The One That Got Away

Just got done whipping up a little dinner. I tell you, there's nothing like cooking with Michael Buble cranked up in the background (thank you, Christy, for turning me on to him). Now, all I need is Aakash - he's out taking care of getting a new mobile phone. What an ordeal that can be. While we were on our way to pregnancy class last week, Aakash's phone fell out of his pocket. While we hoped that the rickshaw driver might have enough principles to try and find the phone's rightful owner, mobile phones are such a hot commodity here that this was highly unlikely.

Even though we use a pre-paid service, and it is not likely that we'd incur any fraudulent charges, Aakash still went through the normal loss procedures - notifying the service provider and filling out a First Information Report (FIR) with the police station. Apparently, while Aakash was at the police station, somebody was getting caned. Aakash said he could hear the guy screaming and crying. I'm hoping this guy had already received his due process, although I'm not holding my breath...

This past weekend, Aakash and I were just mere moments away from being the proud new owners of a Hyundai Getz. Wouldn't you know, though, our car-buying curse followed us to the Hyundai dealership and once again foiled our plans. While we weren't really considering a Getz (don't get me wrong, it's a great car - I'd love to have one - but a bit over our budget), the dealership could get us one within a matter of days. With every other vehicle, we're told it will take 3 weeks to get one. Three weeks in India time, mind you. With our baby due in 3 weeks, that puts us in a tough spot.

We decided to bite the bullet and go with the Getz. We were even told that we could get financing for it. We sat with the finance lady, poured through all of the numbers and got all of the dirty details on all of the documents we would have to provide. Everything was looking great. Unfortunately, one two-minute phone call between the finance lady and the bank, and it was all over. Apparently, as of just this month, the bank has stopped giving car loans to NRIs. Looks like its back to the drawing board for us.