An Evening of Dinner and Dancing @ Rahul's

Paul's driver Rahul Rajput is getting married on Thursday. His mother invited us over dinner tonight. Paul and I thought it would be a simple, awkward affair to meet the family and eat a nice home cooked vegetarian meal. We arrived at Rahul's home promptly at 8 pm. Of course, we were the first to arrive. We were greeted by his mother, who performed a quick pooja and gave us tikka on our foreheads. We entered the home and we were served kesari, a hot sweet milk dish with vermicelli noodles, raisins, and cashew nuts. After eating our sweet, we were ushered outside to the tented area and the dance party began. Apparently, the intent of the evening was to teach us some Bollywood dance moves! Rahul's sister graciously and patiently taught me some of her awesome stylings on the dance floor. Paul and Rahul danced the robot. And yes, the videographer came so that Paul and I will be forever immortalized dancing badly in Pune. I am certain all of the General Motors driving fleet will be watching Rahul's Sir and Ma'am with their crazy dancing shortly!

The men danced separately from the women. Here this little boy is partying!


Here is a video of little boy dancing machine gettin' down with Snoop . . .


Paul takes a break and plays with the kitten . . .

Here I am tearing up the floor!

Oh yes, here I am with the White-Man's Overbite in this video clip . . .

As part of the upcoming wedding, the bride and groom have turmeric paste applied to their face, arms, and sometimes entire body. Turmeric is a natural antiseptic and cleanser. It also whitens the skin. So, the evening finished by us applying more turmeric to Rahul's face, and then his mother slathered it on Paul and I. Though, I scrubbed my face with the loofah when I got home, I am now a lovely shade of yellow. And our ears are still ringing with the faint notes of "Bra-zil, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La . . .". (Yes, this favorite for Brazilians at Carnival is also quite popular in India.)

Around 11 pm, we finally were served a lovely meal of chapati, cabbage shorba (yummy!), daal, and rice. For dessert, we had a rainbow falooda, with tapioca seeds, vermicelli noodles, and rose syrup. Now, time for bed.