India – Days Two & Three

Well, you know what they say: “The best laid plans …” or something like that. Anyway, yesterday (Sunday) was a bust for me. Seems that pain in my right lower side/back was another kidney stone lurking around. By late Saturday night I was in immense pain. By Sunday early morning I was moaning and groaning and praying hard that it was “just a kidney stone” and not my appendix or something worse. I’m sure the medical facilities here in New Delhi are marvelous, but I didn’t want to find out.

So I talked with my wife on Sunday afternoon and she – who has a certain “anointing” for praying away kidney stones (I stopped counting when I passed the 22nd one last fall) – prayed for me, I went back to bed, and at 4AM this morning the stone indeed rolled away (or right out). So, needless to say, Day Two of my India trip didn’t go as planned.

Today, however, was a new day and I’ve felt like a new man! After getting back to sleep around 4:30 AM this morning, I was finally able to sleep until about 8AM. I waked up feeling great – no pain and with an appetite (I haven’t eaten much since arriving on Thursday night due to the nausea). I showered and headed down to one of the hotel’s restaurants and had a wonderful American breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, wheat toast, pineapple juice (fresh squeezed, no less!), awesome Indian coffee, and fresh fruit.

Rohan sent his driver to pick me up around 10:30 AM and within 7 minutes we arrived at his gated home. For the next 6 hours or so we discussed his new CD release and all of the marketing and planning that goes into that venture. I met his parents (he’s only 24) and answered their questions – lovely people!

For lunch, Rohan had warned his chef that I was not fond of spicy food – and everything here is spicy! But, alas, Chef prepared a feast of Indian dishes, of which I sampled 2 or 3. Finally, Rohan’s mom realized that I wasn’t enjoying my meal too terribly much and ordered the chef to prepare me homemade chicken soup and a bacon/cheese/tomato toasted deli sandwich. Wow! What a lunch! So, yes – I chickened out of jumping right into the local delicacies, but after the way I’ve felt for the past 4 days I didn’t want to take any chances and ruin the rest of my stay here. And Mrs. Solomon is SO accommodating!

After lunch, we sat at the huge dining room table and munched on fresh fruit (the Indian grapes here are divine!) and talked about their customs, food, shopping, etc. Mrs. Solomon and her daughter-in-law made some great recommendations for where to find some authentic Indian teas and coffees, as well as gifts for my family and friends back home.

Since I’ve had such an issue with curry – American curry powder makes me violently ill – I asked the question “is everything here made with curry powder?” My hosts, with the utmost in graciousness, corrected my stupid American thinking and educated me on the topic of curry. Apparently curry here in India refers mainly to a type of gravy or standard sauce dishes are cooked in, or is ladled on rice. There’s not a spice called “curry” (thank-you, Steve, for providing your geeky definition of curry – see his comment to the “India – Arrival” entry). Curry is a gravy. And it is spiced up with many different spices including turmeric, peppers, saffron, etc. So, for Indians, curry is whatever you flavor it with. Whew – glad I got THAT cleared up! So, my friend Nick will NOT be getting a bag of curry powder from India when I return home later this week!

Tomorrow we will resume our music consultation, working on a developmental budget (including production costs for the CD), and a timeline for all of this to occur. We will discuss the numbers and timeline with his dad (the business owner) and brother (his business partner). On Wednesday morning I will be visiting Rohan’s office and meeting his staff (his family owns a very successful land and commercial development company here in New Delhi) and we most likely will do a bit more shopping (provided Mrs. Solomon accompanies me, according to Rohan). I will update this blog nightly, so “stay tuned.”

Blessings from New Delhi,
Gary