Life is uncommon in India. Even the most precise routine is splashed with some out of the ordinary thing. Uncommon is so common that we lose our surprise. Why, just tonight when leaving dinner, traffic was stopped on the highway because a ramshackle bus had collided with a tricycle cab. The commotion seemed to be not over the damage but about how to retrieve the monkey that had come to sit on top of the bus. Jess says it was on a leash, but I would swear it was holding a long stick and swinging it at the crowd below. So many things happen in a single day here that Jess and I thought it would be nice to show you at home what our ordinary day is like. Enjoy.
We wake up about the time you are getting ready for bed. Well, most of you, anyway. I get up everyday at 7:45 am and order breakfast: Coffee and toast. I pick up my phone and dial 20; two rings and Rajeev answers: “hello sir. Toast? Two Plates? Uh huh. Coffee?” Thanks Rajeev but Ma’am won’t be eating toast today. Actually Jessica does eat toast for breakfast but she does not like coffee in the morning and anyway, she prefers to order her own meal. Without going too much into it, we have noticed that when I order, my order is understood as her order as well. So, for two weeks Jess ate exactly what I ate: an order of toast and coffee. We are supposed to be at the office everyday by 8:30 am, so after I place my order I unlock my door and jump in the shower. While I am the shower, guesthouse people bring my breakfast and leave it on the little table at the foot of my bed. Then they leave and shut my door.
Water is the source of happiness and heartbreak, here. There is nothing like having as much water as you can drink when the temperature is 97º before 8am. Every day this week the mercury has topped 109º. But, the water will kill you too. Or, at least it will make you feel like you are losing a battle inside while your gutless bowels beat a hasty retreat. To avoid poisoning myself with shower water I have to consciously remember not to open my mouth. When I step out, I must first wipe the water off my face before I start congratulating myself out loud in the mirror, lest one damn bacterial drop gets into my system. Error will cost me ten consecutive hours on the toilet. The same goes for brushing my teeth. I must use bottled water to wet and rinse the toothbrush. Now groomed and dressed, I head down to the first floor – Jess and I live on the third and top floor – to catch the car into work.
The ride in is routine. We share the road with motorcycles, cars, busses, carts, donkeys, cows, bikes, farm tractors, birds, construction equipment, monkeys, pigs and pedestrians. Traffic is not bad though, so we get to work in 10 minutes.
Jess and I usually take a half hour to read the newspapers and catch up on what has been going on India. We are watching a Yogi go bananas over “black money”. After we are done reading the Hindu, or the Himalayan Times, we start on our projects. We have several projects to work on but two are really interesting. Jess and I are writing a legal memorandum arguing that Rule 49 of the Bar Council of India rules should be either changed or deleted. The rule prohibits lawyers from doing anything else besides practicing law. If a lawyer decides to teach fulltime or take a job with an Internet firm as a consultant, he/she must return their Bar card, and are deleted from the Bar lists. If the lawyer wants to return to law they must reapply with the State Bar Association and wait to be readmitted. Our other interesting project is a training manual for rural lawyers. We are researching and drafting a commentary on how to train rural lawyers in creative lawyering. These projects are in addition to planning and operating legal literacy clinics in the villages.
We sit and research and discuss until 11am. Then it is fruit time! We live for mango day. They are in season right now – Jess has it down to the peak hour, which I believe passed today sometime after noon, when the mangos are perfect. We have been spoiled this week because we have had mangos twice. Yum. I am smiling right now while I write and, chances are, I am smiling about them now, as you read this. Unfortunately, we eat too much fruit and there is a limit now on how many mangos we can eat. But, they give us the pits, which really are the best part anyway.
After fruit we go back up to the office and do office stuff. Jess does research. I drink coffee and bother everyone. I wave at people, which makes them laugh. Apparently my wave is disproportionate to my demeanor. One is nice and almost silly, the other, severe and foreboding. We do our office stuff until 130pm. Then it is time for lunch. We eat at the cafeteria in the building. The food is ok. After lunch we usually take a walk around the block just to get the blood flowing. By now it is as hot as it will get, so we can’t stay out too long. We usually just walk down the street, down another street and go back. A family of pigs lives at the end of our walk and we like to throw them toast from breakfast. The little piglets are cute, but the big pigs, I think, are not. They gather around a deep pool of mud and smoosh around like, well like pigs. Our day is pretty much over by now. We go back to the office and do office stuff, and at 430pm, our car comes to take us home.
Back at the guesthouse, we try to find our adopted dogs, Lucy and Goose, to feed them toast. Lucy is our favorite but they are a pair so, whatever. We named him Goose. After they eat, we think about our own repast. Sometimes we eat at the guesthouse – which isn’t half bad, half of the time. Or, we will go out, usually for non-Indian food. So far we have been to a really good Italian restaurant, a good Chinese place, a Ruby Tuesday, a better than average Fridays, mall food courts, a great German restaurant, a “pub” that smelled like the floor of a men’s room in a pub, and some kind of club where they light the bar on fire when you take shots. While eating dinner at the club the biggest cockroach we have seen so far rappelled down to our table, but got away before our nervous waiter could smash him. The food was good and I managed to keep the roach’s breach a secret from Jess long enough to almost finish our meals, but she found me out when the bastard reappeared on the chair next to her. We left rather quickly after that. And, that is our basic day, allowing for variations.
We wake up about the time you are getting ready for bed. Well, most of you, anyway. I get up everyday at 7:45 am and order breakfast: Coffee and toast. I pick up my phone and dial 20; two rings and Rajeev answers: “hello sir. Toast? Two Plates? Uh huh. Coffee?” Thanks Rajeev but Ma’am won’t be eating toast today. Actually Jessica does eat toast for breakfast but she does not like coffee in the morning and anyway, she prefers to order her own meal. Without going too much into it, we have noticed that when I order, my order is understood as her order as well. So, for two weeks Jess ate exactly what I ate: an order of toast and coffee. We are supposed to be at the office everyday by 8:30 am, so after I place my order I unlock my door and jump in the shower. While I am the shower, guesthouse people bring my breakfast and leave it on the little table at the foot of my bed. Then they leave and shut my door.
Water is the source of happiness and heartbreak, here. There is nothing like having as much water as you can drink when the temperature is 97º before 8am. Every day this week the mercury has topped 109º. But, the water will kill you too. Or, at least it will make you feel like you are losing a battle inside while your gutless bowels beat a hasty retreat. To avoid poisoning myself with shower water I have to consciously remember not to open my mouth. When I step out, I must first wipe the water off my face before I start congratulating myself out loud in the mirror, lest one damn bacterial drop gets into my system. Error will cost me ten consecutive hours on the toilet. The same goes for brushing my teeth. I must use bottled water to wet and rinse the toothbrush. Now groomed and dressed, I head down to the first floor – Jess and I live on the third and top floor – to catch the car into work.
The ride in is routine. We share the road with motorcycles, cars, busses, carts, donkeys, cows, bikes, farm tractors, birds, construction equipment, monkeys, pigs and pedestrians. Traffic is not bad though, so we get to work in 10 minutes.
You wouldn’t notice the Institute for Rural Research and Development set between the larger construction sites and the 15-story IT firm across the street. IRRAD is a clay-colored building rising only three stories high. The windows are covered with shades that adjust throughout the day to deflect UV radiation from the windows to help keep the building cool. Guards attend the gate. Our office is almost completely self-reliant. Solar panels on the roof provide electricity, and the building collects and reuses water. It only requires two hours of public electricity a day to run the AC, once in the morning around 10am and once in the afternoon near 3. We sit in the conference room, when we are in the office.
Jess and I usually take a half hour to read the newspapers and catch up on what has been going on India. We are watching a Yogi go bananas over “black money”. After we are done reading the Hindu, or the Himalayan Times, we start on our projects. We have several projects to work on but two are really interesting. Jess and I are writing a legal memorandum arguing that Rule 49 of the Bar Council of India rules should be either changed or deleted. The rule prohibits lawyers from doing anything else besides practicing law. If a lawyer decides to teach fulltime or take a job with an Internet firm as a consultant, he/she must return their Bar card, and are deleted from the Bar lists. If the lawyer wants to return to law they must reapply with the State Bar Association and wait to be readmitted. Our other interesting project is a training manual for rural lawyers. We are researching and drafting a commentary on how to train rural lawyers in creative lawyering. These projects are in addition to planning and operating legal literacy clinics in the villages.
We sit and research and discuss until 11am. Then it is fruit time! We live for mango day. They are in season right now – Jess has it down to the peak hour, which I believe passed today sometime after noon, when the mangos are perfect. We have been spoiled this week because we have had mangos twice. Yum. I am smiling right now while I write and, chances are, I am smiling about them now, as you read this. Unfortunately, we eat too much fruit and there is a limit now on how many mangos we can eat. But, they give us the pits, which really are the best part anyway.
After fruit we go back up to the office and do office stuff. Jess does research. I drink coffee and bother everyone. I wave at people, which makes them laugh. Apparently my wave is disproportionate to my demeanor. One is nice and almost silly, the other, severe and foreboding. We do our office stuff until 130pm. Then it is time for lunch. We eat at the cafeteria in the building. The food is ok. After lunch we usually take a walk around the block just to get the blood flowing. By now it is as hot as it will get, so we can’t stay out too long. We usually just walk down the street, down another street and go back. A family of pigs lives at the end of our walk and we like to throw them toast from breakfast. The little piglets are cute, but the big pigs, I think, are not. They gather around a deep pool of mud and smoosh around like, well like pigs. Our day is pretty much over by now. We go back to the office and do office stuff, and at 430pm, our car comes to take us home.
Back at the guesthouse, we try to find our adopted dogs, Lucy and Goose, to feed them toast. Lucy is our favorite but they are a pair so, whatever. We named him Goose. After they eat, we think about our own repast. Sometimes we eat at the guesthouse – which isn’t half bad, half of the time. Or, we will go out, usually for non-Indian food. So far we have been to a really good Italian restaurant, a good Chinese place, a Ruby Tuesday, a better than average Fridays, mall food courts, a great German restaurant, a “pub” that smelled like the floor of a men’s room in a pub, and some kind of club where they light the bar on fire when you take shots. While eating dinner at the club the biggest cockroach we have seen so far rappelled down to our table, but got away before our nervous waiter could smash him. The food was good and I managed to keep the roach’s breach a secret from Jess long enough to almost finish our meals, but she found me out when the bastard reappeared on the chair next to her. We left rather quickly after that. And, that is our basic day, allowing for variations.
Hysterical - you can't bring that dog home with you or those little piglets or big pigs either. I don't see how you can say those big pigs aren't cute?
ReplyDeleteMaryG