The Weekend

Friday Night
I welcomed Friday night just like back home. It was good to relax and not have to be concerned with going to the office in the morning. I spent most of the evening updating this blog and reading the comments from people at home.

Saturday
On Saturday morning I received an email from Sathian so I called him up to talk to him. He has cleared up some of my confusion about the cost of education here... It seems that the government does provide elementary and secondary education free to everyone but many people do elect to go to private schools instead. I was first told about this in Usha’s comment. It also seems that the education varies in different states. Here in West Bengal the government of the state is communist. This means that they spend a lot of money on education and things to keep the costs of basic services for the people low. Evidently this is not the case in all of the states. Some of the states are much more “capitalistic” so it seems that in these states things are similar to the U.S.

As for college education... Sathian echoed what I was told by the people here...

“... Infact I paid $100 for my masters degree in 3 years and the last 6 months I got paid $600.Usha [Sathian’s wife] did not pay a single penny for the medical degree. I had scholarships because we are the backward class.”

But I have learned (I hope I get this right!) that not all people get into the government colleges. The way I understand it there are quotas, based on your class, and you must have good grades and pass entrance exams. If you don’t have good grades or scores then you don’t get in UNLESS you pay some money. This payment is kind of “under the table” money or a bribe to get your kid in school.

Did I get that basically right folks?

More Saturday Dribble...
I spent Saturday afternoon taking care of my laundry. You have to sort it, organize it and write it up on a piece of paper so they hotel can account for everything. They even sent my Jeans back today because they had 8 holes in the seat and back pockets! They just needed me to verify that this was their condition so that they would not be held responsible for these holes. Little do they know that I like my 8 holes and would give them a tip if they would add 2 more!

I also took a long nap in the afternoon. This nap was probably too long because I had some trouble sleeping on Saturday night.

I spent the evening fiddling with some work stuff and having dinner in my room while talking to Ann and Emma (Joe is off camping with his cousins and my father). One of the things I miss the most about being at home is having home cooked meals with my family. Now that Emma is back in diving we don’t always get to have dinner together during the week but we usually do on the weekend and, though it may not always seem like it, this means a lot to me. I think it is easy to take these routine things for granted until we have to do without them.