Diamond District: The Slightly Deeper Piece

Capturing the essence of the Diamond District is far from an easy task. One of the more odd things about the place is you instantly start to feel the rickshaw drivers know who is foreign (and thus comparatively rich) by hearing you're staying in the Diamond District. We've already seen the view from my apartment, so we'll start with my favorite part: the signs.

Here we can see a typical sign in the complex. It's typical in style, but not at all common in the way that the information is presented. The wordiness on these signs is uncanny. To make matters even better, the information is always displayed in a different (random?) order. Note the speed limit.

From there we have the view of the amazing tennis court from Mummy Kyle's apartment. He's on the top floor of "A Block", so he gets a tremendous view. Hilariously, we aren't allowed to use the tennis courts. Given the fact that several of our security guards salute us, we doubt it'd be much of a problem if we bought some rackets and balls.

The apartments here are quite diverse (on the inside). The block formation makes things easy, but also a little less interesting. Again, here is the view from Kyle's balcony. The cookie-cutter housing style really stands out from the 7th floor.

I'd love to get a great picture of outside the district. Unfortunately it's positioned in such a way that many obstacles impede the view. When the view is not impeded, you're often thinking of how to survive crossing the street. Instead, we'll have to do with the following.

To get a better picture of why it is so difficult to think of taking a picture of the Diamond District from outside, I present you with an image of crossing the street during rush hour.

Needless to say, our minds are often on the task at hand as we attempt to make it to the other side.

Note The street-crossing issue is also discussed in the Highly Anticipated Indian Street Dog Exposé

Roomali With a View

By popular demand, we're going to be covering the apartment in more detail, perhaps much much much more detail. It's been pouring down rain for most of the day, so for now we'll stick to the view from inside the apartment.
Note I've never eaten at this restaurant

Before we begin, we should note I'm on the first floor in a central position in the district. A few colleagues have stunning marble balconies with views that extend for miles. Interesting to note that these are all owned and leased by different people. Possibly more interesting is the extreme variance in the chalets.

The view from the living room is pretty nice, especially for facing another building. I have to say the tropical plants here are beautiful, and the weather is mostly wonderful.

The kitchen doesn't have a noteworthy view. I believe we're seeing a power substation here. Fun fact: the system handles 11,000 volts. They must've known I was coming, because they put up a sign so I didn't even have to ask.

I also have a balcony. It's not quite as glamorous as the marble ones mentioned above, though. If you can even believe it, I haven't ventured out here.

And I wasn't about to for the first time in the rain...

I'm not sure how I feel about the bars on the windows. It's classic debate -- On one hand, they add some character, are ornate, and make the cost of breaking in much higher. On the other, the very presence of bars on windows doesn't exactly make me feel safer in the area I'm in. It's hard to tell about the security of a place that is so new.

Laundry

At home we all have these routines and a basic knowledge that left few surprises in day-to-day life. For example, I rarely think very hard about what I'll have to eat. Laundry is an annoyance, but it's a mindless task. Most things are that way. By contrast, I spend a ton of time here feeling super ignorant about the basics.

I've completed laundry for the first time just now. I use the term completed very loosely. My work is done, but I just learned that air-drying pants will take about 24 hours.

In order to start the laundry, I had to ask for instructions on how to use this machine.

The instructions were mind-blowing, so I'll repeat them here

1. Turn it on
2. Put clothes in
3. Put detergent in
4. Press Start

Drying is the tricky part. I've never air-dryed anything before, so I had no idea how long it would take when I decided to wash absolutely everything that I wasn't wearing and hang them up on the clothesline. Word is they should be dry by the time I finish training today. Luckily I was stylin' big time yesterday, so my colleagues get to enjoy an encore of my awesome ensemble.

The drying seemed obvious, but I wasn't sure what to do with socks because I hadn't seen any on a clothesline. I asked my roommate what to do about drying socks. Again, I'd be remiss to withhold this crucial information. To dry socks here, one should put them on the clothesline.

The First Hot Shower

I type today ecstatic and smiling brightly as I've just taken my first hot shower in a business week. In the last piece, we took a look at the switching situation of my apartment. Certainly it was unforgettable, but we'll review here just in case some of the story has slipped your mind.

The second bank of switches looked a lot like this:

It was just inside the doorway and not really something you'd think to touch for the bathroom. Alas, the bathroom light was in that bank of switches.

If you were me, you flipped the one with the red light on top, noticed it did nothing, and turned it back off. Later that night, and for the next four nights, you shuddered as you stood beneath ice cold water...trading glances at a seemingly broken water heater, and a situation that was a bit too close.


You may have even turned everything in sight that would turn, including that awkward knob way up above the shower head, in a desperate plea to not start your day by freezing to death.

Then finally it happened. Through the magic of agile collaboration and open spaces, you found one of the greatest pro-tips of all time from a colleague: Hit the switch with the red light outside the bathroom and wait 10 minutes for the water to be hot.

Slowly, but surely, I'm solving the problems caused by my western ignorance.

The Highly Anticipated Indian Switch Exposé

Today's piece is a fascinating exposé on the electrical switches of my Bangalore apartment. For days now I've been befuddled by more switches than I knew could exist in one place. There are nearly 417 in all, though I may have double-counted a few. Fortunately I've named them, and we'll head through them here in painstaking detail.

First up is the Middle of Nowhere. It's a singleton light switch, often found next to nothing or something non-obvious. For those of you who thought this was a western phenomenon, the proof is right here: this style of switch is global.

Next we have the Bedside Switch. It's part of the headboard and at least one of the switches appears to do nothing. The other starts a fan, which either features a brushed motor or turns on a nearby jet engine.

We've also got the more familiar Wall Banks. This proves my button-mashing strategy is effective globally. Through my common ability to be persistent in flicking switches, I'm able to persevere in selecting the lighting combination I enjoy.

Finally we've got the most unique of the bunch, and it's quite a good idea. I'd love to see more of these in the States, especially with the green movement coming forth. They remind me of those "revolutionary" powerstrips with a switch for every outlet that have only been sold recently. I give you the Outlet Switch