A dog is a very unassuming dinner companion and mine is no exception. Quietly slinking in, sharing my leftovers silently from under the table, she looks up at me with deep, dark, appreciative eyes. Now she is napping contentedly with a belly full of my seafood sizzler. Mom, remember the seafood sizzler? My first meal in Arambol today. Calamari, prawns and some kind of fresh whitefish, all sizzled with vegetables and pommes frites nestled in a cabbage leaf atop a steaming sizzling hot plate. You can’t get around this dish on your own.... ever, so i am grateful for my unexpected canine companion, showing up perfectly on time to enjoy the leftovers. So graceful and polite, this dog has accepted delicate morsels fed from my hand more gently than my own dog at home who is VERY particular about what she puts in her mouth (except when it is dug up from the previous spring, right Eve?).
One would think that a stray Goan beach dog would be ravenous and rude, but my dinner date has exhibited exquisite table manners as she delicately and without touching me, takes her fish morsels from my hand. I am reminded of the immense beauty and grace of the natural world as i observe her. Mmmmm, now she is peacefully sleeping at my feet under the table. No one disturbs her. No one knows she is there but me. Mmmm. And so it is that we both enjoy the crashing of the waves on the rocks below us and the peace of no one bothering us.
Hmmm, wanna hear something funny? Nakul you will appreciate this. I just finished having dinner at this “family” restaurant. Very delicious. Very good energy. And i have moved inside to where there is a power outlet and hopefully free wi-fi so i can go online. Around me are wives and children and babies, the family of the men who run or own the restaurant, clearly. This is a good vibe. So here is the funny part: After much effort to get my power cord and adapter to work here, i find that... i am right in the middle of the EXACT same Indian soap opera that we play at our house every afternoon in Laxman Jhula that the women are so addicted to in my house in rishikesh. Ha ha ha. So i feel right at home :D big smiles.
:D
Mmmm, as i sit here, waiting for them to figure out how to get the internet working, sitting amongst mothers and children and feeling quite at home with that, i reflect. I realize that i have learned many things. I have learned how to make quite a “proper” cup of Indian chai, i have learned how to serve dinner in quite a proper and appropriate way, I have learned many things, in my four months so far.
And its funny, because i ALMOST know what’s happenin on this Indian soap opera i have been watching for so long. I feel like i know the characters. How bizarre.
WEll, at least it is helping the time to pass quickly while i wait for them to fix the internet. I think i might be becoming addicted too ;)
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