Do Not Wash Hands in Plates

Book excerpt: Once upon the Land Before Time (or at least before mobile phones), three best friends decided to leave the US from separate locations and meet up in Europe. To everyone's shock, Janine, Jaya and I pulled it off-mostly because we went to Luxembourg, a country so small the odds in favor of chance street encounters were almost 100%, but also because Jaya was carrying the BS, a blue suitcase so enormous it took up approximately a third of the country's square footage and was visible on satellite images. We couldn't possibly miss. It took over thirty-five years before-in a combination of optimism and failing memories- we recklessly decided to repeat this feat. Hey, we reasoned, now we've got smartphones, better credit ratings, wheeled suitcases, medical insurance, and the ability to drink legally. Just to make it more interesting, this time we chose to meet in India, where the odds against the three of us actually linking up were approximately a bazillion to bupkis. DO NOT WASH HANDS IN PLATES is the story of three women eating our way across India in search of adventure, elephants, temples, palaces, western toilets, monkeys, the perfect paratha...and the kindness of Indian strangers.