An Evening at the Indian Restaurant

We have an awesome Indian restaurant near us called Sher-E-Punjab. I love going there, and this time I went with two friends. We have to go more often. Join me for an evening at the Indian Restaurant. Until they make it possible to send the smells and tastes of this wonderful food over the Internet, you will have to make due by looking at their awesome menu.

One friend and I arrived together, and waited for the other. She quickly arrived, and we took our seats. One friend and I both love Indian food, and the other has just started getting into it. I knew what I wanted, and we quickly reached a consensus for appetizers. We got some vegetable samosas, and some garlic naan! Awesome! The garlic on the naan tasted so fresh. I don’t know about you, but I could eat samosas every day! We loved the sauces too! For the main course, we all got Dal, a buttery lentil soup. The two experienced eaters got spicy, the other regular, but even that tasted spicy. That came with basmati rice, and the naan never stopped flowing. For drinks, we got mango lassi, which tastes great and helps quell the spice when needed.

As we ate, we overheard the conversation at the table next to us. A

guy and a girl started throwing around all these heavy topics,

including relationships, 9/11, philosophy, artificial intelligence,

and religion. I didn’t listen to every word of course, but I couldn’t

help but overhear snatches of conversation, and so wanted to join

in. At one point, the girl said something to the effect that

Christians don’t know about science, because they believe that when

they get to Heaven, that God will teach them about science. My two

friends consider themselves born-again Christians, and took offense to

this. As the lone Discordian, I maintained a noble silence. I try to

consider all views. I know a Christian who worked as a nuclear

physicist, so obviously he knows about science, but I also understood

the girl’s position very well. One friend said: “Forgive them Lord,

for they know not what they say.” I thought: “They’d say the same

thing about you.” She’ll probably read this, and i wouldn’t have a

problem expressing this opinion, because I still respect her view. I see a place for both science and spirit, I believe we need a science of the spirit. Without science, spirituality degrades into blind faith and blundering extremism. Without Spirit, science degrades into the rationalization of evil, and the advancement of eugenics. I just listened and considered all these points, but I hope the couple at the table will come across this blog one day. You never know.

At around this point, the spices started kicking in. I said that I felt almost like I had a buzz. My friend who also loves Indian food remarked how good quality spices do that. I agreed, since Indian chefs use fresh spices, and have a whole special kitchen for this purpose. I remembered after I got into a car accident in San Fransisco. I took my prescribed Darvocet, then took a second before leaving, since I didn’t want the effect to wear off while out. While at the restaurant, I ate some spicy chili soup, and I felt so high! I remember just sitting there, bruised and beaten in a wheel chair with a cast and a collar brace, and just holding my spoon and zoning out, just holding my spoon and zoning out and smiling. “Are you feeling funny from the medicine?” Mom asked. I said yes, languishing in a high I could legally and socially acknowledge. Yes indeed, good quality spices definitely do give you a little buzz, and the raw Cacao I ingested before leaving now synergized and produced something quite exquisite

for its kind. We do not program computers with artificial intelligence, we program them with intelligent artificiality.

We slowly finished our meals feeling quite satiated, and got confused over the bill. We figured out that we each owed $22 for the meal. I pitched in $23, because “That is just how a Discordian does things.” I got the last word without contriving. At that point, my cab arrived, and I bid my friends good night, and came home.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my evening at the Indian restaurant. Who knows, maybe the people at the other table will find this post. It always makes me pause and think when I have such a random once in a lifetime encounter, people passing in time making an unknowing impression. I can’t wait to go back. I love Indian food.