Travel Blog

A young Indian journalist, working for the summer at the Sun-Sentinel, came for dinner Friday evening. Over fish tacos, Jaideep told us that he went to a Jamaican place the other week where a number of the staff were Indians from the island. He asked them what part of India their families came from and they didn't know. Their ancestors had come as slaves, and no records were kept of their places of origin. Jaideep said to them: "Tell me what you put in your curry and I'll tell you where you are from." They did, and Jaideep told them: "You're from Uttar Pradesh. You're from Gujarat." "The curry," he said to us triumphantly, "doesn't change."