Sounds oddly like London

"How are things in the sunny New Delhi (or whatever it is called these days)?" asked a friend from London.

Life is good, I said. "The little one has started going to a local play-school. We keep worrying about loads of things that the landlady needs to get fixed. The landlady is not interested in doing any of that. And I am trying to deal with the excitement at home and at work, without being partial to either".

Sounds oddly like Britain, he said.

It made me think. If you are the worrying type, the world seems exactly the same wherever you are looking from it. As in London, the landlords in New Delhi are straight-faced lairs too. As in London, the flats are prone to developing problems. As in London, companies have call-centres where staff uses too much of "thank you" and "sorry" without doing anything to sort out your problems.

Maybe it is easier for me to deal with this because I step out to work every morning and don't get in until late evening. But for my better half, the ritual is tiring. Spot a problem. Call the landlady. The landlady's hard-of-hearing father-in-law picks up the phone. The father-in-law can't remember having a tenant on the first floor. Some more reminding and he promises to get the landlady to call back. The landlady does not call back. Panic. Will have to do this all over again tomorrow and hope no other problem shows up in the meantime. More panic.

We complete a month of this ritual on Thursday. It would be painful handing over another huge monthly rent (divided into four separate cheques, so that the landlady can save on tax) with the house still not in perfect working order.

The most painful bit is the washing-machine. After throwing up soapy water through a washing cycle (bl**dy Chinese. Their branded products are so inferior), its door seized up. When an attempt was made to open the door (pushing a button, deep into its hole) the button got stuck too.

The landlady seemed aghast. "It is a new machine (she bought it two years ago)," she said. With her Korean-brand machine working smoothly she didn't seem too bothered about the laundry basket filling up upstairs.

Being new to domestic help management, we feel awful asking the domestic help to wash the clothes. There isn't that much for her to do at home, but washing clothes by hand is hard work. And the dust and grime ensures that you have a sizable laundry basket to deal with every week.

To add to the problem, the weather has been exceptionally wet this past week. And the bathroom drain started filling up this morning.

"We must have a chat with the landlady," the better-half suggested. I agreed. "But then, such things will continue to happen," I said. "We cannot let them pull us down. Let us identify what the big problems are and make sure she is working on sorting those out."

"As for the small problems, we need to relax. Rather than route it through the landlady, we can get a plumber or electrician to sort it out ourselves. It will save us time and unnecessary anger and stress. "

Otherwise, it'll feel like we are still in London (or Reading, as the case might be)!