Next stop in Albuquerque was the Rattlesnake Museum. The desert region of American Southwest is a natural habitat of varieties of snakes. For the first time I saw the "Tiger" Rattlesnake - one of the most venomous snakes living on planet earth. A single bite of this deadly creature can bring death to an adult human in few minutes.
From the comfort of barrier separating us, I was bold enough to make an eye contact with the reptile from only few inches. The snake reciprocated my curiosity by doing a KHATEI (a teasing look of dissapproval) waving his forked tongue towards me, taunting me a la Ronald Reagan challenged the ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev - " Sambeet Dash. Tear Down the Wall".
The venomous Cobra is known to raise its fang before biting - giving its victim precious seconds to react. But the Rattlesnake being triangular headed doesn't have a fang, so it springs forward to bite. The snake rattles its tail before it prays on its victim, forewarning it to get evasive. Nature has its own way of providing advance warning.
On the final night in Albuquerque we decided to try CURRY LEAF - A local Indian restaurant. They served Buffet for dinner, not so common occurring with Indian eateries in US. We were highly impressed with the food and service. Unlike most Indian restaurant food in America which can make you feel pregnant with gas, bloated enough to go higher than the Balloon we just rode, the food was reasonably spice - at the same time palatable to our taste buds.
We have a saying in Odia, "AME ODIA MANE MAGENA MILILE RALA AAU GARAM PICHU HAPUDI PAKEIBU - "We Odias are great at slurping on hot coal tar or black pitch used to make road surface, as long as it's available for free".
Being a true Odia and succor to freebies, I freely helped myself with mouthfuls of items from the buffet. No wonder the freebies doled out to Odias have done wonders, catapulting the current Chief Minister of Odisha to a record 5th term. Leaving Albuquerque. More later...
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