Junior Women's League - Bangalore style

Ladies and Gentlemen: Our water cooler.
My buddy Krishn arrived all smiles yesterday with purified water in one hand and an empty jug with a spigot in the other. He was with one other person, who I guess is our "maid" because he promptly started doing our dishes. He doesn't speak ANY English so this should be fun. Krishn said, "You want cold," and pointed to the refrigerator. Then, "you want hot," and pointed to our range. Quite pleased with himself, he says, "so, that's all now. No problems." To which I still had to remind him about a bar to hang clothes and a broken bathroom window. "Oh, yes, yes, he come today. He fix." I just smiled and said, "ok, thank you." I did not ask what time "he" would come or who "he" was. I thought about asking for a unicorn just to see what he'd say but I refrained.

Our maid-boy mopped again and sprayed for bugs, took out the garbage and took a rag to other parts of the house. He said, "tomorrow, 11 o'clock." First we can't get anyone to come clean, now we have someone who comes everyday. Go figure.

Later in the afternoon three men with a bar did arrive and we now can hang clothes! Everything is coming together. Accept for the bathroom window which you can't pull shut but perfectly fine by Indian standards.

Yesterday morning was a "welcome tea" hosted by the Overseas Women's Club (OWC). I think I could get used to this lady of leisure thing. Maybe it's just me but anytime you go to some group to mingle for the first time, it's always a little awkward. It's started at 10 and I arrived about 10:10. There were a few women chatting in a circle and some others like me just walking in. An older British women with the most posh-sounding accent said, "Is anyone here new?" So another women, with porcelain skin and dark, cropped hair raised our hands. The British women said, "come this way and we'll have a chat." She explained that the Club is a charitable organization which produces a monthly newsletter called, The Rangoli. They have all sorts of events that run on a regularly basis like, the "lunch bunch" group which meets at a different restaurants, happy hours, they run a day trip - this month to an embroidery factory. They have all kinds of "clubs" - including but not limited to a badminton club (which she really thinks is going to take off this year), a creative writing club, a yoga club, etc. She (I can't remember her name now) said that even if something doesn't quite appeal to you, you should go anyway because you never know who you'll meet. I felt like Marcia Brady on her first day of high school. "I'm going to join all the clubs!" They publish a cook book and the "In and Out Guide to Bangalore" which had all sorts of good information in it. I think that will be very useful. Of course, I could not actually join yesterday because you needed your passport and an additional photo. But they have a tea every Thursday morning so I'll go again next week. But more interesting than that of course, were all the people I met.

There were lots of women from the UK - I would say most in their 40s and 50s. I met a round women with short red hair named Pam. She is originally from Australia but has lived in England for 25 years. She asked how long I'd been in Bangalore and when I said, "just a week yesterday," she replied, "Good gravy my dear, you need a proper drink don't you?" She didn't give me a chance to reply before she went on about how she'd just come back from England and had called India home and "my word, was I surprised to hear that come out of my mouth!" She is in the process of selling her house in England and her two grown sons are getting ready to come to India because "well, there just slobbing about in England." She went on to talk about her husband who had a massive heart attack last year and they are supposed to be here 4 years and how we should go to this temple but not that one and don't read what the guide books say about this restaurant go here instead. Finally another Aussie came over and I was able to drift away.

I had spotted a younger-looking women who looked rather friendly and I decided I want to make her my new best friend. But before I could introduce myself, another women with a mane (like that of a lion) of gray, slightly frizzy hair, hunched shoulders and a slightly droopy face said, "Excuse me, but did I see you yesterday?" What I wanted to say was, "Yes, you were that sad looking women, with the "I-could-be-crazy" eyes, that I tried to avoid eye contact with at Coffee World." But instead I said, "Yes, I think so, at Coffee World?" She said she was going to come over and introduce herself but then thought I might want to be left alone because often times she's quite content to be alone, so she decided to just let me be. I wonder if this was because she saw me assessing her could-be-crazy eyes. She also had a British accent and never told me her name nor did she ask me mine. But again I explained I've only just arrived in Bangalore. And then, in a kind of sad and droopy voice, she said, "It's quite a shock, isn't it? All this? You don't know quite what to make of it, do you?" - ending everything with a question, as the British have mastered. When I told her where I was living she said, "I used to live there," and then she made a face like she'd just drank bitter gourd juice. She was beginning to remind me of Eeyore. I said, "where are you living now and can I ask why you moved?" She lives outside the city now in a gated community called Palm Meadows. (Anne, the women George works with also lives there. Many of the women I met yesterday also live there. I think they are more like houses than apartments.) Then Mrs. Eeyore launches into a story about how when she lived in my apartment complex, she went out for a walk one day and got bit by a stray dog. She didn't have her rabies shot and had to go through about 5 months of treatments before they said she was ok. So she and her husband got a driver and moved. Then she talked about how she doesn't particularly like the OWC because she never sees the same people at the teas and she joined the "lunch bunch" once but was supposedly the only one who showed. What a ray of sunshine she was...I think it was about this time that Gordon rolled up on us.

Gordon, also British, but from the north (outside Newcastle) is a house-husband. The OWC is actually a misnomer. Gordon was one of a handful of men who are members. Gordon had on a white linen shirt with the first two buttons undone - I think to show off his gold chain. His wife works for Adidas but travels quite often leaving Gordon home to manage the house and their son. He comes to OWC events because, "well, I don't have much else to do, do I?" Unlike Mrs. Eeyore, Gordon seemed perfectly happy to be in India doing nothing most days. He reads and maybe goes to the gym in his apartment complex and "putters around." Shortly thereafter, Wade came over. Wade is from Idaho. I told him I was from Connecticut but have actually been to Idaho to visit a friend. "Well, where in Idaho, the north or south?"
I said, "Boise."
He said, "oh, the south," in a way that I knew he was from the north. He explained to our British chums that the north and south of Idaho are like two different states. He didn't seem to share that, we're-both- from-the-same-country bond that I thought he might and left to get coffee.

I also left at that point and met a few other women - a German, here with her young son and daughter, a Finnish girl who did not speak much English and another Australian. I never did meet my new best friend but I'll go back next week and see. They also said there were definitely tutoring/teaching opportunities (I think mostly voluntary but still). I think it will be a good resource.

On the way home, Chandan took me through the worst street in the city I've seen so far (and sadly, not too far from where we live). There was a huge pile of garbage (maybe 8 feet high) on the side of the road - piles of garbage are common but this was like a dump. Across from the dump were little shacks made of mostly cinder-blocks and big enough to maybe fit two people and two chairs. Impossible, but I think people live there. There were canopies held up by tree branches with people just mingling and laughing. Further up the road I saw a goat and three roosters pecking at garbage. And then I heard a squealing noise and turned back to see a dirty pig in the road trying to run away from a man who was holding it by the tail. The man then grabbed the pigs two front feet with his right hand and threw the pig over his shoulders and grabbed it's two back feet with his left hand. We turned the corner so I don't know where they went.

Today we had to go register as foreign residents at the Police Commissioners Office. Just wait 'til I tell you about that...