Letters from a Juronger

Somewhere in April 2009- Prologue

2009-05-10T05:59:00.000-07:00

It began innocently enough. It was during the break week, I was in school mugging and without an internship. I was walking through the school library to print some notes, when I met Sammy from my LTB (Leadership and Team Building) group. As usual I sat down to talk to him, about school work, projects and complain about how hard it is to find internships. I didn’t think much about it, until one or two weeks later, he messaged me on MSN if I would be interested in working in his uncle’s company in Vietnam. I decided to accept the offer immediately.

So here I am in Vietnam, blogging about my overseas internship again… one... final... time. YEAH!

Conculsion

2008-09-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

Nearly one month has passed by since my India journey has ended, and as each day passed by, my internship seems more and more pleasant as the not-so-pleasant incidents filtered out of my mind. If I had to choose all over again whether to do this Internship all over again, I would be more than happy to oblige. With the same Smu interns, same roommate, same group of friends, same project and even the same project guide. I was with excellent terms with all the 6 Smu interns and even on speaking terms with the Indian and non-Indian friends I met in STC and Byrraju. I can say quite confidently that we will be friends for a long time, or as least until we graduate.

I think I would rather travel with the same group of people than constantly changing companion or worse still, alone. It is very unfortunate to have to make new friends just when you have grown close to a fellow companion. Also it feels very insecure to have to bunk in a hotel or train will some stranger who would care little about your fate. I would rather travel with the same 6 people even if they were bitchy, compliant-y, temperamental, and always say the wrong stuff than to suffer such fate.

I have learnt to treat STC as my home. Every time when I return to STC whether from work or from traveling outside Hyderabad all my cares, worry and tireness just melts away, for I know I’m home, and would feel safe, comfortable and clean again. I have no doubt that the other Hyderabad Interns would feel the same way, especially after coming back from Mumbai, Village visit or Golden Triangle. It’s very miserable and distressing to have to pack and unpack, to not bath for several days and to not have a bed for the night. I’m proud to never had to pack my luggage but twice, when I left Jurong West and when I returned to it.

And so my internship had finally ended after visiting Venkat yesterday. My memories of India and always remain with me, even though I know I would not be able to retain all the sights and sounds that I was fortunate to experience. However, my three months would be not have been wasted, thanks to the precious 25gig of pictures that we have taken. These pictures will always capture the moments we spent in India even after our memories had faded away.

After India

2008-09-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Ever since coming back I have been acquainting myself with all things Singaporean. Been eating lots of Singaporean food. Been eating noodles and Nasi Lemak. Been eating curry with coconut milk instead of the watery Indian curry. Ramesh will definitely scream blasphemy.

I have discovered the joy of holding conversations in Singlish and Mandarin. The rare happiness of understanding every word that is being said, and knowing every word you say will be understood as well!

I have not conquered Indian’s roads after 3 months. I doubt I will even come close to taming it even if I spend the rest of my natural life trying.

The three months internship has been very productive. I now know that the Rajasthan Royals won the IPL, that Aishwarya is indeed very beautiful, and that Tata owns everything. I will not forget the Taj, one too many forts and the experiences that we shared. I have found my favourite Limca and the most hated gulab jamun. I have rode on Autos and doorless trains. I have witnessed both extreme proverty and hope in the form of Byrraju Foundation.

The interns had 2 more reunions before school starts. Claire is having her exchange in Chicago. CK is in the same FIIM as class with me. Ramesh still refuses to collect my external hard disk with all the photos. Trina pesters me to lend her the hard disk which I do not have. The other two are still alive, I think.

I came to India out of a desire to experience India. I have experienced much during the three months there, and although I failed to understand much of what I have experienced, I have made this record for the present and future batches of Byrraju or SMU interns to study and entertain themselves.
-Yeehong of Jurong

24-25 July- Golden Triangle 8, New Delhi

2008-07-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

We moved out of Hotel Blue the next morning and into the loving embrace of York Hotel.

From Lonely planet,

“Plain but presentable rooms…”

Lonely Planet didn’t warn us the chui-ness (run-down) of the Hotel Blue, but this time Lonely Planet completely understated York Hotel. The rooms are clean and homely. The television and remote control works. The staff was polite, courteous and well-mannered.

On our first day in New Delhi, we decided to take it easy and to allow our weary bodies to recover from the tiring travelling we had done. Eugene of Mumbai joined us in New Delhi for half a day before continuing his travels alone. We spend the entire day exploring the Connaught Place Area. The entire place is one big shopping district. I bought a couple of books that I haven’t read yet, and a small toy Auto. Trina bough a hat that was too small for her. Kenny bough a white cowboy hat that I strongly disapprove of. I bough a strawhat that reminds me of Luffy. Hazel bough no hat at all.

On our second day, Trina used her contacts to secure a driver for the day. We took a quick tour of Delhi. We went to the Old Delhi city. The old city is how Delhi was like hundreds of years ago. The streets of the old city is too cramp for car or auto-(rickshaw) to pass through, so we had to hire a bicycle rickshaw to tour the old city. From what I saw, the old city is cramp, dark and claustrophobic. People wash vegetables on the stone roads and monkeys swing on the roof tops. I prefer Delhi new.

We saw Mosque and Temples, although we didn’t enter this time. I though it to be rude to turn a place of worship into a tourist attraction again. More importantly, I was running out of Rupees.

Of course we had to see the Amber fort. We went pass the Amber fort but didn’t when in. This was the third Amber fort in India that we saw, and it wasn’t as majestic as the one we saw in Jaipur. Someone needs to come up with new names for these forts.

Of course we had to take false perspective photographs of the 45m high India Gate. We were hounded by ‘professional photographer’ wanting to take our photographs for money again. Trina managed to play those ‘professional photographer’ against each other to drive down prices.

Of course the driver had to bring us to those “government approved” handicraft village. I didn’t buy anything there though. The weather was too hot to do any shopping. I was drinking Limca to prevent getting heat-stroke. Was feeling dizzy at the end.

We had lunch with Trina’s contact, the boss of a travel agency. After the lunch we took the one day train ride back to Hyderabad for our last days in India.

23 July- Golden Triangle 7, Back to Jaipur and Train to Delhi

2008-07-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

So, I am back in my beloved Jaipur once again. I’ve noticed that unlike in Hyderabad and Mumbia where security guards will search you whenever you enter a departmental store, no such nonsense in Jaipur.

Claire and Ck went back to Hyderabad first. Kenny, Hazel, Trina and me decided to complete the golden triangle by travelling to New Delhi. We four were the first to arrive in India, and we were the last to leave.

We took a sleeper class train to New Delhi. Trains are a good way to have conversations with the natives. Both of us are held captive to our seat for a few hours at least, and with nothing to do but talk. I talk to my train neighbour about many things. I instructed him on the finer points of Singlish, and from him, I learnt that Singapore in Hindi means Lion City, and the other aspects of India, like attitudes of western tourist etc.

As we got nearer to New Delhi, we went pass what seemed to me like endless row of slums. We were in a sleeper class and I can see and smell the filth and fumes. It was the same situation in Mumbai, but unlike that time I didn’t flitch away. Three months in India can harden you to such sights.

We arrived in New Delhi in the evening. We booked a room in Hotel Blue beforehand. At Trina, the worrywart, insistence, we requested Hotel Blue to send someone to pick us up. We meet the representative for Hotel Blue at the train station. We hired a van which just happened to be outside the station, which the representative just happened to be bargaining for us and which the price just happened to be very expensive. It was all very coincidental. Three days of not sleeping properly have taken a toil on me and I couldn’t think properly. Only the next day, when we saw the same van, suspiciously outside the hotel that we released that we have been conned by Hotel Blue.

From Lonely planet,

“This area’s hotels won’t exactly make you jump for joy- you’re essentially paying for the central location, not the room quality or service, which is, frankly, so-so.” “Hotel Blue’s room are looking distinctly tired…”

Simply put, Hotel Blue’s room is very, very bad. The paint is peeling off from the room and walls, the AC stops working in the middle of the night, there are holes in the wall and some of lamps have fallen off. The Hotel uses incandescent light bulb, which is very energy inefficient and produces a lot of heat. The room service is equally bad. The Hotel demanded that we pay the room rate two days in advance. Naturally we checked out the next day.

22 July- Golden Triangle 6, Udaipur and Little Wave

2008-07-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

I shall remember my trip to the Golden Triangle for a long time, partly because of beautiful sights and mainly because of the tiredness.

After the movie, we took a detour from the golden triangle (Delhi, Jaipur, Agar) and went to Udaipur for a one day trip. Little Wave (our driver) drove us through the night all the way from Jaipur to Udaipur. We didn’t get a good sleep that night as the vehicle is quite cramp with seven people (including Little Wave) and all of our luggage. Moreover we had to keep an eye on Little Wave to make sure he didn’t fall asleep. Our life depends on it.

In the morning, we went to see the Udaipur City Palace, and we were already tired due to the lack of sleep and from climbing too many forts.

From Wikipedia,

“massive series of palaces built at different times… The way now leads to a series of courtyards, overlapping parations, terraces, corridors and gardens - a harmonic profusion hard to describe”

In my humble opinion, the Udaipur City Palace is rather messy. You can go through corridors to another room without knowing what to expect. One of the courtyards (to my untrained eye) is even decorated with white, blue Chinese porcelain tile. Also, even though the Udaipur City Palace is smaller, than the other forts and palaces we have seen, but due to its winding, cramp and maze-like nature, we were bring made to march through what seems like an endless corridors and rooms. Truly exhausting.

By around this time we have seen so much forts, palaces, temples and historical sites that we are worn out and refused to find any interest. Even the famous Lake Palace that we travelled all the way to Udaipur for, failed to interest us. From what I saw, the Lake of the Lake Palace seems to have either dried up or filled with alga. And the fee to visit the Lake Palace is rather expensive and we were running out of rupees. Needless to say, the Lake Palace wasn’t too appealing, and we decided not to go there.

That afternoon, we allowed Little Wave to catch some sleep so he won’t fall sleep on the drive back. But on the drive back that night, Little Wave stopped by a stop-over and told us that he need to sleep for a couple of hours. What did you do that afternoon! Not only that, he almost felt asleep several times while driving. Then after having his supper at a stop-over he called us to pay for him. This Little Wave is clearly taking advantage of our Singaporean kindness and patience. To the gentle readers, if you are going to India, by no means do you hire a driver named Nemichan.

P.S. On hindsight, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to visit the beautiful Taj Mahal first. I have been bashing the other places of interest as they seem ugly by comparison.

21 July- Golden Triangle 5, Jaipur and Movie review

2008-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Of course we visited Amber Fort. I think people who named the places in Jaipur must be rather colour-blind, since Jaipur the pink city is definitely not pink, and the Amber Fort is not amber, crimson, red, or scarlet, or any variations of those colours. Instead, Amber Fort is more yellowish-beigey. Amber Fort is located on top of a hill and is very huge, much larger than the Amber Fort in Agra and the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad.

We spent the whole day exploring the ruins of the massive fort. It was truly tiring. We even meet the mythical Indian snake charmers. This was the first time, we saw snake charmers busking in the 3 months we been here, and were naturally intrigued.

That evening we went to watch a movie in the Raj Mandir Cinema. I read in a review that the Raj Mandir Cinema is the place to see a Hindi film in not just Jaipur but The whole of India. The Raj Mandir is a tourist attraction in itself; because it is so opulently built that it looks like a palace. It certainly lived up to its reputation.

We bought tickets for a Hindi movie, Kismat Konnection. Now, I don’t hate Bollywood movies. I enjoyed watching Lagaan. And I don’t hate romantic comedies. However I found Kismat Konnection very boring and torturing. This may partly due to the fact that the movie is in Hindi and I don’t understand Hindi. However, I understand enough to be able to follow the plot, and the characters like to use some English phrases which greatly aided my understanding. The other interns may also protest my review of this movie, since I felt asleep half-way through the movie. Me falling asleep is because the movie is too boring and torturing, and not the movie is boring and torturing because I fell asleep.

Thus with great pain, I bring you the review of Kismat Konnection.

This poor Indian guy, Raj Malhotra, and his best friend (forgot his name) lives together in Toronto. His best friend has a girlfriend, which assures the gentle viewers that Raj is not gay. Everywhere they go, they only meet Indians who happened to be fluent in Hindi. Raj lives a very good lifestyle, with stylish suits, a car and a good house, even though he is not working. Raj randomly meet the feisty Priya (she may have a last name, but it was not mentioned), and immediately found out they don’t like each other. I need to mention that all this happen very slowly.

Raj is very unlucky until he meets this gypsy (she’s more beautiful than the lead actress) who told him that his luck will change when he is with his lucky star, who just happened to be Priya. Raj start to woo Priya because she makes him lucky, and Priya has a boyfriend. Yes, he has no ethics or morals. In the midst of all this, the usual Bollywood songs are sung, and at least one has no connection to the plot. The scene switches from a port to a Bollywood song in a night club, and back, so I’m very sure it has no connection. At about this time, I have already fallen asleep and was thus spared from further torture.

20 July- Golden Triangle 4, Jaipur and Home visit

2008-07-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Jaipur, and Trina felt sick, maybe from food poisoning. Claire decided to stay behind to take care of her.

Rahu (our friend in STC) managed to find a driver for us, his name is Nemichan. We renamed him Nami-chan, which in Japanese roughly translates to “Little Nami” or “Little Wave”. In the morning and early afternoon, Little Wave drove us around the city. Jaipur is named the pink city, because the entire city is painted pink in the 19th century to welcome the Prince of Wales. But from what I can see with my own eyes, and much to my disappointment, the city is painted in a colour is more similar to beigely orange. I shall rename Jaipur, the pink city to Jaipur, the beigely orange city.

Jaipur is smaller, more organized, and cleaner than Hyderabad. The city does not feel overcrowded like Mumbai and unlike Hyderabadiards, the people of Jaipur have pride in their city and do not piss in their streets. There are no slums and very few beggars in Jaipur. The traffic in Jaipur is better than Hyderabad, I didn’t experience fear of dying when I transverse the streets. I would have preferred to have my 3 months internship in Jaipur or even in Mumbai. Going straight from Singapore to Hyderabad was too much of a cultural shock for me.

That night, Little Wave drove us (less Trina ‘course she still sick) to Rahu’s house to have dinner. At Rahu’s house was his mum, younger brother, uncle and auntie. They live on the second floor. The house has an open air concept, which makes for good ventilation. They also have one of those big, cooling, moisturizing fans found in STC, to cool the house. The house has a cosy, homey feeling to it.

They prepared several snacks for us before dinner. Among those snacks are the much dreaded “gulab jamun”. This “gulab jamun” is the most unSingaporean and vile thing that I ever ate. It is a brown ball, looked similar to tāngyuán, but is made of fried milk and is very sweet, diabeticatly sweet. We even came up with a name for it, the “sugary ball of death”. Normally we wouldn’t eat it, but being the polite guests that we were, we felt obliged to stuff it into our mouth and get it over with.

For dinner, Mum prepared a feast in the Punjabi fashion fit for a Maharaja. It is in the Indian’s custom to force feed their guests, which is awfully similar to the Chinese custom, but they do it with much more zeal. Uncle keep forcing chapattis after chapattis onto my plate. When I politely declined and declared that I was full, he wouldn’t listen and said that I was too thin, and must eat more.

We ate until our stomachs were bustingly full and can eat not a morsel more. It was the best meal in the Golden Triangle, hands down.

19 July- Golden Triangle 3, Agra and Buying things

2008-07-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

When we exited the Taj Mahal, we were immediately surrounded by Touts who keep wanting us to buy things. Little did I know, this was to be the same everywhere. Six to eight Agrarians keep pestering us with mini Taj keychains, postcards and other trinkets.

“Sir, you want a mini Taj keychain? Only 50 rupees. Very cheap, Sir.”

These Agrarians are some of the most dishonest, cunning and persistent traders I have ever known. Agrarians always ask approximately 2 to 100 times the rupees they are willing to take, the trouble knows how much. Every time when we want to buy things, we would play the game of “How low can you go?” with the touts. It’s always best to express disinterest in their merchandise at all times, and play them against each other. Always be prepared to walk away, no matter how much you want to buy, because there are no lack of such merchandise and touts, as far as I can see.

When we arrived in Agra, we hired a guide to take us around Agra. Thus far, our guide has been honest and faithful, but soon, I noticed that our guide has a flaw. He keeps wanting us to buy things. He would drive us to those “government sponsored and approved” shops. At our first shop, we were shown how the craftsman crave out those beautiful patterns and lay the precious stones into the white marble. The salesman told us how his ancestors built the Taj and how his clan has been living here ever since. Then after that we were taken to one shop after another to buy marble products, small marble boxes, marble table, mini Taj and a huge Taj replicate. We probably saw enough marble to marble another Taj Mahal.

Then when we wanted to visit the Baby Taj, our guide gave this reply.

“Sorry Sir, the Baby Taj is going to close in 15 minutes, and it’s quite far from here. So do you want to visit some more shops Sir?”

The sneaky monkey, the reason why we don’t have time to visit the Baby Taj was because you keep bringing us to these shops!

19 July- Golden Triangle 2, Agra and the Taj

2008-07-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Taj Mahal… the great, magnificent, beautiful Taj Mahal. One of the Seven Wonders of the World and a UNESCO world heritage site. Its splendor, its beautiful white marble dome accompanied by 4 minarets. It is said that the minarets leans away from the Taj, so in a event of a earthquake, the minarets will fall away from the precious Taj. The Taj made from translucent marble and inlaid with precious stones is set against an awesome backdrop of a river. As you can tell, I was thoroughly impressed with the Taj Mahal. Mere pictures and words don’t do it justice. You have to be right there to experience the wonder first hand.

To see the Taj Mahal, we have to pay the exorbitant 750 rupees, and go through some excessive body checks. Some of the things that were banned include bags, guidebooks, water, water bottle, biscuits, jimjams and all manners of food.

At the Taj Mahal, were numerous wannabe photographers wanting to charge us money for take a group photo. Looking through his proud collections, we saw several false perspective photographs, like holding the Taj by the tip of the dome, and hugging the Taj. This gave us some very funny ideas. We paid the photographers for a group shot, then proceed to shot several false perspective photographs of our own, like “hugging the Taj” and “kissing the Taj”.

To get closer to the Taj, we had to take off our shoes to protect the precious marble flooring. I remembered that when I was at the Great Wall of China, all the steps were worn into curvy and dangerous steps after centuries of wear by the heavy and rough feet of soldiers guarding that desolate place. I guess we have to take off our shoes to protect the Taj for future generations to admire it’s beauty in all glory.

We got closer to the Taj and tried to do the same funny shots. Then suddenly a guard hollered behind us, “No kungfu pose! Don’t doing kungfu pose.” He came over and warned us not to do that. “You can do normal poses.” He said “But no kungfu poses like this or like that, okay?” Then when on the way to leaving the Taj, out of range of the guard, we decided to do some more “kungfu poses” for keepsake. We couldn’t help ourselves.

18 July- Golden Triangle 1, Train to Agra and Waiters

2008-07-18T02:46:00.000-07:00

After our internship, we decided to travel around India. Ramesh decided not to join us, so the once magnificent 7 is down to 6, the noisy trio is left with duo and the slumpalians is now singular. At first we wanted to go to Goa and then go down to Mysore. But this plan was abandoned at the last minute due to transportation difficulty. So instead of going west, we are travel up north to the Golden Triangle to see the Taj Mahal.

Ramesh and the other Indians like to constantly remind me that Mysore is pronounced as My-SU, and Taj Mahal is pronounced as Taj Ma-heL (it’s really said this way, I’m not making stuff up). However, I beg to differ. Firstly, if Mysore is meant to be pronounced as My-SU then it should be written that way. It’s not my fault that the word is spelt that way. Secondly, Taj Mahal is the English name of the great monument, just as the English name of Wànlǐ Chángchéng is the Great Wall of China. If I were speaking in Hindi or Urdu, then I would say Taj Ma-heL. But since I don’t speak Hindi, I would keep pronouncing it the English way.

Our first destination is Agra, and we took a 26 hours train ride there. To avoid dying before we arrive at Agra, we decided to travel by 2nd class AC. 2nd class AC is more spacious than 3rd class. There are less beds and people per cabin so the trip felt less claustrophobic. There are curtains to be drawn, if one does not want to be disturbed. But still I found it very annoying that the waiter will come 4 hours in advance of every meal to take your orders. I was sleeping when suddenly the waiter put open the curtain.

“What?” I said, trying to sleep and minding my own business.

“Sir, what would you like to have for lunch? There chicken bir…”

“Confounded! Can’t you see that I’m trying to have some shut eye here?!! I didn’t have any sleep last night and will not have sleep for the next night either! Now, be gone and let me have my rest!!!”

Then later during the afternoon, the same guy came again, this time tapping on my shoulders while I was in deep sleep. (I swear he was the same person)

“Sir, what would you like to have for dinner? We have egg bir…”

“Doubly confounded! Can’t a man have proper rest around here, without being disturbed every few hours? Now that you have woken me from my wonderful slumber, I like to have one egg biryani. Thank you very much. Now leave me, as I have to catch up on my sleep.”

Other than that, it was a very pleasant trip, had a wonderful company and best of all, they wash the toilet at every train stop.

Food at Byrraju and STC

2008-07-09T23:39:00.001-07:00

Most of us had our lunch at Byrraju foundation and dinner at STC. The vegetarian lunch at the foundation is exactly the same everyday and consists of rice, curd with curry, curry, curry and curry…. Trina got sick of it almost immediately. I kind of like the food at first, especially the curry with soy beans, but it was too spicy even for me. Now I’ve worked out a formula for lunch, where I divide my rice into 2 equal portions, and mix one half with curry and the other half with curd. Then I will alternate between the curry rice and curd rice: curry rice for taste and flavour, curd rice to lessen the spiciness and burn. Other people with mixed the curry and curd together to achieve the same effect, but I think mixing curry and curd is just disgusting.

If you find the lunch disgusting, do not fear for even the Indians find the disgusting. There are three evidences. The upper management bring their own lunch. Ramesh lost his appetide towards the end of the internship. And as JT puts it, "So spicy that it burns your as@ off."

There’re two cafeterias where we can have our dinner. The cafeteria further from our doms, located at the IT block, have more food variety and closes at 7pm. The one besides our doms only start serving dinner at 8.30pm, and this is the one we usually have dinner at. The menu is divided into Indian and Chinese. Indian food has vegetarian buffet, curry chicken, curry egg, and chapatti. Chinese food has Gobi Manchurian (cauliflower), fried rice (too much pepper) with egg or chicken (very stingy with the chicken), and fried noodles with egg or chicken. I think you can go through the menu in 1 week and be sick of the food by the second. I don’t really like the food but I like Manchurian, fried rice (not the spring onions though), curry chicken and curry egg. Personally, I think the fried noodles are disgusting but other people like it, they have weird tastes.

On weekends, we usually have our lunch at club house where they serve mutton, chicken, rice and chapatti. The food is much better there than what we have every day, though I find it a bit too expensive, especially the rice. However lately after eating too much delicious food, I’m starting to get sick of even the club house food.

Going home

2008-07-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

"我云游四海，可是没有比家乡菜更好吃的了"

It’s less than 1 month before going home, and I’ve made a list of what I want to do when I get back. In no particular order,

-Fix my little sister’s laptop. She has been complaining for a few weeks now.
-Learn parking from dad. It’s been more than a year since I got my license and I still can’t park.
-Learn cooking from mum, so I won’t die of ‘Chinese-food-depravation’
-Gorge on home-cooked and Singapore food. Never though I’ll miss them until I came to India.
-Meet my 6Sir, JJC, and Juying friends. Didn't had a chance to meet them before leaving Singapore.
-Juggling with friends. Juggling alone feels so wrong.

28 June- Birthday

2008-06-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

After spending 12 years in neighbourhood schools, 2 years in mono-intake, the transition to SMU was very tough for me. Everything is different; the location, the system, the people… even the language is different. Starting from the FTB, I knew it will be a rough ride for me. During the camp, it was about shouting slogans, shouting from rooftops, shouting louder than the other teams. It wasn’t the true feelings of the students… at least it wasn’t my true feelings.

Then when school started, things didn’t really get better. The SMU University-module system encourages a lot of hi-bye associates, and not much opportunity to have friends. I really missed the camaraderie I had in mono-intake, JJ and Juying Sec. During 32 km hell marches, camaraderie blunts our misery; during good times, it boosts our happiness. So you can imagine my surprise, when I say that I am really happy that I’m in the company of friends, all the way out here in India.

The gang has been having food craving for weeks now, especially Kenny and Trina who have been craving for Japanese and Chinese food respectively. Japanese food was too expensive (sorry Kenny), so to celebrate my birthday, we went to a restaurant called Aromas of China to have authentic Chinese food. I know, part of the reason I came to India was to experience a different culture and having Indian food kinds of defeats the purpose. But after having the exact same food (curry and rice) in Byrraju and STC for weeks and feeling homesick, I guess we all need it… maybe not Ramesh.

Aromas of China is a very posh authentic Chinese restaurant. They had chopsticks, Chinese soup spoon and bowls. I’m not sure if my standards have lowered from ‘Chinese-food-depravation’, but they serve excellent Dim Sum and Peking duck. I think everyone enjoyed themselves, even Ramesh had fun using the chopsticks and wrapping the Peking duck.

Thanks guys for the wonderful birthday celebrations and presents. Mina-san, subarashii tanjoubi to purezento wa, domo arigato ozaimashita.

8-27 June- Americans and monsoon

2008-06-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

We have 3 new interns from the US working at Byrraju with us.

The weather has turned from scorching hot when we first came here to a lot cooler now. I think either the monsoon is either coming or has already came. Coming from a land with no natural disasters, we even start imagining that the roads will be flooded and we will have to wade through flooded streets. However things seemed fine… for now.

7 June- Pink Day

2008-06-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

The noisy trio was exhausted from the back-to-back Mumbai and Village trip, so they rested on Friday and went to work on Saturday. That leaves Claire, Kenny, Hazel and me to prepare for Pink Day. I’m pretty sure the noisy trio did not go to work to “work” as in the conventional sense of work.

Before I continue, what is this Pink Day you may ask? It’s basically a party where everyone has to wear something pink. Then why Pink then? You may enquire, why not red or white? Frankly, I have no idea but I bet a girl came up with it. I don’t usually go to parties but since the rest of them want it, I will follow through.
As mentioned before, we got back on Friday and Pink Day is on Saturday, so we have like half a day to go to Paradise to find what we need for the party. Among us, Claire was the most excited about the party so she became our de-facto Pink Day expedition leader. I was very very very doubtful that we were able to get the party stuff we need.

To understand my doubtfulness, you have to understand Hyderabad. Even though Hyderabad is listed as an A-1 Indian city, similar in ranking to Delhi and Mumbai, Hyderabad feels very rundown. Everywhere you go, you have to be careful not to step on puddles of piss and the streets smells of piss, pardon me for my directness. There are piles of bricks and cement in front of every building, footpaths are badly built, homeless people sleeping in the streets and we get harassed by street urchins wherever we go; the entire city looks like those war-torn cities seen in war movies.

So I was very skeptical whether we can find the stuff we need. Thankfully, because of Claire’s leadership and keenly honed shopping instinct, we were able to procure the items we desired. Later at the Pink day party, everyone had fun.

3 – 6 June- Village visit

2008-06-06T02:54:00.000-07:00

Mr. CP and wife took us for a village visit right after we got back from Mumbai. When I say right after, I really mean right after. We were very tired from the sleeper class and days of sleeping in an unfamiliar environment.

After the hot and sweaty sleeper-class train ride from Mumbai, the 3rd Class AC feels really awesome. There’s the AC obviously, lack of unpleasant smell, lack of noisy beggars and salesmen and much, much better company. In sleeper-class, our neighbours looked like vagabonds, but in 3rd Class AC, our bunkmates are middle-class Indian families, and backpackers. It’s not just the comfort but I really felt much safer sleeping in 3rd Class AC. The AC, the lack of beggars and salesmen translate to a quieter, more peaceful sleeping environment.

Unexpectedly our accommodations at the village are much better than that at STC. We have AC in our rooms (I can’t stress how important AC is in India). The breakfast was also better to what we have at STC. Though lunch was as unpalatable as the Byrraju’s.

We were told that the village we went to was one of the more developed ones. Byrraju Foundation has a huge part in this. They had electricity, sanitation, clean water and cheap healthcare. We had drivers to send us to the village. All sorts and modes of transportation inhabit these rural roads. From our car, to auto-rickshaws, to rickshaw-rickshaws, from lorrys to ox-drawn carts. Somehow they have managed to live in harmony with each other.

At the village we were treated like honored guests and shown around. We saw, schools, water purification plants, rural BPOs, IT center, workshops and sweatshops. We also took this chance to ask questions concerning our project. I wasn’t able to get much information, as my project is on selling solar lanterns to areas without electricity, and this village has plenty of access to electricity.

P.S. On hindsight the level of safely in sleeper class and 3rd class AC could be the same. Just a difference in perception due to the difference in comfort level.

P.S.S. I think I will try to finish my blog on my Internship in india, or until school takes over my life that is. Trina you can use some of this materials for your guidebook, if you are trying one.

30 May – 2 June- Mumbai

2008-06-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

Stepping off the train, the first thing I noticed about Mumbai is the heat. Unlike the dry desert-like heat of Hyderabad, Mumbai has the same sweaty, humid heat of Singapore, except that it’s hotter and there’s less AC oasis to escape to. While you are in Mumbai, there’s no escape from this hot, sweaty, sticky feeling. Now, I really appreciate the weather of Hyderabad.

Mumbai is the economic capital of India and it shows. Take for example, the roads and streets in Mumbai are nicely paved, while in Hyderabad there are rubbles by the side of the roads, and the streets smells of pee and sewage. The people in Mumbai are different too. Even though I’m no fashion expert, I could tell that the people are more stylish and they dress better. People are accustomed to seeing foreigners, and they won’t stare and honk at you unlike in Hyderabad.

The public transport system in Mumbai is better too. The autos and cabs in Mumbai go by meter, unlike in Hyderabad where payment is done through bargaining. A downside to the meter system is that cabs tend to either intentionally or unintentionally “loss” their way, to clock distance. In the bargaining system, once the price of autos is agreed upon, there is no incentive for the auto to play punk.

I also had a few chances to travel around on Mumbai’s equivalent of MRT, the Mumbai Suburban Railway (MSR). The MSR is segregated by male and female compartments. I don’t know how the female compartments are like but the male compartments is absolutely crazy during the rush hours. We were packed body to body, people were hanging outside the doorless door and I could even smell what the person besides you had breakfast. We’ve heard rumours of pickpockets on the MSR and were constantly on alert. At every stop people would jump off even before the train stopped completely, and when the train stopped people would push and shout their way off and onto the train.

While at Mumbai, we stayed in a hostel with 3 SMU and 1 NTU interns who were kind enough to put us up for 2 nights and show us around. Thanks again. I was really fortunate to meet Claressa and Yong the 2 Indian veterans. Yong has been in India for so long that he even does the figure of eight head movement when he says yes, and Claressa has backpacked around India a few times before. I think it’s impressive to follow and watch them navigate around Mumbai on foot with no map and little idea how to get to their destination. The way they ask for directions, know who to ask for directions, confidence and stamina.

Oh and one last thing, we celebrated Trina’s birthday in Mumbai. We celebrate it a few times, in a bar, in a chocolate café and on the train ride back. Happy Birthday! Otanjobi omedeto!

29-30 May- Train to Mumbai

2008-05-30T02:53:00.000-07:00

Claire and Trina wanted to visit their professor in Mumbai, and the rest of us just decided to tag along. To travel from Hyderabad to Mumbai, we took a 15 hour sleeper-class train ride. Not the most comfortable way to travel to travel, but as Shan told us, you haven’t really experienced India until you have travelled on her trains.

A sleeper class “cabin” is a cramp 6 sitter, with foldable triple-decker bed. So the 6 sitter can be easily converted into a “6 sleeper” for an overnight journey. As this is our first journey on India’s train, and my first journey on a train of any kind, we were feeling very insecure. Trina, CK and Ramesh’s stories about people getting robbed and killed on trains did not help to allay our fears.
Spending 15 hours on a cramp and uncomfortable environment, like a sleeper-class train, won’t be easy. First priory is safety. For that we took turns to keep watch… well… most of us did anyway. Second priority is food and water. Buying food and water on trains isn’t an option, for we didn’t trust the vendors, any having LS on a train is an experience we definitely we do not want to have. I brought 2.5 liters of water, bread and chocolates. The next priority is how to spend the 15 hours. I recommend inflatable pillows, books and MP3 player with long lasting battery.

On our journey to Mumbai, we passed by farms, towns, rivers, the wilderness, we went over mountains and through it. It was quite meditative watching landscape slowly change from one to another.

Inside the train, thing were no less happening. Merchants would go through the carriages peddling their goods, anything from food to toys to books. Cripples, beggers and children would also beg for money. At one time, 3 Indian Ah guas dressed in saris, came begging. They were very persistent and would keep touching my head. I don’t know what it was supposed to mean but I would have gladly paid them not to do that.

I think these beggars are really smart. On the streets, if you don’t want to give money you can just walk away but on a train, you are held captive to your seats; you cannot walk or look away… no matter how much you want to.

P.S. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to bring chocolate to a train ride. Mine melted during the journey.

24 May- STC & Charminar

2008-05-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

In every country, you get these communities of foreigners who live in a bubble. If you go to a country but don’t get out of that expatriate bubble you are not going to experience that country. Living in STC feels like living in a bubble, a bubble designed to shield you from India. In STC, there’s a cafeteria, mama shop, barber shop, swimming pool, gardens, there’s even a mini bird park and rabbit park. It’s just too comfortable and safe here, there’s not much reason to leave it. In STC, Hyderabaders are the minority, almost all the other people working here is from someplace else. There’s the South Africans, Mainland Chinese, Malaysians, Indians from New Delhi, Mumbai and of course us Singaporeans. Almost everyone is a foreigner.

The problem with living in a expatriate bubble is once you leave it, you are back in India. I’m stuck in a public bus going to Charminar, the Indian heat is stuffy and my nose recoil from the exhaust. My ears have grew accustom to the constant honking. India may have over 20 official languages and thousand of dialects, but the horn is the de facto language of the road. Indian drivers use the horn to communicate many different things. Depending on the context, it can mean anything from “Drive faster”, “I’m Overtaking from the left”, to “Get out of my way!” and “I see weird Chinese-looking people”.

I’m in the bus with the other Byrraju interns and Aaron, a Philippine borned Canadian. There’s a very bad power struggle going on here, which I shall not go into further detail. The conductor moves repeatedly from one end of the bus to the other, shouting at passengers to buy tickets. He seems to remember destination of everyone, and at every stop he will chase someone off the bus. The front seats of the bus are reserved for ladies, and he made sure that rule was enforced, by yelling and pointing at the sign. Claire and Trina remarked that a similar system should be implemented in back home. Whatever happened to gender equality?

Charminar is located in the old city. Here the buildings are ancient, and the streets narrow. I think Muslims is the majority here. Most of the women are covered from head to toe in the hijab. Charminar, or a mosque of the four minarets, was built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah in 1591 to commemorate the eradication of plague. To get to the top, we had to climb what seemed like an endless flight of stairs. I think, I have gotten too used to escalator and evaluators. At the top of Charminar, it’s possible to see the old city in its entirety. From above, the people looked like ants, going about their daily business.

We have been warned of pickpockets in the old city by the other interns. I don’t have much experience with pickpockets myself, so I just gave an evil glare to anyone who’s too close for comfort. At the old city, we found shops selling pearls, saris and bangles. Most of the shops here don’t have fixed prices and require bargaining to reach a mutually agreeable price. In most of the developed countries, including Singapore, shops sell merchandise on a fixed price; there are very few chances to bargain. Shops won’t rip you off just because you are a foreigner, shouldn’t everyone pay the same price for the same goods? I wonder though, what we lose through the convenient fixed price system. If we no longer need to negotiate on easy stuff, like price for saris, then what about the important issues? Negotiation is a skill, and it atrophies from lack of use.

10 May- The Real Paradise

2008-05-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

Shan and gang invited us to go to their place for lunch. Sham lives somewhere in Paradise (no, not that paradise). The last time I was in Paradise, I had a bad case of culture shock. But this time, I felt more relaxed. However the Indian heat is relentless, it sucks your energy dry.
The place where Shan is staying is a cozy apartment with one small kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a common area. In the common area, there’s a TV with more than 300 channels, and 3 mattresses on the ground. For lunch, Shan, Julie and gang whipped up dishes from North India. After having the same food in Byrraju and STC for a week, it was a nice change. We were really touched by their hospitality.
After that, Shan and gang brought us to a famous Hindu temple called Birla Mandir. The way into Birla Mandir is a narrow, winding lane with small shops on both sides. Birla Mandir is made entirely out of marble and decorated with gold. To get into the temple, we had to leave our shoes, backs and handphones at the counter area. Going barefooted was a problem for Trina. She did a strange dance to minimize the contact between the scorching pavement and her feet. The temple was packed today and we had to queue up to pray. Deepali and Rohan explained to us that the temple was built to honour a holy man, who cured a lot of people many years ago. Later, Shan asked me if I felt anything when I prayed. I personally don’t know if I believe in miracles, but other people do and my life is richer for it.
After that we went to Lake Huassain Sagar to see the giant Buddha statue. The Buddha statue is in the middle of Lake Huassain Sagar. I was informed that this is the biggest granite Buddha statue in the world. We SMU interns begin to do the only thing we can do, taking false-perspective photographs with the Buddha statue.

5-9 May- First week at work, Buses and Autos

2008-05-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Work is supposed to start at 10pm but there’s only one 7.15am bus in the morning. But what to do? Byrraju Foundation is a 25 minutes bus ride from STC. We complained to Mrs. Pahnavathi, head of HR, about the early bus. She assures us that she will get us a later bus in a few days, but we remained skeptical. Things here work on Indian time, it will happen when it happen.

I met my project guide, Mr. Joseph Thomas (he’s Indian if you are wondering). My project is on sustainable energy. He says there are 2 main kinds of sustainable energy, biomass and solar energy. To my huge relieve, I’m not required to work on biomass, only on solar energy. My job is to find a low cost way to bring solar energy to the villages and find funding for the project. Sounds tough… very tough, I said that I’ll try.

We have 2 tea breaks per day, and we usually go for our tea sessions with Rohan and gang. During one of the tea session, they joked that they are just like us, foreigners. The food is different, the weather is different, and even the language is different. They can’t even read the road signs. They had to get translators when they travel to the villages. As they felt that they are foreigners in their own country, they said that it must even be worse for us. He had no idea how true he is.

Other highlight of the week includes missing the bus ride back home 3 times. We had to take an Auto back home during one of those times. For people not familiar with India, an Auto is a yellow, 3 wheeled, mechanical rickshaw devil, designed to carry 4 people including the driver. We (mostly Kenny) managed negotiated 10 rupees plus sharing to get back to STC. During the way to STC, the Auto would stop at a few junctions and people would alight and board the Auto. At one point, the Auto was carrying 10 people, including the driver and a baby. It’s amazing, the Indians has managed to turn a mini taxi into a mini bus.

4 May- Golconda Fort

2008-05-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

The 7 of us (plus The Intern) hired an AC cab to drive us to Golconda fort. Golconda fort is all the way on the other side of the city, more than 45 kilometers away. We arrived at Golconda fort at around 4pm. As this was a Sunday, the whole place is packed with people. The entrance to the fort is very narrow and we have to squeeze with the locals to buy tickets and enter.

I think Chinese is a curiosity in India. Either most Indians probably never saw a Chinese before or Chinese are very rare in India. Everywhere we went, the locals would be starting at us not unlike children when seeing zoo animals, except this time we are the animals. It doesn’t help that we were behaving in a very attention-seeking manner. Being from Singapore, we would stop very few seconds to pose (e.g. Smu jump) and take pictures. Then, near the end of our tour of Golconda Fort, for a reason I have forgotten, we were like literally mobbed. People wanted to talk to us, shake our hands, and take pictures with us. It’s like the roles are reversed and now we’re the tourist attraction. Only Ramesh wasn’t included. Ramesh said he felt left out; he should go to China next time for his internship, so he can stand out too.

After the mobbing incident, we went for the Sound and Light Show inside Golconda Fort. Venkat said that, there will be so many mosquitoes that when we clap our hands at the end of the show, our hands will be filled with dead mosquitoes, I wonder if he is trying to scare us. Just before the show, people are blowing that white anti- mosquito smoke around the audience; this cannot be a good sign. I enjoyed the hour long show. The mosquitoes were there but the anti-mosquito probably drove most of them always.

3 May- Byrraju Foundation，拜啦朱基金会

2008-05-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

We went to have our briefing at Byrraju Foundation on Saturday. Ramesh and CK who only arrived this morning, looked visibly tired. The Byrraju building is built in a mixture of colonial and Indian style. Walk through the main door, we were greeted by a portrait of the father of the founder. The portrait is decorated by fresh scented flowers. The interior is decorated with statues of Indian gods, pictures describing the initiative taken by Byrraju. This looks like a pleasant place to spend my internship.

我们在星期六去拜啦朱基金会开会。因为Ramesh和CK今天才到这里，他们看起来很累得样子。拜啦朱建筑具有殖民时代和印度风味。走入大门，我们看见创办人的父亲的画像。画像有新鲜的香花装饰着。建筑的内部有印度神的石像和拜啦朱如何帮助村庄的照片。在这里实习会很有意思。

2 May- Hot and Dry, 干热

2008-05-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad in May has a very hot and dry climate. The temperature hovers at around 40 degrees. And if a Singaporean rifleman tells you it’s hot, it’s freaking hot. Going outdoors means being confronted with a wall of heat. Unfortunately, there’s no AC (air con is known as AC) oasis here. In Singapore it’s very possible to spend very little time in the sun by going from your AC home, to AC bus/car to AC school, and then back into your AC bus and AC home.

The dryness is both good and bad. The upside is sweat evaporates quickly, so you won’t be sweaty like in Singapore. Cloths also dry very fast, laundry will usually dry by the next morning. The downside is breathing feels strained, and your lips will cracked after a few minutes of going outdoors, lip balm is a must. Some people swear by Nivea lip care.

五月的海得拉巴有很干热的气候。气温大约40度左右。还有如果有一位新加坡步兵根你说天气很热，真的西北热。一踏出门就会遇到一库炎热的天气。更糟的是，这里没有AC（这里冷气叫AC）绿洲。在新加坡你可以一整天没有晒到太阳。你可以从你的AC家，到AC巴士，到AC学校，然后回到你的AC巴士和家。

干燥有好有坏。好处有，汗会很快蒸发，所以不会像新加坡满身都是汗。衣服也很快干，今天洗的衣服，明天早上就干了。坏处有，呼吸有点累，和觜唇会在你出门的几分钟后列掉,唇膏是一定要带的东西。我介绍妮维雅唇膏。

1 May- Paradise, 爬乐代斯

2008-05-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

Work will only start on 5th May, so we decided to explore the city in the meantime. After lunch, the 4 of us (Trina, Hazel, Kenny and I) travelled to a place in Hyderabad called Paradise. Interesting, this could be fun. There’s a shuttle bus that leaves from STC to Paradise every 2 hours. The bus ride to Paradise is 1 hour long and passes by 3 villages, told you it’s freaking far.

At Paradise, I met my first challenge… crossing India’s roads. In case you don’t know, I’m not a particular brave or adventurous person; if possible I prefer not to take risk. On Indian roads, there are few traffic lights, cars flows continuously, and the drivers don’t follow traffic rules. Not trained on Indian roads, I was terrified. On my second or third crossing I decided to follow this Indian lady, cross when she cross and stop when she stop. She seems very calm; she can stop in the middle of the road to allow a car to pass in front of her and then walk a few steps to avoid being hit by a car. It takes nerves of steel, and a firm belief in reincarnation to conquer India’s road. She has many lifes to live while I only has one, and I'm nervous. After a few such crossing, I grew slightly more daring, slightly.

We met a Singaporean friend who shall be named as The Intern. She when through some tough times while backpacking through India and decided to stay with us for a few days. Then, we when to takeaway biryani. which is famous in Hyderabad. By now, because of not used to the climate and experiencing some serious culture shock, I feel tried and grumpy (I know I always looked grumpy). We hired a cab to drive us back, and paid like twice the market rate, but no choice lah… lan lan suck thumb. The consolation price was the biryani was very delicious, maybe the best biryani I’ve eaten so far. And did I mention how nice the biryani was?

五月五号才开工, 我决定着几天内去城市遨游。午餐后，我们这四位实习生到海得拉巴的一个地方叫着爬乐代斯（天堂的意思）。有意识，可能会好玩。有一个每两个小时从STC到爬乐德斯的巴士。到爬乐德斯的行程需要一个小时和走过三个村庄，跟你说西北远了。

在爬乐代斯，我捧见我第一个交战，过印度的马路。万一你不肖的，我不是个特别勇敢，喜欢冒险的人；如果可以的话我不会走险。在印度马路，红绿灯很少，车龙连接不断，和有不尊从交通规着的司机。因为没有在印度的马路上练过，我非常害怕。在我第二，第三次过马路的时候我决定跟这位印度女士一起过。她看起来很镇定；她能在马路的中间停下来让车子在她面前走过，然后为了避开车子走几步。克服印度马路需要过人的胆量和需要相信有转世。她还有很多命要过，但我只有这一条。过了几次后，我的胆量有增加一点，一点点。

我们跟一位新加坡朋友会和。这里不方便透露，我就叫她实习生吧。她在印度背包的时候遇到了不好的遭遇后，决定跟我们住几天。接下来，我们去打抱海得拉巴有名的Biryani 。因为习惯当地的天气和遇到了严重的文化冲击，我感觉又累又Grumpy。我们乘坐一辆德士会去，花了双倍的价钱，没办法。那个Biryani非常好吃，可能是我吃过最好吃的了。我有说那个Biryani有多好吃吗？

30th April- Hyderabad，海得拉巴

2008-04-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Hyderabad, India, at midnight. The International airport is sparking new and is nothing like the rumored infamous chaotic Indian airports. As I stepped out of the airport, I noticed that even at midnight, India is very warm. This cannot be a good sign; I cannot imagine what the temperature must be like during daytime.

Driving through Hyderabad, we passed by cows, dogs, a wedding being celebrated with fireworks, a lake, 2 Gandhi statues and numerous motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic. Hyderabad is the capital city of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and has a population of more than 6 million.

Why am I here? Firstly, I like freebies. Secondly, I wanted to visit a foreign land, and India is certainly foreign. So when I was offered a chance to have my internship in India, I jumped at the chance.

Finally, we arrived at Satyam Technology Centre (STC), my home for the next 12 weeks. Satyam (pronounced as Sa-Tiam), is more than 40 kilometers always from the Airport and far away from the city. As our car enters STC, I felt being transported into a different world. While Hyderabad is chaotic, and messy, STC is clean, and green with modern buildings. The whole place kinda feels like NTU actually, as it feels like a campus and being far away from the rest of civilization.

我们在半夜抵达海得拉巴，印度。海得拉巴国际机场是新新的，一点都不像传说中的杂乱印度机场。当我踏出机场的时候，我发现就算在半晚，印度有点热。这不是个好的现象；我不能想象白天会有多热。

在车上穿越海得拉巴的时候，我们路过牛，狗，一个正在用烟花庆祝的婚礼，湖，两个甘地石像和数十个摩托车在车群中穿进穿出。海得拉巴是安得拉邦的首府，人口有六百万。

我为什么会在这里？第一，我喜欢免费的东西。第二，我想出国。所以当我被邀亲去印度实习的时候，我便立刻答应。

终于，我们到了STC,是我结下来十二个星期的家。STC离机场有四十公里，离城市很远。当车子进入STC, 我觉得好像在一个不同的世界。海得拉巴很杂乱，但STC，干净，绿化还有现今的楼。整个地方很像南大是的，感觉像个校园和偏远。