Two Servings of Dessert

Never a dull night in Hyderabad, and especially not during the Ganesh Festival.  (Even as I write this, there are loud drums banging nearby accompanied by joyous screams.  Nevermind that it's 11:30pm and pouring!)

I'm walking back from dinner with my new roommate Nate, extremely content with my fig ice cream from Baskin Robbins (I know the flavor sounds weird, but seriously, it's really good...)

We stop to admire our neighborhood Ganesh...it's hard not to be drawn to all the lights and vividly bright colors against the dark night.  While some Ganesh's are pink or purple or blue, ours is bright gold.

And really big.

There's a lot of cheery commotion...men yelling things and motioning us to wait.  Everyone's all smiles.

As we turn to leave, not quite sure what's going on, a woman with a giant smile emerges with an even larger bowl of sugary, creamy dessert rice.  Without really even asking, she nicely shoves an enormous spoonful of the celebratory dessert into Nate's mouth.

I smile and turn to leave, but of course community peer pressure gets the better of me.  Just like a loving grandmother, she feeds me a spoonful as well.

After that, we turn to leave, with a nearby group of men smiling and waving good-bye.

I laugh as I think about how completely unlikely this is to happen in NYC...a total stranger offering me food on the street...much less literally FEEDING me...and me blindly accepting in the spirit of Ganesh and neighborhood cheer.

And this is what makes India so fun.  You think it's just another walk home on a random Tuesday night.  But if you stop for just a moment, it's not hard for something to surprise you and make you smile.