mexicans and indians

Please see the photo below for something truly strange; I had heard reports that the servants' knack for organization was uncanny, but this surprised me. I expected them to straighten out my cosmetics when I dumped them in a big pile on the shelf in my bathroom, although I didn't need organization since I normally keep them loose in a basket at home. However, rather than lining them up on the sides (as would make sense, since the bases of lipsticks are much smaller than the length of the tube), they managed to stand up all of my tubes of lipstick, my mascara, and all other products vertically. Crazy! It also made me feel guilty about my horribly conspicuous consumption; that was 22 lipsticks or glosses, plus two mascaras, plus multiple eyeshadows and blushes, not counting the two lipglosses in my purse. Since I have relatively expensive tastes in cosmetics (justified by a vague statement by a nurse once that brand-name cosmetics are better for your skin than the kind you get at Target, although I really think the 22 lipsticks don't play into that), I probably have more money invested in those cosmetics than the person who lined them up will earn all year. Throwing them away would be a noble and completely stupid gesture, although I can't help but think that Pope John Paul II would have prefered for me to donate $20 to a children's charity, rather than spend it on an eyeshadow named 'Ashes to Ashes' in honor of his death. Ah well. At least I can endeavor not to knock them all down by accident, so that the servants can avoid having to arrange them again tomorrow.

Tonight is Cinco de Mayo, and a special one at that, since it's 5/5/05. Surprisingly, Cinco de Mayo is not particularly popular here; the people in the office were quite puzzled when we told them that we were all going to have dinner in honor of Mexico's independence day. We managed to round up some outrageously overpriced tequila by buying it from a bar; liquor taxes are very high here, and so a bottle of Jose Cuervo Silver cost around $100. So we finished off two bottles of expensive-cheap tequila by making margaritas. The cooks did a great job with their attempts at Mexican food...the salsa was great and they made very tasty chicken fajitas. The tortilla chips weren't quite right (they left a funny sweet aftertaste), and there were no avocados to be had for love or money, but the food overall was fantastic. It definitely settled a few cravings, at least for a few days. I also found out that there is dimsum served buffet-style every weekend at a place called 'Mainland China' in Hyderabad. I'm so excited I could scream...ohmigosh, wouldn't it be horribly ironic and funny if the waiter at Mainland China is named Habib?!?! Clearly I need to go and check out the scene at the earliest opportunity.

So, Cinco de Mayo was a good holiday to ramp me up into celebrating random American holidays in India (particularly since Cinco de Mayo isn't an American holiday--it takes all the pressure off). I think the major holidays would be hard to do here, but the random smaller holidays are really fun. We may be having a party for Memorial Day, for instance--definitely more of a major holiday than Cinco de Mayo, but not quite as big as Christmas. Not that we really need plans for a party...we'll still have dinner cooked for us, and alcohol is an option regardless of whether or not it's Cinco de Mayo. But, being able to leave work at 7:30 without feeling guilty was quite nice.

However, I must say that the Cinco de Mayo version of the 'Mexican or Indian' game was almost infantile in its simplicity. This is a game that I sometimes play with Adit and Claudia; Adit points at someone, and we decide whether they're Mexican or Indian. Some are completely obvious, while others throw people off because their appearance manages to straddle the fine line between Mexican and Indian. However, here, you're much more likely to guess right if you take a stab at 'indian' rather than 'mexican'. The game quickly lost its luster, so I concentrated on eating fajitas instead. Perhaps next year I'll be able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo the way nature intended it--holding a large margarita (made with plentiful fresh ice, rather than the jealously-hoarded amounts of non-tap-water ice we find in our apartments), wearing a sombrero, and hanging out with a more favorable mix of Mexicans and Indians. And on that pleasant dream, it's time to sleep!