Sourcing building materials in India is a complex affair. Prices can vary wildly depending on your accent and there is practically no quality control, so you never know what you are going to get unless you go and hand pick what you want. It is rather difficult to budget for a building in a climate where for example the price of sand has gone up from Rs2000 to Rs20 000 per truck load in the last four years, due to dwindling supplies.
Granite fence posts are the main material that will be used for the amphitheatre entrance and landscaping at Sharanam. On Saturday we went to pick up ten tonnes of posts that Jateen had spotted down a side road after visiting the stone dealer who had given us a quote over the phone when he didn’t have a single post in stock or even know what they were.
Whilst we were checking out the stones a man emerged from one of the nearby houses claiming they belonged to him. We agreed a price of Rs37 per piece, which is less than half the going rate. However, costs quickly add up when you have to arrange a truck and 6 men for loading and transport.
When one has arranged a deal of this nature it is important to act quickly before circumstances change, the stones may mysteriously disappear or some other random party claims ownership.
We were pleasantly amused when a multicoloured carnival truck pulled up from round the corner with flowers painted on the diesel tank, Tamil demon heads dangling from the front bumper and (what we would later discover to be) break fluid dripping out from under the engine.
It took 8 men, including Mark and Spencer, exactly one hour to load 500 pieces or about ten tonnes of granite onto the truck. Palani, the site foreman, was obviously used to overseeing loading operations as an efficient system very quickly fell into place. Two people from the other party were trying to distract us by loading the truck from both ends but Palani and I quickly got on top of the counting to make sure they weren’t trying to pull a fast one.
After loading Jateen went to settle the payment, which is always a long and hairy affair which never goes quite according to plan and the boys got a lift on the back of the truck to spend the rest of the day on site. However, a drive that should have taken about 10 minutes ended up taking three hours due to the brakes failing.
Setting off from the stone yard going was quite slow, pulling over to the side of the road every half a mile or so. Eventually one of the workers traveling on top of the truck with Mark and Spencer explained in broken sign language that the brakes weren’t working. After another mile they pulled over again and were handed some palm root which the men explained how to peel and eat, before eventually arriving at a truck stop. Everyone got out and sat under a tarpaulin drinking chai while two men frantically worked under the truck. One man asked Mark for some money, which he gave them, although we still are not sure what it was for and then they were underway again.
When the truck eventually turned up on site the boys were treated to a typical Tamil workers lunch; A condensed breeze brick of rice neatly wrapped in a giant banana leaf accompanied by an array of tantalising sauces, following which they had a midday nap in the site office while the stones were unloaded.
Unfortunately the stones were unloaded directly on top of where the amphitheatre circles are to be excavated, so some poor soul is going to have to move ten tones of stone 20 metres before digging can commence.
All in all, it was a successful and highly entertaining day.
Aurospace ARC 