After breakfast at the hotel I had a car to the office alone. The driver, despite saying he was learning English, spoke very well. He talked of getting his kid through school and his twelve hour workdays.
After a full morning of work Anshul and I went to the cafeteria. Wednesdays there is a vendor that is brought in who sells chicken biryani, a rice dish with chicken that tastes a bit like chicken curry to me. Was quite excellent but I was surprised that the chicken was chopped but with bones still left. It was an amazing value at 80 rupees, along with 20 for a fried vegetable appetizer. Afterwards watched some co-workers play ping pong before heading back up to a full afternoon with Anshul.
Ping pong area adjacent to the cafeteria
Cafeteria
Office space
An auto-rickshaw (or tuk tuk) hoping to pick up a customer in front of the office
Another view of Magarpatta City
Made it back to the hotel around 7p where one of the hotel restaurants had a full India buffet (in addition to bowls of popcorn, peanuts, and a sweet wafer with sesame seeds in it on each table) in celebration of the Punjabi festival Lohri. Celebrating the winter solstice and the harvesting and delivery of crops to market, a bonfire is lit. The Westin lit one on the outdoor area between the restaurant and the pool. People danced around the bonfire and tossed sesame seeds from a bowl while making wishes. Anshul would tell me on Thursday that tradition is to circle the bonfire seven times. There was also two drummers beating a steady, if loud, beat.
People dancing around the Lohri bonfire
Lohri bonfire with bowl of sesame seeds in the foreground
After enjoying the festival Lynneth and I headed back into the restaurant and looked at each others’ photos of Alaska. As we’d just gone the summer before and she is from Fairbanks we had much to talk about!
Returned to the room at about 11p and went to bed shortly thereafter.