Adventures in India

In an earlier post, I believe I compared cricket in India to football in the United States (American football, not soccer). But I was wrong. Cricket in India is like football, baseball, basketball, and hockey all rolled into one. It is huge here.

Well, today I learned that India is among many others, including a London courtroom. A while back, there were a few Pakistani cricket players who were caught on tape accepting bribes to play badly (called spot-fixing) in a match. Well, today these guys were all handed down prison sentences - some over two years of jail time!

Crazy.

I don't remember this ever happening in the United States with a sport, and obviously it would not be condoned, but would something like this actually be illegal in our courts?

And I'm a little confused about why the trial (and sentences) happened in London. Perhaps the taping happened on UK soil?

Anyway, lesson of the day: Take Cricket Seriously

Yesterday we had a little scare. We'd just dropped Jason back at his office after joining him for lunch, and the three of us were headed back to the apartments in an auto-rickshaw. Our driver was Ramesh, one of the freelance drivers that sit outside our apartment to shuttle the residents to and from various pursuits. He's driven us on several occasions, so I was busy talking to Timothy and wasn't paying attention to the road, since I wasn't needed to provide directions.

Well, Tim was still sitting in my lap from when Jason was in the auto (we each put a kid on our laps because there isn't room on the seat for all four), and Tyler was sitting on the seat next to me, having lost his parental cushion. As I've mentioned previously, there aren't many traffic laws in India that are actually followed, so I shouldn't have been surprised when a car pulled out right in front of us and Ramesh was forced to stop suddenly.

I grabbed Timothy around the waist to keep him on my lap, but I wasn't fast enough to catch poor Tyler, who because of his size, went flying forward out of his seat. (No seatbelts in auto-rickshaws). Unfortunately, his head slammed into the back of Ramesh's seat, right onto a metal screw. The washer behind the screw sliced him, and I almost had a heart attack when I managed to pick him up from the floorboard, and saw his face.

Blood was everywhere. And I mean everywhere. He'd reached up to cover his injury, and manged to smear blood all over his face. Not to mention it was still coming out. I managed to hold him still long enough to grab the hem of his t-shirt and clean up his face so I could see the injury. (This is extremely hard to do, FYI, with a panicked 3 year old, a panicked 5 year old, and a still-moving vehicle.) Once I got a good look, I realized the cut wasn't nearly as bad as it first seemed.

Poor Ramesh was in a panic, asking if I wanted to take him to the nearest hospital. I decided against it, mostly because I was afraid I'd never manage to calm Tyler down if I walked into a hospital. Also, the bleeding had stopped, and the cut didn't look too deep.

Back at the apartment, I got him cleaned up, dunked both our t-shirts into some laundry detergent to keep them from staining, and gave him an ice pack just in case he bumped his head harder than I'd thought. When I was satisfied both pupils were the correct size and Tyler was having no problems focusing, I ran down the street to the pharmacy and stocked up on medical supplies.

For 160 INR I got a bottle of iodine (I couldn't decide whether they didn't have any peroxide or they just didn't understand me, so I took what they had), some gauze, and antibiotic ointment, and went back upstairs to torture my toddler. Several minutes and tears later, we had the wound cleaned out and Tyler down for a nap. Only then did I get a picture, so below is the post-accident injury.

My totally awesome maid Lakshmi (Full name Vijayalakshmi) was nice enough to offer her design services so I could experience firsthand (pun intended) the joy of Mehndi. For those of you who aren't sure what Mehndi is (I was one), it's the semi-permanent henna designs drawn on the body for weddings, holidays, or just for fun.

The henna stain mix can be bought in pre-filled containers that look exactly like mini cake decorating tubes. You simply snip the tip of the writing side, and squeeze out the mix as needed. Lakshmi drew this free handed from a picture in a book, which pretty much guaranteed I will never be able to do this on my own, because my artistic skills suck. I should have asked whether there were stencils available. I took a quick picture of the mixture on my arm as it was drying - you have to leave the stuff on for anywhere from a half hour to full hour (and I've read in other places that it's recommended to let it dry, wrap your arm in a bandage or tissue, and wait a full 24 hours before washing for really dark designs).

Recently, we went to my kids' favorite eating establishment for a congratulatory meal (Timothy scored 100% on his computer lessons for the week) and ordered the usual - Chicken McNuggets.

I had previously posted about the support system on new buildings here, and I recently found this picture on my phone and thought I would share. This is a common sight on the streets here in Bangalore. Trucks bring in loads of sand, soil, or other supplies, and essentially dump them on the side of the road. Workers scoop up a basket full, place the basket on their heads, and manually walk the materials down to where they are needed. Every once in a while we will see a truck being loaded with pieces of concrete to be hauled away, but it's just as common to see the concrete piled into the street in some locations. I'd like to see what types of permits are required for construction here, and who decides whether the waste must be hauled away or not.

I'll preface this with a warning that this post is mostly for the grandparents, and that otherwise it will likely be a little boring, but this is a short video of Timothy doing his computer-based school (we do the computer stuff in the morning, then we read and do writing practice worksheets in the afternoon).

Our apartment complex is in the process of rolling out a new recycling initiative, and for the most part, we enjoy the new system. The committee started by issuing everyone two trash bins, one green and one red, for the price of 200 INR. The green bin is to be used for "wet" waste, and the red for everything else.

Next they scheduled a training course for all the domestic help. I wish that they had also scheduled one for the residents, because I'm constantly asking my maid what's going on, but I'm probably one of the few that picks up my own trash. Most people have a morning and evening shift maid to do all the cleaning. We just employ one, in the mornings, and her main focus is sweeping and mopping the floors, because I hate mopping.

Some of the rules are a little annoying, such as soda bottles should be rinsed and dried before going in the red bin. The rinsing is not a problem, but do you know how long it takes to dry a 20oz soda bottle? It's not like you can stick a towel down it.

Also, I'm hearing from Lakshmi that many of the maids are annoyed with the milk and oil packages, as they are required to cut them open, rinse them out, dry them, and only then can they throw them away.

My only other complaint is the lack of communication, which may be because we don't know many people here, we speak a different language, or all of the above. We received a paper detailing what trash goes where, and it also listed the time frames of the twice daily pickup, with a note that on major holidays, only the morning pickup would occur. Well, I was prepared for that, but I was not prepared for the pickup to occur an hour earlier than usual. So on Diwali I had to scramble while a worker waited patiently outside.

The initiative also will dispose of newspapers, but Lakshmi told me you can recycle these separately and receive cash for them, much like aluminum cans in the US. She was nice enough to call them, and they come right up to our door and do the weighing on-site, so you get your cash right away! We made a whole 120 INR, which was almost enough to pay for half of our new trash bins!