Friday, July 28 Move-in day, unpacking, servants, Hindi, Kamla Nagar

I woke up early to eat breakfast and then I had to pack up all my stuff into my bags, which are literally ripping at the seams. We had to move out at 10 (meaning 11) to take the bus to our apartments, but instead I opted to take a cab that would take us right to our front door because I don’t want to have to carry my bags through mud and dirt roads. Spoiled? Yes. The cab got really lost but we finally got to Home Sweet Home. I unpacked all my stuff into Nikhil’s (my roommate’s) and my room. The room is the best one; it’s on the second floor, it has a huge comfortable bed, a desk with chair, Italian wood armoires, a deck with fans and lights that faces the street, a nice adjoining marble and glass-finish bathroom, a vanity mirror, working air conditioning, excellent ambient lighting, and US AC plugs. There are so many lights that on one panel there are 17 switches...it took forever to get the lighting right...what a potential cockblock! It is so nice, the floor is marble and everything is incredibly luxurious. Everyone showed up and we had to meet the landlord Rahul Jain and give him the rent money, which I collected in a fatty2-inch tall stack (60,000 Rs, most of which was in 500’s) like in the movies. Then we met the dhobi, and like a girl, I had 14 items to wash. Broadband is being worked out, as are the beds for the three girls. The girls made a list of what we needed for the house in terms of furnishings. They all wanted mostly kitchen stuff, like dishwashing racks and coffee makers. I’m sorry but I’m just going to have the servants wash the dishes; that’s their job. The girls are saying (righteously) how they don’t want to buy into that servant-master system, but seriously, the landlord employs them to do that! They would be unemployed or working for another person otherwise. It’s not like we’re making them wipe our butts…I hate when people act like they’re saving the world by, for example, cleaning their own dishes, when at the same time they stay at hotels where maids clean up after you! If anything, that just teaches them that they can cut corners with us. I’m not saying I endorse the system, but I am a pragmatist, and I alone cannot change it by washing my own dishes. Anyways, we ordered some food, but no meat is allowed. I’m going to bet that during our stay we’re going to have an illicit meat trade operating out of our house. And also, we have to pay our own electricity bill, which is extremely expensive, especially with the air conditioning running all the time. Nikhil uses it without even thinking, so I have to be the one to police it. They paid $400 last month in electricity, which is ridiculously expensive. In response, I suggested we don’t take motor rickshaws, use aerosol cans, overeat, or move, so that global warming is delayed and our body temperatures will naturally drop, thus saving money on the electricity bill. Basically what we decided is that we can use the fans at a low speed, and when we hang out it must be only in one common room, where AC is acceptable. We had to go to a meeting about Hindi at the study center on Sri Ram Road, in a nice gated complex. It’s literally a five-minute walk from our pad. Hindi actually really sucks because there’s one teacher (Dinker’s sister), who works so she can only come two days a week, Tuesday and Wednesday. That means we have to take classes for 1½ hours on each day. That sucks because I don’t have class on Wednesday, so I’m going to be wasting all day sitting around waiting for my 1½ hour Hindi class. And she can’t do just one long block, which I would want, and she’s seeing if she can come on Thursday instead of Wednesday. The Hindi requirement of this program really infuriates me; Hindi is compulsory for EAP, but for me it’s worthless units, it’s only offered at the Study Center and at arbitrary times, and the curriculum is Landour, aka horrible. If it’s only offered Tuesday and Wednesday I’m going to take it Pass/Fail and just not come on Wednesdays if I’m busy. Anyways, we took rickshaws (our driver was a character; he turned off the engine while we were moving, and would thrust forward, as if that would propel the rickshaw) to Kamla Nagar to get sheets and towels, and it was nothing but a collection of posh boutiques and chain stores selling designer clothing. We went to a bedding shop, which was really expensive, and we ended up eating at Berco’s Chinese and Thai Restaurant, which was good. From now on, when I eat out, I have to take advantage and eat non-veg food whenever possible. We came back and played a game like charades for a while. Then we hung out on the couch, not addressing the fact that we were three beds short. Plus, Tara’s friend came for the night, so we had another body to accommodate. Rahul’s wonderful idea was to put out another bed…meaning take Tara and Snehal’s bed off their frame and put it downstairs. What that accomplished I have no idea. So three people slept on two couches, while three each people slept in double beds. I slept in my sleeping bag, and somehow got attacked by bedbugs or something, because I had a huge rash on my neck and arms.