chicken rolls

while i'm excited to eat food in america again one day soon, there is food to be missed on this side of the world too. chicken rolls, butter naan, black/green daal, chicken reshmi, khata meetha...it's "too good" as the Indians would say. today i ate the most amazing, satisfying chicken roll of all my time in india. it was simply fantastic. there is a little stall semi-near my flat, with people crowding around it ordering all kinds of greasy food. i ordered and watched the guys make approximately 15 rolls at once, touching everything with their bare hands. who knows when the last time they washed anything was? lemon juice was flying, some kind of special mystery sauce was squirted everywhere, onions were going in every direction. there was a point in my life when i would have been horrified seeing this food prepared knowing it would end in delhi belly, but today i was just fascinated watching them. and i've been eating here long enough to know it won't end badly anymore. thank you, india, for giving me a stomach of steel (for the most part). i'm going to miss you and your awesome(ly oily) food.

flower bazaar

people use a lot of flowers here when worshipping gods. hence, the need for an entire flower bazaar. i have no idea where the flowers come from. villages, maybe? vendors go early in the morning to buy and sell them throughout the city during the day. it all starts around 5am. by the time i was there, it was more like 6:45...all the craziness was over but there were still tons of flowers and people. perfect.

aren't they so cute sharing a newspaper?!



marigolds are commonly used in worship

this saddhu (Hindu holy man) asked me to take his picture and after I did and showed him, he pressed his hand on my forehead. that was unexpected.
here's a view from the bridge above the bazaar

friday the 13th

so i've been mia and i can't promise that's going to change considering i only have 11 days left in india and an endless to do list. but here's a little something to make you feel good if you think you live in a loud neighborhood, or have ever complained about dogs barking or something. our windows (11 stories up) were vibrating earlier. this is one of those things that won't be bittersweet to leave behind.



P.S. It's now 11pm and the music is as loud as ever :)