5 things I now appreciate

Below are 5 things that my time in India so far has granted me an unexpected new appreciation for:

1. Lipstick. I used to never wear lipstick because of all of the makeups, it is the most annoying to wear. It gets on your teeth, smears everywhere and quite frankly, normally only stays on until my first drink or first snack. However in India it is simply too hot to wear make-up on my eyes or skin because I can like, feel it sliding off with the sweat about 3 seconds after application. So to signal that I, in fact, put some effort into my evening party look, I have now resulted to wearing brightly colored lipstick. In doing so (and perhaps putting a bit more effort into application and upkeep of lipstick), I feel I had unfairly maligned its prowess in the past.

2. Sidewalks. Very few streets have sidewalks here which means whenever you're walking anywhere you need to creep along the side of the road--one eye on the craziness of the vehicles swerving past and one eye on the potholes and garbage scattered on the edges of the street. Sidewalks, a dedicated area where individuals can merrily stroll along--free from worry of imminent death by rickshaw--are a much undervalued and brilliant invention.

3. Air conditioning. Because, obviously.

4. Yogurt. Plain yogurt is a brilliant, brilliant food whose true utility I had never recognized before coming here--though now I make sure I have a vat of yogurt in the fridge at all times. Yogurt can be used with fruit or cereal for breakfast, with honey for dessert, as a lovely lassi drink, or pretty much with any spicy food to make the spice bearable and delicious. It's healthy and filling and will make your doctor happy because it's filled with bone-strengthening goodness. Yogurt is amazing.

5. Leather vests. My boss, who is a hotshot, wears a leather vest every day to work. No, he doesn't ride a bicycle, no, it's not cold in his office, no, there seems to be no obvious reason why his vest should be the one constant item in his wardrobe. (I should mention that he appears to only have one leather vest which he wears every day--it's not like he has a whole closet full of them. Or hey, maybe he does and they're all identical, but that would just be weird). I must admit that the question of why he wears this vest every day is a usual topic of lunchtime conversation amongst my colleagues, but I've moved on. I don't care why he wears it every day, all I know is that it looks AWESOME. Very bad-assey--which honestly, is probably why he wears it. I have truly come to believe that leather vests are an undervalued item of clothing for any hotshot lawyer.