Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
Bangalore, India
Late Monday 12/16/2013
The MaryD Mathru Mosaic School is getting ready to roll. I now have two dozen 12x12-inch and six 16x18-inch plywood boards, twenty 8x8-inch and three 10x12-inch mirrors, several pounds of grout, and eight boxes brilliant solid color 8x12-inch tiles (15 to a box), in deep cobalt blue, light blue, medium leaf green, lime been, bright red, deep burgundy, soft orange, peach, and deep rose. They didn't have any yellow but we'll make do for now. Oh, and three dozen little coffee and tea cups that we picked up from a street vendor.
That all cost about $130 USD, or 8100 rupees.
The boy selling the cups seemed a bit dazed by these big Americans who swooped down on him and gave him probably his biggest single sale ever. I picked out one of his biggest cups (that still would be considered small by American standards) to hold my toothbrush and toothpaste, and another to hold my little immersion coil beverage heater. I should have gotten two more, because Andy had the great idea of taking those big cups to Kamashi and asking her to give us our tea in them instead of the little dinky demitasse china cups she's been using. So now we're getting a decent-sized cuppa, but I still need cups for my toothbrush and my little immersion coil heater.
Not a problem, though, because we have to go back out anyway tomorrow or the next day to get the tiles we ordered, and we still need to find adhesive, tools, grouting gloves and other items. Maybe we'll find some even bigger cups on the next expedition. It's proving more difficult to find the kind of tile nippers, wheeled glass nippers and tubed adhesive tile caulk that I use. I am glad I brought three sets of tools and wish I'd brought five sets as I originally wanted. And I may have to figure ou a way to use the kind of tile adhesive they use here that comes in cans or whatever.
But that's OK. We'll make do with the tools I have for now, and work on finding a source for more of them. Same for the adhesive . The grout may be a challenge, too … tile here is always installed with one-eighth inch or less spacing, and only non-sanded grout is ever used here. Sanded grout just doesn't exist here. But Andy and Srini are sure we can find some clean fine-mesh sand to add to the non-sanded grout. I'll have to experiment a bit.
Going shopping was quite the adventure. Muktha arranged for a taxi to take us across Bangalore to Srini's home, and that was an adventure in itself. I'm glad Andy has no desire to drive here. They're all crazy maniacs here, constantly beeping their horns and dodging cows and goats and other vehicles on roads full of bumps and potholes and swerves and curves.
The taxi waited for us while Srini and his wife served us lunch, and then Srini, Andy and I piled back into the taxi to go shop for mosaic supplies. There is no such thing as a Home Depot or Lowe's in Bangalore, or any kind of one-stop shopping at all that we've seen so far. In India there is a shop for every thing, singular, but not for everything, all inclusive. You have to visit a different shop for almost every item on your list. The shops are tiny and crowded together on narrow streets with sidewalks that are even more wildly irregular and full of steps and ramps than Singapore's Litle India.
You don't browse here. You go in and sit down and tell the proprietor what you want, and he tells you what he can do for you at what price. Sometimes he'll take you to a part of his shop to show you a particular item. If you aren't sitting down to talk, you're not a serious customer. The proprietor writes out what he gives you and how much you paid for it on a blank sheet of paper, and that's your receipt. It has no date, no name of store, seller or purchaser, no address, no phone number.
Our first stop was the plywood place, which smelled wonderfully of fresh milled wood. I love that smell, and relished it as a respite from the smoke, smog and traffic exhaust fumes. Then we visited a mirror shop, next some tool shops and paint shops looking for tubed adhesive caulk and tools, without luck. Finally we stopped at a tile store, where again, Srini and Andy did all the talking and bargaining with occasional questions for me. Otherwise I was expected to be quiet.
It went against my grain, but it's a different culture here and I resolved to be gracious -- and grateful -- anyway. There is no way I could have done the shopping on my own, and Srini's presence and assistance was essential. And Andy's presence and help was invaluable to me. He did a great job guiding me through all the obstacles and keeping me informed about what was going on.
As I mentioned, we had no luck finding tools or adhesive, and need to go back to pick up the tiles we ordered. But we've made good progress. We finished off a long day by going back to Srini's for a quick cup of tea (Srini gave me a box of good masala tea bags to take with me, that I'm already enjoying), and then headed back to the school. The ride over to Srini's house this morning only took about 30 minutes, but the ride back to the school this evening took an hour. Traffic was a cacophonous mess, and the exhaust fumes have burned my eyes out.
The humidity here is wonderful for my dry eyes, but the air pollution (lots of smoke from trash and religious fires, and traffic exhaust fumes are thick) is taking a heavy toll. I'm using a lot of drops, and grateful for the blood serum drops.
We're both still feeling a bit run-down and hope to get good sleep tonight.
Bangalore, India
Late Monday 12/16/2013
The MaryD Mathru Mosaic School is getting ready to roll. I now have two dozen 12x12-inch and six 16x18-inch plywood boards, twenty 8x8-inch and three 10x12-inch mirrors, several pounds of grout, and eight boxes brilliant solid color 8x12-inch tiles (15 to a box), in deep cobalt blue, light blue, medium leaf green, lime been, bright red, deep burgundy, soft orange, peach, and deep rose. They didn't have any yellow but we'll make do for now. Oh, and three dozen little coffee and tea cups that we picked up from a street vendor.
That all cost about $130 USD, or 8100 rupees.
The boy selling the cups seemed a bit dazed by these big Americans who swooped down on him and gave him probably his biggest single sale ever. I picked out one of his biggest cups (that still would be considered small by American standards) to hold my toothbrush and toothpaste, and another to hold my little immersion coil beverage heater. I should have gotten two more, because Andy had the great idea of taking those big cups to Kamashi and asking her to give us our tea in them instead of the little dinky demitasse china cups she's been using. So now we're getting a decent-sized cuppa, but I still need cups for my toothbrush and my little immersion coil heater.
Not a problem, though, because we have to go back out anyway tomorrow or the next day to get the tiles we ordered, and we still need to find adhesive, tools, grouting gloves and other items. Maybe we'll find some even bigger cups on the next expedition. It's proving more difficult to find the kind of tile nippers, wheeled glass nippers and tubed adhesive tile caulk that I use. I am glad I brought three sets of tools and wish I'd brought five sets as I originally wanted. And I may have to figure ou a way to use the kind of tile adhesive they use here that comes in cans or whatever.
But that's OK. We'll make do with the tools I have for now, and work on finding a source for more of them. Same for the adhesive . The grout may be a challenge, too … tile here is always installed with one-eighth inch or less spacing, and only non-sanded grout is ever used here. Sanded grout just doesn't exist here. But Andy and Srini are sure we can find some clean fine-mesh sand to add to the non-sanded grout. I'll have to experiment a bit.
Going shopping was quite the adventure. Muktha arranged for a taxi to take us across Bangalore to Srini's home, and that was an adventure in itself. I'm glad Andy has no desire to drive here. They're all crazy maniacs here, constantly beeping their horns and dodging cows and goats and other vehicles on roads full of bumps and potholes and swerves and curves.
The taxi waited for us while Srini and his wife served us lunch, and then Srini, Andy and I piled back into the taxi to go shop for mosaic supplies. There is no such thing as a Home Depot or Lowe's in Bangalore, or any kind of one-stop shopping at all that we've seen so far. In India there is a shop for every thing, singular, but not for everything, all inclusive. You have to visit a different shop for almost every item on your list. The shops are tiny and crowded together on narrow streets with sidewalks that are even more wildly irregular and full of steps and ramps than Singapore's Litle India.
You don't browse here. You go in and sit down and tell the proprietor what you want, and he tells you what he can do for you at what price. Sometimes he'll take you to a part of his shop to show you a particular item. If you aren't sitting down to talk, you're not a serious customer. The proprietor writes out what he gives you and how much you paid for it on a blank sheet of paper, and that's your receipt. It has no date, no name of store, seller or purchaser, no address, no phone number.
Our first stop was the plywood place, which smelled wonderfully of fresh milled wood. I love that smell, and relished it as a respite from the smoke, smog and traffic exhaust fumes. Then we visited a mirror shop, next some tool shops and paint shops looking for tubed adhesive caulk and tools, without luck. Finally we stopped at a tile store, where again, Srini and Andy did all the talking and bargaining with occasional questions for me. Otherwise I was expected to be quiet.
It went against my grain, but it's a different culture here and I resolved to be gracious -- and grateful -- anyway. There is no way I could have done the shopping on my own, and Srini's presence and assistance was essential. And Andy's presence and help was invaluable to me. He did a great job guiding me through all the obstacles and keeping me informed about what was going on.
As I mentioned, we had no luck finding tools or adhesive, and need to go back to pick up the tiles we ordered. But we've made good progress. We finished off a long day by going back to Srini's for a quick cup of tea (Srini gave me a box of good masala tea bags to take with me, that I'm already enjoying), and then headed back to the school. The ride over to Srini's house this morning only took about 30 minutes, but the ride back to the school this evening took an hour. Traffic was a cacophonous mess, and the exhaust fumes have burned my eyes out.
The humidity here is wonderful for my dry eyes, but the air pollution (lots of smoke from trash and religious fires, and traffic exhaust fumes are thick) is taking a heavy toll. I'm using a lot of drops, and grateful for the blood serum drops.
We're both still feeling a bit run-down and hope to get good sleep tonight.
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