They are DEMOLISHING my gym.
Yesterday morning I woke up to a text message from Tess that said, "I think they're demolishing our gym." I kind of chuckled to myself and wrote back... "Oh, Tess, you must be wrong -- they're never going to demolish something that people are paying a premium to join -- they just won't." Well, guess what? They are.
Here's the deal -- I live in a country where I lose power every day -- maybe not for long -- but I lose power almost every day.
I live in a country where I cannot drink the water from my tap -- in fact I've been encouraged not to WASH DISHES in my tap water. Watch me get Cholera as I've ignored this advice...
I live in a country where no fewer than twenty-five construction workers and their families sleep on the construction site across from my house.
I ALSO live in a country where they are enforcing ZONING VIOLATIONS - by DEMOLISHING buildings.
I guess at some point someone paid a bribe to build my gym. My gym is supposed to be a "nursing home." I know, crazy... but now I finally understand why the edifice never really looked like a gym. It looks like, well, a nursing home.
The Indian government has now (years later) decided to get tough on these "zoning violations" (this is the same government that shut down all blogs - including mine - from India after the Mumbai attacks -- I'm sure that was wildly successful in combating terrorism...).
You know... it's really AMAZING to me that companies like Starbucks aren't opening up shop here -- it doesn't seem like there would be any barriers to entry - or crazy decisions being made that might negatively impact international investment. None at all...
So, yes, they carried the equipment out yesterday - in front of TV crews - and the high court here has ordered the demolition of the building. There is a history of this -- the government just knocked down a high-end modern/designer shopping center. At that site - for almost a year -- nothing has been rebuilt... it is a heap of rubble.
It's a great way to encourage further development, I think, create a Gaza City effect... heaps of rubble where high-end establishments used to stand.
So, the gym was the reason I moved to this apartment and I hit a frustrated low yesterday. Today I seem to be still annoyed - but slightly amused by just how ridiculous it all is.
I bought more plants for my apartment... it seems that my decorating theme quickly is becoming nursery-meets-mortuary. I better be careful here with all of these plants and flowers. I'd tell you about this dinner with my landlord last night -- but I don't know that I can take myself back through it. A few highlights - the 15 minute trip to the restaurant was actually a 1 and a half hour journey -in the rain, through torrents of water and included a brief stop on the side of the road - standing, dressed up, in the rain while smoke spewed from our car. I had brought the landlords a bottle of wine as a "gift" and they told me, "Oh... you might as well not have bothered". (They don't drink) (PS - I never got back my wine). By the time I got out of the car (1 1/2 hrs later) I was debating ordering a glass of wine at dinner... which I ended up ordering. One glass of red wine doesn't seem inappropriate to non-drinkers, right? I order the wine and the glass is served to me. Then the older woman (my landlord) - who I've never knew even SPOKE English says to me, "You're not going to take that wine, right?" I said, "Yes, actually I ordered it, thank you very much." The daughter complained about everything we had, "Is the asparagus canned?" "Are there preservatives in this tomato sauce?" "Do you have something that might settle my stomach?" "I clearly said - no ice." Now... I was concerned that I had gone through all topics of conversation before I got out of the car... but her annoying complaints actually worked to spur me on to new topics so that I could talk over her and ignore that I was eating with her.
I mean... this is SO FAR from ANYONE I know... or ANY WAY that I can imagine spending an evening in my life until three months ago... it's just shocking.
Anyway... more plants/flowers later... and with plans to meet a friend for a jazz/blues show tonight... things are looking up.
When I reached out to Nick for moral support yesterday -- he reminded me of a STREET SIGN here in Delhi that summed-up his trip to India it said:
"Welcome to xxx parking lot. Tires will be deflated if car is left for more than two hours."
###
Yesterday morning I woke up to a text message from Tess that said, "I think they're demolishing our gym." I kind of chuckled to myself and wrote back... "Oh, Tess, you must be wrong -- they're never going to demolish something that people are paying a premium to join -- they just won't." Well, guess what? They are.
Here's the deal -- I live in a country where I lose power every day -- maybe not for long -- but I lose power almost every day.
I live in a country where I cannot drink the water from my tap -- in fact I've been encouraged not to WASH DISHES in my tap water. Watch me get Cholera as I've ignored this advice...
I live in a country where no fewer than twenty-five construction workers and their families sleep on the construction site across from my house.
I ALSO live in a country where they are enforcing ZONING VIOLATIONS - by DEMOLISHING buildings.
I guess at some point someone paid a bribe to build my gym. My gym is supposed to be a "nursing home." I know, crazy... but now I finally understand why the edifice never really looked like a gym. It looks like, well, a nursing home.
The Indian government has now (years later) decided to get tough on these "zoning violations" (this is the same government that shut down all blogs - including mine - from India after the Mumbai attacks -- I'm sure that was wildly successful in combating terrorism...).
You know... it's really AMAZING to me that companies like Starbucks aren't opening up shop here -- it doesn't seem like there would be any barriers to entry - or crazy decisions being made that might negatively impact international investment. None at all...
So, yes, they carried the equipment out yesterday - in front of TV crews - and the high court here has ordered the demolition of the building. There is a history of this -- the government just knocked down a high-end modern/designer shopping center. At that site - for almost a year -- nothing has been rebuilt... it is a heap of rubble.
It's a great way to encourage further development, I think, create a Gaza City effect... heaps of rubble where high-end establishments used to stand.
So, the gym was the reason I moved to this apartment and I hit a frustrated low yesterday. Today I seem to be still annoyed - but slightly amused by just how ridiculous it all is.
I bought more plants for my apartment... it seems that my decorating theme quickly is becoming nursery-meets-mortuary. I better be careful here with all of these plants and flowers. I'd tell you about this dinner with my landlord last night -- but I don't know that I can take myself back through it. A few highlights - the 15 minute trip to the restaurant was actually a 1 and a half hour journey -in the rain, through torrents of water and included a brief stop on the side of the road - standing, dressed up, in the rain while smoke spewed from our car. I had brought the landlords a bottle of wine as a "gift" and they told me, "Oh... you might as well not have bothered". (They don't drink) (PS - I never got back my wine). By the time I got out of the car (1 1/2 hrs later) I was debating ordering a glass of wine at dinner... which I ended up ordering. One glass of red wine doesn't seem inappropriate to non-drinkers, right? I order the wine and the glass is served to me. Then the older woman (my landlord) - who I've never knew even SPOKE English says to me, "You're not going to take that wine, right?" I said, "Yes, actually I ordered it, thank you very much." The daughter complained about everything we had, "Is the asparagus canned?" "Are there preservatives in this tomato sauce?" "Do you have something that might settle my stomach?" "I clearly said - no ice." Now... I was concerned that I had gone through all topics of conversation before I got out of the car... but her annoying complaints actually worked to spur me on to new topics so that I could talk over her and ignore that I was eating with her.
I mean... this is SO FAR from ANYONE I know... or ANY WAY that I can imagine spending an evening in my life until three months ago... it's just shocking.
Anyway... more plants/flowers later... and with plans to meet a friend for a jazz/blues show tonight... things are looking up.
When I reached out to Nick for moral support yesterday -- he reminded me of a STREET SIGN here in Delhi that summed-up his trip to India it said:
"Welcome to xxx parking lot. Tires will be deflated if car is left for more than two hours."
###
posted by Seth Doane at 9/03/2006 05:15:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home