vasudev

        Oops! He almost forgot!
        He needed to go to Vasudev's spice shop for a package of garam masala and a jar of mango pickle.
        The dusky store carried the combined scents of coriander, cumin, fenugreek and dried pepper. It was quiet as a Hermann Hesse novel.
        Middle-aged, portly. Vasudev answered the tinkling of his Customer Is Waiting bell. He wore his usual silk vest.
        "Hurry up, you old chai wallah!"
        "Hank! Hank!"
        "You're a sight for sore eyes. How long has it been? One whole month?"
        "Ho ho ho! You're a card, Hank."
        Hank could remember his first dinner at Vasudev's home thirty years ago. Elegant and delicious. With food costing but a small purse of pennies. Meals cooked in ghee, that celestial butter. Vegeterian dal. A salsa-like sauce of chickpea or snowpea, maybe lentil: over rice with cashew. After dinner Vasudev played the sitar. Lantern light billowed!
        A spell was cast that night, and it spanned the years.
        "We go back a-ways, eh, dear chum?"
        "That we do, Hank. Say, say, I have a gift for you. Let's see. Let's see. Ah, here!"
        Vasudev handed Hank a 1910 copy of "India's Hood Unveiled." Publ;ished by Dr. L.W. deLaurence. Hank opened it to Lesson #41. Hindu Levitation.
        "My Uncle Krishna Anandadev had it for such a long time--"
        "--Before he levitated."
       The two friends laughed until their sides hurt.