A Very Bad Day in India

We all have bad days. They are just part of life. I recently experienced one in India, and the circumstances, for the most part, were unique to India. It all started when I was on a conference call. I work odd hours over here because of the 12.5 hour time difference. This was an 7:00 AM conference call and I was already in a bad mood because I had to skip my work out. Keep in mind that I connect to my conference calls through the Internet. The electricity suddenly went out which disconnected me front the call, and I was the facilitator!  The electricity goes off all the time here due to over population and unregulated electrical work. I never was able to reconnect to the call because the back up generators didn’t kick on for some reason.

Typical electrical wiring in India

Electrical blackouts

I finished getting ready the best I could without electricity. That meant no hot shower, no coffee and no curling my hair. Plus there was no air conditioning, which meant it was soon about 85 degrees in my apartment! By the time I left for work I was covered in sweat and in a very foul mood.

Unable to make phone calls

I had a number of appointments that day and traffic was horrific!  Because of that, I arrived at my first appointment 1/2 hour late, which made me late for my second appointment as well. I intended to call and notify the people I was meeting with, but it was around this time that I realized I couldn’t make any outgoing calls, or send texts, on my phone. Ugh!!!  Calling customer service about it is futile, so that meant I would need to personally go into the store and I had no time to go that day.

Stuck in the elevator

Finally the hard day was over, or so I thought. As I walked into the lobby of my apartment I was relieved to see the lights on. So I stepped into the elevator and then suddenly right around the 4th floor electricity went off again!  I was stuck until the generators kicked in. It was brutally hot and I was choking in the stifling heat. Panic was starting to overtake me, but after 5 long minutes the elevator started to move again. Thank god!

My apartment complex

Locked out of my apartment

I have never been happier to see the door to my apartment. I was looking forward to a glass of water, air conditioning, plus I had to pee. But as I started to dig around in my handbag my heart sank. In my haste earlier that morning I had left my keys in my apartment!!  What was worse, is that I couldn’t call or text anyone for help. So what to do??

I decided to go downstairs to the lobby and talk to the security guard, but he didn’t understand English. The only other people that have a key to my place are my boyfriend and my maid but I had no way to contact them. I needed an interpreter. Finally about 30 minutes later I found someone that could interpret for me and the security guard. I asked him to call the maid and gave him her number, praying she would answer and be available. She finally showed up about 45 minutes later. By then my bladder was ready to explode and I was a sweaty mess! I finally got into my apartment about 8:00 PM and just collapsed in exhaustion. Then I reminded myself that I am lucky to have such problems: a home to be accidentally locked out of, a phone just needing additional talk time, etc.  No matter how bad my day, there are many people over here in India that dream of having such problems.

Homeless camp in India