Noise, Loud noise, and just a ton of noise!!!

Well, apparently yesterday the elder son of one of our neighbors got married, and per the custom brought his bride home to his parents house today.

Well...OMG NOISE!!!!!!!! The house seems suddenly FULL of people!!! Not only are they constantly blowing on the conch shell (which in and of itself is quite annoying) but the ladies were making some howling sounds, ok, DH says its more a "woooo, wooo, wooo" sound, and its called ululation!

Then!! OMG, they were yelling over and over and over and over! grrrrrrrr

Then DH and I went out for dinner tonight and we were sitting by a group of young annoying (somewhat drunk) teenagers. They weren't so bad, but OMG, about 5 minutes before we left, some chick comes in with this horribly huge thick black rimmed glasses! UTTERLY UGLY!!!!!!!! She happened to come right when they were saying, "last orders", so she quickly placed her order. The waiter came and poured the drink, and she was like, "ooooohhhh, yummyyyyyyyyy!!!" over and over, as each peg was being poured, every time getting a little louder. Then she started to sing to the drink, at that point I told DH to get his ass up we were leaving, because I wasn't subjecting myself to that.

That's my rant for the night. Maybe I'll post some tomorrow if we go to the neighbors son's reception.

So you are a bangali bou?

In Kolkata you take an auto that drives on a certain route, i.e. Ruby to Gariahat or Gariahat to Park Circus or Rash Bihari, with about 3-4 other people. Today I was on my way home from the metro when an old man started asking me questions.

It started because I asked the driver, "Gariahat, koto?" (How much to gariahat?)

The man next to me started with, "You can speak bengali?" in a somewhat surprised voice, to which I replied, "a bit".

OM : Where are you from?

At this point my phone rings and it's DH wondering where I am, so I tell him and then hang up.

Me: US
OM : How long have you been here?
Me : Just about 2 years
OM : Why are you here?
Me : My husband is Bengali
OM : Oh, so you're a bangali bou?
Me : I suppose so, yes
OM : Do you know what bou means?
Me : Yes, wife
OM : How do you like bangali's?
Me : I like them so far (at this point I am a bit annoyed...)
OM : How many months out of the year do you stay in India?
Me : Almost 2 years...

At this point he shuts up and we get out.

It was funny, and a bit annoying but it made me smile! :-)

LOL

p.s. sorry if i forgot any 'B's in this post...my 'b' button is acting up =/

The Truth About Heads...

So...tonight while I was warming up dinner, I lost about half of my appetite.

We had daal (lentils) with fish head...yuck!!

What I can't stomach is the head...the eyes staring back at you, the thought of eating brain, just thinking about it is making me gag.

Well...yeah, am I the only one that can't handle it??

These days my mother-in-law has our fish kept separately if the rest of the families fish will have heads.

Reasons I hate banks in India

I have 2 different bank accounts, at the same bank. The same bank that DH has his business account at. There has never been anything *BUT* problems since I've been banking there.

When we first got started banking there I got a normal NRO account and after my residence permit came through, we got a normal joint account. Well...that's when all the problems started. I requested a debit card for both accounts.

First, I got my NRO account debit card, but when I received it, the magnetic strip was bad. I told them after I had tried to take money out of the account from the ATM by the bank. They said to try to take money out at another ATM, so I tried that and nothing worked. They said they would get another one and it would come in 10-15 days. Well...fast forward about a month, and I went in again, still no debit card.

At this time, I had also applied for the debit card for my joint account with DH. Well...this debit card came, and worked perfectly fine. Until...one day I went in and told them my NRO card still hadn't come. They said that they had to hot list my card, and they would apply for another one, and for me to write a letter. Well...they ended up hot listing my joint account card, thus I needed another one. That problem got solved.

Then...

A while ago I went to the bank, as we had used our debit card at Subway, and it got deducted from our account, but wasn't showing in the transaction history at Subway's and since we had used DH's credit card after. I gave the standard letter application and asked for them to refund the money back to my account.

I went and put did this on the 23rd, I went to the bank on Friday (7th) and still nothing had happened...

It has been 2 weeks...nothing...

So I went and spoke to the manager. The manager apparently had been transferred, and there was a new one. He didn't know anything...apparently they had been sitting on the letter for 2 weeks. I raised some noise upon finding out that the manager knew *NOTHING* about my letter.

The manager told me to "not make any noise." I replied by telling him I would make as much noise as I needed to get the job done. It took me at least 10-15 minutes to get the manager and the lady to understand things. *sigh*

Now, I wait...if the money doesn't come back by next Wednesday (the 18th) I am going to cause more drama...even though DH hates it. :-)

**UPDATE** Since I posted, I have checked the online banking for the account, and it seems the day after I went and created some fuss the money was put back! But I still hate banks... =P

My girls' day out

Yesterday I went out with a friend. We met up and shared some chicken chow-mein. Then we started off to Forum Mall on Elgin Rd to see a movie and got a taxi. Well, we were just crossing Science City when I realized that the meter was running extremely high.

I pointed this out to my friend and she agreed, and at which point I called DH and asked him what the fare should be. He said the fare to Park Circus should be about Rs 45-50 ($1.05-$1.16) on the meter. So we told the driver to stop and we got down. Where my friend gave the driver Rs 100 ($2.33) and told the driver his meter was running extremely high, as the meter was reading Rs 98 ($2.28) which meant we would have to give him Rs 198 ($4.60). After my friend gave him the money, he was arguing how his meter was fine. We got down, and decided since the time was running out, that we would go see the movie at a South City Mall.

We went, and saw "The Tourist", which we both enjoyed. While we were there we splurged, we both had 2 sodas, and some popcorn. When we were done with the movie we had gone to the restroom. When we were done, the bathroom attendant was going off at me. She accused me of throwing toilet paper into the toilet, even though it was clearly written on the back of the door not to. She was going off at me in bangla so I don't know exactly what was said. My friend came out of the stall, and said, "Don't say anything." She then went on to ask the restroom attendant why she was yelling at me in bangla because I was a foreigner and didn't understand bangla. It went on and on, and my friend asked the lady if she had been inside the stall with me and if she saw me throw the paper in the toilet, to which she replied no, but she had checked the bathroom stall before I went in (which she didn't because she was standing by the sink when I went in...) and then I said, "aage chillo, aage chillo"  (it was there before, it was there before) and pushed my friend out of the restroom.

Then, next we went to have coffee at Barista at Golpark. Here we had some hot chocolate while waiting for DH and another friend. Then we went to Gariahat and picked up a new tupi (woolen cap). We then wandered around Gariahat, waiting for our friend and DH. We decided we would go to one of our normal joints and have a drink. :-) 

Happy New Year

 

Here is to wishing all a Happy New Year. May 2011 be better than 2010, and may all our dreams come true, and basically just have a rocking 2011!!! :-)