july 3-7: World Cup soccer, dead men, and healthy meal portions

Above picture: Who says Indians can't rock the 'fro?

All the World Cup soccer games were on very late here. They all started between 10:00pm-12:30am. So, this meant that I had to find a restaurant or bar to watch games. This gave me a chance to mix with the locals and have some very interesting conversations. After the Germany-Italy game, I went to dinner with a guy Jayaram, who does marketing for a German diagnostics firm. Dinner consisted of flying around on his scooter trying all kinds of different foods. We made like five different stops and he firmly insisted on paying for everything.

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I saw my first, and as of now, only, obese Indian while walking around town after work. Obese people are not to be found. They have the healthy portion thing down to a science.

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I am mostly working on a study at the Bridge Foundation. I work closely with another woman, Preethi, who is a lawyer by profession. Sometimes we do work at TBF and sometimes we do work at Preethi's office.

I was at Preethi's office when some very loud, live music started playing down the street. The live music would slowly come toward us, stop, and then loud firecrackers would go off for 30 seconds. This cycle happened over and over until they were under the office window. When the music was under the office window I looked down and saw a parade. The first line of people set off the firecrackers, the next four rows played instruments, and then large cows followed pulling a covered wagon. The wagon carried many shouting, happy people and in its center laid a dead man, exposed to the open air. It was a Hindu funeral procession.

Lesson of the day: Hindus know how to have a funeral. When I die, I want to go out Hindi-style.