Yesterday morning as I was in the middle of "Christmas getaway 2013" planning I heard a familiar noise that I instantly recognized but I felt sure couldn't be what I thought it was…. I listened to this familiar loud buzzing and jumped from my comfortable spot on the couch and ran to my bedroom window. I pulled open the curtains certain that I would open them and find it was something else but what to my wandering eyes did appear? The neighbor's gardener using a lawnmower!
For those of you in the states I'm sure you are exclaiming with a huge "so what"? This is very unusual in India, that's what. Not just in India but in Malaysia we never saw a lawnmower being used either. Instead most gardeners use these big scissor like tools to cut the lawn. They sit and cut. I've never even seen a push mower in the past three years we have been abroad. Hearing the loud buzzing, humming, roaring, however you would describe the rumbling of the lawnmower took me immediately back to the United States and all those Saturday mornings when someone's mower and quest for the perfect lawn would wake us up way too early.
Before I get to my "feelings" on hearing the mower, let me get back to the sight of the Indian gardeners trying to use it. For the most part they seemed to know what they were doing. Yes, they. Two guys were helping each other along, one guy doing the work, the other guy giving him instruction. Together they didn't seem to understand that the mower should not be forced so closely to anything stone or concrete. They kept trying to force it closely along a stone pathway. I took pics like a peeping Tom out of my window, feeling guilty as I know it was their first time and instead of picture taking maybe I should have offered some advice? Naaa. I'm a woman, it would not have been appreciated and they most likely didn't speak English anyway.
After a bit of wrangling with the lawnmower they seemed to get the hang of it and I went back to listening to the sounds of summer. And you know what? I realized that I didn't miss that sound at all. Worse I'm wondering if it is going to become the norm and if those gardeners are the same guys who do the other yards around our home. If so, glad to know that nothing happens early in the morns in India!
For those of you in the states I'm sure you are exclaiming with a huge "so what"? This is very unusual in India, that's what. Not just in India but in Malaysia we never saw a lawnmower being used either. Instead most gardeners use these big scissor like tools to cut the lawn. They sit and cut. I've never even seen a push mower in the past three years we have been abroad. Hearing the loud buzzing, humming, roaring, however you would describe the rumbling of the lawnmower took me immediately back to the United States and all those Saturday mornings when someone's mower and quest for the perfect lawn would wake us up way too early.
Before I get to my "feelings" on hearing the mower, let me get back to the sight of the Indian gardeners trying to use it. For the most part they seemed to know what they were doing. Yes, they. Two guys were helping each other along, one guy doing the work, the other guy giving him instruction. Together they didn't seem to understand that the mower should not be forced so closely to anything stone or concrete. They kept trying to force it closely along a stone pathway. I took pics like a peeping Tom out of my window, feeling guilty as I know it was their first time and instead of picture taking maybe I should have offered some advice? Naaa. I'm a woman, it would not have been appreciated and they most likely didn't speak English anyway.
After a bit of wrangling with the lawnmower they seemed to get the hang of it and I went back to listening to the sounds of summer. And you know what? I realized that I didn't miss that sound at all. Worse I'm wondering if it is going to become the norm and if those gardeners are the same guys who do the other yards around our home. If so, glad to know that nothing happens early in the morns in India!
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