a India Rant and Raves

India Rant and Raves

Globetrekker's life in India starting Oct 06 ... a first hand account ...

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Last 8 days in India

Time flies........... 8 more days to go before I leave India for good !

Been busy doing what I missed, I mean, checking out places which I wanted to go but never did really get down to doing it. eating joints, shopping places, etc. Just came back from dinner in fact from this place which was like open for 65 years, err, ok, 10 years in it's current location, and I like have seen it many many times but never really stepped in to have a meal there. Ok, not bad, the food.

Erm, should I visit the Golden Temple again ? Considering that I have done it like 12 times and now I would know more about Sikhism than my original religion Buddhism, well, maybe not.... but then again, maybe it's the last time in my life to visit the golden temple. Oh well....

posted by Globetrekker @ 10:18 AM 1 comments

Saturday, October 06, 2007

I think this has just got into me......

Just the day after someone horned from behind me for stopping at a red light, today I did the same (subsciously).... shucks !

I mean.... when you see a red light at the traffic junction, you are supposed to stop right ?

I mean, all my life I was taught, RED is stop, GREEN is go.... or was it something like that ?


So yesterday this bugger was behind me, I was slowing down to stop at the junction showing RED. When I stopped faithfully, he (most likely not a she) horned, apparently telling me to go.

Jialat, my subconsious has been programmed, I realised today......

posted by Globetrekker @ 12:38 AM 2 comments

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Next Wed, a different life.....

So, the bomb is finally dropped, the end of this gtindiarnr.blogspot.com as I will no longer be in India.

Just received news that I will be required to be in my new station from next Tue till Wed the week after so that I can familiarise myself of the new environment. Then back to Amritsar again, and then finally on 09 Nov I will be in my new place, fully settled.

Well, look forward to it......

posted by Globetrekker @ 3:02 AM 0 comments

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Gari Cho

7am I was sleeping soundly and my door bell began ringing furiously.... like you know, someone continuously pressing the buzzer frantically.

I thought it was an emergency or something, having just been jolted from my sleep and unable to think clearly.

Rush to open the door. Out side was this young indian boy whom I recognised as one of the bell boys from the hotel. He says to me "Gari Cho". I said "what?" He said "G a a r i C h o", I said "No I don't understand Hindi, can you say in English. You mean Car something ?" I knew Gari was something like Car.

"Yes, yes, car..... cho" the boy replied.

In my mind I was thinking, bloody what is this "cho"? Someone walking up my at 7am with a frantic buzz on my door and mentioning my car probably is something worth my attention. I thought maybe my car had caught fire downstairs !

"gari", and he makes a circular motion w his hand. "cleaned?" i asked.

"han ji han ji, gari cleaned".........

"KNNBCCB, wake me up at 7am to tell me my car is cleaned ? Nothing better to do is it ?"

Of course I did not manage to release my dictionary of hokkien bullets on him, anyway what difference would it make ? He won't even understand, much more he won't even understand that waking someone up at this wee hour for a piece of useless information is not appropriate.

My God........

posted by Globetrekker @ 8:49 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Subway opens in Amritsar

at last.... a long term solution to my quest for non-indian food ! To God be the Glory !

As you all know, Amritsar, being a small place tucked away in North India, suffers from exposure to the world, I mean, non exposure to the world. Thus, our simple pleasures like KFC, MacDonalds, Coffee Bean are not here. At last with the coming of Subway, to add to the Dominos and Pizza Hut, we finally see this secluded town coming up.

My trip to Subway to buy take away lunch was not without adventure though. As I was walking out of the front glass door, this security guard opens it for me. I was thinking "wah, not bad siah!". Later this guys blabbers something in Hindi to me. I say "huh, I don't speak Hindi (in Hindi), English please". He says in simplistic English "I open door for you, only 5 rupees"

....................

posted by Globetrekker @ 3:01 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

India wins by 5 runs, become World Cricket Champions !

Phew, I must say the match yesterday was really really exciting !

Down to the last throw where Pakistan was left w a 6 to win and India was left to knock out one more wicket from Pakistan to win the game. I guess the players must have pee-ed in their pants.

The thrower threw, the batter batted, the ball flew up in the air, into the hands of the Indians.

Congrats once again

From : a fresh cricket fan.

posted by Globetrekker @ 5:41 AM 0 comments

I will never be able to understand the traffic here.

They say if you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere, I've heard that countless times.

True, and false.

For a start, I can never understand the way the bikes zip around the cars. I mean, imagine you are driving along, and a bike just happens to be like 0.5m from your left front headlight. Crusing along happily....... and suddenly, this bike swerves right into your path to make a right turn.

So, who loses more when I knock into him/her/it ?

I mean, shouldn't the person who is riding the bike be more conscious of whether he/she/it will be hit in this case, rather than pass the responsiblity to the poor driver ?

Then............ people, old folks walking at 2kmph, children running at 10kmph, traffic from all directions, make up the bloody mess at every, and I mean every roundabout and junction. The adage "give way to the right" doesn't seem to apply here.

So, my point of view would be more of "if you have driven in India, you won't be able to drive anywhere else !"

posted by Globetrekker @ 5:28 AM 0 comments

Monday, September 24, 2007

India plays Pakistan in Finals of Cricket today

Umm, never expected that I would become a cricket fan.

Well, I must say 50 overs is a tad too long, but this world twenty twenty that's going on in Durban is pretty interesting and just the right length - 20 overs instead of the 50, which lasts just too long..... beyond my dozen beers. :o)

Yuraj (India's star batter) is just got out.... at 15 overs now for India, the score is 111-3. We'll see how the final score goes later.

posted by Globetrekker @ 6:01 AM 0 comments