India Blog!

Sachin kindly let me take this photo of him cleaning his fingers after lunch at the Dawat Khana restuarant near Okhla. Many restaurants provide a bowl of warm water with a lemon at the end of the meal and you rinse your fingers, since eating at an Indian restaurant usually requires using your right hand as a utensil. Back in Pondicherry Michel had launched into an anecdote, in French, which I was happy to understand! He told the story of how at a royal dinner, one of Queen Victoria's guests had once picked up the finger bowl when it was presented, and sipped from it. Everyone laughed at the fellow but was silenced when, so as not to dishonor her gues, the Queen followed suit and drank from hers as well.