The Guesthouse in words & pixels

As promised I will shortly present you the house I will be living in for the coming months. It is situated in quite a snobbish neighbourhood: The whole quarter is fenced and entering the area is only possible through a special security gate, even at night security man will patrol around; the quarter is silent and the houses are big and luxurious; every household has at least one servant which does all the cleaning, washing, tidying up, watching for the children, etc. This does not really suit my lifestyle but having seen how people use to live in other places of this town, I would not be willing to change homes! Slowly I am getting used that the maid Sridevi looks after my clothes and washes the dishes. But I will never understand why she is obliged to clean the whole house every day and tidy up all the rooms - I actually don't feel to be dirty and untidy! But at least Sridevi has a job, which is not self-evident at all. Unfortunately she only earns about 1000 to 7000 Indian Rupees (this probably sounds like a lot of money - unfortunately this corresponds to some 20 to 150 CHF!!!).

The address of the house is as follows: Eastwood apartments nr. 44B, Harlur Road, Sarjapur, Bangalore 560054, India.

I am glad that I am not the only one living in the Guesthouse at the moment then - to be frank - the Bühler Guesthouse is far to big. My friend's name is Palash; he is an Indian, normally working in the sales department, Bühler Delhi. We go to places together, go out for dinner or cook dinner ourselves. He is a good cook and introduces me into Indian cuisine from time to time.

The following pictures give you some impressions of the premises.

my bedroom

the massive kitchen

my bathroom

a part of the living room

You will certainly be astonished by how nice these rooms are looking. They are indeed and it's nice to live in this house! But these photos basically don't tell the whole story: The quality of the masonry, interior, windows, doors, sanitary facilities, furniture, kitchen equipment and and and is very low compared to what we are acquainted with. To give you a few examples: We are without hot water for some days now although the solar panel on the roof was quite recently installed. The day before yesterday my room was suddenly without electricity... The latter is a big problem in general: We experience several power losses a day and the voltage is fluctuating a lot. So far I am thankful that the house is equipped with a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) device. 

It is obvious that good craftsmen are extremely rare or non existent in India. Hopefully this initiative will pave the way for a change to the better!