Posts Tagged ‘India’

4
Oct

20 years of existence and my new flatmates

   Posted by: Chip    in fun, Travel Life

(If you get bored half way, which you probably will, please scroll down ‘til the end to see the surprise).

The difference between the last post and this post is that the former was written by a teenager and the latter is being written by a 20-something adult. 19 Sep 2010 was my 20th birthday. Yeah now matter how much you hate it, I’m still ONLY 20.

I never have a thing for birthdays. I mean, what’s it so interesting about a day that a new victim of life is born, together with thousands of other new victims, just as any other day? I don’t celebrate my birthdays for many painful reasons that need not to be recalled. Oops, I’m digressing again. Anyway, listen, Allen, when I said that it was the best birthday I’ve ever had, you’d better shut up and acknowledge my gratitude :P

So my birthday started on Sat, 18/09 when I went out for lunch with Guru– a really nice guy that ol’ good Preetam introduced me to – at Oberoi mall. I wanted to shop for a dress. I was freaking broke at that time, but I wanted to give myself a gift for my birthday. I wanted to look beautiful at least on that day. [OK I lied, I do have something for birthday, I just don’t want to celebrate it]. I swear I wasn’t hinting or anything, but Guru probably felt bad when I mentioned it, he decided to buy me a book. I was so clueless that I even followed him to the bookstore. When he handed me the book: “Maximum city: Bombay lost & found” wrapped, I was really touched. I never expect to receive anything from anyone. It’s an amazing book and I really enjoy it. It’s probably just one random chivalrous act of Shetty’s, but it means a lot to me.

Unable to find a dress that fits me, I came home and had my messy hair done instead. It was the first time I’ve been to this salon and I swear never to come back again. They can’t do anything other than cutting and straightening at a suicidal price. They don’t speak a single English word, and they took my orders by uneducated guesses. The girl who straightened my hair was probably a novice. She made me scream in pain every 2 minutes. She then looked at me through the mirror and giggled with the hair stylist! I felt like murdering them. When they finished with my head burnt hot like hell, somehow I still thanked them and even gave tip!

My flatmates (Ashwin, Allen & Titus) had got us on Blue Frog’s guest list. There I met Nitesh – one of my first friends in Mumbai who had totally abandoned me b/c of his busy schedule. Nitesh was the photographer for Blue Frog that night. He must have been shocked to see that I was still alive that the first question he asked was: “What are you doing here?” Interesting question, what am I doing at a club? Not for clubbing of course. “I’m just wandering here to see if any drunk manager gets interested in me and gives me a job, on my birthday.” He ignored the mocking part. “Wow, your birthday? Sorry I forgot. Happy birthday!”

Blue Frog was damn packed. Thanks God I haven’t never been a dancer so I didn’t mind having no space to dance. I just stood there and stared at people, like an experienced Indian. Allen introduced me to his friends: Luke and 2 beautiful young ladies called Janet and Devaki. When Allen told me that Luke is an actor, I didn’t really pay much attention. There are too many actors in Bombay! They made quite a scene at Blue Frog when all of them sang Happy birthday to me. Some strangers around started joining them. Even though I was really really embarrassed, I felt like I’m on the top of the world.

When my flatmates figured that I’d got enough boredom at Blue Frog (which I didn’t), they took me out for late dinner/supper at Sarovar. There they started texting with chicks, all of them T_T

I got really jealous! Thanks God Julia – my ex-roomie and my girlfriend here – came to rescue.

The next day, Sunday, we went out for andaa paav in the rain. I bought myself a proper cake and had Swapnil – a very close friend of mine here – come over. So I had all my close friends (in Mumbai) around, I had good food, I had people sing Happy birthday to me and I had a cake :-) It was the best birthday I’ve ever had.

Something interesting happened later. I met Nitesh the other day and he asked: “How did you know Luke?”. I was like: “Huh? Who is Luke?” It took my senile memory awhile to recall. Nitesh had to educate me everything all over again. It turned out that he is quite famous here, I just don’t know him. Aww, I had Luke Kenny sing Happy birthday to me, how awesome is that? :P

1 minute for advertising:

I have 3 super eligible flatmates. They are all well educated (especially after staying with me). They have good jobs (Their jobs are secure. Nobody else wants them). They are good-looking, actually they look much better in real life than in my photos (at least that what they try to convince themselves). They are mean to me all the time, but they are quite nice to beautiful women. They all meet most criteria for my Boyfriend Application. For some reasons that we all understand but you’d better not, they are also very single. So if you are a girl between 18 and 28, cute/hot/sexy, well-educated, single and desperate, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d be more than happy to give them away.

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7
Sep

Unpredictable India – 10 things only Indians do

   Posted by: Chip    in fun, India

1. When in India.

If they agree, they shake head. If they disagree, they shake head. If they don’t understand, they shake head.

2. When you ask the way.

If they know, they show you the way. If they don’t, they still show you the way. If you ask: “Are you sure?”, they shake head.

3. When you eat out.

If you don’t tell them not to put chilli, they put chilli. If you tell them not to put chilly, they still put chilli. If you point out, they say: “This chilli is not s-pi-ceee.”

4. When you go street shopping.

The price is 1000Rs. If you pay 1000Rs, you get it. If you pay 500Rs, you also get it. If you pay 250Rs, you still get it.

5. When you drive.

If it’s green light, they sometimes go ahead and sometimes stop. If it’s red light, they sometimes stop and sometimes go ahead. If they are caught by police, they sometimes pay fine and most of the time bribe.

6. When you are a tourist.

A guy approaches to ask if you need help. If you say Yes, he follows you. If you say No, he says “It’s ok” and still follows you. In the end, he asks for money for stalking you around.

7. When you use mobile.

If you activate a value added service, it is activated. If you don’t activate the service, it is still activated. If you want to deactivate the service, you have to send an SMS. It costs.

8. When you go to a group meeting

If you come on time, you will have to wait. If you come 30mins late, you will still have to wait. If you come 1 hour late, they already changed to another location without informing you.

—

Oops, I planned to make it 10 but it seems like Indians are better than I thought :P

 

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2
Aug

Kolkata part 1: Shocks on the face

   Posted by: Chip    in Uncategorized

***For more pictures, you can visit my Facebook here

Kolkata – the commercial and financial hub of eastern India – is far from what I’d always thought of India. I knew that as a part of India, it’d be dirty, busy and cheap, but I couldn’t imagine that Internet would be that scarce and getting a SIM card would be that hard in a country that accommodates so-called Asia’s Silicon Valley. And once you’ve become used to it, it’s even harder to realize that the city that symbols that poverty of India is actually home of many respected intellects – 2 (+1) Nobel laureates and a lot more of writers, poets and filmmakers.

Bird-eye view of Kolkata from the plane

Bird-eye view of Kolkata from the plane

India in my mind was always the heaven of tourists due to its cultural diversity and a wide range of travel products come at a super cheap price. However, I could hardly spot any tourist on my flight to Kolkata, and welcoming me to India was an old & cranky airport. I mean, really old and cranky, even more than Yangon airport.

Welcome to Kolkata

Traffic in Kolkata is another shocking story. Being born and raised up in Vietnam, I used to tell my friends in Malaysia and Thailand that if they are upset by traffic jams in Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, come to Vietnam and they’d love their countries. Now I have to say that if anyone in Vietnam is mad at notorious jams in Vietnam, come to India and you’d feel proud of our country. Everybody is honking. Jams everywhere. Drivers never care if there is somebody crossing the road or not. Cars can hardly move faster than 20km/h. I chatted with a friend of mine who once spent 8 months in Vietnam.

Chip: Traffic here is crazy, much much more crazier than in Vietnam. My head can’t stop popping.

Friend: What!?? Crazier than Vietnam? Unbelievable!

Having spent a huge amount of my life blending into startup community in Southeast Asia, I have heard amazing tales about Asia’s Silicon Valley in India. As a matter of fact, I expected to see wifi, if not everywhere like in Vietnam or Singapore, but at least in most important buildings & restaurants. It turned out that wifi is a strange definition here. Cyber-cafes are expensive and hard to find outside tourist areas. Even though India is famous for its mobile startups, getting a SIM card here is super complicated and takes up to several hours to go through all steps. Thanks God that I have Asenla and her husband, Longchar with me, else I don’t know how I’m a foreigner would be able to handle with all those stuffs.

With Asenla

But the most shocking thing about Kolkata, as what Anuradha already warned me in advance, is the presence of poverty everywhere. It’s not coincident that Mother Teresa’s work about the destitute and poor in this city was given a Nobel prize.

Some other images about the city

Kolkata won't be the same without those super cute yellow taxis. They can be found everywhere through out the city

And crows as well

Where did they find that many people? :(

I have never seen that many banners in my whole life

Antoreep – my host in Kolkata – read my draft and told me that I seemed upset about the city. Hehe I don’t!! In fact, I’m amazed by Kolkata in particular and by India in general. Everything here is so extreme. Everything here is happening so fast. Walking on the street, I don’t dare to blink as I’m afraid that I would miss something interesting. I savor every moment I spend here, and yeah, I think I should go out instead of staying at home blogging in such a beautiful afternoon like today. My host Antoreep and his brother are taking me around the city. I will blog about how Kolkata is the cultural hub of India in my next blog post, soon!

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