So long, farewell…

This will be my last post on this blog. I hope you have found it to be informative and illuminating on life as an expat in Bangalore. It has certainly been a journey of resilience and endurance and always interesting and incredible in equal measure. Do look back on posts for travel hints and tips – we visited some interesting places.

.

I wanted to highlight some of the fabulous hardworking people who were part of our daily lives and who we have left behind in India. Helpers, gardeners, recyclers are looked down on in Indian society and generally treated appallingly. I incurred the wrath of more than one neighbour by providing bottled water, speaking amiably and paying above (scandalously low) market rates for helpers. I was verbally abused by neighbours and publicly abused on the complex Whatsapp group for doing so. It made me even more determined to treat everybody equally, with respect and pay a fair price. I think my apparent indifference to their attempts to intimidate me infuriated them even more. I knew I was doing the right thing and their opinion was of no consequence as a result. (It still stung though; I am human after all.)

.

These lovely ladies were true workhorses. They were the best recyclers I’ve come across. Everyday they would collect the waste (wet kitchen waste for composting and dry waste for recycling). They could flat pack cardboard in minutes, bundle up newspapers, sift through discarded items to see what could be repaired and reused. The amount of waste that actually went to landfill was greatly reduced by these ladies dedication. They were a great team and also massively undervalued by residents. I miss their cheery smiles and good mornings.

Above is Lattha with Zahra. Lattha was my friend and neighbours helper and was wonderful with all the children, including Zahra. A truly lovely lady.

Below is a picture of Padmamma who was my gardener until she retired after her daughter’s wedding. It was so lovely of her to come and say goodbye and wonderful to see her after so long.

A family picture (below) with Manjunath our last driver and Lakshmi our gardener. Lakshmi helped me transform a tired, dry garden into the green oasis it became. The banana tree was a real triumph. She is such a dedicated gardener, it was a joy to have her onboard. She laughed at my attempts at Telugu names of plants and wildlife as clearly my pronunciation wasn’t up to scratch, whilst her English improved dramatically.

These two lovely folk (below) are the egg delivery family. Every week they would come to the house with freshly laid eggs from their farm. These were really fresh eggs too and they literally did carry all their eggs in one basket (usually on the head – he is posing for the photo here!). They spoke Kannada and I spoke English and a little Hindi and yet we always made ourselves understood. She cried when we left which made me understand some of the impact we had on people’s lives.

(Above) The wonderful Saroja and Lakshmi with us in the garden (with me talking to Manjunath or hurry up and take the shot as I was roasting!). I don’t think I would have survived the first year in India without Saroja – she was a Godsend, truly. She joined us as soon as we arrived in the complex and was with us for the three years we lived in Bangalore. She was a great helper in every way and always cheerful, despite what life threw at her. I will miss her a lot. She is a wonderful lady with a wonderful family.

(Above) Bhuvana was our part time cook (twice a week) which releived the pressure of trying to source ingredients and think of meals with what was available. She loved cooking and learning new receives and always wanted to cook about 6 separate dishes for us to try! She was about to return from maternity leave when we were departing so she came to say goodbye with her beautiful daughter.

Who isn’t pictured: the ironing Guy. He spoke Kannada and I spoke Hindi and English and we understood each other. Every other day he would collect our ironing and return it that evening. Always cheerful, always did a good job and we always paid him what he asked and didn’t count items and try to reduce he price – so he really liked us as we also didn’t negotiate him down from his standard INR 5 (6p) per item. As we were leaving the complex managing committee negotiated the rates down to INR 3 (3p) per item, which I complained about on the group before I left. It never ceases to infuriate me that those with money and power will always try to abuse that to keep the low income earners in poverty so they can control them. It’s a really unattractive side to India.

Pictured below is the dream team of Lakshmi and Saroja. They kept the house and garden in order, and anyone who tried to con us. They were always looking fabulous in their saris and were always cheerful and hardworking.

.

So as I leave this blog, I start another as we have moved to Singapore. Please do check out my other blogs:

Songofmight.wordpress.com featuring songs and poems to glorify God

And

Singaporeserials.wordpress.com about expat life in Singapore

Enjoy. Live life and be kind.

Deborah.