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Indian Food Restaurant!
nearby Grameen Koota and Nandi Gardens. Yuko and Yaozahs would just like to proudly announce, “Second day completed… and we're still explosive diarrhea free!” The only battle scars of India have been Emily Y’s ferocious mosquito bites that have infected her entire left arm in swollen splotches of grotesqueness. Yuck!
Our second day started early, and by early, we mean 4am when Emily G woke up in the hotel room with a bad case of Jet Lag. Despite our 9:30am report time, we were all up rather early to munch on some Parle-Gs and toast, and spy on the beginning of yet another wedding outside our Hotel room. After being denied a rickshaw with a shake of head (yet again!!), the hotel staff managed to help us out, and we rickshawed off to work!
At Grameen Koota, we went over our task distributions for the project with Vikash. Vikash shook his head frequently, and as we all grew nervous about his constant disapproval, Jelena frantically tried to explain ourselves. Halfway through, we reached an epiphany! As we realized that Vikash’s “head shaking” was equivalent to “agreement nodding”, soon everything made sense! And it was slightly relieving to know that our failure in life—sorry, I meant catching
rickshaws—stemmed from cultural misinterpretation.
Then, we dispersed into our own cubicles to start some hard-core research! (Emily G: Market Research/Field Coordination; Jelena: Human Resource Capacity; Yuko: Competitor Analysis; Emily Y: International MFI Case Studies) But as noon approached, the sun grew hotter and our cubicles stuffier (the random blackouts that turned off the electric fans didn’t help), we all found ourselves growing lethargic…very, very sleepy… and productivity at a null… a perfect time for a lunch break!
Vikash hailed a rickshaw for us, and gave instructions to our driver to take us to a nearby hotel for lunch. Instead, we ended up at a slightly sketch, but awesome, outdoor curry shack/hut called “Roti Land!”- the kingdom of yummy Indian carbs. Jelena made the rule that we all had to be adventurous and order something we’ve never heard of on the menu. The conversation with the waiter sounded something like this:
Emily G: Can we order the Egg Byori?
Waiter: (Shakes Head)
Emily G: No Egg Byori? Umm… the vegetable byori?
Waiter: (Shakes Head)
Emily G: Um… you guys are out of the vegetable? Uh, uh… the vegetable kadai?!
Waiter: (Shakes Head)
Emily G: Um… Naan? You guys have Naan?!
Somewhere
Vikash and his Dosa
and a bit of Yuko and Jelena :) in the middle of the conversation, the lesson learned earlier today finally sunk in, and Emily completed the challenging task of ordering lunch (in other words, trying extremely hard not to giggle with every wild head-shakin’)
After lunch, we confronted Vikash about this head-shakin’ business. Wild-eyed, he was surprised that he, as a North Indian, had begun to unconsciously absorb some South Indian quirks, and since then, has tried to limit his head-shakin’. ....But we still see that head shake, Vikash!!!
After work, Vikash invited us to his apartment in Nandi Gardens (where we will be staying at tomorrow night) five minutes away. We chilled, “broke ice”, and discovered a secret side of a 25-year-old romantic, as Vikash treated us to a poetry reading in Hindi! “Struggles, oh struggles!” After learning that he’s never heard rap or hip hop, we agreed to have a (scandalous) American dance party in the office sometime in the future. On our way out of Nandi Gardens, we met his “Aunty”—only the most darling woman on the planet!!! If you were to roll all the sugar and cuteness of the ideal grandma into a perfect ball of Indian goodness, you’d get Aunty. Despite the fact
at the office!
we have frickin'sweet cubicles! that none of us had any clue what was being said or what was going on; by the time we left, we were covered in smooches and hugs and lots of hands-holding! To complete the evening, Vikash treated us to some yummy dosas and MANGO LASSI at the restaurant across from Grameen Koota. Future Note: Masala Dosa equals crispy and fluffy and curry-filled carbs of heaven. As we got onto the rickshaw, a few men stared at us, and a little boy kept running around chanting something. Half-jokingly, Emily G asked “Vikash, are they talking about us?” And when we saw Vikash shrug and lightly smile, we all burst into a GIGANTIC FIT of nervous giggles… which we realized, soon after, was probably not the wisest way to detract attention…
PS: Where in the Bangalore is Justin Hurst?!
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Ryan
non-member comment
shit shit i want to be there before all of the cultural misinterpretations end. oh and justin hurst is hailing 747s, probably somewhere in europe by now