I like my Indian food with a nice steak in the middle and potatoes on the side. I think its called Texas Land and Cattle.
Well, I just got back to Houston. You know, I have to give the folks I met in SC credit. On the one hand the strangers at the grocery stores and the hotel and local hangouts gave me odd stares, both the whites and blacks... Obvsioulsy people of brown color are a rarity. So much so that as my flight was delayed for several hours at the Columbia airport, a cute Indian girl walked up to me and started talking b/c she had been in SC for 2 weeks and I was the first Indian guy she had seen. We talked until her flight to Chicago took off. Got her name and number. Good times. However, back to the people I went to visit... my clients. My gosh these were the nicest and friendliest people I've ever met. They were a little too close and shared a little too much personal information. I've never met with the CEO of a company and have him tell me about his daughter in law dying of cancer in the middle of a meeting... or a CFO telling me about how he has started a wonderful new exercise regime of 15 sit ups a day to lose weight. As intrusive as these people could be, you could tell they genuinely cared. They wanted to know all about Houston, my life, and how a 27-year old had a position in a company like I did. They asked about my family, friends, everything. I got along very well with these people. Even crazier was the fact that the CFO knew how to properly pronounce my name in the Indian fashion. You see, over the years I have anglicized my name to make it easier for Americans to pronounce. When I told him my anglicized name, he said "nu-uh. no siree bob. It's actually pronounced like... right?" I was taken aback. I told him how I had modified it to make it easier for Americans and he gave me a good old fashioned southern scolding right there in front of the company. Everyone got a good kick out of it and it helped break the ice on the first day. So, in conclusion... while the strangers in SC were leary of me (somewhat), the people who I came to see were some of the nicest folks I've ever met. It was an interesting experience all around. Oh, and as for the debate on Indian food... i hate southern indian food. idlii, dosa, sambar... not my cup of tea. give me a good vegetable based badji (sp?) (cauliflower, green beans, eggplant) and some chapati and I'm set. No rice, no daal, nothing wet.
I checked. No strip bars. I was in the heart of the bible belt apparently. The whole town was in a crisis b/c the local pastor was leaving the church to move to the big city (aka Charlotte)
I had dinner at the Clay Pit here in Austin last week ~ if you want delicious Indian food look no further.
