Concerning A Flower Market, A Monkey God And Urdu Theater

Yesterday was an interesting day. Went out to look for an appartment and it seems that we are finalizing soon. I saw several and now we need to hassle a bit with the owners. Expect to inform you all tomorrow.

But that is not what this story is about. Last evening we went to see a theater play in Delhi. On our way, we had to stop at a local flower market, because some offerings needed to be made tomorrow by our female companion. While she stayed in the car, we, her husband and I, went to look for some nice flowers. He regretted taking me into the market, since when the sellers say me, the prices hiked immediately. It was a funny looking market and since it had been raining quite a bit, it was very muddy as well.

The flowermarket

Near the flowermarket I saw this enormous statue of some kind of local god, there were also several temples around. Of course, I had to make a picture after which I learned from my companions about Hanuman. This Monkey God is a central figure in a story about the struggle against some demon king. He also vowed to never marry so as to protect a prince & princess his whole life. Therefor, people who decide not to marry in India but sacrifice their lives to the greater good, pray to Hanuman.
We also got to talking about why the cow is holy for so many in India, but they could not give me a satisfying answer yet, even after consulting with their parents on the phone. So we'll get back to that. The one comment the mother of my companion gave was that she "just did not like people who eat cowmeat."

Hanuman, the monkey god, between the trees

When we finally arrived at the theater, we had to rush to make it in time to our seats, but then again, even the Indian theaters do not start on time. Although I did not understand a word of what was going on, it still was quite interesting and nice and the atmosphere was real good. It turned out to be a very funny story.... (you can read one of these so-called 'folktales of Rajasthan' here).
There were 2 men on stage who told a story that has been orally told for many centuries by the Urdu-speaking people of India. Only lately all such stories have been written down by scholars and are now being put on stage. Luckily for me, I could buy some of these stories in English translation, so I will be the last to laugh!

The actors on stage were friends of my companions and they all decided to go out for drinks & dinner. They brought along a Bollywood director and some other friends. We drank wodka from a water bottle, ate braincurry, butter chicken, grilled chicken, muttoncurry, naan, roti and ended up with the sweetest (literally) dessert I have ever tasted. All in all, a very fun and inspiring evening with fun and great people, who knew how to tell stories even off stage.

Palmtrees near the restaurant we ate

A Little Local Flavour

Ok, upon request a small item in English for my non-Dutch reading fans!

Today is a semi-national holiday in India, the end of Ramadan is being celebrated during the so called Eid-festival. It is not a national holiday, so not everybody is off today. If the Indians would grant all religions in their country to have their sacred holidays as a national holiday, no one would ever work (not that they seem to work so much anyway..).

We had a meeting though and after that we went for lunch (at around 17:30). My companion suggested I would try the famous brain-curry. How could I refuse? The place he had picked he had not been to for the past 3 years, so when we entered, even he had to admit it was a little dilapidated, broken mirrors on the wall, dirty floors etc.

The take-away window of the restaurant

But it would be good, he promised. Luckily we also gotten the butter chicken curry, so I would have at least something I would eat. Once served, you cannot see that is is brains on your plate, but the thought of it makes you not want to start, at least I did not. But what the heck. It tasted strong, meaty and was overall not bad.

Curry made out of sheep-brain

In and out this place in about 30 minutes we drove on. Discussing on our earlier meeting, I suddenly see a monkey climbing the electricity poles in the center of Delhi. And then I started wondering what it was that I ate......

The restaurant we ate at in central Delhi: "National"


It was also the first monkey I had ever seen in the wild.
So maybe not a little, but a lot of local flavour today....