It was truly a neat experience to be able to see the inside of an Indian home and experience a bit of their culture in an evening. I must say, though, that I felt completely out of place the entire time even though this family was extremely hospitable. The house was very simple, yet very exquisite. Marble floors throughout, and while there were some modern rooms, there were also some rooms that were decorated in a very traditional manner.
The couple has a daughter who is a dentist that currently lives in Phoenix and also a son who lives in Chicago with four children of his own. Their English was very good, primarily because of such frequent communication with their children and grandchildren, and I'm sure also due to their bi-annual trips to visit them in the U.S.
Mr. Sebastian has been retired for some time, but was a very successful businessman. While in Sri Lanka, he worked with the government in order to basically bring the poultry industry to the country and for it to become self-sufficient. After retiring there, the Indian government wanted to do the same thing and lured him to the country to lead the charge. It was fascinating to hear the stories of how business operates under the government over here, and all the bribes and corruption that takes place just to get things done.
Mr. Sebastian also gave me a full rundown of the Caste system in India as well as arranged marriages. His mother 'selected' his wife for him when she was only 10 years old (he was 14), and they met for the first time when she was 18. The second time they saw each other they got engaged, and the third time they saw each other was at their wedding. Crazy, huh?
Dinner itself was a pretty interesting experience. Mrs. Sebastian had gone to alot of trouble to cook for us that evening, so I definitely could not turn anything down, regardless if I really wanted it or not. I kinda felt like I was over at my girlfriend's parents house for the first time, and in the interest of not being rude, had to accept everything that was offered to me. And, she definitely wanted to make sure I did not walk away hungry. She kept piling food on my plate, and not to sound rude, but none of it was really any good at all. We started with some sort of vegetable lasagna. I like lasagna, but with meat in it, even five cheese lasagna. But not particularly with carrots, peas, bell peppers, and corn. But I ate it anyway, and of course told her it was delicious and that she had gone to too much trouble for us. Next up was a chicken cutlet (I mentioned Mr. Sebastian was in the poultry industry, right?). Not bad tasting, but not good either. If I were serving myself, I would have definitely just grabbed one. Lucky for me I got two! By this point I'm actually already full, b/c of the helpings she had served already and she was also passing garlic bread to us as soon as we got more than halfway done with the piece on our plates. But we hadn't even gotten to the main course yet-chicken with some kind of onion gravy. Luckily this was just thighs and drumsticks and there wasn't much meat on it, b/c we still had ice cream with mangos coming for dessert. As stufffed as I was and how late it was in the evening already, it took all I had not to yawn in mid-conversation with them.
On a side note, we actually arrived very late to the Sebastians, caused by the terrible traffic we have been facing all week. Reggie actually left the office at 3:30pm with the driver to go to the other side of the city to pick up something he had purchased the week prior. He planned to return by 5:30pm, and we would go from there to the Sebastians for dinner around 7pm (Yes, it would probably take us about 1.5 hours to get there in traffic). I got an e-mail from Reggie at 5:30pm that traffic was bad and they were running a little late. At 6:30pm, another e-mail from Reggie that they were slowly getting there, and would probably arrive around 7:00pm. At 7:00pm, another e-mail indicating it would probably be 7:30pm. At 7:40pm, they finally arrived back at the office to pick me up. We then proceeded to the Sebastians, arriving at about 8:30pm. I'm just glad I wasn't in the car like Reggie from 4:30pm onward.
Overall, a great experience and extremely nice family, but a very long evening. We finally got back to the residence around 11:45pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment