Sunday, January 25, 2015

The Rants Continue

This picture is to trick you into thinking I've done work during this trip. Nope! I noticed my nails had grown quite long recently and realized it's from all the housework I'm NOT doing thanks to my hardworking in-laws and the ladies they call "servants". I'm putting these talons to good use, though, as I'm speckled with mosquito bites that keep me awake at night, tormenting me and also embarrassing me during the day with their grossness and my incessant scratching. I just read Lindsay Lohan has chikungunya virus which is transmitted by mosquitoes and quite painful (I've heard). I wonder if, while the mosquitoes were biting her, she got all indignant and yelled at them to leave her alone, "You can't do this to me! I'm famous!" For some perspective on why that ridiculous thought entered my mind, I confess to yelling at a lizard yesterday. He lives behind the water heater on the wall in the bathroom but peeks out looking for bugs sometimes. We had just got back from a 6 hour drive to the capital city of Hyderabad (more on that later) and so the girls were all headed to pee (as there are no bathrooms anywhere in India and if I never see another strange man taking a leak in a random public place it will be too soon!) and when it was my turn, the lizard scurried across the wall, back to his hiding place so I yelled, "Oh, did you miss me while I was gone?!" before realizing how crazy that was. I've been swearing at the bugs too. This picture of the leaves being swept reminds me of another part of Indian life that is driving me insane. These guys don't sleep like we do. I'm sure I've brought it up before but it is just too exhausting not to dwell on. Here, they go to bed late and wake up early and then just lay down and doze off a couple times during the day to catch up on some z's. It sounds like a good system, eh? Wrong! I am so flipping tired because I can't summon the magic powers it would require for me to sleep through all the noise here. With so much population, nobody tries to be quiet while you sleep (or talk on the phone, Raj realized) because it just can't happen and they don't need quiet to sleep so why would they tiptoe around anyone else? I've seen a person lay down on a cot, midday, in a room full of people and immediately start snoring, then wake up to answer a question and start right up with the snoring again. We saw a man sleeping in the dirt next to the road a couple days ago, sun beating down on him, surrounded by traffic and people and animals and noise and ohdeargod the bugs! 
I woke up in the dark a couple of nights ago to the sound of someone (probably my angelic mother-in-law so I feel guilty about it now) sweeping the leaves outside the bedroom window and I thought, very sarcastically, "God forbid there are 7 fricking leaves out front at 5 in the bloody morning!" (I'm not my usual sweet self on sleep deprivation) Plus, the plates and cups and everything are made of metal so it sounds like someone is playing the drums on the pots and pans day and night here. Of course I'm not expecting anyone to change their way of life to cater to my namby-pamby need for perfect comfort and peace, so I've been wearing earplugs at night but they're not made of kevlar so....


Here's a cat.

This one's a dog.

And to tie it all together, here is the lady that washes our clothes by hand while I'm growing my nails out and either trying to sleep or otherwise occupied with such activities as lounging, loitering, lolling or lazing. (Thanks thesaurus.com!)


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