The end of the world

All good things come to an end, and sadly, Robertson house is no exception.

Here's a mail from Cesar, my former roommate, ipod-fetishist and craziest mexican motorbiker in all India (1), written on July 2nd 2007:

Hello people,
Well, the time has come to close down Robertson House......yes!!, its as simple as that. The news came 2 weeks ago but myself just got to know two days ago.(and maybe deniz who just arrived as well) I dont know what ideas the landlord might have (too many complains from the neighbours, cops coming in the middle of parties etc etc), the point is, we have one month left! The purpose of this email is to find a place (a roof with four walls that will protect me from the rain and the "pinches" mosquitoes will work for me.
(...)

That's how I learned of the tragedy, and though I'm quite happy that I am not there anymore, being in the same situation Cesar is (was, hopefully - since he send the mail on July 2nd and should have a roof over his sombrero by now), I still feel mightily sad! Robertson House was a unique experience for me and countless other trainees.

We hoped that the (mostly muslim) neigbours will gradually get used to the internationality of "our" house over time. It's not that we were Gomorrah incarnate or something like that. Heck, we weren't even louder than them! Try to imagine five year old kids firing crackers for days on end, starting around 6:00 a.m. - even on weekends, or drunken teens (yep, we're talking about a muslim neighbourhood here!) screaming their voices raw until some cops come by and end the "music", or... well, let's just say there were some other sources of loudness as well.

The thing that disturbed them most and which was the real reason for rejecting us was that "children" (in their eyes, being in your twenties doesn't make you an adult) lived there without their parents and - gasp! - sometimes even boys and girls together! That's why the landlord had taken no new girls in when female trainees left, and after a few months Robertson House became a "boys only" house. Which, of course, didn't stop us to invite female trainees from the neighbouring trainee houses (where "mixed gender" was absolutely no issue, even though it was in the same muslim part of Bangalore) to parties from time to time. But those Parties ended up being a new reason for our neighbours to complain: noise after dark in the street, etc...

The landlord banned parties, we obeyed, but still... from time to time, females were seen entering our houses. It didn't matter that it was during day (or early evening) and that they were only here to plan a weekend trip (which was done regularly by whoever wanted to join, male or female). I guess rumors were stronger than "intercultural tolerance", and in the end, the landlord seemed to have given in. I can't blame him: estate prices are exploding, so he'll make some bucks I guess.

I only hope that there will be a new "Robertson House" somewhere in Bangalore!

(1) I guess some Indians are even worse, but definitely there's no other biker from Mexico who's THAT crazy).

For all who were there together with me, visit my blog (adelsberg.nomadlife.org), where you'll find some shared memories of the great times we had there.

Since nobody seems to contribute anymore, I hereby close this blog.