Well, its a done thing. No matter where you are in India, you have to use the Auto-Rickshaw as a mode of transport at one point or another. And then, invariably its a very iffy transaction 90% of the time. Especially if you live in remote parts of the city like we do;)
Our Auto experience has been rich and varied thanks to the fact that we haven't gotten our car from Hyd yet. We take the auto to commute everyday. I always make it a point to check if those fellows are turning on the meter when I get in. Still you cannot avoid some mishaps like the one we had yesterday;) We took the same auto both on Monday and Tuesday. I get off at Cisco and Subhash goes on to Indira Nagar from there. Apparently on Monday this guy drove all around the place before taking him to work finally and overcharged (very normal I say;) ). And on Tuesday I pointed to Subhash that he hadn't turned on the meter. And when he asked the guy, he coolly responded by saying "Kal gaye the na saab utna hi dedo" (We went yesterday, pay me as much as you did yesterday) and Subhash was outraged. He argued saying you overcharged yesterday and I wont pay you as much today. With a lot of anger on either side the guy finally agreed to turn on the meter and we agreed to pay 10 extra for the distance he had covered without the meter which was hardly 0.5 KM.
Well, living here is truly a unique experience, you learn so much and you harden so much more over time :) Not to mention how smarter you become ;) It's like your entire senses are alive at all times ready to combat anything offensive;) I am loving it!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The first cultural mistake;)
When we went down to drink flavoured milk the other day, I finished that bottle by the time we walked to the grocery store to buy some vegetables. I immediately asked him on an impulse "Dust Bin hai kya?" (Do you have a dust bin?) and the little fellow actually took offense to it. "Idhar kyu rehta dust bin?" (Why would there be a dust bin here?) And I was a little surprised at his reaction.
Subhash later explained how this is entirely different between India and the US. A dust bin is not something you would keep in a grocery shop. And its not a very good thing to ask people if they have a dust bin around. Hmm..I have to unlearn this. I was wondering, what was my attitude towards dust bins 7 years ago? Did I expect every business/shop to have a dust bin. There was this supermarket near our place in Tarnaka. Did I expect that guy to have a dust bin back then? Hmm..I cannot remember, but all the same, I need to be extra conscious of what I ask and say from now on :)
That was my Lesson # 1
Subhash later explained how this is entirely different between India and the US. A dust bin is not something you would keep in a grocery shop. And its not a very good thing to ask people if they have a dust bin around. Hmm..I have to unlearn this. I was wondering, what was my attitude towards dust bins 7 years ago? Did I expect every business/shop to have a dust bin. There was this supermarket near our place in Tarnaka. Did I expect that guy to have a dust bin back then? Hmm..I cannot remember, but all the same, I need to be extra conscious of what I ask and say from now on :)
That was my Lesson # 1
R2I diaries - Day 7 - Second Half
After lunch, I worked for a little while before I had to head home for the broadband guy to come and kick-start our internet connection. he was supposed to come by 4 but I guess thanks to the traffic he came at 5.30. In the meanwhile, I cleaned up the place and adjusted some more things in the house, and cleared up some more mess.
While the guy worked on that, I got a call from the interior designer's folks saying they were coming to take some stuff from the place to fix it and bring it back. The internet guy just finished when the other two came in. They worked some more. At the end of this ordeal I was a good deal tired. Then the appliances guy called, delivery van was starting.
Some phone calls and some more dead signals (did I mention Airtel is also pretty bad in our apartment:( ) later the guy finally came. I showed him in and yay!! I have my new fridge. :D :D And microwave and the water purifier as well. Its going to be a couple days before I can use them but all the same they are home now. Now I know that moving from here is going to be a pain, gosh!
Subhash came home later, got some yoghurt for dinner. Some other Airtel guys came to activate the broadband and now we have internet!! And it is a really broad band ;) 2 Mbps broad :D At the end of this, I was feeling very hungry so we went down to ..any guesses?..drink flavoured milk. :D :D And we were wondering why we never did this in the US? Maybe its the environment. Maybe we all adapt perfectly to the environment around us that we don't even notice. So anyway, I had my flavoured milk (this time it was elaichi flavour :D ) we bought some vegetables, came home had dinner and called it a day.
While the guy worked on that, I got a call from the interior designer's folks saying they were coming to take some stuff from the place to fix it and bring it back. The internet guy just finished when the other two came in. They worked some more. At the end of this ordeal I was a good deal tired. Then the appliances guy called, delivery van was starting.
Some phone calls and some more dead signals (did I mention Airtel is also pretty bad in our apartment:( ) later the guy finally came. I showed him in and yay!! I have my new fridge. :D :D And microwave and the water purifier as well. Its going to be a couple days before I can use them but all the same they are home now. Now I know that moving from here is going to be a pain, gosh!
Subhash came home later, got some yoghurt for dinner. Some other Airtel guys came to activate the broadband and now we have internet!! And it is a really broad band ;) 2 Mbps broad :D At the end of this, I was feeling very hungry so we went down to ..any guesses?..drink flavoured milk. :D :D And we were wondering why we never did this in the US? Maybe its the environment. Maybe we all adapt perfectly to the environment around us that we don't even notice. So anyway, I had my flavoured milk (this time it was elaichi flavour :D ) we bought some vegetables, came home had dinner and called it a day.
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