Food, quirks

I have less than a week to go before I return home :)

Over the next few days, I'll try to take my camera with me and take as many pictures of the streets as possible. It's easy to take for granted what you see everyday or if you're familiar with an otherwise extraordinary situation.

The other problem is that my pictures are all in very high quality and therefore are very large (in byte size). I usually just upload them from my camera and it takes a long time (15-20 mins) to upload more than 5 at a time to the blog. Once I get home, however, I'll have some time to compress them and post plenty more. So, keep checking in!

Something that Melanie alerted me to is that I haven't really mentioned food much. Doh! That's because I probably take it for granted. You may know that I have a two-tiered system whereby I believe that there's Indian food and then there's everything else.

The meals at home (always delicious, colorful, rich, filling, mouth-watering, and delicate) consist of the following: 1 or 2 shaks, rotli, dal or kadhi, and rice. I've also had chicken though it's not common in this state. By the way, if you want chicken here, you call some dude who brings it raw to your home in 15 minutes.

So, the traditional Gujarati food consists of a vegetable (e.g. eggplant with potatoes cooked in appropriate herbs/spices, aka shak along with rotli, a naan like bread made of wheat. There are frequently 2 shaks, as well as a soup (though eaten during the meal or at the end with rice, not before). The soup or dal is made from lentils, for example. There are variations too and my favorite is kadhi, made from gram flour. During the summer, mangoes are a big deal, so we've been having a mango puree called rus. Otherwise, dessert is usually... ice cream :)

The best part of Indian cuisine, though, comes throughout the day in small snacks (generally extremely unhealthy for you), though I have tried to moderate my diet to avoid these.

A funny quirk or two that you may enjoy.

You may already know that many Indians take off their shoes before going into their homes; it's more than that though here. People take off their shoes when going into boutique stores (e.g. sari or kurti stores or even when visiting the doctor's office, and most certainly when going to someone else's home. Of course, you don't have to if you aren't comfortable doing so, but it's the cultural norm. It actually has a lot of advantages, primarily being that it keeps the already mopped floors clean throughout the day. By the way, many of the floors here are swept and mopped everyday.

The Indian culture is also intricately intertwined with the Hindu religion. As such, most people believe in some form of a deity and have profound respect for the divine. So, while walking down the street, you'll frequently find a small shrine or temple built to a particular deity. When they reconstruct roads or plan urban projects, I've been told that they generally try to avoid touching these landmarks and will build around them. Indeed, it's very true. I have frequently seen small (2 feet x 1 foot) temples on the median that no one will break. It'll also almost always be 'active' - someone will regularly light a candle, etc, there.

Another funny thing: if you ever think you'll land here and find your way to place x because you have the address, good luck! Unless you know exactly where major landmarks are located, it's virtually impossible. Addresses here are as follows:

123 (apt number) Condo Complex (name of building)
Opposite Big Major Landmark / Next to Big 4 lane road on ABC road
Neighborhood
City, State

So unless you know where "Big Major Landmark" or "Big 4 lane road" is/are located on ABC road, there's no way to know exactly where on the road it's located, and you'll have to ask someone. Rickshaws, by the way, are the cheapest way to travel. They cost about Rs. 10-50 (20 cents to $1) for most moderate distances.

Finally, as I've mentioned before, the roads are completely chaotic though I like to think of it paradoxically as organized chaos. Regardless, one of the reasons this is the case is that there are no traffic signs. There are few traffic/red lights but unless there's a cop or two to enforce these, no one ever cares for them. Now, that's what a completely free society looks like! Just joking. So, when you approach a 4 (or 5 or 6) way intersection, proceed very slowly and cautiously while honking constantly. And fear not if several 'two-wheelers' zip right in front of you as though their riders are immortal. It's really terrible. The remedy to all the distressing traffic problems is to start with putting up some traffic signs and then severely increase the penalties upon infringement. The funny thing is that given the chaos, you'd expect the number of accidents to be sky high. However, I haven't seen any. It's part of the mystery that I have found here. Alas, with traffic rules and regulations, this land wouldn't be India!

Below are pictures from my meal last night:

Dhokla, a snack.



Rotli



Tomato shak



Squash shak



Paan, a mint that's had after the meal. It consists of a variety of herbs, spices, dried fruit, jelly-like sweetners, etc, on a leaf. And yes, it really is very minty and it tastes a lot better than it looks.