Could you respond to this Part 2 ??

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There are few more things which according to me are BAD HABITS and they have annoyed me for a long time and they still do but when I gave it a strong thought then it strike me that “How can all these things be incorrect when countless people do it”. Then I thought, why not I request reasons for these things from you.

Please reply your justification in comments wherever it relevant to you,

1. TENDENCY – Trash on Road.

QUESTION – Why do people complain about India being dirty when they themselves littre it by throwing trash wherever it is possible.

MY ANALYSIS – People are so selfish that they do not realize that India is also there home, you do not throw garbage in your living room do you ?? Why cant you take all the throwable trash to your house and dump it in your dustbin, why cant you look out for a dustbin or atleast throw it somewhere where it is probability for that trash to be collected in the morning.PLEASE DO NOT litter

Exception - I truly expect that governmanet must have dustbins atleast at intervals of 100 meters whithin all market places.

YOUR OUTLOOK – What do you feel ?? Let me know in the comments.

2. TENDENCY – Native lingo conversation

QUESTION – Why people use their mother tongue when someone who doesn’t understand the idiom is also involved in the conversation??

MY ANALYSIS – Bad etiquettes.

YOUR OUTLOOK – What do you feel ?? Let me know in the comments.

3. TENDENCY – Queue breaking

QUESTION – Why so sophisticated people (generally the IT mass) break line and want to be first, circumstances like line for lunch, bus or anything??

MY ANALYSIS – Is it lack of proper education!!

YOUR OUTLOOK – What do you think ?? Let me know in the comments.

4. TENDENCY – South Indian food is awful.

QUESTION – Approximately 90% people who are not from South thinks the south Indian Food is pathetic.

MY ANALYSIS – 89% out of that 90% either have never tasted the food of south or they make assumptions based on texture of the south Indian food which is not as attractive as oily – calorific north Indian food. Rest 1% does not want to get accustomed to it. How would you feel if a South Indian tells you that Pav-Bhaji, Pani Puri, Samosa, kachori are the worst things he/she has ever eaten, yes it will make you annoyed, now put yourself in their shoe and think.

YOUR OUTLOOK – What do you feel?? Let me know in the comments.

Please do let me know what do you think about any of these which will allow me to realize and transform my belief regarding few things.

Also please let me know if i have missed some habits which annoys you alot and are worth mentioning.

Waiting for your comments :-)

A trip to GOA

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There is a very very dear friend of mine and he has written this fiction which i found so intresting that i felt like sharing it with everyone, its the story of 2 friends who took the trip to GOA togather. Here it goes ......

Goa is one place I always wanted to go to. I planned it every year however due to friends backing out and financial constraints could not do it. Finally in Dec 2008 I was able to persuade Lucky, that Goa is the best place to spend New Year. Lucky by the way is my childhood friend. He is one person whose opinion you can not trust and he has an opinion about everything in the world. He has great marketing skills, he can convince you to do anything, trust me. I have traveled sitting on engine of the train, with my legs trying to find some support while drinking Vodka, getting scared that it could be my final ride. Only because he thought it would be amusing. If you ask me, it was stupid to risk life for nothing. 
  

An additional thing is that Lucky’s parents don't like me much. They hate me. I am that individual who has disfigured their innocent toddler however what they don't know is that it's the other way around. There are many reasons for them not liking me in which the most current one was an accident while searching for food after boozing to our full capacity (which by the way is too much for anyone to handle) at 2 AM in the morning. We got injured pretty roughly and since then any plans involving him and me got a big NO from his parents. So I was sure that we will not able to go together but thanks to Lucky's great marketing expertise, he was able to induce his parents which also resulted in his father came to drop us to the railway station.  

  

Journey by trains in India and people in your compartment, it always have a story. My expedition was no unusual. I was sleeping on my seat and suddenly I was awake due to a prolonged rattling sound made by the train. It was the brakes, which brought the train to a halt. I went to use the restroom and found unfamiliar luggage on my seat on when I was back. I inquired about the baggage in the compartment and my query was answered by a middle aged woman with a single word 'Mine'. I waited for two men accompanying her to remove the bags from my seat so that I could retire to the bed again. When nothing happened I asked them, "Would you mind removing it from my seat?" The answer that I got was, "adjust kar lo" which meant that they had no plans to eliminate there belongings from there. It was time to get pushy; I told them to get rid of the luggage because there was no room for me to sleep. Again we had an argument about adjusting. I was thinking why I should adjust after paying the full amount for the ticket. After in contention for about 5 minutes and after Lucky 'the angry young man' coming into the picture, who threatened them to throw there baggage if they don't remove it, they finally agreed. I could go to sleep once again, with only one thought in my mind GOA.  

  

I got out of the train at CST took a bus from CST to go to Colaba. The bus was packed and was stinking pretty badly. I managed to capture a seat for me but underprivileged Lucky ....... he was standing. I was proud of my swiftness and also of the fact that I snatched away the seat from ass of an uncle who had his eyes on it for a long time. It was 30 minute ride and I was pleased that I have support beneath my butt and was also apologetic for Lucky whose ass was now getting molested between two giant uncles. I was having fun watching Lucky struggling between the uncles, when unexpectedly my facial expression changed to absolute disgust. I was taken aback by a hot puff of air hitting my face and my nostrils filling in with a strange sickening stink. It was the same uncle whom I beat for this seat and now his ass had its vengeance. It was sickening, someone farting on your face. I had nothing against farting, I think it's an important body function and needs to be performed, but on someone's face?? If I would have been him I at least would have warned the person behind me, may be would have asked him to move a little to the right but not this guy. He likes to take people by surprise, or rather by shock. I wished I could payback but I could do nothing and he got off the bus on the next stop. I wished I was not that agile and swift to hop on to that seat, and instead it was Lucky who had it. I don't mind my ass being between uncles but you never want experience what I just did. The filthy sensation faded off by the time we reached Colaba. 

  


I have a friend in Colaba where we stayed for two days, Mumbai was rocking but I was impatient to reach Goa. Finally on 30th Dec 08 we reached there. Goa is stunning and my agent David got me to an incredible resort from where the Calangute Beach was just a walk away. When you are relaxing in your trunks on one of those beach benches,  sipping your drink, watching the beautiful sea, with beautiful people playing in water wearing their most revealing swim suits you feel all the weight on your shoulders is melting away, It's a startling feeling. 30th Dec the day we reach there we spent the whole day on beach and night in a beach party.

I got up in the afternoon on 31st after partying hard last night. I had the usual hangover. To get rid of it, the best cure is a cup of coffee. I went out, had the coffee, came back to my room and got ready once again to hit the beach. There are shacks on beaches which offer you the most amazing food. One such cottage is Rolly’s, owned by a sardar jee, who prepared the most incredible butter chicken I ever had in my life. There I found a pool table too. I find irresistible to play pool and it’s on that table where I got acquainted with a middle aged British investment banker, ‘Nick’. Nick is on the party of his life. He is in Goa from past six months. We were drawn in together because of our worship for the game. We were friends in no time and he invited me and Lucky to a party in a club called Ethiopia. I gladly accepted it because I knew Ethiopia throws the most amazing New Year bash. 

  

So in the evening I got geared up. I wore jeans, a t-shirt and converse slippers. This is fashion in Goa, no one cares what you are wearing. Lucky and I hired a bike and went to Ethiopia. The place was rocking, and the most wonderful thing was that it was a pool side party. I saw Nick, he was all over the place, going nuts with the music with Ahmed. Ahmed is a guy from Saudi Arabia, who took leave from work to do a course in networking from some institute in Bengaluru. He and Nick met at Rolly’s too. I think it's Nick's preferred place to pick up new friends. I offered them a drink and they looked at each other and smiled. They were smoking a cigarette with no filter. I asked them what is it. Answer came from Ahmed ‘hash – hash’. I asked them again what in the world is ‘hash – hash’. Ahmed looked at Nick and Nick said ‘Marijuana’in the most soothing tone. At this point in time I saw glitter in the eyes of Lucky and I knew something is about to go off beam. 

  

I told him lets abandon these guys and drink what our bodies are used to, but skills of the master. I was made to believe that we came to Goa to try ‘hash – hash’, without trying ‘hash – hash’ my trip is incomplete. Just like ‘a trip to Vaishno Devi is incomplete without going to Bharo Baba’ I swear I was quoted this. So we decided to have some. I smoked the first puff nothing happen, it was like any other smoke so I went on to smoke the whole cigarette. Nothing happen when I was sitting however as soon as I got up I could feel my heart beat, it was getting slower. I was dehydrating, I got up to the bar and asked for a water bottle and drank it in a single breath. I was feeling recovered, a little hot but better. My breath was coming under control. After five minutes my body was not a hot any more, it was ‘burning’. I saw the pool and next thing I know is I am running towards it. I jumped in the pool with my clothes on. The heat in the body was disappearing.  

  

I don’t know for how long was I in the pool or what happen to Lucky, Nick and Ahmed but I liked the way I was feeling. I heard the music that the DJ was playing, without a doubt it was Trance. Now let me tell you ‘Trance’ & ‘hash – hash’ is a lethal blend. Your mind can not think straight, you know what you are doing but you also think that everything you do is correct. My life was now in the hands of the DJ, I could think of nothing except the music. I crawled my way out of the pool, got rid of the wet T-Shirt and started raving, after some time I realized that one of my converse slipper is missing, but who gives a shit about it, I threw the other slipper and continued to rave. I remember telling people I am trying to feel earth, I am trying to feel how the people make me feel. I am trying to get close to nature. I was raving hard and some idiots joined me in my quest to feel nature. I was bare foot, and I was raving on the sand, on concrete, on the wooden benches, I also remember trying to climb a tree. I could feel no pain. All I felt was absolute delight. It disgusts me now that I was stepping in the washroom, on other peoples piss with my bare foot, but at that time I was getting close to nature. I was raving hard very hard. 

  

The next thing I remember waking up on the same wooden bench, on which I went wild the whole night. There was no hangover not even a slight headache, however my feet were throbbing with pain. I looked at them and they were all red and dirty. I washed them in the pool, picked up my T-shirt and got out of Ethiopia. Lucky, Nick and Ahmed were no where to be found. I was picked up by a cab, the driver asked me where to and I remember telling him 'to the nearest shoe shop'. 

  

So that was my adventure of Goa, I never met Nick and Ahmed again. Lucky was also under the effect of ‘hash – hash’, so instead of taking me he hooked up with a French girl, and took her to our room. I can only imagine what they did on that night under the effect of ‘hash – hash’. He got the beating of his life for leaving me there and had to pay the rent of the room we stayed in. It was fair because after all he was the one who actually used the room. When I was leaving Goa, I didn't regret anything I did there. I am a firm believer that you should try everything in life at least once, except things like getting farted on your face. Goa was fun, Marijuana was fun and the whole trip was an etched in your mind experience.

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Onsite travel.

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The excellent news

It’s really an overwhelming feeling to visit a new country, different set of people, diverse mindset, different ethnicity and lots and lots of fairy tale places to visit.

Here I will tell my experience about overseas travel (Europe particularly because I have been there only) and few things you might want to know before and during journey so that the first travel does not become frustrating. Most of the points can be adapted even if you are holidaying too. 


Things you must purchase,

1. A good suitcase which is strong to defy the abuse from airline baggage transfer crew, look for the bag which could carry up to 25 kgs (Except US, its 44 kgs I guess) and make sure that bag must not exceed a weight of 3-4 kgs of its own.

2. Inner wear Thermals, a monkey cap, high-quality gloves and woolen socks, you will need it since its freezing for almost 11 months and almost boiling for 1 months, JUNE usually. Keep one good quality jacket which to keep you warm, don’t go for fancy thing which looks good from outside but does not keep the warmth. You really need to fight cold there because it goes as low as -10 degrees in some countries in Europe.

3. Carry some necessary stuff which you might not get there or you might get it with high difficulty like, Nail cutter, scissors, Medicines (buy whole strips and buy for EVERY single normal disease, balm, cough syrup, ENO, painkillers, fever, cough, cold, thermometer etc.), adhesive tape, few passport size photographs (you will need them when you will get your bus pass ready and few other things).

4. Keep eatables ONLY for 1st week, more eatables and more weight they would claim, keep as much as Maggie you could because that's the one thing you can eat 3 times a day (Some of us actually can including me), you can even keep few ready to made MTR packets which can be prepared in hot water but each packet is about half kgs.

5. If you are planning to cook there then you must keep a tea-vessel which would serve the purpose for many things like for making tea, Maggie etc, Keep 250 grams of all sorts of Masalas (spices) it will be sufficient for 6 months for a single person even if you cook every day. Also, carry a tawa to prepare chapati, a cooker (If feasible to carry) which could also serve as kadahi to prepare side dishes, 2 spoons, a knife, Belan (Chapati Roller), rest of the things you can find there itself but try to purchase everything plastic there because steel is expensive in Europe.

Few things to Note:-

Before voyage:-

# Have a travel Itinerary which is painless to pursue, try to keep away from domestic flight within India (Applicable only If the airport in your city operates international flights) prior to catching the global flight.

# Make sure you have no less than 1.5 – 2 hrs between every linking flight so that you will be competent to catch a glimpse of the airport and have adequate time to board the connecting flight even if you have to go to some terminal which is little far away.

# You will get Vegetarian food onboard without difficulty when you will begin from India but you might not be blessed with the same in the following flights so ensure that you ask your agent to get availability of vegetarian for ALL following flights, all airlines WILL arrange vegetarian food for you if they are told in advance.

At Airports:-

# Take a picture of your passport and keep it in your mobile and camera so that you have it readily accessible if some catastrophe happens, have 2-3 copies of Xerox of every vital document and preserve it in all different baggage so even if your 1 bag goes missing (Usually happens, don’t be afraid because it comes back after some time) you still have 1 copy with you, keep your necessary documents handy for immigration like Passport, client invitation letter, company ID card (extremely essential).

# Do NOT keep any fluid in the check in baggage or in hand baggage and do not keep any knife, nail cutter, scissor in hand bag, it will be thrown away.

# Make sure that you click pictures on any airport before seeking the authorization from airport staff/security because it’s forbidden at many places and could land you in nuisance.

At Onsite:-

1. Don't take woolen pajamas because every house in Europe has centralized heating system so within the house you will have the temperature as good as India, so you will not want to wear anything which will keep you warm in the house and evidently you will not wear that outside.

2. Clothes I would advise to keep

# 7 pairs of undergarments so that you can wash them without any stress on the weekends.
# 2-3 pair of jeans not more then that.
# 6-7 shirts or t-shirts for the whole week is enough.

Since it’s TOO cold and TOO clean there, you will not perspire or even get dirty, so you will not have need of washing as repeatedly as you require in India. I remember that I washed my 3 pair of jeans only once in the span of 2.5 months and please trust me I was not being lazy.

3. DO NOT lose sleep about FOOD AT ALL because every country in this world has Indians so you will find Indian restaurant and Indian general stores without any difficulty with slight hunt but do not hesitate in going to local general stores chains also because there also you will get many things like rice, bread, SNACKS and beverages. Vegetables like Onion, Tomato, Cabbage, capsicum, Garlic and Potato are available in almost everywhere in the world but its very hard to find ginger and chillies, you will get them only in Indian or Pakistani stores.

4. Look for the house which is close to the office but don't try toooooooo hard to seek out, first reach there and get yourself easy and then do investigate in your free time on weekends, you will find everything with no trouble.

5. First thing you should do on weekends is to get the bus pass done it will eliminate one Burdon off your shoulders, I would recommend to do a lots of groundwork from India itself so that you wont face much troubles. You can be acquainted with many many things from the site www.wikitravel.com

6. Memorize few terms which you cannot be used outside India,

Nonveg = meat (no one understands what is non veg, ask if the food contains meat or not)
Petrol pump/bunk = Gas station
Do you know English = Do you speak English
General store = Grocery store
Rice = Reese (at least in Copenhagen, it might work for you too)
Cold drinks = Soda

7. Don’t give the impression of being a tourist, especially Indian by being in sports shoes, find something other then sports shoes also. For them it looks truly weird to wear sports shoes at places other then gymnasium or while playing. You can wear them but not every-time, wear them only once in a week to the office, Please remember that sports shoes does not go with Formals AT ALL. Wear them when you will have to walk a lot but don't be dependent only on them.

8. Follow rules, follow traffic light, don’t push people in queues, be polite and people will treat you like a celebrity, so learn from them and improvise on your Indian tactics while being within there rules and regulations.

You will know as you start staying, don't be bothered that you need to pack more if you are going for 6 months, pack as less as possible because you might wanna bring lots of things from there for you and many of your relatives :-)

DO NOT carry anything for friends because it will simply overload your luggage for someone who is not as important as your relatives.

DO NOT panic at any point because nothing will happen since its not INDIA :-)

Keep your cool, have endurance and keep your eyes and ears open, learn from different people of different ethnicity and DO NOT falter to ask about anything from any one.

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