KOLKATA, India - Fresh and Juicy serves no fruit. It specializes in Indian food for the backpacker: garlic naan, chicken tikka and mango lassis. These are served quickly and cheaply, and for this reason I ate one meal here almost everyday in Kolkata.
With a flight out of India looming, Zach and I sat down for one final Juicy meal. We sat in the corner, under a whirring fan that blew out the warm evening air and dust. We ordered. We waited. Zach started talking in Chinese.
"Do you like monkeys?"
"Yeah. They're O.K."
"I saw a monkey yesterday."
"No you didn't."
"I want to eat a monkey."
"Then eat a monkey."
At this point, the Asian man at the next table turned over and very gently tried to enter the conversation. "Ex-ex-excuse me?" he said. "Are you talking in Chinese?"
My cheeks reddened, because yes, we were attempting to speak Chinese. If I'd known there would be an audience, I would have attempted correct tones. But the man at the next table didn't seem to mind.
Roger, 19, came to our table. He was Taiwanese and here to volunteer with Mother Thersea's charity for three weeks. This was his first time travelling internationally without his parents, and he seemed excited. Tonight he left his three travelling companions to strike out on his own. He started at Fresh and Juicy, we took him with us to a bar.
There Roger had what might have been his first Bacardi Breezer, told his about he is bored in tiny Taiwan and wants to move away after he finishes studying to be a tour guide or hotel manager, and then announced how happy he was to meet us.
"I want to find things on my own," he said. "And I'm glad that I met you."
