Rare Indian Foodstuffs

A tip from Venkateswaran
One evening Ramu came back most amused – he had been accosted by another Indian on the way, who bubbled over in excitement, saying in Tamil that he knew where to get tamarind and asafoetida. Ramu was barely able to follow him not only as it was Tamil but also due to his speed and excitement.Soon we got very friendly with Venkateswaran who was doing his Math Ph.D. He was a storehouse of great ideas. He never bundled up in winter as most of us had to in the sub-zero temperatures, the secret being that he wore his woollens or thermals below his summery cotton shirt and pants and next to his skin thus saving on smart outerwear of different textures and warmth or coolness [ remember Bertie Wooster's old nurse's admonishments!]. For the rest of us, we had to put on layered clothing, which in fact I preferred as inside the buildings, the heat was turned on fully so that one even sweated with just one layer of warm clothes. The reverse was true of summer – outside, one had to strip down – many male students went around in shorts only, while the women occasionally wore only a bikini type swimsuit. We did not go that far, but I put on thinner s-ks or at most shorts and t-shirts. Inside, the AC made the rooms cool enough to have more clo

Another innovation of V's was to keep out the milk and yoghurt out on the window ledge in winter as he switched off his frig in that season to save on frig bills. One day V phoned us very excited – a Korean grocery in town had coriander leaves [cilantro]! So we climbed into someone's car and along with several other Indians raided the store. The owner was amazed at all these Indians mad after 'chinese parsley' as it was known to them. He made a good kill after that, buying huge number of bunches of the stuff, and phoning one or two Indians. Soon the news would travel along the grapevine and he easily reaped a decent profit.

During the second semester, i.e., spring of '69, I joined the intermediate swim class but had soon to drop out as I found out I was again pregnant, and the class being focussed on diving, the instructor said, and I agreed, that I should not continue. This is why I never learnt to dive.

It was in this semester that I took a second class with Seymour, on Survey Sampling. He was a specialist on that and was writing a book on it. As with all professors doing a book or research, he used his students as guinea pigs. Not that I am complaining. Like his previous class, it was both very interesting and useful even later. But it was more technical of course and less fun.

By the end of the academic year, we found an apartment on the edge of campus. It would mean we could walk to campus, and that was worth the extra price [ a stiff 20$ more than the previous one] in itself. Really nice, even fancy by the standards of the previous one - It had a real kitchen and was more modern. We had to spend some money on some furniture, though it was only partially furnished.