Monday, April 25, 2011

Gotta get out town and head for the ..................

Jungle!!!!

After thinking we were gaining traction here and able to negotiate the little twists and turns life presents with some sort of aplomb, I was proved wrong!!!

Last week won the prize for patience developement or frustration - depending on whivch way you look at it.

Due to our lengthy, protracted dealing with the bank to get our debit cards, we were taking a rest before girding ourselves up for project credit card and had being surviving quite nicely with debit cards and internet banking until..................

I was trying to book flights to Shimla in June with Kingfisher Airlines. After several attempts - power cuts, servers down etc., all the run of the mill stuff I deal with on a daily basis, I thought I'd miss out the middle man (or computer!) - and go direct to the Kingfisher offices to pay for my reserved tickets. After an hour in the car, I arrive at the Kingfisher Offices (which are incidentally being refurbished), only to find,over the refurb noises and through the dust, I can't use my debit card as the amount for the flights is above my daily limit and they dont take checks. So after an even longer ride home (factory change of shift - buses galore!!) amazingly there are no power or server issues, so I make payment. Well, the payment out of my bank account is very efficient but no money arrives with Kingfisher, so I have no tickets and my money is apparently floating arround in cyberspace!

Then, due to severe rain, the power cuts built up in frequency and the battery on my mac decided it couldn't stand the pace and blews itself up. It did actually physically blow up - bursting open. The other mac joined the protest in a different form by becoming laid low by a virus.

Then we move onto driver difficulties.....Karthik altho' a great guy has a complicated and full life which means he has timing difficultites (he's usually late!) - kids turn off alarm clocks, snakes inhabit his roof, cows charge his bike, he gets sick, his wife gets sick, some one borrowed his bike and lost the keys, he bought gas for his bike which he put in his water bottle and then drank it by mistake etc.etc. All of these are certainly plausible - he and many many families here live life on the edge and any little thing can send them over.This we understand but our lives are to some degree dependent on his reliability. On Wednesday he is not here because a friend of his, another driver, was sadly in a bike accident on his way home from work and died. As this guy was an only child and a childhood friend of Karthik's he stays all night at the hospital and receives the body and carries out the rituals. This we understand, Simon drives to work and I am homebound. Thursday Karthik still does not appear. Simon drives to work. We get a text from Karthik; he didn't wake up. Thursday, I need to get to Indus for School Earth Day, run various errands, then we are supposed to be leaving for a weekend away. Simon fires Karthik!! (However, after a good sob story, much pleading and promising, he is re-instated, 4 days later).

It has also been a week of a/c unit breakdown, a ceilling fan no longer rotating, multiple light bulb failure (where do you buy replacements in india?), earth day at Indus for Wills, DEAR week for Adam  (costume required (Thanks Lisa!)) etc.etc. Also, my Dad's first eye surgery was on Monday. Thankfully, all went well and  luckily, as this is India - I have people to take over my nusring duties while we are gone for 2 nights. Someone's nurse is coming to give him eye drops (6 times a day), someone's driver taking him to the doctors for his check up and Sweetie cooking more than he can eat and staying over night.

One forgets that the UK and the west have been ramping up for the technological explosion of the last 30 years since the industrial revolution, while India has almost had to come too far too fast. Everything is still out of sync here as some sectors have bounded forth, while others are struggling to catch up.  The infrastructure is struggling.

So on Friday morning at 4.00am, (the planned Thurday afternoon get away didn't happen) with Simon at the wheel we head for Kabini Jungle Lodge. When my mac is back in action and I have access to my pics I will blog!!

It's now Monday afternoon and dare I say it - but so far I've bought light bulbs amonst other errands, been grocery shopping and NOTHING untoward has occured.........................

2 comments:

  1. You might want to get yourself a UPS(uninterrupted power supply) if not for your whole house, at least for your electronics.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks - we now have!!!

    ReplyDelete