She Speaks! [Janet--yes, really!]
India is great, but as you know in ways it is a lot more work.
I finally have a routine down with the domestic help which seems to be working. The maid comes around 10 and leaves at noon. She cleans the floors, does the breakfast dishes. (I keep trying to show her to rinse dishes with hot water from the tea kettle, but it's a foreign concept to her.) She also does the kids' laundry and some of mine that I don't want to send out to the cleaners, and irons clothes. I also get to hear her complain (in Bengali) about her afternoon job on the 6th floor. I don't know what she's saying, but it's not good. The sweeper comes about 10:30 and is done by 11 with both bathrooms. He does a really good job. Between 7 and 8 am a man delivers our 3 bags of milk for the day. Someone else delivers our papers. On Monday mornings around 8, Dosa man comes with fresh dosas on banana leaves, and idlis and coconut chutney. Nimki man comes once or twice a week to sell fried snacks. I am learning to say no firmly because he's been walking all over me and we end up with way too many bags in the pantry. Fruit and vegetable man comes every other day around 2pm. He is great. Very nice and gives me better prices than I can get at the market. I just buy whatever he has for the day. He has a pretty good selection considering he carries his whole inventoryin two giant baskets on his head. My neighbor across the hall says we get better prices because he starts at the ninth floor where the rich people live and works his way down to us. Laundry man comes when he feels like it (probably also when the weather cooperates). It's a pretty nifty system compared to last time. He has a form to fill out which is carbon-copied for us. He fills in how many shirts, pants, hankies, etc we have, then puts everything into a bag and weighs it with a hanging scale. We pay 35 Rupees per kilo, which is more than the maid but we don't have to have clothes hanging in every window all the time. A bargain I'd say. They come back perfectly ironed. Jim finally wears ironed shirts everyday.
Shopping has changed tremendously since last time. Several new large malls (large by Indian standards) have been built and they are pretty impressive in a consumer-culture sort of way. We have one new one within walking distance that is 8 or 9 stories tall with a huge Filene-style department store anchoring it. We have a large 2-story bookstore with cafe next to that mall that we've visited several times already. On the other side of the mall there is a new grocery store that has AC, is large enough for actual shopping carts, and has scanners at the cash registers along with movable belts just like Big Y. Of course it's much smaller with only 4 cash registers, but still! It even sells organic food there. Plus, this being India, you can have your purchases delivered free to your home if you don't want to lug them around.
I am amazed at the number of girls and even housewives going around town in jeans. I think I could count on one hand the number of girls I saw in jeans last time. It has certainly changed in 5 years. However, there are still large numbers of pavement dwellers and desperately poor people even with all these materialistic gains.
Well, this is quite long. I don't know what got into me.
I finally have a routine down with the domestic help which seems to be working. The maid comes around 10 and leaves at noon. She cleans the floors, does the breakfast dishes. (I keep trying to show her to rinse dishes with hot water from the tea kettle, but it's a foreign concept to her.) She also does the kids' laundry and some of mine that I don't want to send out to the cleaners, and irons clothes. I also get to hear her complain (in Bengali) about her afternoon job on the 6th floor. I don't know what she's saying, but it's not good. The sweeper comes about 10:30 and is done by 11 with both bathrooms. He does a really good job. Between 7 and 8 am a man delivers our 3 bags of milk for the day. Someone else delivers our papers. On Monday mornings around 8, Dosa man comes with fresh dosas on banana leaves, and idlis and coconut chutney. Nimki man comes once or twice a week to sell fried snacks. I am learning to say no firmly because he's been walking all over me and we end up with way too many bags in the pantry. Fruit and vegetable man comes every other day around 2pm. He is great. Very nice and gives me better prices than I can get at the market. I just buy whatever he has for the day. He has a pretty good selection considering he carries his whole inventoryin two giant baskets on his head. My neighbor across the hall says we get better prices because he starts at the ninth floor where the rich people live and works his way down to us. Laundry man comes when he feels like it (probably also when the weather cooperates). It's a pretty nifty system compared to last time. He has a form to fill out which is carbon-copied for us. He fills in how many shirts, pants, hankies, etc we have, then puts everything into a bag and weighs it with a hanging scale. We pay 35 Rupees per kilo, which is more than the maid but we don't have to have clothes hanging in every window all the time. A bargain I'd say. They come back perfectly ironed. Jim finally wears ironed shirts everyday.
Shopping has changed tremendously since last time. Several new large malls (large by Indian standards) have been built and they are pretty impressive in a consumer-culture sort of way. We have one new one within walking distance that is 8 or 9 stories tall with a huge Filene-style department store anchoring it. We have a large 2-story bookstore with cafe next to that mall that we've visited several times already. On the other side of the mall there is a new grocery store that has AC, is large enough for actual shopping carts, and has scanners at the cash registers along with movable belts just like Big Y. Of course it's much smaller with only 4 cash registers, but still! It even sells organic food there. Plus, this being India, you can have your purchases delivered free to your home if you don't want to lug them around.
I am amazed at the number of girls and even housewives going around town in jeans. I think I could count on one hand the number of girls I saw in jeans last time. It has certainly changed in 5 years. However, there are still large numbers of pavement dwellers and desperately poor people even with all these materialistic gains.
Well, this is quite long. I don't know what got into me.
posted by Jim Hartley | 7:31 PM
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