India Calling

Months ago, I found a little south Indian restaurant in Sunnyvale that for the first time in a long time, whisked me right back to India: the smell of the food, the heat, the music playing, all combined to trick my senses into believing I was walking around Chennai. The feeling was overwhelmingly powerful, and something very deep inside started to pull me [even harder] back to India.

Since then I've cruised up and down El Camino Real probably twenty times, trying in vain to find this portal to India. The name of the place escaped me, as it was four words long and not a typical restaurant name. It would drive me nuts that I knew the place was right here somewhere, but I just could not find it.

A few weeks ago I found a place called Annapoorna which seemed to be roughly where I remembered the other place being, but this was certainly not the name. I stopped in front of it and it was closed. Not sure it was the same place, the search continued.

Last night I drove down to the incredible King library on the San Jose State University campus. I was there for a few reasons: one, I just needed to get out of my room, which as I mentioned below, has become a de facto cage for me; two, I'm tossing around the idea of finding an apartment in downtown San Jose, if I decide to hold off on the D.C. thing; and three, I wanted to look for a book that a friend of a friend is crazy about, and the curiousity has gotten the better of me to the point that I decided to invest the almost two months I calculated it would take me to read it if I do 25 pages a day - it's a behemoth. After finding the book, I sat on the top floor of the library for two hours and got completely sucked into the story.

Tonight I went to a park close by my house and sat outside for awhile reading, as it was wonderfully warm today, low 80's. The book is set in India, and as I continued reading I started wishing for Indian food ... and within a half hour I was once again prowling Sunnyvale looking for the elusive restaurant. And once again I couldn't find it, but again passed Annapoorna. After one final lap around the area, I decided to give it a try. To my surprise, when I walked in the almost full restaurant, I recognized it immediately - this was indeed the place! but ... different. It had been taken over, changed, cleansed of it's south Indian-ness somehow, and as a result was less nostalgia-inducing for me. That was kinda disappointing, but once I smelled the food cooking, I was all smiles again.

A quick glance around confirmed my feeling that I was the only white guy here - just the way I like it. This has less to do with my enjoying possibly being the center of attention (which I don't enjoy, other than the occasional surprised looks I get when people realize I know what I'm ordering and favor using my right hand over utensils) as my preference to be around Indians when I'm eating Indian food. Throwing a bunch of white people in there always degrades the experience for me.

I giddily ordered onion and chili utthapam and chana masala - oh and a Coke please, as I long ago formed an absolutely necessary relationship between Indian food and Coke. As I sat waiting for my food, I got a few looks from the crowd but nothing incredulous. I couldn't help but smile at the fact that the single waitress and bus boy were both Latino. Yep, that's how even the Indians do in America.

My food arrived, I dug in, savored the ecstasy of flavors, and felt content. Maria walked by with a basket of delicious-smelling steaming bread sprinkled with cilantro - d'oh! I forgot to get garlic naan, my favorite. By that point it was too late, I'd have to live without it.

As I ate, looked around, listened, watched the families and kids and guys and girls my age, I again started to feel the pull of India, at first subtly but eventually raucously calling me back. I've felt this for three years, since I returned from my first trip there for a friend's wedding. I've joked about going back a lot, even looked for aero engineering jobs there at one point.

But this time may be different. I may be on the crest of a major change in my life, one that frees me from a lot of what's keeping me here. It wouldn't be permanent, but the idea of quitting my job, selling off my car, and joining some kind of humanitarian organization for a year or two or so, and just packing up and going to India .... man, that really, really appeals to me.

[Update: heh, Google is god - I just found a blog of a local Tamil guy who reviewed Annapoorna and mentioned the name of the previous restaurant: Madras Sri Krishna Vilas! Thanks man!]