Zeno's Paradox goes something like this: suppose there is a frog placed in one corner of a room. Each time the frog jumps it goes exactly half of the remaining distance to the opposite corner of the room. The paradox is that the frog never seems to reach the opposite corner even though it continues to move.
In India it seems that many tasks are like the Frog's situation- there appears to be movement, but the task never seems to complete. At least it feels that way sometimes.
We had to switch our phone plan to one where we don't have to pay a monthly bill- prepaid- so we don't need to think about it any more. It took several phone calls with people saying "oh you just go to the phone company office". Of course it was not that simple. Jim had to go twice and stay about 45 minutes each time plus gather many documents to present, then the phone shut off and we had to wait for them to come back on and then call the office again (and again) to finally get them working. Some of this is driven by security concerns after the Mumbai attack almost 2 years ago, but mostly it is typical silliness.
On another front we got Ziggy and Zoe to the Vet yesterday evening to get them checked before departure- they tell us it is to be done no more than 7 days before departure. The inspection was quick but the guy spent 45 minutes typing out the forms and printing them. This was free. they charged about $2.75 for some deworming pills and tranquilizers in case they (or we) need them on the flight. The next for them is to get the government vet to see the cats and sign off on their departure. We thought we might might get this done, but could not due to the phones not working and that the gov't vets office closing earlier than we thought possible. So, it is another case of things appearing to move, but not quite reaching the finish.
However, things do, usually, reach completion- one just has to be VERY patient. Some jobs like construction or fabrication of something by tradesmen may never actually reach completion- for those, it is more a case of the owner/purchaser getting tired of having things done over again and again- you just reach the point of saying "it seems good enough".
Last Saturday Jim made a short trip to "Tipu's Palace" and the remains of the fort that once covered a large areas of old Bangalore. In the 2 year we have been here he never had time to go. Tipu Sultan was the Muslim ruler of this area in the late 1700's. He is reputed to have been a very wise ruler and well respected by the people. However, the British and he did not agree on much. He was finally killed on an assault on his capitol of Srirangapatna in 1799. We visited there in Dec. 2008 and wrote about that back then. Tipu had a number of palaces around his domain and the one in Bangalore is not large, but it is worth the short visit to see the architecture and a few relics. The area is now surrounded by Bangalore city that is not so pretty. It took about 20-30 minutes to walk around.
A short drive away is the old fort or cantonment. We are told that it was not well kept until a couple years ago. it is interesting as well, but again, only 20 minutes or so to walk around seemed enough. It is free to visit the fort while the palace is about 10 cents for Indians and $2 for foreigners. Jim did not have the energy to argue with them over paying the Indian rate- since we pay taxes in India we are supposed to be able to get the Indian rate, but more than half the places claim that is not true or that our documents are not valid because "they might be forgeries- there are a lot of forgeries around".
Movers come tomorrow to start packing up our stuff.
In India it seems that many tasks are like the Frog's situation- there appears to be movement, but the task never seems to complete. At least it feels that way sometimes.
We had to switch our phone plan to one where we don't have to pay a monthly bill- prepaid- so we don't need to think about it any more. It took several phone calls with people saying "oh you just go to the phone company office". Of course it was not that simple. Jim had to go twice and stay about 45 minutes each time plus gather many documents to present, then the phone shut off and we had to wait for them to come back on and then call the office again (and again) to finally get them working. Some of this is driven by security concerns after the Mumbai attack almost 2 years ago, but mostly it is typical silliness.
On another front we got Ziggy and Zoe to the Vet yesterday evening to get them checked before departure- they tell us it is to be done no more than 7 days before departure. The inspection was quick but the guy spent 45 minutes typing out the forms and printing them. This was free. they charged about $2.75 for some deworming pills and tranquilizers in case they (or we) need them on the flight. The next for them is to get the government vet to see the cats and sign off on their departure. We thought we might might get this done, but could not due to the phones not working and that the gov't vets office closing earlier than we thought possible. So, it is another case of things appearing to move, but not quite reaching the finish.
However, things do, usually, reach completion- one just has to be VERY patient. Some jobs like construction or fabrication of something by tradesmen may never actually reach completion- for those, it is more a case of the owner/purchaser getting tired of having things done over again and again- you just reach the point of saying "it seems good enough".
Last Saturday Jim made a short trip to "Tipu's Palace" and the remains of the fort that once covered a large areas of old Bangalore. In the 2 year we have been here he never had time to go. Tipu Sultan was the Muslim ruler of this area in the late 1700's. He is reputed to have been a very wise ruler and well respected by the people. However, the British and he did not agree on much. He was finally killed on an assault on his capitol of Srirangapatna in 1799. We visited there in Dec. 2008 and wrote about that back then. Tipu had a number of palaces around his domain and the one in Bangalore is not large, but it is worth the short visit to see the architecture and a few relics. The area is now surrounded by Bangalore city that is not so pretty. It took about 20-30 minutes to walk around.
A short drive away is the old fort or cantonment. We are told that it was not well kept until a couple years ago. it is interesting as well, but again, only 20 minutes or so to walk around seemed enough. It is free to visit the fort while the palace is about 10 cents for Indians and $2 for foreigners. Jim did not have the energy to argue with them over paying the Indian rate- since we pay taxes in India we are supposed to be able to get the Indian rate, but more than half the places claim that is not true or that our documents are not valid because "they might be forgeries- there are a lot of forgeries around".
Movers come tomorrow to start packing up our stuff.
1 comment:
I hope you all have a safe flight back.
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