Holi Festival

Today is Holi festival. It started last night with the full moon. Lasts today and tomorrow. Last night, I visited Shankar Jadav and his "new" wife, Renuka and their almost 2 year old son, Aditya. They made a special meal with jaggery (unrefined raw sugar, like dry molasses) stuffed chapatis and khir(sweet milky rice with nuts), bindi (okra), pakoras, other fried snacks, rice and dahl. Very good. Today, people throw colored water and powder on each other. I left my friends in Aurangabad just before holi, but they annointed me with orange powder and then gave me the powder to color each of them as part of the parting ritual. Here in Pune, mostly college kids, families and kids celebrate. Many people do not. Also part of the tradition is to drink bhang water (hash tea) all day. Haven't sampled that yet.

Eating Well

Last night we went to a lovely restaurant in Nashik and ate quite well. This is called a thali plate. This style of dining is available in Santa Cruz, but nothing like this quality and quantity. You just arrive at the restaurant, called a "hotel" and sit down. The servers bring all the food and condiments and refill as you eat unless you are vigorous with your declinations. There were four more food items yet to come when this photo was taken: rice, puris (like chapatis, but fried), a sweet yoghurt dessert dish, another yoghurt dish with a ball of rice in the middle. The food was fabulous. Very high quality.