All decked up and no way to get there

We've been a bit ambivalent about going to this wedding reception we were invited to. We had been debating whether to go for a few days mainly because we didn't know the family very well, actually, there's more to it than that but that's a post for another day.

This morning I went to a salon to get my hair done, pedicure and eyebrows (an early Mother's day gift to myself) and also finished reading Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies. It just made sense to go to the reception since when have I ever had my hair and nails done on the day of a reception. We got the kids all decked up, I wore a turquoise bandhani sari I bought in Jaipur last year with matching bangles. I realized though that I didn't have any other jewelry that matched, I'll have to fix that soon.

Our driver didn't show up this morning. After reaching his brother, he said that Vijay was at the hospital visiting a friend and may be out for a few hours. Sometime later, Prasad talked to Vijay and he said, he was out distributing wedding invitations for a friend and may only get back around 6pm. You know where this is going, both stories don't match at all and I still don't understand why he didn't tell us upfront that he was going to be unavailable today. 5pm rolls by and we're not able to reach Vijay, his brother said he couldn't reach him since 3pm. We still had our hopes up but 7pm rolled by and no sign of him. Prasad called a cab. The cab driver said he'll be here by 8:15pm. 9pm rolls by and still no sign of the cab even after repeated calls and the company telling us he's only 2 minutes away each time we call. The actual cab driver calls us and tells us he's still in Koramangala, that's just too far so we cancelled the cab. Prasad thought maybe he should drive. When he called our friend to get directions, it sounded so complicated and it's near Forum mall which is a very busy part of town and he's not used to driving that far especially on a Saturday night so we decided to called the whole thing off.

Somewhat of a letdown. We're all cuddled up on the couch eating eating leftovers from lunch and watching movies. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and guess who is going to earful from us if he shows up :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

Driver Woes

Our friends Shobha and Prashanth's driver quit today. Just as I was wondering what to blog about, they dropped by this evening and we chatted about their driver woes. They had been asking him to wash their car in the mornings as the cars get very dirty and need a wash every day. Vijay, our washes our car without us asking so we thought it was just part of the job. Apparently not. No matter how many times Prashanth asked him to clean the car, his driver just wouldn't do it. When their driver was out sick for a few days, they had their neighbor's driver wash their car and he did an exceptional job. Prashanth mentionned this to his driver and he took serious offense and claimed that he had been driving for 30 years and can get at least 3 references for his excellent car cleaning abilities. He quit claiming he couldn't meet their expectations. He then promptly had a fight with their neighbor's driver saying he caused him to lose his job and that he should have minded his own business and not cleaned their car. Oh what a drama!! Now they are on the lookout for a new driver and their first driver who also quit a few months ago is interested in coming back. That driver quit because he was expecting a month's salary as a bonus for Diwali last year after only working for them for a few months because a certain someone in our layout gave his driver who has been with them for 5+ years a huge Diwali bonus. The saga continues, let's see what happens.

After their not so good experience with their first driver, Prashanth came up with a theory on hiring his next driver. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. We were all sitting tonight and brainstorming how to hire a good driver and what qualities we should look for. We really couldn't come up with a good formula, seems like you either have good luck or you don't.

Drivers, maids, cooks are a huge conversation topic at parties, get togethers and even casual lunch discussions at work. Seriously, we can kill a few hours just discussing this topic and we never get tired of it, I wonder if we come up in their conversations. They probably curse us.

Driver Stories

Our driver Vijay and his brother Ashok both work in the same layout. In fact, Vijay was referred to us through his brother who works as a driver for a friend of ours. Both are in the their mid-twenties, unmarried and live with their older married brother. Ok probably more information than you care to know. This is where it gets amusing. They both need to be at work at the same time. Our friend's son also attends the same school as Rushil and Sindhu so the drop-off and pick-up times are the same. Everyday, I see Vijay walk to our house in the morning and a few minutes later, his brother drives up on his motorcycle in no particular hurry even though the bus is turning the corner and we're all waiting for him to bring our friend's son. Prasad and I just don't get why Vijay and Ashok don't come together. Prasad went as far asking Vijay why that is and Vijay just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Vijay is quite the character. Initially, I was little uncomfortable with how quiet he was as it was difficult to read him. He will only respond with monosyllabic answers so most of the time I have no idea what he is saying. I have to ask him to repeat himself most of the time. Other times, I'll ask him to bring us somewhere and I'm not sure if he has heard me or not because he doesn't respond. In the mornings, there are no hellos and in the evenings no goodbyes. He is just too shy to exchange pleasantries so now I've settled into this routine with him where I only communicate when needed. On multiple occasions when he is driving us, he'll run into a friend of his on the road who will be frantically waving at him to get his attention, and he'll pretend as if he didn't see him. Rushil has tried so hard to be his friend but all he gets is a smile from him. All that aside, he is punctual, reliable, easily accessible, and most importantly a good driver and I only realized this when I went in my friend's cars with their drivers. His family is quite established in the community, if we need an electrician, a painter, a plumber, water supplier, Vijay will have the number handy. We've seen their house and given his brother's 5+ year history with our friends, that gives us additional comfort so he's definitely someone we don't want to let go of easily even with his quirky personality.