India, India!

Much has happened in 2 days. Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars and anyone who owned a TV here had the Oscars on. It was pretty cool to hear it through the houses in Hindi language. When Slumdog won best picture, cheers went up throughout the city. Very dang cool!

Maha Shivarati festival was Monday. We went up to Chemundi Hill and sat in the Shiva cave with a true guru/priest man. The temple was very cool and the cave was low so you had to duck to get in. Mags loved it, especially when he started handing out spoonfuls of sugar to the kids who crawled up to him. The cave is painted light blue and it is adorned with flowers and pictures of the deities, lovely music was playing and Mags was swaying to it in my lap. You can fit about 20 people in there and waiting outside were about 20 more. After our cave time, we headed to another Shiva temple which was very vibrant and alive with people. The family who  runs the temple made two great dishes and served them on banana leaves. We savored every bit of them.

Today was moon day and we were headed to Bylakuppe to see the Dalai Lama. I decided to stop at the cash machine yesterday to get money out for us and to pay for our house. Usually the yogis take out the max amount so the ATM fees don’t pile up for every transaction. Card in, do my pin, I hear the ATM counting the money, card spits out, receipt next showing the withdrawl. Hmmm, hmmm, counting, counting, waiting waiting, counting counting, waiting, hmmm, hmmmm. Wow, that’s alot of counting. Machine stops, no money. Uh oh.

Of couse the bank is closed too for the holiday. I pull our rickshaw driver, Swami, over to me and explain. He hardly speaks English, but we always manage though pointing, me pulling out my iphone, showing him what I need and we get by. He calls the security guard who speaks no English either. He thinks I am blonde and didn’t know how to work the ATM, so he starts telling me to put my card in and tells me to enter my pin. I say…..no, no money. He shrugs and says, bank closed, tomorrow. I don’t have a good feeling about this, but what can I do.

I stop by Ganesh’ on the eay home, cancel the car to Bylakuppe. Call my girlfriends who were going up to Byla with us and tell them I’m out, have to go to the bank in the morning. I calmly breathe and say, ok, this is the universe’s way of saying…No Bylakuppe for you tomorrow, not a good idea. We’ll keep you here in Mysore, so go to the bank.

I tell Joseph when we get back to the house. He says best to have a man with you as they don’t really respect women in these situations. I am quite the snappy turtle and can hold my own in these situations, but I say ok, I need all the help I can get. I’ve seen how women are treated here and agree, I’m not in the west anymore, dorothy.

Off to the bank. We go in, tell the story, show the receipt, woman sends us to the first desk. That woman says, hmm, may take a month to investigate. Unacceptable, we move to the next guy, same thing, only he says I need to write a handwritten complaint letter and he gives my receipt to the security guard with rifle in hand to make a copy. I’m thinking, odd that his job is copy guy too. Again, unacceptable. Branch manager next. Joseph was quite hot headed, not the way I would have approached this, so I tried to keep the peace, but the manager was not dealing with me. Ok.

He then asked me to write that handwritten complaint, said it will take 2 weeks for the corporate office in Mumbai and Bombay to review it. (Those 2 cities are not close, which is the main office?) He says that the corp office will see I did not get my money and they will credit my account. I now am not happy, as I clearly see the chunk of change is disappearing every word that comes out of the man’s mouth. I have heard that India can be corrupt and I feel my money lining someone’s pockets. I finally calmly speak up here as Joseph and him are now arguing and Mags is popping her stuffed dog through my arms, over my head, under the desk, so I take over this conversation. 1) How will the corp bank know I did not actually receive my money?, 2) Will they review the video tape showing my transaction?, 3) You count the ATM cash everyday, why can’t you show me the reconcile sheet for yesterday and see that I didn’t get my money and give it to me now?, 4) What is 2 weeks, first you said 2 days, your other 2 employees said a month, which is it?

Clearly he doesn’t like either of us as he scowled at me, stood up and walked out as if conversation is done. He handed my note and copy of my receipt to the 2nd guy we spoke with to send off to Mumbai (or Bombay, who knows at this point) and took my email address. He said someone would email me in 2 weeks. I said, I am a foreigner, do not have 2 weeks, I have a child to take care of, you can’t keep my money like this. He wouldn’t have it and the 2 security guards now with rifles moved a bit closer.

So that was that, people looked a bit shocked who worked there. Apparently Indians do not like confrontation, so a cowgirl in there speaking up was probably quite shocking.

I left with no money. Though, I have a good Indian friend who this is her bank and her bank for her restaurant and my American friend who has lived here for 7 years is going to see what they can do. Both are smart and calm, cool and collected. I am popping in there in 2 days to check in and will keep doing that as well.

Other than that, 2 days off of practice and we start back tomorrow morning. Bylakuppe maybe tomorrow after practice as the Dalai Lama is definitely speaking tomorrow.

More later as the Indian soap opera unfolds.