Last night I was at my family's sari shop, and the shopkeeper told me I will not have experienced Banaras without trying paan. I told him at some point I would, just to make him happy, but then he ran out and returned a few minutes later with paan for Genevieve and me. It was actually the prettiest paan I've ever seen, decorated with silver leaf and rose petals. It tasted very bizarre, with sweet exotic spices I can't describe. While I tried to control the gob of leaves stuck in my left cheek, he held the lehenga I'd just bought up to me, and we both looked at my reflection in the mirror.
"You now, Hindustaani," he said.
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I'm proud of you on both counts - the paan and the lehenga. You are so Hindustaani, girl.
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