The Indian summers – especially in the Northern part of the country – can be nigh brutal!
And it is SCORCHING HOT OUT THERE at midday – when I just went to pick up someone from the bus stand – and my, that heat!
Coming back home, I splash cold water on my face, sometimes wash my feet(face – always) – and then collapse for 10 minutes on the bed in utter darkness in an airconditioned room to relax.
Man, in 10 minutes I am recharged, rejuvenated and ready to go!
And think about poor Bhagwati, who has no access to a/c or reliable electricity!
Many years ago in Southern China – the humidity there is even more brutal if not the sheer temperatures in India – I remember discussing how I couldn’t live without A/C in that part of the world.
Clement, a guy from Hong Kong agreed in full.
I have to run it all day, I went, and …
“Chinese live without it all the time!” went Amy angrily, a Chinese girl sitting next to us.
In that office, I got paid a lot more than a lot of these guys did – and at a very young age comparatively.
For some reason, “white folks” getting paid more in China was fine, and they tolerate those from HK getting paid more – though that disparity has disappeared pretty much.
But someone like me, a Heinz 57 – they couldn’t stand my salary.
They just couldn’t say it directly!
And while they didnt like me (Clement told me that) it was mostly because of the salary they were jealous of (for some reason that wasn’t the case at the next job – tells you a lot about bosses and how this one shoud have handled me) … it was the hidden anger, frustration and ferocity that stood out!
Curiously enough this girl reported to another Heinz 57, she was the sweetest of sweet to him.
Nothing if not canny are Chinese girls, with me, that frustration of not being able to afford A/C all spilled out “how dare he get it, boy!”
Hehe.
She would have, and was so nicely dominating!
Anyway Clement was wrong, I doubt they all hated me. The Chinese have their own roundabout ways of saying things, back to Bhagwati?
Well, if she’d just lie down in a cool room, I so want to have it ready after all that work she does from 6 AM.
Madam lying down, thinking of nothing, relaxed, and I reach for her feet, start to press them, she’s so relaxed she extends the other one forward, asks for water.
And thats another ode to her, really.
Just the relaxation for this lady … those cracked soles, that hot summer afternoon, coming in from it, being expected to work straightaway … man, I couldn’t imagine it.
But they do it, and therefore serving THEM is so much better, more inspiring as I did for Pooja Memsahib .. JI! (a similar story!).
The story of Bhagwati devi is being written in front of your eyes as we speak, and thats that my friend. Back soon.
Best,
Mike Watson
