Indian sweets and Japanese friends

Firstly, I happen not to be very keen in publishing all the details of my life on Internet, all the way that many people love to. However, this is something very amusing I have had. If you pay close attention to the whole conversation, you can have a nice peek into how a typical Japanese society works!

Well, it happened on last week, Friday evening, after I finished with my lab's presentation! Two of my Japanese friends and me with Rasgullas (both the red and white ones). If you don't know what the Rasgulla is, look at the picture attached. This is one of the most popular Indian sweets one can have there in India. Similar to other typical Indian sweets, this is also made up of milk, sugar, and rice (or wheat) flour, well dipped into high-concentration, high-viscous solution of sugar and water.

Anyway, enough of the background!! Now, lets move on to the real story. Lets call those Japanese friends J1 and J2, as their names and identity are not so relevant. They wanted to taste Indian sweets and this was the best opportunity for them to have it (curious minds, plz spare me with questions of how did I get my hands onto these Rasgullas in Japan).

hmmm, now the scene is that we all three are together with the Rasgullas. Lets eat. J1 chose the white one while J2 chose the red one to start with.

J1: (smelling before eating) hmm, looks like some perfume is mixed (yup, thats right. Haldiram Rasgullas - white ones - are scented -- a perfect demonstration of common-senselessness).

J2: hmmm, wow! OISHII (means delicious in Japanese). It looks like it is made up of Ginger! 

Ginger??!! Really!! I was so fucked up surprised! Anything but c'mon, ginger?!!

Literally after their first bites, both of them took a big gulp of green-tea (mild bitter taste).

J1 & J2: OISHII !!!

In the mean while, J1 seemed to have read the surprise on my face about them drinking green-tea with the sweets...tried to placate the situation...

J1: The sweets and the green-tea matches very well when consumed together!

I was surprised again, really?!!

Me: OK, let me try!

I tried to keep the situation normal with perhaps the most general statement in this whole wild world: hmm, interesting (ha !).

They continued their struggle to finish their 1st unlucky chosen ones with help of the green tea for 10 minutes.

Then, they decided to change their choices. Now, J1 had a red one while the J2 had a white one.

J1: hmm, this one is better than the last one!
Me: OK, eat this one only...
J2: .......
J1: ......
J2: .......
....
.....

They were still trying to keep up with their typical Japanese attitude of being polite. Meanwhile, I kept eating the Rasgullas with utter pleasure!!

Then, all of a sudden, J1 drops the less-than-half-eaten red Rasgulla, perhaps deliberately, followed by discarding that away. J2 was still struggling with the white one to finish that off.

The conversation continued on. By this time, their protection layers were torn apart and they were unable to keep up with their cool-looking Japanese attitude anymore. Their inner-selves had started to converse...

J1: In India, the curry is very hot?? I saw a shop where there were 20 levels of hotness for curries. Level-20 had the description stating that even Indian people will have difficulties in coping up with it.

Me: Really!! 20 types!!

J1: Yes! In India, the foods have well defined tastes. On one hand, very hot. On the other hand, very sweet.

I couldn't stop laughing...of course, inside only without showing even a trace of that upon my face. J1 continued on to placate the situation...

J1: It's very different than the Japanese foods that all look quite mixed. Neither very sweet nor very hot.


I was getting sort of little confused whether I should intervene or let them continue with their attempts of placation.  By the way, by this time, I had well realized that it's only me who will have to finish those round ones off of the box. Eventually, I decided to intervene...

Me: I think this was very sweet for you two?!

J1: Yes (with smiling face)....a little!

Me: I think all the Japanese would find these too sweet to eat?! I better refrain myself from gifting Indian sweets to Japanese people in future?!!


J1:May be...I'm not sure (smiling face continued on)..

J2: But may depend on the people as well. Many people may rather like it very much...

J1: Yes, that is more likely to be the case...

Me: OK (I couldn't come out with any better answer than this universal two-letter word).

Till now, I has finished all of those except a red one. I offered that to J1...

Me: (with a look at J1's still-trying-to-be-smiling face) Finish it off.

J1 gave a I-have-given-up look to me. But I insisted...

Me: Go ahead, finish it off.

J1: Sorry but I can't. It's too sweet for me. It's so sweet that my tongue has gotten burnt. (Giving an attempt to pass that burden to J2:) Well, you can take it with you and eat it at your home.

J2 trashes that suggestion off...

J2: Oh no! I love to but I have to go to a party right after this. So, I can't!

By now, I had realized that I better move on and put that little red one into my mouth. However, as I was using chopsticks, it mistakenly fell off on the table. Instead of discarding that off, I decided to wash that in the more-than-half-filled cup of the green tea. I did that and then consumed with uttermost of my delight!

In the meanwhile, they had given another attempt of placation...

J1: You are so good in using chopsticks. Do you use it in India too?!

I am damn sure that they know that no one uses chopsticks in India. Obviously, I amusingly denied that and kept on explaining that we use hands, spoon etc. depending on the situation (perhaps, 100+th time in Japan! ha! )

P.S.: All this conversation had originally taken place in Japanese.