We also met up again with the Indian traveller (Anindo) that we had befriended in Beijing. He was from a town outside Mumbai and had studied mechanical engineering before getting a job at Phillips and then ultimately setting up his own business. Apart from being extremely intelligent and with a great sense of humour, we liked him because he seemed to have a genuine love of India and concern for its welfare. He admitted almost apologetically that he refused to pay bribes and paid all his taxes – something for which his friends back home mock him. At 34 years old, he has resisted the temptation to move to the US as so many of his peers have, and said that he wanted to stay and build his business in India. John enjoyed talking to him about some of the observations made in Pavan Varma’s “Being Indian” and Anindo does indeed seem to be a rare breed in his approach to business in India. We couldn’t help thinking that if more of the educated elite shared his values, India could finally unleash its true potential.
Our favourite restaurant in Pingyao was a small café called De Ju Yuan. Full of locals and with the all-important English menu, it was here that Josi had her first ever taste of caramelised fried banana. Before the arrival of the bananas, we were given a bowl of cold water, into which Josi immediately and authoritatively plunged her fingers and started washing them. With a truly horrified look and much finger wagging, the waiter said “no, no, no!” He whisked the bowl away and returned with both a new bowl of water and a plate of sticky caramelised banana. Clearly aware that a demonstration was required, he used chopsticks to pick a piece of sizzling hot banana and plopped it steaming into the water. This had the effect of instantly cooling the burnt sugar into a hard crispy shell, surrounding the soft banana centre. Delicious!
