I woke up at 3 am- freezing! Why was the room heater off? Oh, no electricity! It was a first. We rarely have electricity cuts, and certainly never at night. I wrapped myself in the razai and went back to sleep. At 6, I got out of the bed to complete a promised deliverable and still no electricity. Then I noticed that the meter light was on. Dang! It was no power cut, but some other problem.
By 7:30, mom had called three different electricians, hoping at least one will turn up. By 9, all three had arrived! Mom and I bit our tongues and giggled in embarrassment.
But none of the electricians left upon seeing the others. Two of them watched as one fixed the burnt meter wire, while mom made small talk with them all. I heard mom say something about me to them, something about English and Facebook and how good I was. Really mom? Curious, I step out of the kitchen where I was pounding chutney manually (no electricity you see) to see what was going on and I notice two faces that looked very familiar.
Then it struck me- they were my conversational English students from a nearby hotel! I had been teaching them without knowing that these students, electricians in the hotel, had done the electrical wiring in our house when it was being constructed. No wonder mom had called them to fix our problem, and no wonder they had turned up.
Of course, I forced them to speak to me in English, much to their embarrassment. Mean of me to transfer the embarrassment to them no? :)
By 7:30, mom had called three different electricians, hoping at least one will turn up. By 9, all three had arrived! Mom and I bit our tongues and giggled in embarrassment.
But none of the electricians left upon seeing the others. Two of them watched as one fixed the burnt meter wire, while mom made small talk with them all. I heard mom say something about me to them, something about English and Facebook and how good I was. Really mom? Curious, I step out of the kitchen where I was pounding chutney manually (no electricity you see) to see what was going on and I notice two faces that looked very familiar.
Then it struck me- they were my conversational English students from a nearby hotel! I had been teaching them without knowing that these students, electricians in the hotel, had done the electrical wiring in our house when it was being constructed. No wonder mom had called them to fix our problem, and no wonder they had turned up.
Of course, I forced them to speak to me in English, much to their embarrassment. Mean of me to transfer the embarrassment to them no? :)
HANS rAJ FROM eLECTRICITY BOARD scolded me for having not called him at night.Thank God u noticed the fault. Very rarely I get such a delightful response. HansRaj enjoyed lovely hot dosas made by mallika.
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