Baby Steps

My neighbours (trying out the English English spelling out here) would come and meet and greet in the first few weeks that we were here, quickly taking a peek inside our rather empty apartment, or flat as they call it here. And I would pertly inform them that our furniture was due to arrive in mid July. I saw the look, you know that look, I’d often heart the tone in my relatives’ voice but had never been privy to the look that accompanied it…until now….it was the, “Oh you poor deluded American” look, “you have no idea how things run here”. My neighbors would smile and nod and say, “Well, they might be a few weeks later than that.” My neighbors were right of course. It turned out that the ship had arrived in Bombay harbour on time, but had no place to dock! So I guess it just sort of sat there until there was space? And then there was the unloading process, and then the stuff had to just sit there as per regulation (I don’t know why) and then it had to clear customs…in the mean time in quiet little Andheri (E)…which I’ve come to find is sort of like Staten Island is to NYC…..even to the auto rickshaw wallahas who will freaking ignore you if they even start with Andh…
>_<
It is the day that the children start school! They went to school! Nitin went to work super early and fell and shattered his ankle as if he’d taken a hammer to it..lovely! He spent that entire week in the hospital! The day he came home was the day the movers brought home our boxes upon boxes of unnecessary stuff that we had foolishly packed and brought. As the neighbours had hinted, our movers had brought our “stuff” exactly three weeks behind schedule! RIGHT ON TIME! My mother-in-law and I fiendishly worked and put the house together… Nitin, despite being a gimp did wonders by putting together some of the IKEA bed and putting away stuff in the storage space…and two months in…most boxes are emptied…
And then I hired a bai and it was good. Well not really because it turns out that having a bai is a cause of great discomfort. Not that I don’t like all this being done for me. I love that I don’t have to sweep and mop the floor, and just don’t have to do all of this house stuff anymore but just the idea of having a servant makes me queasy. I don’t know why. The hierarchy feels wrong somehow, I don’t know if I’ll get used to it. Arjun keeps asking me, “Mom, why do people have to live on the street?” I don’t know what to tell him, I don’t think there’s a right answer. And that’s how I console myself about the bai, it’s that much more money she’s making. Baby steps…