The House

Every, single morning I hear someone in the bathroom splashing around like an elephant in a kiddie pool. So yesterday I ventured to ask the lady of the house about this. She told me that a man , who cleaned the place we live in for the previous tenants, comes at 6 am everyday to clean this bathroom. She said after they moved in he showed up saying that his father did the same work and that he has been cleaning this flat since he was a kid, so they must pay him. He is now an older man. After one month of waking up to open the door for this person to clean one bathroom, the "new" owners of this flat told him that they no longer need his services as they have a woman coming in at a very reasonable 10:30 am. He said, "No, I will arrive at 6am and you must pay me." I asked the lady of the house, "oh so when did u move in, recently?" She said, "Mmm, well, he has not missed a day in the ninteen years that we are here." Nineteen years. Since he refuses to refrain from showing up every morning, she wakes up and opens the door for him and gives him access to clean the only bathroom he can get to from the hallway, which is my bathroom and which shares a wall with my room. --I live in a great area with a family of very laidback and so helpful to me folk. The lady of the house is excellent at bargaining. In our feeble attempt to bargain Bombay Dream and I got the price of an internet connection reduce by Rs.500. The net guys came early, while the Ladyof the House was still around, and in a matter of 5 minutes flat, she got the whole thing-installation plus the 3mos. lump sum- reduced by Rs.900 and got me a free upgrade to be activated whenever I want and I can retain the rate I pay now for the rest of my time here. The process is amazing to watch, I saw glimmers of this when we went gym-shopping. Apparently she's the friend who get pulled along when her friends aren't sure how to bargain. Here a rupee is a rupee and you can bargain almost everything, even for vegetables. This is taking some getting used to, but bargaining is necessary not just for "a rupeee saved is a rupee earned" but because this ability is also about being taken seriously as someone who knows what's up. She is teaching me a lot about approach here and street smarts.