Unfortunate Christmas Surprise

We returned home to discover that severe damage had been done to the house when a fridge caught fire in the dining room while we were gone. The dining room and living room spaces were really damaged from fire, smoke and water. The fire department had to break through a door to get into the house. Several friends, relatives and neighbors had come to assess the damage, but no clean up occurred. The walls and ceilings are totally black (usually white) and the white marble floors which are throughout the house are either wet or covered in soot. The 2 of us were immediately ready to dive in and begin clean up—especially where we saw standing water upwards of 3 inches in Pratap and Philip’s parents’ bedrooms. We were really discouraged from starting the clean-up process as Philip’s dad was already on the phone contacting people to come to clean the floors and ceilings. We began making comparisons about how so much of this we’d do ourselves in America, but here you wait to have someone else come to take care of it. India is still very much a classist society. The servants take care of laundry, most cooking, and cleaning of the home. When I discovered that most of our clothes had either been ruined by the smoke damage or needed to be rewashed to see if we could salvage them, I offered to do the laundry myself. Philip said that this would really offend the servant if I assisted. Also, he asked if I really wanted to stand on the terrace and rub our soaped up clothes against a rock to get them clean. I forgot that I can’t just shove them into a machine and push ‘start’. Everything is also hung to dry. I initially found myself a bit self-conscious about having someone wash my underwear and then hang it outside on the line to dry; now, of course, it has had to happen twice! So, today we are spending the day assisting a gentleman who is making less than $10 for the whole day of cleaning the floors. Remarkably, most of the damage is superficial and there is not a huge loss of items with sentimental value. The dishes have to all be cleaned as they have a layer of soot. We have had to eat the last 3 meals in the guest bedroom with most of us seated on the bed because the damage has left us nowhere to sit. The bedroom where we’ve been sleeping suffered no damage other than soot all over the floors and we were required to really wipe down the furniture as it also had some soot remaining. I did get a little case of cabin fever today. I was ready to go out and about to see or do something. We had a few visitors…cousins, aunts, nieces and nephews. Most of the day was clean up and relax. Philip’s mom is looking forward to sharing the t.v. show ‘Indian Idol’ with me tonight. The songs are sung in Hindi. There is a young boy who is the superstar on the show and reminds her of Rian because he didn’t talk until he was 9. Philip’s mom thinks Rian should move to India and learn Hindi so that he can be the next ‘Indian Idol’ and win a big flat (apartment) in Bangalore.Because of the damage from the fire, our second reception has been moved to the church auditorium. Many phone calls were made today to let people know of the change.