Homecoming (or going?)

We have finally moved into our new apartment (or flat as it is commonly referred to here)!

Four weeks after we landed in Bangalore, we now have a place we can call home. We were expecting to be able to move in within days of our arrival. But this was before we really understood the mechanics of how time works in India (for more on this, refer to my earlier post on this subject).

We first saw the apartment the day we landed (Jan 1 '07). Judging by the work in progress (carpentry, painting and electrical), we realized with a sinking feeling that this could take a few days longer than we anticipated. The landlord and the contractor assured us that the delay was only a few days and the place would be ready for us within a week.

One thing you learn very quickly here is that planning, estimation and time management are not part of a general contractor's vocabulary. Neither is the word - deadline! People make commitments with the intent to end the conversation.

It seems like nobody anticipated the holidays (Republic day, Sankranti, Moharram - yes, this is in a span of three weeks!) or labor fatigue (just did not feel like showing up) or productivity swings (did not feel like working hard today) etc. Hours stretched into Days which stretched into weeks and finally a month has gone by. We begged and we pleaded and we threatened. Not sure if any of this had any impact but the work is finished (well ... almost!).

Now that we are in our place, the wait seems well worth it. We were anxious about logistics, furniture and utilities. But all of that went surprisingly smooth. Suppliers were very flexible and accomodating to our frequent requests to change delivery schedules. But everything was delivered on time and services were activated pretty quickly.

More about the place in a future post.