Coffee, Cake and HIV tests

So, here I am, newly arrived in India, shiny new passport and two year visa in hand, filling in the forms so I can register my presence with the appropriate authorities.
I begin to fill in my form, and go through my check list.
I would like to mention at this point the Indian fascination and reliance on red tape and small stamps.Not that this makes getting anything done easier in India, on the contrary, you could stand in line for several hours only to be told you need the form RROTNMJICK-0038478/a and not the RROTNMJICK-0038478/b as you believed/had read online/was told on the phone/was told at your last visit. Only the Belgians could trump the Indians when it comes to forms, paperwork and the appropriate number of passport photos necessary to do anything. (the appropriate number of passport photos is invariably one less than the number you have about your person)
What I do find intriguing and endearing about India is the requirement while shopping to purchase your goods at one desk, then bring your receipt to another desk to get it stamped before you can leave the shop, I love it!
Anyway, as I was reading through the list of requirements to register, I notice that I need a HIV report! Ok, thats weird, I think, so I asked around and discovered that because my visa was for two years and not one, like the rest of the staff, it was indeed a requirement.
Being Irish I assumed this would take months, as it would in Ireland like for any other essential medical test, and mentally started to pack my bags. Then my boss said, “just go to Ruby Hall this afternoon and get it done”, Ruby Hall is a big nearby hospital. Well I nearly fell off my chair, just go without an appointment or life threatening condition and ‘get it done’!
Wow, so I did. I just strolled in with my other boss and her husband and had it done in less than five minutes, for €5.20. (We paid because we can afford it, if you are poor you go to a free/really cheap clinic)
They said sorry, but because it was so late in the day (about 5) we would have to wait a whole day and come back tomorrow for the result, after 12 please.
So we went to a nearby cake shop and had lovely yummy cake and iced coffee.
Another thing I love about India is the spaces here, on my last visit I took this picture, where we sat to eat our cake, the ceiling was no more that 5 foot off the floor. A mezzanine in the true sense!
People warned me about moving here from Switzerland, how life would be so difficult in a ‘third world’ country compared with Ireland. The more I see here the more I believe that we Westerners have a hell of a lot to learn from countries like India then we care to admit.