3.3.2008

Indian Domestic Relations

There is a big domestic argument going on somewhere on my street. A man and a woman are throwing verbal accusations at each other inside their home. It is so audible that if I could understand a word of Kanada I could actually translate the whole matter but to my ear it sounds like gibberish, only with some very violent energy attached to it.

All of a sudden it made me think about my landlord, Mr Acharya. I think I had written about him before, he is a retired teacher giving private maths lessons to children 11-13years from his home. Whenever I see a bicycle parked outside our house I know that he's having a visit from another perfectly well uniformed teenager, who is dressed so neatly, for boys hair combed the side and looks as though a cow has licked it, and for girls hair in two pony tails; but they all hide a sly smile that is shy but curious at the same time. I know what they look like because the room where they have their lesson is looking out to the street and I go pass it as I walk up the stairs to my apartment.

(Oh my God, the yelling is getting worse. The woman's voice seem to dominate the shouting, she doesn't breathe much in between her sentences. Is this what we are like everywhere else in the world?)

Anyhow I wanted to tell Mr Acharya that I was leaving the apartment on Saturday morning. Indians are very unpredictable when it comes to business, especially when they deal with white skinned people, who they assume are printing money in their hometown, yet being stingy when it comes to paying the locals in rupees. I was at the princess apartment a few nights ago where Andrea and Ayalet had stayed for the past two weeks and they had a semi-expected visit from their landlord. What seemed to be a discussion about their water bills soon turned out to be a disagreement over 2 days' rent. It really was pointless, as both the girls were staying there for 2 weeks exactly and had paid their share. But the landlord made his calculations from Dalia and Michael's booking and demanded that the girls would pay another 500rupees for 2 nights stay. I could see Andrea's point totally, as February wasn't even a complete month with 30 or 31 days. It got a little heated but in the end the girls paid him just to get rid of him. I really liked Andrea's closing line "I give you the money but I'm not happy" to which the landlord replied "well, I don't want to take it unless you are happy" but at the same time pocketing the 500 note…It was funny after all, but showed that the Indian businessmen were spending much time calculating their potential income from the yoga students.

Knowing this I approached Mr Acharya cautiously too. After all I would have paid the extra 2 days as I was staying over a month and that would be very fair. But to my surprise he shook his head and said "no, I don't want anymore money, we must depart in good wishes. The apartment will be empty anyway". He also invited me for a chai to his classroom (the front room of the house) and asked his wife to feed me idlis which I had to eat out of politeness even though I had had a huge breakfast.

(The shouting has stopped by the way and no dead bodies to account for, thankfully)

I wonder about Mr Acharya a little, he seems to a trouble soul. In all his conversations he is constantly praising himself "I'm an educated man", "I was the first in my county in my studies", "I have travelled all over India for my work" bla bla bla…But at the same time he despises everyone else, the Indians who do not work hard anymore, children who are not respectful or who do not want to study whilst their parents are pouring money into their education, the education system is very bad…bla bla bla! There may be a truth in what he says of course but he dislikes these things with a passion which does not look healthy to me.

The worse however was when his wife asked me if I had any coins from my own country. I didn't have any pounds with me but had some Euro coins so I gave it to her. She doesn't speak English at all but I can guess from her gestures what she means. I was too busy praising her and thanking her for the food and drink when Mr Acharya interrupted me and said "I married her because of pity, she didn't have mother or father so I married her for that reason only" which seemed very inappropriate and rather cruel to me. Thank god she didn't understand a word of it, how could anyone be so mean to another being. I disagreed with him saying how beautiful she was and always smiling at me, greeting me openly, offering me food and drink.

It made me realise once again that humanity has nothing to do with education or status. Someone who thinks so highly of themselves can be very narrow minded indeed and sees the world in such limited way.

Mr Acharya is an example of someone who lacks ability to innovate himself, to teach more inspiringly so that his students would want to learn. He lacks the ability to change the way he perceives the world but expects everything outside of him to change for his happiness. His so called not-educated orphan wife probably has a bigger heart than he has.

(I just killed a mosquito and ready to sleep now!)