Hear Ye Hear Ye!

I went to the annual Delhi Bookfair yesterday with Priya and Doddie (pronounced "Doh Dee", by the way) after Hindi Class. It was fantastic. So many vendors! So many books! I forgot about how exciting it is to go book shopping. Or even to go into a library and search through the millions: trying not to "judge a book by its cover", looking through the stacks and reading the first page to see if indeed it's a perfect match. Don’t get me wrong – I love my kindle to bits… But I have just rediscovered my love for book shopping.

Anyway, I brought home a small collection of English books:


I’ve been meaning to read the Mahabharat… but there are too many characters, too many settings... and thus I have had many failed attempts. I figured a Children’s version may help me out. The Basic Food Preparation book is a home-economics textbook that has some awesome Indian recipes. This will be useful one day… one day, when I have a real kitchen instead of my poor toaster oven and tea kettle. One day, when I have a stove. And spices. And a non-stick tephlon pan to fry all types of goodies…

I digress.

After coming home, I flipped through some of the non-Indian recipes and came across a fairly amusing one on page 48, in the ‘Breakfast’ chapter:

31) CORNFLAKES WITH MILK:

Serves – 1 Portion size – 1 bowl

Cornflakes – 20g/ ½ C
Milk – 240 ml/ 1 C
Sugar – 15 g / 1 T

1. Put the cornflakes in a soup bowl/soup plate.
2. Serve milk (hot or cold) and sugar separately.

Seriously? This the third edition of this book; shouldn't this recipe be edited out already?

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Being the studious Hindi student, I also picked up some great storybooks and workbooks in Hindi, to practice my reading and improve my vocabulary. They are for 7 year olds and the pictures are very deceiving. Take this picture for example:


If you were a 7-year old testing yourself, what would you guess the word would be? Mine was Poop. (I think in Hindi the word is “chi chi”. Or, maybe not. Maybe Chi Chi is a universal word?) In any case, the picture is of ginger. And I don’t know which 7 year old would ever use “adharak” in a sentence (they would be so much more likely to use “chi chi”), but there you go…

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Ooh and exciting updates on my food world:

• Yesterday, I indulged in a Mud Pie from a fabulous diner called Big Chill. I also ate fabulous mushroom and Parmesan Risotto. I think that’s my new favorite food.

• I ate at a place called Cocoberry today (equivalent to a pinkberry, except with frozen yogurt). It was delightful: I got a vanilla with kiwi, almonds and pomegranate. A perfect treat while it monsooned up a storm outside.

• Doddie and I went to an area called Defense Colony today, which is a posh area where they import all this stuff from across the world. Everything’s super expensive, but I gave in and bought: Skippy peanut butter ($3), Nutella ($4), Cream Cheese ($6), Nescafe Mocha packets ($6), and Minestrone Soup ($4). Plus, I went to a bakery and bought a loaf of wheat bread, a fudge brownie and chocolate donut. Heaven.

• Tomorrow, my some of my friends are hosting a potluck dinner and we’re all in charge of bringing stuff. I have decided to make dessert: Kiwi & Pomegranate Cheesecake bites.

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I think I am transitioning into a Fob really quickly, and I’m just not sure how I feel about this transition. I began to notice this yesterday, while I was shopping for a pair of new sandals. I came out of the store with THESE bad boys:


And I like them! Why? They’re “smart”, just like the guy at the store was telling me – they have a little wedge for height, so that I can avoid getting my feet wet in the puddles on the road, they’re plastic, so that I can rinse them out in the shower, and they’re black, so I can wear them with tons of stuff. I’ve begun to think like a Fob.

Incidence #2 was actually really upsetting:
I’ve stopped noticing beggars. Yesterday in the subway alley there was his naked kid just sleeping with his head down and Priya and Doddie noticed him and were really sad. And I just didn’t even see him. Am I a terrible person? Where’s my compassion gone?

I’m still really uncomfortable about how to deal with beggars. I feel so bad for them, but there’s just so many of them, it’s impossible to know what to do: when to give money, how much to give, etc. Most of the times, I don’t even look at them when they approach me; I don’t mean to be mean. Some of them are actually really mean – they group together, cling onto your bag, don’t let go of you… so it’s just really tough to know what to do. Especially when we’re not used to ignoring people.

The third reason I think I’m turning into a Fob: locals are talking to me in Hindi! I bargained with a guy at the market yesterday and I won! I am getting the non-tourist fares from the Rickshaw-walas (It was 40 Rs from Lajpat to New Friends today… and before they were charging me 70!).

If only I could convince the Kings of Monsoon: the mosquitos. Still can’t fool them. They seem to enjoy gnawing at my toes.

xx