Weekend 2

After a day of working on my research report at the office, I met with Helen and Mari to go to the supermarket. I’ve wanted to bake for a while, and though there aren’t ovens in the kitchenettes in the dorms, I thought I would try to see what I could do. It was my first time out of the compound since the little incident last Friday, so I thought I would be safe and bring a mask that I got from the medical center. I see a fair amount of people wearing masks of some sort on the streets and, as three lighter-skinned girls in western clothes, I figured we couldn’t get much more conspicuous anyway. We hailed a cab – a really fun one with decorations and playing loud music – and drove about 15 minutes to a strip of shops.

The store was like a grocery store mixed with a Target or Wal-Mart. A lot of the food had dates on it that had already passed, but I believe they print “Packaged on” dates instead of expiration dates. For about 500 rupees, or around 12 dollars, I got a set of ingredients, a hair clip and some chocolates. After the store (and an embarrassing confusion about needing to sign after using the credit card) we stopped at a street vendor for something Helen and Mari were really excited about – Pani Puri. After handing out plates to the ten or so people gathered around the stand, the vendor takes these thin, hollow ball-shaped shells of fried dough, put some lentils in them, dunked them in a broth of spiced water, and puts it in a plate. You have to eat it in one bite since it’s filled with water. It was pretty good, but I couldn’t handle all seven that the ten rupees bought. They also tried to rip us off a bit by saying Helen and Mari had had two plates’ worth, even though they definitely didn’t, and besides had only asked for one.

Kinder Joy in India!!

At dinner I met a really cool couple who is visiting ICRISAT for a week or two. The husband is German, and the woman Indian, and they are running a primary school in northern India for no profit. (They also have an adorable baby!) They invited us to come up to the school any time to help teach English lessons, as they are pretty short-staffed – 4 teachers for 50-some students in five different grades. I wish I could travel up there to help for even a week!

I also learned that it is illegal in India for couples to display almost any affection - to kiss, or even holds. If the police catch this, you get a fine, and, if appropriate, a call to your parents. It's strange, as a lot of the TV showers and music videos convey very different messages - they might as well be soap operas from the US or MTV.

On Saturday morning, we swam at the pool all morning until lunch, playing variations on Marco Polo.

Then, we baked! I was quite happy to be back in the kitchen – it felt almost like home. I used a hot plate instead of a stove top to make no-bake cookies, and I had to estimate the amounts because everything was in grams and there weren’t any measuring cups or spoons anyway – it felt a bit like a science experiment – but they turned out very well, despite a bit of burning!

Since we plan to have a sort of farewell dinner/party tonight for four of our friends who will be leaving this week, some other cooking/baking went on. Helen made a pasta salad and British dessert, Banoffee Pie (pie crust [crushed biscuits and butter], toffee [boiled condensed milk], bananas and cream), which was delicious. Sahima made a Bangladeshi dish, Khichdi, or rice cooked with lentils, vegetables and spices. And Amita, who does a lot of cooking, made some Indian food – fried balls of gourd-flour balls with curry. I don’t know what that was called, but it was really good.

After watching a little Harry Potter on HBO, we met in one of the dorm rooms to have our party, with all the good food and some Indian music. Everyone loved the cookies :). I’m going to make them again soon.

(Puja, Amita, Uma, Mari, Sahima, Helen, Millind, Me)

(Sahima let me borrow one of her beautiful kurtis from Bangladesh.)

I got back to my room before midnight, and stayed up until about 1:30 AM to greet Shraddah, the other World Food Prize intern working at ICRISAT. Unfortunately, her main suitcase didn’t make it to India with her. But I'm glad she's here!

On Sunday morning, I showed Shraddah around and then met with some friends for a lunch of leftovers at the pool.

(Uma, Helen, Millind, Amita, Mari, Me, Shraddah)