Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Diwali, The Festival of Lights…
It’s the biggest festival of the year and is celebrated throughout the entire country. It’s somewhat like our Christmas as they exchange small gifts and sweets and then again, it’s much like our Independence Day because all day they are lighting off firecrackers and such. After dark the firecrackers got bigger, louder and much more frequent. At the famous “3 Star” Anand Regency, our residence of choice while visiting lovely Rajahmundry, they had a display of sorts and were apparently waiting for us to come downstairs to get started. Zac, Julia and I were enjoying a bottle of Merlot that I had brought back from my last trip through Hyderabad a few weeks back and the phone kept ringing. One of the bar managers wanted to know if we were coming down and Julia told them we would be down in a little bit. A few minutes later he called again and Julia told them we would be down in a couple minutes. A few minutes later, a third call so we killed the last of our wine and headed downstairs. I guess we were considered important enough to warrant them waiting for us. We were all handed big sparklers and played with them like little kids… Then they brought out a large box and set it in the middle of the lawn. Someone lit a fuse and everyone backed up a bit as it started to go off. It was a whole series of fairly nice fireworks, much like you might see in someone’s front yard only bunched together to go off in series. Not really big but nice anyway. Since they were going off in rapid succession and not very high, the spent pieces started dropping on our heads so everyone backed under the covered entrance to the hotel for protection. After that, a few more sparklers were passed out and then they brought out another big box. This one had a huge roll of firecrackers, they said there were 5,000 of them. They stretched them out snakelike on the lawn and lit the fuse. It took a few minutes to get through them all. They brought out fruit juice and sweets for everyone and that was it.
Julia, Zac and I went into the bar for dinner. No one was there because of the holiday and the staff crowded around us for quite a while talking about this and that and then got down to business getting our drinks and dinner. It was a quiet dinner with no DJ there to shake the walls with his music. That was a nice change since, by the time we usually get down there, you can’t hear anyone talk over the music volume.
Now that I know my remaining time here is short, I’m really getting back into eating Indian food at dinner. Rather than try to get more Americanized versions of their food, I’m trying to find the best tasting and hottest Indian dishes I can find. Three nights ago I told Trinad that I wanted something with chicken that was spicy, hot and wet. What he brought me was definitely temperature hot and almost soup like rather than a sauce but not really spicy and not something I’d try again. Two nights ago I had Chicken Chettinadu with mashed potatoes and that was really good. Very spicy, hot, thick sauce and went well with the mashed potatoes. Last night I had Prawns Do Pyaza with rice and it was as good as what I had the night before. Tonight I’ll try something else maybe some Mutton or Chicken Vindaloo or maybe Chicken Tika Masala. I’ve always been a big fan of Indian food and some of the best I’ve ever eaten has been right here.
Julia, Zac and I went into the bar for dinner. No one was there because of the holiday and the staff crowded around us for quite a while talking about this and that and then got down to business getting our drinks and dinner. It was a quiet dinner with no DJ there to shake the walls with his music. That was a nice change since, by the time we usually get down there, you can’t hear anyone talk over the music volume.
Now that I know my remaining time here is short, I’m really getting back into eating Indian food at dinner. Rather than try to get more Americanized versions of their food, I’m trying to find the best tasting and hottest Indian dishes I can find. Three nights ago I told Trinad that I wanted something with chicken that was spicy, hot and wet. What he brought me was definitely temperature hot and almost soup like rather than a sauce but not really spicy and not something I’d try again. Two nights ago I had Chicken Chettinadu with mashed potatoes and that was really good. Very spicy, hot, thick sauce and went well with the mashed potatoes. Last night I had Prawns Do Pyaza with rice and it was as good as what I had the night before. Tonight I’ll try something else maybe some Mutton or Chicken Vindaloo or maybe Chicken Tika Masala. I’ve always been a big fan of Indian food and some of the best I’ve ever eaten has been right here.
