Twenty- five Seven

Things you don’t know about a dishwasher

May 10, 2013
Everytime time Bayda the Bai goes on leave I think of buying a dishwasher.

Everytime we entertain I think of buying a dishwasher.

Everytime I have to do the dishes I think of buying a dishwasher

A dishwasher containing clean dishes (Photo credit: Wikipedia

So

Finally, two weeks ago we did buy a dish washer!

Since the number of dishwashers in the market are far fewer than the brands and varieties of microwave ovens and washing machines, it is slightly easier to buy a dishwasher. So when we went to Croma at Phoenix Mills, Parel we went straight for the kill – a Siemens Dishwasher. We came to this decision rather quickly
- the IFB was out since I realised that I was taken for a ride by the IFB service engineers who actively dissuaded me from buying a new machine for 15 years so that I could remain in their service contract
- the Bosch was out because it is serviced by Siemens
- the Samsung was out because I was fed up of my Samsung Airconditioner ( can you see the logic in this? I can’t!)
- the LG was out because I have an unexplained and completely irrational aversion to LG
So we honed down to the Siemens

But there is a caveat here as there always is : Make sure that your plumbing is done before the dishwasher arrives.

We had not got our plumbing done before the dishwasher arrived and had to wait two days before our contractor could send along two men to do it. As usual our contractor has his own ideas about engineering ( he has actually given me a kitchen platform that slopes towards the wall so that the pans and pots placed on the gas stove actually slant away from me making sure that all shallow fried cutlets are unevenly dipped in oil hence unevenly fried. And, sometimes when the cooker whistles and whistles, I actually find the pot slipping away towards the kitchen wall following the slope of the platform!!!!

However, not having another contractor we had to rely on our thoroughly opinionated one and avail of his services. It was quite obvious that his men had no idea of what was required and provided us with an outlet pipe just six inches long. So when the dishwasher technician came along to fit the machine we had to re-do the plumbing. That took another two days.

Finally when we did get the machine fitted we found out that the detergent was not available. There was a stock only at Premsons which turns out to Rs.35 a wash ( FINISH as recommended by Siemens). If you do the maths, it works out to Rs. 100 a day to run the machine three times in a day. I was so shocked with this extra expense that I just couldn’t bring myself to open the dishwasher and load it.

Eventually when the cost of repairing a broken back or replacing the servant or even hiring an elusive maid to wash the dishes was worked out, I decided to commission the dishwasher and loaded the dishes. Strangely enough the dishes which piled high in the sink didn’t fill up half the dishwasher and it was not loaded to capacity till dinner time. But, at dinner time we discovered that there were no dishes to have dinner in. So we had to unload the dishwasher and hand wash the dishes!

Since then I’ve had a ton of things to do to actually tackle the problem of the empty dishwasher but I’m sure that once I get the hang of it I’ll be running it as often as I do my washing machine.

Verdict : A dishwasher is essential if you have a large number of dishes generated at every meal.
Taxing times

May 9, 2013
While going to office this morning Hubby Dear asked me if I needed any money and was most shocked when I said an emphatic NO.

Normally by the end of the first week of the month I have to make a trip to the bank to withdraw money for the rest of the month. I make so many trips to the Bank that it is almost like the obligatory daily visit to a Temple.

But this week thanks to the traders’ strike most shops in Mumbai have downed their shutters. Of course this is inconvenient to say the least but at least it has meant that I have achieved my dream of financial discipline – observing one day in the week as a NO EXPENSE DAY. And the traders are protesting the LBT or Local Body Tax which is an additional tax the Municipal corporation intends imposing on the traders. I have no idea exactly what this tax entails but considering our Municipal Corporation is one spineless organisation which bends to the will of the corrupt and ugly, I wholeheartedly agree with the traders who have dug in their heels and refuse to pay this tax.

However, there have been times over the past few days where I’ve had to dash out to make some urgent, last minute purchases and was happy to note that certain traders actually keep their shutters half down and give their loyal customers what they want provided they have phoned in advance. So in that small window of fifteen minutes or so when the shops are kept open ostensibly to be cleaned, a lucky customer can get what he wants.

Till today the chemists are still open so I was surprised when a lady came in to ask for “Lindt” chocolates of all things and when she was told that they didn’t stock them, she called up her home to ask if ” Toblerone” would do instead. That’s when I realised that there must be many shopoholics who are actually going through withdrawal symptoms with this strike but I actually couldn’t be happier. With Rs.500 notes vanishing faster than you can count them, the only way I can cope with inflation in my daily budget is by allocating one day in a week where I don’t spend any money – not even pay a bill. This is quite hard to do with every billing cycle being different so now that the shops are closed and I perforce have to close my wallet, I am thrilled that my expenses this month will be within my budget.

I am also happy that I can get out of many odd jobs to be done with the excuse that ” the shops are shut!!”
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An endless cycle

May 4, 2013
Wow Dinga came into our lives five weeks ago and from the moment we saw him our lives changed forever.

To start with we changed into grandparents and suddenly had to don the Mantle of Maturity. We had to become fonts of wisdom and knowledge of why kids cry or why they don’t cry. We had to activate our dormant reflexes of dandling babies, rocking them to sleep and rediscover the joys of conversing in the third person and delivering messages via the baby. As for me, particularly, I re-learnt the art of singing out messages and keeping the baby quiet with mindless chatter. For, as the decidedly older than me pediatrician told me rather sternly looking me straight in the eye, when I accompanied Anna Shetty to the clinic for Wow Dinga’s first immunisation, “Mom, babies don’t know any better. For them they still think they are in the womb. They don’t know what is day and what is night.”

Believe me nor do the parents or the grandparents.

Miraculously that little bundle of joy changes who you coo over in the hospital turns into a something that generates constant activity galvanising the care givers into an endless cycle of eat, pee, poo, eat , pee, poo interspersed with periods of sleep – deep contented slumber or fitful cat naps. Occasionally this is varied with periods of calm (Hallelujah!) or periods of screaming , red in your face screaming, squirming and wiggling ( O God please help me!!!) for absolutely no reason at all.

Yesterday, was one of those days when all we seemed to do was burp and nappy change from day break to nightfall and shush the baby into silence when he wasn’t peeing, pooing or eating. When we used up the last dry nappy he fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

And surprisingly, the very second he closed his eyes and yawned and stretched and nodded off , we couldn’t help but ooh and aah, miraculously forgetting those harrowed moments when we were as frustrated, bewildered and helpless as he was.
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- There is so much to say.