Indian Time

james — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 14:30:14 +0000

We’ve now had a fridge, cooker, television and microwave just sat there unconnected for five days now. It’s not that we’re too lazy to set them up. We’re not allowed to touch them. We have to wait for the appropriate people to come round and install them for us. We also don’t have a phone. We’ve been pressuring the company we work for to sort this out for 4 of those 5 days and so far nothing has happened. This is just one frustrating example of how hard is it to get a definite time for things out here. Here is another.
Kenny lost his wallet on Tuesday (it was either pickpocketed or dropped out of his pocket). The only important things in there were his keys. He’d been told to lock his door because some men were coming round to fit the fridge etc. They didn’t turn up (natch) and Kenny was locked out of his room. Locked out of his clothes, money and everything else. He only had what he was wearing and what he had bought from M.G. Road before. It took 3 days before the locksmith arrived.

Needless to say this new timescale will take some getting used to.

In Fight and Day One

james — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 14:25:40 +0000

From my limited experience with airline seats I have been able to construct the following chart in order of least to most comfortable;

Bus Seat < Train Seat < Economy 747 Seat < Sofa < Bed

Fascinating I’m sure. You’ll have to forgive me as I’m working with 4 hours of sleep I had the night before yesterday. Why yes! I was unable to find a position comfortable enough to sleep in despite the plane being only half-booked and there being lots of spare seats. How did you guess?
I digress. For a aeroplane virgin such as myself, takeoff was a very exciting event that was marred only by the 45 minute wait behind the other planes waiting to take off. Watching the ground disappear beneath you is an awe inspiring sight when you see it for the first time. I had my nose pressed to the window for the first 10 minutes. After we broke the cloud layer there wasn’t really much to see, so I got bored and stopped looking out of the window. I was getting a crick in my neck anyway. In regards to the food, the flight was very good. They broke out these excellent little packets of snacks to begin with. Like Bombay Mix but with cornflakes and sultanas. It was very nice. The main meal was also pretty good. I had a chicken curry with rice and curried vegetables. Breakfast was not so hot and led me to think what would happen if they did an airline version of Supersize Me. Wouldn’t be pretty, I’m sure.
Inflight entertainment was OK. A Bollywood and a Hollywood. The Bollywood one was about a man with a temper problem vying with a man who often pretends to be blind for the love of a woman who frets too much. The Hollywood one was National Treasure. Nothing special but enjoyable in a corny way. Shame the headphones were so bad. The action sequences were painful because of the distortion.
We arrived at Mumbai at 8am (local time). That place is overwhelming. The heat, the poverty, the roads, the dust. It’s all just a massive shock. It gave me serious doubts about what I was doing. Luckily we were out of the city after about an hour and a half (rush hour) and the countryside was much more pleasant. Still hot though. It wasn’t until we got to the hills that it cooled down a bit. If it were a bit greener the hills would look remarkably like Scotland. At the moment they look sort of like a very uneven savannah.
Pune seems to be a lot more relaxed than Mumbai thankfully. Hopefully I’ll get time to have a good look around.

hannett.net » culture shock

Indian Time

In Fight and Day One