My travel experience to Philippines - part 1

As someone who loves to travel. I consider myself reasonably lucky to land in the job where travelling is part of my job profile. And to add to it. I'm based near Delhi (Gurugram) and my company's India head office is in Pune. How we came to arrangement is topic of another post. So to cut long story short, I have been travelling a lot off late, Mainly within India but sometimes overseas too.

Recently I had to travel to Philippines for some office related work. The duration was around 1 week. My past experience with such business travel proves that these kind of trips are very hectic. Generally the only places that you see are airports, your hotel room and customer factory. But this trip and the background related to it was quite eventful. So here's what happened.

I started working quite young in 2004 as I travelled overseas for the first time in 2006. At that time, things were not so user friendly. To apply for VISA sometimes we need to come all the way to Delhi (I was working in Chandigarh then) and to reach embassy in the early morning. The era without stuff  like online banking, Ola Uber etc. seems really ancient whereas its only around 10 years in the past. Now we take getting the VISA for granted. So I was not really prepared for the teething problems that I was about to encounter while applying for the VISA. Seems like government of Philippines is making conscious efforts to discourage people coming from other countries, specially South Asia and Africa. When I heard their conditions from my travel agent like original copy of the invitation letter from the inviting party which should be verified by Notary. I was surprised to say the least. On top of this, initially it was planned that our top management will also join us there. So there was added pressure on me to finish the documentation related formalities at the earliest as I was perceived as the bottle-neck in scheduling the trip. For getting Philippines VISA, I need to go to their embassy directly (they don't have facilitation center). They have made one small make-shift office for VISA application in the main embassy itself. Few weeks later when I will be in Philippines itself (no this story has a happy ending in a way that I did managed to get my VISA and travel to Manila), I realized the this country is still quite close to Europe or America in the pop culture which is one area where I find my country quite different. So in VISA process itself they are special provision. And there I'm not talking about the privileges' bestowed to European nationals to visit Ph without any VISA requirement. That's purely a case of how strong your passport is in my mind. I found out that if I have US or Schengen or for that matter even Japanese VISA. I can travel to Philippines without any further additional documents. Other remarkable thing is the number of people from my home state (Punjab) applying for this VISA. I very well know that we people (Punjabis) do travel a lot and are a sort of global expats. We have almost reverse colonized Canada and Australia but even Ph seems to be quite a popular destination for us. Some of the poor souls who were probably travelling to meet their children and grand-children were like deer in front of headlight there. Understanding English was already a challenge for them and to add to it the Pilipino accent was making it almost impossible for them to decipher the questions. 

I also had some minor issues as the original letters that I have already asked our agent in Ph to share, has not reached me yet. I had to convince the lady in counter that I will duly submit the original at the time of collection of VISA. Also I wanted to process the application in fast track mode but apparently my agent has paid for normal mode only. Anyhow this issue was settled (I paid the extra amount in cash). And I got my VISA just in time for my travel to Manila.

The whole trip planning was done in a great haste and I was not really in sound state of mind when the travel agent booked my ticket and itinerary for the visit. My stress subsided a bit on receiving the VISA. And then I realized that my ticket to Manila (with a halt in Kuala Lumpur in between) has the half of only 75 minutes.  As I have lived in Kuala Lumpur for 7 months, I know that they have two terminals connected by train. So I asked our agent to reconfirm that both arriving and departing flights in my case was from same terminal only. Still I had a bit of stress on my mind when I boarded the flight. And, as the luck would have it, the flight take off good 15 minutes late. Even though flight carriers (even in domestic circuit) has lot of in-build buffer to cater for such delays. Still, somehow the flight landed also 15 minutes late. Just before the flight was about to land, I asked the air-hostess if the flight to Manila will also depart from the same terminal. She replied in the negative. And I was left with no option but to stand up the queue in aisle anxious to get off as soon as possible (I used to laugh at people who has no patience and start queueing up as soon as the plan lands (perhaps, it was karma getting back at me in a way). Murphy law was also in play on same day (my queue was moving slower than other). As soon as I got of the plane, I asked for the way to get to other terminal and started running. 

Few other Indian guys who had a same connection started following as we Indians are quite good in following other blindly. Last time when I went to Malaysia (a good 6 years back), they used to have train coach connecting one terminal to another. For some reason those were out to operation and instead they were using buses to ferry passengers between terminals. So I had bigger distance to travel and also had to ask for directions time and again so that I don't get lost. Somehow I landed at the right place and get into the bus in time but alas.. I had to wait till the bus in full before it started moving, In a funny sort of way, It reminded me about back in India when I used to go to my native village from Chandigarh (I used to live in Chandigarh back then). I had to use the infamous state transport buses to reach the last mile stop. These bus operators want to earn as much as they can so they use to cram passengers into the buses like chicken. If the bus is rated for 50 passengers, they will load at-least 200 to 250. People who have already boarded the bus used to get annoyed and anxious. So here I was getting really anxious and annoyed as the bus-driver was waiting for the bus to get filled in. My Indian companion who were trying to follow me while I was running without giving them full instruction also managed to get in and were giving me wicked smiles when the bus moved out to parking slot. I would still reached my boarding gate with good 10-15 minutes to spare but had no time to eat. Fortunately I was carrying some snacks in my bag. So after around 2 more hours, I landed in Manila but I had one final adventure to undergo before setting feet outside the airport.

I have had my amount of run-ins with the immigration officials, both in India and outside. The last major one was few years back in China in my previous company. As I had to travel to South China, the most convenient part was to travel via Hong-Kong and take a ferry to Mainland China. Somehow because of this fact or any other point, the lady at immigration was downright hostile. She makes big point of the fact that I don't have details about the taxi driver that will pick me at airport (I told her that my host company is arranging that and that driver will be ready will placard showing my name at departure). She almost threatened to deport me back before relenting.

That was sometime back and I could attribute it to various reasons. I don't really think much of this episode. After that I had travelled to Middle-east and Europe without any major issue. However the atmosphere at Manila airport was quite different. I was also hungry (the last connecting flight from Kualalumpur to Manila has no vegetarian option for me) and a bit cranky. 

There was a really long queue at immigration desk which did not helped my case at all. On top of it, the lady at immigration desk has a really strong accent and I was having difficult deciphering her statements. I had to ask her to repeat herself which did not improved her demeanor. She wanted to know where I will be staying in Manila. My office colleague (Who was coming from Spain to join me) has already booked room for both of us. So naturally I showed her the email exchange between my colleague and the hotel. But the lady was objecting that the mail only says room for two but did not mention my name. It was a precarious situation as my colleague was probably in the flight at that time and not available on call. Anyways somehow she relented and at-last I was out of airport and in Manila at last.

Continued in second post...

My Travel experience to Spain

 As a blogger I’m always in search of interesting topics. Combine that with my love for traveling; and travel related blogs or travelogue seems like a very natural choice to write upon. When I started blogging a good 10 years back, I tried my hand on travel blogs. However off late I have not written any post on this topic even though I’m still travelling a lot, courtesy my job. I even travelled right in the peak of pandemic.

Probably as most of my travelling is work related, it means a very hectic schedule with no time to observe the place, assimilate the unique culture around. I used to joke around that even though I claim to have visited 11 countries, It actually means 11 airports and 11 hotels. But this time is very different. Now I must spend almost a month in a new place away from my country. And I think I am well positioned to observe and pen (or type) my thoughts.

So here we go.

I landed in Spain on 9 of January 2022 and will be flying back on 6^th of February. That is almost one month (or four weeks to be more exact). This is my first visit to this country. Even though business visits generally are very tightly scheduled leaving very little time for recreation or fooling around; 4 weeks is a lot of time and more importantly, it also means 4 weekends. Plus, I get the opportunity to interact with my co-workers who are native of this country. Hence, I hope to get some reflections about Spanish society and overall, about Spanish culture from my visit.

I joined this company right in the first wave of Pandemic, Due to the travel restrictions and general fear associated with COVID, it was not possible for me to attend the induction training in Spain. We thought (like everyone else in the world) that the COVID and travel restrictions is just a matter of few months. But now it’s clear in the hindsight that this indeed is the new normal. Hence, we resumed our normal business travel and after a roller coaster ride of company restructuring (It need another post). I landed up in Spain for my introductory training full 1 year and 9 months after I had joined this company.

To put things in perspective, my company has two offices in Spain, One in Castellar de Valles (near Barcelona) and second near Burgos. I had no prior idea before, but this fact has lot of relevance as in Spain also there is some under-current of resentment between two regions.

I’m not a history major, so not sure if I’m the right person to write on history of even my native country India. Leave aside Spain. But whatever I could gather with my interactions and after a quick study on Internet. I understand that Catalonia or Cataluña as it’s called in the native language is an autonomous community inside Spain. Way back into Middle Ages, this region has its own distinct culture and institutional system including courts and constitutions. In 1960s, it revolted against a large and cumbersome Spanish army and was briefly proclaimed as a republic under French protection

For some periods, its unique culture and language was supressed, and Spanish was declared as its official language. During the Spanish transition to democracy (1975–1982), Catalonia regained self-government and is now one of the most economically dynamic communities of Spain. However, as I have experienced in India also, these kind of separatist movement does not die totally. Some small spark always remains deep buried in the psyche of people which is fanned by politician (Politicians, it seems like are cut from same cloth everywhere). I also understood the movement was again rekindled in 2017 when Catalonia parliament conducted a referendum and declared independence unilaterally. The Spanish senate in turn, termed this referendum illegal, they dissolved the incumbent government and conducted snap election The Spanish supreme court even imprisoned seven former ministers and convicted several ministers including then president of Catalonia region, who fled to other European countries.

As per initial planned itinerary, I was to stay to 2 weeks in Sabadell which is town near Castellar, then travel for a week to Burgos. After then come back to Sabadell before returning to India. Burgos lies in separate autonomous region of Castile and León. It has a very rich historical and religious significance. I will not dwell into this part much as then the post will be long. It was comparatively a smaller city and has more of small town / countryside kind of vibes.  It has more native Spanish European population compared to Barcelona which is more international and urban.

My experience in Burgos was very different than in Sabadell / Castellar del vales. One we were travelling with colleagues rather than on our own, secondly as it’s a smaller town and we were staying here for a much shorter time. Our hosts were more cordial to us. The town was very picturesque even though much colder. We used to roam around in the evening with the complete group most of the times. For a smaller town, Burgos has many places to see including famous Cathedral and Museum of evolution. I understand it has been a site of excavation too. We were travelling as a group of around 7-8 people out of which me and my colleague were only two Asian. We were a bit of exotic animals for others with all our idiosyncrasies like vegetarian foods (they were quite amused by difference between vegetarian and vegan).

In Sabadell we were more on our own. We were only two visiting guests there and barring two team dinners, we were eating out on our own for full three weeks. The local population has more proportion from other ethnicities compared to Burgos. In Barcelona which was 45 min drive from this place. We could find many Indians and our neighbours across the border (Pakistan)

This difference also shows in my interaction with colleagues in both the offices. The Colleagues in Burgos has probably never interacted with Asian person before and were more limited in communicating in English. However, the interesting thing is that they were more open to us compared to their colleagues from Barcelona.

My return was from Bilboa as the direct connectivity between Burgos and Barcelona was not very good. Bilbao is an important port city in northern Spain and is capital of Basque country. So, I had chance of visiting three different parts of Spain although Bilbao was just a stopover to be honest.

PS: My return was postponed by around a week because unfortunately my COVID test report has turned out to be positive. Apparently, I’m a COVID magnet, my hide and seek with this virus needs another post on its own, so for now it suffices to say that I’m going to experience bit more of Spain even though I will be mainly confined in my room only for this period.

I have personally experienced that how people are quick to stereotype or pigeonhole anything. So, I will refrain from generalizing my impression of Spain or Europe based on my limited interaction with people here. Also, most of the people that I interacted during my visit to Spain were my colleagues at work. So, the company relations between both the business units, the power dynamics and the relative hierarchies also plays a very important role. I have tried to observe everything around me with an open mind as far as possible without any conscious bias or prejudice on my side.

My first visit to Europe was way back in 2006 when I went to Austria. It’s a big gap of around 16 years and these are two different places so perhaps I’m comparing apples to oranges, but I noticed that I lot of things has changed. In my first visit we were like exotic animals in these places but now I could see many Indians and our neighbours across the borders, Moreso in big / tourist cities like Barcelona but even in interiors of Spain and in cities of religious significance where there is even less likelihood of seeing any Indian person. Heck, we even could find Indian restaurants in those places, so maybe India has done a good job of pushing their soft culture around (Yoga, cuisine, Bollywood etc). Another thing that I could notice is that now gap between India and Europe is decreasing in two of the most noticeable area at-least in my book, cleanliness, and road etiquette. When I last toured Europe, there was such a vast difference in general cleanliness that I felt like I have landed in another world altogether, everything was squeaky clean. However, this was not the case this time around. Even though generally it was clean, I could still find trash on places like public parks, on my hotel roof as well as downtown market area.  India is still more dirty but when you factor-in the abundant dust here due to topical weather and lack of greenery combined with our humongous population which is almost double than that of combined Europe, the difference does not feel so stark anymore. For sure, it’s much greener than the part of India I live in, but here I’m talking about general cleanliness.

Second part is about road etiquettes, When I last toured Europe. I was staying in a hotel at riverside with only a road separating the same. One fine morning, I was just standing outside my hotel gazing at the river. I realized after some time that good 3-4 cars had stopped on the road waiting patiently for me to pass. All the cliches regarding rarely using horn were indeed true in that region. However, this time, the situation was different. During my full stay of around a month; I could observe multiple instances of people jumping red lights, Not giving right of way to pedestrians. Off-course compared to the absolute nightmarish mess that we have here, it is still much better.

I don’t know how much I have left in this company, considering the uncertainties in our business. We are in post-pandemic times now. It may very well be my last visit to Spain. But it gave me good insights about people from another culture and I realized that we are so alike yet so different.

Yayavar mode on - Again

My family is really into Astrology and zodiac signs etc. All the family members have their janam patri listing the prophecy and predictions about our lives.
Personally I am a bit confused about its veracity, but I don't dismiss it completely either. It does make for a casual fun read as it mostly says only good things about you. I also believe that people writing daily horoscope has a serious psychological writing talent as majority of people relate with it. Obviously, there is some scientific logic behind this which is maybe too obscure for us right now.
Anyways one of the predictions made about me was that I will be traveling a lot both in India and abroad in my future life. For a typical Punjabi family for whom greener pastures in Canada and Australia are always alluring. This was no big deal. 
I had memories of long travel since a very young age. My father was in army, so we use to shift the house after every 3-4 years. Majority of my childhood memories at that time are from cantonment in Goa where I did my schooling from 2nd to 5th. As our native village is in Punjab. We used to travel from Goa to Punjab in train in every summer break. It was a three-day journey which involves changing of train too. It is a whole world taking long duration train journeys in India. After my father retirement We settled in Chandigarh which was a biggest city near my village. We were living in south end of Chandigarh and my school was in north end of Chandigarh even though it is a very small city. So, on daily basis I used to take school bus from one part of city to another and later I covered the same distance on cycle at the end of school and beginning of college.
As I have no intention of writing my autobiography here, we can conclude in a nutshell that I have been traveling most of my life one way or another. However last few years have been very interesting in this regard. I come to Gurugram (then it was called Gurgaon or Gurgawan in local colloquial terms) in 2011, the decision was primary because my company was in Gurugram only. In 2014, my company shifted to Connaught place, Delhi. My office commute increased by around 1 hour in morning and evening each. The only solace was that I was travelling by metro, so it was not so taxing. But even this relief was also short-lived.  In 2016 I changed my job to a company based in Greater Noida (I live in Gurugram by the way). Initially I had some training and was deputed in Malaysia, but I came to India in last quarter of 2016. Then onwards for 3.5 years till the time I left my job I was commuting from my home to office which is around 80km one way. That too in peak office hours in Delhi traffic. It seems my biggest achievement in that company is not the exposure and knowledge I gained but rather the feat of surviving this mad traffic for 4-5 hours on daily basis  I could write blog post on this topic.
Like any other job; there have been good days as well as bad days in my previous job, the bad days could be due to extra work on hand, some inadvertent mistake by me or it’s just that I was not feeling well. But whatever the reason maybe, the long car drives back home used to become a struggle on those days. In the hindsight, this daily suffer in Hindi and English, my boss who was like a big banyan tree and the recent perception by top boss in my previous company that I am up to no good was instrumental reasons behind my leaving that company.
Though I am saved from daily office commute in my current job as I am working from home only. Business travel or official travel is much more here. Most of the places are new for me where I have not travelled much in my previous jobs. Thus, slowly, and gradually I am trying to rekindle my love for traveling. This life has its own charm and I have always liked it. Spending time at airport or hotels, living out of suitcase, trying new local cuisines while on travel, as a sign of current times, getting RT PCR done or evading quarantine at airports exit. I have always been enamoured by people who are well travelled and well read. Now I am trying to inculcate the habits in myself.
However travel is much more than moving from point A to B. Its having your me time which can be used for introspection, testing your discipline and willpower,  getting exposed to new experiences, Meditation bundled into one.

PS : In our society, the janam patri also serves important purpose in match making as it's used to match planetary alignment between prospective bride and groom but that is a topic of another post.
PPS : Yayawar is an Hindi work which means travellers or more accurately someone who is addicted to wander lust. I read it in a story in college some 15-16 years back, but I stayed with me. Strangely one of the other stories that I remember was titled “Neelkant ka Safar”.

A Slice of expat life cont.. :

Now that the time has come to bid adieu to Malaysia (Most probably) I will be going from Malaysia to India permanently in one - two weeks. I think the time is ripe for summarizing my stay in Malaysia. First of all I did not roam much in Malaysia. I just covered some major tourist destinations. Moreover most of the people I interacted with were Indian only, as my company is Indian. Thus I cannot claim that I had any major insight into Malaysian culture per se. Nonetheless my experience in Malaysia was rewarding in other senses. It does not matter at all whether I was in Malaysia or anywhere. I could be anywhere in India as well. What was special was that I was away from my comfort zone and force to break away from my daily schedule. This was an opportunity for me to start afresh. And how much did I succeeded in this; Well, let's see.

As stated before also, I come to Malaysia as part of my induction in new job. So it was not only the country but new job also. And every job has its own distinct culture. There was no similarity between my new and old job. Everything was different. There is some element of truth in change management theories when they say that first instinct of humans is to resist the change. There was already some issues involves in my joining and coming out on second day of my joining itself, the environment seems obnoxious, to say the least.

The very first shock that I experienced after coming here was regarding change in working hours. In my previous company I was a one to put in maximum no of working hours and frankly many a times I rub my colleague in wrong way because of this also. I thought of myself as a very hard working person capable of putting in the no of long hours required to get the job done. Little did I realized that realized my job profile was of a person sitting in front of laptop whole day. Plus there was a kind of ennui that comes with too much time on your hand which was a case with me in my notice period. Hence to say that I was caught unaware will be an understatement. After landing in Malaysia I realized two things. One that this is not a training but more correct word will be deputation or project. Hence rather than sitting on front of computer I needed to be on the shop-floor standing almost all day. And second that since all the projects here are running late. Therefore I need to work 12 hours daily. It was not easy for me adjust with all this. On top of all this I did not knew anything about the company culture, Nature of my colleagues, Technical details of the product we offer. All in all the situation was quite bleak.

But the biggest contradiction were the weekends, As on weekdays I was super busy but on weekends I felt that there is so much time and nothing to do. I was away from the family, no local chores to run, no friends, relatives etc. Due to time-lapse between Malaysia and India and international calling I could not even call my friends to talk to my heart's desire. So the situation was like this, Very hectic schedule on weekdays and then feeling lonely on weekends. All my colleagues were content in sleeping till noon to spend time on weekends. But I did not felt like doing that. After really think over it I did decide on two things to make better use of the situation.

One I decide that I will not sit idle on weekends. On every Sunday (and Saturdays too when free), I used to go out for sightseeing.

Second the free time on weekends was my private time, Something that I think we all long for , the time we can really use to introspect and plan for future. One of the major indulgence of mine was reading. And I really utilize this time to read as many books as I could lay my hands upon. I even subscribed to Kindly unlimited so that I can read unlimited books.

The second major problem faced by me (and most of my colleagues on deputation from India like me) was the absence to familiar foods. The problem was two pronged. First, as I'm a vegetarian I have to be on constant guard against meat, beef etc in the food. And second, Malaysia has large number of Indian but from south India, hence the so called Indian food available was south Indian foods and after a few days I got fed up from this type of food. To add to it; I have this weakness to not knowing how to cook. Due to not getting enough food. My attentiveness was also down. The first few weeks passed just like that before I could recognize the positive effect of this. My weight comes down by 3 kgs!!. It was then I realized that it's actually a blessing in disguise. While in India, I really tried hard to lose weight but to no avail. Now that this food issue has already given me a head-start. I decided to pursue it with some exercise, experimenting with food and managed to shave off further 3 kg off.

I do maintain a crazy bucket list which is mostly about new experiences. Adventure sports feature very high on that list. Bungee jumping is one think that I always wanted to do. I actually enquired places near Delhi (where I lives in India) where I can do this activity. It was not really far off (It's done near rishikesh some 300 km from Delhi). But among other things, I always used to procrastinate; giving lame excused to myself like back pain, risks involved and lack of friends. Now that I have my weekends free, I googled and find out a place in Kuala-lumpur itself where I can go and do bungee jumping. The describe that experience will take another blog post so I can conclude by saying it was once in a lifetime experience for me.

PS: Its is perhaps write only that I'm finishing this post now that I'm back in India; Looking back in the hindsight. My stint in Malaysia was an experience that I will always cherish.

A Slice of expat life :

As covered in few of my previous posts also, Since last six months I'm in Kualalumpur, Malaysia. Well not a continuous stay as I've been to India three times in this period. But those breaks were for one week only.

Although it's a temporary deputation and my family and permanent residence is still in India therefore I'm technically not an expat but for all practical purpose we can consider me an expat. Hence the title of the article.

I'm not going to harp about the so called cleanliness, etiquettes or lack of traffic dust etc that you experience once staying outside India. My article is more about the loneliness you feel when in a foreign country. That feeling of being outside of your comfort zone. That sense of unfamiliarity as your daily schedule that you are so used to changes totally. The only external factor I'm going to talk (or rather write :) about) is the problem in foods especially if you happen to be vegetarian like me.

I landed in Malaysia on 20th of February. In fact the reason I remember this date so vividly is that it was only one day after I joined my new company. Considering the notice period served after resigning in my previous company, and the issue of passport renewal; visa application etc-etc . It could be safely said that since the start of this year I was having a break from my usual daily routine; the effect of which was even more amplified when I landed in Kualalumpur.

One thing that Malaysian can really learn from us Indians is how to stand in a Metro train. I witnessed this time and again as almost every weekend I used to go to a place called Mini India wherein you can get good north India food. The problem is sometimes the train can get really crowded though not on the same level as in India on weekends.

In India people try to keep the door of the train free for movement and themselves move to interior of train-coach. But here in Malaysia this is not the case. Here it just does-not cross anybody mind to vacate the door. Even the train coaches are quite different. In India the coaches are designed so that there is more standing space to accommodate people than sets. But here it's the other way round.

Anyway back to the main topic. Much has been said about our comfort zone in so called Self-help books and the need to break the same but mostly they cover the issue on Micro level. I feed there is the comfort zone on Macro level. This sense of familiarity and security that you feed when you are in your own country. I specifically used the word security here as I personally experience this strange phenomena. Even though in India I'm staying in perhaps the most unsafe area you can find across all the Big Metropolitan cities (Delhi!!!). In Delhi NCR there is no surety of your safety even in your house. And compared to that Malaysia is much more safer. Still I cannot get rid of this nagging feeling of insecurity that I'm in a foreign country and hence cannot do as I wish. The biggest contribution to the atmosphere of unfamiliarity is the language.

Another problem of being an Indian in a foreign country is that you have to live with a sense of shame. One because of having this reputation of rape capital in the world.

And second because we don't hesitate from exhibition of debauchery even when outside India. Infact we indulge even more so in such behavior thinking that nobody knows us here. Not reflecting on the fact that they do know us. They know us as Indians. No matter how much we rave about other people being hypocrite in stereotyping all Indians in one mould. We forget that this mould is made based on these small unconscious actions by us only.

Other major and noticeable thing was when you realize that you are without a root in such places. There is no history attached with the surrounding. You cannot say that I was born here or at the place few hours of road journey from here. You cannot claim to know the people living in various parts of the country. You don't have any participation in the culture of this place. You don't share the history of this place. The ups and downs witnessed by this city in its journey since time immemorial.

You are just like a guest staying temporarily in a guest house before moving to your destination eventually. The aspect where this difference is most glaring is the politics. To me the this is the single most important differentiator that tells if you really belong to a country or not. Getting involved in politics shows if you really feel passion for the particular country or not. It very easy to see that Indians residing here who by nature are so much involved in politics (In India it should be declared as the national pass-time) Become totally un-interested in Malaysian politics. It really shows that in their heart they feel that they don't belong here.

Cont... 

Trip to Kolkata

Trip to Kolkata:-

When I came to know that I have to go to Kolkata for 6 days for company’s work. I was having mixed reactions; not too excited either to go to Kolkata because of huge pile of pending works that I have to take care of once I’m back.

Still nonetheless I wish to go to the so called “Red State” once which was also called the cultural capital of India.

The perceived image of Kolkata before going was that of Howrah Bridge, Hand pulled rickshaws and ladies wearing white Bengali Sarees.

The first thing that hit me after landing in Kolkata was the traffic. Having been to Delhi so many times that it almost feels like second home and an alternate trip to Mumbai every three months. I was assuming that I have seen the worst of metropolitan traffic.But the traffic scene in Kolkata changed all my assumptions, more than the number of vehicle; it was the state of chaos and absence of law and order that stuck me.

For communist ruled state I expected it to be anything but un-disciplined. But obviously I was totally wrong.

The first encounter as in the case of any newcomer to a state was with the taxi – drivers. Even thought that should not be the case of judging a state because then almost all Indian state will fail miserably. The experience with them was different in two senses. First majority of them belong to one state (Bihar), second more than the newcomers; they were having clashes with local there. I have this feeling after staying there a major communal tension is in the coming in this particular state. This particular right wing ideology is totally at odds with left ideology prevalent there, but there are ample signs of building tension between natives and outsiders.

Leaving this regular tension of searching for taxi in the morning and evening apart; the second major worry was regarding the food. For vegetarian by choice like me, this was the wrong place to be.
Staying at the outskirts of city, good vegetarian food was next to impossible to find (only “vegetarian” word should be sufficient here, “good” is a luxury)

I landed in Kolkata on 16th of November 2010 by train and left on 23rd of November 2010 by flight. (The airport was more crowded than the railway station!!!!)
Due to a hectic schedule and lethargy on my end also, I did not move out much. However courtesy to the taxi-drivers of Kolkata; I had enough chances to roam in the roads and the streets.
The only sight-seeing place I did visit was the Victoria Memorial. Ironically the main museum was closed on the day I chose to visit (Monday), hence I has to be content with only outside garden of the memorial.
The garden was for a haven for a love stuck couples and a definite no – no for families with children to go to. You could see the couples sitting hidden in corners everywhere pretending oblivious to people around them.

I’m not a huge advocate of moral policing, but the scenes of couples freely hugging each other in streets even kissing somehow adds to the chaos already prevailing in the city.
Still the architecture was pretty good from outside, the statue outside was very impressive along-with a full picture carved out of brass.

Most of the city that I had to chance to visit was progressing towards ruins, underlining the basic attitude of us towards preserving our old heritage. There were some odd scattered drops of prosperity in the huge sea that Kolkata is, and this disappoints me the most. For an old city like Kolkata you can ignore the lack of robust growth, provide whatever little growth is there is mutually inclusive, with long rule of communism also the economic divide was as stark as like say Delhi or Mumbai if not more.

It seems like this city has absorbed all the negatives of both capitalism as well as socialism leaving positives of both the ideologies.

As I left Kolkata, the picture that stays with me for this city was that of Hand-held rickshaws, Tram moving on the same road with all taxies, buses and cars in its lane and roadside vendors selling books at every corner of park-street