Greetings from India!

Saturday night was an interesting one. We went with some friends to India Night, featuring the food, dance, and flavor of India. My wife and one of our friends wore the outfits the Indian women normally wear, and I just looked like I had escaped from church. We started things off by checking out the Spring selections from the Indian Mary Kay and all of the other propaganda. After about an hour, the appetizers finally made their way out to us. They were really good, but not very filling. Within 30 minutes, we made it to our table and then waited for the food to make it onto the buffet. The food was awesome, filled with lots of Currie and spices from Houston. The ice cream was a little odd, since it was mixed with different types of nuts. I haven't really had Indian food or deserts before and I wish there was somewhere nearby that cooked the food. We then moved into the theatre to watch some Indian dances. This turned out to be the worst part of the evening. The whole thing was so disorganized. The light guy and sound guy must have never gotten together to practice. They started the first dancer off with the wrong song. She ran off of the stage and then came back when the right one started. She did two songs and didn't move around that much, so I got fairly bored quickly. A dance line of young girls came out and had a difficult time staying together, which was funny, but sad at the same time. Two guys dressed in red came out and danced together. It was like synchronized swimming, but on stage legs rather than in water. They started and then ran off of the stage and then came back out again. The highlight of the evening featured artist, musician, and master of confusion, Tony Dupois. He started a soundtrack of a thunderstorm, before starting to speak and not be heard. As soon as he stopped talking, he cut off the track and then began to breathe into the microphone loudly. Next, he stretched himself and yawned into the microphone. We sat confused and contemplated the situation. He then began to make strange noises. My wife and many other people started laughing loudly. I couldn't blame them, but I was trying to figure out what Tony was trying to do musically. Then, James Marshall joined in making noises also along with Dr. Ram. All three of them joined together in noise before Tony started playing with some bowl. Then all three of them stopped and Tony began to bang away on his keyboard, doing some type of fusion of jazz and Indian music. He was joined by James on Congas and Dr. Ram on his tiny drums while pieces of his artwork were shown on the power-point screen behind him. This went on for a while and was a mixture of scary, funny, and sad: just a giant pot of confusion. The whole 'cast' then came out and began petting the dog and reaching for the sky. The whole event started at 6pm and we didn't make it out until 11pm. it was quite a long night and we were really worn out. I don't think I will make it back to India anytime soon. Hopefully the next event will be organized a lot better, which means some planning.