Bikaner, Part 3.

Whooh, man, what can I say? India is quite the place, huh ??

Today I had a cool day, the host in the homestay offers two day trips, the car one, and the motorcycle one. It’s a cool quirk of fate that to my understanding, Royal Enfield motorbikes aren’t really a thing in the UK. But in lots of other places they seem pretty common. So we got on our Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 and went off. I’ve never been on one of those before, it was a sick-ass motorbike. Traffic police stopped us in the middle of a roundabout, but it turns out he just wanted to compliment the host on his motorbike. On a scale from 1 to India, that’s totally full India.

And yeah, it was great to have the day with someone that knows lots of stuff. He’s super religious and knows a lot about history and Indian culture, so I could ask him all of the little questions. And I had a LOT.

How many gods are there?

Buddhism comes from India, but why aren’t there more Buddhists?

I see lots of people eating sachets of powder. What’s that?

Why is that boy riding a horse covered in brightly coloured chainmail?

It looks like the goddess Durga is holding lots of things in her hands. What do they mean?

When you entered the temple, you did that movement with your hand… yeah, that one. What does it mean?

What’s in this kachori?

What did that dude just say?

Why won’t women look at me?

How much milk can you get out of a zebu?

Why did you just use your left hand to eat that?

I saw someone collecting poo-cakes. Why?

What are the politics like between India and Sri-Lanka?

Why does Ganesha have an elephant’s head?

How do you eat the betel leaf?

What does that line mean on the forehead? How about the circle? The three lines?

Can you explain a swastik again?

Why did you break the clay cup after drinking?

How many royal families does India have?

Why did he count out five grains of sugar to give me in the temple?

What year is it on the Hindu calendar?

Why did you take your belt off before we went in?

Why is she wearing all red?

What do the coconuts and string mean?

And on, and on, and on… safe to say I got my money’s worth in food, culture and religion today.

I also hit my 95th food tried here. I meant to write this post yesterday where I was gonna write about number 90, the “afghani malai paneer tikka” which was epic, but instead I’ll stick with 95, the betel… leaf. Basically, he answered one of my questions about dudes spitting and eating stuff, and told me we could go and try the thing people have. This dude that apparently usually wears 1.5kg of solid gold and sits cross-legged at a counter on the side of the road. He has these big leaves, and they have a brown paste spread on. Then he puts on a fruit mix, then another, then another, then a dried spice, and another. Then he puts on some honey, wraps it up, and you put it in your mouth and just leave it there.

It was my first time trying the betel leaf, and while it’s technically not a real food or drink, it was so unique I had to give it a number on my list of things. The whole mix is like… refreshing like mint, endlessly sweet due to the fruits and honey… spicy, pungent and… kinda like edible… flowery, it’s got roses? And maybe some fennel… honestly man, it’s probably the most Indian thing I’ve ever had. It’s just so Indian. I like it quite a lot, but it’s a sweet tasting addictive stimulant, so like… why wouldn’t I, I guess ??

We saw lots of gods and goddesses. My favourite is Kali, my second favourite is Durga. Kali looks mean and quite cool, Durga looks friendly but quite cool. I like to think Kali would enjoy heavy metal, she looks like the type who would ??

One of the many questions I asked him was about some dude’s trousers. My host said “we call the trousers pajama” and I thought to myself, damn! This cross-cultural pollination goes deep, huh?!

He told me sanskrit words we use in English, that was cool too. Cool day man, cool day.

Definitely helped me take my mind off the potential poordom I am soon to embrace. Hmmmm. How can I complain? I started off last January expecting to last a few months, and here I am on month 14. Okay, so I might be a poory mcpoorface for a bit. But... ah, who cares?

So here's a great example of how different India is when I say it's different:

Yesterday after finishing eating in a restaurant the waiter gave me two bowls. One had giant grains of what looked like sugar, the other had a spice in. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I asked him. He didn’t speak English, so directed me to the manager. The manager walked me through the process, the right amounts of each to use.

It was a palate cleanser.

How alien I must seem to the people here, someone marvelling at and photographing what to them is essentially an after-dinner mint. His wife was there just dumbstruck

It’s sooooo different here, soooooo different. I’m loving the sheer depth of culture here. There’s just so much of it. I like different quite a lot.

I'm super impressed with India, I really am. I've gotta come back to a different part, I'll visit the south next time.

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