It all started when my mom suggested carving watermelons because I was missing my American Halloween. Lucky for me, pumpkins do exist in India, although buying them was an experience. The salespeople at the vegetable store we went to were absolutely dumbfounded on why any person in their right mind would buy an entire pumpkin, let alone four. They suggested we just buy a slice or two, but how could we carve a face on just a slice? So, we compromised with two pumpkins and one watermelon because my host mom was worried about wasting the fruit inside of four pumpkins; At least we'd be able to eat the watermelon inside. Still confused, the employees helped carry the fruit out to the car and sent us off with an unsure wave.
Next day, Halloween, the other American exchange student from New York came over and we set up outside the house. It must have been a strange sight because no one understood why we would want to cut open pumpkins, gut them, and personify them. It took a lot longer than I had originally planned, and although we had successful pumpkin-carving tools, it was trickier than I remembered it. Of course, being Indian pumpkins, we had to make them look as Indian as possible and give them big mustaches over the fangs. Success. When the two pumpkins were finished, we showed my host family what this American holiday was about, but they were convinced that it had to have some kind of superstition or meaning behind the act. Neither of us knew of any. In an attempt to please my host mom and not waste the pumpkin guts, I toasted the seeds and am making pumpkin pie tomorrow. Neither of my host parents have heard of pie and there is no such thing as a pie tin or crust in Coimbatore. With our 2' diameter oven, it will be quite the experiment.
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