I love you, Chicken Masala

Today's lunch break held an unexpected adventure for me.  I had originally planned to drive home and eat left over pizza, but I always wind up taking too long when I go home.  So, I thought I'd try Taco Casa, but I didn't feel like the long line, so I just started aimlessly driving and wound up at the town's Indian restaurant. 
Now, I love Indian food - but most folks around here do not (or, they just haven't tried it), so I have only been to this restaurant once before when it had a different name.  I'd heard that it was not sketchy, but still hadn't been. 

I sat beside two lovely ladies that had recently become unexpected friends, a 40 yr old African American mom and a 23 year old Indian newlywed.  The Indian lady had been adopted from India by a white American family, and she was thrilled to have made a new friend that was willing to learn about her culture.  The mom was thrilled to eat something other than what her picky daughters insist her to cook.  She quickly learned that she shares my love for chicken tikki masala over rice.  

The younger girl said the mom had to try the rice pudding as well, and that was the first time the mom showed hesitation.  She said she had never had rice pudding because she had never understood the need for it - "With all the good desserts we have, why go and try to make sweet rice one of them?"  The younger girl and I would not stand for this.  I mean, you can't go to an Indian restaurant and not have rice pudding.  Theirs is so different and better than ours!  

I had to leave before she tried it, but we won her over and she promised she would.  Thankfully, I was there long enough to take their picture, to learn the younger woman's plans to learn Hindi, and to hear the older lady's story about how she moved from Detroit to the South at age 16, and that's when she learned that fried chicken and Shake and Bake were not the same thing. 

I'm really sad that I didn't get their names, but am grateful to have shared an hour with them.  And I realize that I need to go to the Indian lunch buffet much more often so that I stop stuffing myself like I'll never eat it again.