Another India Maxim

Okay, this one probably isn't one of those universal maxims that would apply to your life in any way, but it's a lesson we learned anyway:

"If five guys show up one night to hoist a car-sized generator on your roof with a pulley and ask you to buy them dinner, don't just give them the money . . . they might get drunk!"

Yes, it's true. Not only did these guys stay up all night putting the generator on the roof even after we asked them not to. No, it gets better. They were also drunk the whole time! All of this came out when the engineer guy came to collect the money and I started chewing him out because they worked all night. "But Madam," he said, "They had drunk wine before working, so they were strong enough to work the whole night." Say what?!?!? I was pretty in control after that, but I was definitely yelling. Smoke coming out of my head. Servants tiptoeing around me all afternoon after that one.

The clincher is that when I refused to pay the balance we owe until the generator was actually working, the guy couldn't believe I would be so troublesome. Then when I did pay him some money I asked for a bill (receipt) and he couldn't believe that I didn't trust his word enough to go without a receipt this time. Ha. Unbelievable.