Apartment

Our apartment is a very nicer-average apartment here in Pune. We are on the edge of the city, in a newer area of town (Vardagon Sheri), pretty near the IT hub where Andy works (Kalyani Nagar), and one of the big tourist/fancy areas (Koreagon Park).

We live in a a big complex of three sets of buildings, each built all around a big open courtyard. Our complex, Karan Gharonda, has its own set of stores, a couple of small general stores, a beer & wine store, an ice-cream and dairy store, a gym, beauty salon, tailor, laundry, and a furniture store. All literally inside our complex, in a row on the bottom floor, so if you need something, you don't have to go very far. And a lot of ladies roll right up to these little shops before meal-time in the housecoats, since its just right outside their front door. I do not have a housecoat, but they look very comfortable, and I think I would get one, but Andy keeps calling them mu-mus, which makes them somewhat less appealing to me.


We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and small balcony. Our place is set up pretty much like the average apartment here since we got it furnished. It even came with extra bike helmets! You can see the mosquito nets on the beds. The all-in-one bathrooms will be covered in the separate upcoming Bathrooms post.




The kitchen has a small selection of dishes, TONS of spices and spice containers, an aluminum rack specifically for the aluminum dishes, and has no oven, but 2 gas burners, kind of like a Coleman camp stove, no dishwasher, and no microwave. This is mostly fine, but it did take us a while to figure out how to re-heat things when we ate left-overs. The burners are hooked up to a big tank of propane, no central lines, you just have to call the store and get gas tanks and bottled water delivered when you need it.

The walls are all pink, and the doors all bright purple. Our Indian friends have said this is weird, so apparently the color scheme is not exactly what you might find in other apartments. The furniture is all hard as a rock, especially the bed and cushioned chairs. The plastic lawn chairs are pretty much the most comfortable place to sit, I don't know why we don't use them more.

And we have a dining table, with chairs, which is very unusual. Most people do not have this, and just sit on these small mats for meals, with food on the floor in the middle of everything. We had a small mattress on the floor in the living room when we moved in, but I mistakenly thought it might make the bed more comfy if we doubled up on the cushion. A lot of people use the mattresses as a couch, and a bed. We also have 2 arm chairs and a settee, made in true Indian style, and of course, feel like a pile of bricks when you are sitting on them.


Our landlord lived in Hawaii for a couple of years, and studied world religions, so we have some interesting decorations around. Lots of little knick-knacks and such, postcards of Hawaii. Our visitors always ask about these, and think we brought them with us.
Nope, the mini-buddas just came with the place.