It Is Such a Good Night

                Ah, with three out of my four roommates going out of town tonight for Goa, I believe I will be virtually home alone this weekend.  Now to cook as much as I want and clean my dishes when I feel like it.  J  Also, I’ll probably throw a wild party just for good measure and trash the place.

                Anyway, with most of the fellows going to Goa this weekend, either leaving tonight or already there, I suspect this weekend will be pretty quiet.  Even today at work is quiet as no one seems to be here and Eric (the other fellow working here at the Foundation) is out.  So I had a nice lunch at Pizza Hut (yum, Caesar salad with croutons and cheese) at Hyderabad Central mall.  I bought a pair of Levi’s.  I checked out some of the Indian clothes, but the sale season is over!  Paying full price for leggings and a kurta?  No way! 

Speaking of lunches, there’s a restaurant one block from my job called Kritinga.  I ordered the keema (minced mutton) biryani  there this week and it was so huge (like a huge tub of rice).  Biryani is a really famous Hyderabadi dish and is a rice and meat type dish like jambalaya or dirty rice.  Usually, it’s with pieces of mutton or chicken, but there’s a number of different meats to choose from sometimes.  Kritinga on occasion offers emu meat.  Yum?  Anyway, I ate it for lunch, dinner and lunch the next day.  Sweet.  I’m especially fond of the keema biryani though as the minced mutton makes the texture of the dish similar to jambalaya with only the ground pork or dirty rice.  Closest thing I can find here to that.

Keema biryani

Jambalaya (cooked by me!)

I love all of the rice and meat mixed dishes you can find in every culture.  So tasty.

                Moving on, I think I need to buy some sunblock and today walking around it was super sunny.   And when one is walking around, beggars tend to beg at you.  Sometimes, it’s annoying, I mean more annoying that other times.  However, the thing that makes me most annoyed is when people with jobs beg to you.  Ok, seriously?  Like, you have a job; do you still need my money?  Yes, probably (the working poor and all).

                However, think about it, if I have an extra rupee or two, wouldn’t I give it to the guy or woman on the side of the road that’s physically handicapped?  I mean, there are people I pass daily that don’t even have legs or they’re missing an arm (or two).  I’m not saying that they deserve my rupees more than you, but from visiting the Dr. Reddy’s Center for People w/ Disabilities and speaking to the staff there; I’m inclined to think they probably do?  So at the center, people with disabilities are trained for about two months in the fields of hospitality or IT (data entry) and then placed with a job.  It’s a free center with the support of Accenture’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).  From speaking with the trainers there, it seems like it’s very difficult for their students to be placed because of discrimination against people with disabilities here.   The general consensus seems to be that people with disabilities have an incredibly hard time getting a job, especially those that are poor.  Other poor people are at least able to be street sweepers or do construction work or work some kind of odd jobs as they have all of their limbs, but not those people with disabilities.  They are truly screwed in some ways.

                With that said, if you obviously have a job, don’t beg me for money.  I know you get paid (I’m not saying you get paid a lot).  It’s just something that’s super annoying and it might seem like I’m being cold, but if I gave 1 rupee to every beggar I had the pleasure to pass on the street…  There are just a lot of people around that need help and the unfortunate truth is I can’t help everybody.  L

Also, not sure what’s happening here at my job.  The IT guy has been having some fun by blocking like every website under the sun (Facebook, CNN, Youtube, etc.).  Too bad I know how to use a proxy blocker and VPN shield.  J

Ah, and last weekend, I went to Aarati’s (another fellows) 22^nd birthday party which was at her boyfriend’s apartment who works at the U.S. Consulate here in Hyderabad.  Party was great, but man, the accommodations were so nice.  Makes me want to join the Foreign Service right away...  Haha.  Does that sound good Rae?

Also, there's was very very tasty chocolate cake from LaBonel bakery (a place I had been dying to try).  So good.  I really want to try their brownies too as I hear they are to die for.

Here’s a picture from the party:

Tasha, Me, Arjun and Aarti

Until next time, here's a song to keep you entertained: