We Did It...

To to the left are a multitude gathered in front of the small table where you pay for the furniture you're just pick out of the sort of warehouse in back of a regular store down the little walking street. There are walls and a roof but they don't meet so we have no idea what they do during monsoon season. We have just paid, don't worry we didn't buy the chairs in this photo. We had items going to four locations and have to say the we were a little bit proud that without any Tamil language we figured out to put them on separate bills so they would get to the right apartment. The Tamil speakers in front of us (three friends) ran their bill together and were trying to sort it out after they had paid. The store doesn't care and will not have anything to do with the problem.

This man is probably the second in command and he wasn't needed so much this time but he really helped us the first time we came and had to buy three apartments full of furniture. We had to come one other time because you pay cash and the minute you pay they will deliver an hour later. In the busy time of day it takes us an hour to get across town to our home. So this time buying the last of six apartments of furniture we had to race out to the car and head north to Anna Nagar, that is our neighborhood. We wanted to beat the deliverman home. More in the next blog about the timing.

I am not sure if this man had helped us before but he wanted his picture taken too. I do remember the man who let me bargain the price of couches and living room chairs down and who climbed almost to the ceiling to get a certain color for the set of couch cushions. This time he had to deliver the bad news that the Saravana Stores had stopped bargaining at the first of the year. The turning point was on Pongal. Actually our decorating budget was tightening at the same time so we did a shift and went down a few thousands Rupees and replaced a mattress with a lesser model.

As we left the area we were ready to celebrate the end of a difficult assignment but we were too busy looking down to avoid stepping on chunks of concrete and piles of trash. We love the people here but can't help longing for an orderly mall with a little accompanying ambiance.