American Ammayi Diaries - The apartment

Hello all,

I hope you're enjoying my U.S. stories. Now that I've started university, I have more and more bloopers to share. But it will have to wait! I'm not done with the other parts of my life yet :D

Today let's complain about the apartments here! How I enjoy complaining!! The satisfaction it offers can't be replaced by anything in the world (Maybe 3 glasses of paalada offers more satisfaction? But then, the weight factor! Phew! ) :D

Now, having a home with centralized air conditioning was a status symbol according to me. That is, it means, that you are stinking rich according to me. And when I come here it’s not a big deal as every andan and adakodan(Oops! Tom, Dick & Harry) has a home with centralized heating and cooling. And I thought it was a good thing. Goodbye noisy fans! I have centralized A.C. now. During my 3^rd year at NSS, five of us shared a room and the one and only fan of the room was too lazy to increase speed when commanded by the regulator and I took my jambhavan table fan to Palakkad. It made so much noise that I couldn’t figure out if heat was unsahikable or if the noise was.

And when I’m left all alone with nothing but the sound of a fridge, I realize what a huge role fans played in offering companionship when I was alone. Satyam paranja oru dhairyam aayrnu for the pedithondi me. That is, when the eerie silence creeps in, fans helped with their sound. And this AC and stuff is for people who are used to it. Not for people like me who start shivering if its too cold and have to pee 100 times in an hour when sitting in an air conditioned room. Nammakk fan thanna best!

And when I saw Monica’s open kitchen in friends I fell in love with it. The no walls helped to make it look huge. But now I realize an open kitchen spoils the very idea of the kitchen. Kitchen is the place you don’t have to clean up when guests arrive. It’s the place where you hide when you don’t want to meet the guests who have come. It’s the place where you bitch about the guests who have arrived before you meet them with a smiling face.

And you come to my apartment. The guests arrive and see my kitchen. It’s not just my home, but in most houses I’ve visited here, the front door opens to a kitchen!!! Seriously? It’s like a kitchen in you sitting room! And in case you’re not ready when the guests arrive, there is no place to hide!! You’re out in the open. Where do you hide the vessels you have not yet cleaned? I still remember a time when the guests arrived a bit early and when they turned I threw a lot of things into the dishwasher (Stupid thing which need all the vessels to be rinsed once before placing it in. Then what do you do Mr. Dishwasher? Wash the ones I already cleaned?)

I cannot cook when someone is looking at me as most of the time even I have no idea what I am doing. I have my diary which has all the recipes and without it I would stammer with even the most basic food items. So once we had guests over and I had to make tea and snacks and they offered to help. With them looking I was under pressure to do everything in style. Be it cutting vegetables( all the powder drowned in my onion cutting tears) or sautéing, I tried to do everything perfectly and spent more time cleaning the mess I made than in cooking. Also my shelves and fridge and everything has to look perfect or I can be judged.So much for an open kitchen! But then, when you tell everyone, you love an open kitchen ;)  That sounds soo cool people! 

Then I have to complain about bath tubs. Like centralized air conditioning, I always wished we had a bath tub at home. The pleasure of having a bubble bath was heavenly according to the people in movies and TV. And that was all I wished for. Then I realized that it's not as cool as it sounds. Lying down in soapy water every day can be boring and what do you do lying there? For a jobless person like me who is relaxing the entire day what more is there to do in a bath tub! Buckets and mugs were so much more convenient. And when water is replaced with tissues, I can tell you I do miss the silencing sound of water falling in the bucket :P No elaborating here and being gross but a lot of people will agree with me silently here.

 That’s all for now. You enjoy life and I’ll keep finding fault with this country :P

I’m like this only!