We described the problems we've had over the past couple weeks to Indian friends and they just smile knowingly and say "Oh you're just having driver problems!". Evidently what we have experienced is very common- which is all the more reason for thinking it really does waste a lot of time and energy when you consider how many people are affected. Over the past week we had two more bad drivers, but two that were OK.
On to "intestinal bugs". Jim was very sick from Monday night until Wed. morning- no energy at all. Some friends recommended their doctor who Jim simply called and he gave prescriptions over the phone which Jim could have filled at the pharmacy just by saying what he wanted. It seem that very few drugs really require a written prescription. There seem to be no negligent acts for which one could get recompense, so its all pretty simple. The responsibility lies with the individual- which seems generally good and seems to work here. Jim started to feel better on Wednesday and slightly better Thursday and Friday, but still not well. These intestinal bugs seem to occur about every 6 or 8 weeks in Jim and have usually been pretty mild and over in 24 hours, but this one is different.
Janet has had 2 or 3 fairly serious and long lasting bugs- one occurred when we were in Ahmedabad in March, but she has be ok recently. We just hope these bouts are building immunity!
Janet is currently in the US- the first time either of us has been back since we arrived in India almost 18 months ago! She is missed by Jim, Ziggy and Zoe!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Driver - Redux
In the post a few days ago we mentioned that our regular driver is away at a wedding and for some vacation and we got a replacement, but he was injured in some sort of accident on his way home after the first day. We still do not know any details, but he apparently will not be able to drive for 3-4 months.
On Monday we road with friends or in auto- rickshaws, but Jim arranged for a car and driver for the other days of the week starting Tuesday morning at 9AM. The hired cars and drivers have been pretty dependable in the past- normally they arrive early. However, when Jim went down to the look for the driver a little past 9AM, there was no one there. He called the reservation office and after several minutes they said that the driver was late but he would be there "soon". When pressed, they said "15 minutes". After about 10 minutes they called Jim back to say that the driver had "met with an accident"- it was not just that he was running late! This was discouraging.
They asked how urgent it was for us to get a car and Jim said it was important because he had to get to work. After about 45 minutes a car came and took him to the office. Meanwhile, they explained that a different car and driver would come to take Janet wherever she wanted to go.
That driver then picked Jim up at work at the end of the day. So, it all worked out, as things generally do here.
Today the driver was at the apartment at the appointed time and he took Jim to work and then went back to take Janet where she wanted to go. However, he misunderstood that he was then to go back to Jim's office and bring him home! However, this turned out ok as Jim could ride home with friends while the driver took Janet home. This driver seems very nice and he seems like a good driver, but the language is a problem. He does not understand easily. If we repeat instructions and then he repeats them back to us, then it seems OK, but if he does not repeat back then they don't seem to be clear to him - and us.
So, it was a catastrophe for the first driver, a significant problem for the replacement and now the second replacement is a bit of a problem for us. This sort of thing takes a lot of extra time and, more importantly, energy. We suspect it contributes to the general inefficiency we see.
On Monday we road with friends or in auto- rickshaws, but Jim arranged for a car and driver for the other days of the week starting Tuesday morning at 9AM. The hired cars and drivers have been pretty dependable in the past- normally they arrive early. However, when Jim went down to the look for the driver a little past 9AM, there was no one there. He called the reservation office and after several minutes they said that the driver was late but he would be there "soon". When pressed, they said "15 minutes". After about 10 minutes they called Jim back to say that the driver had "met with an accident"- it was not just that he was running late! This was discouraging.
They asked how urgent it was for us to get a car and Jim said it was important because he had to get to work. After about 45 minutes a car came and took him to the office. Meanwhile, they explained that a different car and driver would come to take Janet wherever she wanted to go.
That driver then picked Jim up at work at the end of the day. So, it all worked out, as things generally do here.
Today the driver was at the apartment at the appointed time and he took Jim to work and then went back to take Janet where she wanted to go. However, he misunderstood that he was then to go back to Jim's office and bring him home! However, this turned out ok as Jim could ride home with friends while the driver took Janet home. This driver seems very nice and he seems like a good driver, but the language is a problem. He does not understand easily. If we repeat instructions and then he repeats them back to us, then it seems OK, but if he does not repeat back then they don't seem to be clear to him - and us.
So, it was a catastrophe for the first driver, a significant problem for the replacement and now the second replacement is a bit of a problem for us. This sort of thing takes a lot of extra time and, more importantly, energy. We suspect it contributes to the general inefficiency we see.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The Bombs,The Driver, The Taxi and The Museum.
Yesterday there were 3 small bombs placed near the local cricket stadium. The newspapers, today, said that 2 went off and the 3rd was defused before it could go off. 17 people were injured, but the match went ahead- starting an hour late. These were not aimed at foreigners, since few go to the cricket games. Of course, today we received a warning of potential attacks on foreigners.
Joseph, our driver is away at a wedding for a couple weeks, so we managed to get a temporary driver starting yesterday (Sat. the 17th). Suresh is a more cautious driver and he seems good, though his English needs work. Unfortunately, last night we learned that his hand was badly injured in some mishap getting off from or on to a bus. Thus, after 1 day we may need another driver! If you look back at some earlier posts about "The Carpenter" - you can see this is not something new for us or for people in general here.
Today, we were planning to have the driver take us to a nice hotel on the far side of the city- about 1 hour away, but since he is resting, we could not do that. We decided to go with a friend by taxi to a restaurant that advertised a buffet lunch, music and a small crafts fair. With great pain we made the taxi reservation- it took 3 calls because the phone was cut off before Janet finished giving information. They give a booking number only at the end of the reservation by phone, so she got cut off twice and finally got finished. The reservation was to be for 1:30PM and we called at 12:45PM. At about 1:10 Janet started getting calls from the taxi driver that seemed to say he was very nearby and he needed more information. He called at least 8 times and we called him at least 4 times trying to get him to our friend's apartment. We walked to the apartment and found our friend was not home and her phone was switched off. We walked to a major intersection nearby- one that any driver would know and told the taxi driver we were there. The roads are one way (Mostly, but people will go whichever way they want to go). In one call it sounded like the driver was coming from the left, at another call it sounded like he was already past our intersection and he had to go around the block. This went on and on. Finally an auto- rickshaw driver came to us (these guys are often irritating, but they usually know where they are.) He offered to speak to the taxi driver. We do not know what he said, in Kannada- the local language, but he said the guy was still far away. It was now past 1:45PM, so we negotiated with the auto driver a little and he proceeded to take us where we wanted to go- and wait. On the way to the restaurant our friend finally called and said she switched off her phone to listen to someone speaking and she did not think we would get a taxi so soon, so that is why she was not home. (She was right, of course- when they say one time, one has not clear idea what they mean!)
The restaurant was interesting, the music extremely loud, but interesting. The crafts were bad. We had our lunch and left. The auto driver was outside waiting. He politely asked if we wanted to go to any craft shops (where he would earn commission) and he seemed to understand (that we knew what this meant) and when we said no, he took us directly back home. His name was Pasha. It is nice and cool in our AC apartment! The electricity has been on all day!
On Saturday, Jim went to the National Gallery of Modern Art here in Bangalore. This is a relatively new place which is built around an older heritage building. It has nice grounds. It has a lot of potential to be a really good place. There is a special exhibit on now of paintings from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (A great place). The paintings date from about 1790 to 1930 and are scenes in India painted by British visitors. Most, if not all, are watercolors that are very interesting to see. They are some of the better documents of how some places once looked, since Indian artists did not do much of this kind of work in the past. The museum has some nice and seems mostly modern. The buildings do have A/C, though the temperature seemed a little high. In the V&A section the A/C was cranked up- it was probably part of the contract. We hope they are able to keep up the maintenance and bring in more visitors. They also honored Jim's PAN card to get the Indian entry fee of 10Rs (about 23cents now- 20 cents year a go). The PAN is "Personal Account Number"- like Social Security number in the US. It means we pay taxes here.
Joseph, our driver is away at a wedding for a couple weeks, so we managed to get a temporary driver starting yesterday (Sat. the 17th). Suresh is a more cautious driver and he seems good, though his English needs work. Unfortunately, last night we learned that his hand was badly injured in some mishap getting off from or on to a bus. Thus, after 1 day we may need another driver! If you look back at some earlier posts about "The Carpenter" - you can see this is not something new for us or for people in general here.
Today, we were planning to have the driver take us to a nice hotel on the far side of the city- about 1 hour away, but since he is resting, we could not do that. We decided to go with a friend by taxi to a restaurant that advertised a buffet lunch, music and a small crafts fair. With great pain we made the taxi reservation- it took 3 calls because the phone was cut off before Janet finished giving information. They give a booking number only at the end of the reservation by phone, so she got cut off twice and finally got finished. The reservation was to be for 1:30PM and we called at 12:45PM. At about 1:10 Janet started getting calls from the taxi driver that seemed to say he was very nearby and he needed more information. He called at least 8 times and we called him at least 4 times trying to get him to our friend's apartment. We walked to the apartment and found our friend was not home and her phone was switched off. We walked to a major intersection nearby- one that any driver would know and told the taxi driver we were there. The roads are one way (Mostly, but people will go whichever way they want to go). In one call it sounded like the driver was coming from the left, at another call it sounded like he was already past our intersection and he had to go around the block. This went on and on. Finally an auto- rickshaw driver came to us (these guys are often irritating, but they usually know where they are.) He offered to speak to the taxi driver. We do not know what he said, in Kannada- the local language, but he said the guy was still far away. It was now past 1:45PM, so we negotiated with the auto driver a little and he proceeded to take us where we wanted to go- and wait. On the way to the restaurant our friend finally called and said she switched off her phone to listen to someone speaking and she did not think we would get a taxi so soon, so that is why she was not home. (She was right, of course- when they say one time, one has not clear idea what they mean!)
The restaurant was interesting, the music extremely loud, but interesting. The crafts were bad. We had our lunch and left. The auto driver was outside waiting. He politely asked if we wanted to go to any craft shops (where he would earn commission) and he seemed to understand (that we knew what this meant) and when we said no, he took us directly back home. His name was Pasha. It is nice and cool in our AC apartment! The electricity has been on all day!
On Saturday, Jim went to the National Gallery of Modern Art here in Bangalore. This is a relatively new place which is built around an older heritage building. It has nice grounds. It has a lot of potential to be a really good place. There is a special exhibit on now of paintings from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (A great place). The paintings date from about 1790 to 1930 and are scenes in India painted by British visitors. Most, if not all, are watercolors that are very interesting to see. They are some of the better documents of how some places once looked, since Indian artists did not do much of this kind of work in the past. The museum has some nice and seems mostly modern. The buildings do have A/C, though the temperature seemed a little high. In the V&A section the A/C was cranked up- it was probably part of the contract. We hope they are able to keep up the maintenance and bring in more visitors. They also honored Jim's PAN card to get the Indian entry fee of 10Rs (about 23cents now- 20 cents year a go). The PAN is "Personal Account Number"- like Social Security number in the US. It means we pay taxes here.
Friday, April 9, 2010
"This is not punishment- it is for your own good"
That is what the guy was saying as we walked along the dusty road in the 97 degree sun. Jim was at the office and had just started to talk to one of the other people in the group we heard the fire alarm go off. It was not very loud, but it was followed soon by announcements over the loudspeakers to evacuate the building. It sounded like it was a drill, but since there was fire at a building in the city a couple months ago in which a 9 people died- many by jumping out of windows, this was taken seriously until we got outside and realized it really was just a drill. Jim had his computer and grabbed other things in case we did not come back soon. We marched along the dusty roads in the hot sun and around a corner where this guy was saying "This is not punishment, it is for your own good". The only thing Jim could think of, was "well, then why does it feel like punishment?"
They insisted that everyone stand in long lines in front of signs indicating each floor of the building we came from. Here there were 2 big buildings being evacuated- so, lots of people. Since Jim is on the first floor (first one above ground level) it was relatively fast getting out and over to this line, but then it meant standing in the sun longer while all the other people accumulated.
After a few minutes Jim began to look for a shady spot to stand, but the only one close was next to the building of another company and the security people don't want anyone else close to their building. So, He walked around a corner where there was some shade from the building on the road. After awhile, all the people were in the lines and the guy was giving a lecture on fire safety, which was for everyone's own good, though it still did not seem that way. It seemed easy just to walk back closer to the office and just sit in the shade and work on the laptop. Jim missed much of the lecture delivered to the hundreds of people standing in the hot sun (seems reminiscent of a scene from "Bridge on the River Kwai") but he heard most of the story last year in a similar drill. Eventually, they let people go back to their offices. All together it was about an hour out of the office. In the shade, and sitting the temperature was OK, but in the sun it is bad. Most of India is really uncomfortably- even dangerously, hot now.
They insisted that everyone stand in long lines in front of signs indicating each floor of the building we came from. Here there were 2 big buildings being evacuated- so, lots of people. Since Jim is on the first floor (first one above ground level) it was relatively fast getting out and over to this line, but then it meant standing in the sun longer while all the other people accumulated.
After a few minutes Jim began to look for a shady spot to stand, but the only one close was next to the building of another company and the security people don't want anyone else close to their building. So, He walked around a corner where there was some shade from the building on the road. After awhile, all the people were in the lines and the guy was giving a lecture on fire safety, which was for everyone's own good, though it still did not seem that way. It seemed easy just to walk back closer to the office and just sit in the shade and work on the laptop. Jim missed much of the lecture delivered to the hundreds of people standing in the hot sun (seems reminiscent of a scene from "Bridge on the River Kwai") but he heard most of the story last year in a similar drill. Eventually, they let people go back to their offices. All together it was about an hour out of the office. In the shade, and sitting the temperature was OK, but in the sun it is bad. Most of India is really uncomfortably- even dangerously, hot now.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Rain
We had some good rain Showers on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning- March 30/31. We think it is the first rain in 2010 here. It is certainly later than people are used to expecting. It did lower temperatures for a day and a half or so, but seems hot again- though much better than the 104F in New Delhi.
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