Nov 01 2008
You Know You’re in India When…
Bus in Mysore decorated for Dasara - photo by Nicole
1. The elephants and cows have better jewelry than you do.
2. You are in line at the foreign money exchange and are approached by a septuagenarian, sari-clad Indian woman who, after introducing herself, whips out her cell phone and calls her son. “Here is my son. His name is Manjuth. He is a salsa dancer. You talk to him.” (This happened to a friend of mine while we were waiting for our rupees. The lady seemed determined to make this very pale, fair English girl her daughter-in-law and was only assuaged after being given a fake phone number so that Manjuth could call this lily-skinned girl for follow-up dates and, presumably, for blue-eyed grandchildren for his mother.)
3. Pizza masala. Not quite the same as back home.
4. You get on a sleeper bus for the next nine hours to get to a World Heritage site, full of
amazing ancient ruins, and realize that the bus has no front door. (The bus is also full of Sri Lankan basketball players who sing Hindi and Tamil pop songs until four am.)
5. The air in the morning smells like chai tea and jasmine flowers… with just the slightest hint of cow dung and urine.
Painted Bull in Bangalore - photo by Nicole
Nicole -- Nicole hails from metropolian Conway, South Carolina. While she's not busy doing Southern things like eating biscuits and heavily buttered grits (often together), she likes to travel to other countries and eat their food. Her favorite exotic treats include: Icelandic Skyr, South Indian dosa, British Jaffa Cakes, and Austrian strudel.
