Off to Agra

Dear readers,

Another short post but you may be pleased to know that I am working on a post which could rival war and peace regarding my dental adventure in India, which involves a cast of multiple dentists and involved at least 6 hours of international telephone calls. I'm sure you're riveted (to be fair most of my readers were telephoned for advice during the saga so may be intereseted)

Still no internet at home. Suggestions of Monday but my confidence is not high.

This weekend I'm off to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Apparently it's is even already too hot for Agra but my colleague tells me later on the marble is too hot to walk on even with socks on (visitors must remove shoes before entering the Taj Mahal)

Still no internet but have telephone

and telephone number but alas no dialling tone. On Saturday evening 3 men spent at least 2 hours laying cables for internet and phone. I really don't understand why as the previous tenant had internet and telephone so I assumed the cables would still be good. Now an engineer must come and do something so the telephone and internet work. My account executive (a fancy name, I think he is far from an executive) says he will call me today. I am not too hopeful because when I called him uyesterday to ask about the engineer he said first the cable people must come. When I told him the cable people had come he was surprised and asked me to wait while he wnet to verify!!!

In any case when (or if) I get internet at home, there will be some longer posts. Indeed I have one written already but only on my personal laptop not my work laptop.

On an unrelated topic I got my first anonymous comment - it was most complimentary, thank-you anonymous! It's nice to think complete strangers are taking the time to read what I write

weekend in Europe

Last weekend I escaped to Brussels to visit my sister. Of course India was never far from my mind as I was still sick. Speaking of which I'm not yet recvered but definitely on the mend (Thank God). Tomorrow I am off on a team building event - tents, no electricity, no mobile phone signals - my friend joked that the team building event is to make people realize that working 12 hours days together is better than having to go on a team event. He may have a point.

I haven't time to write much but Europe was great - I even liked the cold weather and the rain!!! It was lovely to see my sister and her family. We chatted, ate out in restaurants, I drank water from the tap, walked down streets on my own - excitment all around.

Sick :-(

I have just eaten my first food in 36 hours. For the second time since arriving in India, I am sick. I will spare you the details but it is miserable. Saturday I spent most of the day in bed. It’s amazing how tired and weak I felt. I opened a can of diet coke and could only manage a mouthful – for those you know me, you know how sick I must have been.

Even now as I write this I feel far from 100%. I called my sister who asked if at least I was losing weight. Amazingly I’m not. I don’t really like the food so I’m not eating much; on average I would say I don’t eat dinner 3 days a week. Also I live on the second floor (that’s the 3rd floor for any Americans reading) and the office is also on the second floor so there’s a lot of stairs. Of course there’s less general movement as it’s hard to walk anywhere on your own. I plan to join a gym but this is an expensive proposition costing about $1000 (that’s US dollars not rupees) a year. My gym in Chicago costs me less than that.

I also called my parents looking for sympathy. My mother is great at sympathy but she was out so it was my father I spoke too. He said I needed to be more careful about what I ate. I said I was being careful (which I am) to which he replied not careful enough! I know he meant well but it made me cross.

Still no internet at home so I am writing this on Sunday and will post it on Monday when I get into the office. My application to get internet has not even been submitted as there needed to be some communication between the relocation company and my office. After many emails and phone calls this happened. I called my office contact on Friday to ask the status – he said all was ready (I wonder if he ever planned to tell me or would have waited until I called whenever that was).

I need to leave India to get a different type of visa. I was supposed to be in Ireland this week but I again underestimated the amount of time it takes things done. But by stage the thought was already in my head that I may be away for Easter. What with no internet and nothing to do on the weekends I decided leaving was a good option so I’m off to Brussels to visit my sister. The flight was dead cheap $460 and even though it’s a long way to go for a weekend I’m glad I decided to go.

Sorry this entry is a bit mundane but every entry can’t have cows wandering the streets and other strange happenings!

BTW it’s very hot here – and last night (Sunday) the air conditioning in my room broke. Here is why having 3 bedrooms is an advantage as I just moved into one of the bedrooms with functioning air conditioner. Should that fail, I have another back-up and if the third fails I’ll take it as a sign from the gods that India is not part of Helen’s destiny!

Settling in

I’m getting better at finding my way around Delhi. I’ve been to a few of the markets more than once and things are looking familiar. I even asked my driver to go back to a particular market so I could buy a printer. I’ve been in the apartment 6 days now and I am finally settling in. I have a cooker (with 4 functioning rings, oven doesn’t work), a fridge, a microwave, furniture (not much but enough for a year), air conditioning and a water purifier. I even have a washing machine which got it’s first use on Sunday. It was something of an event to get the washing machine working. It stands on 4 legs in the shower area of one of my bathrooms (I have 3). There are 2 tubes – one for water coming in and one for water coming out. While attaching the one for water coming in, I accidentally broke the fixture however it stayed in and unless it stops working I guess it will remain that way until I leave. By pressing various things turning on and off water at various times, I successfully washed the clothes. Quite how clean they really are is another matter. I only have cold water for the washing machine and during the final spin cycle there was still some soapy water leaving the machine (it might be better if I could not see the water leaving the washing machine). Anyway there are done and drying on the balcony as I write this.

I still don’t have internet or phone service at home so I will probably post this at work. There are rumours I may have phone and internet by Wednesday. I seriously doubt it. Watch this space for more information.

Today I am stuck at home. I live on the second floor and there is a terrace above me (Potential visitors don’t get too excited about the terrace – it’s more for drying clothes than having drinks while watching the sunset). My landlord has hired a company to put reflective paint on the roof. This reflective paint is similar to that used in space shuttles (allegedly). Its function is to reflect the sun thereby reducing the temperature in my apartment. In order to se if it works I have to record the temperature every hour. So I have shut off three of the rooms and have no air conditioning on in them and each hour I go and read the thermometers that are been placed in them. The same will need to be done on Tuesday but I’m at work so somebody else will have to do it. Even if I weren’t here taking temperature readings there’s not much to do anyway as my driver has Sunday’s off and there really is no other transport option. In a few weeks I might get brave and drive myself – not very brave as I will stick to residential areas and avoid areas with heavy traffic and cows. Such areas are limited in Delhi.

I also have cable television with 100 channels; more than I ever had before. Approximately 85 of them are in languages I don’t understand but on the remaining 15 there is at least enough to keep me reasonably entertained. I’m not watching TV today though because the TV is in one of the rooms where the temperature is being taken (hence no air-conditioning).

A colleague of mine is over from Germany so last night we decided to go to the cinema. We asked the hotel and thy recommended an area called Saket, so off to Saket we went. Unfortunately the cinema was full so we went for coffee instead and looked at the world passing by. We saw 3 other non-Indians for the entire 90 minutes or so we were there. I got quite a few stares from some of the Indian men. It’s very weird they completely look me up and down. I don’t like it at all. Fortunately it doesn’t happen too often. So it was authentic India – one surprising thing was that most of the women were in western dress but everywhere else Indian dress (saris and the like) is far more common. Indeed for the first 2 days in India I never saw any Indian women in western dress. There were bars and nightclubs, shops and coffee houses. Apart from the people and some of the food and the cows it could be anywhere in the world. I also saw a pregnant women – I mention this as she was the first pregnant women I saw and it struck me that to only see one pregnant women in 3 weeks was a little unusual. I’ll have to do some investigation into pregnancy and India.

More inefficiency

The inefficiency continues. I really did not plan to be a feature of my blog but it is unavoidable. Yesterday (Tuesday) I received 3 calls from the moving company to agree a time. Each time I proposed had to be confirmed with the warehouse, a new time proposed by them then discussed with me. I suppose given that process that I am lucky it only took 3 calls. To be fair, perhaps the problem is that there is nobody in my apartment all day – in India it’s quite common to have a maid or security who can take care about such things. Anyhow we agreed on 8.00 as I have a meeting at 10.00 (actually I told them 09.30 as any time here can be give or take (usually take) 30 minutes). So at 9, I still have not heard from them. My driver had arrived so I went down to tell him to collect my visiting colleague and to collect me afterwards. Lo and behold, the moving company were there – 3 men asleep in the front of the truck. My driver went to talk to them in Hindi. They say they must wait there until the supervisor comes at 10.00. resigned I tell my driver to leave. Then the movers decide they can actually move my 7 items (it’s not significant moving – only some books and clothes). As they deliver my stuff there is an abundance of paperwork to sign – at least half of which seems not to be relevant to my case. In any case all my stuff arrived (except my computer mouse which appears to have vanished). Despite being finished with me, the van continued to wait outside. I finally left at 10.00, arriving at the office at 10.30 – I suppose being half an hour late is almost being on time in India.

I’m not sure if the next example is inefficiency but it’s certainly annoying. On Saturday morning I stayed home as one of the people from the relocation agency was supposed to come to get the gas installed and get the cable TV installed. I was told it would take between 1 hour and 1 ½ hours. 11.00 was the agreed time. Mindful of the different clock used in India, I asked my driver to come at 14.00. At 11.00 no sign, at 11.15 no sign, as 11.30 I call my contact and leave a message. At 11.45 Francis from the relocation agency arrives (there are a few Indians with western names – most of these are Christians, usually from the west or south of India). He needs to take a copy of my passport, my visa, my lease and a letter from my company to get the gas connection. I have only copies made of my passport and lease (foolish Helen obviously for not realizing you need copies of everything!!!). He goes off to get copies asking if I will be here until 12.30. I say yes I plan to be here until 14.00. He returns witht eh copies makes a few phone calls and says he’ll be back soon (it’s now 12.00). I’m busy pottering (as my friend Kathy would say) – unpacking boxes, washing dishes, doing Sudoku, making a few phone calls. At 13.00 no sign. At 13.30 no sign, so I call the relocation agency, they tell me Francis will call. At 14.00 my sister calls I relate the story to her. It’s now 14.30 so I can the relocation agency again who tell me Francis is detained. I say how much longer will it be as I have plans. They say don’t disturb your plans but tell us when you will be back (like my plans aren’t already disturbed!!). anyhow we agree we will resume the activities at 18.00. I go off and have a frightfully productive afternoon purchasing fascinating things like teatowels, clothes rack, Diet Coke. I am sure I pay seriously more than an Indian would but I am learning to accept being overcharged. It’s about the same price or a bit cheaper than Chicago. I guess there are a lot of foreigners in Delhi as one can buy decidedly non-Indian things like Nutella, Ribena, weetabix, Betty Crocker cake mixes. I bought some Ribena – I used to drink it a lot but haven’t had any for about 5 years. It’s very nice and full of vitamin C – also full of calories and bad for teeth but you can’t have everything.