A one month perspective

May 1 2016

Yesterday marked the end of our first month. What a day it was. For starters it was hot, damn hot, and I mean it really hot. We have been having record breaking temps to an already hot climate. Yesterday our broker, Anurag, said we can expect hot days for the next few days. I had to laugh. It has been sweltering since we arrived! It was 109.4 yesterday and 111 predicted for today.

We moved into the house on April 21 and we have had numerous problems at the house since. The AC in the dining room drips on the buffet after about an hour, the water pressure comes and goes, we have not had hot water, (however we now get some as the roof top tank has heated up from the high temps so the gas fired heater is not needed now but will be needed once the monsoons starts, some days, parts of the house get no water. We have had workmen here multiple times and yesterday we each managed to have a meltdown. I screamed in frustration at one point, not my usual means of dealing with the bumps in life.

Ron called the broker and let him know we would not be paying our share of the rent unless everything was in working order. Well by 1:00 we had Mr. and Mrs. Panchal, and Anurag here. The Panchal’s daughter and son in law own our house and are currently vacationing for a month in CA and Vegas. Then there was a parade of workmen for the rest of the day, culminating after 8 p.m.  We had been given tickets for a dance performance but couldn’t attend due to workmen being here until 8:00 p.m. We ate a cold dinner then did a crossword together.

At one point Dashrath (Mr. Panchal) wanted to drill holes through the wall so he could install the gas canister and what they call a geyser (pronounced as geezer) which is the gas fired water heater inside the house. Ron told him absolutely not as we would have carbon monoxide in the house. Dashrath said ‘but it will be upstairs’ and Ron told him carbon monoxide is heavy and sinks. OY! Welcome to our world folks.

Developed countries have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is our knowledge of safety and environmental issues. I am always surprised at some practices in developing countries when the knowledge is available. In eastern Ethiopia we were shown a city garbage dump located next to the river where the city got its water supply. I do understand that some times it is an issue of money but in this example someone did not know the dangers of locating a waste dump with all kinds of toxic matter up river from where drinking water is taken.

We have had two of the AC units serviced and the workmen are due back today to add gas. The water issue may be resolved. We are checking out how the pressure goes today. If we have problems, then some part needs to be replaced. I visited with Mrs Panchal part of the day. She said at one point, ‘In India everything takes so long with many trips.’ I wanted to make a snide remark but withheld it. I did tell the broker that we are used to how things go in the US and we needed to adjust to the big difference here. He apologized for how long all of this is taking because the owner is out of the country and the 12 hour difference which makes for a time delay in getting responses from the owner.

To lessen our stress, the coffee I ordered from Delhi arrived. As I opened the Fed Ex box, a French roast aroma hit me and I was so pleased. What a gift to have good coffee. My fry pan from Amazon made it today also, which will lessen my stress in the kitchen. Twice I cooked scrambled eggs in a saucepan and I do not recommend it at all.

May 2, 2016

The water problem seems to be resolved as does the dripping AC. This is real progress. Our new internet that was installed on Saturday stopped working on Sunday evening. And so it goes… we don’t have enough internet mojo using our cell phones for me to read the Times or to order ebooks. So I work crossword puzzles at the end of the day.

Did I tell you about the milkman? Daily a guy drives into the society in an auto rickshaw with crates loaded with pint size plastic bags filled with fresh milk which he delivers to his customers. The stores here charge you for plastic bags to take your purchases home with you. I think this is a great start to reducing plastic bags. Most customers bring their own cloth bags. I keep reusing the fabric-like bags the grocery store uses  and the large plastic bags the household goods store uses. Still looking for where to buy those cloth bags…one thing at a time.

Each day the household get more organized and furnished. Today I got a shower caddy to help Sankar clean our shower. Now he doesn’t have to move bottles of shampoo and cream rinse, nail brush and razor. He can pick up the caddy by its handle and it will be a time saver.  

May 3, 2016 - Animal Kingdom

This morning after our walk, the monkeys came over for a visit; jumping from limb to limb in the trees, racing across the yard, jumping on the porch swing and scampering off with Ron in pursuit. I got a shot of one pensive guy in the tree nearby. I am pretty sure these are gray languar monkeys.  Afterwards, we were visited by the peahens and peacocks. What can I say? It is a special experience and reminds us that we chose this life of adventure for just such reasons.

Sankar has taken over the gardening responsibilities and is working hard to catch up from Malee’s lackadaisical style. When Sankar does something like this he summons me to show me how it looks. He is proud of his work and I like that about him. He works quite hard. Adding gardening responsibilities, he can easily pay off his debt to us without losing his regular income. After six months he will have additional income if he chooses to continue with the gardening responsibilities. I need to find out where to buy some of the needed tools like clippers for the shrubbery.  I will ask Kamla, our sainted neighbor.

Yesterday, she sent over a fab curry and rice and a sweet dish that we could not determine its source. It tasted a bit like apple. She called first to see if I had eaten lunch. I told her I ate early because I had errands to run. She inquired as to whether she should send it over or not. I said ‘Are you crazy? Of course send it over. We will have it for dinner! We love your cooking’. She said it gave her great pleasure to get the praise and she cooks for her family so what’s the problem with cooking a bit more. I am embarrassed to be so glutinous but her cooking is fabulous and not too heavy or oily as some Indian cuisine is. We gave her a wooden tray as a thank you gift on Sunday because the tray she had sent over was plastic and had hairline cracks where the handle joined the tray. I was afraid someone could get burned if one of the handles gave way. Today her man servant showed up after breakfast with fresh warm paratha, a lovely layered and flakey bread and a spread made of paneer, a simple cottage cheese and black sauce that may have been a bean base. So many mysteries. I had to try it right then. OMG. How did we get to be sooooooo lucky? I saved Ron’s potion as much as I would have liked to devour his share.

I washed up her dishes to return them and started to go over to her house. The family was leaving and she got out of the car to tell me her son in law had to be hospitalized due to chest pains. Off  they zoomed.

Today Hasha joined Sankar and helped clean the house while he worked outside mostly. A day or two ago he had shown me that he cleaned the squat toilet and shower room outside that is designed to be used by servants. So last night when we returned for his night shift I offered him a towel and soap and asked if he would like to use the shower. He said yes and pointed to his head and indicted he wanted to shampoo his hair also so I went upstairs and got him some shampoo. When I came back I showed it to him. He pointed to the bar soap and indicated he used bar soap for his hair. I pointed to the shampoo and aped washing my hair with it and then aped washing my body with the soap. Let’s just say it was one of those magical moments of sharing something when you don’t speak the same language but end up communicating more than words. Again, it’s another reason why we are here.

I assume that given his income they do not have running water in their living quarters or at least they do not have shower facilities. If you go into a middle class house here the bathroom is all tile with a squat toilet or western toilet and a hose on the wall that you use to shower yourself and that will get the room pretty wet as it is a small room. Not a particularly enjoyable experience after growing up in the US with all our abundance and privilege. I am glad he did what he did and I got it...that he wanted to shower here. I could invite him to use the inside bathroom but I know from experience he would not use it. It happened when I asked Geetha our housekeeper in Sri Lanka to use the inside shower that had hot water. She wouldn’t do it. It is like some invisible line that helpers will not cross over and I must respect their rules whether written or unwritten.

Our society is homogeneous in that all the homes are upper middle class I would assume by Indian standards. Each home has
enough parking space for two cars maybe. Some families have multiple generations living together so they have more than two cars. Our neighbor Kamla’s family has three for example. Many neighbors park the excess cars on one side of the lane that is designated for this purpose. On our morning walks we pass by servants whose responsibilities include washing the cars on a daily basis. We are greeted not only by the other walkers in the ‘hood but by the car washers as well. There is a certain orderliness to this ritual.