r u n a w a y m a n g o: Dirty Laundry Business

You probably don't know this about me, but I am very particular about my laundry. Growing up in Lithuania we all did our laundry by hand, often in cold water. As a child I received extensive training in clothes washing from various people, including my mother who dreaded it, and my grandmother who turned it into a form of art.

Returning to doing laundry by hand here in India seemed like a worthy challenge to me and I was eager to take it on. Plus, I had hired help. Well, one month into this endeavor and my initial excitement has turned into frustration as our clothes started acquiring a shade of gray and a smell you could not get rid of. Local people here wash clothes by continually dipping them in soapy water, and then hanging them to dry still dripping wet. That was definitely not up to my standards. Retraining Mutamma or doing it all myself seemed like too much work. I was finally ready to purchase a washing machine.

Monday morning 10am I was knocking on the appliance showroom's doors. Store clerks still hadn't done their morning pooja and hadn't had their first cup of chai, they jumped into action to help me. Thirty minutes later I completed the purchase. That time included yelling at a young salesman for being too pushy and solving a declined bank card problem. I insisted I needed the machine delivered and installed ASAP. "No problem, Madam, delivered today, installed tomorrow", I was assured by a store manager. I doubt my demands and store promises would get fulfilled on time, but just in case I was being very firm. Sure enough, Monday night 9pm, the washing machine was delivered by a skinny old man on a bicycle rickshaw. In the pouring rain, I should add.

Tuesday morning I started calling the store manager who was extremely helpful when I was making the purchase at his store. "Yes, yes, yes, mam, the technician is coming today", I was being continually assured. I checked back with him every four hours until he stopped answering his phone.

Wednesday morning, I called the store manager again. I guess he got the message because immediately I got a phone from a technician who scheduled machine installation and training for 1pm. Well, that didn't happen, we were told to wait till 4:30. That's when we got a phone call from a lady with excellent spoken English that our installation for today was cancelled. "That's not possible" I started screaming at her, "that's not what the store manager told us". She could care less, and she simply hung up the phone.

On Thursday we started the whole thing over. I was calling the technician, I was calling the English-speaking lady. "Definitely today, Madam", I got the usual answer. Around 3pm we finally heard from the technician who was heading to our house but did not have our address. And I thought by now they knew who I was... Fast forward another four hours, our personal electrician was called from sick bed to replace some piping and faucets, and the machine was finally operational!

Well, four days from purchase to installation is not so bad, even in India. I know I acted like a crazy person and probably amused the locals in the process, but I knew all along that I couldn't really speed up the process. In India things happen when they happen.

While I was mostly pre-occupied with my washing machine all week, I did get some other things accomplished. I purchased three beds, two mattresses, gave boys room a makeover, finished installing mosquito nets on hall windows, and fixed our Aquaguard water filter. Quite a productive week!