Monday, May 23, 2011

The Rains...

…they are a coming. 

Up until a few days ago, I have not seen a drop of rain since the beginning of last November.  Come the first week of June, and continuing through mid September, we can expect to see it everyday; we can also expect not to see the sun.  Welcome to Monsoon Season.

In preparation, I have workers coming to our flat this week to do some waterproofing in several areas.  Today they are working on the terrace.  Apparently the grout between the tiles needs to be filled and sealed to prevent pooled water from dripping down into our bedroom.  Two men arrived at 11:00 this morning; one (the supervisor) showed the other one what to do, and then left.  The man remaining didn’t speak a word of English.  When you combine that with my very limited Hindi vocabulary, it makes for some interesting attempts at communication.  What I found funny was that even though we couldn’t understand a word of what the other was saying, we still kept talking while using hand gestures.  (On a side note: I learned that holding your little finger up means you need to urinate…and yes, I verified that through Google!)

After cleaning the grout he had to wait over an hour for it to dry; which he did while sitting on my sofa watching TV.  This was at my suggestion; before that he was just standing in the doorway and watching me on my laptop.  Can you say, ‘Uncomfortable’?

At 6:00 p.m. I peeked outside to access the progress and he was napping.  I assumed that he was finished and waiting for his supervisor to come back and pick him up.  Just now (it’s almost 6:30), I took another look and he was working again.  Ah, India!  I have a sneaking feeling that this is going to be a very long week.


**Update at 7:45 p.m.
He finished up around 7:15, went into the bathroom and took a shower.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Ah, Incredible India!



For those of you unfamiliar with Mumbai, it has a tropical wet and dry climate, with high humidity and four seasons:

Winter (December -February)
Summer (March – May)
Monsoon (June – September)
Post Monsoon (October – December).

The temperatures average between 18º and 30º Celsius (65º and 86º Fahrenheit)…though these are slightly higher where we live in Navi Mumbai. 

The average precipitation for the year is 242.2 cm (95.35 inches).  To give you an idea of how much that is, the average in Chicago is 38 inches and in Miami it is 60 inches.  Now imagine getting the majority of it in three months!

Damn!  Now I’ve got that song by The Carpenters stuck in my head….except the words are: ‘Rainy days and monsoons always get me down…’

4 comments:

Unknown said...

And you have given me "Raindrops keep falling on my head" and it's repeating over and over and over in my head.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe he had a shower afterwards. How awkward. And slightly gross. Ewwww.

Unknown said...

Did you know he was going to jump in your shower????

I can't find my blog said...

A girl in my son's class left on Tuesday to come to India. I told her I had a friend that lived there and she just stared at me. Aaah to be 10 again.