Memories of India - The Dinner

Traffic last night was so crazy even the driver was laughing. We got to one spot and had to turn around due to construction which put us on a main street with more vehicles than I've ever seen in one place attempting to actually move. There was less than a foot to the right of the car and motorcycles were whizzing by anyway, their handlebars missing the mirror by a fraction of an inch. There was a bus stop on the opposite side of the street and that had traffic in an absolute gordian knot. We had to navigate past all this mess, make a U-turn through the opposing lanes, and pass the bus stop to get to our restaurant. This was our celebratory team dinner and the food was totally worth the drive.

When we arrived at Angeethi restaurant the director declared "you both need a beer immediately" and the required beverages magically appeared. The restaurant was themed in Punjabi style and the waiters wore long green tunics with turbans and feathers. Evidently this is traditional garb in Punjab which is the center of the Sikh faith. According to one of my colleagues the Sikh are both a warrior caste and a religious sect. They share communal meals, a rarity here, and are monotheistic. Their faith emphasizes a personal search for relationship with Vahiguru, or god, through meditation, good works and asceticism. Their devotion to justice led them to defend the Hindu people against various invaders and they have a warrior tradition. Marriages in this part of the world include a procession where the groom, carrying a sword, goes to his bride's home and brings her back to be by his side. Punjab originally stretched across what is now India and Pakistan prior to partition, this is a source of conflict deeply rooted in the Sikh experience.

The food just kept coming, first plates full of small samosas served with a delicious sauce. Then rolled appetizers filled with cheese and some kind of vegetable. After we had gorged ourselves on several helpings of these they brought out naan with four or five different sauces for dipping. One was a Dal of some kind, lentils cooked in sauce, that was my favorite. They brought out kebobs of chicken, onion and other vegetables that was incredibly spicy and equally delicious. I'm afraid I ate too much of this and suffered a bit this morning. After the kebobs came a chicken curry that was out of this world. We ate and ate and ate....

While we were eating the director gave us a primer on cricket which he describes as the national religion. It really is, we see cricket on TV everywhere we go. Interestingly enough it is not the national sport, that is reserved for field hockey which everyone agrees has been largely forgotten here. One of the people he brought along is a serious cricket player and has been since college, he explained a lot of the finer points we would have totally missed. The sport is no more complicated than American baseball although it has different rules. It can be exciting to watch, the bowler (e.g. pitcher) runs up to the line and throws the ball overhand. The bat is flat and square, it is held downward and the swing seems a bit awkward to watch. Like anything else it is an acquired skill. Clearly I will need to learn more about cricket to be socially accepted in Indian circles as it is a dominant topic of conversation here. Soccer is also important but cricket rules. Last year the team lost in the finals rather early and the police had to guard the players, one was even killed. Since the endorsements have so much financial value and generate business many people were financially impacted when the finals didn't last as long as expected and this led to a signficant amount of social unrest.