Furnishing My Flat

This is my friend Vish and his two sons, Garnesh and Nadesh.  I think I mentioned this in an earlier post but I met Vish when I was registering with the police commissioner as all foreigners are required to do.  At the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO) no less.  He is a doctor who practiced in the Carribean for a number of years.  His kids lived in California and are American citizens.  He has returned to Bangalore and had to register his kids.  He has helped me to get settled.   Saturday we went to Cubban part and had a photo shoot.  My driver, Nargaraj, was kind enough to accompany us and act as the light man.  No visit to Cubban park is complete without an encounter with panhandlers.  This woman and two others were petitioning me for $$$.  My practice is to tell them I will give them $$ if I can take there pictures.  They all seemed to agree but this woman is the only one who followed through.  The other two disappeared when they got the $$$.  I this lady hung around wanting more $$ and the picture was incidental to her.   After we finished the photo shoot we went to a Southern Indian restaurant for lunch.  After lunch we had a sweet paan and went back to my flat and processed the pictures in Photoshop.  The boys got a kick out of that and were right in there commenting on the processing.  It was a lot of fun.  Vish's boys are very well-behaved and polite.

As for acquiring furniture.  I have chosen to make it a slow process.  Slow for me at least since I am a typical male shopper; five minutes of looking and then I'll take this, this and this.  Here I am being a little more thoughtful.  I wouldn't go as far as to say my feminine side is showing but I am taking my time.

It takes time because everywhere I go the prices are higher than normal because I am an ex-pat.  I did find a shop that specializes in teak items.  There is a lot in what I call the British Campaign Style;  dark wood with brass accents.  They also have some beautiful "folk art" pieces.  I was there two weeks ago and got some things.  They wouldn't negotiate on the price but did throw in free delivery.  It took two weeks to get the items because they touched up the finishes.  They came on Friday.  They came on time I might add.  That's a shock here in India.  I am quite happy with the pieces shown below.

These things will provide storage.  There are no closets in these flats.  Two of the bedrooms have large, ugly vineered cabinets that are used for closets.  I have rented some furniture in the interim so I have a sofa, two easy chairs, a coffee table and a small dining table and four chairs.  The next thing I will focus on is a dining room table and chairs.  Because of the prices of any such items that would last for two years I have decided to explore having some things made.  One of the engineers at work, Kishore, knows a fellow who makes furniture for hotels here in Bangalore.  I have decided to give him a try.  I asked him to make me a work table and a medicine cabinet as a test case.  This was two weeks ago.  The items were to be delivered a week ago last Saturday.  No word.  Then a week later he showed up.  He was to come at 3:00 and got here at 4:30.  I'm sure it was 3:00 somewhere.  No worries though, I am getting used to that.  Kishore and Nagendra came with him.  They are the translators.  They are also close friends.  Nagendra is a former driver at GTC who has been promoted to an office job.  Both of these guys are princes.  Nagendra is very street-wise and Kishore is very caucious.  Back to their arrival; at 4:30, Nagendra, Kishore, the carpenter and three of his helpers showed up with the work table and medicine cabinet.  I couldn't have been happier with his work.  I love the work table.  It is eight feet long and has two generous drawers.  He has passed the test and his prices are much lower than I thought I would have to pay.  As a result he is now working on two twin beds, a hall table for the entry way, an entertainment table and a dining table.  There has been an unexpected benefit from this.  I showed him the campaign furniture and asked him to duplicate the style in the beds and occasional tables.  He has no problem with this so that theme will be prevalent in my flat.

In the group photo shown, Kishore is on the left and Nagendra is on the right.  Those guys are very protective of me.  I really appreciate that.  There was an explanation for the delay of one week.  It seems he was working on my table when the power went out; a common occurance here.  He thought he had blown a fuse.  He was putting a penny in the box or whatever you do in an Indian fuse box when the power suddenly came back.  Apparently it shocked him so bad that his hand caught fire and he was hospitalized for a couple days.  He did have a nasty burn on his left hand and I took back all those unkind ethnic insults I had been thinking when he was a week late.  I can't wait to see the next delivery.