Tuk Tuk

ah... i'm not in the mood to whine..

maybe the world had just gone perfect and everyone in it are perfect so therez nothing to complain abt..

so itz just backtracking time..

i came back from Bombay on Friday.. again.. India.. as how it is as i had mentioned in my previous posting about Amritsar..

dont get me wrong btw.. i love India as i love all the other countries that i had been to.. but itz definitely not for the faint hearted..

i'm an Indian anyway.. for those who doesnt know yet.. i'm a Pakistani.. dad's Paki, and my mom's Indian..

and for those whoz confused why i sometimes say i'm Paki, sometimes i say that i'm an Indian..

Pakistanis are classified as Indians. therez no actual Pakistani race, coz Pakistan used to be a state of India.. just that since the breakaway, Pakistanis worldwide had tried to set up a separate entity to call ourselves Pakistanis.

anyway, India is a country full of culture and history.. and therez like what? 3000 dialect groups?

and before u start getting some ideas and start getting stereotypical... i was reminded on my trip to Amritsar and the conversation i had with my travel guide..

he's a student.. doing his Masters.. and in his free time, he becomes a part time tour guide.. and for the fact that he said that he will never wanna live anywhere else except for India tells that itz not a bad place after all..

and my Indian colleagues.. they try to go back there as much as they can.. and those who quit flying, goes back to India to live..

i think it takes more than familiarity to love a certain place.. itz not that they wanna be there coz they are used to it..

if u spend 2000 yrz in hell and finally released coz u can then qualify to go to heaven.. would u remain coz of sentimental reasons? coz most of the ppl in hell are already ur friends for the past 2000 yrz?

i'm sure u'll pack ur suitcase in a snap and head down on the next train to the Pearly Gates..

but they do love India, no matter what the perceptions are from the rest of the world.. so it must be a good place to live in somehow..

anyway, arrived in Bombay in the morning on Thursday.. and i slept for a while and woke up at 3pm coz i wanted to go out shopping..

one of the many reasons why i love the company i'm working for.. they put us up in very very nice hotels..

so.. here's my room..



and the lobby from the floor i'm staying at..



but sad to say.. in India.. the rich are extremely rich.. and the poor.. are really really really heartbreakingly poor..

therez no way u can walk out on the streets without getting swarmed by beggar children..

maybe there are in the suburbs.. just that we dont go there.. but itz really sad looking at how bad the state of the children is..

all along the highway, u can see squatters and beggars.. along the street.. children playing in the dirt... i have a pic of it below..

and the contrast to the beautiful hotel.. is just outside my window..



taken from my room's window..

at abt 5, headed down with another crew, Lynette, to a place called Linking Road.. where therez a shopping mall called Shopper's Stop..



ok.. itz not a good pic coz i took it in a rush to avoid the kids from seeing my camera.. but here's a group of beggar children playing with dirt on the street..

and stupidly.. i forgot to switch off the flash.. and when the kids noticed that, they ran after us and started begging..

sad.. but itz never a good idea to entertain the beggars.. till u are ready to leave the place.. coz if u give money to one, a hundred will swarm u within 3 seconds..

we took a Tuk Tuk from the hotel, and when we arrived there.. we didnt have small change for the driver.. so he suggested that he'll come back to fetch us after we are done.. so the time was set to 2 hours later.. which would be 7.. so we thought.. ok lar.. better than having to take another Tuk Tuk and having to explain to some non English speaking driver, itz better for him to come back for us..



here's Mr Tuk Tuk Driver from the back..

the place is impressive.. i'd say that this mall is comparable to Paragon Shopping Centre.. i didnt take any pics of it coz my camera was left in my bag which was placed in some security pigeon hole outside, just like how it is in Mustafa Centre..



therez a food court with LOTS of good stalls, got Subway, got Nandos Chicken, and itz extremely extremely extremely clean.. much cleaner than most of our foodcourts anyway..

had a late lunch/early dinner at Pizza Hut.. and still.. i love the Cheese Garlic Bread.. nice nice..

walked around the mall after the meal, but didnt get anything coz itz mostly boutiques like Gucci and stuffs like that.. so we went back to the Tuk Tuk abt an hour earlier..

our friend, Mr Tuk Tuk Driver was still there having a conversation with some other drivers.. so we told him we wanted to go to the market street at Linking Rd.. to which he didnt understand.. and he brought us allllll the way down to the other side of town.. which apparently was closer to our hotel.. to a place called Irla Society Road..

when we arrived, the fare was like almost 500 rupees!

THATZ LIKE TWENTY FUCKING DOLLARS!

dammit..

it was just 140 rupees when we arrived at Shopper's Stop.. so the idiot actually let the meter run and he didnt leave the place.. so we were supposed to pay him for the time he was there..

idiot.

paid up coz i didnt want to get into an argument.. i should have just tried hard to get a change and take a different Tuk Tuk to wherever that i wanted to go next rather than having him waiting for us outside..



anyway, Irla Society Road wasnt that big.. but good enough coz therez whatever that we wanted there..

first we stop at a stand-up roadside tea stall and had our masala tea.. therez like abt 8 ppl manning the stall though the only customers were the two of us.. therez the father, the son and the 2 daughters and their own children..

ermz.. they must have been bored staying at home so they all helped out standing outside the stall swatting away the flies..

anyway.. had a small talk with them.. the Father, was a very nice and friendly old man.. somewhere ard 60 yrz old.. he spoke to us in Tamil.. and translated by his son to English..

Indians would always know that i am an Indian. the Malays somehow think that i am a Malay.

i officially declare once and for all that i am an Indian. i am not a Malay and i paid full for my school fees.

but i dont speak Tamil. i speak Malay. heh..

so.. he recognised me immediately as being an Indian.. and said that i look like someone who would have come out of Assam.. which is a province in India.. which wasnt right anyway.. i'm a Pakistani gawddammit!

after we finished our tea, we went thru the stretch of street.. where there were shops at both sides of the road..

i managed to get a pair of Kurta for my mom.. a nice orange one.. and a typical tradionally Indian designed blouse for my sister in law.. which, when i got back, the Kurta fits Sis more than my mom so we decided that it should go to her instead and i could get another one for my mom next month..

walked around till abt 10pm, where Lynette got some of her own stuffs.. wanted to get something for Nafisa.. but it was too expensive.. a child's set of clothes would cost abt $80.. in which i think the price had been set like that coz we were tourists.. so i decided that itz cheaper for me to get her a pair in Serangoon..

took another Tuk Tuk back to the hotel and it cost us just 50 rupees..

damn u Mr Tuk Tuk Cheater..



and no.. this is not the culprit.. just another Tuk Tuk.. from the outside..

see.. a $20 ride on this beautifully decorated limousine..

thatz it abt Bombay..

had a jamming session with the band yesterday... yeyyyyy...

after so long...

damn..

i miss the band.. and i miss the drumkit.. and i miss the noise.. and i was getting paranoid abt having a gig and not having enough practice..

we jammed once or twice after the Sept Skafest at Fort Canning.. and once after the Toa Payoh gig.. which was yesterday.. and we have another gig this weekend..

but the session turned out to be alright.. just that we were playing the same songs over and over and over again..

so this Saturday will be another jamming session where we would be playing some other new songs.. just before the gig..

anyway.. we met up way before the jamming session..

my dear friends..

if i say that we are meeting up at 3, be there at 4..

Ika learnt that the hard way.. she came wayyyyyyy too early at the actual time.. 3pm.. while the rest of us arrived an hour later..

hang ard a lil bit before we headed down to the studio at LKS..

ok.. on IRC now.. and therez a girl named Ika.. and somehow she's called Fish..

so Nur Atiqah.. from now on.. u are Pirate Fish.

my nephew, Farhan, a 14 yr old Mod.. *snickers*.. came down for the jamming session with his Mod schoolmates.. since he is interested in drumming and somehow managed to practice properly and got into a proper 4/4 timing, i'll be guiding him to be a drummer..

and be cool..

just like the uncle..

*ahem*

oh.. i borrowed the *snicker* thingie from the Fish on irc now too..

thingie.. somehow that makes me sound like a dork..

anyway... did a Bangkok turnaround just now.. and went home to sleep afterwards.. met Alwi and chilled at Simpang Bedok for a while..

Sis left for Sydney yesterday.. so Nafisa is at my cousin's place abt 5 mins away.. she almost got bumped off from her flight coz it was full.. so after much tablebanging and unsatisfaction.. they upgraded her to Business Class..

wow..

Mom left for Jakarta this morning.. and will be back on Wed..

i'm heading down to Auckland tmrw..

that leaves my dad alone in Singapore..

New Zealand.. where the population of cows and sheeps are more than human..

baa..