More Furtherer Observationalisms

Driving from Bundi to Chittor is a bumpy, rural endeavor, but the scenery is strangely familiar: half of it is flat, low-lying farmland surrounded by hills, not unlike the central valley; the rest is desert scrub. It looks a lot like Eastern Oregon, actually, except the fences are stone as opposed to barbed wire, and the cows are on the outside.

Remarkable as it is as a tourist destination, the fort at Chittor is the domain of the monkeys. And the Jungle Book practically wrote itself.

Photo etiquette is weird. You can spend time setting up a shot, waiting for everyone to pass out of frame, and at the last second a family of six will suddenly appear, in perfect formation and at ideal distance, waving and mugging for the camera. Also, many Indian tourists want to take pictures of you--on their cameras, with no background to speak of. Perhaps I am a curiosity, or perhaps hunting vests are the next big thing here.

India has helmet laws requiring all motorcycle drivers to wear a helmet. However, there are no laws regarding cranial protection for other passengers. Moreover, there's a loophole in the law in that it doesn't specify on which part of the body the helmet must be worn. Thus, it is fashionable to reach one's hand through the bottom of the helmet and up through the visor and wear it on one's arm. I am told this is done so as not to obscure one's designer sunglasses.

The food has been great, yet it differs from the Indian we get in the US in one key way: in the states, a typical menu (unless the restaurant is dedicated veg) is 60-70% meat-focused. Here, it's 80-90% veg. Probably not a bad model, actually. BTW, all those mustard plants go to producing mustard seed oil, a healthy, high-heat lipid that nearly everything is sauteed in. No, it doesn't make everything taste like mustard, in the same way that corn oil doesn't make things taste like corn, grapeseed oil doesn't make things taste like grapes, and canola oil doesn't make things taste like canolas.

Magic Masala is the best potato chip flavor in the history of potato chip flavors. Frito Lay needs to step on it and bring that shit to the US. Now. In the large bag, please.