Melancholy Goodbyes

I've been in the state of Karnataka since back when I came to Hubli. The locals have asked me quite frequently and in a thick Indian accent, "Canada?" The natural answer would seem to be, "No, American." Actually, the correct answer in my case is, "No, English." Kannada is the language spoken in Karnataka. I've been surprized how little Hindi is used here, especially compared to Mumbai.

I got into another argument. The novelty of winning an argument and crushing another man's manhood has worn off. I ordered chicken curry. The waiter tried to convince me to order something more interesting (and more expensive). I won't cave. I also ordered butter naan. He said, "Ok, 2 butter naan." I got agitated and told him that I never said two; I only want one. The waiter came back and told me that the tandoori oven wasn't working so they couldn't give me naan, only rice instead. I asked how much the rice was and he said 12 rupees, which was cheaper than the naan, so I said ok.

So far the waiter had 2 strikes against him in the "trying to charge me more than I wanted to pay" category and 1 check in his favor in the "honesty" category. The food came and the waiter told me that it wasn't chicken curry. It was a better fancier dish. "Does it cost more?" I asked. Yes was his reply. I was angry. I made it clear that I wanted chicken curry and it was 28 rupees and showed him in the menu, even though he told me it wasn't in there. It rose to the point where I screamed, "This is bullshit," and every single soul in that restaurant turned and looked at me and then stared. The waiter was very flustered and finally offered to pay the difference of 20 rupees between the dish he gave me and the dish I ordered. At a different place, I had the famous Mysore special for dessert. It's like extremely sweet crumbcake without the cake.

Mysore smells bad, there's trash everywhere, many of the people are fucking assholes, and I was very sick here, but I'll miss this place. I become nostalgic walking down that now familiar road parallel to the palace. Tonight I'm off to Cochin in the state of Kerala. On a bus no less. Should be an experience. Not a good one. But an experience.