Mouse Masala

A man sharpening knives by riding the bike. 

We spent just over an hour crammed in a car to go downtown to the city on Saturday.  We had no plans to sight see and instead only had a few stops on the agenda.  India tourism office, wine shop and a Tata store to recharge Andrew's internet card or phone.  It just so happened that we were in close proximity to a Subway and Jason would have probably given anything to eat there. 





Just outside the tourism office we saw this guy riding a bike to sharpen knives.  He had the back wheel propped up and a tray of knives in front of him while holding one knife on a blade.  Impressive, I might add. 

After that, we went to Subway to get the much anticipated sandwich.  The restaurant was so small there was no place to sit.  In order to avoid sitting on the sidewalk and shewing away beggers, we walked over to the park and were immediately greeted by a small boy with books in his arms.  We assumed he would try to sell us stuff but told us he didn't speak much English.  Within a few minutes, he was carrying on a conversation with Caitlin about India, mouse masala,  his language, her sandwich and cricket.  There were no less than 15 cricket games going on in the park which was part of the Mumbai college.  We told him that we had tried certain types of masala before and he said the best was mouse masala.  Seriously....  mouse and the way he described it, it was probably a rat.  

Caitlin offered him the rest of her sandwich once she was done and he was asking if there was beef in it.  He kept saying "no cow, no cow" and touching his cheeks.  He made her pour water over the part of the sandwich she had eaten (of course this kid is afraid to get her germs...but will gladly eat mouse, I mean rat, masala).  He ended up not eating it so he must not have been hungry.  He followed us for awhile even as we left the park and never asked for money!  It was a nice change from the normal kid banging or licking the car window or pulling on your clothes asking for money.

Sorry Cait... I know it's not the best picture I have of you!

The boy also said that the correct time was "India time" and pointed to the clock tower behind him.  He had looked at Caitlin's watch and said that since it was made in China, it was not right.  Remember...this kid said he didn't speak much English yet we carried on an entire conversation with him....mainly about his love for mouse masala.