Sunday, October 18, 2009

In gioco... (At stake...)

Cricket games, the national sport here, may last several days. In a way, I also started, on Friday, a sort of 'cricket game', which - after the break on Diwali - continued today, and, hopefully, will conclude on Tuesday. I officially made an offer for an apartment.

I don’t want to give too many details, because, as all good Italians, I prefer “not to say ‘cat’ if I don’t have it in my sack” (macaronic translation of an Italian saying made famous by the renowned football trainer Trapattoni).

What I can say is that, as all the most recent experiences, this experience is also helping me to understand a bit better India and the Indians. More than a cricket game, however, this seems a poker game, in which everyone is playing to understand what the others on the table have, and who is bluffing and who is not. Four players are sitting at this table: Mrs. And Mr. Sikka (the owner of the house and her husband respectively: difficult to understand who takes decisions between the two), Surinda (my hopefully trusty agent: he gets a percentage on the deal), and I. The game is: to wring the best deal.

On Friday it was a preliminary hand, mainly to study each other. Today we went a bit further, and we started placing bets. On Tuesday we should show our cards and conclude the game, hopefully with a good deal, and hoping that nobody leaves the table before the end of the game.

Will keep you updated...

No comments:

Post a Comment