When Simon leaves on a biz trip usually all the electronic devices in the house, flip out, blow up or just get extremely temperamental. So far all are behaving very well but Shankar 's bike had a run in with a car on his way here on Saturday morning, no injuries but no Shankar for the weekend either.
First we needed to get to Indus for Adam's PTM's (parent teachers meetings) which are held on Saturdays. Sweetie calls a city taxi for us and requests a driver who can speak English. Taxi came right on time....big surprise but driver's English not so good. Luckily friends across the street gave detailed directions (in Hindi) and I also called Shankar to speak to the driver in 'driver's Hindi', which while not an official dialect seems to be an accepted derivative of the main stream.
So in the non a/c, non suspension vehicle we bump with windows open to Indus, arriving to see Adam's teachers very wind swept and still varying shades of pink from the mornings activities (see next blog!!). Ads had worked hard for his mid-terms, marks were very good, so there was not a lot to say, so we were soon bumping home.
In the evening we had arranged to eat Mexican and go bowling with M, D and the two A's, friends from Seattle. Being driverless it crossed my mind to bale but I decided to keep the non English speaking driver, and the non a/c bone shaker for a few more hours. These days I refuse to be thwarted from my days activities by such minor inconveniences as an absent driver! If the car was smaller and not a shift stick I'd have grabbed the keys myself and taken on the Bangalore traffic. Whenever I voice this opinion Adam turns pale! Being so dependent on someone else - driver - can be so frustrating at times.
Sunday morning, and off to church. This trip we opt for a rick. Plenty of ricks and price negotiated (I am beginning to enjoy this!!) and off we go. We don't get very far when our rick is flagged down by another rick driver. Not entirely sure what is going on but it appears rick driver number 2's rick is not functioning well, if at all and he needs a push...
First we needed to get to Indus for Adam's PTM's (parent teachers meetings) which are held on Saturdays. Sweetie calls a city taxi for us and requests a driver who can speak English. Taxi came right on time....big surprise but driver's English not so good. Luckily friends across the street gave detailed directions (in Hindi) and I also called Shankar to speak to the driver in 'driver's Hindi', which while not an official dialect seems to be an accepted derivative of the main stream.
So in the non a/c, non suspension vehicle we bump with windows open to Indus, arriving to see Adam's teachers very wind swept and still varying shades of pink from the mornings activities (see next blog!!). Ads had worked hard for his mid-terms, marks were very good, so there was not a lot to say, so we were soon bumping home.
In the evening we had arranged to eat Mexican and go bowling with M, D and the two A's, friends from Seattle. Being driverless it crossed my mind to bale but I decided to keep the non English speaking driver, and the non a/c bone shaker for a few more hours. These days I refuse to be thwarted from my days activities by such minor inconveniences as an absent driver! If the car was smaller and not a shift stick I'd have grabbed the keys myself and taken on the Bangalore traffic. Whenever I voice this opinion Adam turns pale! Being so dependent on someone else - driver - can be so frustrating at times.
Sunday morning, and off to church. This trip we opt for a rick. Plenty of ricks and price negotiated (I am beginning to enjoy this!!) and off we go. We don't get very far when our rick is flagged down by another rick driver. Not entirely sure what is going on but it appears rick driver number 2's rick is not functioning well, if at all and he needs a push...
So we continue on our journey with our rick's driver's barefoot on the back of the broken rick and off we go in tandem for some time. As we approach the main road (Old Airport Road for those in the know), which we need to cross, we build up speed, to give broken rick some momentum and propel the broken rick across, through on coming traffic. At which point I take a deep breath and our rick traverses the main road more stealthily. Broken rick has somehow survived and we foot up again..........., only in India!!!!
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