travel blabs 3- the thai magic

The post after the long block - you know that dark phase when you lose the interest to write, give a damn abt communicating to anyone for unselfish reasons, generally angry at nothing and everything..well, what better way to start afresh than one to gloat about one of my rare amazing experience. Prior Warning: THis is going to be a pretty long post, maybe a little irritating too.

Its been around 3 months since I peeped into the Venice of the East, Thailand. A brilliant place to quench your curiosities about the Eastern culture. and why was it even more special? A total fun freak out trip with a few close friends, considerable cash, absolutely no RULES. We embarked on this crazy idea after getting thoroughly bored of my internship in the corporate world, and on that impulse the weekend trip to the most affordable place turned out to be Bangkok. Hotels can be best booked previously online.
Super cool rooms are available at unbelievably low rates at Asiarooms.com. A bit of internet surfing and some decent maps are sufficient fr the first timers to get around the city.

I , accompanied by my 3 good friends had only 3 days to explore the place and make the most of our holiday. We planned a 2 day stay in Bangkok and spend 1 day at Patthaya.Our first surpise at the land of White elephants was the airpost itself. Big and beautiful - the Suvarnabhumi airport was a surprising treat with statues of Ravana and Stone Models of Hindu epic scenes such as the one with churning of the ocean welcoming the awed tourisits.


Thailand was originally a hindu country as from 13th century. since the period of the Autthaya kings, the Thai monarchy has adopted the name "Rama" for each consecutive monarch of the land.Though presently, the major population of Thailand are buddhists , its still very interesting to note the presence of a great many subtle indications of a rich Hindu past hidden among its artistic milieu. The structures at the Round tanas,seemingly artistic at the first glance are infact symbols from hindu epics including Yali, garuda etc..The structure of the wats stewrn across the city is so very similar to cone shaped hindu gopuras, incuding the pragaras surrounding them..One might account it for buddhism closely bordering on Hindu principles.


Yet the presence of a small deity of Garuda with Vishnu on top of the Wat Phra Kaew entrance or the beautiful paintings of Ramayana inscribed inside the walls surrounding the buddist structures is interesting to guess on a previous hindu ancestory to the temple itself.The tiny garuda symbol on the thai currency is another little surprise thrown at the enthusiasts.

So, our first day was spent visiting the numerous Wats(buddhist teples) decorating the city and seriosuly, its astonishing to note the intricate artistic works at some of these places. The temple of dawn is another treat when seen at dusk, whith the light playing magic on the majestic structure on the banks of Chao Phraya river.



Bigger than the pleasures offered by bangkok was our adventure- the thrill we had, planning out our dynamic itenary, bargaining with the tuk-tuk drivers, getting lost looking for a decent indian restaurant in the dirty streets of bangkok.It was really awesome. Landing with a backpack in a completely new country, exploring its culture, its people, its very essence on one's own - its addicting.THough we made a mess of the itenary, even managed to get lost and separated on the ferry terminal, cheated by auto drivers occasionally, it was super fun to group together and take over the situation smartly. on the second day, we deflected to Patthaya, often reffered to as the Sin city of the east.Located at a 2 hr drive from Bangkok, it offeres a great beach and numerous adventure sports apart from cheap booze.There is a must see place here- the sanctuary of truth- a spectacular museum of eastern values depicting a kaleidoscope of ideas- hindu beliefs,Buddist principles, chinese traditions. The whole eastern concept of live, love ,family, goodness in this world. The wooden structures of chief Hindu Gods that rule this artificial fort are mind blowing. It came as a shock to my system when I saw the view of magnificent Brahma,reigning this palace of righteousness.Come here with cash, they grab money at all oppotunities else be a convincing liar .My ingenious friend tried out their bike and besides successfully crashing it and breaking the fendor, was charged a crazy sum for compensation..Only a couragious lie of poverty and convincing act kept us from a visit to the local police.

The other attractions include tiger zoo, and ofcourse the beach. Everyone must try the parasailing here, its AWESOME and cheap. I had the awesomest experience of my mortal life , para sailing for the first time here. Its GOD.

THe rest of the trip should be spent in shopping- the chief attraction of thailand.This is a shoppers' world. Cheap. (if you have currency in dollars or pounds).
The floating market, that we unfortunately missed can be seen only in the mornings with special booking to be made with a travel agency, the weekend market - throwing amazing cheap stuff , the more posh malls of Pratunum ..the whole city caters to shopping for all class of people. Well, as all good stuff come to an end, so did our exciting trip and we came back with great memories to last for a lifetime and to propel you for the next visit to this thrilling city.

Bug Issues

People say that its good to be focussed. completely focussed on the work that all other things are blind to us. Ever heard the story of Arjuna and his archery lesson with a parrot's eye as his mark , where he ends up as his teacher's pet coz of his "focus"?.. It may be an awesome bed time story but practically, its plain stupid. Let me tell a REAL story where the side effects of work creates utter havoc.

"A" was a great girl , a simply awesome , brilliant person working for a boring semi-con company. She was so efficent that the fates insisted on testing her abilities with purposely throwing out challenges on her way. Though the work was interesting, she ended up having complete losers as her superiors. Perhaps the losers dint know how to make use of her talents; as they habitually lumped a pending bank end project on her hands and simple ignored her thereafter. Yet, She was so engrossed in her work, in battling with her collegues,in travelling to the other end of the city every freaking day in over crowded, people infested MRTs, in foraging edible food from the amphibian canteens, that she hardly had time to do anythign else than crash in her bed after work. So great was the focus and hard work that she dint even feel the ocasional teeth of the insects taking over her bed. After a week of constantly getting bitten by what she thought of as ants, she decided to check out who her bad mates are , one night.For a change, the focus was on the bed.. or on the tiny folds of the bed which were black in color; a black that moved; a black that was the hides of innumerable bed bugs crawling along the matress.
There was an entire colony of freaking bed bugs happily reproducing on her bed. feeling sick, nauseated by the week long abuse, the next 3 nights were spent on the floor. A floor used by an occasional lizard at times. At that moment the realisation stuck. How stupid life is , everything alive is.

After a strong bout of arguments and protests, the office decided to take action and de-infest the bed. An unpaid leave was the price. The pest control guy arrived , armed with buckets of liquid sprays with a smell endangering the olfactory senses, washed the entire room with it.Later, he followed up with a huge fight "You brought in the bed bugs, it must be your clothes" (while eyeing the enormous amount of clothers stewrn around the room) and a hearty lecture on cleanliness and clean habits. Finally, she was left with a brand new bed in a horribly smelling room and thankfully alone. Within 5 minutes however, a motion catches her eye- a motion of a black bug on the brand new matress.

Well, bottomline : LIFE IS A BITCH. Dont believe any stories. Everthing is a F***** up bitch. espeacially bed bugs.

P.S: If you got any wise advice, DONOT comment on my blog. keep it to urself.

Nice exists !

Its shocking to meet nice people in this world. I mean, genuinely nice people who care about others and try to help them in an unconcious way. I am not talking about rich philanthropists setting up homes for children or donating huge amount of money for noble causes. This is about simple people extending small measures of kindness in such a natural, unexpected way that leaves a great impact on the bewildered beneficiary. A few days ago, I was rendered speechless by one such simple deed. At that moment, I truly understood the significance of an unselfish act of kindness. In a world where one makes more contacts than friends, where the competition to succeed is the wedge that drives people apart, where every piece of opportunity is like a prized bone that is fought for by a group of dogs ,where every visible sign of weekness is exploited without a second thought, words such as kindness, helpfulness, gentleness have been replaced by diplomacy ,bartering etc. . . There is always another thread running in the back of peoples’ minds that calculate the cost-benefit ratio of their acts. There is always a reason , a motive when people offer help and the thread immediately estimates all possible forms of return expected for the exchange. This is human nature. Personally, I used to find people running to help others in every possible occasions amusing, a trifle too naïve and inhumanly saintlike. Yet, on that severely hard day, when one of those naïve ,nice people acted on my welfare even when they didn’t have any need to do so, it suddenly dawned on me how necessary they are to keep up some faith in the goodness of man.They make you more conscious to the feelings of the people around you, make you attempt to spread a smile , do a similar gesture for others. Its kind of sad when I cant remember performing any such generous actions in my life so far.I shall begin my attempts though, hopefully I do something substantial to add in my memoirs later.

random philaasaphys

This week's been really, absolutely hectic. I am catching up on sleep in bits and pieces of an hour or two..in bus, trains, at work, com hall..cant say I ever imagined life to be this fast and killing. Just thinking abt the long list of to-dos make me want to quit and run away into a forest and become a tribal. no more deadlines, no more hunting of excuses when u miss them, no more waking up to finish them; its as if m being dragged by this fast animal called life and I can be seriously injured and run over if i miss the pace and slack. With exams round the corner and deadlines at work piling up, I dont know how I can survive the squeeze this time. But when its all over and you actually live through the torture and even manage to do ur best, that moment of triumph is worth it all. Feels like you have overcome a momentous challenge and become more of a man after its done with. after which the cycle startes all over again, in the next difficulty level like the Super Mario game. Maybe this is what makes it so addicting to stick on to :) I cant imagine life to be like anything else after all. And at each level, when you take a moment to contemplate on your journey so far and the path ahead, the person you were and what u are now, all the possibilities in the middle where you cud have been some one else, the change that is so staggering and makes you wonder abt the very pattern of life..at the end of the reverie of which you start cursing urself fr wasting so much time ,day dreaming and reluctantly get back to work with a heavy sigh..its kind of nice..aarrggh, All the pressure is turning me to this sentimental sponge, forgive my mokai if u happen to be unfortunate enough to stumble on this post. but serves you rite to be so vetti.

priceless moments..

There are some moments in your life that you want to cherish throughout; that you think upon at times of all times of absurdity ,laugh out loud and earn crazy stares from the ppl around u. Tonite I made one such awesome memory . College life is the time when you can make a vast collection of such "experieces of your life". How much ever we crib, cry and bitch about the unfairness of our slaved labour, just a night with some special friends make up for it all. I can recollect the times when I have done unimaginably funny antics and just a photo, a phrase or most times a song pulls me right into the time travel and I am lost in some moments of pure magic. As the times get harder and tougher, and the unfriendly future beckons us to an eternal dryland of work, I wonder if I could ever meet such ppl who 'll get me in splits with one short comment, who can understand a joke in just the tone of my voice, who can fight like monsters of the likes of which the world has rarely seen. Its amazing..how these small pockets of time can amount to a treasure so great and priceless that we safely store in our hearts. Just an hour starting with a totally absurd idea and the following drama has urged me to bookmark this particular date with something that I can afford to reveal in public, maybe this vague post is all i can think of; but which i will forever treasure. hope some of the others do too ;)

Is older==wiser?

I never get on well with most of the elderly elite. No, that would be wrong, actually I never get on with them at all.Not that I dont like to, never , but I always end up in the wrong side of those convos and bearing the brunt of a scolding.Even a slightly loose comment can result in a lecture long enough to make me sit through a history class. A lot of people in age>50 are super obnoxious and judgemental and opinionated that they love to drown the listeners in their wordly views of wisdom. especially the youngsters. If you are in school, the topic is "college admissions, board exams, future prospects etc etc" and voila, i 'll be given a lenghty talk abt the achievements of their prodigal kids.even worse the advice that follows "you see, CBSE is useless, no marks guaranteed, do not take **** engineering, there is no market.." and so goes on the list of ridiculous statemetns whose knowledge they obtained from their neighours brothers grandchildren or worse,Sun TV news . They never tire until you obey them point blank.One of my aunts was so adamant that I should take up State board in class 11.She was such a pestering nuisance that she managed to block me even when I go to the bathroom and give me another of her carreer talks . Why the hell do these people have to pound us repeatedly with their views if saying them once is enough for all? I understand the concern and caring part but come on, its MY life, my decisions to make.

Surprisingly, its not even the parents in most cases who give such constant headaches but the next relatives circle. Unknown uncles and aunts sprout up from nowhere and literally queue up to talk to u. Opinions are welcome if the source is any worthy of delivering it. Usually grandmothers are easiest to manage. They are happy enough if you oblige them with a prompt attendence and eat a jumbo lunch at their place. I have been winning my grandmom's favour just for banging her door once a day and demanding tea/tiffin. Just hang around fr a while, murmur "ahan".."oho"..at frequent intervals during their monologues of God knows what, and just take off exactly half hour later. Thats it, I am always her favourite grandchild.I become too perfect to have the need of her advice at all.

Even the advice problem can be tolerated, but some impertinent comments cannot. I respect some elders just for their age if not anything else. But my good manners were tested a bit too much by a 70 year old thatha .Due to my mom's ill health last December, I was given the thooku and entrusted with the task of getting food at a godforsaken time of 6.30 am on every morning of my "vacation" from a entrepreneur- maami supplying sambar,rasam etc. to office goers . She had the most annoying father who sits on the pillion every morning and loves to vambu alathufy with the customers. I, unfortunately was his frequent target. With a superior attitude which can be justified for his age, he drills me with a quiet ferocity. Once it went out of hand.
thatha: Which school are you studying in?
me: school illa college.
thatha (raised brows) : oh, is it? which college?
This was a tricky question.I can either tell the truth and hear another tirade of "oh, y Singapore? there are so many good colleges here, why did u leave ur parents? bla bla" or lie. I chose to lie.

me : Cresent Engineering college.
thatha:( seemed satisfied for a moment, but only for a moment) now a days, everyone is doing engineering. its overflowing. no market for IT , u know? ......(on&on&on &on for next 10 min. used to this reply, I almost fell asleep . then suddenly asks) why have you come to buy food? pommanaati ponnu, nee yen samaika matengara? idha kaalathla yarukum samaika therila....

damn it, just when i was congradulating myself of avoiding the college controversy, i landed in this mess. It was in the tip of my tongue to ask him to mind his own bizness. Since the thatha was coughing while speaking, I restrained, not wanting him to argue longer with me. and then the punch question arrives.

thatha : do u have any brothers?
me: no. just a sister.
thatha: paavam un appa amma. payyan irundha kadasi varaikum kaapathuvan, rendum ponna pochu.

That was THE last straw.I was stunned. This old useless guy was judging me, torturing me with advice,insulting me and now pitying my parents.Maybe in ancient years, one can understand that sentiment. But now? Did he even remember that he was living in his daughter's charity and not his son's? I am dismissed as useless just bacause m a girl? I still dont know how I managed to get back home without causing him any harm.But even I couldnt resist "paavam unga kozhanthel" before walking out.They say Old is Gold, but sometimes, its just irritating rusted crumbs.

i am not stereotyping here. My point is that people cannot expect to be worshipped and obeyed just because of the age factor. Though in our culture, anyone elder is to be respected, they should know better than to misuse the treatment.

College pressures

Recently there were 2 suicide cases in NTU that occured within days apart from each other. Both were from the dept of EE . Obviously, it was a field day for the media. Infact, they got so excited over the item that they fabricated fantastic stories form the scraps of info the university cudnt manage to supress. Nevertheless, the underlying fact that alarmed the people was the killer stress level among the university students today. Though the situation may seem quite exagerrated to warrant suicide, the pressure can seriously cripple the students to some extent. My own college is a champion in supplying such treatment.

One such method of unjustifiable torture today is the threat of accomodation. You see, there are about 33000+ students studying here. OF which over 12000+ are international students. THe hostels in the campus can accomodate around 8000 students only. No one knows why the management doesnt take any measure to construct more hostels or what they do with our exorbitant fee. So, in their typical problem solving way, how do they manage the situation ?its simple. each undergraduate student has to do some CCAs where the are given points. SO, at the year end, all the students bid for the available hostels with these points and the ones having more than the cut off points are kept in , the rest are booted out.
this mock contest nicely places the fault on the students for not securing enouf points to win their hostel instead of the management having to look bad for not having enough accomodation. And so, every year this intense fight to have a roof over our head begins and the students flock to do any stupid activity in the name of cca to scrap the points. THe story of these CCAs are more interesting. Though some of them are quite useful and meaningful, the amount of work extracted from each club through the entire year can rival the study schedule put out by the university.

One can call the situation a healthy one, exposing the students to academics as well as extra curricular giving an overall balence blah blah blah crap. It would have been so,if this game isnt dirty; if the university could resist bullying the students a little more. Last year the so called cut off was increased dramatically without any clue. NOTE 1 : the cut off points are released only after all the cca points are finalised at the year end and so, if u are unfortunate to fall below the mark, its just bad luck.Note 2: some clubs emulate indian politics very well-promise great amt of points, get all the work done,forget abt the deal. note 3: The situation gets worse each year, with the hostel fee hike and the competition evn more maddening.
This mad scramble takes the joy out of the entire scheme of ccas. People are forced to perform the most stupidest,atrocious activities and some arts clubs go far enough to bully the members to buy tickets for their mediocre shows. At the end of the day, it just sucks.

With this added pressure of doing time-consuming work after a tiring day,cope up with academics and when finally booted out without a second thought of one's financial situation by the management into the SG streets,not many poeple 'd be sane enough to avoid the depression black hole . How can the university expect the students to ace the exams when they cannot even guarantee them the basic facilities of life? Well, we are taught one true lesson well form an early age.. "when the going gets tough, the tough get going".

the culinary crisis

One of the most irritating type of blog posts according to me, are the culinary corner types, where the writer goes on and on about the sooper dooper dish they have had for the day or they come up with a good for nothing reminiscence about the perfect meal of their lives.(inc. miniscule details of the recipies and pictures in various stage of the preparation) Well, to me it just sucks. you can flaunt your wealth, your relationship, even yourself in pubic but never your food. FOOD is a very very sensitive topic to many. It is indispensable to live and the task of preparation is highly complicated than solving iit problems. The flavour has to be right, the aroma has to be enticing and the sight- delicious.ok, the reason why i m sitting up at 2.30 am, dishing out this seemingly irrelevent adoration for the art of cooking is due to the lesson i learnt for the day :- This seemingly easy task where our pattis put out a meal fr 50 ppl without batting an eyelash is actually a most difficult challenge, sumtimes unbeatable even by the smartest geniuses with extrordinary IQ such as this author.

Well, this is one of the curious cases of those exceptional people fighting their constant battle against the formidable kitchen.Since rice is too less worthy of an opponent to them, many go after the mother of all troubles- vegetable. One of the most common choices of the gang is -Lady's finger. It seemed pretty ok to win over, with its gentle name and can be weakened further with soft tomatoes.but the game changes when you open the little green boxes to find dirty black seeds inside. That signifies the sound of the conk before this battle. In the next 1 hr, the heat rises rapidly when you unsuccessfully try to juggle between boiling the veggies and cooking the pulses , trying your best to prevent the stove/oven from betraying you with a burning smell. Right then, you start wondering if all the mess is worth the kick. wait, did i say kick? it would have deserted you after the first 10 min of the preps. SO,when you wait out the rest of the time, fighting to create a treasure out of a sticky tar, the memories of unsuccessful highschool chemistry experiments come back to plague you(Atleast there were enough partners present to copy the results from). The familiar sense of foreboding arising as the aroma becomes a smell is then quashed out by turning on the ipod to the highest volume. After singing endless songs in a v.bad voice amidst the piling mess, your grumbling stomach finally wins over the debate against the struggling stew. A compromise is then reached to draw the match.

Well, all is well that ends well. but this does not. The freshly prepared dish when set in the table is met with numerous accidents as the clock/coke tin/ even yourself fall into the plate, feedin most of it to the ground. Swear-curse-swear. clean up the mess. Finally, the table is set and feast is about to begin. the first taste is pretty good. you jump in ecstacy, bringing the roof down, call up your parents to share the amazing accomplishment, take pics. THe next spoon is surprisingly not that good..and the third goes down with a frown.." maybe its not boiled properly, maybe less salt.." all sorts of maybes spring up. somehow, the plate gets empty after a long difficult time, with the help of a few episodes from a good sitcom. Now kicks in the jury that decides who the winner is. THe result is mostly likely the same - quesy stomach, nausea , discomfort in the lower belly - you lose, the thrashed up kitchen has the last laugh.

Imagine after undergoing all this torture and while compromising with a humiliating defeat, the first blog you open is filled with junk like "my super sambar" or " my sweet special kichadi mix" , the best punishment possible is to fill their mouths with your recipies and keep them shut once for all.

Travel blabs 02

Its always harder to begin writing after a prolonged break plagued by procastination and simple laziness.In the rare times when we finaaly get the "mood" to break the ice, the occasional yet everpresent tab of youtube or facebook lures us in and within a few minutes, the precious mood gets lost again in a jumble of vetti videos and sitcoms. And SO, continues the cycle whenever you get the inspiration to blog again, thanks to our monkey minds. Well, I am determined to open the account today and the seemingly easiest shortcut that comes to me is to blog about my wonderful , amazing, New year 09. I know, its a pain in the neck for those suffering frm an extreme static ,mokai period of life to read through fluanting,romanticized,incredible experiences of the momentary fortunate souls and to this, I beg excuse.

My "big" trip of the year was basically a Christmas and NewYear with my family at SG with a short detour in KL. So, from a tourist point of view, SG seemed pretty good. This is actually the best time to visit , given the fact that the entire island city would be shimmering in bright lights and Christmas trees. The setting itself was out-of-a -story-book sort, esp after an interlude of dull indoor hours with muddy cyclones for Chennai folks. My mom and sis were literally stunned , and I should say the worldly yours truly, was also more than a little surprised.

Given the fact that SG can be covered in 3 days max, the decorations of X mas alone would pester you to take unimaginable Giga bytes of pics at every turn of the streets..making the 3 day visit into a week long one. Sentosa, Clark Quay are must see sights. The change of theme for the Musical Fountain show at the artificial island of Sentosa (created for the sole purpose of looting money in a "tourist-site starved" city) , and the sheer amt of people milling its so called beaches( which is actually backwaters) added with the infectious merry spirit of the season makes it a not-to-be missed spot for the first and second timers. The island's night life is a compulsary experience without which the sole purpose of your visit will be utterly lost. Eventhough, a mere walk along the Boat Quay and a ride in the Singapore river can only be counted as "Night life" for family tourists, it still provides a feeling of exclusive freedom and a lightness in the heart to stroll around the skyscrapers of marina bay in all its splendour under the glimmering moonlight.

The KL trip ,however,turned put to be a stick in the mud type, especially after travelling from Singapore. Blame it on the merciless heat, or the poorer economy or the absence of any festive spirit, the place was an eye sore. I personally think its due to the over stuffing of islamic tastes in all the buildings of the city. Its just vast storeys of concrete structures that are tall yet plain, indistinguishable frm each other.Coming to terms with my disappointment was tough, while standing on Sky Bridge connecting the 42nd storeys of the Petronas twin towers,where i had always dreamt of visiting; only that in my dreams, I 'd feel amazed, reckless and thoroughly captivated. THe food is another turn down for vegetarians. I appreciated SG food for the first time then and realised how lucky i was. There is simply nothing excepting the saravana bavan or the sangeetha hidden among the slum streets of Masjid India. The much hyped about Night Market was unberable with its (ranganathan street) ^2 crowds amidst the smells of burning beef and hanging chicken from the umpteen hawker stalls lining up the narrow walkways. Not to frame my opinions on any future visitors, but KL is worth 1 day - for visiting Batu Caves(you get to see monkeys there) and the rest of the day for shopping chocolates and sweets (its cheaper than Singapore).

Before my over-ethusiastic memories compel me to write another Lonely Planet guidebook, I'll just buzz off by declaring that the sights of the great city immersed in the glitters of some mind blowing new Year's eve fireworks above the water front cannot be described in words, so I'm put up the following sample. You get the drift..