Irascible

So I have been cleaning up my folder of blog entries, because it is getting to the point I can’t remember which I’ve published and which I decided were rubbish.   This is one I wrote back in March and never published…. It may or may not be rubbish, but I was certainly in an irascible mood when I wrote it!

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I LOVE owning a kindle.  Yes, I love reading real paperback books, too.  But the kindle has one advantage: a built in dictionary.  This is by far the best thing about any e-reader.  Plus, I can buy and read any book I want on a whim.  It isn’t so great for saving money, especially with that darn one-click purchase option on Amazon, but the instant gratification is wonderful. 

But back to that built-in dictionary.   It is amazing, when the word definition is easily available, at the click of one little button, how many more words you will look up, just for fun.  You might get amused, trying to figure out the difference between two words we used interchangeably.   But I love it for vocabulary building.   My newest favorite word, courteously of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, is irascible.  I’ve been trying to use it every chance I get.  Mainly, I use it while talking to myself, when I am angry about the pathetically difficult process it takes to get anything done in this country.  But now that I’ve started to focus on it, I find it in other books, too. 

Irascible means to anger easily.  Since moving to India, I have this down to an art.  At the slightest e-mail or phone call, like the Hulk, I start shaking and transform into this angry monster.  I always knew that one year in this country would decrease my lifespan by a few years; I’ve now had a two month long sinus infection with no signs of stopping, and the air is really difficult to breath.  But I always thought my shortened lifespan would be due to physical processes, not stress.  But this place is just so darn stressful to live in on a day-to-day basis.   I now know why all of the women are housewives; it is a full time job just trying to accomplish anything here.

For an example:

Our car.  We purchased a car IN JANUARY, from an American couple who lived in India.   It has been well over one month, and it is impossible to transfer the car to our name.  We don’t have the right paperwork with our name (because our bill goes to my husband’s office).  My husband signed the first set of paperwork with a black instead of blue (or vice versa, I don’t really know or care) pen.  The previous owner’s signatures don’t quite match.  Our bills must show that we have lived here for several months.   No one can get the papers transferred.  Finally, our driver found some guy who is going to fix it.  Over a month later.  And I’m guessing that whatever the fix is, it probably involves some shady dealings. 

But wait! More car issues!   Our insurance.   Two weeks ago, I e-mailed the insurance company, informing them that we are buying the car (the insurance runs out in exactly four days).   Any company in America would be eager to take our money.  This company?  One person forwarded it to someone else.  I sent a follow-up to that someone else.  Still no reply.  Yesterday I re-sent it.  Today, I got an e-mail back.  “Your husband’s phone is disconnected”.  That was it.   What?  One, I checked the number.  It was correct.  Two, I had provided THREE numbers for them to call.  Mine, my husband’s, and my drivers.   The sales agent must have (maybe) tried my husband’s phone, once, and quit. Never tried again in the following days.  They don’t even care to take our money.

In my opinion, the worst part was his lack of any attempt at respect in his e-mail:

Dear Emily Mam,

 I had spk to ur driver bt he said  R.C copy only i have. bt i need form & 29 & 30 To  renew  insu policy on mr [my husband’s name was here] name,also i need ispect the vhl.


Regards,

Please tell me I’m not crazy, and that is just about the worst e-mail you could possible write to a human being, in a non-personal setting!  No wonder I’m so irascible. 

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Anyhow, as an update, after this disaster, and that company’s eventual breakdown of communications, my landlord suggested that I get his agent, K, to help us out.  That went terribly (see this blog entry here), and my driver finally, in one day, got me incredibly cheap insurance through whatever company he uses.  

The moral of that little entry is that if I need something done, I should ask my driver first.  It will save me money and time.  Two things I need to enjoy my kindle!