Our new cook, Stella, made a delicious daal (lentil) dish for tonight, and Emma told me via Facebook that I should pick up some beer on the way home to go with it. Smart plan. There's a small boozery in the local hypermarket, but I couldn't be bothered to have Mahesh park and all the hassle of getting through the market - in the same way that you can't go into a Target store without spending under $100, you can't go to Hypercity without spending less than an hour.
There aren't many nice liquor stores around, so I thought I'd be adventurous and go to one of the hole-in-the-wall places on the way home. These are generally hut-type open-fronted buildings with a wall of different kinds of booze. One is right next to a busy bus stop so I reckoned it would probably be OK. As soon as I got inside I was hit by a wall of booze fumes, and there were loads of guys standing around just chugging down hard liquor. It really felt kind of wild west - one old geezer was standing at the counter slapping down coins or bills while the guy behind the counter was refilling his glass, all this done wordlessly. It was also really dark, but strangely with the general air of lawlessness it didn't feel threatening or anything, kind of like the rest of India.
I was sure I wouldn't be intimidated - I did go to university in Glasgow after all - and I went confidently to the counter and sign languaged to get four cold Kingfisher beers. No probs - the guy understood just fine and it was pretty cheap. Then I had to walk a block through the crowds to get to where Mahesh had the car waiting, jumped in, got home, and had my hard-earned beer with the deliciously warm and spicy lentils.
There aren't many nice liquor stores around, so I thought I'd be adventurous and go to one of the hole-in-the-wall places on the way home. These are generally hut-type open-fronted buildings with a wall of different kinds of booze. One is right next to a busy bus stop so I reckoned it would probably be OK. As soon as I got inside I was hit by a wall of booze fumes, and there were loads of guys standing around just chugging down hard liquor. It really felt kind of wild west - one old geezer was standing at the counter slapping down coins or bills while the guy behind the counter was refilling his glass, all this done wordlessly. It was also really dark, but strangely with the general air of lawlessness it didn't feel threatening or anything, kind of like the rest of India.
I was sure I wouldn't be intimidated - I did go to university in Glasgow after all - and I went confidently to the counter and sign languaged to get four cold Kingfisher beers. No probs - the guy understood just fine and it was pretty cheap. Then I had to walk a block through the crowds to get to where Mahesh had the car waiting, jumped in, got home, and had my hard-earned beer with the deliciously warm and spicy lentils.
... and I just got home from seeing "Cowboys and Aliens" at the Riverview Theater tonight - there's some synchronicity going on here. Well, sort of. Glad you braved the fumes!!
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