Independence Day!

I love holidays. Time to hang out with friends and family, grill a steak, drink some good wine/cold beer, and just relax. So when I found out I was going to be here for August 15th (Indian Independence Day), visions of a day spent at the pool sipping a Kingfisher flashed before my eyes.

Oh was I disappointed.

Turns out we did get the day off, as the offices are all closed. (Sidebar: If you open your office, you run the risk of the police dropping in and giving you a citation) . So I had that going for me, which was nice.

The real disappointment was that Independence Day is also a dry day. Yes, dry. No beer. No wine. No Listerine. Nothing. And of course I couldn't grill anything for fear of burning down the hotel and that little detail about no beef. So I opted for a lamb pizza and a bottle of water. Woohoo!

The day is a big deal here, as it marks the founding of modern India and the exit of British colonial rule. Prior to Independence, India was really a collection of 130+ separate kingdoms. So forging a national identity to tie the very diverse population together has been important. I'll give you more about that diversity in a future post.

For those of you thinking "No way he let a simple law get in his way of having a drink," I capped off the wild day with a card game in my room chased down with two overpriced bottles of wine we'd bought from the bar the night before. Thank god for planning - and being tipped off by a very smart bar manager who knew an easy sale when he saw one.

I wonder if I'll be able to find turkey here on Thanksgiving?