Back at it

Once again in Delhi!

I've been back for a week and I'm mostly resettled. Some things have been roughly what I have come to expect -- such as the comically epic process of getting the internet in my new room (4 days, 9 people, 6 house calls) -- while others have taken me a bit by surprise. For example, it is genuinely chilly here. I'm wearing my scarf as we speak. Who knew?

I have made one big change already: I am not rehiring the maid for cleaning. By the end of last year, the feeling of violated privacy was looming so large for me that I would only let her in to clean about once a week. And since she came twice a day everyday, that was a lot of time spent hiding. It also did not help that the maid who cleans this building frequenly seems to be enjoying a private joke in what can only be described as cackling. (I am going to keep sending my clothes out to be washed because I can just stick those outside my door and avoid too much interpersonal stuff).

Also, even though I was getting these twice-a-day, everyday cleanings for my money, I was not completely satisfied with the product on offer. Because there was no soap involved, more just rubbing the floor down with water. Which is really less like cleaning and more like diluting the dirt.

So, when I got in, I set out to really scour my apartment - I bought a western-style mop, surface cleaner, floor cleaner, dish soap, and air freshner, plus scrubbing items. It did occur to me, though, that my maid might have had a point in avoiding all of this stuff. First, I don't really know what's in any of these products. Probably one-part bleach, one-part DDT, and one-part that chemical that causes flipper babies. So maybe I'm not really making a net gain in the healthfulness of my room. Second, some of the surfaces in my room don't really seem to be meant to be cleaned. In particular, the paint (or white-wash) on the walls, window ledges, and doors starts to slough off if it is moistened or even subjected to modest friction. Again, is it really smart to go around wiping the soot off these surfaces if I'm also giving myself lead poisooning?

Still, why worry about what can kill you tomorrow if you can get rid of what makes you mildly uncomfortable today?

One further note on my new attempts to do more of my own home-making here in Delhi. I bought mint-scented dish soap during my shopping without really noting that there was anything unusual about that flavor. Because mint and cleanliness definitely go together in my mind. But upon further reflection, cleaning products that involve mint are usually for your teeth, like gum and toothpaste. I don't think I've ever seen surface cleaners or dish soaps in mint. And as soon as I started doing the dishes, it started to seem like a very strange choice. All my dishes smell like candy canes now. Not a bad smell, but one not what I expect from dishes after they are washed -- it if kind of like having plates that smell like bubblegum or chocolate chip cookies.