Adventures in India

For anyone living in the south United States, you've likely heard of Jeff Foxworthy and his "You Might Be a Redneck if.." comedy routine. Well, I'm from the south, and many people would call me a redneck.

But I don't agree. I believe I'm a superhero.

Yes, a superhero.

And here's why. When we moved to India, we were somewhat surprised at the number of times our electricity has gone out. Watching television at the apartment, eating ice cream at a local store, shopping for groceries - all of these things I've attempted to do in the dark. (Some more successfully than others) We just chalked the power problems up to the Bangalore infrastructure and waited for the generator to kick back on.

And now the boys and I are temporarily back in Oklahoma. No more power issues, right? Wrong.

The other day, I went to Ross (a clothing store chain) in Tulsa to do some shopping for Deepta (hi Deepta), as I promised to grab her some shirts for Christmas (or Valentines Day, since it will be closer). I was standing in the checkout line while a teenage girl scanned my items. When she and the other people in the store started gasping, I looked around to figure out what was wrong. Ah, the power was out, and in the United States, it wasn't normal. After 10 minutes with no answers, the store manager encouraged us to leave our purchases at the counter and come back later. (Which I did)

A day later, I went to get my hair "did". The hair was washed, cut, colored, and styled, and I stepped up to the counter to pay with my gift card. No go - the telephone line had gone out, and with it the credit/debit/gift card machine. Five minutes later they got the line up and working....but my gift card still wouldn't work. After another 10 minutes, it was decided my gift card contained no balance (thanks a lot Andy!). So, resigned, I went ahead and paid everything with my debit card, and called Andy to tell her she needed to start pulling bank statements so we could call the corporate office and find out why Andy gave the salon $100 for nothing.

Anyway, by now you should be seeing a pattern. I walk in, things break. My conclusion: There are gamma rays everywhere in Bangalore, and those gamma rays have turned me into a superhero with electronic powers. As soon as I figure out how to harness them, I'll be all set.

So, for all of you out there thinking of moving to Bangalore, here's a little tip. Extended stays turn you into a superhero.

Today I found Bamburies. Their slogan "The choicest meats". Now while I'm not sure that "choicest" is a word, their slogan describes what they are: they are a meat wholesaler. They have a wide variety of meat, but the most important to me is Beef. This is not buffalo like that sold in other places, like Spar, this is cow beef. Yum. I haven't tried it yet, but I certainly look forward to it and maybe that can be another blog post.

If you are interested this link will show you where their store is: http://g.co/maps/ek89s

They packed the meat so good, I went ahead and drove up the road to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and had the fajitas though I thought about having the club sandwich just so I could remind my wife how good it is. :) Anyway, while there, the waiter tells me about a concert they will be hosting on the 26th and proceeds to give me a free pass. Awesome. So I will be attending a concert featuring a U2 cover band on the 26th while my wife has to work all week. Sarcastic sad :(

So that was the fun part of my day, then the India came into play when my electricity suddenly went out. That normally is not blog worthy, but this time it didn't come back on. Check the breakers, but all is well. Checked the breakers in the basement, but they're good too. Called the electrician, thankfully still available on a Sunday night, and he informs me that the transfer switch died. The transfer switch is the box that decides whether to use generator power or main power. However, it can apparently just fail to a point that nothing gets through. Fantastic. In any event, it is fixed now and I can get some sleep knowing that my phone will be charged in the morning. In times like these, its important to focus on priorities.