Today I made a pretty big ass of myself at the office in front of my colleagues.
I am not sure if I have already mentioned this really cool standard practice here but there really are guys in my office who bring around tea and water to all of us throughout the day just like in the film Slumdog Millionaire (sorry, my Indian friends, but it is a really famous reference!!). In our office we have two guys and one lady who help out throughout the day, make and serve tea, etc. They are very sweet, very helpful and always have a smile.
So today when one of the guys came around with a tray that held a big bowl of yummy looking puffed rice with herbs and two bowls containing respectively chunks of rock sugar candy and small sweets I reached in to try some when he passed by my desk. I told him that the puffed rice mix was tasty so he decided he was going to leave me some to eat (so sweet, right??). What happened next was that he basically made the human hand equivalent of a crane and reached down into the bowl, took out a big handful, and left it on a sheet of paper I had on my desk. I was also left several bits of rock candy and the sweets. Yum yum.
WELL, after he walked away I turned to Romi who sits next to me and said something along the lines of “I love the afternoon snacks, this is great” …in my very American accent. And as Romi kindly started to explain that this isn’t a snack mix, my colleague Paromita who sits behind me starts rolling with laughter. I turn around and she basically says that she couldn’t hold it in, that this isn’t a snack at all and that is came from the guys who went to Temple for prayer and it is a Prasad — literally translated it means “a gracious gift”, anything, usually edible, given by a saint. And bless Romi, he was trying to explain it without laughing. Oh Holy Cow!!! I bet that was the first of many mistakes I will make as I settle into my new life in India.
Today I looked at 3 more flats here in Bangalore — that makes 9 now. Each time I visited one that I felt had promise I took a video of it for my daughter. This afternoon I uploaded my favourites to youtube and had a conference call with my daughter to democratically discuss our options and choose our top choice. And it makes me smile to say this: we both have the same favorite 🙂 I placed bids on each one and am negotiating through agencies now, so please keep your fingers crossed that things go well and tomorrow we will have our new home in India.
Since it is raining this evening I decided to tuck into the hotel room and order Chinese, work a bit and open the AMAZING bottle of Rey Noble Platinum that my sweet ex employee Fran gave me as a bon voyage gift — thank you chickkeee!!! ((readers, you have to try this Spanish wine if you can, it is AMAZING!! http://www.vinicolacorellana.com/)).
I am still on European time and finding it hard to fall asleep and, alternatively, wake up with the time difference but hope my body acclimates soon! Mama wants to be back on a normal schedule soon 😉
XOXO from Bangalore
© Angela Carson, Angela’s Adventures in Bangalore blog and photos, 2011
Hello Angie, so sweet that you mention the wine in your post and above all I am happy that you enjoyed it 😉 I keep fingers crossed for the flat hunt and keep following your stories. Rock on! xoxo from BCN Fran
Wonderful blog. I’ve been reading the about you page and I have a few questions; 1) Although completely AWSOME, why so many moves (Mexico, Spain, and now India)? 2) how did you choose these places, were they work, passion, or another more complex reason? Regarding your job what’s a BPO company and how did you get involved with Cricket? All joking aside you should write a book because from what little I’ve seen you’ve got one hell of a story.
Thanks for your time it’s GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Cheers
Hi, thanks so much for the kind words. And I just started writing my book — I’m at the part where I’m just about to arrive to Mexico 🙂 To answer your questions: 1) Is 3 a lot of moves? I have friends who’ve lived in many more countries than I have so I guess I never really thought about it. When I stay still too long I become a bit bored. 2) I moved to Mexico because I fell in love with a Mexican boy when I was holiday there, Spain – I ended up there after buying a one-way ticket to Amsterdam one summer after passing through France and northern Spain via Eurorail, and India was purely for work. 3) I’m friends with the owner of a cricket team and he needed help with his marketing and PR (I’m a VP of marketing and PR for high tech start ups). After that I started going to meetings at the association, made friends with some cricketers and because I have a weekly column in one of the newspapers I write about cricket cuz it’s fun 🙂 My email address is easy to find on my blog so reach out to me if you like (sorry but as a general rule I deleted your email address from comment). Cheers, angela
No worries. I will defenately try and get ahold of you. As a start up (with which you seem to have experience) I am always looking for advice, feedback, and any help I can find (this is my first time). If you don’t mind I’d like to pick your brains a bit. Thanks again.
Cheers, Arthur
Ha ha. You should go to a mandir on Tuesday and have the boondi prashad or go to a gurudwara and have prashad there. Delish!
hehe, I’m not sure I’m going to do that anytime soon but will keep it in mind 🙂
Prasad, leaving the true translation aside, is any consecrated item. Its consecrated by the virtue of offering… usually consumed afterwards if its edible 🙂 …. Welcome to India,originally called Bharth 🙂 . Wish a happy and a fulfilling life…
You?? It’s happened so many times with me.. But yeah I do understand once someone says it’s Prasad.. 🙂 Being a catholic it doesn’t come naturally to me and at times I think what’s the right way to have it without making a fool of myself. Whenever there was a puja(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja_(Hinduism)) at our neighbour’s home it meant sweet time for me.. 😀
I love pujas … but I’ve typically been fed fruit around those ceremonies. You’re lucky with the sweets! Although sadly when my laptop was puja’d there were no snacks at all 🙁 haha (Read that here: http://angelacarson.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/my-blessed-laptop/ ) Cheers! ange
It depends from region to region. (you might have been given fruits so that you do not put on extra weight :P) Have you heard of Tirupati in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh? People who visit this temple come back with the prasad called Tirupati Ladoo which is mindblowing. You should ask your colleagues about it.
P.S. Please do not tempt me into reading your posts by explicitly giving out links. 😛 I am trying to hold back myself from finishing off the entire blog in a day… 🙁
hahaha okay deal, no more links. And will ask colleagus about tirupati ladoo 🙂 –ange