I want my MTVindia

Saturday, October 31^st

Charles and I are avid exercisers, of the cardio equipment and lifting variety, so we are happy to take advantage of the small workout room at the hotel. (If you're interested, http://www.lemeridien-bangalore.com/) While working out, I discovered something life changing; MTVindia. It's frickin' awesome. Indian music videos have bright costumes, lots of dancing, slap-stick physical comedy, upbeat songs, sappy love stories, strange Indian interpretations of American pop culture, and blond ladies, lots of blond ladies. Not sure why, but I guess they represent ideal beauty, which is stupid because Indian women are BEAUTIFUL. Speaking of, I've realized that in India the fairer you are, the prettier you are. There are a whole mess of products aimed at lightening your skin. It's really a racket here. You can get sunscreens, lotions, potions, etc, all aimed at lightening your complexion. I'm used to the idea of tan=healthy and desirable, the opposite of here. Anyway, look up MTV India. I'm sure youtube has something!

 

Saturday was apartment hunting with Tina and it was pretty frustrating. Tina works with a holdings company affiliated with SUPERVALU, and we hoped she would have scouted some of these units before taking us all around Bangalore to see them, but that wasn't the case. We saw "Serviced" and "Non-serviced Furnished" apartments. A serviced apt means that it's a full apartment (bedrooms, baths, kitchen, living room, etc) inclusive of all furniture, linens, dishes, cookware, down to the cheesy hotel paintings on the walls. These serviced apartments also have a cleaning staff that visits once a week, and most of them have some sort of restaurant either on ground level or rooftop. The first place we saw was the best thing in Bangalore, The Oakwood. Karen, Charles' coworker who has been here for 4 months already, lives there and gave us a special tour. It has a full gym, spa, rooftop pool, community room, restaurants and shopping below, and is really nice. I'd love to live there, but we're at the mercy of SUPERVALU. We saw a few other serviced apts, but they were small and only glorified hotel rooms, inclusive of no stove and only mini-bar sized refrigerators. The non-service apartments were gross and grosser, particularly after seeing the Oakwood. They ranged from this strange feng-shui minimalist 3 bedroom (plus servant's quarters!) which would have been cool if it hadn't been filthy and covered with bird feathers and poo, to these granite palace like apartments that I worried I'd be lost in. Ok, so the idea of living in a 3 bedroom granite palace with a servant seems kind of cool at first, but that's a whole lot of living space to occupy. These non-serviced places come with a couch, table, tv, bed frame with mattress, and that's it. We, or SUPERVALU, would be responsible for purchasing everything that makes it a home. You know, linens, blankets, pillows, pots and pans, glasses, utensils, the works. That's daunting, considering there are no Westernized big box stores or department stores. I don't know where to begin to look for that kind of stuff. It's overwhelming to think of finding things to fill a 3 bedroom home. Predictably, serviced apartments are more expensive than the non-serviced, but the convenience of serviced is undeniable.

Now I go back to the idea of a servant and servant's quarters. In India, all middle class people have servants. Like 2 or 3. Everybody has a driver, most have a cook and/or housekeeper/maid, and anyone with kids will tell you they couldn't function without their Ayah. There is a whole industry in Bangalore, as through the whole of India, which caters to setting up families with those domestic servants. If we get an unserviced granite palace, we'll need a maid, or at least that's what Tina said. Interestingly enough, she told us she has a driver, a cook, and an Ayah. She said that she wouldn't live anywhere else in the world because she knows that this is a luxury which we Americans don't understand or aren't familiar with. I told her I like to cook, and she said "If you're lucky you can get a smart girl to cook and she can learn what you like, do your shopping for you, and teach you how to cook Indian food." What's the other option, that I get a dumb one? Really? Also, she talks about the drivers in such an "I'm aware of my status as compared to your status" way which is really new, coming from super politically correct America. You would never speak about anyone else like that at home, but Indians do it all the time. It's the status quo. I know that technically castes are illegal, or you're not supposed to take them into consideration for employment, or treat them like social pariahs, but that doesn't mean that that isn't how the general Indian psyche still functions. Middle class Indians are VERY aware of their social status and position. Oh yeah, the servant's quarters included a toilet, a water hose, and a 4X4 room. It's like the pit of despair. Our closet at home is larger.

 

Tina also gave me some insight into Indians abroad. She said that here, there are no real rules and it just works out somehow. She said that Indians don't survive abroad; too many rules. She has siblings who live in the UK and the US, and every time they visit they leave shaking their heads, but she loves it here and would never move. She looks at her sisters and pities them that they have to work, go shopping, care for the kids, all on their own. Life is good here in India for middle class working women.

 

Oh god, then we went to the mall, Garuda Mall, to be exact. No matter where you are on the planet, teenagers love to go to the mall on a Saturday, drink soda, mess with their buddies, pine for overpriced T-shirts, and steal an elicit hand-holding with their boyfriend on the escalator. Shocking! No, seriously, teenagers are the same here as at home, down to the clothes. Ok, so no emo kids, but jeans, t-shirts, and trendy tennis shoes abound. There were a couple of other Expats at the mall that day too, and I'll bet they got stared at as much as we did. The staring is intense wherever we go. This is my first experience being a minority. I wonder how long it will take to get used to, the staring, that is. Charles doesn't notice it as much, but that may be because he doesn't get the brunt of it. There are lots of white dudes here in India for work, but few white females. Thank goodness I'm not blond! Charles actually saw a sales associate at the Puma store push someone else out of the way so Charles could come in and look at shoes. How messed up!