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I just ate a giant chocolate chip cookie. Actually, I did not realize until I was eating it that the chocolate chunks were not chocolate chips, but actually chunks of Oreo cookies. Interesting! It also had a bit of what seemed to be actual, white chocolate chips. Or, maybe those were actually bits of Oreo filling? I don't know. The cookie also seemed to have a hint of mint so maybe they were Mint Oreo Cookies? Either that or I'm losing my mind.
This was not a work sample, by the way. I brought it from home, one of four giant cookies gifted to us in a box by Shobhit's cousin's 33-year-old son Harshal, who has visited us twice before, and his new wife, Devyani. They told us the cookies came from a local bakery, and I
think they came from San Jose where they are currently living, but it's possible I misunderstood and they bought them from somewhere in West Seattle, near where they are staying with another cousin of Harshal's on his mother's side.
Anyway, Harshal got married just last December. I actually remember him calling us not long beforehand to tell us about it, and invite us to the wedding—which was happening relatively soon, and in India. That was not something we could do. But, now he is married and we have met Devyani. I guess she's 31 years old. I had to ask when, even though they are both clearly both educated and intelligent, she seemed surprisingly unaware of certain details of the Gulf War, which happened in 1990 . . . apparently before she was born.
She was eager to get up and help out whenever possible while they were over last night. She accidentally knocked over a glass of water on the table which got all over my pants and my chair, which if you can believe it, was actually partially my own fault. She was eager to help dish people's food when we were sitting down to dinner, but in typical Matthew fashion, once I had my own food dished up, I sat right down and started eating. She was leaning over to either take or pass a dish, and had I been paying attention, there's a very good chance I would have seen she was about to knock over the cup and saved it. Instead, I got all wet, and while we were all working together to mop up spilled water on the table with paper towels, there was a moment in the kitchen when Shobhit shot me a dirty look, and I just thought,
What the fuck is his problem? When Shobhit later explained that I should not have dug right into eating before everyone else, it made a little more sense. I was still very defensive about it, but he did have a point. And Devyani felt really bad about it, and I assured her it was okay and accidents happen. I have no idea whether she thought I was being disingenuous, which is sometimes how I come across without intending to. I guess there's not much use in fretting over it now.
It was otherwise a nice visit anyway. We had only two people over for dinner and still Shobhit prepared a feast that could have fed ten: a potato based dish; a garbanzo bean dish; a vegetable paneer dish; an okra dish that he made specially spicy because he knew I wouldn't eat it; a yogurt dish I didn't have either because I don't like yogurt dishes; a bowl of chopped cucumber as per usual; rice with coconut powder and cashews in it; and ten scratch-made parathas to split between us all.
Even by Shobhit's standards, it was kind of an astonishing amount of food. To his point, we'll have leftovers lasting us probably the rest of the week, so there's that. We would have happily sent them home with containers for leftovers, but they declined. They were probably just being polite. They should have taken some! They both were particularly taken with the garbanzo bean dish, and I have to agree with them: all the dishes were good, but this round, the garbanzo bean dish was definitely the best.
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— पांच हजार चार सौ साठ —
Harshal is a shy guy, which he talks openly about, and referred to it last night at one point as well. Shobhit has a college friend who lives in San Jose and gave Harshal the guy's contact information, which Harshal has yet to get the courage to use. He noted that it took about a year for him to gather the courage to contact Shobhit the first time, when he was visiting Seattle.
But, much like me I suppose, get onto a topic he's passionate about, and he becomes deeply engaged. Shobhit loves politics, and Harshal got more specific, saying he loves "geopolitics," so the two of them wound up in a pretty extended chat about world events and recent history, particularly as it relates to Russia, the Ukranian War, NATO and to an extent Saudi Arabia.
There was reference to the expectation of global warming melting so much Arctic ice that it opens the Arctic to conflicts over new shipping lanes and/or oil drilling. It kind of strikes me when people talk about these things as though everything else will remain the same—like, say, our own regular daily lives, in the face of climate change. I mean, shit, we're already getting glutted annually right here in Seattle with wildfire smoke. Just one of the many headlines today was that
900 flights were canceled due to Hurricane Idalia in Florida. The point is, the devastation may be localized in Florida in this instance, but the impacts are far reaching. I'd never want to visit the political cesspool that is Florida anyway, but my point still stands. Those canceled flights would represent travel all over the country.
Anyway. Devyani would chime in here and there, mostly with adequately informed comments or questions. The thing that struck me most about the exchange between Shobhit and Harshal was that they never seemed able to change the other's mind about anything, but they always conceded points made by the other, and it always stayed very enaged and respectful. This does not always happen between Shobhit and other people. But, the two of them seemed to have a roughly equivalent knowledge of the things they spoke about, and they clearly both loved talking about this stuff. I would only interject if I had a question for clarification about something, and really had no opinions to offer myself. I frankly don't care that much. You could argue that I should, but this was very broad, global stuff that I have no control over whatsoever. I really hope no rougue dipshits get ahold of Russian nukes, how about that? I mean, if you want to get down to it Putin is a dipshi so the nukes are already in the hands of dipshits, which is scary, but what are you going to do? Thank God no nukes are anymore in the hands of the American dipshit who was former President Fuckwit, who we basically all agreed last night, did unprecedented damage to American standing in the world.
Harshal and Devyani took an uber from West Seattle to our place, but we have them a ride back home. Shobhit and I then spent some time
packing leftovers into the refrigerator before I finally went to bed.
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[posted 12:33 pm]
