24 and somewhat going
I have never had a birthday outside Bangalore, without family and friends around. I thought I would mind being away from everyone and everything I love so much back in Bangalore, that too to stay here in the freakishly dry and cold Beijing. But, to be honest, I did not have time or the energy to even think about that!
I cook here in Beijing. For a living. Rather to live. So, Chinese do not have a concept of vegetarian. It looks very boring to them. Why eat those stupid roots and leaves when you can eat that succulent cow intestine instead? The problem for me, who doesn't even eat eggs let alone bovine esophagus, is now I need to find vegetarian food in this place. That would be have been easy, if people spoke at least one language (including sign language) that I know. Sadly, we don't share any tools or modes of communications with each other. That makes it all the more hard to say, "Sorry, I don't like pork blood along with my cucumber. And for God's sake, take that egg off my rice!". I have actually said this mind you. Anyway, amidst all these, I barely have time to think about anything.
A good thing that happened this birthday was that my colleagues knew my food restrictions and actually surprised me with a cheese cake towards the end of the day. Till then, they hadn't even reacted much. Honestly, I thought it was a cultural thing, like Chinese don't really bother about birthdays a lot. But then, it turned out, they were just being hush hush about the whole thing. It was a nice birthday after all. I came back and cooked and for a change, it tasted some what close to what my mom makes. So, except for the fact that I turned an year older, nothing tragic happened on my birthday this year. Nice.
