Christmas, Birthday & New Years Eve

Amazingly enough, there were signs of Christmas all over Amritsar. Santa masks, red Santa hats, streamers and even fake trees were all in evidence. It's not so much a religious holiday there as one that is more secular and commercialized.

The family we were staying with wanted to make me feel like I was home. Needless to say, it was very different - but they had chicken for dinner from their favorite chicken walla (walla means seller). The tandoori chicken was the best I've ever had. So a fine way to celebrate!

My birthday, the next day, was celebrated in style. A bunch of the family went to the fish market to pick out the fish for our meal. We were going to have the famous Amritsar fried fish. Yum! It turned out that they use a version of catfish! How wild! When we returned, the place was decorated by the little kids - with flowers and bows and the like. And everyone was dressed in their finest, including me (I did have a limited wardrobe but it worked). It was very lovely that they did that for me, a virtual stranger in their home. But that's one thing about Indian family - once you've been accepted as part of it, you are truly one of theirs. So we had cake and fish and ice cream...and it was wonderful! I got some very lovely gifts, including some gorgeous gold earrings.

New Years was spent at the Delhi Golf Club. It was an exclusive party, quite posh in feel, and we had a blast. We ate great food, drank lovely Indian wine (Grovers - it's yummy) and danced to a very fun DJ spinning both Western and Indian music. We went with Roy's cousin, his wife, his wife's sister and another friend. I actually had one of the best NYE's ever...no expectations I guess helped!