Our new Indian appliances


Our first full day in the house our neighbor took us shopping. We spent about 18,000 Rs at an appliance store. We got a microwave, a washing machine, a mixer (blender), an iron, and a universal power stabilizer (different than a surge protector) to protect the two laptops we have with us.

We are most impressed with our mixer. It's an Indian brand called "bajaj." It has several stainless steel pitchers for wet mixing, dry mixing, and liquifying. We'd bring it home with us except that it has a plug for Indian outlets which are 240v. The washing machine is a bit of a disappointment, but a big improvement over doing wash by hand (We had a great washing machine in the Delhi flat, which we are now missing). It's nothing more than two plastic tubs in a blue housing. The whole thing fits in a shower stall (this is not the intended use, but a workaround since there is no washer hookup in the house). We got the manual model. We thought this simply meant you move the clothes from the washing tub to the spin tub before hanging them out to dry. Instead there are a couple more human interventions between filling, soaking, and then washing. Since it's complicated to use, we haven't yet explained it to Suchi. Hopefully she learns eventually and then marion doesn't have to touch a stitch of laundry. Suchi does the ironing, and we didn't have to explain a thing. There's not much to describe about the microwave. It's an Electrolux, and no different than any cheap model microwave you'd buy in the U.S.

I think these appliances make us part of the Indian minority. Indian society is extraordinarily stratified, partly along caste lines, but more so in terms of income and assets. So the newspaper, which is most likely read only by the wealthiest third (also known as the middle-class but including those well above middle-class standing), has advertisements for all the trappings of consumer lifestyles we see in the west. We also have AC in most of the rooms in our house, which I imagine is somewhat of a rarity. What we don't have is broadband Internet access. Our landlord said it hasn't reached "this side of the tracks" yet, but people in TVM told me that we are very near a major "Technopark" that depends on Asianet for its broadband service, and that we should be able to get it as well. Maybe I can pay someone to deal with the hassle of looking into it and setting it up. It's a service economy here. You can pay someone to do almost any service for you.

I guess many Indians don't have these kinds of appliances because they pay someone to perform all the operations that the appliances can do. We still haven't gotten used to having "servants." It's much easier when the "servants" are in the form of the cheap labor that produce cheap goods that we can buy from the comfort of our homes. It's really awkward sitting in the car waiting for the driver to get out and open my door. It's also hard to keep myself from rinsing out a glass I just used or picking up after the kids. But if we do those things, then there's not much for Suchi and Rahul to do. I guess in the case of our new Indian appliances, rather than making our own lives easier, they make our servants' lives easier. If the household appliance revolution, and its purported timesaving benefits for the average housewife, turned out to create more work for the American housewife, then I wonder what the appliance revolution in India will lead to? Will people expect their servants to have more time to perform other chores? I'll do a full post later on about Rahul and Suchi, who still seem more like friends, or at least helpers, than servants.

Here are some photos of the washing machine, mixer, and my office setup.


Posted: Thu - December 22, 2005 at 08:12 PM          

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