Well it’s pretty obvious it wasn’t a deal breaker. Not only did Manjula start working for me, that was almost eight years ago, she’s now taken over in more ways than one!
So what was the problem?
There was no electric mixer!
I can assure you one was bought the very next day. It’s done sterling service ever since.
The panic was actually created by the traditional method of grinding…..
Which just wouldn’t do. Manjula, as I was to find out is a very modern miss.
So, what next?
Explaining the job.
I arrived at my friend Cariappa’s house to meet the prospective maid.
I have no photos of the meeting. I think the whole thing, for everyone involved was all too intense! We were checking each other out. How weird. Would we get on? How would we know? It’s quite an intimate thing. Inviting someone into your home to cook, clean, and look after things. This was a whole now experience for me. Manjula of course had been here before she had worked as a maid for over ten years for one family, amongst many other things. Me, I was the beginner, the intrepid explorer stepping out into the unknown.
Help!
I’d only supposed to come out to a India for a few months’ pilot. Now I was renting a house, furnishing it, employing a maid. What had happened there… A whole new adventure, in a crazy land and with so many twists and turns…. Whatever next!?
…. if only I’d known!
What would she be like? What did I want and how would I communicate it?
What would she think? (I found out later!) Working for a foreigner would be so different, maybe! It’s worth me remembering I’m from a poor background that’s shifted into the middle class and now living abroad in India. ‘The old poor made good’ which as it turned out, is exactly the path that many in India are taking.
Manjula was quiet, shy, reserved. She’d brought a friend with her for moral support. Good idea! We spoke a few words with Cary and his wife Ganga helping out. I just wanted someone to cook a meal and clean. We then walked round the corner to my house. Things seemed to be going well. They looked around the place, it seemed so big to me. There’s so much to clean but only me, honest! Just the upstairs house with three bedrooms (known locally as a 3BHK) the downstairs house came later. It was sparsely furnished with little on the walls, it’s hard to imagine what it was like ( so, so different now) but then oh no……..we hit a problem….. it was all off ……we’d found the deal breaker..
Number Two
India will change you. It’ll take you out of your comfort zone and you’ll not want to find your way back. Maybe 😉
Most people love India and it’s people, an admittedly a very small number find it a step too far.
Whatever you feel it’s unforgettable.
You just need to be aware that it will seem contradictory, and unfathomable but it’s a good thing.
It helps to find somewhere extra easy for the first few days while you find your feet.
If we’re from the west. We often wish to experience, analyse and understand. We try to place things in boxes and stick on a label. India by contrast is consistently inconsistent, so to put it mildly you need to expect the unexpected.
It can’t really be boxed. It’s important that you ‘go with the flow’ you might be the equivalent of bobbing about in the river, shooting the rapids or on the ups and downs of the rollercoaster. But whilst it’s exhilarating just follow the basic traveller rules and it’s safe with mostly helpful people that want you to love their country.
At times it can feel a bit full-on and in-your-face, so you may need to build in places to stay or find hangouts that provide some respite so you can just switch it off
There’s a great article on the BBC that might help, check:
Any questions?
more Top Tips can be found on our main web site here
Contact us at Tours@mycycle.co
Once upon a time. Travellers from the north of India visited Mysore. They had an ambassador and a divan. 😉
The twits left behind their beautiful king and queen who became sad, lonely and dejected.
They had each other but were used to living in a welcoming home, bursting with life, with lots of fairs including quite cool
Carousels, let alone that they had lots of friends (ok some were subjects, but they seem very liberal and easy going monarchs). Maybe there is another side to the story as they were left behind!
Then a joker (no not from a playing card) from a far away land happened upon them.
He was in Brexile.
He fell in love with the couple and was saddened by their state. They were lonely without their people, a bit battered from their experiences, dejected and frankly a bit tarnished.
So he developed a cunning plan.
They were languishing in the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya and the ransom for their release is hefty. So the cunning plan isn’t very cunning at all, as it’s a question of haggling. Unfortunately the joker is from England (there are a lot of jokers there) and they’re crap at negotiating. So we’ll just have to see.
Camping is in the blood.
As a family we camped in South West Wales most years. I sold my first grown up tent, a classic Force Ten, to myself at age 16 when I worked in a camp store in Sheffield.
This year we had a grand reunion camp in Wiltshire and at the WOMAD festival.
So why am I telling you all this?
because we’ve found a wonderful tent, designed and sold by Hari in Bristol, England that is so good I want you to know about it.
This year as a 60th birthday present to myself I bought a new tent, the one that Hari built ;-). The first I’d bought since the early 90’s (our tents are looked after and last). It’s the one above.
I say small and it is if you compare it with it’s bigger family members but it can take two people, even a family and there’s space for lots and lots of gear. Its quite bulky and heavy when packed up but nothing more than you would expect of this type and size of tent made of canvas. It is however absolutely gorgeous, easy to put up, a great feel of round ness inside and with no centre pole!
My grandaughter reckons its a pumpkin or maybe Cinderella’s coach.
Everyone is attracted to it and want to know more. Its not cheap but fairly priced for what it is but then again what is cheap in the UK?
There are a couple of nice personal tie-ups. Lotus is of course a Hindu symbol, it was also part of my logo for my consultancy business set up in the early 90’s and is now even a tattoo on my arm! It is a bell tent, has a clever collapsible-poles-system, so there are no poles restricting the inside space.
I’m working on her.
Its perceived as a festival or Glamping tent and the big versions we’re being used at WOMAD this year
more details are at Lotus belle
its listed as a bud, and now they’ve got an inflatable one!
More photos are available on flickr
or come find us at WOMAD in 2018 where we’ll be using the tent
Madam English, as she’s known hereabouts is back from her BIG trip. We travelled the length and breadth of the country, for over six weeks, fitted VERY important family events in, had a reunion camp, got muddy in Wiltshire, met lots of Mysore Bed and Breakfast guests, spent a fortune and had a rare old time!
Thank you to the lovely people we know and love for making this such a super trip.
Presents (limited, of course, to sensible cost and numbers), include: spinners (mad craze in the west), nail varnish (highly sought after western quality), shiny things, and various other odds and sods are being distributed as I write. A really big hit for the guy who runs the veg shop (hi!) is Gordons Gin, from duty free. He’s paid for it (we’re not made of money, although many think, I am) and he’s ecstatic about the flavour, its clearly a notch above the local gin.
Well what a trip it was……
We’ve covered the North, South, East and West, wet old things in Yorkshire,
Dorset, Teesside, Tyneside, even Lancashire (there’s long-standing issues between Yorkshire and Lancashire), Derbyshire, Wiltshire, my son’s wedding to Alice,
sorry wrong photo (I’ll deservedly get into a lot of trouble for that!)
Madam English now knows why we Brits go on some much about the weather, we’ve had it all. She now knows about being prepared for it to change in a nano second, carrying endless clothing variations, layering and Hot Water Bottles when camping.
She’s so English, she has learned how to complain (Indians, generally not being big complainers and just tend to get on with it, really?) but still manages to have a great time.
we thank everyone… so much… for making this such a wonderful experience.
We’ve lost count of how many of our old and new friends, including so many Bed and Breakfast guests we’ve seen, met in London, visited their homes, bumped into at the music festival, its been superb…. and did we mention all the meals we’ve eaten….
all our photos (these and many more) are at the usual place at flickr
So what does Madam English think about the place?
How did Lucy manage with Eric?
I've just called PFA – People for Animals. It's where we left him before our hols.
Well the poor little mite is still there. Probably slightly traumatised by his Shawshank buddies so it's time for his redemption. 
Firstly, I have to convince Manjula. We have visited various homes with cats in the UK in a fiendish plan to subtly (yes, it is a stretch: yorkshire subtlety) show how easy/nice it is to have a cat.
One more maybe bigger challenge is to win over Lucy.
Fancy riding a cat Lucy?
Manjula’s regularly provides delicious vegetarian meals and on request cookery lessons.
check the link for a lovely video of Manjula cooking
tom’s video of Manjula cooking
and here is the first of a series of simple recipes, follow the link.
Let us know if you want more.
So back to the 42, now known as Leela’s Lollipop.
Takes a lot of licking but it’s really worth it!
So my gift was an invitation. To stop, think, reflect and maybe review. The purpose being to come up with 42 things.
So one really really BIG challenge 😉
What 42 things? (Yes there is a link to a certain hitchhiker and the answer or meaning of life)
It’s not easy.
We’re not talking bucket list here.
Here’s the one who’s responsible for all this! Thanks Leela!
So as with any journey. Where are we going? What do we need? How do we get there? (Manageable steps!)
For me it wasn’t just about thinking of things to do that I would value or choose to fit in, in what remains of my life. That’s of course, important, it’s also about realising things I’ve done. Maybe that I’m proud of or even that I might have done differently.
So ….
…it’s about appreciation and learning about oneself, one’s impact and about others that are part of who we are.
….it’s a list of everything that’s important. People who are part of my life, things I’ve done that I’m proud of that may have made a difference to me and to others, combined with things I haven’t yet done, happenings I wish to create, relationships to nurture, differences to make.
…. it’s about identity, purpose, value and fun
…. it’s what I decide
What do you think Leela? Is this the track you imagined it taking?
In our innocence we thought it would be easy to register as a homestay.
I’ll fill out some of the detail (saving you poor readers, from the full unbelievableness. That’s when I feel rested and up to it 🙂
Me and MYCycle 