Birthday, Election Days, and Oktoberfests

I’m at work right now. The garage bellow me is empty, the bikes are being hidden behind the office. The front gate is locked and barred. The front guard is at his post keeping watch. I’m in one of the only offices working today in the State of Maharashtra. It’s Election Day, a state holiday here in India. To make employees work today is technically illegal, and there is a huge fine for any non essential business kept open today. We got an email in our inbox today saying that while yes, we are not supposed to be working today; we are serving our democracy better by coming in today. By going against the laws of the state, we’re being patriotic. It seems almost American.

This weekend was Oktoberfest here in Pune. This was my first Oktoberfest that I’ve been to, and I was able to have it here in India with most of my German roommates. While Pune is no Munich, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of expats who have been living in Pune while working for the Indian branch of companies like Volkswagen, Mercedes, and others. I got a chance to try to speak German. I got some sympathetic stares and shrugs. Great success. The music was pretty good, it was some band that travels around the world playing international Oktoberfests. This seems like a very niche market, if you ask me. The food was pretty good, but expensive, and the beer was German. Over all, I probably spent more than I should have, but it we all had a good time singing and dancing. When the band played Seven Nation Army, that was probably the highlight of the night. We also made new friends from England. We were some of the few native English speakers at the party.

But Oktoberfest was not our only party this week. Jan had his birthday on Monday night. I didn’t realize this until Monday morning, when I could check Facebook at work (yes, my laptop is broken again, I’ll explain later). Theressa and I quickly threw together a solid plan to have a surprise party at our apartment. When we let Bobby in on our plan, he replied “so why did you guys put a plan together? Don’t you know Parisa has already planned a party, bought drinks, and got cake?”

No Bobby. We didn’t. Turns out she made the plans but didn’t tell anyone until earlier that Monday. Unfortunately, no one had any idea where Parisa lived, besides “far away and in the middle of nowhere”. So we convinced Jan to go to Parisa’s place under the guise of a small get together, and that I would be the fearless navigator, in charge of guiding us all safely to Parisa’s. Big mistake. Don’t let me lead anyone anywhere. Ever. In my defense, I did get us kind of close to the right place, but kind of means an extra hour of getting lost and driving aimlessly in this case.

On the drive to over, the first thing I lost was the horn on my bike. In India, this is big trouble. The horn is the first line of defense against aggressive bus drivers and crazy rickshaws. The next thing to go were my blinkers. Instead of signaling what I was doing, both lights would blink together in a mad panic. Then went my back tire. Finally, with only one uphill kilometer left, my engine died on me. Then I had to push. Thankfully, Parisa’s brother had come out to find where the hell we were, and was able to give me a hand in pushing the bike. It was a long push in the rain. Déjà vu, right?

Not that my bike is the only thing to kick the bucket this week. My laptop is also now out of commission again. Yes, only a week after getting the power supply fixed, I was sitting in bed waiting for my friends back home to sign on to Skype after a night of enjoying Oktoberfest perhaps a little too much, when my desire for sleep became perhaps just a little too strong, and I fell fast asleep with my laptop on my lap. But this only lasted for a little while. Then it took a quick plunge to the hard floor bellow. So long laptop screen, you served me well. You will be missed.

The surprise birthday party ended up going very well in the end. And my bike breaking down was probably for the best, as I was able to drive Jan a ride home later that night. Soaked and exhausted, I arrived at home. Happy birthday, Jan. Happy Election Day, Maharashtra.