Our Crumbling Infrastructure

Like Bangalore itself, our apartment's own infrastructure needs a little tuning up. First we have the drain in the kitchen, which got stopped up with rice and little bits of vegetables. I'd beat the dishwasher for the crime, but that would be me. I took the drain apart today, and I got it working, but it's still a little drippy underneath.

As I worked, fruit flies hovered on the kitchen cabinets. There are so many of them there now, I don't know why. Well, I know why they're there -- a couple dirty dishes before we left town -- but I don't know why they haven't died yet. Cunningly constructed traps haven't caught more than one or two.

Finally, I feel that we now have a reputation in the building as slobs. The two ladies who clean the hallways knocked on the door this morning to fill up their water pails. They're done this one or two times before, and I don't know why their own taps weren't working today. Anyway, they filled up their enormous pails in the tap under the shower, and as they did, they started folding the pile of clean clothes that were lying on the bed. (We have a big washing backlog at the moment.) I asked them to stop, but they wouldn't so I had to start doing my own tidying up to not feel weird.

The ladies also wondered if I wanted a servant. And I really did, especially at that moment.