Oh the Roosters
I just want to take a moment to explain to everyone my “gullie”, my lane. I live off a main street down this little lane with a whole bunch of typical India shops on both sides. These shops include little Chinese food stalls, Chai (tea) stands, Cell phone stores, stationary stores and general stores. These stores are generally not big enough to walk into, you just stand outside, for example at the general store, and request the most random of things, and somehow the store owner goes below some pile or in some shelf and finds the most random of items. There are people hanging out everywhere, who knows what they do all day, stray dogs every hundred meters (as India is known for its population of stray dogs) and finally the sewage being backed up, meaning the street is always wet with sewage. I know this sounds horrific but I also find it slightly charming. It is a street you can walk down where everyone recognizes you, ordering water, the paper, Internet, everything random is quite convenient. I have the most incredible neighbor who treats us like family, and her two adorable kids consider me family considering they think they live with me. My roommate is incredible and we get along so well, and finally we have a beautiful porch looking out onto the lake in Hyderabad, so our “gullie” has its perks. In addition during holidays the “gullie”, which most its population is reasonably poor, celebrate in fun ways by BLASTING old school Hindi music at 8 in the morning, which I absolutely love, flying kites on the roof, having weddings in the street and much much more. Finally my balcony and roof look straight over a beautiful lake! What more could you want?
Now to come to the negative side of the “gullie”. These damn Roosters are killing me! I now know those cartoons they played during our childhood that portrayed roosters as animals that relaxingly wake us up on the country side at the crack of dawn are pure myths! That isn’t reality at all, at least not for these roosters. My “gullie” roosters live in the middle of the urban city and decid they want to crow at four in the morning, three in the morning…well basically they love to crow at disgusting hours of the night. Another sleep disturber, the call to prayer. I normally find a mosque playing the call to prayer very soothing and beautiful, however our “gullie” prayer man decides that in the morning …4am..he needs to be very nasally…VERY nasally. In addition, I think he is delirious form the early hour as he proceeds to SCREAM into the microphone…why would you scream if you already have a microphone in front of you?! Finally, my roommate asked me to add this; our elevator speaks when the door is open. It says once in Hindi and once in English “please shut the door” or “Krupya darwaza bandh kijeye” and also makes a disturbingly odd bell sound. In the odd hours of the morning people are either leaving for school and work, or end up leaving the lift door open, meaning that woman keeps repeating herself, over and over and over and over and over…well you get the point.
In any case… I still love my “gullie” and find it very delightful.
