The Foreign Service Journal, May 2013

62 MAY 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS THE FORE I GN SERV I CE FAMI LY Looking for a sign that this is no longer your grandfather’s Foreign Service? You can find one with a 365-day reminder on the desks at the U.S. consulate general in Chen- nai. The remarkable number of husbands trailing their Foreign Service member wives in South India practi- cally burst from the pages of the third annual “Husbands of Chennai” desk calendar.  Over the past three years, the number of male Eligible Family Members at post has fluctuated from a low of nine, to as high as 13. No one knows if this is a record or just an interesting byproduct of the growing ranks of mar- ried women FSOs. Whatever, the husbands here are hav- ing fun, while raising a few rupees for charity. The idea for the first cal- endar came from a consular officer who, upon seeing an all-male calendar produced by a local nongovernmental organization, asked: “When are our husbands going to make their own calendar?” “We did it as sort of a joke,” said Paul Cohn, a pho- tographer and the husband behind the calendar project. The 2011 calendar served as the punchline to “What do a bunch of guys with free time do when their spouses are off at work?” It featured husbands doing, well, what they do: looking after their children, working out, barbe- Husbands of Chennai BY SARAH TALALAY,VICE CONSUL, U.S. CONSULATE GENERAL CHENNAI cuing and walking the dog. After the first edition, demand rose for a second calendar. By then, new hus- band James Talalay, another photographer, suggested that the 2012 edition show the husbands in front of uniquely Chennai settings— Marina Beach, a cluttered electrical shop, a stone sculpture of elephants pulling a chariot; that sort of thing. The current calendar, inspired by Bollywood, is the group’s most accom- plished yet. Using stills from Indian films, Cohn and Talalay shot photos of the husbands’ faces, then Cohn Photoshopped them onto the actors’ bodies. The work takes on the campy feel of a Bollywood musical. The calendars are printed in a limited run, with all proceeds going to charity. The husbands have raised between $200 and $300 a year for the Blue Cross of India Animal Hospital in Chennai, where several hus- bands volunteer to walk dogs. It isn’t clear if the project will continue in Chennai. The newest crop of officers includes fewer male spouses and the two resident pho- tographers rotate out this summer.  Cohn, who will be follow- ing his consul wife, Abby Aronson, to Athens, says: “It just means we’re going to be the Husbands of Vilnius or Athens or Djibouti.” n On the calendar’s cover the husbands are identified above their heads. To the left, James Talalay (author’s husband) is seen wooing a young beauty (with author’s permission) in April. PHOTOMONTAGEBYPAULCOHN.PHOTOSBYCOHNANDJAMESTALALAY.