Summer is here and with it the ‘Golden Shower’, the Amaltas or Indian Laburnum and the perfect flower for the ‘Easter’ month. The first thing I see out of the window is the bright sun divvying its cheerfulness with the ‘Natural chandeliers of yellow and gold’ that glisten amidst fluorescent lush green leaves. The entire year the tree is a mess but come April and it dons a ‘blonde’ wig, the diva among the trunky neighbours. (Amaltas is the state flower of Kerala and the national flower of Thailand)
But this morning (April 21st) the horrific events in Colombo, capital city of Sri Lanka, targeting church goers and tourists in churches and holiday resorts dims the brightness. Six bomb explosions and Easter Sunday metamorphoses into tragic Sunday. I watch the tree shed ‘drops of gold’.
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It is six months since we moved from Gurgaon to adopt Pune as our live-in city. As of date there have been no regrets excluding minor glitches that seem inconsequential once you get to know the reason.
The other day we met a couple, recent immigrants to the city like us, lamenting quality of labor….. carpenters, plumber, air-con technicians, electricians etc. They ‘sincerely’ advised us not to hire anyone without reference and to get the work finished before giving advance payment ( we were guilty). But wait it is ‘migrant labor’ blamed for this problem. I do not want to sound a ‘Sena” (local political party) follower holding workers from other states responsible for unemployment (among the locals) and quality of service provided. But we nod our agreement to the common litany …”No one comes on time”. We are still waiting for the electrician to show up to fix a light point, who when contacted promised to be at our residence in 15 minutes. It is nearly a month and the 15 minutes are stretching into hours, months. We learn that he had some urgent work in his village in another state and had to rush there. There is no mention of the ‘advance’ he had taken to pay his daughter’s school fees when he had come for some other work.
We either fix the loose wire ourselves or wait for the ’15 minutes’ guy to return from village.
There are similar ‘other waits’…. for the landscape person, the sofa repair man..the list can go on. Otherwise it is a friendly neighbourhood and helpful helpers…what more could we ask for. To persistent questions of ‘are you happy’ I can safely say that moving to Pune is one of the healthy decisions of life.
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WP news…..500 followers . A big thank you to all who take time to read what I write.
TRAVTRAILS.... 
Your ‘drops of gold’ will now be a poignant reminder of beauty and heartbreak. I am still reeling from the events in Sri Lanka as I have lived there last year in my sailing home and still have many friends in residence. The hopes that emerged after the civil war have been dashed by the madness of a few and the infighting of others. Will we never learn? Congrats on your 500 followers and may your workers arrive on time in the future 😉