Thanksgiving with Indians

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Partly because it has no religious or political connection, as virtually all the other federal holidays do (and really, do we need two holidays devoted to war?  Couldn’t we honor all veterans, dead and alive, on Memorial Day, and switch the early November holiday to be, say, the Tuesday after the first Monday?).  But mostly because it is a time for family and food, and doesn’t involve the pressure of presents. 

Until I married, I returned home for every Thanksgiving, and it was somewhat traumatic the first time I accompanied Charlie to Rochester for the holiday.  In my parents’ house, preparation began the night before, after our traditional meal at House of Fortune (so there would be no dishes to wash), when my mother enlisted us to ‘pluck the bread’ for stuffing.  She would then rise around 4:30am to put the turkey in the oven for a mid-afternoon meal (which always seemed silly, since you still have to eat lunch..).  At Charlie’s house, there was a distinct lack of preparation.  Even on the morning of Thanksgiving, I kept asking when they were going to start cooking things other than the onion casserole.  Little did I know that their family tradition was to order almost the entire meal from the country club!  Seemed a little like cheating to me…

This year, in addition to Charlie’s family, we were joined by two RIT graduate students from India.  My friend Luci, who works at the U of R (and who took in three students from that school), hooked us up to ‘adopt’ students, who aren’t able to go home over the short break, for dinner. Charlie picked up Manish and Narendra around 4:30, and his sister and her dog arrived shortly afterward.  His nephew Yair and his family were a bit late, and unfortunately, because Charlie had talked me out of stuffing the bird (we didn’t want to give our guests food poisoning…), it was ready way too early.  So Manish and Narendra got a good look at what Thanksgiving has always been like in my family – a bit unpredictable, with lots of bustling around in the kitchen (although luckily no cursing this year!).

I was worried that our cuisine would be too bland for their palates, especially when said that they try to cook their own food at school when possible, and that they weren’t impressed with any of the Rochester’s Indian restaurants they’ve been to so far.  I was also worried that our dog would misbehave and bite one of them, since they weren’t that comfortable around a large dog, and our dog can be a little twitchy.  However, neither fear was realized;  Todd didn’t eat either of our guests, and they seemed to enjoy our food (or they’re really good actors!). They also graciously put up with all of our questions about their backgrounds and families and goals and cultural differences and how they liked the snow.  Both are in graduate school – Narendra is studying electrical engineering, and Manish computer science.  When I asked if he could fix the healthcare.gov website, Manish laughed and said probably, but that the government wouldn’t hire him because he’s not a citizen. Narendra was great with little Fiona, taking her on his lap and letting her play with his iphone. 

After we’d all eaten more than we thought we could, and discussing the problems of the world, it was time for Charlie to take our guests home.  It felt good to be sharing our home and holiday with Manish and Narendra, and who knows, maybe this is the start of a new Rochester tradition for us!