Will you marry me?

It is very well understood in many parts of the world that the question above represents the ultimate commitment by one human being to the other. A commitment to a lifelong relationship however does not seem to be a major problem for most Indians (as evident by the number of marriages in a month or the growing population). The problem is with day to day commitments to each other.

Let me illustrate through a recent example. Bangalore has been quite hot (the weather!) in recent weeks and there has been an increase in the population of mosquitoes (if people can do it …. ). A slat in one of our bathroom windows broke a couple of weeks ago and there has been an invasion of mosquitoes through the gap. Mona reported the issue to the Home Care office in our building. This office was established by the developer of the complex and is designed to quickly respond to any issue related to the care and maintenance of the homes in the complex. But turns out that the office does not fully understand any part of the phrase "quick response".

Despite repeated calls and visits to the office, the problem remained unresolved for over a week. And these guys have a full time maintenance staff consisting of a carpenter, electrician and a plumber. It wasn't until Mona and I confronted the manager and virtually had to yell at the top of our voices to finally get heard. The problem finally got resolved yesterday after we went and bought a mosquito net and the carpenter installed it over the bathroom window. We are relieved that this issue has been taken care of but we remain disturbed and disappointed at the lack of commitment of the maintenance staff.