Reminders of home ...sort of.

To state the obvious, India and the US are different in almost every way. But sometimes I am surprised at how much certain things remind me of home. Here's a partial list of these things:

1. Tiffin roti = shmurah matzah

At TERI, you can order a tiffin for lunch. This food is supposedly "home-cooked" and delivered to TERI in neat lunchboxes called tiffins. It's a pretty good deal, because it's a lot of food for only 35 rupees, or 75 American cents. A tiffin looks like this (image taken from Google Images, not my own):


Each section of the tiffin comes with a different food. TERI's tiffin service gives us four compartments. One has plain white rice, two have subzi (vegetables)--usually one rajma (kidney beans), daal (lentils), or chole (chickpeas) and one mix veg, aloo gobhi (potato and cauliflower), kofta (veg ball), or paneer--and one has a yogurty desert. My favorite subzi combination, of course, is daal and paneer. Yum!

The tiffin also comes with 4 small roti (flat round bread). These roti are less than yum, unfortunately. Today, I finally figured out what this particular roti tastes like: shmurah matzah. For those of you who don't know what shmurah matzah is, it's like super-duper-kosher circular matzah (bread that doesn't rise, looks like a big cracker) that tastes like crunchy burnt cardboard. Delicious? Well, this roti tastes like that, minus the crunchiness. (Note: usually roti is quite good. It is just this tiffin.)

2. Autorickshaws = Mario Kart

My brother Ben pointed this one out to me. We were riding in an auto from CP (Connaught Place) back to Jangpura, and he said, "Riding in an auto is like being inside a Mario Kart game. You try to get ahead of everyone else, dodge and weave in and out of other vehicles, and the background moves at about the same speed. I feel like I should throw a banana peel on the road!" (Don't worry, Mom, he didn't.)

3. Bollywood = Hollywood

You may think Bollywood should remind me more of Broadway due to the extended dance scenes. But I'm not really talking about the movies here, because I think they actually are quite different. Instead, I'm referring to the media's love for Bollywood "heros and heroines." The public is just as obsessed with celebrities here as at home, and the paparazzi is just as insane.

4. Auto pimps = actual pimps

Because both auto pimps and actual pimps control corners. See a previous post about Jangpura.

5. Cricket = Baseball

They both involve a bat, and they're both boring.

6. Will = Josh

I have been trying to figure out for months who Will reminds me of. Friday night I went to see a Bollywood movie with him, and it hit me: he's an Indian version of my cousin Josh! I can't put my finger on why; he's not a Cubs fan (in fact I would be shocked if he's seen even one baseball game--he doesn't even like India's baseball equivalent!), he doesn't want to be a doctor, he doesn't handle the cold well, etc. I think maybe he kind of looks like him. ...but Indian.

7. Diwali = Chanukah

Ok, not really, but both are called "Festival of Lights." That has to count for something.

I might add to this list as I think of more things that remind me of home. Or, more likely, I'll totally forget about it. To any fellow expats reading this, I would love to hear what random things remind you of home!