There Is No Roti Prata Here

So it's back to everybodyletsboogie! (EOM=End Of Message)

2008-05-01T14:56:00.001+08:00

I've just travelled 2.5 hours and 30 years ahead in time

2008-04-19T20:12:00.005+08:00

Well, I'm back in my antiseptic heaven.

From this...

To this...

Sushi never tasted this good. Now for the durian.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go

2008-04-15T14:39:00.005+08:00

I think it might be a little too overwhelming to return home.

When I touch down and step out of the plane into Changi Airport... carpeted floors, fast queues, grime-less toilets, smooth trolleys and the absence of throngs of people at the luggage belt is gonna throw me into mild orgasm.

This will be in the wee hours of the morning, around 7.15am (well, wee hours to me) on the 18th of April 2008. Hopefully it'll be too early for people to notice my smug grin or hear the excited pulsations of my heart as my head wrecks itself deciding what would be the first thing I'd like to do. Or eat!

-----

Above all, I think this exchange has been a journey of self-discovery. I've come to understand myself at a much deeper level and I've learnt to deal with certain aspects of my character such that I am more at peace with my place in this world. It is in relativity that comes gratitude. At the same time, it is in relativity that comes dissatisfaction.

These three and a half months have also served as a crash course on the politics of human relationships and personalities. The exposure to, I dare say, a great myriad of facinating characters, has enriched my own sense of self.

Although I know I've barely scratched the surface, my stay here has brought to light certain aspects of India and its people that weave together to form the fabric of this nation. I've gained insight into what it means to be a woman, to the complications of arranged marriages, to the value of family, to the implications of caste, to the grotesquely high rate of infanticide even today, to the dangers of dowry, to the teachings of Hinduism, to the fierce competition that comes along with every developing nation struggling to prove herself to the world...and countless more.

Lastly, at the risk of sounding cliche or like i'm on an overdose of happy drugs, I've come to realise that we shouldn't rule out the possibility of order in chaos, sense in absurdity, clarity in confusion, grace in subtlety, tradition in modernity, sanity in mundanity, ecstasy in simplicity, richness in poverty and... beauty all around.

For now, I close this chapter of my life to begin my next.

Thank you for the lessons, India.

Only in India

2008-04-15T14:25:00.002+08:00

So, I'm looking around the school for a weighing scale to weigh my luggage and ensure that it doesn't exceed the weight limit. The first place I ask around is the admin building. Guess where I am directed to?

The Kitchen.

hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

The cook has welcomed me to bring my luggage to the back of the kitchen to use the same scale used for weighing vegetables and flour. LOL! It's India : )

Syazwan is not Singaporean. He doesn't eat durian.

2008-04-14T02:35:00.001+08:00

The absurdity!

Harshal's analysis on Attracting Weird People

2008-04-13T21:53:00.004+08:00

The man's a genius.

Either that or we go with Erwin's theory that the skewed sex ratio makes Indian guys sexually repressed and hence the naivety with regards to picking up on social cues.

Breakfast at Pride Hotel

2008-04-12T16:17:00.003+08:00

Where S$10 gets you a buffet spread consisting of sausages, chicken ham, samosas, cold coffee, fresh fruits, pastries, coco crunch cereal..and MORE. Definitely worth waking up at 7.30am for.

Mumsy's taste of India, even before coming to India

2008-04-12T01:27:00.000+08:00

Life Lesson #1

2008-04-12T00:47:00.003+08:00

This world is full of people who crave for validation.
The ones who deny this the most, are the ones who crave it most.

She says she's looking at the teacher.

2008-04-11T21:08:00.001+08:00

The Realisation.

2008-04-08T05:34:00.002+08:00

It is 3am Indian time. 5.30am Singapore time.
I've just seen the clips on track specialisation and the cool "journalism.sg" website and now I'm kinda getting getting cold feet. I've checked out the courses offered for the next few semesters (I got a kick out of it seeing how everything is PLANNED WAY AHEAD OF TIME) and there's this strange mix of emotions I'm feeling.

Wait, oh gosh, I'm still getting over the fact that the course outline for courses offered in semester TWO next year is readily available for my reference. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm s.e.r.i.o.u.s.l.y amazed. Oh wow, properly constructed lessons and powerpoint slides...what a distant memory. I almost hyperventilated thinking of all the wonderful stuff I'm gonna learn when I get back. It almost makes me want to overload subjects so i can LEARN EVERYTHING. Nerd.

But the reality of projects and exams and GPA starts kicking in not long after and I'm now slightly reluctant to return to all that. Ok, not slightly reluctant to return...more like less enthusiastic about leaving this place. The end of stress-free learning, the end of ctrl-C ctrl-V assignments, the end of phaffing...the end of the invincibility of being an exchange student.

Oh Crap. I need to sleep. Good night. Til another day of the course on 'Limericks'.

Limerick for person of choice in class

2008-04-07T19:28:00.001+08:00

READ: I am NOT your friend. I DON'T want to BE your friend.

2008-04-06T00:40:00.005+08:00

(click on the image below for a better look)

Since you have not gotten the message even after we've stopped talking to you and stopped responding to your smses and basically stopped having ANYTHING to do with you, I think it is about time that I give you a piece of my mind before you pretend everything is perfectly fine and assume once again that you can contact me after some time has passed. But firstly, I shall do a translation of your email because I think half the population would not be able to understand what you wrote.

Translation:
I am sending you two photos. Please tell me which one should freak out a person more - the one in which I am posing with a smile for a friend who is struggling to find the best position to shoot from or the one where you are standing behind the mango tree quietly trying to take a photo (of the convocating students)? Does the former deserve the public humiliation you have given it through your blog entry for the world to see?

Well, I'd really like to thank you for NUMBER ONE: finally pushing my limits and giving me the perfect excuse to be really pissed off with you so that now I don't give a shit about your feelings when I write this and NUMBER TWO: giving me the pleasure of crafting this response to your email because right now there's nothing much to do anyway.

Two things in your email reveal how warped your thinking is:
1) I was not "STRUGGLING" to find the best position and even if I looked like I was, it was not to shoot YOU. In fact, if I could scratch you out of the picture, that would have been ideal.
2) HOW the hell you could think that I was SNEAKING around when I shot that photo. There was no SNEAKING around on my part as all I wanted was a shot of the proceedings of that day. You on the other hand, took the shot from where you were standing obviously with the intention of capturing me. (Unless of course I could be wrong and you were actually shooting that dude standing beside me.) I repeat, if I could scratch you out of the picture, it would have been perfect. Just to make things clear if you STILL don't get the message: You don't even come close to being the centre of my world. You're not even a part of the peripherals.

For the benefit of my friends and family who are reading this, and also for your benefit because I suppose you are deluded enough not to know that you freak people out, I will point out the incidents that give me sufficient reason to be inflamed enough to publicly bash you:

1) You tell me not to trust the French students and go on to give weak reasons when I ask you why. Then I find out that it's because you don't want us to know the weird shit you've subjected them to and that we'll be influenced by their point of view. Come on, you think we're born yesterday? We would have seen through you after the initial benefit of doubt we award you because you're from a different culture and perhaps do things differently.
2) You return the keychain I gave you (as a polite gesture for being our student guide) after getting pissed off that we went out with the French students to the city in our first week here without informing you. When I confront you, you barge into my room and put on this marvelous act that I "stole" the damn keychain and ask whether you could have it back. You don't own us and so you have no right to tell us that we can't interact with whoever we want to interact with.
3) We ignore you COMPLETELY after that incident but when you come back after 2 months of absence, you think it's fine to act like nothing happened and talk to me again. I must say I predicted this would happen.

Oh, I threw away the rubber bracelet thing you hung on my door because I thought it might be cursed.

HERE are two posters specially made for you by Erwin, JUST in case you STILL don't get the message....

By the way, thanks for the DVD that I never asked you to get but the entire cast was overacting. And Shah Rukh Khan is not even good looking.

Now leave me alone perv and don't bother contacting me when you're in Singapore.

Class has been very productive today.

2008-04-03T23:51:00.002+08:00

We've noticed that people here pronounce 'parents' in a errmm, different way.

I have no idea what the hell we are supposed to do

2008-04-03T18:09:00.003+08:00

So this is what I came up with to the theme of Hope, using imagery.
(Inspiration from Mika's "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)"

Hello Goodbye Part 2

2008-04-02T15:15:00.020+08:00

The day before yesterday was MICA's convocation ceremony...a time for wearing glorious saris, getting congratulatory handshakes from strangers, and for the heck of it, hugging your crushes. So of course we showed our faces, partly for the MICA brochures and mostly for our graduating friends we have made during our stay here.

I present to you "Cheese, what the hell am I doing here?"

The guest-of-honour for the evening was the ex-president of India, Abdul Kalam. He talked about yeducation and yethics among other important issues, most of which swept by me cos I was too distracted by his distinctive south Indian accent and fantastic hairstyle. And he reminds yErwin of a hobbit. heeheehee. But still, cool fellow.

Security was pretty tight around the school because of him so there were police cars and men with rifles shooing people off the roads. Check out what Erwin noticed on the bumper of the police car...

The ceremony was held in the lawn where invited guests included proud parents, the remaining juniors, anyone else and us.

Spot the only Chinese dude among the governing council...

Closer look...

As mentioned in Erwin's blog, our favourite dean was there for the ceremony. Had a very entertaining dinner with him last night with conversation topics ranging from gay hotels to spare underwear to swinging durians. hahahaha. I think we all left him being pleasantly surprised at his down-to-earth humour and the Singaporean-ness of it all. I agree, event of the night was when he conversed in Chinese to Erwin about how the taxi driver was trying to cheat him. His paranoid insistence on the waiters opening the bottle of water in front of him at Le Meridien hotel comes close as well.

Anyway, back to the ceremony. After a while we got bored so we started taking photos of ourselves and the people around us.

Deepak, big friendly dude from CCC.

L-R: Deepak, Himanshu, Mehul, from CCC.

Our very own Hiro Nakamura

Niraj (aka The Horse or The Stud...for various reasons.)

Ajinkya

RGS girl, Hima. She has RGS-girl vibes so we nicknamed her as such.

Besides the disappointment that the food was all-veg, it was a great conclusive end to our interaction with many people here...faces that we'll never meet again, some which we might. We should get an award from the Singapore Tourism Board for convincing Indians to visit the island.

And now it's back to a quiet campus, just like how it was like the first few days we were here before the PGP students started coming back. I'm glad I'll be out of here soon, hopefully by 23rd April, then headed to Kerala and finally back home. It has been a blast despite the countless moments when my threshold of tolerance has been tested.

Thankfully, I think I will leave still loving this place.

Hello Goodbye Part 1

2008-04-01T17:48:00.006+08:00

OK, I'm sorry the two of you had to sit through lunch listening to me griping about the loss of my vanished entry. I will now do this in parts so that I will not kill myself should the same thing happen again.
------------

The second wave of bittersweet goodbyes has finally swept over us and I am once again jolted into emo mode. We have to go through this a total of THREE times -first the Frenchies, now the PGP students and soon the CCC bunch (and MICA).

I will not pretend that I like everyone here, nor delude myself into thinking that I mean something to many people here. I've come to realise that I'm a simple person who is happy not fighting my way through to being the centre of attention, not keeping a conscious tally count of the number of cool friends I make, and I give people the time of day unless they start to piss me off at a level that I am surprised with myself. Being a social butterfly is not my calling. I've come to hate small talk, especially if it's not funny, to me at least. In essence, I think I have anti-social tendencies. Why be friendly when you know you are just being humoured? Why smoke hash when it still doesn't buy you a ticket to coolness? Why go beyond the polite smile or the passing hello when it's not worth the effort? It's selfish, but I only spare time for people whose friendship I know will go beyond the superficial heeheehahas.

My name will not be resounding in future batches of MICAn history, my face will be a blur in the crowd, Harleen will still mistake me for Kash. But still, I am happy I am leaving this place knowing that there are people I've met that I will care for. People whom I will want to meet up with again if I ever come back to India. People I will be glad to host if they ever decide they want to make a stopover in Singapore. People whom when I say 'keep in touch' and 'I will miss you'...I really mean it.

L-R: Me, Ajinkya, Kasturee, Raghu

Harshal the Giant and I

And of course, newfound friends from SCI itself. (This picture is for MICA's brochure so that they can sucker more people into coming here.)

Hello Goodbye

2008-04-01T15:01:00.013+08:00

I HATE BLOGGER. MY ENTIRE POST JUST GOT DELETED AND THIS IS NOT A GOOD TIME TO BE PISSED OFF. AND HOW THE HELL DO YOU DISABLE AUTOSAVE.

Oooh, look what the lens captured

2008-04-01T13:47:00.006+08:00

You know how you look at a photo and you see things that freak you out...

(Melanie's fine cos I suppose she honestly thought I was capturing her. Granted.)

Here's a closer look...

..ooohh..it almost reminds me of Shutter...

I'm super cereal.

2008-03-27T23:05:00.007+08:00

In typical Kash fashion, since she is not zi dong enough to return the money owed to various parties for the Goa trip, let alone inquire about it, we have taken matters into our own hands.....

I have to put this photo up too cos Erwin looks damn retarded in it...

Time to eat the humble pill, people.

2008-03-26T21:42:00.002+08:00

"To tell you the truth, the Indian attitude is part patriotism and part smug defensiveness."

"You actually won't find a bunch of people more in love with their own voices than Indians....Goes double for MICA."

"One thing you should never expect an Indian to do is accept that he could be wrong...they'll feel it..but never say it."

HA! And of course, this wisdom can only come from one who has actually been out of the country.

I swear the lizards are up to something

2008-03-25T02:46:00.003+08:00

There are at least three huge ass lizards living in my room right now. Two of them were bold enough to climb on my bed and stared at me in a freaky way. Damn lizards, I don't mind sharing my space with them as long as they stay in their boundaries i.e. dark corners that I DON'T SLEEP ON. I don't know how the lizards get so damn big here..their bodies are as thick as your thumb and their tails the size of your pinky.

This one in the video got sliced by my aircon when I first turned it on. Damn gross cos the tail dropped out first followed by its mangled body. Same thing happened when Erwin turned on his. Now we're very alert when we hear strange sounds coming from the aircon.

Sun, Sea and BerLeigh

2008-03-23T22:24:00.019+08:00

MICA always seems much rosier whenever I get back from trips. Clean bedsheets, toilet paper in the toilet roll holders, privacy of my room, convenience of wireless internet...the list goes on.

..UNTIL we sit at the mess quietly eating our butter toast when Dalzeen pops up and reminds us about the &%$#!%! Indian Cinema assignment we have to pass up. frick. And that reminds us of Services marketing exam and essay and the rest of the CCC modules we need to get credits for.

Damn it I wanna go home. I've just had enough of this place. This is the low point the counsellor was talking about when she addressed all of us going on exchange. Some people move on to pick themselves up and complete the exchange on a happy note. Some people get into this depressive state and never get out.

This morning Erwin and I survived a gruelling 25-hour bus ride from Goa to Ahmedabad to save S$170. What made two motion-sickness-prone people undertake such a task still makes me want to slap myself. Cramped seats, freezing aircon, a crying baby, a coughing idiot and the uncertainty of where exactly we were at any point because the conductor only spoke Hindi..is all fine for 25 hours. But why I would never again be cheap and go through this ever again is cos the memory of pee/faeces-flooded toilet stops will haunt me for life. Imagine being in a tight space having to wear footwear reeking in someone else's urine/shit for hours on end. Even after scrubbing my havis I still can't bear to wear them after knowing the trauma they have endured. It amazes me how women in saris manage to hobble into these peeholes with their complicated layers of cloth and do their business. Argh, ok enough about the standard of public toilets here. One of our lecturers attributed dirty public toilets as the reason why the class was able to go on without a break for 3 hours non-stop. Ok ok, enough about toilets.

Goa..hmm..one word: suffocating. I guess if you're the sort who likes beaches crowded with half-naked sunburnt ang mohs, drugged out trying-too-hard hippies in strange clothing, flimsy beach shacks and chaotic dirt roads then the place is fine. Well well well.......SOME people like that ok.

I took only 31 photos there...so not worth the weight of my D40. We went to Palolem, Colva and lastly Baga. By Colva I gave up trying to capture moments and I didn't want my camera to melt on the beach chairs so I left it in the hotel room. This is the photo of the trip:

Ahhh...just kidding. (Not really actually). Most of our days were spent in this order:
1. heading down to the beach
2. building a rapport with one of the restaurants facing the sea that looks decent enough (or tries hardest in greeting us as we walk past)
3. eating breakfast or lunch, depending on how early we wake up
4. plonking our bags on one of those beach chairs in the photo below that the restaurant will provide
5. running to the sea to catch waves
6. drying off on the beach chairs
7. returning to our rooms to wash up
8. having dinner and sampling calamari

Erwin came up with the theory that we get big waves at our end when fat people jump into the sea at the opposite coast. So thanks to fat, wrinkly, sagging, middle-aged people doing the YMCA dance somewhere out there, we get huge waves to dive into. heehee.

Palolem Beach is filled with flimsy shacks lining the beach. The one we stayed at, Chattai, is a midrange budget accommodation but still, we didn't get a proper solid structure. The lock on the door was spoilt so I couldn't sleep properly for three nights cos I was paranoid about people breaking in. Didn't help that news from home about rapes and drug dealers in Goa zhun zhun started coming in on the day we arrived.

This is our favourite Rendezvous Restaurant at Palolem, or as they say..Ron-deh-vuus.

We took a one hour boat ride out to see dolphins at Palolem, which left me with motion sickness and a lost of appetite for breakfast. But despite all that I still thought it was pretty cool getting to see dolphin fins just 10m in front of us.

Our last stop was Baga Beach..THE beach for tourists. It's swarming with commercialisation and rude Caucasians.

Anjuna Wednesday Flea Market, where you can find treasures if you look hard enough. There was a row of stalls run by hippie ang mohs with dreadlocks who looked like they haven't bathed in months. Btw, my bargaining skills have improved significantly since coming here. The trick is not to want something too badly.

We rented scooters in Baga and had a a rather hair-raising experience maneuvering through Indian traffic. And not to forget, Erwin can now lay claim to having BRIBED A POLICE OFFICER. hahhahahhahah...

The best souvenir I got from the trip has got to be the realisation that sketching with a black ballpoint pen is super therapeutic. I had really bad homesick pangs during the trip and sketching helped to distract me from thinking about it.

As you can see, I went a bit mad somewhere in the middle..when my drawings featured severed skulls and lots of cynism.

And now it's back to reality. ARGH. Starting to dread CCC modules now with the rather fluffy content and group work..ARGHHH GROUP WORK. Group work with these people sucks. Like, cereally.

Goodbye MICA, Hello Goa beaches!!!

2008-03-14T13:24:00.000+08:00

Collecting Memories

2008-03-13T06:00:00.002+08:00

We just had a premiere screening of Erwin's film 'Go To Goa', about a slice of MICAn life. It was a nice warm feeling to sit together in the same room with the France-Singapore Alliance for the last time in MICA. Tomorrow Marine's dad will be coming and she'll be leaving with him. Romain will be gone on the 18th. Bertie will come with us to Goa then he'll be leaving too.

Chhorta and TT nights will soon become a fading memory. Chicken cheese frankees..grey glob at mess..butter toast for snacks..the terror that is KGK..days when toilet paper runs out..useful lessons in French swear words..badminton..frisbee..aerobics..Dasada..cynical grouses..late nights..chasing the dhobi man for laundry..countless countless memories.

One of the best, if not the best, thing we got out of this exchange would be having known these people. They are one of the most genuine, down-to-earth people I've had the privilege to meet in my life. Between now and the next time our lives cross paths again, I wish you only the best.

Sewa and The Hectic Life at MICA

2008-03-09T22:30:00.016+08:00

The Frenchies treated us to probably our last dinner out together at Sewa Cafe, which is a restaurant run by an NGO. The staff are all volunteers and it's a pay as you wish concept. Food, atmosphere and company were great, what more could I ask for?

And THIS is Micafe...

Here's what we do during Indian Cinema class, and almost any other class for that matter. (click to enlarge)

Erwin's art lesson on how to draw human figures

My take on the guest lecturer

Dude that was sitting diagonally across me

Romain's doodles..laced with cynicism!

I almost grew mold just waiting for the photos to be uploaded. Ok, I'm too drained to upload more at the moment. Going for dinner now for my twice a week dose of meat.

Day out

2008-03-07T04:43:00.010+08:00

Today was a good day because I finally got 3 hours straight of just shopping. woohoo. In my whole time here I've not been able to get proper unrestricted shopping time because of the need to accommodate everyone if we go out in a group. Also cos we can't go out anywhere on our own especially for girls cos there's always that element of danger (even if Kash thinks she's invincible...Erwin probably agrees to that.hehe).

So anyway, Kash and I got a lift from Harshal to Reliance. Oh yes..here's our beloved Reliance that we rely so much on..

It's rs80 (S$3) by auto from Reliance back to MICA. Reliance is this really huge company in India, I think the biggest. It has a hand in everything from telecommunications to cars to megamalls. You can find groceries, clothing, electronics and jewellery all in Reliance Mart. We use it as one of the main landmarks to direct autodrivers. Iscon Mall, where we get stores like Reebok, Nike, Adidas and other more high-end stuff, is just beside it. Chroma, where we get electronic goods and household appliances, is just opposite. Crosswords, the Borders equivalent here, is next to Chroma. Masty, which serves superb kebabs at more-than-affordable prices, is walking distance from it. FabIndia, great clothing store that sells good quality Indian outfits, is a rs12 (S$0.50) auto ride away. Now you see why we heart Reliance.

Harshal wanted to give us just half an hour to get everything done so we told him we'll make our back by ourselves. I managed to get money from Western Union immediately after my mum sent it, which was the first of many pleasant surprises today. Western Union rocks...it is a god-sent for people who stupidly forget to bring their ATM card. After getting some mini toiletries for our Goa trip next week (YAY GOA HERE WE COME), we then popped by Macs for dinner. Need I mention again how much I love franchises? Eating Macs overseas always feels very good cos of the familiarity. Oh god, plus I had fillet-o-fish..pure heaven, of course.

Everything was smooth sailing, even getting an auto back. Funny how getting transport back is an achievement in itself. The first auto we approached quoted us rs80 and knew where MICA was, which made my day. I was so happy I gave him more than that when we finally got back.

I am now contactable via my blog!

2008-03-05T15:16:00.002+08:00

Yes, I am narcissistic. Thanks to Erwin Nah's introduction to Statcounter, I am now even more compelled to keep up with the daily rants. Because I have readers in BELGIUM heeheehee (yea yea I know it's you Denise Kok). So if you feel like talking to the one and only, feel free to click on the chat box, I'm almost always available : )

I proudly declare myself a member of The Chinese Clump.

2008-03-05T06:42:00.003+08:00

Because we're just coolER.
Like come on man, we act so cool around you that you think we don't wanna mix with you. Not cool meh?

Dear Nati

2008-03-05T06:06:00.004+08:00

If you ever google your own name or attempt to find me, I hope you find this blog. I met you on the bus from Mt Abu back to Ahmedabad and I lost you from there. I'm the Singaporean girl whom you took a snap with to remember that day. You wanted to rest at my hostel for a few hours before you continued on to Diu. But fate had it that the last image I had of you was of you with your huge luggage in the autorickshaw saying you'll meet us at Parshwanarth Travels, or Gujarat Travels, I don't know...the name slips by me. Why it did not occur to me to record your phone number or email address somewhere still bugs me until now.

I hope you're doing fine. You might still be in India, I think you told me you'll be here for two months. Maybe it's because of that snap we took that makes me want to look for you so badly. Somehow the memory of that day sitting at the bench talking to you about Israel while we waited for the bus to carry on its journey is immortalised in my mind because of that photograph. You were an interesting person, I felt comfortable talking to you..like as if I knew you for a very long time.

Maybe if luck has it I will bump into you again. Maybe in India, or in Israel, or back in Singapore. Anywhere.

Best wishes,
Nuria

*contact me at thepurplecat@gmail.com if this letter ever reaches you

MICA Fitness

2008-03-04T23:16:00.003+08:00

Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, Silveroak will be transformed into an aerobics centre, inclusive of pumping loud music and a hot instructor in jeans. I have yet to join in one of the sessions. Erwin has agreed to join me in the next one..hehe. Roxy (PAT's dog) occasionally joins in as well.

Just because it's 29th Feb.

2008-03-01T00:29:00.000+08:00

Argh! Last two minutes to blog today or else I have to wait four years!

Join us in our Fight Against the "Pendrive"

2008-02-29T21:58:00.000+08:00

We're learning a lot, on top of flying paper planes.

2008-02-28T23:35:00.000+08:00

Erwin says my ad doesn't make sense without the word "play" and Himanshu said I stole the idea. (I half-suspected that this idea has been used before cos the henna painting ritual has so much potential to be tapped into.) Click on the photo to look at it close-up.

For you non-Indians, henna, or mehndi painting is done during weddings, special events and any day you feel like a temporary tattoo. For bridal henna, the groom's name will be hidden somewhere in the design. On the wedding night, the bride will ask her new husband to find his hidden name. If he does not find it, he can't go to bed with her. Of course this is all just for fun now.
Abhilash means Desire. hehehe.

Why can't these people just accept logical explanations?

2008-02-28T23:12:00.000+08:00

They call a thumbdrive a "pendrive" here. I shall not be forced to use such senseless names just because they call it that HERE. Erwin created a poster for my Fight Against The "Pendrive".

Himanshu has been trying to explain that it's called a pendrive because it transfers data, just like how a pen transfers data from your mind to the paper.
BULLSHIT. BULLSHIT!

Today we were supposed to market a tail for humans.The sky's the limit.

2008-02-28T22:24:00.000+08:00

Every piece of the Shioker is custom made to your liking.
Pink fur? Old leather? Sleek platinum? It's your choice.
The technology used to construct this piece of magic works along the same lines as the science of teleportation. Basically the Shioker contains all the elements found on earth and every possible combination and permutation of atom/particle. (Facts might not be accurate. Non-science people are excused from getting such facts right.) All you need to do is speak into the in-built mic and wait a few nanoseconds for the Shioker to encode the information and replicate the item of your desire with it's inexhaustible supply of atoms.
Your wish is its command.
Feeling low today? You can ask for jokes and laughter.
Caught in the morning jam along the CBD again? Ask for a pair of wings to fly to work.
Cigarette taxes are rising. Why not ask for a never-ending fag?
Three days to prom and you haven't found a date. Who says you can't ask for the perfect guy?
The possiblities are endless.

Create Your Imagination.
SHIOK SIA!

two months and counting!

2008-02-28T01:28:00.000+08:00

This is life man

2008-02-27T20:06:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the second day of the CCC module "Creative Search Engines" and our day was spent doing the following:
1. Folding paper planes and competed on whose could fly the furthest
2. Pepsi-cola (primary school game where you have to step on each others' feet)
3. Dog and bone
4. Told stories of mischievous adventures from our childhood
5. Treasure hunt where we had to go around shooting suitable photos to suit given themes like 'wastage', 'luxury', 'khallas'(meaning 'the ultimate') etc

All in the name of creativity. I'm not complaining. One thing about the class is that everyone seems to be so encouraging, to the point where it's sickeningly sweet. "TOO good man" is one phrase that's thrown about wantonly that it's impossible to get a judgement on whether your work truly deserves the accolade it gets. Ego aside, but one is inclined to believe that they really do think that highly of each others' work...although honestly it's not mind-blowing, at this stage at least. The teacher is very sweet, he never fails to say "very well done" after each presentation, and in a genuine way too.

Later in the evening Erwin decided that he had enough of sticking-out-hair in the morning so we set up a barber shop in the Silveroak male toilet and gave him a new do.

Before. I don't know why he was so bothered with his hair that he'd risk a disaster. Despite my warnings that my only experience in shaving/cutting was on a persian cat, he decided to go ahead. Note the nervous smile.

That's Bertie's shaver which he brought from France because he shaves his own hair on a regular basis cos haircuts are expensive in France. Erwin explaining to the expert the cut he wanted.

I could go into hairdressing if all else fails.

A satisfied customer.

Hehehe...can't believe we did it.

I don't know why I get so happy when I watch this

2008-02-23T19:56:00.000+08:00

Tale as old as time
True as it can be
Barely even friends
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly...

Awwwwwww.....must I spoil it by writing a 3000 word essay which will break down the metaphors in the story to reach the conclusion that Walt Disney films are all male-centric and the women are all eroticized?

Erwin's face when Someone In Front decides to go "Baaabyyy...oh baabyyyy..."

2008-02-23T15:25:00.001+08:00

3 minutes later.

While the rest of the class had WTH screamed across their faces.

(cuts wrists.)

The Ultimate Advertising Challenge

2008-02-22T21:48:00.000+08:00

For an assignment for our copywriting class we were supposed to write down a list of 5 products or services that we absolutely hate then rank them. We were then required to conceptualize a single ad or an ad campaign to sell the top most hated in the list. My most hated was show-offs but I decided to do a print ad on my number three: mess food.

It's the top view of a metal mess tray with lovely eatables from the mess. 'Surprises' because you never know what you're gonna get until you get it. And once you get it, you don't know what the hell you're eating.

Why Singapore Rocks Part 2

2008-02-22T21:08:00.000+08:00

We had an assignment just now to write out, in less than 100 words, what we would say to a dude who is standing at the parapet and about to jump to his death. It is a given a fact that he WILL jump. We had to write from the point of view of a friend who doesn't know him very well and just happened to look for him to return a borrowed book. This is what I wrote:

Singaporean Version (i.e both people on 20th storey of HDB flat) - In Singlish, cannot be translated

Eh Beng ah! Wassup man! You jumping ah?? SHEEEEEEEEET. Eh not my fault ah! I oni wan to return your book. You know you jump sure mati right? If dun mati must go hospital leh. Your mudder already have to give tuition 5 time a week you tink got mahney for doctor issit? Vely ex leh! Summore polyclinic queue damn long, you sure mati before you see doctor. Wah piang eh, then your girrfriend how? Wheeweet (wolf whistles). I take can not? Eh Beng ah! Behind got naked woman! See See! Hurry, she going already! Walau eh, shiok man!

So what if 3/4 of the class didn't get it??
So what if I looked like a retard spewing Singlish to an audience of three?
It's worth it man! Cos...

SINGAPORE ONE, INDIA NIL.
MAJULAH SINGAPURA.

I'm in CCC class now, and I've learnt that...

2008-02-22T15:11:00.000+08:00

SINGAPORE ROCKS.
I LOVE SINGAPORE.
SINGAPORE IS THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOO.

O_o

2008-02-22T04:37:00.000+08:00

I've just had the single most freaky experience since coming here, involving tarot cards and chai.

Information is for me and me alone so I better not talk about it here.

What is India throwing at me?

fish makes me happy

2008-02-17T23:09:00.000+08:00

Just came back from the city with Kash and Champa boys Pranjal, Rishit and Himanshu (aka Mr Bean cos he bears an uncanny resemblance to the character). *Champa boys-CCC guys, who stay in Champa hostel. Watched my second Hindi movie without subtitles - Mithya. It's about some dude who looks like the head gangster of a gang so he is kidnapped by the rival gang and made to pose as the head gangster to spy on the other gang. I'm too lazy to phrase that in a clearer manner.

Anyway, we ate lunch at SUBWAYYYYYYYYYYY and I got my tuna sandwich set meal inclusive of drink plus cookie for a total of.................RS90 (=$3.50) heehee. I love franchises cos the look and feel when you step into an outlet anywhere in the world is the same. And for a moment you forget that you're in a totally different time zone. It was nice : )

repressed evil-ness

2008-02-17T02:00:00.000+08:00

The CCCs are already through one week(?) of ragging, which lasts a total of 15 days. Bertie made a good point about how it doesn't make sense that you get ragged for half a month when you're only in this school for 6 months. Ragging or "orientation" here means you have to abide by silly rules thorughout the day like having 6 ponytails in your hair, wearing only formal clothes to mess, not looking your seniors directly in their eyes, lights-out at 10pm, calling Roxy (PAT's dog, PAT is the Director) "Sir Roxy", not talking to girls (for guys) and not talking to guys (for girls), among other restrictions. These rules apply throughout the ENTIRE DAY for 15 days so you can imagine the hell these guys are going through.

I just think it's the whole idea of being trapped on a campus that is in the middle of nowhere (as seen on Google Earth) that causes these MICAns to repress their inner evil-ness, which they then let out on the newbies during "orientation".

At around 1am every night the CCCs will have to play puppets to the seniors who exercise their creativity in coming up with activities for them to perform. It's all very strange because you see the guys suppressing their laughter while being shouted at to do stupid things.

Listen out for a really scary-sounding laugh in the beginning of this clip. It belongs to a fat senior girl who only knows how to call people vulgar names and says the most awkward things.

Here they are being shouted at...

I'm so glad we're Singaporean and hence with the implication that practicality runs in our blood, we don't waste such talents in torturing people on orientation.

random ramblings

2008-02-16T17:28:00.000+08:00

It is starting to feel more like an extended holiday now that we've dropped several PGP courses cos we discovered that we've got our backs covered with (much more interesting) CCC modules. The weather has taken a sudden turn for the better i.e. familiar warmth during the day, cool relief at night. I've got 13 Beatles albums in my iTunes, ripped movies in my laptop, a Narayan novel, Ronin by Frank Miller, good stuff from Mr Bean conveniently stored in Erwin's hard drive, and lots of free time.

If not for the two 3000 word essays we have to do (of which i hope the teacher will magically forget about)...
Life is pretty good now.

Leigh and Marine are going to a newly opened beauty parlour/salon at Iscon Mall tomorrow for some pampering. Threading there costs about 80 cents O_o Was thinking of highlighting my hair cos I assumed it would be cheap. But in usual unexplainable fashion here, it would cost about S$90, which is the same price as highlighting with organic dye back home.

We had fish at Micafe yesterday. We could do with more surprise bursts of enterprise to introduce "special" dishes, even without any special occasion. It was probably the fourth time in my 1.5 months here where I had seafood. I fully blame the lack of seafood for my comparatively slower reaction time and complete inability to get down to doing any work. As they say, Seafood is Brainfood.

Long overdue photos from the Heritage Walk of Ahmedabad which we went for on 2nd Feb...

Missing home.

THANK YOU ERWIN NAH FOR THE BLOG DESIGN.

2008-02-16T17:24:00.000+08:00

happy?
(he keeps bugging me for acknowledgement.)

sudden obsession

2008-02-16T03:03:00.000+08:00

Oh crap, first there was Birkenstocks.
Then came Havaianas.
And now it's........
HERMES SCARVES.
Die.

I so need one to function properly.
NEED.ONE.NOW.

(not really) in the mood for love

2008-02-14T19:46:00.000+08:00

I love you because when I burp, you reply with a fart.

Ok, that was the best I could do cos we were forced to come up with something since everyone's in the Valentines' Mood.

After a fruitless session of Services Marketing with the PGP students, we had Transcreativity withdrawal syndrome so we decided to pop by the Mac lab to look for the CCC bunch. We were just in time for this V day assignment.

Well, anyway, Happy Valentines' Day..Friendship Day, whatever.

newfound respect for Palmistry

2008-02-10T21:41:00.000+08:00

Today we had Transcreativity Day 4.

First up we had a fluffy session on dream analysis, of which the supposed expert's credibility immediately dropped once he cited Freud. Then he started talking about what symbols in dreams represent and I had another session of uncontrollable giggles from the absurdity of it all. Tell me how not to laugh when he goes on about how a pendulum in a dream represents a rhythmic sexual act, how falling represents castration and how fountains represent the female vagina. If you dream about clocks you are one perverted soul cos the number
'1' represents a penis
'2' represents an anus
'3' represents the male genitalia
'4' represents the female genitalia
'5' I dunno
'6' represents castration
'7' a limp penis
'8' are breasts
and '9' is castration yet again.

It was so illogical that when he asked us to guess what it means when we dream of twins, Erwin immediately shouted "BREASTS!" which would have been fine as long as someone "credible" legitimizes the association.

Excellent stuff, luckily I'm not in a line where I have to deal with numbers all the time cos I'll never be able to see a 7 as a 7 ever again.

The day was saved with the session on computer-aided palmistry later on. A PALMISTRY EXPERT who is an ENGINEER, who specialises in CAREER GUIDANCE (confused people) came in to talk about his field of specialisation and to give each of us individual palm readings.

I found the palm reading eerily right on the dot. He talked about my past, my future and my personality. I found out that I have the same palm line patterns as the cricket captain of India. Haha, wouldn't hurt if I try out cricket here I suppose. I would do very well in business with an art direction, like in advertising. He guessed that my father was in business, when I said he is an architect he said: "YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO ARCHITECTURE. YOU WOULD HAVE DONE VERY WELL." Hah! Not when I have to pay for my own school fees though. He went on to say that I am very logical and I should write down my thoughts cos I have an excellent thought process. He said I have great potential but I'm lazy (so true) and I take my ideas lightly. I need acknowledgement or some sort of push to really take flight. Things will get better after the age of 26, and he guessed exactly that I was 21, which was amazing to me considering that I JUST turned 21. Marriage life would be brilliant. The part that really shocked me and made me a firm believer of the art of Palmistry was when he said 2005/2006 were bad years which made me lose direction somewhat. Those were the shit years spent slogging over Physics, Chemistry, Maths C and Economics in dear NJC. Then he said I had a long break after that...the 8 months before uni(!). And he said the past 2 months have been looking good...which is ever since I got here, partly accurate lah.

Great stuff man. Things are starting to look up. Tomorrow we have a puppet show : )

hehehe.

2008-02-09T23:06:00.000+08:00

Hello Extra Tender Beef Nuggets : ) BEEF oh sweet beef...

HAPPY NEW YEAR from (Incredible) India

2008-02-08T04:43:00.000+08:00

No I haven't been abducted by elephant-riding bandits, thanks for the concern though Eveline. Laziness and frustration with the slow network has put me off blogging and uploading photos all this while.

We're currently taking a course called 'Transcreativity' with the new batch of CCC* people, who are somewhat like the ADM of MICA. The course is a welcomed relief from all the hardcore business modules and directionless electives that we're ploughing through with the PGP** gang.

*CCC - Crafting Creative Communications. This is an intensive 6-month course that MICA offers to outsiders that focuses on print and broadcast advertising. The current batch consists of around 20 people who have just moved into campus 3/4 days ago. I've learnt today that it is very scary and dangerous to play frisbee with the CCC guys.
**PGP - Post Graduate Program. This is what the main bulk of the students are here for.

The aim of the workshop is to help us get in touch with our hidden creativity, i suppose. So we spent CNY watching a traditional Indian dance demonstration and a magic show. Absurd as it sounds (like almost everything here), I'm not complaining because I'm getting two free AUs to BE INSPIRED.

The best dancer from the whole troupe was Korean. She has spent the last four years studying traditional Indian dance in India. There was a dude on drums who looked like Vivian Balakrishnan, as in the MP.

Magic show

Martial arts

Traditional indian music. That's the auditorium we're in. There are cushions for everyone to sit on instead of seats with attached tables. Anyway the drawing that Erwin is holding up is his caricature of Kash, which made Romain and I laugh uncontrollably...not a good thing when there's a performance and less than 25 people are in the auditorium.

CNY eve was spent at Mirch Masala, where I could get MEAT. We treated the Frenchies and Harshal to reunion dinner - great cheese naan and chicken, chicken and more chicken. Leigh has the group photo of all of us but I'm too lazy to walk over to get it from her so this is the only thing I have...

Crazy Kash

Leigh's friend sent over a package with CNY goodies and it arrived just on time. Notice the look of glee on her face.

I apologise for the shoddy write-up about what has happened ever since the Udaipur trip. I have photos in my camera of stuff that we did but I haven't gotten around to upload them. Free time is spent either playing frisbee, playing badi (badminton), or snacking at Micafe. I haven't been healthier since the last time I had PE lessons.

Til the next time I force myself to blog, adios.

"You better protect those girls."

2008-02-03T05:59:00.000+08:00

It is 3.30am and I'm holed up in my room (what's new?) in an attempt to escape from the chaos that is going on at Chhorta now. Today and tomorrow are the Alumni Meet days when old students are invited back for I have no idea what else other than to take their pick on nubile bodies of the current batch.

Something that I suppose resembles a disco club has been set up in the area around Chhorta and people are now going crazy shaking their booties to bad techno music and migraine-inducing green laser lights. During the short time I was hanging around, I saw things I'm not supposed to see and I saw things I didn't exactly want to see. All in great fun though...laughing with Erwin at the stupid things people with too much alcohol in their system do under the cover of darkness and collective escapism. Made me realise that I'm gonna save so much money because clubbing will never, can never, be something I'll ever crave for. Why the addiction for some, I can never understand.

Ok, my eyes can't stay open. I'm so tired that I'll have no trouble sleeping despite pounding music that'll probably go on for a few more hours. I wonder how much people will regret their activities of tonight by the time the sun rises.

you wouldn't believe what I'm watching now

2008-01-28T01:59:00.000+08:00

As part of the module Services Marketing, we're supposed to watch a movie called Everybody Says I'm Fine.

I'm ten minutes into the movie and this is the look on my face ever since it started.

The entire cast is Indian but they speak English with variations of the British accent and the lead is a hairdresser who can hear peoples' thoughts as he cuts their hair.
Seriously. What the hell am I doing here?

contact details

2008-01-26T15:14:00.000+08:00

I thought I'd better put down my address and handphone number since some of you have been inquiring.

Handphone number: +91 9727472836

Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
Shela
Ahmedabad -Pin- 380058
Gujarat
India

Yea there's no street name or any other details buttttt....I'm sure the letters will arrive! This is how it works here..order in chaos. Btw, I'm 2.5 hours behind Singapore time, and in case I haven't mentioned it before, India is the only country in the world with a 0.5 hour time difference from everyone else.

people and their stories

2008-01-25T16:48:00.000+08:00

The best souvenirs I got from our Udaipur-Mt Abu trip would have to be the collection of life stories told by amazing people we met along the way, which both inspired and humbled me at the same time.

We had the privilege of meeting...
the 31-year old Kiwi lady in Udaipur who was travelling around India for three months by herself,
the couple from Belgium who are spending a year in India to learn about the secrets of Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) so that they can set up a mobile Ayurvedic clinic back home,
the Isreali guy whose first trip out of his country is a two month trip around India alone,
the mom and her two-year old from the UK who have been travelling buddies even before this two month stay in India,
the Kashmiri shopkeeper in Udaipur whose cousin married a Singaporean traveller
...among many others who made our own stories pale in comparison.

Our first mini victory (and I know I keep repeating this but it's cos I'm really proud of myself) happened in Udaipur when we haggled down the auto price from the quoted rs50 to rs20. heehee. I was working on mini victories so the next one came when we were able to locate the guest house we planned to stay at, as recommended by Lonely Planet. The view of Fateh Sagar lake from the balcony outside our room was excellent.

Though the room itself was nothing to shout about...

We endured the cold shower for one night before moving out to Hotel Ganguar Palace. Nowhere near palace standards, but at least we got our hot bath.

My first meal after the 6-hour journey on a suspension-less bus was cheese tomato spaghetti and my favourite soft drink here..LIMCA!!

At Jagdish Temple.

And of course we couldn't escape from bits of Karma Sutra carvings..

Boat ride along Lake Pichola.

The famous Cafe Edelweiss, always brimming with budget backpackers every morning who are suckers to the description provided by Lonely Planet: "..little piece of Europe that appeals to both homesick and discerning travellers." Perhaps the only piece of Europe you can get there is seeing other angmohs cos the food is just expensive and not that great.

Holy cow!

Holy cow dung! (Kash stepped on a pile before. Heehee.)

City Palace Museum, where we didn't pay the camera fee but still took photos anyway.

There was a Muslim festival going on during the time we were there, not sure what it was though. But it was pretty scary cos boys/men were running along the streets and shouting. It could pass off as a protest. There were policemen for crowd control as well.

The street where we could get silk scarves for S$4 and shawls for S$8, depending on how fiercely you bargain.

We managed to catch the Dharohar performance at Bagoreki Haveli just in time. The entire audience consisted of foreigners and we sat on mats for the one hour performance which cost a total of..........S$2.30!! (I took down accounts for everything.)

This woman was amazing. She didn't pile on all those pots at the same time so everytime she added more the crowd oohed and ahhed. She even danced on broken glass with those pots on her head.

Kash got a nose stud despite my warnings about the hygiene levels and inappropriate metal used. Oh well, she lost it in the bathroom when we got back so maybe it's for the better.

Treated myself on the last day in Udaipur with a massage at Tiger Spa where I was marinated with Ayurvedic oils while folksy music played softly in the background. Thankfully mine wasn't as 'intimate' as the one Marine got though I think I was still a little tense as a reflex defense mechanism.

After a gruelling 6 hour bus ride up to Mt Abu, we only managed to reach there at about 3pm, which meant that we missed the city tour and other sites were closed by the time we were ready to get out of Shri Ganesh Hotel. Mt Abu is more of a weekend getaway for locals so there weren't as many foreign-looking tourists as compared to Udaipur.

Saving grace came in the form of...Cafe Coffee Day! (CCD here for short) The strawberry shake was heavenly but I couldn't fully appreciate it with the weather being the way it was. I keep forgetting it's freezing outside so I always order cold drinks and suffer the consequences later.

The next day was much more eventful. We first visited the Brahma Kumaris Spiritual Musuem and had the weirdest experience ever. Even weirder than the WYWI session.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?? THE PUZZLE OF LIFE IS SOLVED!

We were made to sit in pitch darkness with a laser beam aimed at our foreheads while a voice fed us with lines like:
"God is like this point of light. He is in every one of us."
"Everyone is intrinsically good."
"Om Shiva"

They even offer a three day course about this philosophy which calls for acceptance for all religions because God is the same for everyone, He just takes different forms. Followers wear white and have (or seem to have) a certain kind of calm about the world.

A little too confused for me though.

Later in the afternoon we went on two treks up the hill (mountain?), which was more walking than I ever did in the entire year before. The first one was 4 hours long O_o and promised bear or panther sightings, though this was what we actually saw...

I forgive them even if they made the scratch marks themselves as a kind of "if all else fails" back-up plan.

There was a bigger group for the second trek, which was fortunately less physically taxing and only two hours long.

Meet Baby Ada and Supermom Amy. They've been around the UK and Spain and now they're here in India. Whenever I am faced with problems over here, I just need to think of them and it'll all seem so trivial.

That's it! For the first time in three weeks I was actually happy to see the gates of MICA. I guess it takes going away to miss familiarity.

Til the next adventure.

I'm 21??

2008-01-25T00:44:00.000+08:00

First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes from Sunny Singapore!!! Argh, the year-round 30 degrees celsius temperature has spoilt me. Looks like the entire upper hemisphere is now out-of-bounds for me.

It still hasn't sunk in that I am now legally allowed access to a lot of things. Oooh oooh..I no longer need a parent's signature for excursions. Heehee. Hello World : )

I've bought myself a polarfleece adidas jacket in desperation. Ignore its pinkness, they ran out of black. It was this or a padded trenchcoat, which would have been ridiculous come to think of it.

I've been getting relatively warm sleep the past two nights. Never underestimate what many thin layers can do. And my stomach is getting better too, no more puking at least. Leigh and Erwin just got diarrhoea...will Kash be the only one among us who will make it past the one-month mark without getting sick?

When we eat we have to concentrate really hard on the food in front of us and not the processes before and after cos if we did, we would have starved and that would bring about a different set of problems. Just now I ordered a chocolate tart at Micafe (one of the two on-campus cafes, the other one being Chhorta) and the boy took it out from the fridge with his bare hands (dubious level of cleanliness), then while finding a plate for it he placed it ON TOP of the fridge. Fortunately it wasn't bright enough for me to see what the top of the fridge looked like but my imagination told me it would probably be caked in dust, old crumbs, oil, a few dead insects, among other organisms. Oh god. But the tart was good.

My skin looks like it belongs to an old woman. I'm guessing it's either the dry weather or harsh washing detergent. Or both.

These are abrasions on my thighs and legs caused by my jeans rubbing against my dry skin. I can't wear anything thinner because I'd rather suffer these abrasions than be cold.

Yes yes, my entry on Udaipur-Mt Abu is overdue. I'll get it done once I have the time and before I forget the facts.

For now I gotta sleep cos tomorrow I have class at NINE AM. I almost missed today's 9am class cos I accidentally switched off my alarm instead of snoozing it. It's madness, we have 5 hours of the same class, with only 15 minutes breaks every 1.5hours.

it's 6am and I shouldn't be blogging

2008-01-22T08:28:00.000+08:00

I've resorted to using my hairdryer to warm myself up.

It's so darn bloody cold at night I can't sleep properly!!!!! Haven't been catching proper uninterupted sleep for the past few nights cos I'll be freezing just about this time. I'm so pissed off and miserable now. If you wake up cursing the weather, you know it's time to do something about it.

I don't care if I have to blow my last 200 sing on warm clothes and a good blanket (maybe even gloves). It'll be a worthwhile investment if it lets me sleep for the next half a month before the temperatures increase.

I HATE THE COLD. I HATE THIS HEATERLESS ROOM.

The equator is starting to look very good to me at this point of time.

real men wear pashminas

2008-01-21T23:55:00.000+08:00

I'm typing this entry with prune fingers because I've just HANDwashed the following items:
- 10 pieces of underwear
- 7 tops
- 2 scarves
- 1 towel

And I've got 2 sweaters, 1 scarf, 1 towel and 1 pair of fisherman pants more to wash after I come back from dinner.

Due to the unpredictability of the dhobi man (laundry man), I've been HANDwashing all my clothes except jeans. And I've been wearing crumpled clothes for three weeks, which is fine here cos people aren't too conscious about fashion. (Think socks with sandals.)

Anyway, I'm back and alive from Udaipur and freezing Mt Abu. Funny how there's relief in just surviving the trip. Gotta go to the mess before the food is cleared, will blog later!

waiting to get out of here

2008-01-15T13:08:00.000+08:00

Leigh and Erwin left for Delhi this morning so here I am now holing up in my room spending some alone time with the Carpenters on iTunes. Woke up particularly early and had a long hot shower before walking two rounds along the school compound with my iPod plugged in, giving me temporary comfort in the familiarity of the songs.

Kash and I are as ready as you can get here with the planning of our 6-day trip to Udaipur and Mt Abu. Bought bus tickets and called up budget guesthouses with not too much trouble, except that there's always that lingering sense of uncertainty. A guesthouse I called up assured me that there was no need to leave my name or contact number for the booking of a room...all I needed to say when I got there was that I am from Singa-poor.

It helps to reassure yourself by reducing it down to the essentials: Cash, passport, handphone. As long as you've got those, it should get you places.

Now I've got to practice my "don't mess with me, I'm not even gonna give you ten rupees more than the market rate" face. Romain has been very helpful in imitating difficult autodrivers so we get practice haggling.

wild asses, migratory birds and dust

2008-01-15T00:31:00.000+08:00

I spent Rs700 (S$27) for a getaway at Dasada wildlife sanctuary- inclusive of buffet meals, one night stay in a tatched roof chalet, 2 safari rides and a WYWI (Who are You, Who am I?) sharing session. It's not mentioned in any of the guidebooks so I have no idea how 2 retired angmohs we saw there discovered the place.

The hotel allowed people from nearby villages to sell their craft in the compound. Check out the nose ring.

Chasing after wild ass. We know we could have easily ripped a photo off the net but it's in the thrill of the chase man.

And because we got up at 6am, risked our lives in a doorless jeep on a bumpy road, swallowed tons of dust and braced the chill of the wind...we HAD to snap the sunrise.

More sunrise..

More.

The whole area we were on was the former sea, or something like that. So we were standing on salt basically. If you stretch your imagination, with the help of the cold weather, it can pass off as snow.

Benetton ad. Complete with rojak races.

Director: "Come on jump! Don't worry, I'll catch you." They tell us not to walk on the grass on campus because there are snakes and they scare us into thinking that venturing out into the city is a dangerous affair, but yet there is the director of the school telling a student with an existing back problem to jump from a salt mount. Makes total sense eh.

30 seconds exposure to capture the starry night sky. But of course it doesn't beat looking up and seeing a blanket of them twinkling back at you.

i am alive!

2008-01-14T14:34:00.000+08:00

After being at the mercy of crazy safari jeep drivers in Dasada, sitting here blogging about it is a privilege in itself.

I've finally organised my photos on Brad (that's what I call my mac, after Brad Pitt, because it's so sexy) so I'm really happy now because if I can't control the chaos around me at least I can create my own semblance of order in whatever way I can. If there is anything that will drive me out of my mind here, it will be the absence of order, efficiency and certainty. My Singaporean-engineered brain is wired this way so I'm not apologising for my irritability when I have to wait 6 weeks just for wire transfer to arrive.

Anyway, on a brighter note, quite a bit has happened since my last entry. As part of the module "Imagining India" that we were duped into taking because of the interesting title, we went on a field trip to a mosque. Around 10% of the population in Ahmedabad are Muslims and from googling I found out that most live in poverty because there is discrimination when it comes to owning property. Apparently Muslims cannot buy or rent property in Hindu parts of town so the two communities live separately and in fear of each other. Thankfully we have not and I hope we will never need to experience any sort of trouble during our stay here. Anyway, the Muslims provide the beef, so yea we should be grateful for that.

(At this point we are experiencing one of the occasional power failures for half a minute of which everything shuts down, including the wireless network because the modems run on electricity.)

The frenchies have showed us the single most important place in this town - The Chocolate Room!!!

Me looking very contented with my waffles with ice cream. Imagine eating mess (dining hall) food consisting of mystery gravy and rice/naan three times everyday, and you will be absolutely delirious when you step into this piece of heaven and whiffs of chocolate greet your olfactory glands. Mmmmm...bliss.

This is the menu for their hot chocolate drinks. They also have chocolate pizzas, chocolate "sundaes", chocolate pancakes, waffles with chocolate ice cream, among other delectable sets. My waffles and ice cream costs about $3.80. (Rs26=S$1)

After that we had dinner at a restaurant called "Hot 'N' Frozen"...yes,this place is seriously confused. The frenchies had their first taste of pork in three months. I had rice with prawns but it was a pity that I couldn't finish it because I was so full of chocolate by then.

(Ok, just had another blackout. And someone's screaming. If anyone gets raped here nobody will know because we get random screams every so often and it's impossible to tell the difference between a genuine cry for help and happy screams.)

Time for lunch! I will be updating about our safari to Dasada sanctuary later. For now I shall stop being anti-social and take a look at what's going on outside in celebration of Makar Sankranti, the kite festival to mark the beginning of crop season.

Oh btw, the wonderful blog header was designed by Mr Erwin Nah. I really love it : )

our allies, the French

2008-01-09T03:44:00.000+08:00

Our new best friends on campus at the moment are the French students who have been at MICA for the past 3 months. They are so indianised that they managed to get a cheaper price bargaining for an auto than a local student. They have been very helpful offering advice and cynical takes on illogical practices that can only happen here. We also have a go at injecting our own dialogue into the hindi films that we watch during class because there are no subtitles.
"oh give me my shoes!"
"i will only give them to you if you let me feel your six-pack!"
"give me my shoes, give me my shoes!"

I have never really thought about the English language until having to converse with people from different parts of the world. Maybe British colonisation wasn't so bad afterall if it meant that now a Singaporean can so easily comprehend and laugh at a joke made by a French who lives halfway across the globe.

The Frenchies showed us a small joint they found that is closest to resembling a bar in Amdavad, sans alcohol of course.
L-R: Kash, Bertie, Erwin, Homain (pronounced as HO-MAR), Angeleigh, Marine

Erwin resisting peer pressure to smoke the tobacco-less shisha pipe, lemon-peach flavour. Although he did give in to the shared germs eventually.

Today the professor was asking us to share our experiences with any protests that we have been a part of, whether in organising or in participating. While there were wild stories from the Indian students about ousting principals and anti-something, Erwin pointed out that in Singapore we go only as far as to join the Facebook group "Repeal s377A!" (There's one group by the name of "I'm pissed off that my prime minister's getting S$3.1 million this year"). The image of a lone Dr Chee sitting in front of the Istana with his umbrella popped into my mind when I thought about protests in Singapore. I don't think the Indians can ever understand the concept of protesting by grumbling then hurriedly tuning in to the mrbrown show to see what our beacon of free expression has to say about it. Here if they don't like a certain foreign chain of restaurants, they will eat there then later burn it down.

welcome, our dear guests

2008-01-08T02:23:00.000+08:00

White bougainvillea border our campus fence. Oh, if you're lucky you'll notice the glass shards.
IF you're lucky.

survive India, survive the World.

2008-01-07T18:34:00.000+08:00

Honesty is the best policy.
Here we learn that bribery makes DAMN GOOD economic sense.

So.

Maa

2008-01-06T19:16:00.000+08:00

I'm addicted to the hindi song Maa (Mother) from the movie Taare Zamin. Check it out on youtube..you've gotta listen to it more than once to get addicted.
There's an indian saying that God could not be everywhere and so He created mothers.
Here's the English translation of Maa, courtesy of Sumit.

Although I never say so
But am afraid of dark maa

Although I never show it
I do care about you maa

You know everything ,don’t you maa
You know every thing , my maa

Don’t leave me alone in this crowd so
I can’t even come back home maa

Don’t send me so far away so that
You can’t even remember me maa

Am I that bad a child maa
Am I that bad maa

When ever dad lifts me
And swings me high and fast maa
My eyes search for you
And I think you will come and hold me maa

I don’t tell him this
But I get scarred
I don’t let it show on my face
But inside in my heart am scarred
You know everything ,don’t you maa
You know everything , my maa

Although I never say so
But am afraid of dark maa

Although I never show it
I do care about you maa

You know everything ,don’t you maa
You know every thing , my maa

one week of Gujarati mornings

2008-01-03T20:32:00.000+08:00

So, it’s been exactly one week and we’re still surviving excellently without getting sick of masala overdose as yet.

Here I am in the land of Gandhi, mehndi, bathuras, Sachin Tendulkar, Chori Chori and “total democracy” –and that’s why Indians are the happiest people in the world.

The past week has been a whirlwind of surprises and chaos as a starter course for the 6 months to come. In a summary that doesn’t come close to justifying the experience, we have so far
- attended a classic Indian wedding
- gone sightseeing at a port museum and bird sanctuary
- chewed ‘pan’ (betel nut with just a pinch of tobacco)
- braved traffic in an auto rickshaw
- bathed in icy cold water with a pail and scoop
- chilled out at Chorta (the 24hr on-campus café) til 5am
- watched Taare Zameen Par in the cinema (hindi film about a boy with dyslexia starring an Indian hunk version of Jude Law) for the equivalent of S$3.40
- experimented with bhangra moves on New Year’s Eve with traditional folk music in the background

And this is just the beginning.

We have been accompanied everywhere by two Indian student buddies for now, Amit and Sumit, while we familiarise ourselves with how things go here. We have yet to learn haggling with auto drivers who have no qualms about doubling prices for foreign-looking newbies.

The guy on the left is Amit. He’s a camwhore and we think he’s a secret cannibal even though he claims to be vegetarian. He says that if he eats a fellow vegetarian, it’s essentially still just eating veg. The one on the right is Sumit. He’s a Singaporean in disguise because he crams 3 terms worth of classes into 2 terms so that he can be a free man earlier.

This is Silveroak, the international student hostel which is rather exclusive as compared to the other halls because of the exorbitant fees we are paying. MICA is a residential campus, which means all students have to stay in the hostels so you can expect the place to come alive at night. The best thing about this place is that alcohol is almost impossible to come by in Ahmedabad so you have to depend on great conversations and 'chai' to get high, which is not very difficult here because everyone is amazingly witty.

And this is headquarters, room 111, where I hole up and listen to bhangra music on my laptop.

These are some sights we see on a daily basis. Yes, water buffalos and sacred cows have just as much right to be on the roads as we do.

Field trip to a bird sanctuary where we took a boat ride into the sunset.