It Ain't No Joke

India is quite the experience. The realization that in the span of five months of being here I will see more of the country than my host family has seen in the entirety of their 70 years has set in. This is a humbling and privileged position. Privilege out of being a foreigner, a Westerner, whiteness and a participant in a such a program as ACM.
As October approaches, the other realization is I now have resided in Pune for the past six weeks. The summer progressed, and I maintained a certain surrealist mentality that India was approaching. Now, there has been a carryover affect. The initial impression of being in India that was instantaneous upon arrival in the Mumbai airport exists still. It’s become almost cliché to say, but I still cannot believe that India is my current place of residence.
Although I have had many of the same dishes served to me countless of times, I have not [yet…] gotten sick of having Indian food. There is enough variety in spices, combinations and ingredients that the list of dishes, even only those of Maharashtra, seems like an endless selection. Traveling throughout the state, I have been served the local specialties, such as potato bhaji (mixed vegetables) or fried dal, found nowhere else in India. Even within the castes of Maharashtra, the approach to food is resoundingly different. For example, chapati, a wheat bread similar to a thinner tortilla, is prepared uniquely depending on which household you visit. Thus, any Indian dish I have been served contains enough subtlety to confuse my tastebuds (plus, not really remembering the names of the dishes in the first place probably helps too).
The food I crave, such as hummus, kabob or a juicy-lucy, are fare that I have only been introduced to within the last year or so. The food of my childhood, such as a cheeseburger or potato salad, though always good for nostalgia, is commonplace according to my tastes and memories. A plethora of food options is always a good thing, and such is the reason why Indian food still has yet to disappoint.