Noite Indiana (Indian Night)

Yet another ceaseless effort, I have only considerations to thank my family, friends and God for achieving and entertaining a handful of people from my city, Espirito Santo do Pinhal, in the country side of Sao Paulo state. “Indian night (Noite Indiana)”, a culinary delight intertwining the north and south Indian flavors in a delicate and calculated magnitude supporting the interests of the Brazilian tongues. The whole event was creative and proportional interests of a couple whom established a phantom chemistry of love and destiny, bridging the Indo-Brazil relationship. The event took place at “Clube Recreativo” on 16^th October in the city center. The Indian music and videos added flavor to the spicy night, which took a wild and geographical trip through the countries rich culture and diversity. This small city, geographically situated on a group of mountain chains has a rarity for having such a magical event, in fact a type of festival happening for the first time in whole of Brazil. The event employed a new revolutionary space to share and bridge a new relationship between the two economic giants.

It could have come as a surprise to skeptics, a polished and trained software engineer who spearheaded billion dollar transactions every single day for an MNC few months back, with pride and prejudice; in an ardent attempt, passion to portray his country and culture through true and pure devotion to his mastery of culinary skills, offcourse with the support of family. Food symbolizes the definition and culture of a country, especially a country having 10,000 years of solid history. Indian cuisines are known across the globe for its ravishing, spontaneous and resonating tongue twisting spices.

The menu included, Chapatti (the traditional and principle food made out of wheat flour), Tomato curry (mixture of sliced tomatoes and onions with relative composition of spices), Aloo curry (smashed potato and thinly sliced onions along with incredible combination of spices), Spicy Chicken tikka masala, Beef Toran ( a very typical meat dish from Kerala), Spiced rice, Sambar (vegetables with lentils, a typical south Indian dish, which in fact became a smash hit of the night), Payasam (vermicelli with milk and cashew nuts), Mango pickle and finally the Indian tea.

Day before the event we spoke on Radio about this event and inviting people to be part of this event. On the day of the event Mae and I started organizing and cooking in the morning, we were followed by bunch of relatives extending from uncles, aunts and cousins. We had arranged an altar for displaying the Indian spices, Gods, books and other artifacts from India. The club was remarkably decorated by displaying the walls with Mandalas (a product of many sleepless nights) and Indian clothes. We had also created an artificial pond with water, leaves, flowers and candles floating through the surface.

It was a mixed and boundless effort with no boundaries laid between Brazil and India. Rather it was a family reunion, were ideas shared, discussed and rejoiced, an explosion of laughter, cheering and learning. I shared with the group the delicacy, the divine combination and composition of various Indian spices, surprisingly new to the Brazilians.

The crowd started popping around 8:00 PM, the Indian music and videos entertained the groups. Friends and family gathered, formed groups and circled around the tables passing, inventing comments. Friends from other cities (Valinhos, Campinas, Rio Claro, Sao Paulo) arrived on time and occupied their reserved seats. Some of the dishes finished in the first hour and the demand for the dishes increased. Dani wore a beautiful and colorful saree and she was joined by couple of other guests who wore some Indian clothes as well. The fiesta continued until mid night and the crowd left happy and enlightened.

I received immense amount of responses and appreciations, and it represents the integrity of family effort. Dani was the brainchild of the whole event and I just followed her path. A special thanks to Rosi, (Owner of Grafica) for her unflinching support and providing us with the panelas (cooking utensils). Bruno did a good job in making the chapathi dough soft. Ricardo, Jose Carlos, Terezina, Alessandra, Marianna, Andre, Mi, Flavia, Victor and Mae (Marlene) has done an incredible job in helping me cooking the dishes. The newspaper published a half page article stating “the people of Pinhal became vegetarian for a night”. The guests have heavily recommended to continue doing our efforts and waiting for the next “Noite Indiana”. I have received responses from couple of other cities to organize such an event. Until the next “Noite Indiana” ………NAMASTHE …..OM SAI RAM