Ready to go home.

It's been a relaxed week at the ISI. We got back from Mysore last Monday, and I found it really odd not having to go to the nursery. I have very mixed feelings about leaving, I was just getting settled and the kids were just getting used to my being there, but I really couldn't stay and be happy about it.

They changed my working hours and responsibilities with no warning, the resources were non-existant and the manager and brand consultant would give me and the other teachers confilicting instructions. It was too miserable to try and stay.

I went to a Ravelry meet on Friday (for those not in the know, Ravelry is a knitting and crochet online forum/pattern library/techniques resource. It's great!) with the Bangalore (and New York) contingent of the South Asian Crafters. We met at Cafe Paducci on MG Road and it was the first time I'd made the trip myself, having been too intimidated by the thought of the funny looks I'm get and arguing with rickshaw drivers for the price of the 15km trip. I was right about both, it turns out. An entire bus of school kids ended up with their faces pressed to the windows to stare and wave and point at me, and then when we arrived (the flippin' journey took an hour because of the various detours the driver took) the driver tried to claim he had no change. This winds me up no end, you hand over the money and say "Do you have change?" and the driver does the head-wobble and gives you a fatuous smile which means "I do have change, but I'm going to be as vague as humanly possible so that you might go away and leave me with your money". You then have to go "DO you have change?!", which brings more head wobbling and smiling until he realises that you're not going away until you get your money and gives you your change in the hope that you'll piss off.

The meet itself was lovely. One lady had brought her little boy, who was entertaining throughout the meet and made me look forward to seeing Sacha and Raffles when I get back. It was lovely to chat to the ladies in person, though because of Captain Shortcut I missed The Showing of the Finished Objects and the giving of presents. Vims made me a present! She'd never met me before, but she's made (like HANDMADE) me a present. How nice is that? It's being sent to Lancaster so I'll have a present from India to open when I get home. I think a little prezzie from the UK will have to make it's way to B'lore to say thanks...

On the way back, I was reminded why I'm starting to look forward to coming home. I had a really, really lovely couple of hours chatting, but needed to get a rickshaw back. I asked a couple of drivers how much they'd want to take me back to the ISI, and was asked for Rs. 300 (it's an Rs. 150 trip at the most...) everytime. I started to walk away from the last bloke to ask for that, but he capitulated and said he'd take me for Rs. 200 which isn't great, but it's better.

I told him that the ISI was a little bit after the University, and got the head-wobble in aknowledgement so thought there wouldn't be a problem. Now, the ISI is maybe a kilometre, possibly less past the University on Mysore Road. AS SOON as we'd passed the Uni the driver started to ask for more money. My heart sank, I did not want to deal with this crap on my own. I told him that we'd agreed on Rs. 200 and I'd like him to take me to the very next right turn, at that point 500m down what had become a VERY busy main road (this was rush hour on a Friday). He stopped the rickshaw and told me to pay him the Rs. 200 or pay him Rs. 300 to take me to the ISI. I said I wouldn't pay him anything until I was at my destination.

He restarted the engine and 15 seconds later we were pulling into the layby beside the gate of the ISI (I said it wasn't far...). I felt better being able to get out without being mown down by a 2-wheeler or 3-wheeled Tata truck full of people. He kept asking me for Rs. 300 (which I didn't actually have on me...), I asked him if I'd said the ISI was AFTER the Uni. He agreed that I had, so I gave him Rs. 200 and walked away really fast.

When I told Eva I was coming here, she said that India is a country you either love or hate. Well, Eva is rarely wrong but in this case I think she might be. India is a country that you can't just have one simple emotion about. In one afternoon there were two attempts made to rip me off, but I was shown SUCH kindness and friendliness by the Rav ladies as well. I loved working with Ruchi, and in spite of the fact that I couldn't speak Kannada or Hindi, the support staff (Akanshana, Dahlakshmi and Gemma) we're always trying to help me out in any way they could, yet I couldn't bear the manager.

India might be a bit of a Marmite country, I'm sure that some people wouldn't be able to cope with it, but you will love lots about it AND hate lots about it. The former outweighs the latter, and I'd love to come back, but at the moment I'd desperate for a bit of space of my own. I don't mean space from Ollie (we've lived in one room since we got here and neither of us is dead yet, a good effort, I think) but I mean space from listening to other people playing shoot-'em-ups, hawking up phlgem (I'm going to stab the guy in the canteen who keeps snorting in the face with a spoon if he puts me off my dinner one more time), shouting, singing, bawling at someone on the phone, smelling other folks cigarettes when I'm cooking. I'd like a bit of personal space, thanks.