durga and Kali—some taller than 15 feet—for similar watery farewells. n Jeff Ellis joined the Foreign Service in March 2009 as a public diplomacy officer. His first assignment was Kabul, as an assistant cultural affairs officer. He next served in the Office of Russian Affairs in Washington, and since August 2012 has been a vice consul in Mumbai. His onward assignment is Kabul, where he will once again work in the public affairs section. This photo was taken with an Olympus E-PM1 micro four-thirds digital camera.