The Post Office and a Birthday

June 9, 2016

I made my first trip to the post office this week. It was on a piece of property with several buildings that were four or five stories high, dull looking structures and no landscaping, just sand. The buildings were housing for government employees. It looked more like a prison.  Ick! No AC units here and very few windows and no balconies. Probably no circulation either. Hot, hot, hot.

Off to one side was a building of several stories and there were three windows for service on the ground level. So, patrons would be outside the building standing at one of the windows. I was told which window to go to which was the wrong one…you have to love India. Rahul got out of the car, went to the right window and waited while the employee finished what she was doing on her computer. I got the stamps and then Rahul started going back and forth between the three windows looking for something that turned out to be a glue pot. I found it off to the side of where it should have been. The glue pot was the bottom three inches of a plastic water bottle that had been cut to use as a glue pot and it had with what looked like homemade glue and a stick. He took the stick and smeared glue onto the stamps. In hot and humid climates, envelopes and stamps do not come with glue as the heat would seal your envelop before it got out of the store. Everything is different here and everything takes longer than what you would expect.

I still struggle with food here. It is quite difficult to find fresh crisp veggies. I have yet to find a firm red or yellow bell pepper though there is no shortage of squishy ones. The only lettuce available is iceberg and it can be found only at a specialty shop not the grocery stores. For the first time since we arrived I found fresh parsley this week that wasn’t completely shriveled up. I grabbed it and came home to make marinara sauce, Ron’s favorite. The next night I cooked noodles, reheated the sauce and tried to heat some bread in a fry pan since we don’t have an oven. Only two of my three burners would light for some reason, most likely operator error. Anyway I am juggling three pans on two burners trying to get dinner on the table. I had to turn the ceiling fan off because it plays havoc with the gas flames. The kitchen turned into an inferno and I was not having any fun at all. Ron walked in to help and quickly got out of the way as I was in a tizzy. Fortunately he loves me big and knows how to maneuver around my moods. We had a lovely Italian meal with whole wheat noodles, marinara sauce and fresh parmesan, hot bread, fresh salad and a wilted cranky cook. Will I ever find my way in the kitchen here? Stay tuned. Perhaps with the monsoons which are due around the 20^th of this month.

Sankar’s mom had her back surgery and it cost 30,000 rupees ( a little less than $500 USD). He did not ask for another loan. I would just like to pay her bill but both Ron and Kamla have told me not to give/loan him anymore money. I am behaving. Kamla is in a lot of pain wit her back problems and is supposed to stay off her feet and out of the kitchen but she doesn’t mind well either. She also is having staff coverage problems and her sister arrives tonight so I suggested she borrow Sankar and let him help her out. Nothing here at our home is urgent and I can tolerate a day or two without the house being swept or mopped.  So Sankar is hopping back and forth between our houses which are right next door to each other. Last night he left to go to Kamla’s and said he would be back. He didn’t’ show up so we decided to go ahead and cleanup the kitchen. Ron and I are a great team and do clean up quickly with no fuss. About 30 minutes later Sankar came back to clean up the kitchen. I told him ‘you help my new best friend and I help you’. He left at 9:30 to then go to the hospital to see his mom. He was back this morning at 7:30 to start washing the Badlani’s three cars. I asked Kala when she wanted him today.  He worked about two hours here then went over there. I told him to take care of himself and he didn’t need to come back but he insisted so I expect him after a bit.

June 12, 2016 

Yesterday was my birthday and we celebrated by being tourists. I had a great birthday. We went to the tribal museum and had a fellow who spoke no English accompany us the entire time explaining things in Hindi. Too funny. Then we went to a craft emporium and bought a small wall hanging with a tree of life motif. 

We went to the Hyatt for dinner because their Pan Asian restaurant serves Thai dishes and they were good. We are tired of Indian cuisine as it is so rich, heavy and oily. My wonderful neighbor baked me the prettiest birthday cake ever. Chocolate! Yum. It was a good day. It has gotten humid here. The temps are down to 110 with a low of 87 at night not counting the radiant heat from the hard surfaces that absorb heat all day.. However due to 49% humidity when it is 95 before noon it feels like 103. So 110 feels like HELL! NO relief any way you look at it.

On Friday I took time to explore a shop I had seen from the car that looked interesting. OMG it was my kind of place with beautiful textiles. They had indigo clothing with beautiful designs, wood block print textiles for clothing, bedding and table linens. Beautiful jewelry and home furnishings that were exquisite. I wasn’t in the mood to shop but explore and see that it is a place to return to with shopping in mind. It was the best place that I have seen so far. I was beginning to give up hope. Fab India isn’t as fabulous as it was the last time I was here which I think was 2008, I think.

Life is good!