india: March 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Ugadi and dinner at Alem's

Ugadi is the Telegu New Year, which fell on Friday this year. A park called Shilparamom held an evening of performances and was packed with artisans and food vendors for the celebrations.

One of the catering restaurants at the event

dancers telling a story--with live musicians and singers (narrating?)

And the other night, I was invited to my friend Alem's apartment for a traditional Naga food dinner party, where I managed to eat the hottest chilli in the world! The food included Pork with bamboo, garlic and red chillis, a green salad, a tomato and chilli chutney, and rice with a potato and onion-type gravy. Delish.

That's Alem on the left, me, Achi, Kimi and Asang. (Moa's taking the picture) Achi and Asang are in my Econ class, and I met Alem when we worked on a song for church together.

Achi in Alem's kitchen

Taj Deccan!

The friends I've made here are golden, or just really love fine dining. The group took me out and we gorged ourselves silly at Taj Deccan yesterday, one of the classiest places in Hyderabad. We were celebrating my recent acceptance into LSE (write if you're interested, and I'll tell you the details) with a Sunday brunch including everything you can possibly imagine...literally, everything. We were served platters of lobster, prawns, shrimp, a variety of saltwater fish, middle eastern meats, grilled meats, parathas, made to order sushi--with all the platters in the middle of the table, there was barely enough room for the food from the massive buffet and all of our drinks from the open bar. The buffet...eurostyle breads, cheeses and salads, spreads, caviers, fruits, yogurts, a wide array of curries and meats...and then the individual stations...a kebab bar, a samosa bar, a waffle bar, a dosa bar, a pasta bar, the grilled meats and seafood bar, and then of course, the dessert bar. Shall I continue? I could easily describe each dish in detail... :) The picture above is Banks with one of our sushi platters.

9 of the 40-something gourmet desserts in the dessert corner. Andi and I tried every one, I think. If you know me, I hope you're not surprised.

Banks and one of his octopi (is that the plural for octopus?) They were actually quite delicious

Jens and Hakon starting on their first plates...

And Hyderabad had its first rain last week--Hakon and I were on our way to Yoga and were reeeeally excited, if you couldn't tell. I never knew clouds could make me so happy!

randoms from uni

Banks and I ventured into the city one night last week to attend a lecture one night followed by a panel discussion the next. The lecture was given by one of the best-known journalists in India, Kalpana Sharma (look her up, she's incredible) on the shortcomings in Indian media regarding coverage of minorities. She's worked all over Indian print news and currently has a column in the Hindu. The following night's panel included her and five other renowned women in Indian media--from actresses to anchors--discussing the evolving role of women in Indian media. In true upper-class Indian fashion, the event was lavishly catered and held in a beautiful art gallery. The picture above was taken behind a news camera, and the woman in the background is Kalpana.

Here's the full panel!

And now on to something entirely different...my room! Or my half, at least.

This is Sally--if you've read previous posts, you'll recognise her as Hakon's baby which Andi and I were delegated to decorate. Painted to match the rest of the indian autos... :)

Andi actually did learn to drive it--which is really quite impressive, considering it's manual with a slippery first gear and lacks an odometer, a speedometer and a gas guage.... :) The dew rag Hakon's wearing was a present from Jens in Goa and has since become his scootering uniform. We're the classy students of Tagore.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Holi!

I won't bother to explain Holi, but you can read about it here if you're interested. We celebrated on campus--mass chaos of colors and dancing. It was pretty neat. :) As you bike around campus throughout the day, students had stationed themselves alongside the road and would make you pull over so they could cover you some more. Holi was almost two weeks ago, and I still have a little red left in my hair... :)

This pic is of the guys at the end of the melee--see if you can decipher which of the following pictures are from the beginning of the celebration, and which are near the end...

The guys are all shirtless, after having their shirts ripped off of them in a crazy, powdered and paint dance party. (That's when Andi and I stepped aside and started taking pictures...)

Holi at GOPS

Beautiful, beautiful boy

And a beautiful, beautiful Andi!

and then a Hakon.

Holi party at GOPS--a square where we go for lunch and supper when we want real South Indian food.

All the white kids--although you'd never know!

Holi pics!

Charlie from DC

Hakon--the most photogenic person I've ever met. :)

At the beginning--a nice, light coloring. Soon to change.

The group of students who taught us how to Holi

Beautifying Justina

Campus Pics

I had a free hour the other morning, so I grabbed my camera and was going to try to cycle around and take pics of the campus. I started at the admin building and had taken about 20 pics before the camera died...so, more are to come, but hopefully this will give you an idea of how gorgeous some parts of campus are!