Monday Morning Musings

Posted on April 24, 2017 under Monday Morning Musings with 8 comments

Bup’s girls

It’s time to get home to my granddaughters.

After six months and many adventures, I will be making my way home later this week. With any luck, I’ll be having a cup of coffee at the Tall and Small on Monday morning. It has been an amazing experience and I will be sharing it with anyone who is interested at the library on May 17^th. I have a PowerPoint presentation to share with you. Lots and lots of pictures… and every one of them is worth a thousand words.

In no particular order these are the topics that I will be covering in the presentation: religious fervour; spicy food; demonetization; the Indian banking system; the eternal quest for a good wifi connection; garbage; noise pollution; poverty; fundraising; teaching ESL; language issues; the Daughters of Mary and much more.

I have met so many wonderful, amazing people. I was invited out to dinner a few evenings ago. Two generations of families from Kolkata ( Calcutta ) in the state of West Bengal had me over for traditional dishes. The vast majority of my diet over here has been vegetarian. They refer to it as “ veg.” Throw in some meat and it’s called “ non veg.”  In one evening, I think I rebalanced the scale with a meal that was mostly meat and fish. There was one vegetable dish and some raw vegetables. I can hear some of you who have been to India gasping that I would consume uncooked vegetables. But when you’re in someone’s home, there’s a very good chance that they’ve been washed.

I shouldn’t tempt fate and say this … but what the hell. I managed to escape any kind of illness. I ate everything put in front of me with gusto and never had a bad reaction. I was always vigilant about the water and most public places have very good drinking water.

Back to the meal.

Besides rice ( I have eaten a lifetime supply of rice in six months! ) , the other offerings were: Dhoka ( a Bengali specialty ); Chicken Curry; Mutton Do-Piyanze; chilly chicken; lorshe maach ( Fish in mustard sauce ); aloo-Gobi ( Cauliflower and potato mixed in a sauce ) and curd. I think it was one of the most delicious ( and unbalanced!! )  meals I had ever eaten and the mother of the clan did most of the cooking. I raved about it and she was beaming. A lot of pictures were taken.

I would have to say that the single biggest challenge in a country like India is language. I now have a pretty good ear and could probably distinguish between Malayalam ( Kerala ); Tamil ( Tamil Nadu ); Telagu ( Telangana state ) and Hindi ( Delhi ). I realize that the problem is MINE. It’s really tough when you’re trying to get a cab or auto rickshaw and you can’t communicate effectively. I hope to learn a little bit of every one of these before returning. I know one verse of a Malayalam song and trot it out once in a while to the delight ( chagrin? ) of the locals.

I am ready to come home. It will be good to see everyone again. Do not be surprised if there is no Thursday Tidbits as it is likely a travel day.

Thanks for joining me for the ride.

Have a great week.

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