Cleaning up after your dog

I belong to a couple of listservs for expats in India. Generally we are asking each other questions about where you can take tae kwan do classes in New Delhi, or who has a maid that is looking for extra work, etc. There was an interesting thread posted by someone from the British Council, about cleaning up after your dog, which is apparently an issue here. I include the thread below.

Original Poster:

I was told off the other day for picking up my dog's poo on the street. Apparently I shouldn't do it as "we have a service for that". I feel really guilty leaving big Labrador poo all around the neighbourhood, but I wouldn't want to offend cultural norms.

Reply 1:

One thought....

Does it have anything to do with the fact that many burn dung as fuel here?  Granted, it's usually dung from cows, but perhaps..... who knows.

Maybe the guy was just having one of those days and your poo-collecting put him over the edge. Maybe he secretly felt ashamed for not picking up after his own dog, and got defensive. Who knows.

Given the absence of posts saying "that happened to me too", I gather it was a one-off thing, but certainly very entertaining.

Thank you for being so considerate as to poop-and-scoop. I wish more dog-owners did the same.


Reply #2:

There might be a service in place but whether or not it gets done is another story. I hate to say it but I have my doubts!

Maybe it's just the stigma that only low-caste people collect rubbish and clean etc. I'd personally still keep picking it up.

Reply #3

Unlike NY and other European cities, cities in India don’t have any problem with dog poo. I guess they feel since it’s so dirty already, with all these strays pooing all over anyway-some more won’t harm. On a serious note, poo is considered unclean by most Indians. They would never pick it up-not theirs, nor their pets and so they probably objected to you picking it up.

In all my years here, I have never seen anyone pick up dog poo. Very expected though, ppl pooing on the streets is common enough and no one bothers with their poo. Still wondering what service there is-I guess they mean the DMC-Delhi municipal corp which has sweepers cleaning up the markets.


AND FINALLY, from the Original Poster:

Thanks for all the replies: public and private. I think I will stand up for responsible dog owners around the world and pick up my dog poo with pride :-)

After all it's not me that has a problem with it and I am helping making Delhi a cleaner city.
 

Fixing things for the short term

I remember my dad used to say that American cars were built for obsolescence. Well, Indian ROADS appear to be built for obsolescence. My Indian colleagues have pointed out that the workers that fix the roads have developed the fine art of repairing roads that will remain intact for only a few weeks before they once again need repair. We have mused about the fact that there are more incentives to repair and then be called back to repair again, rather than doing a spectacular job the first time. These findings are substantiated by this note from our friend John, and his experience in India:

We were driving somewhere and noticed some fresh white lines on the road marking the lanes.    Then we noticed that the lines were powder – lime probably.   We said something  about how silly it was that they don’t paint the lines.  Our guide looked incredulous and said something like:  “But then the workers wouldn’t have that job to do again!” 

Leave a message after the beep

Voicemail is maddening. We don’t like leaving it, and we don’t like having a string of voicemails to listen to. The only thing worse is….no voicemail. I don’t know how technology trends evolve in different cultures, but voicemail hasn’t taken off in India. This includes colleagues, drivers, family members. So as a call recipient, when you see someone has called you, you call them back to find out what they wanted. As a caller, the “monkey is always on your back.” With voicemail, you call someone; if they aren’t there, you leave a message, and it’s off your personal “to do” list. Absent voicemail, the problem is yours, until you reach the targeted person. I think there is a pricing issue, in that the caller pays for voicemails that they are leaving, if the callee even has voicemail as an option. (not sure about this.)  And if people aren’t accustomed to leaving voicemails, they feel strange talking to an inanimate machine. I wonder if this is an intrinsic cultural characteristic that won’t change, or an evolutionary one that will change soon, albeit several years behind the west.

Medical Attention, once again

Jordan has had a sore throat, stuffed nose, and headache over the last few days. Most recent new symptom was dizziness. We might just wait this stuff out in the US, but given some of the scarier strains of disease here (dengue, malaria) we opted to go to the doctor. There are lots of private doctors around, often with storefront offices. The signs announcing their practices are often dilapidated, dirty, falling off the wall where they are posted. Not inspiring places to visit. We went instead to the Fortis hospital where Adam and I spent a week in August. They have out patient services too. Conclusion to our visit there: Jordan has sinusitis.

The experience at Fortis was again, lovely. There was a fair amount of waiting in lines, to schedule an appointment with the internist (and pay), then to schedule an appointment with the ENT (and pay), and finally to schedule blood tests and an X-ray (and pay). Jordan recently got Indian health insurance, but we didn’t have the insurance card yet and so we paid for everything with cash/credit cards. It is easy to glorify and romanticize “the way things are at home, and how much more efficient things are.” But in this case, India beats out home experiences, hands down. If we needed to go from the internist to an ENT with our home doctors, we would have needed 2 separate appointments; they wouldn’t have been consecutive. The X-rays would have required yet another appointment. Results for blood tests would come the next day; at Fortis, they gave us a username and password so that we can log on ourselves later in the day to get results. Each doctor visit, with no insurance at all, was 700 rupees ($15). A whole array of meds (antibiotics etc.) was 500 rupees ($10). I am delighted to see quality medical services so affordable. But then, they are only affordable by OUR standards, with our US salaries.  If a driver or housekeeper earns all of $200 - $250 month (and those are the GOOD salaries, for maids/drivers working for expats)…then a $40 medical bill counts for 20% of their monthly wage; not affordable at all…But there are probably more affordable clinics than Fortis, which is probably high end (in quality, and price).

High holidays away from home, Part 2

Yom Kippur was this past Friday night and Saturday. THIS time, we were armed with a map, and our driver found it, no problems. (Driving on Yom Kippur is a big no-no…but what to do when there is only one synagogue, 30 minutes away by car?)

The service was very different from what we are familiar with…what was read, and the melodies that were used. There were many Israelis present; generally expats that work at the Israeli embassy but there also seem to be a number of Israeli entrepreneurs here. Many of the Israelis, as facile Hebrew readers, were called to lead parts of the service. Amnon was called up for one of the blessings during the Torah reading, and he chanted the beautiful Iraqi melody with his beautiful voice. He was then tagged to read a large portion of the service, which he did (mercifully) in rapid fire Hebrew.

I think the service was pretty torturous for Jesse and Adam. They have rarely gone to synagogue outside of our own wonderful congregation in White Plains (Bet Am Shalom). The whole spiritual experience is bound together – you are with people you know and love, the service is familiar and predictable, and you are able to reflect on your soul and whatever else you typically do at high holy day services. I remember my first service away from the “familiar” when I did my junior year abroad in Israel. It was a grand epiphany for me….There was no spiritual power in it at all. Which was upsetting at the time: If you are truly communing with G-d, then the location shouldn’t have that much effect. Yet it does. For Jesse and Adam, a big part of the holiday experience is also being with their friends from early childhood; and hanging out outside of the service. That was not an option here; indeed, they couldn’t even leave early, since Amnon was one of the key service leaders. Well, suffering is what you are supposed to do on Yom Kippur…

Getting the security thing down…

The locks on our doors (and everyone’s doors, I believe) are different from standard locks and keys in the US, and, I think, less convenient. You need a KEY to get in from the outside, AND you need a key to open the door from the INSIDE if the door has been locked. The difficulty with this system: If you are alone in the house and you lock the door and leave the key inside, other family members coming from the outside cannot open the door even with their keys. So generally, you remove the inside key from the lock so that others coming later can open the door. But then when the doorbell rings or you need to go out, there is a mad scramble to find the keys so that you can open the door even from the inside. One solution would be to ensure that you have a hook near the door for easy key-access; and to make sure that at least one set of keys is hanging there at all times. (We haven’t done this yet) But why this system? Amnon has been planning to replace the lock with a more western lock. One of his Indian acquaintances, though,  (let’s call him Ram) said that a system that requires key access from the outside only is not a good one for India. Ram said that you need to be able to bolt people INSIDE the house without easy egress. Ram had a plumber working at his house, and happened to see his camera tucked away somewhere outside of his house. The lore here is that workmen in your apartment can take things and hide them somewhere outside of your house if they have easy, keyless entry and exit. Then, even if you do check their bags when they officially leave, they will have already extracted whatever they wanted. Yuk. This does not resonate with my polyannish-world views; nor with my world view that everyone is basically good; that people will like us when they know us; and that people that like us would never do bad things….

Is there virtue in cleaning your own house?

We are growing more accustomed to having someone come to our house each day, sweeping, washing the floors, doing the dishes. It feels like you’re in a hotel. I still struggle with the concept of that much assistance.


I have spent thousands of hours cleaning my own house, washing my own dishes, doing the laundry, cooking. Full weekends have been spent engaged in household duties, and completing all or some of these is how I have defined weekend fulfillment. That is NOT the experience here, even for very middle class folks. (I assume it is not the experience ANYWHERE, for the wealthy, unless that is what they choose to do.) If you tell your US colleagues that you spent the entire weekend on house chores, they will nod with understanding. I imagine that if you tell that to your Indian colleagues, it would appear strange…Like someone in America saying they spent the weekend grinding stones into sand, when it is easier and more time-effective to simply buy the sand outright. Is a life without these “duties” a better life? What would most of my American friends and family have done with all of that extra time? Would we have used it to solve world hunger, or to write the great American novel? When you are relieved of the mundane tasks of life, are you more likely to become your fully realized self? Should we all aspire to do less of these mundane tasks, if we can possibly afford to? (And in India, as I said, most people can afford to - - you can have a full time cook/housekeeper for $200/month, and that’s probably the inflated expat pricing - ) Should I look back at thousands of hours of house duties, and conclude that they were a waste; that I could have been doing something “bigger” to “fix the world” during that time??

Where does the water come from?

That same night that Adam was entertaining 8 or so friends from school, the water pump on our roof stopped working. We called someone over for some emergency repairs to get us through the night. (I envisioned lots of kids needing bathrooms with toilets that stopped flushing…) Amnon gave me a crash lesson on how we get our water here. The city opens the water valves for our area twice a day, from 5:30 am till 7:00 am, and from 5:30 pm till 7:00 pm. When the valves are open, water flows into an underground concrete citrine that every building has with dedicated pumps for each apartment; we need to flip a switch that will pump the water from there up to our two roof tanks. Failure to flip the switch means no water filling the roof tanks and no water for your apartment that day. Amnon has now installed an automatic timer that turns the switch on and off, so we don’t need to go up to the roof to flip the switch. On the day of the sleepover, the pump to the roof malfunctioned, which was the source of the problem. It has since been fixed.



But we are again reminded not to take for granted the infrastructure that we enjoy in the US, where you turn a faucet and water just appears; no prior effort or thought required on our parts.

C8/8, Vasant Vihar - - hosting our first kids’ hangout

This week, Adam asked whether we could host 8 or so kids from the American School at our apartment for dinner, and some of them would sleep over. We always love making our home “hangout central,” and so we agreed without hesitation. (We are not fully ready for this; still waiting for furniture to arrive, etc…but we figured we would wing it.) I have a repertoire of foods that I make when the kids have friends over, and so I planned a meal around these familiar dishes. Amnon also got some wonderful roti and paneer and other sauces at an Indian market. I opted to make “corn pashtida” (an Israeli crustless quiche) and a chocolate chip cookie cake. I went to the market to get the ingredients needed. Some of the things we consider staples in the US are just not that common here. These include cheddar cheese, and corn. Our local market has a lot of western offerings, and so it was easy to get the supplies. But since cheddar is non-standard, I paid the equivalent of $10 or so for a couple of small cheddar blocks. And another $5 or so for canned corn. It occurred to me that I am preparing an $18 quiche…a bit excessive, especially for India. I have since been told by some of my new expat acquaintances that there are Indian versions of some of these products, although the store owner is delighted to sell the expensive imports if you don’t specifically ask for the Indian versions - - and some expats probably want only the brands that they know. I am just fine with “going native.” I would happily go native with all of my recipes, but I will need to learn to “cook Indian.” As it is now, when we go to Indian markets with no western imports, I don’t know what most of the products are, or how they are used…I hope to learn…

Police Attention

Our apartment in India is lovely, and in one of the nicest sections of New Delhi. There is a lot of construction going on all over the city, as real estate prices here balloon. This includes the building next door to us, an elegant structure that is being thoroughly renovated with a dedicated construction crew that works day and night. We are generally fine with the construction noise and debris. This week, though, the crew was doing some particularly loud activities at 3:00 am or so. (Amnon said it sounded like they were cutting marble.) Amnon called the local police to ask if the workers could be asked to stop. The police asked whether he was calling to report “noise pollution.” Amnon said “yes,” impressed that they had a name and category for it. They said they would be right here. Within minutes, 2 police cars pulled up to the adjacent apartment. Amnon watched through the window. Six policemen got out of each car, and summoned down the entire construction crew. Before leaving, the police station called to ask if we were satisfied with how they resolved the problem, and whether he could release his men. The construction noise stopped, and the building went dark for the night. The next morning a policeman came to our apartment, to find out whether the rest of the night was quiet for us, and to ask whether we wanted to file a formal complaint. We did not. But we were impressed with the responsiveness of the police. Since then, the construction work next door has been starting at 7:30 am instead of 6:00 am, and we have not heard loud noise in the middle of the night.

I think we all form impressions by anecdotal experiences. If you call the police and they come quickly, you conclude that the police are responsive and efficient. This could be because we are in the Vasant Vihar neighborhood, or because they heard a western voice complaining, or because they were having a slow night. Nonetheless, we are left with a very favorable impression of New Delhi’s men in blue (actually, khaki in India- - )

Rosh Ha Shana – The Shul at 2 Humayun Road

Rosh Ha Shana, in New Delhi. A city with 10 indigenous Jewish families, plus some uncounted number of expats like ourselves. There is but one synagogue – Judah Hyam (http://jewishdelhi.org/) When I contacted them about Shabbat services, the religious leader there asked if I was ok with a service that included women as well as men as part of the “quorum” (minyan of 10); he said that if they DIDN’T include women they wouldn’t have a minyan at all. (We belong to a Reconstructionist synagogue in White Plains – Bet Am Shalom – which is fiercely egalitarian. We are just fine with a mixed minyan.) Adam and I went there for Friday night services while Amnon was in Israel last month, and they were very welcoming.
We planned to go there for Rosh HaShana. The synagogue is several miles from where we live, so we took a taxi. The driver that took Adam and I last time was unavailable, and so we arranged to go with a different driver. We gave him the address – Two Humayun Road, and some rough demographic information (near the President’s House). (While I had been there before, my non-existent sense of direction can get me lost on the easy grid of Manhattan….so my navigation skills were useless…) Street names and numbers are not easy to spot here. When the driver seemed a bit lost, Amnon emphasized that we needed TWO Humayun Road. We drove for a bit, and the driver pulled up to Humayun TOMB. (sort of sounds like “two”….) No, no, we said. Amnon then tried to convey that we wanted a temple, a temple for Jews. The taxi continued driving, and then pulled up at the ZOO. (sort of sounds like “Jew”….) At this point the boys are hysterically laughing and enjoying the whole experience far more than actually being in services. Amnon stops to ask policemen along the way, and is continuing to convey the notion of Jews, prayer, etc. But no one knows what “Jew” means…in this city of 12M or so people, 10 families don’t really stand out. (Even the highly educated people that I work with don’t know much about Jewish people. For those that didn’t spend time in the US, I am the first Jewish person they have met. ) The driver got the “prayer” part, and then took us to a Hindu Temple, and then to a Christian church. By then, it was too late for services - - (I didn’t want to walk in so late to a small congregation with our team of 5.) We will be better prepared for Yom Kippur – with mapped out directions in hand.

Jordan and Jesse arrive in New Delhi

Jordan and Jesse have arrived in New Delhi. Amnon, Adam, and I are now the “experienced ones,” advising what and where to eat, how to get around, etc. They are a bit disoriented - - jet lagged, and also working to figure out their program for the year. Already getting little stomach bugs….



I am delighted that we are (almost) all together - - eagerly awaiting Tomy’s arrival in December.



   

New Delhi pictures July - August 2010

http://picasaweb.google.com/sara.basson/NewDelhiJulyAugust2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCOS6j8qI9ZqlwwE#

India blog photos

The pleasures:

I love the Spoken Web project; its vision and possibilities. I sit at meetings sometimes and get goose bumps as we talk to customers/agencies that want to deploy this, and as I listen to where and how they want to use it. It is a project with so much potential to do good for the world, and also to make money for IBM. What a winning combination. Plus, it leverages all of the things that I love to do - - application design, human factors, technical assessment, speech technology, "accessibility" across the digital divide, new business development. I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity.

The people at IRL have been wonderful to work with professionally, and personally. They have been incredibly helpful to me during this transition to India, where I need all sorts of advice and sometimes transport. They are smart, and (of course) deeply committed to the Spoken Web vision, which gives us an immediate bond.

There is so much palpable energy in "emerging markets," where there is continuous growth and even more potential to grow. At Manish's quarterly meeting, he displayed a range of photos of new employees for all to welcome. But then he chastised the team that we still weren't meeting our targets with respect to bringing in more and more world class hires. It has been years since US corporations have presented such messages to their teams.

I love the newness of everything. Everything is a learning experience; everywhere you look is something interesting and novel. It's like being a kid again - - all the "mundane" experiences are exciting again -- going to work, the bank, the market, whatever. Everything is done differently (sometimes small and subtle differences; sometimes major ones....sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.)

I love listening to Adam come to grips with all of the new experiences. Figuring out "what DO you do when someone in a pathetic state raps on your window and asks for money? What do you do when multiple people do that?" There are so many social action projects to take on....watching him figure out where he can have the most impact. Watching him engage with kids from all over the world at the American Embassy School. What a set of experiences he will leave with.

I know that the cheap labor here is the flip side of the profound poverty. But it is really nice to have household help at VERY affordable rates to cook dinner for when you get back from work, and even iron the sheets. (Have our sheets *ever* been ironed? I doubt it...) I have taken to asking Indian people what they love about India, and the household service support ranks pretty high on the list...(One colleague I spoke to compared India to the US, and pointed out that middle class people here live like kings. He said - -"Would I want to be in a place where I have to spend the weekend mowing the lawn? Or where my wife does dishes every night? You have to be kidding me....")

Getting my hair washed and blow dried (de-tangled and de-frizzed) at a high-end salon for about $10. (and that's with TWO people working on it...one holding the brush, the other holding the hairdryer.) I don't plan on washing my hair on my own at all this year....

The challenges:

Poverty visible wherever you turn. It is even visible to me in one of the “features” of Indian life, which is lots and lots of service assistance, at really low cost. From an economic perspective, people will work for low wages when there is rampant unemployment and any job will do. So the luxurious availability of maids, cooks, and drivers at very affordable rates is just another symbol to me of a country with deep economic woes.

The chaotic traffic; figuring out how to cross streets and whether pedestrians ever have right of way. A friend of mine commented that she “appends” herself to other people who look like they know how to cross the street….I have begun doing the same.

Stray animals in the streets. The dogs particularly break my heart.

The deeply rooted bureaucratic processes for everything. Opening a bank account, getting a cellphone account, joining a gym. Everyone needs pictures, copies of passports, copies of visas, letters substantiating that I am on a work assignment here, documentation substantiating my home address, etc. etc. When they are missing some tidbit (like yet one more signature), they send couriers to your office.

Not being able to get into your car and drive yourself somewhere spontaneously; dependency on a "driver."

Figuring out where to buy a range of things that we consider “routine,” like desk lamps. (Apparently not a common item here.)

Not knowing how to bargain and drive down prices (and not liking that process anyway)….not knowing when I am being given a price that is twice what I should be paying, with the vendor expecting me to bargain it down…

Not being able to drink water from the tap; remembering to bring bottled/filtered water wherever I go.

Power outages; random power fluctuations and surges (One such surge burnt out some of our home electronics, even though they are plugged in through surge protectors...the fluctuation apparently exceeded the capacity of the surge protectors.)

Water tanks that need to be filled each morning; failure to fill means failure to get water that day

Sterilizing fruit and vegetables

Driving (or not)

You don’t drive yourself around in India as an expat. Many of the Indians don’t drive themselves, either. The traffic is horrendous, parking is impossible. One of my colleagues drives with his sideview mirrors tucked in. Cars don’t respect your “personal space” here. Plus, the rules of driving here are like a dance, where the initiated seem to know just how close they can get to another car before quickly veering off. I don’t know the steps. But not driving yourself is a real inconvenience, too. Our driver lives in New Delhi, but his wife and children are in the far north. So occasionally he goes back home for a week, and we are driver-less. When we do have a driver, I feel responsible if we have kept him “busy” for too many hours….but our own schedules are hectic, and sometimes that happens. In general, I just don’t like that level of “dependency” - - I am accustomed to jumping in the van and going where I need to, when I need to; and if a particular shopping trip ends up taking 3 hours instead of 1, we aren’t accountable to anyone else...

The bureaucracy

The documentation required for everything is daunting. We joined a gym, and it took me 3 days to provide them with all that they wanted to satisfy entry requirements. Passports, visas, pictures…and letter from IBM documenting that I am here on a one year assignment. I brought a letter from IBM HQ in Armonk; they wanted instead a letter from IBM management in India. The secretary gathering these documents said at the end…”you are not accustomed to all of the Indian bureaucracy. It is not like America, where you can sit at your desk, press a couple of buttons, and bombs drop in Afghanistan…” (!) (Was this, in his mind, the most compelling example of American efficiency and lack of bureaucracy?)

The Water

The fact that you can’t drink water from a faucet adds another layer of thought to your day. The weather in New Delhi is hot (over 90 degrees, in September), and so drinking is critical. So you need to remember to leave the house with a bottle of purified or bottled water. In the US, we take it for granted that we can get water along the way, if we don’t have any with us.
Another issue with water….how far do you need to go to avoid ingesting tap water? At first, we brushed our teeth with bottled water, and rinsed the brush with bottled water. But then, we washed the cup (and all the dishes) with tap water. Is that ok? When the dishes dry, do the contaminants disappear? We have all gotten more lax on this one…and we are brushing our teeth now with tap water. No ill effects, so far.

The poverty, everywhere

There are poor people that come to the window of your taxi and beg, often holding babies. The advice given here is not to give them money. That is the advice people give in NY, too. In NY, though, I assume that people cannot starve, even if they are poor…there is welfare, soup kitchens, homeless shelters. What happens to the poor people here? How close to the edge are they? Where do you start, and where do you end, when the problem is so huge and overwhelming? Do you give to some and not others? Adam said it would be easier if people were performing in some way, the way musicians do in NY. Then you would feel like you are rewarding someone for entertaining you. Adam also commented that it is easier since they are begging in another language that we don’t understand…. It would be more unbearable if you actually understood their profound tales of woe.

Working at IBM India Research Lab

My Indian colleagues at IBM Research Lab have been wonderful. They are all so accommodating and eager to help. There seems to be a great lab synergy. It is a smaller lab, and a younger lab, than its US counterpart –can that account for some of the closeness? They also hold end of month lab-wide events, adding to the bonding experience. For July they had a contest to see whether people could identify verses from Indian movies. Today they will hold a table tennis tournament. No one seems cynical about any of these events; everyone participates. This has been, so far, a great professional fit. The Spoken Web work is as exciting and fulfilling as I had hoped it would be. The project has potential for world impact, along with financial impact for IBM. We are talking to entities that want to use Spoken Web to track vaccinations of babies; and other entities that want to use this as a tool for farmers to improve crop yields. Addressing world hunger AND disease….it doesn’t get more fulfilling than that…

Animals on the streets, in the markets, on the road

Animals roam the streets here. Cows galore, plus dogs, and occasionally pigs. There are many, many emaciated stray dogs. I remember my mother saying that you need “mazel” – you have to be lucky, as a child, or a pet, to be born into the right family - - some are indulged, and some languish. These dogs live a difficult life, negotiating the horrendous traffic and scrounging for food. Adam was thinking about making stray animals as his volunteer focus. But he then reflected on whether it made sense to focus on homeless animals, when there are so many homeless people…

Low cost labor – Part 2

Labor is so cheap here, that activities done by machines in the US are done here by hand. That means you will see women breaking bricks into smaller pieces with hand tools. I noted today in the IBM India Research Lab cafeteria, there is one microwave and 3 assistants helping employees heat their food. In IBM Research in NY, there are many microwaves, and no assistants. I have gotten my hair blow dried a couple of times – (de-tangled and de-frizzed for $10, and that’s at a high end salon.) We finish very quickly, because there are two people working on my hair…one holds the brush, one holds the hairdryer…Couriers come repeatedly to the office, to hand me documents or to get something signed. I tell them that I can scan the document and send it; they say that they need the original. The availability of low-cost people probably furthers some of these bureaucratic processes. The bank representative makes multiple trips to my office to get us to sign certain documents. The cost of labor in the US probably encourages US banks to make due with a scan of your signature. Less courier work for them, and fewer bureaucratic processes for the rest of us.

Low cost labor – Part 1

How to wrap your head around the really low cost labor here? I feel queasy about the low cost labor that we all so thoroughly enjoy. It is the flip side of the profound poverty you see all around you, that enables very middle class families to enjoy a full staff of support people that will bring you tea when you ring a bell. The relationships between employer and employee also seem rather strained, given the huge disparity in economic circumstances. There is a lot of suspicion that staff will “take things” and so a consequent focus on checking receipts, not allowing staff to have keys to your home, etc. (We bought a refrigerator when we moved into our ap’t…and ALL of the refrigerators come with a lock and key…) The suspicions are substantiated by things you read in the newspaper, with long time staff doing all sorts of unpleasant things to their employers. I can’t help but bring my American sensibilities to the table, though. We have hired a lovely woman as our housekeeper, and I appear to be way friendlier and more trusting with our housekeeper than others that I speak to. The experience of having a housekeeper would be too unpleasant for me….outweighing all other benefits….if I behaved any other way.

Hospitalized our first month

Adam and I got really sick, early in August. We both ended up in the hospital, with fever, intestinal problems, headaches…The hospital (FORTIS) was LOVELY. They have separate registration areas for internationals, and they were so helpful and indulgent. The head of the ER gave us his business card, with his mobile number, and the option to call him anytime night or day….What an unusual medical experience! (We tested negative for dengue, malaria, H1N1...In the end, they diagnosed it as a "virus." I don't remember ever being that sick, for that many days...) We are now fully recovered.

Torts

We think of the US as a highly litigious society. People can be sued for any number of things. If snow isn’t shoveled in front of your house, you are liable. If a construction site is unsecured and someone gets hurt, the developer can be liable. Etc. I don’t think that rampant suits are the norm here. And we see many “dangerous” things that you don’t see in the states. There was major construction in front of a shopping area, with a large crater in the ground. There was no fencing around it, and children were playing along the periphery. An upscale coffee shop needed some elevation for customers to get inside, and so there were a couple of uneven boulders placed out front that we climbed up on in place of a step. In the states, these would be opportunities begging for law suits, and so the owners would want to avoid the likely expense. And so the owners instead will “do the right thing” to keep pedestrians and passers-by safe. Maybe lawsuits are a really good thing after all, creating the needed incentives for owners to keep their workspaces safe.

What's a monsoon in New Delhi?

We arrived to India during Monsoon season. “Monsoon” sounds so exotic, and other-worldy. Would these be hurricane rains and wind? Something we had never seen before? It appears that in New Delhi, “monsoon” just means “rain.” It rains almost every day, for a couple of hours. Sometimes the rain is heavy, but it’s just rain, nothing other-worldly. The draining on the roads is not good, though, and so “monsoons” correlate with traffic jams and travel delays.

Preparation Phase

Packing the house. What an overwhelming and cathartic experience. Every item that you own needs to be touched and assessed, in every nook and cranny and side closet. Keep? Toss? Give away? Pack for India? Pack for storage? So much stuff accumulates, that you figure you will get to some day, that you will need some day. When you look at it all with a critical eye, you realize that you haven’t touched item X in 10 years. You haven’t needed item X in 10 years. “Stuff” that you save thinking your kids will want it one day. Closets full to overflowing. Now, there is an “opportunity cost” to every item - - it either gets shipped, or stored in limited-space storage units. So many things that were discarded and donated. And those things that you saved because you thought you would need them one day….when you put them out on the curb, you are sometimes embarrassed about how shabby they are….so what, in fact, were you saving them for? I feel lighter and freer, having reduced the backlog of “stuff.”

So much gets done when you’re under the gun, things you have talked about and wanted for years are now done in days. We had talked about creating a large center room in the basement, where the boys could play music. But it never popped to the top of the priority stack. Now, we needed a place where we could lock up our furniture and stored paraphernalia. So the talked-about room got built. Now it is full up with stored stuff. We look forward to converting it to the music studio we had talked about, once we return.

The circumstances of the Big Cleanup are so much better than I could have imagined. One day, most people have to do this – empty the accumulated “stuff” in their home. Often this is when the owners are moving out of their home and “downsizing” to something of more manageable size. We have the opportunity to do this now, in anticipation of a big exciting adventure….nothing bittersweet here. And we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor, when we return.

The process to get a work visa for India was daunting, and that’s with the full force and power of IBM behind us. Endless documentation required, such as document of incorporation for IBM India, letters of proof that I walk on water and that no one in this country of 1.3 B people could possibly do what I will be doing….There is an “intermediary” to the Indian Embassy in NYC, where I had a scheduled appointment. (Travisa). They have become the emissaries to the embassy for people seeking visas. They are not, to the best of my knowledge, a government agency, but they have taken on the “frills.” (Someone assigned to make sure that no one on line is using a cellphone.) You get to the front of the line, and someone peruses your paperwork. Many of the line standers (myself included) “failed.” (In my case, they wanted the letter of proof that I walk on water (the letter of my qualifications) to be a separate letter from the letter describing what my Indian assignment entailed.) I contacted our local “Just In Documents” in Westchester, and used them as our intermediaries instead. It was a much smoother process.

Arriving in India

We arrived in India in late July. It was cooler (thanks be!) than it was for our look-see trip in May-June, Now it was in the 90s; vs. 110+ in May. We stayed at the same hotel in New Delhi, near IBM Research, that we had stayed at in May. (The Grand). We immediately got busy with the settling in process, so we could leave the hotel and move into the apartment we had already rented. Amnon was instantly comfortable in the marketplace environment, getting handmade furniture at a fraction of the asking prices for already built furniture. The shopkeepers commented that Amnon only *looks* western…his negotiating and bargaining skills rival any inner city Indian…We cannot underestimate the learnings that took place in the Israeli shuks. Plus, Amnon is the son of Rachel Basson; he probably acquired these skills with his mother’s milk..