We made an impromptu decision to go to an Indian Restaurant in the office yesterday. My boss agreed to give me a ride to the Restaurant. Owing to the fact that he is 70 years old, he drove as slow as 40-50 miles/hour giving us all the time we needed to discuss everything ranging from Indian food, weddings and vacation trips. It was amusing to learn that he loved Indian food to such an extent so as to keep microwavable papads on his desk. Besides papad, he expressed his liking for chick pea’s curry, chicken tikka masala, samosas and naan. I was pretty impressed with his knowledge of terminology of Indian food. The gastronomic conversation was followed by a discussion of a striking contrast between Indian and American weddings. We talked about an elaborate three or four day procession as compared to their four hour ceremony, red silk embroidered sari to a white laced wedding gown and a few other wedding practices. The conversation then hopped on to vacation trips and I was overwhelmed to learn that he had vacationed four times in Africa, two times in Greece, once in Europe, one cruise trip to Bahamas and one to Alaska and many other places. He told me stories of smothering leopards, guzzling elephants , rattling snakes of Africa, rocky terrain and sparse vegetation of Greece, beyond beautiful Greek islands , bland Greek food, flame cakes of straussburg , cuckoo clocks of frieburg and many such things and places, alike. He asked me if I had been to the Himalayas, or the tea plantations of Assam or the coffee plantations of Coorg or Corbett National park or The Taj Mahal.

I added these places to my existential list of places to visit before while I live kind of thingy and prioritized them on my list. A wise saying, one needs to discover one’s one territory before exploring the world.