Funky Food, Solar Eclipse and Miss Super Hot

The other night, we went for a Rajasthani all-you-can-eat feast. Half the things shoved in my mouth, I had no idea what it was.

I felt absolutely overwhelmed in just about 20 minutes of sampling each little dish. The meal was an incongruous mixture of spicy and sweet, tart and buttery, salty and bitter, and more flavors that just numbed me. After the whole thing, my plate looked pretty much the same as when I started.

The meal ended with a minty wad of pan leaves. You're supposed to chew on this stuff slowly to cleanse your mouth of all the crazy flavors of the meal prior. I chewed too quickly and got a burst bitter medicine taste that stayed in my mouth for like 20 minutes! Not to mention the remaining specs of leaves that stayed lodged in my teeth for the rest of the evening. I eventually got the chew speed right but I really won't be trying it the next time its offered to me.

Pretty soon after leaving the restaurant, while our rickshaw sped through the cold night air, I had a sudden feeling that I would have to suffer for this special experience. And I did ... brutally.

Here are some lighter morsels of goodness...

The solar eclipse happened on the 15th between noon and 4pm. At the time, I was at the Bhopal's University of Technology meeting a professor, whose students will be helping us survey the project I'm working on. A crowd of students were looking through a welding mask to look at the sky. I was offered an xray sheet thing and took this shot through it. This is the only point in the transition I was able to catch, unfortunately.

And I found this in the paper a few mornings ago. Women have different needs around here.

In relation to this, I accidentally purchased a "lightening" creme from the store and realized a week after the fact. No wonder I'm not tanning.

Cha-pati Time!

I love these things to death. Some call them Roti or Chapati, I call them heaven and often eat them plain.

So many different varieties, they can be made from an array of flours, with or without spices . The coolest part is how they are cooked.

Magical!

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I'm a Spice Girl

This is a masala (mix) of spices that is essential in any Indian kitchen. Though, not restricted by the bounds of the kitchen either.

For example: a little aloe and some turmeric (on my embarrassing bike accident) makes an instant scab and disinfects too!

Another example: Chickpea flour, turmeric, sesame oil and milk makes a natural body scrub. Apply on damp skin and rub off when dry! I was super excited to try this on my chapped and parched skin (due to India's arid winter climate).

It sort of worked. I've been too lazy to keep up the regiment, especially when the hot water only lasts for about 2 minutes, but it sure was fun that one time!

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Morning Stroll

I woke at 7 on a foggy morning, way too early even for a work day, and decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood.

This is the street I live on.

But, in this building.

And these are some typical morning scenes around my hood.

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I definitely need to make it a mission to get to know the city more by foot. Since the weekday evenings get dark early and women don't go out alone after 6pm, I've only really seen the old, central part of Bhopal on site visits. And so far, the weekends have been jam packed with excursions out of the city. In fact, this weekend, I will be trekking out into a national park to observe some wildlife and even live with a native tribe for 2 days. Super pumped.

Hopefully, in the few weekends I have left, I can get to do some more urban exploring. Mumbai, and the Golden Triangle (Agra, Jaipur and Delhi) are on the agenda. Varanasi is looking probable. But it's pretty apparent that I will have to come back to India again. There are too many places and the country is huge!

For now, I am definitely enjoying my exclusive, non-touristy tour of Mahdya Pradesh, a State that is hardly ever visited by foreigners but has one of the most lush and diverse landscapes of the entire country. So stay tuned!

Up and Down in Pachmarhi Town

Ascending and descending, flaming hot and icy cold. The hill town of Pachmarhi was an exhilarating retreat surprisingly similar to a weekend at the cottage back home. But of course, I'm in India.

We drove a hefty 300 km and 5 hours south-east of the city, a ride that left me dizzy and on edge. I guess I still haven't gotten used to the ridiculous race of the road yet. Pachmarhi sits on the plateau of a mountain range, so our approach to the town was windy and steep. Though the road was much less frequented than the main road traversed for the majority of the journey, the honking prevailed. Actually, the honking was actually perfectly justified on this tightly curved road if no where else.

For my very first breakfast in Pachmarhi, I had paratas stuffed with potato and other spicy things with ketchup and fried chickpea bits. This was probably the most delicious of all the Indian dishes I've had so far.



There was, of course, more farmland.



And some lovely kids, who were extremely shy, but came around after I showed them their photos.

So, the main event in Pachmarhi was a trek down into the crevice....



...way down there.



And off we went on what was the most glorious day. Sunny, 26 degrees. Perfect.

After about 3 hours of climbing up and down the rocky volcanic slopes, we came to this sweet little spot where 3 rivulets converged. This was a point of intersection of three waters of different temperatures and mineral content, resulting in a diverse emergence of soils and plant life. There were rocks, pebbles, mud and even a patch of sandy beach. Perfect rest stop.











On our way through the forest, we encountered a few groups of women and kids who were collecting lumber and stripping bark for weaving.

After about another hour of hiking, we made our way out of the valley, just in time for some para-gliding!



Then it was a stop at the sunset point where many residents and local tourists come for the best view in the state, or country! I could hardly tell what were mountains and what were clouds. Just magical.

The next day, we went for a bike ride into town. Out of the 10000 population, about 8000 military recruitments living in the many cantonments of Pachmarhi. We passed a field along the road that was carpeted by sheets and uniforms.





We also made a quick stop to see a local protestant church. It was decorated like a Chinese restaurant.



The center of the town was a tiny dense concentration of shops and guesthouses. What used to be mostly slums 10 years ago is now replaced with tacky concrete hotels.



The whole downtown area took about 3 minutes to walk through and we encountered this audacious fella trying to get a seat in a cafe.



Soon, it was time to head back to the city. And as almost always, there's something interesting along the way.

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Snaps