Monday, June 14, 2010

Sometimes I Feel like I am a Character in a Bangladeshi Sitcom

This morning Mr. Dhar (our landlord) stopped Ayub (our cook) on the way to our apartment (which is on the ground floor right next to his office) and gave him 2 eggs, and 2 pieces of bread and told Ayub to make him an egg sandwich. Ayub always complies, and then laughs about it afterward. He says Mr. Dhar never even says thank you.
Mr. Dhar stops by about 3 times a day. Since the World Cup started he is very tired because the last game of the night starts at 11:50 and he stays up to watch them. Since he's so tired he now comes in, sits in one of our chairs and falls asleep. When he is not sleeping he is talking about something or the other, he is very eager to give advice.
We now have a driver and private car for the rest of our time here. Our driver's name is Sayed. He seems nice, although his English is a bit hard to understand. Mr. Dhar and Ayub are constantly giving us advice about what we need to do (like make sure and take the keys at the end of the evening etc. which I did, and which was super awkward of course). The driver was confused as to why I was asking for them and then asked Ayub (in Bengali) if Ayub had told me to ask for them. Ayub responded,"I don't tell Madam what to do." (Ayub told me this afterward. Also, he calls me "Madam" and Charlie "Sir" even though we have told him to call us by our names, but he doesn't.) Later in the evening the car owner came by. I understood about 10% of what he said, but he told us we have to always give the driver the keys. Neither of us understood why, as supposedly the car stays here when we aren't using it, but yet again it is best not to argue about this stuff.

Ayub is also a funny character. He is very sweet, and has a good sense of humor. I am very worried that I am going to gain a ton of weight being here because his cooking is so good, and if we don't finish our plate he asks us, "no good, you no like?" I have never felt so much pressure to clean my plate, as I don't want to hurt his feelings.

3 comments:

  1. Ok, you have to argue about SOME stuff. Also, this thing about the landlord is WEIRDING ME OUT. Maybe it's some cultural thing where if you dont explicitly say LEAVE MY HOUSE it means that you really want them to stay. ALso, if he's so worried that you're unmarried, isn't it inappropriate for him to be spending so much time with you alone? By his standards?

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  2. I agree 100% with Nick, I am highly (vicariously) irritated by your landlord. Especially because I think you said he takes off his shoes, so I can only imagine him sleepily eating egg sandwiches while barefoot, instructing you on how to find a husband.

    And while I agree that you probably should keep the keys, I'm sure I would not have argued either.

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  3. I'm not here by myself, my cook and Charlie are both always here.

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