Electricity

I sometimes, very casually, wonder about basic infrastructure in India.  In the States when your power goes out it is usually a physical problem that a human has to come out and fix.  Most of the outages we experience here are really short.  I cannot imagine there is a system in place in India to monitor local power in real time.  (Is that a thing?  Compstat for the power grid?  It must be.)  I cannot imagine people are calling the power company to report it.  I really, really cannot imagine the Indian power company has teams at the ready to promptly address any problems. 

I'm obviously pretty ignorant about the nuts and bolts of power delivery systems.  
What is it that puts the power out anyway?  Does where you live matter?  Do hospitals and schools get  better response times and whatnot, exceptions from rolling blackouts?  Should we just get a generator?  Why do our fans make more noise when they are running on battery?

I thought the hot season would bring the worst of the power failures.  What with all those A/Cs running.  I was wrong.  The rainy season is the worst.  The power goes out every day now, several times a day, for much longer than ever before.  That's not the worst though.  A power outage is alright.  It's a bummer to lose the internet and the air conditioning, but we have a battery back up.  And it powers essentials like the fridge, ceiling fans, some of the lights, and one lone outlet.  Now we seem to be getting reduced power from the grid - not low enough to kick on the batteries, but not strong enough to fully power the fridge, A/C, DSL modem, or incandescent bulbs. 

I had reckoned halogen fixtures were the norm because they are cheap, but they also don't pulse and fade in a half-powered moment.  Which is annoying, really annoying.  I may be easily annoyed.  It's the little things I miss.  Like not feeling as though I'm showering in a cheap motel as a train goes by in a bad horror flick. 

More pictures from Israel

Some of these are still from Tel  Aviv, most are from Jerusalem, Haifa, and Akko.  I would fail a quiz though.  Boaz insisted on going through all 710 photos in one sitting. 

Kitten update

They have relocated again into a very secure box of clothing in our bedroom.  Cat and Kitten seem healthy and pretty content.  I've noticed Kitten trying to play with Mom, attacking her ears, paws, and tail.  She tolerates this, but doesn't engage.  So I made him a little kitten toy.  Unfortunately he is pretty sure I am some kind of giant monster and that nowhere outside the box is safe.  So we don't get to play yet.

Get a load of that tail!  It's like a bottle brush.  Under normal circumstances it is sleek, like his mother's.  If he tried to make himself look any bigger, he would poof right out of existence.  I try to pet Cat in the box while he's watching, which sometimes just gets wide eyes and sometime gets adorable, gasping hisses.  Hopefully I am socializing him by taking him out for a little while most days and not permanently traumatizing him.

Useful services in Pune (and beyond)

One of the harder things to adjust to here is not being able to use the internet to find shops, restaurants, services, etc.  For a country that's always in the news for its booming IT sector, the average Indian and average business here just plain doesn't use the internet.  I'm glad that hasn't translated to a doorstep piled high with YellowPage type directories.  Fortunately there is JustDial.  It doesn't have much in the way of reviews or detailed information about products and services, but is nontheless a vital resource.

Do you like having things delivered?  Then you would probably like India.  Using JustDial of course, I found a pet shop in my neighborhood.  I called to confirm that they had cat supplies (dog supplies are more common) and to get better details about where they are located (addresses aren't always that helpful here).  But instead of getting that information, they asked what I wanted and delivered it to my door within the hour.  The wine shop, the small local grocer, probably just about everybody will deliver.

Including just about any restaurant.  (Not the Hard Rock Cafe, no sir, they are too good for that.)  You may have difficulty taking advantage of this if you don't speak Marathi or Hindi though.  I've been told by more than one neighborhood restaurant that they don't take English orders, even though it seems like a list of food shouldn't be that hard.  YumKing to the rescue!  We love, love, love this service.  There are a fair number of Pune restaurants on the site and it's very easy to use.  It only shows you restaurants that deliver to your area, warns you if they aren't open at the moment, and delivery is free!  McDonald's has online ordering too, but that is more like a curse than a blessing.

We also love BigFlix, which is available in several cities throughout India.  It is pretty much just like NetFlix.  Major differences being:  the suggestion algorithm, if there is an algorithm at all, is not very sophisticated; there is some streaming, but not of English titles; they tried to emulate NetFlix I think, but the  second icon that looks like it will add a movie to the top of your queue, adds it to the bottom just like the normal 'add to queue' icon; I hear they have brick and mortar stores too; they hand deliver and pick up your movies the very next day.

Speaking of bugs

Thank the stars we don't have camel spiders!  I like the idea of being serial expats, but let the record show that anywhere with camel spiders is summarily rejected.

Mystery Produce Episode 6 - Spices

I am making some of my own masalas, so I went to a little street vendor and bought a sort  of ludicrous amount of spices.  They were so eager to garner my repeat business, they gave me a little handful of almost every spice they carry for free.  Most of them are familiar to me at this point, but I had never seen turmeric and hing in their whole forms.

 

 Trying to start with the big yellow lumps at the top and working clockwise:  turmeric rhizome or rootstock; just under that is mace; next is a chunk of hing, which I had only seen in a yellowish powder form; a mix of white poppy seeds, coriander seeds, sesame seeds, whole peppercorns, cloves, green and black cardamom, and god knows what else; star anise; dagad phool, literally stone flower, a lichen common in Maharashtrian cuisine; cassia, which is like cinnamon; tejpata, patta meaning leaf, this is an Indian bay leaf.

The dagad phool has a mild, familiar aroma.  Who knew we've probably been eating moss for months.  The turmeric rhizome and hing are like rock hard.  I'm at a loss as to what to do with them.  Maybe I should have brought my microplane.

White Tiger - Aravind Agida

Okay, I think this book was critically acclaimed and it was personally recommended, but it's a novel and takes the form of a letter to the Chinese Premier from a murderous servant turned entrepreneur - let's just say I wasn't very excited about it.  The power kept going out though, so I started to read it anyway.

It turned out to be a really fun read.  The format proved an accessible yet sophisticated way to tell the story.  Kind of like 24, except I appreciated the effort and the result.  It touches on so many aspects of life in India without feeling strained.  Overall it was just very entertaining.  I highly recommend it.

More bugs

Living in Pune tip:  Don't leave your porch light on overnight unless you really like bees.

That's a pretty blurry photo, huh?  It was a hurried shot, as I was sure they would wake up and swarm me any second.

Bee stings are one of those things that can grow mythic in the anticipation.  I was old enough the last time I was stung that it wasn't traumatic.  I recall gaining some perspective from the experience.  But it's also been long enough now that, on a basal level, I'm just positive I would die of pain.

Monsoon

 
I think the rainy season officially kicked off yesterday.  There was thunder, lightning, wind and power outages all day.  Then it rained all afternoon and all night.  The change in temperature is really dramatic.  It's been close to 100 degrees all day for months.  It wouldn't even really cool down in the evening.  Early morning was the only pleasant time of day to my PNW-raised, heat averse body.  Last night felt blissfully cool at just under  80.

Indianisms, from useful to hilarious

Prepone - Like postpone, but to have a meeting earlier rather than later.
Upgradation - To upgrade, obviously.
Do the needful and the same - "Here's the form.  Please do the needful at your earliest convenience and return the same."
Contest - To run in an election.
Intimated - Contacted personally.  "You will be intimated by customer service shortly."
Haan - Pronounced like a nasal ha, it means 'yes'.  Usually 'haan, haan, haan'.  Okay, okay, okay.  Acha, acha, acha.
Bas or ho gaya - Enough.
Chelo - Let's go.
Peg - A shot of liquor.
Coolers - Sunglasses.
Cousin-brother and cousin-sister -  Just being gender specific, I think.  There are a lot of these compound familial relation descriptors.
Eck, do, teen - One, two, three.  You don't really need to know more than that, do you?
Lakh and crore - Hundred thousand and ten million, respectively.  "You totally want to have like one crore of his babies."
Double/triple - As in 'our phone number is 8408271 tripple 9' (that is not our number).  Or 'No, see in this case is spelled s double e.'
Only - Along with its usual meaning, used instead of 'just' and often at the end of the sentence.  "How's the concert so far?"  "I don't know.  I got here only."
Gymming - Going to the gym.  "You look great.  Have you been gymming?"
Mugging - To memorize.
To pass out - To graduate. 
Rubber - Some of them are really just British English.  Like duster for blackboard eraser and shift for moving house.  When the students ask me for a rubber, I'm pretty sure they want an eraser and not a condom.