First Week (continued)

I survived the detail of packing and leaving my house for two years. Now I am tackling the detail of setting up and furnishing a flat, an urban flat. Urban living may well be a big adjustment for me since I have never done it. On the other hand I may grow to like some of the things is has to offer.
This is my flat. Today I arranged to have the floors polished. They are marble and that will improve the appearance. It takes two days and the manager told me it would cost 11,500 rupees. I told him I would pay 10,000 rupees (about $225) and I needed them to start immediately. It takes two days to do this 15x45 room. I am in a ten story high rise. There are two high rises in this compound. It is called "Prestige Exotica". There are 20 flats in each high rise. They are 95% occupied and about 80% of the tenants are ex-pats. There are two flats on each floor and each flat runs the width of the building. So in this long room for example there is a balcony at each end. The photo below shows the view from the balcony shown here.
I spent the afternoon shopping for carpets. Nagendra agreed to go with me. He is a native of Bangalore and very street wise. He was originally a driver who has been promoted to an office job at the facility. Before we got started I told Nagendra that I needed a measuring tape; one that had meters and feet. No problem. My driver stopped in traffic and we got out. He disappeared into the confusion and we headed off into a labrinth of side streets. I have never seen anything like this. Think of WalMart. Think of it as spread out over five blocks of a narrow street; a narrow street filled with about a gazillion shoppers. Wheelbarrels and carts are everywhere stacked high with goods as the "shelves are being stocked". Here comes a cart with car tires pulled by an oxen carrying, I don't know, green thing-a-majigs that could have been wheel journals or bearing housings or I don't know, atom bombs, whatever. Each shop is crowed, narrow, dark and very deep. It's almost like each one was running a blue light special. After four stops we found the measuring tape. I spent $1.30.

The next stop was the carpet shop. Nagendra got on his cell phone and called my driver. We returned to the main street traffic as my driver magically appeared. The carpet shop was run by folks from Kashmir. I am told all the carpet shops are run by folks from Kashmir. It was somewhat high end. We went upstairs to a big open area. The salesman had three or four young assistants whom he instucted in Hindi as they rolled out various selections. Iwas looking for carpets that are 2x3 meters and 1.5x2 meters. He showed me beautiful carpets, some stunningly beautiful. We were served tea and he talked for 20 minutes non-stop about knotting, about designs, about dyes, about how the nap interacted with the light, about how each design was the domain of a particular family and was protected by a system similar to copyrite. "View the magic of nap" he says. Then he mutters in Hindi and two of the guys turn the carpet around and it looks totally different. He muttetrs more Hindi and they bring a steel comb to demonstrate how sharp the teeth are. They then rake it over the carpet to demonstrate how the nap is oblivious to claws of pets. This reminded me of the vacuum cleaner saleman who tosses a handful of dirt on your carpet and then demonstrates his machine.

Price for three carpets, 2 @ 3x5 meters and 1 @ 1.5x2 meters: $6500. Now it's my turn to talk for 20 minutes. I tell him how knowledgable he is, how much he must know about carpets. I tell him he has told me things about carpets that I never had imagined. I agree that his carpets would last for 100 years. I go on. I point out how I will only be here for 2 years. I point that I will not live for 100 years, that my children will not live for 100 years, even their children will not live that long. I explain that I could take the carpets with me when I leave but then I have to modify my house to use them. I would have to install wood floors and that is additonal cost for me. My daughter who has lived in the middle for 20 years knows carpets and would not speak to me if I paid that much for carpets. I love these trading dances.

Those carpets were made with vegetable dyes which was one of the details that made them so $$$. We finally got down to some carpets made with chemical dyes for much less. They were still very beautiful and I will probally end up with some version of those. Next challenge will be furniture.