Day 4 (ariana)

We started the day with a presentation about India from Ms. Agarwal. Her presentation covered the general history and facts about India, like how many languages are spoken within, the geography as well as their national holidays. I found the presentation quite insightful fore I didn't know much about India to begin with. 

After the presentation we continued with the Indian theme and we watched a movie: “The mistress of spices.” This movie is actually based on a book that was written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, who will be visiting us next monday. The film was about a mistress of a spice shop who could utilize the mystical properties of Indian spices to aid her customers' problems. The fantastical oriental mystery element, often associated with Indian culture, paired with classic cheesy romantic bollywood vibes in a clearly Americanized vision set this film apart for me. To say the least, it was an interesting experience. 

With the conclusion of the movie our band of 14 set off to the Gandhi district for some lunch. We went to one of the most famous places in India town, Himalaya. This restaurant lines its walls with magazine mentions and celebrity visits. But they certainly have a perfectly valid unmatched reason to show off their reputation. The ingenious way they combined the spices and jam packed the food with flavor has your inner voice too occupied in deep thought, marveling at the scrumptiousness of the meal you have before you, deeming yourself unbefitting to have ever tasted such immaculacy in your first life; you could recognize the authenticity at first bite. Not only do they have traditional Food but they still make Indian fried chicken! (or so i’ve heard) Yes, the Indian fried chicken boom is still not over. But if you do go please be advised that anything you eat there is like a substitute for sleeping pills. I nearly passed out from the godly flavors alone. 

After the memorable visit to Himalaya we pulled up next door to visit an Indian market and conduct our scavenger hunt. Our mass of 14 barged right in and scavenged for, i'd say a solid hour. We may have had a few awkward occurrences but overall I feel the scavenger hunt was a wonderful way to gain insight from experience. 

I personally had never been to an indian market but i was surprised to see some similarities with small asian markets. I did get the opportunity to try some snacks from the market and I do have to say its an acquired taste. 

And with that our day can be concluded. Many of the activities we’d done were heavily centralized around Indian culture and I believe I was enlightened many a times today. And am excited to continue to be enlightened.   


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