The stifling heat and humidity is the talk going around the town. I am still having fun going around, sampling the food but making sure to wash the food down with plenty of water. I feel it has less to do with the heat, more to do with the humidity. The higest temperature of Bhubaneswar hovers around 32 degree (90 degrees Fahrenheit) - which is about the same presently in my state of Georgia in US. But in terms of himidity, it is no where close. City-zens of Bhubaneswar earlier fed up with rainer than usual monsoon this year are now praying for a shower to bring down the heat.
I went to withdraw some cash from my account at the local branch of State Bank of India. The service has got much better these days. You need to pick up a numbered ticket at the counter and wait for your turn. My account was in a dormant status due to not being used for more than a year. So I was directed to another counter after filled out a form to re-activate my account.
A guy suddenly barged in from no where hoding up a check, broke the line and stood in front of the lady at the counter - "Madam NAMASKAR, EI CHECK TA TIKE DEKHIBE. PEMENTE HABA (Greetings ma'am. Can you take a look at the check. A payment awaits)." The lady hardly impressed by the line breaking of the recalcitrant customer without acknowledging the Namaskar directed him to back of the line". Can't fathom why some folks lack civic sense and patience to wait for a few more minutes.
At night my friend Shubhranshu took me out to the local "Food Street", centrally located in Bhubaneswar behind Ram Mandir. A plethora of stores serving all kinds of fast foods are located next to each other. The crowd was relatively small today being Saturday, when many Odias eschew meat, fish and eggs lest they earn the wrath of arguably the most feared planet in their horoscope "Lord Shani".
I sampled on chicken cutlet, Bali prawn on stick, followed by a footlong chicken roll. A mongrel nearby stared at me, waiting for a few crumbs to fall off as manna dew. But it didn't happen as the greedy me devored everything, hardly leaving any scope for chunks of chicken to reach the ground, even inadvertently.
It reminded of a funny colloquial story. A starving jackal was lying on a large field, craving for food. He saw a Bull, happily grazing with it's huge b**ls swinging like a low hanging fruit from its behind.
The hungry jackal wouldn't dare attack the Bull, as the giant bovines reaction can be unpredictable. Watching his forbidden fruit swinging vigorously like pendulum from behind, the Jackal thought its fall was imminent and patiently waited for his meal.
Soon it became noon, evening, followed by twilight. No sign of the Bull's b**ls falling off ! The mountain sized bovine moved away after finishing his meal. The frustrated jackal died from starvation.
The moral of this story in Odia :
"ANAAI ANAAI GALANI BELA
SANDHA PE**A LAGI MALA SIALA".
Meaning...
"Forever Waiting for Bull's Ba*ls to Fall,
The Jackal Died After All."
Today it was the turn of the poor Doggie to be frustrated a la the hungry jackal. For it the bull's b**ls never fell off in form of in the form of chicken chunks. It forever remained elusive low hanging forbidden fruit for him. He moved on to the next person who kept munching on and shooed it way in a heartless manner - HEY JA JA ( Hey, go away).
The doggie turned back and looked at me as the better guy who at least didn't shoo it away. This time his wish got fulfilled as I rolled the last chunk of the roll towards him. Wagging its tails, it toungued in that chunk in one attempt. More later....
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