Wednesday, June 26, 2013

India: Where Up is Down

For the first four months that we have been in India, we have lived in a three bedroom apartment.  The location of the complex is wonderful, and the amenities and utilities are reliable.  That being said, we don't much care for the apartment itself.  The square-footage is a tad small for our family of five.  The bathrooms are challenging.  The kitchen is closed-off and uncomfortable to work in.  And the ceilings.  Oh, don't get me started on the ceilings.

One strange quirk that we've noticed while living in this complex is that people seem to have a hard time figuring out how to use the elevators.  Let's take a moment to consider how an elevator works.  If I am on the 5th floor, and want to go down to the ground floor, I push the DOWN button.  If I want to go up to the 12th floor, I push the UP button.  (Regardless of where the elevator might be.)  In our building, people seem to have a hard time grasping this concept.  For example, if our neighbor were to want to go down to the ground floor from the 5th, but saw that the elevator was currently at the second floor, he would push the UP button to call the elevator.  Or, if they wanted to visit the seventh floor, again from the fifth, but the elevator was currently at the 10th floor, they would push the DOWN button, to call the elevator.  They push the button the corresponds to the direction the elevator needs to go to get to them.  Oftentimes, they'll just push the up and down button simultaneously.  This leads to many interrupted elevator rides, stopping at levels that no longer have anyone waiting at them, and endless confusion as people accidentally get off on the wrong floor. 

When we get back from our vacation, we'll be leaving our apartment here and moving on to bigger and better digs.  No more slow elevator rides for us.  But, we'll miss the store manager in the basement who has quickly learned to send cases of Diet Coke up to us.  He's pretty great.

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