Friday, April 02, 2004
Going native
Yesterday I posted about being able to get a good night's (day's?) sleep. Well, I jinxed myself hardcore. I'm operating on one and a half hours of sleep right now. If that.
Every Friday, my training class has a special way of dressing. It's usually picked the day before during class, and can be everything from jeans and company t-shirt, all black, or traditional Indian. Anyway, today all of the girls were supposed to have mehendi tattoos on their hands. Now, I had mehendi done the first time I came to India, and it took about thirty minutes. But I just happened upon that mehendi artist. I wasn't sure where to get it done for today.
I called the hotel beauty shop, but they are no longer offering mehendi. They directed me to sister hotel Taj Banjara. I figured I would get there around 10:30, be back at the hotel by noon, and sleep until five, when I was expected for dinner with the director of my department.
How wrong I was. Here in India, nothing goes according to schedule. Even though my hotel had called in advance, the mehendi artist wasn't there. After thirty minutes of waiting, she finally showed up. Three hours later, she finished. This being a pretty nice hotel, it cost me about $40. I think the first time I did it, it cost about $5. But whatever.
The only other customer in the salon while I was there was a young woman getting a blowout. Turns out she's some Bollywood heroine. She was pretty self-important, talking into her cellphone about being on a shoot and whatnot. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand her name when the shop owner told me. I'll investigate and get back to you.
My coworker K. has her digital camera with her, and she was kind enough to take this picture of my hands:
Nice, eh?
Anyway, we went to different at a new (to us, anyway) restaurant called Angeethi, which is North Indian/Punjabi cuisine. It was very spicy but yummy. The restaurant was closed, because Indians eat very late, and we were there at 5pm. But they were able to open up and serve us from a limited menu. We had some mutton biryani (which is actually a Hyderabadi specialty), another lamb dish, some chicken curry, and yummy prawns. I slept for a little after dinner, and now I'm at work, with stinky hands (the smell of the henna is disgusting), wearing a sari.
Yesterday I posted about being able to get a good night's (day's?) sleep. Well, I jinxed myself hardcore. I'm operating on one and a half hours of sleep right now. If that.
Every Friday, my training class has a special way of dressing. It's usually picked the day before during class, and can be everything from jeans and company t-shirt, all black, or traditional Indian. Anyway, today all of the girls were supposed to have mehendi tattoos on their hands. Now, I had mehendi done the first time I came to India, and it took about thirty minutes. But I just happened upon that mehendi artist. I wasn't sure where to get it done for today.
I called the hotel beauty shop, but they are no longer offering mehendi. They directed me to sister hotel Taj Banjara. I figured I would get there around 10:30, be back at the hotel by noon, and sleep until five, when I was expected for dinner with the director of my department.
How wrong I was. Here in India, nothing goes according to schedule. Even though my hotel had called in advance, the mehendi artist wasn't there. After thirty minutes of waiting, she finally showed up. Three hours later, she finished. This being a pretty nice hotel, it cost me about $40. I think the first time I did it, it cost about $5. But whatever.
The only other customer in the salon while I was there was a young woman getting a blowout. Turns out she's some Bollywood heroine. She was pretty self-important, talking into her cellphone about being on a shoot and whatnot. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand her name when the shop owner told me. I'll investigate and get back to you.
My coworker K. has her digital camera with her, and she was kind enough to take this picture of my hands:
Nice, eh?
Anyway, we went to different at a new (to us, anyway) restaurant called Angeethi, which is North Indian/Punjabi cuisine. It was very spicy but yummy. The restaurant was closed, because Indians eat very late, and we were there at 5pm. But they were able to open up and serve us from a limited menu. We had some mutton biryani (which is actually a Hyderabadi specialty), another lamb dish, some chicken curry, and yummy prawns. I slept for a little after dinner, and now I'm at work, with stinky hands (the smell of the henna is disgusting), wearing a sari.
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