Moved into my own place
While I had been trying to find a suitable place to rent, I became louder and louder about my complaints about the condition of the guest apartment, so by Christmas I was moved into their nicer guest rooms in the Inst. building. See the pictures posted. This is where I had been put up during my visit in 2004 and had found it very pleasant. I guess that was recruitment mode then. No need to waste resources on an already hired faculty :-)!!!
Around Jan 1, I had decided on the 2 bedroom place in nearby Malleshwaram. All parties involved liked all the other parties. The next step was getting it painted and cleaned. Once again I slipped up and expected the painting and cleaning to be done once the job was started. After the stipulated 3 days I went to check. Two rooms and two bathrooms had been painted. That left 2 bedrooms and 4 balconies as well as all the cleaning and one day to go before delivery of my stuff. The place had been locked up for a year. I let my temper fly. This acted like an amazing catalyst. More people showed up out of the woodwork, paint was splashed around faster, ruining all the built in wooden fixtures, in the living and dining room. When I pointed this out the head painter who spoke a smattering of Hindi repeated "Koi parwah nahi" .. translating into "I don't care" *&^%&^*()*. I discovered soon that the only Hindi he spoke was when he repeated what I said. I tested this out. I said "you have to finish by the end of today" .. he repeated it. Then I said " you have not done a good job" - it came back to me like an echo. I threw up my hand in frustration. This made him laugh out real loud.
My landlord lives in Dallas. As is wont to happen to many Indians who migrate to the west, they forget how it was to live back home. So the lease signing process was rather tumultuous. TIFR is leasing this apt for me to stay in. So I am not in the picture as a tenant...but I am the only one here who understood the landlords style of communication. Being a government dinosaur, the Inst. worked in robotic fashion- taking a lease that was used in the Bombay center and replicating it for Bangalore. Half the laws do not apply and it gives the tenant the right to do all kinds of things, including altering wall structures, subleasing - basically anything short of selling. :-$
Anyway the landlord was nice enough to let me move in without his John Hancock, and they battled it out over the next week.
The apt is nice and airy and lots of light - also some noise unfortunately. Its painted an ivory colour which seems to be the favorite here - but is not very attractive - anyway I had no choice in the matter. What I want to know is - whats wrong with white? And everything leaks.
Did I tell you guys about my customs experience in Bangalore? Jan 9th I had to go all the way to Whitefield - an hour and half drive from Tata Inst where container corporation of India had delivered my shipment. I arrived at 10:30am thinking "early bird gets the worm". I waited and I waited and I waited. At 1:30 pm I went over to tell my driver to go eat lunch - no sense in us both suffering. In that split second, it seems that my turn for customs clearance came and went. I was saved by the shipping agent yelling for me for all of Bangalore to hear.
The customs inspector here hold a lot of sway. You can just spot them by their swagger and confidence. If you see such men (for some reason they are never women) swagger around in parts that you live in you can safely conclude he works for the customs in India. We entered the warehouse. The shipping agent suddenly had become diminutive in his 6 ft frame. And I did not quite know how to follow suit but somehow felt I was behaving incorrectly. They threw my boxes around - all the onces marked fragile. I ran around trying to get them to put them the right way up. "See the arrows?" I said. "Yeah, yeah" said the moving guys. It was futile , and soon I felt ridiculous. What was I asking these poor poor underfed guys to do? Then started the riping open of the boxes. They jabbed with knives or so it seemed- it reminded me of a movie I had seen, in which spies hidden in hay stacks were being hunted for.
Only electronic items (no matter how old) and new furniture is dutiable. All this was over in 10 minutes and I was asked to pay Rs 150 for duty. I was relieved and exhilarated (premature it turns out) at how soon I had cleared customs. I celebrated with a lunch of deep fried rotis. Back to waiting after lunch. I needed a signature indicating I had cleared customs, thats right one single signature. 4 pm came and went. Time crawled. I meditated myself into oblivion. At 6:30pm the signature arrived. Then I waited some more for a truck to come. Then I waited some more to get a truck pass. At 8:30 pm my stuff was loaded into a truck and it was delivered at 10 pm.
The same underfed looking men hauled my stuff in a flash into the truck. What had taken 2 hours in LA with a lift system and all kinds of fancy gear and 4 people to oversee, was done in 10 minutes flat by about 3 men. I have never seen anything like this. Guys who weighed maybe 70 kg or less tossed around boxes that weighed up to 50 kg like juggling balls in the air. They wore no belts, or shoes. I looked for signs of hernia. I wondered how long they last in a job like this.
Around Jan 1, I had decided on the 2 bedroom place in nearby Malleshwaram. All parties involved liked all the other parties. The next step was getting it painted and cleaned. Once again I slipped up and expected the painting and cleaning to be done once the job was started. After the stipulated 3 days I went to check. Two rooms and two bathrooms had been painted. That left 2 bedrooms and 4 balconies as well as all the cleaning and one day to go before delivery of my stuff. The place had been locked up for a year. I let my temper fly. This acted like an amazing catalyst. More people showed up out of the woodwork, paint was splashed around faster, ruining all the built in wooden fixtures, in the living and dining room. When I pointed this out the head painter who spoke a smattering of Hindi repeated "Koi parwah nahi" .. translating into "I don't care" *&^%&^*()*. I discovered soon that the only Hindi he spoke was when he repeated what I said. I tested this out. I said "you have to finish by the end of today" .. he repeated it. Then I said " you have not done a good job" - it came back to me like an echo. I threw up my hand in frustration. This made him laugh out real loud.
My landlord lives in Dallas. As is wont to happen to many Indians who migrate to the west, they forget how it was to live back home. So the lease signing process was rather tumultuous. TIFR is leasing this apt for me to stay in. So I am not in the picture as a tenant...but I am the only one here who understood the landlords style of communication. Being a government dinosaur, the Inst. worked in robotic fashion- taking a lease that was used in the Bombay center and replicating it for Bangalore. Half the laws do not apply and it gives the tenant the right to do all kinds of things, including altering wall structures, subleasing - basically anything short of selling. :-$
Anyway the landlord was nice enough to let me move in without his John Hancock, and they battled it out over the next week.
The apt is nice and airy and lots of light - also some noise unfortunately. Its painted an ivory colour which seems to be the favorite here - but is not very attractive - anyway I had no choice in the matter. What I want to know is - whats wrong with white? And everything leaks.
Did I tell you guys about my customs experience in Bangalore? Jan 9th I had to go all the way to Whitefield - an hour and half drive from Tata Inst where container corporation of India had delivered my shipment. I arrived at 10:30am thinking "early bird gets the worm". I waited and I waited and I waited. At 1:30 pm I went over to tell my driver to go eat lunch - no sense in us both suffering. In that split second, it seems that my turn for customs clearance came and went. I was saved by the shipping agent yelling for me for all of Bangalore to hear.
The customs inspector here hold a lot of sway. You can just spot them by their swagger and confidence. If you see such men (for some reason they are never women) swagger around in parts that you live in you can safely conclude he works for the customs in India. We entered the warehouse. The shipping agent suddenly had become diminutive in his 6 ft frame. And I did not quite know how to follow suit but somehow felt I was behaving incorrectly. They threw my boxes around - all the onces marked fragile. I ran around trying to get them to put them the right way up. "See the arrows?" I said. "Yeah, yeah" said the moving guys. It was futile , and soon I felt ridiculous. What was I asking these poor poor underfed guys to do? Then started the riping open of the boxes. They jabbed with knives or so it seemed- it reminded me of a movie I had seen, in which spies hidden in hay stacks were being hunted for.
Only electronic items (no matter how old) and new furniture is dutiable. All this was over in 10 minutes and I was asked to pay Rs 150 for duty. I was relieved and exhilarated (premature it turns out) at how soon I had cleared customs. I celebrated with a lunch of deep fried rotis. Back to waiting after lunch. I needed a signature indicating I had cleared customs, thats right one single signature. 4 pm came and went. Time crawled. I meditated myself into oblivion. At 6:30pm the signature arrived. Then I waited some more for a truck to come. Then I waited some more to get a truck pass. At 8:30 pm my stuff was loaded into a truck and it was delivered at 10 pm.
The same underfed looking men hauled my stuff in a flash into the truck. What had taken 2 hours in LA with a lift system and all kinds of fancy gear and 4 people to oversee, was done in 10 minutes flat by about 3 men. I have never seen anything like this. Guys who weighed maybe 70 kg or less tossed around boxes that weighed up to 50 kg like juggling balls in the air. They wore no belts, or shoes. I looked for signs of hernia. I wondered how long they last in a job like this.
posted by Iss Desh ki Dharti at
1:26 AM
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