On weekdays I get up between 7:50-8:20am. I put together some kind of food for lunch, either packing leftovers from dinner or cooking something new. At work we each bring a container of rice for ourselves, and then a dish to share (and sometimes also a bit of curd (plain yogurt) to share). I generally bring an Indian-style omelet (eggs, onions, green chili's, salt, chili powder, tumeric); potatoes with veggies and spice; veggie stir fry (sometimes with soy protein chunks which are available at our grocery store); egg fried rice with veggies; dal (lentils); chinese stir fry (tofu, veggies, soy sauce or ginger-garlic sauce). I also sometimes cook the night before so I don't have to cook in the morning.
If Lily is showering, she heats water for me on the stove after she is done with hers; if she isn't I get up and put on a pot of water for myself, which I then add to a 3/4-full bucket of cold water from the porch tap, or if that tap isn't working (as is sometimes the case), the tap in the other bathroom. I use a pail to use the now warmish water from the bucket to shower and wash my hair. (Even though I shower every day, sometimes when I rub my skin at night bits of black dead skin rub off. This is because of the pollution I am exposed to commuting to and from work, and just living in a polluted city. Even more disturbing is that sometimes my snot will turn black, filled with soot from the air. Yum.) I use Herbal Essences products, my brand from home, which I buy here in my supermarket for about the same price as Indian shampoo and conditioner I've seen here.
I get dressed in one of my 6 Kurta's (Indian tops) which I pair with Salwar pants and a dupatta (scarf) or my capri's or jeans, eat eggs or mango cornflakes with soymilk for breakfast, and head out the door with Lily, in search of an auto that will take us to work and charge us on the meter (usually not a problem to find). Lily takes me the 10-20 minutes to work, then takes the auto on to her work. Alone it costs me about Rs 30 ($.75); she pays about Rs 50 for the ride. I then walk about 10 leisurely minutes to work, stopping to watch/photograph the water buffalo that more often than not are walking the same route as me, sometimes guided by little kids or a man whipping them with a small stick, sometimes seemingly guided by themselves. Some of them have painted red horns.
My office starts at 10:00am and because I carpool with Lily, I arrive early and am the first to arrive besides our tea lady, cleaning lady, and chore boy. After taking the lift (elevator) to the fourth floor, I remove my shoes and place them in the shoe rack before walking into the office. At work I do various cool things, which most recently has involved creating a 30-day gender and human rights course that we intend to put on for college kids. 1:00pm is lunch, which involves us all putting our rice on our stainless steel plates and passing our other dishes around so everyone gets a bit ("Teskondi" they tell me, which means "take" in Telugu). Padma, our tea lady, puts two bottles of water and a couple cups, along with a bunch of stainless steel plates and spoons, on the plastic table cloth which she puts on the table/s. We use our right hands to eat, and our left hands to pass things, rip roti pieces (thin bread), serve ourselves from the stainless steel tiffins ("Boxes" they call them; we would call them metal tupperware) with spoons, and drink water. Water is consumed, whether from a communal or personal bottle/cup, by holding the container about 2 inches above one's mouth, tilting one's head back, and pouring into one's mouth. I can barely pour more than a mouthful without having to stop and swallow; they can poor entire full cups of water seemingly down their throats. Even little kids drink water this way; I have found it difficult to learn, but fun to try.
My office closes at 5:30, at which point I walk to the bus, usually with my coworker, Anu, who lives near me. It takes between 30-90 minutes to get home, depending on how long we need to wait for a bus, how long it takes for a bus to stop (sometimes they won't stop), and how bad the traffic is. The bus from work to home costs Rs5 which is about $.13 (thirteen cents). I exit the bus, occasionally jumping off as it slows in traffic nearer to my house than the bus stop is. I walk home, often stopping to buy vegetables on the way.
For veggies, we go to a more-or-less permanent vegetable stand, where we pay a fixed price per kilogram for our purchases. We are given a wicker or plastic bucket to collect our veggies in. I spend about 80-100 rupees ($2-2.50) on a huge bag of veggies: a dozen onions, a dozen tomatoes, garlic, eggplant, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. When we want fruits we go to a mobile stand (usually a wooden cart with wheels that the vendors take wherever they feel business is best) and get whatever is in season. Mangoes haven't been available since we got here; custard apples were in for Oct-Nov (and I am going through withdrawal now that they are gone); oranges just came in season. It's strange eating produce based on what is seasonally available, though I suppose it's stranger living in a place where you can get any produce all-year round. We get the rest of our food from local grocery stores, such as rice, lentils, olive oil, honey, soy milk, tofu, Gouda, juice, cereal, pasta, jam, bread, papadum. We actually eat a mostly vegan and wheat-free diet in the house, with the exception of eggs and toast for breakfast, and cheese as a treat.
We spend between 1-2.5 hours cooking dinner every night. We have a rice maker, several pots, a microwave, two burners and no oven. We have a medium-sized fridge that our landlord gave us.
Other activities include going out with our friends, watching movies, having friends over for dinner, going to good restaurants, reading, writing snail mail (email me if you want a postcard!), doing laundry in a bucket, going to tourist areas such as the lake or a park, cooking, chasing mosquito's with a tennis racket-shaped bug electrocution toy, and for me most recently, sleeping in a mosquito net because we suddenly have tons of mosquitos. I brush my teeth with filtered water because the tap water is bad (unsuitable for drinking).
