What to buy?!

Everytime I'm overseas, I'm always on the lookout on what to buy back home. Who will enjoy what I buy? What do my family and friends expect from a different country? What do they think of India? What will represent my experiences in India, that I can show everyone back home and let them experience it, too? Apart from specific requests, here's what I bought.

Thanks to Ashwin, Roshan, and Arun for helping me acquire these gifts.

What is India without cricket? Blasphemy! So, I bought two cricket bats, 1 on request from Ken. One is english wood (white), the other indian wood (red). Price difference? English was 4 times more expensive!

Also, to go with the bats, I bought some balls!


Everyone says I should go see the Taj Mahal, one of the most famous architectural buildings of India. Due to the distance of getting there, it would have been a bit rushed. After a week long of work, you just want to relax, so I didn't get to see it, in life form. BUT, my teammates were so sweet, that they brought the Taj Mahal to me!! How thoughtful!!! :) It was actually in pieces in a box, so I built it up when I got back to Sydney. It's actually made of marble, made my luggage very heavy, luckily did put me overweight at the airport. Thank you, team!! :)



And I also bought some home-made chocolates, shawls, wood art, and, of course tea, and mixtures. What are mixtures?? It's those addictive snacky things that you eat non-stop. My parents, specifically told me to bring some back, and ALOT of it (thanks for buying some of it for me, Arun).


Also, my trip to the tea plantation was not only for me, but for the people I bought tea for. :) The tea there is GREAT! It's the best tea I've ever drunk!


It was a great opportunity to go to India. When I first told people, oh I'm going to work in India, most of their first reactions is not of elation. Perhaps it's the view from the outside world, that India is appears to be a growing country. Not fully up to par, compared to the big gun countries of the world. I chose to think of it as another place to meet people, experience an ENTIRELY different culture, and see for myself what India is truly like.

India was great! I loved the curries, my workmates were a blast, I was waited on hand and foot, and everything there is inexpensive! I would definitely go back there, perhaps, northern India. Because they say you gotta visit the Taj Mahal, and I just want to see the difference between the northies and southies, as that really was the intriguing part of India for me. How different Indians are to each other, even though, they're from the same country!

Thank you, to everyone involved in making my Indian stay a good one!

State of Origin

No, I’m not going to talk about rugby league (bloody NSW lost the series, what the hell happened!??) Soo depressing, even from all the way here.

Someone had told me that India had many different languages, but it never occurred to me that there were 28+ languages, and counting. For each state, there is a state language and even within the same state, you may have a derivative of that state language.

The most spoken Indian language is Hindi, which is mainly used in the north. A few states are noted as Hindi spoken states, in addition to their own language. Hindi is part of the schooling curriculum here, so, Hindi seems to be the national language, but it’s rarely used in the southern region. It’s not strange to find that people can speak more than one language, like Ashwin, he can speak 5 different indian languages, as well as german, and is getting increasingly better at malayalam (Kerala state language)!

The country is very segregated, each state has their own chief minister (like our state premier), with their own rules, and culture and customs. For example, Ashwin is from Karnataka (speaking kannada), Arun is from Tamil Nadu (speaking tamil), while Rajesh, Jibi, and Roshan are from Kerala (speaking malayalam). What language do the different staties speak to each other in? English! So, when you hear an indian speaking english with an indian accent in Sydney, here, it's more like they speak english with WHICH indian accent. Trust me, there is a difference!


Indian people do separate themselves by, North (map, right) or South (map, above) India. The northern indians would eat chappathis (like roti) and naans with curry, whereas the south indians eat rice with curries.

The northern indians are much fairer in skin tone compared with the south (Ashwin sometimes gets called a northern indian even though he is a southie), and the guys in south India generally have some type of facial hair. In Kochi, it's not as metro as the big cities (about 3 levels down), so you can still see the India of old, i.e. not touched by westernisation.

You don't get the sense of a unified India due to these culture clashes, once you're in the country. Some have nicknamed it a mini-Europe, or the even the United States of India (I thought that was quite funny), due to the differences in each state. But I’m sure when the cricket comes around, they’re all quite united. Sachin Tendulkar is their God, and you might be able to call cricket a religion here, as EVERYBODY follows it obsessively. The guys in the team are throwing player statistics at me, from the 1980s!! Gosh!

And guess what? They haven't heard of Russell Peters! Blasphemy! I’m going to infiltrate them with Russell Peters!

My workplace in Kochi...

I work in the Vismaya building, in Kochi, in the state of Kerala. The state is in the southern region of India, and the nearest metro city to me is Bangalore, which is 9hrs by road. Even the work building is in a big huge hole. There is absolutely nothing around it, no shops, no restaurants, just a lot of dirt, as there’s still construction going on.

This is my full team (plus Deepa, our new recruit who isn't in this shot). Starting from left, is me, Jibi, Arun, Ashwin, Roshan, and Rajesh (who will be leaving our team *sob*)

From the roof, you can see quite contrasting scenery, on one side you would have, lovely greens, and rivers.

Then you look over the other side and you see a whole lot of contruction and dirt!

What do people eat if we’re working, with no shops around? There is a canteen on the level above me, and apparently the food isn’t that great. But they tell me, it’s getting better. As you know, EVERYONE eats with their hands. They have a specific washroom, just to wash up, before and after you eat. It’s unisex, but they do not provide any soap. I found that VERY strange, because your hands aren’t really clean with just water? But other washroom places, normally do have soap.

Only takes up a quarter of the entire floor

Unisex washrooms

I’m staying at the Transit Quarters, which is about an 8min auto ride, but I’m 30mins away from the main city centre of Kochi. It’s quite difficult to move around if you do not have transport, and it makes it hard to get into the city on weekdays, and even weekends, due to the terrible traffic. Also, you do not want to catch public transport, it’s a big nono, unless you can’t afford your own wheels. There’s no air con, and people are just hanging off the doorway, I was amazed when I saw that.

Driving Conditions...

Here are my main points about driving/riding here:

• There is no footpaths, people have to walk on the side of the road.
• Seatbelts are not mandatory, and neither are helmets on motorbikes.
• Horn blaring from a vehicle is an indication of “move over, I’m coming through”
• High-beaming, constantly, during the evening, with no thought at blinding the opposite car.

But I am amazed that people still can get to places, albeit on IST clock (they joke it really stands for "Indian Stretched Time", so nothing is ever on time)

Don't I look cooool??

Everyone overtakes, dodging traffic, squeezing themselves into any available gap, and only miss other vehicles (and people) by millimetres. Seriously, you would not stick your hand out of the window. Everyone has their sideview mirrors turned in, just so they have that much more room to move with.

The humps in the road are also not marked, I don't know how they see it, but they seem to know it's there, even though, it's dark! Although, one time, my auto driver missed the hump, and went over it full speed. I hit my head on the roof, causing my neck to crack. Ouch! I had an egg on my forehead for the next couple days (it wasn’t that visible, but it hurt, nonetheless)

You would think, with this much chaos, how does anyone get anywhere. But on a motorbike, you can get there so quickly. Going through the tiniest gap allows you to get in front of others. There is no such thing as sticking to your lane, if you can fit in a space in front of you, you fill it.

Traffic, itself, is a nightmare, I’m about 30mins (travel time) out of the city, so getting there is quite difficult and time consuming. So, you don’t go out on weekdays, and Saturdays are just chockas, the traffic is worse than a snail’s pace.

Apparently, it's worse in the metro cities, e.g. some people take 3hrs, commuting to work in public transport. That's just unheard of! There really would be no motivation to get to work!

The kings of the road are the public buses and the red killers (see earlier blog entry), you would always give way to them, because they will not give way to you. Never take them on, is the motto, you do not want to risk it.

Not surprisingly the road death toll is quite high, pretty sure, there is at least a death somewhere in the state. Even on my mini road trips, there is some sort of accident that we pass.

An Indian Engagement Party...and Elephants

Last Sunday, Rajesh (guy in purple shirt, between Arun and Roshan) was very kind to invite me to his engagement party. The whole team was invited, and everyone went, except for Jibi who was on leave. This engagement party seemed very traditional. First, as we're part of the groom's side, we were invited to his place to have lunch. What happens is that the groom's representatives, usually the elders (and they have to be male), go to the bride's house, to check out the girl and give their approval. They then bind the agreement with a small ritual with the bride's representatives, and then return to Rajesh to say yep, we like her, you can marry her now!

The strange thing is, Rajesh is not allowed, neither are the women, to go to the bride's house (I was lucky, cause I am a foreigner). Again, at the bride's house, I felt like the main attraction, but I ignore all the stares, keeping that smile plastered to my face, and find a spare seat, in front of a small stage. The thing is, they can't speak english, so you can't really strike up a conversation, all I can do is smile and say hello. :)

Here they did the hand binding ritual (left), and said a prayer (btw, Rajesh is christian). Once it's over, the bride-to-be comes walking down the aisle and stands on the stage for a few seconds, while everyone takes their snapshots, and then they provided us with tea and snacks. The bride was VERY attractive (a young 20-year-old), you could see why Rajesh has been grinning ear to ear since I arrived. Here, I thought it was due to my presence. But, I shall not get a big head, he had just got introduced to his future-wife the day I arrived in India. So, the team were commenting that there's been an extra lift in his step, he's smiling alot more...etc. etc. I'm still coming to terms that it's an arranged marriage, no choice by the involved parties, at all. And, rarely, do arranged marriages end up in divorce. (Unfortunately, I could not post up pictures of the bride-to-be, as it’s discouraged before they are married)

Once the party was over, we visited the Elephant Sanctuary, basically a place for elephants that are chained to a tree stump(so they don’t run rampant), and constantly eating or having a nice bath. There were HEAPS of them, I felt positively small in that park.

As you would all be aware, elephants are sacred animals in India. You NEVER kill an elephant, even if that elephant has attacked its master/owner, no one will do anything. There's probably a video on youtube showing this, you can watch it at your own mental peril.

Another interesting fact, if you were caught behind an elephant, i.e. they were showing you their big ole ass, it's good luck! Like Ashwin is, to the right. If a cat (any cat, not just black) crosses the road in front of you, it's bad luck. That's another thing with this place, there's quite a few roaming animals, wild dogs (most of them limping, after being hit by a vehicle), wild cats (very skinny), roaming goats, and cows! Now, that’s another animal that’s sacred, cows! Indians of the Hindu religion are vegetarian, because it’s wrong to kill living things (similar to Buddhism). But there are some religions where you can eat chicken, but only on certain days, but hardly any, if ever, eat beef, unless you’re a christian.

What's going on....

The Fight for Kashmir
As an outsider you do not know much of the going-ons in other countries, it kind of makes you think that you're lucky that Australia, is comparatively safe. For example, India has two different wars going on at the same time (although, one of them they have stopped trying to intervene). The first is the fight for Kashmir, a region in the north most part of India, bordering Pakistan, and the Himalayans to China. Ashwin sent me some pictures of Kashmir, and boy, are they breath-taking. The region is known as a tourist attraction due to these picturesque views of nature.

Dudipatsar lake

Deosai (below), is the highest plateau in the world

The Pakistan-India war has been raging for a long while now, ever since India allowed Pakistan to become independent. Pakistan came and invaded part of Kashmir. Pakistan then handed over a portion of the captured region to China. The Pakistani part of Kashmir is inhabited wholly by the Pakistan military (see current territories below).

When Pakistan tried to claim more of the Indian-owned Kashmir region, in 1999, many worldwide politicians condemned Pakistan, but the Pakistani government denied it was on their orders, pointing the finger to the military. And I thought Imran Khan was cool, back in the days of old skool cricket.

Some may think that Kashmir should belong to Pakistan as there is a majority of muslims living there, and a little known fact, India is surrounded on both sides by Pakistan. East Pakistan, a.k.a Bangladesh is on India's right. It would only seem right that they join up at the top? But no, apparently, India have been very successful defending their land. India bases its claim to Kashmir off Maharaja Hari Singh's decision to give Kashmir to India during the India-Pakistan split (Pakistan use to be part of India).

Kashmir is considered one of the world's most dangerous territorial disputes due to the nuclear capabilities of India and Pakistan.

LTTE

The second war, that originated from India, is the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) a.k.a. Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. They are fighting against the Sri Lankan government to have their own state in the north and eastern parts (depicted in a dark orange colour, left) of Sri Lanka.

They originated from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu (see India map, right). Many Tamils had immigrated to Sri Lanka, and wanted their own Tamil State in Sri Lanka. They are a militant organisation, of which many countries have labelled them 'terrorists'. The group also established the 'Black Tigers', a special unit of suicide attacks against political, economic and military targets.

The LTTE advocates equality for women, and has a large number of female recruits. The assassination of Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was killed by a female Black Tiger.

Half-way there....

After two whole weeks of having a meal of curry per day (going against Rebecca's sound advice, I am drinking lots of water, though, hehe), my stomach lining decided to conk out. It was not a good feeling. During the Munnar trip, I had forgotten my packet of tissues, and of course, they do not have TISSUES anywhere in the countryside. Ashwin and Tony were looking at me strangely, or probably thinking you silly duffer, but they were good sports in trying to find me napkins, at least, to use. Even the masala dosai (on a banana leaf, how authentic!) I had during lunch, caused my stomach to stir its acids, and it wasn't hot-spicy at all, it was very yummy. But I couldn't finish it, for the fear of having to endure stomach cramps on the 3hr car journey back home.

Phewww.....
so this beginning 3rd week here in India, I was on a detox diet of, basically, no curry at all. I had to rotate between, stir-fry noodles, sandwiches, fruit, chicken fried rice, and back again. Mixing it a bit, chicken sandwiches, with cheese sandwiches, or vegetable fried noodles, and chicken fried noodles. Oh, also, we ate at a swish hotel on the way back to Munnar, I had chicken stroganoff, but bad choice on the hot and sour soup entree. It was quite peppery, so I only drank half of it. My stomach was growling at me to STOP torturing it with all these mixed spices.

Now, nearing the end of the 3rd week, I can begin to eat curry again, like tonight, I'll be having egg curry with pappadums, and rice. Can't wait!! I know, vicious cycle, but it's definitely very worth it for those few minutes of eating!!!

Oh and they have a Pizza Hut here (one store in the city), Ashwin took me on his very cool motorbike, and we were zooming all over the place, ducking between cars, dodging on-coming traffic, and then speeding down the straight, 90km/hr with NO helmet, scary and thrilling at the same time. Pizza Hut is the place where they definitely provide you with cutlery, except you would use your hands.

And yes, they also have my favourite, KFC! I haven't seen it yet, though. :(

Munnar Trip

Finally met Tony (sitting on the right), one of the original offshore team members that I worked with over email. He has since moved on to bigger and better things with a rival company. He came along with Ashwin and I, to go to Munnar, which is about a 3hr drive from where we are staying. We hired the car and a drivefr, it cost about at least 2000 rupees for the whole thing, about $60 for the whole day. It's very convenient to have a driver, they drop you off where you want to go, and go find parking somewhere, and wait for you.

Munnar is a town, that's near a mountain, with plenty of touristy things to see. There is a tea plantation owned by TATA (one of the biggest companies in India, they practically have their name on everything), a big waterfall (very small at this time of year, monsoon hasn't started yet, see left with the boys), speed boating, and some scenic places, which they call "hill stations," basically lookout points at various spots along the mountain.


The TATA tea plantation, it's EVERYWHERE. You see rolling hills covered in pillow-like shrubs, makes the hills look like they're covered in carpet, that you could almost walk all over.

Tea shrubs up close

They utilise cheap human labour, to cut the leaves, where they have special scissors and a bag attached to their wrist, so when they cut the leaves, it drops into the bag. They then carry the filled-up bags into a truck to transport it to the tea factory to be processed.

Carrying the tea bags to the truck

Transporting the tea bags

To be processed in a factory

Rajamalayi National Park is where you can see the natural habitat of Nilgiritahrs, a breed of goat. Their horns appear really sharp, and they have a patch of black on their knees, looking like knee pads. The national park covers 98km square, and we're only allowed to walk 2km square of it. It covers the the peak of the mountain, apparently this mountain is the highest peak in the state. Apparently, there's elephants and tigers, but we only saw the Nilgiritahrs. That was enough for me...

Previously, you could drive from the entrance into the park, but now they have shuttle buses (20rupees each), because last time, someone goat-napped one of the nilgiritahrs and took it home. Alot of indians from neighbouring states come and see these goats, so, alot of ppl come through. They also blocked off parts of the mountain, because someone had committed suicide by jumping off the cliff.

The weather here is much more bearable than back in Kochi, much to my liking. Cooler, fresher, and cleaner air to clear your lungs with. It was probably about 10 degrees cooler.

The end of the road for me, and Ashwin hanging on for dear life below.

This is the 3 of us, I don't think indians know how to take pictures well. You could not tell that the boys were not on the ground.

Nilgiritahrs - a breed of goat only found in this national park

They just roam where they want to, and try not to get too close to the baby, while the mother goat is around

Echo Point

Mattuppetty Dam