PaoloGagliardi.it

lunedì, settembre 08, 2008

It took a few days to understand how this thing works over here. Initially I was looking for some garbage containers along the roads, but I could not find any. In the meantime some very nice and smelly bags were packing up in my backyard, for the joy of my nose. Finally a little man came, with a pick-up bicycle, yeah one of those riscio with three wheels and a flat panel instead of the passenger seat. Anyway, this man is my rubbish collector. The thing is that he comes when he wants (all Indians do so), then sometimes, when there is nobody in the house, the smelly thing will remain there for another day.

I also wanted to understand whether or not a 1.1 Billion people Country does any kind of differentiated garbage collection, like we do in Europe. Actually they do, or well they don't but they do. I mean that we perform this task at the top of the chain, when each of us is using different buckets for different items: glass, paper, organic, etc... They put everything in the same container and then there are people (I have been told they are children but I cannot be sure...), who will separate the garbage at the bottom of the chain.

I am sorry guys, I know in my bags there is my dog's shit too...

giovedì, settembre 04, 2008

Unexpected Visit

author: pgagliar @ 10:41
category: bengal monitor, animals in india, big lizards
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Today my house was visited by an unexpected guest. A one meter long Bengal Monitor. It's a lizard, similar to a small scaled Komodo's Dragon, but not at all that dangerous. In fact, this Monitor is solitary and usually inoffensive, but its saliva can be very infective for humans and pets. With the help of my good neighbors and some security guards, several attempts to catch it were unfruitful so, unfortunately, the animal had to be eliminated. I feel very sorry for this!

sabato, agosto 30, 2008

I am losing my temper with this "engineers"

author: pgagliar @ 16:11
category: life in india, quality of life in india, repairs in india, maintenance in india
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I am starting to wonder whether or not there is anything in India that works. In this house (brand new, just built, never used), there is nothing which works properly. And every time I complain, the answer is "you know sir, it's new". This concept hardly fits me. In my mind, something new should just work like a hell! Then, maybe, when something starts to be a little bit old, then it requires some maintenance, or even a replacement. But a new thing must work as a new thing. Here, taps and pipes have problems, air conditioning leaks gas, some windows are not keeping the water out, the generator goes on "fault" every now and then. And all this, after you call these so named "engineers" who work for hours and keep you in for hours (during weekends of course!), and when they leave, the problem is still there, still the same, if not amplified.

Today, once again, I have a bunch of people in my house trying to fix some stuff. In all this beautiful and amazing experience so far, what I really can't bear is when these "engineers" think that I am stupid. I don't know why this happens, maybe it's because I don't speak Hindi or just because I am white.

When finally the "engineer" supposed to fix the generator managed to reach my house (they come when they want, they are unable to fix an appointment), he, as always, tried all the available switches and he gave his sentence: "sir, now it works". I replied that the story was old, and that I had told him already the fault message is completely random, but when that happens, I have to go to the generator (very often around 2am in the morning), and press the button "RESET". His reply: "Sir, but now there is no fault message...". There I started to warm a little bit up, and I told him that if there was a "fault"message coming out, there had to be a problem somewhere and that he had to investigate. Of course I was not calling him to my house just for the pleasure of dealing with an ignorant. He was about to reply with the same fantastic statement, which would have very likely attracted my hand towards his nose, when God came to support me. The "fault" message materialized on the display!

"Now, what do you say idiot? Nothing eh? See the bloody message? Now you stop bullshitting me and you stay here 2, 3 days, whatever it is required to fix this problem!".

He called me back after 20 minutes to inform me that the problem happens when there are some peaks of energy, and the solution is pressing RESET!!!

I spared his life only because he promised to send a "senior engineer" on Monday morning...

Please, anybody, get my out of this nightmare, before I die or kill anyone!!

venerdì, agosto 29, 2008

National Geographic introducing... Ferarri (not a typo)

author: pgagliar @ 12:50
category: ferrari, national geographic, typos on tv
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A couple of days ago I saw on the Indian National Geographic Channell a short trailer, informing that in the evening they were going to show the Ferrari's factory from inside. Nice! Unfortunately I caught a very silly mistake, see for yourself below. I am sorry for the poor quality, but I took the shot on the fly with my 2 Mpx mobile phone.

Ferarri-paolog

venerdì, agosto 29, 2008

How to eat an ice cream in India

author: pgagliar @ 11:34
category: life in india
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Today I have realized who difficult eating an ice cream in India can be. It's quite hot outside, so from the moment I opened it, the whole thing started melting down immediately. So I started walking and eating and keeping the ice cream on my side to avoid having it melted on my shirt. I think I broke one record here: I finished it in 1 minute :-)

meltingicecream-paolog