Inconvenience regretted

Repairs: We have lived in our modern first floor apartment now for 7 months. Our landlord told that they chose to buy this home four years ago because it is of so great quality. Best architect and best builder. The best builder has used only the best materials and the best workmanship. Repair crew repaired all items from my repair list I had been able to create with help of my experienced colleague before signing in the rental agreement. Well, below is a partial list of repairs that have happened in the last 7 months.

Only one repair crew has cleaned up their mess

Repairs during 7 months:

• 4 x repair of the Internet connection. The last repair seems to have worked, as the service provider crew installed new 50 m cable from the connection box on the street to our apartment.
• 4 x repair the main power line coming to apartment. Three times the main fuse has burnt down. Once a piece of electric wire had melted.
• 4 x repair the backup power generator that runs on diesel. One time some wires burnt in the end of the repair process.
• 4 x scheduled maintenance of the backup power generator 
• 3 x repair the water pressure pump on the roof.
• 2 x change the broken light pulps. First two months, 14 light bulbs. After the next four months, 19 bulbs.
• 1 x repair a burnt electric outlet in living room.
• 1 x try to repair broken in-sink erator in the kitchen. Cannot be repaired.
• 2 x repair dishwasher. The second time it took a week to replace the water pump at the repair shop.
• 5 x repair kitchen sink plumbing issues.
• 2 x repair water filter. One time the power converter had melted.
• 3 x water filter scheduled maintenance.
• 3 x repair a hot water geysir in one of the bathrooms
• 1 x hot water geysir scheduled maintenance
• 3 x opening of the pipes of a floor water outlet in the inside balcony / storage room
• 4 x repair electrical problems inside
• 2 x repair few of the AC devices
• 2 x scheduled maintenance for all 7 AC devices
• 3 x expert visits to check the bubbling paint and mold in the dining area wall. Still waiting for a good moment to re-paint the wall.
• 4 x expert visits to check the water leakage in the master bedroom wall
• 2 x digging out the wet brick wall under a big mirror, mold, plywood sheet and concrete
• 3 x repair of the water leakage in the master bedroom wall. 2 x fixing the toilet water tank and finally 1 x breaking up the wall and changing a totally rusty and broken water pipe.
• 2 x ordered new filters to air purifiers. First they just vacumed the devices and said the filters are still ok. well, they were already totally black and starting to break. The second time they brought new filters, but ones without smoke filtering feature that I had ordered. Then they told that those ones will be available in few months.
• 150 phone calls. It has taken 2 to 15 phone calls to coordinate the repair of each of the incidents. Luckily our maid Seema, who started in December, has taken care of the most of the coordination.
• In addition to these repair needs that have required professional expert help, I have fixed some tens of minor issues myself.

Internet installation

It took two months to get internet installation and modem

Main electric power

Electrician tool set has a screwdriver

Problem is always found by watching and poking with the screwdriver

Our electric main power cabinet is pretty wild

Our apartment's fuses need to be poked at, too

Main fuse has burned three times

Burnt main fuse

Water leakage in master bedroom's bathroom. I told more than ten experts for three months that only possible reason for wet wall that stays wet in tall area is a leaking pipe inside the wall.

4.12.2011 Water dripping from under a huge mirror

6.12.2011 Bubbling paint in the neighbouring wall

6.12.2011 Nice layer of mold on the wall

6.12.2011 Plywood sheet under the mirror full of mold

20.12.2011 A professional came to clean the wall after I did not find respiration filters

22.12.2011 Plumber fixed the toilet water tank problem

9.1.2012 Builder and two experts repaired the toilet water container a second time

1.3.2012 The Expert came to dry the wall with gas flame blower in 4 hours. It had stayed wet three months with three of my heaters used for drying. Luckily we did not have a gas bottle.

1.3.2012 Helper of the Expert noticed that hey, the wall is wet from above the toilet water tank.

5.3.2012 Team of experts spent a day and cut through the wall into a leaking rusty pipe.

One more thing about this wet wall. In one day, the men cut the wall, changed the leaking pipe, and immediately filled the hole with tiles and concrete. Now we are waiting about their next moves. They thought to put the wall back to original condition in few days. I do not think so. We wait for the wall to dry up.

Modern India

The most trusted brand in India for three years in row has been Nokia. This relates to the fact that mobile phones are everywhere. And these devices are the first widespread channels to communications and Internet access in this country.

Business parks and incubators are popping up around the country in most of the metropolitan areas or the wannabees, the future metropolies. At the moment, the incubation offering is focused in land and buildings, soon it will include all services required in business incubation ecosystems.

The metropolitan cities of India have their satellites that house the big number or industrial facilities, call centers and apartment high rise & low rise buildings targeted for expatriates and fast growing upper middle class of the modern India.

Luxury India

Luxury hotels and resorts, shopping malls more modern than most in the USA or Europe, Porches and Harley Davidsons, fully equipped aprtments with all possible embedded electronics. Some people really enjoy what money can buy in India.

I read an article in local entrepreneurial magazine. More than two million people have enough extra cash to invest more than one million euro to stock or other instruments. Extra cash means that they already have nice home, more than one imported car and other basic amenities. The most expensive private house is actually in Mumbai, the cost was over one billion USD.

Here is something that surprisingly many ex-pats have not known before I told them: There is a new western style supermarket, Big Bazaar, for buying food in Vasant Kunj shopping mall. The mall itself has two malls side by side, DLF Promenade Mall and Ambiance Mall. Seems to be really hard to find any good data about it online. The Big Bazaar supermarket is undeground somewhere between the two mall buildings. You can access it by going first to the Ambience mall and continue to the right hand side, or just ask the route to the Big Bazaar. Its upstairs sells clothes etc, downstairs sells food, kitchenware, shaving gel and evertyhing else but not fresh meat or fish.

Big Bazaar in Vasant Kunj

Resort just south of Chennai

Poor India

Slums, beggars, minimum salary around 100 euros a month for legal workforce, 350 million people living for less than the absolute poverty line of 1,25 USD a day, stories about cutting arms or legs of children to make them better beggars.

By the way, I have seen hundreds of poor individuals and families who live under bridges or in small slum areas present everywhere in New Delhi. Kids play like kids play. Most of these people keep smiling. Actually, I started thinking that I cannot find as many smiling people in the streets of Finnish cities.

Mystical India

Tens of thousands of gods to worship, hundreds of thousands of places where to worship, caste system still active and kicking, girls unwanted, servants using their own doors and elevators, everyone saying that the servant quarters definitely does not need a shower. The servant quarters is usually a small room in basement with a toilet somewhere nearby.

I just watched Lagaan, the only Indian movie in BBC's list of 50 movies to see before you die. Great film. Three and half hours, like many other Bollywood movies. Story is about a cricket match between a rural village and Brittish rulers. The plot touches a lot of key traditions, culture, history and mindsets. Highly recommended.

Photos from Old Delhi and a cow in Vasant Vihar

Red Fort - Marble art with a guard:

Red Fort - Area where the ruler met common people (I almost missed the stairs):

Men without safety goggles working on marble on the street close to Red Fort:

At least three streets in Chawri Bazar were full of metal sellers. Everything you could think of. Huge valves. Steel in different shapes and sizes. How can someone move their shopping basket out from here?

Food items and spices here and there on the streets:

Metro ride from Chandni Chown (closest to Red Fort) to AIIMS (closest to Shanti Niketan) at 5 pm on Saturday. Not too bad of a crowd.

Cow encounter in Vasant Vihar during my Sunday walk. First one for me. Took three weeks of driving and walking around in Delhi to find the first one.

BTW: I love my cell phone's camera capabilities. Great photos (especially when you think it is a phone), automatic uploads, geotagging, etc.

Delhi, New Delhi, NTC - what's the difference

From a distance it was kind of hard to figure out the difference between Delhi and New Delhi. Well, not much easier from New Delhi in Delhi in NCT (National Capital Territory of Delhi). Still have to figure out if NCT is about the same as the National Capital Region that includes also Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. NCT is almost like a state, but officially a union territory. New Delhi is the capital of India, that is a starter. Population of NTC is 20+ million, Delhi 12 million and New Delhi around 200 000. Well, looks like some online sources mix the names, too. http://www.mapsofindia.com/delhi/population-of-new-delhi.html tells the population to be 11.7 million in New Delhi and later on shows New Delhi as part of Delhi to have 172 000 people. To learn more, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi

I tested the metro system in the weekend. It is clean, not overcrowded in the weekend, inexpensive, and fast compared to other means of transportation. It took 40 minutes to ride metro from Old Delhi to A.I.I.M.S station closest to Shanti Niketan and 4 kilometers auto rickshaw ride comparered to minimum of 50 minutes taxi drive. Would love it much more, if the nearest station was closer to my current home/office. I think I saw more people in Old Delhi streets in an hour than I have seen in the streets of the city of Pori in Finland (population 80 000) for couple of years.