The inertia of time seems to increase inverse proportionately with the amount of time more to go home. Minutes felt like hours, hours like days. It felt like I have been to India for years when I barely covered 5 months here. How am I going to adjust to eating 'normal' food when I go home after eating curry and spicy stuff for the past 5 months I was here. I have even developed a kind of 'radar' for cow dung. The incidents of stepping on cow dung have reduced significantly. Soon, gone will be the days of seeing wild buffalos and stray cows grazing on rubbish and back to the days when the largest stray animal I will ever see grazing on rubbish in the street is nothing more than a mixed-breed stray cat.
Gone are the days of pigeons tap dancing on the air-conditioner outside my window every morning and gone are the days of getting awaken by a passing train at 4.30am in the morning.
Gone will be the days of greeting people with "Jayee Sri Krishna" and back are the days when people greet one another with nothing more than a smile or a nod on the head.
Gone are the days of ambiguous head wiggles and back the days where a nod means a yes and shaking the head means no.
Gone will be the days when horning the vehicle horn can mean "watch out!", "I am passing by" or "Hi!" but back are the days when sounding the horn means "WT* are you thinking? Are you trying to get yourself killed?".
Gone will be the days of endless struggles with Indian bureacracy and back the days of endless struggles with Singaporean bureacracy.
Gone will be the days where most Indians speak Hindi and back the days when most Indians speak Tamil.
Gone will be the days where I have people cleaning up room and making sure no stains of shit gets stuck on the side of the toilet bowl everyday, back are the days when bathroom gets cleaned only once a week.
Gone will be the days of office toilet which rely heavily on in-situ natural degradation and back are the days when we flush our toilets in school (most of the time not all the time since there will be enviro-fundamentalists who still believes in not flushing to conserve water) to make sure the odour goes away.
Gone will be the days where street beggars will only need to tug your sleeves and say "ek rupiya de de baba" to get a few coins in their begging bowl. Back will be the days where we glorify our street beggars as "street baskers"; where beggars need a license to sing a song so that people will be sympathetic enough to drop a couple of coins in their cool collection box.
Gone will be the days where 4-wheelers and trucks share the same road with "chakra", bullock carts, walking ladies with baskets of food on their head, tractors, etc.
Gone will be the days of noisy disel/CNG runned auto-rickshaws and non-AC Fiat taxis but back are the days of air-conditioned taxis.
Gone will be the days where cops wear brown uniform and carry a WWII single shot rifle and back are the days where cops wear blue uniform and carry a 6-shot revolver.

I don't know if I will miss this place I called home for the past 6 months but I know right now I just want to go back to the place I called home for the past 24 years of my life. See ya guys back home!

Delhi cops caught drinking with 'killer'5 Jun 2008, 0143 hrs IST,Medha Chaturvedi,TNN

NEW DELHI: The image of the Delhi Police took another hit when three of its cops were allegedly found drinking with a murder accused inside a shop owned by him. The accused, a property dealer who allegedly shot dead another dealer last Friday, was supposed to be behind bars after having surrendered before police on Sunday. The embarrassing incident comes barely two days after two Delhi policemen were alleged to have kidnapped three Rohtak businessmen for ransom. One of the cops from the Rohini police station in northwest Delhi has been suspended after family members of the murder victim took pictures of him lying drunk inside the shop of the accused on Tuesday night after his colleagues had fled. On May 30, a 23-year-old property dealer, Bhagat Raj, was shot dead allegedly by his friend, Rohit Singh (25), inside Singh's shop, Rohit Associates, in Rohini. Bhagat had gone to the shop to collect the papers of a property that he had purchased in Panchkula for Rs 2 crore about two years ago. Rohit and his father, Mahendra Singh, reportedly fled in their Mercedes after the murder. Bhagat was taken to a nearby hospital by his cousins, who had been waiting outside the shop; he later died. A case of murder was registered against both Rohit and his father at the Rohini police station and investigations were under way. On Sunday, June 1, Rohit and Mahendra surrendered and were immediately arrested.

The thermometer incident
In Mithapur plant, I am known amongst everyone as Chen. But it’s a Gujarati thing to address everyone with the term Bhai, which means big brother. I am much younger than most people here, but I am still called Bhai anyways.

Chen Bhai: Hi, do you know where they kept the thermometer?
Bhai 1: (said something in gujarati pointing in a general direction)
Chen Bhai decided to check the drawer in the general direction but found nothing.
He encountered a new guy coming into the EMS lab and decided to ask him for help.
Bhai 2: Thermometer?? How much temperature?
Chen Bhai: laboratory thermometer, 100 degrees. (Wobbled his head hoping that some body language will help the other party understand better)
Bhai 2 swings his head towards the analytical lab direction meaning to follow him.
Chen Bhai and Bhai 2 went to analytical lab and found this lab in charge. Bhai 2 spoke to the in-charge and the in-charge came.
In-Charge: Yes?
Chen Bhai: Sir, can I have a laboratory thermometer for a short while in the courtyard (pointing at the courtyard which is just one storey below the laboratory)
In-Charge thought for a while,
In Charge: Why?
Chen Bhai: I am doing an experiment in the courtyard; I just need to check the temperature for 2 minutes (Indian standards for 2 minute can vary from 10 minutes to 20 minutes but really only needed the thermometer at max. for 5 minutes)
In-Charge: You need to send me an email for the thermometer.
Chen Bhai: (puzzled) why sir, it’s only for 2 minutes I will be right back. I will clean it up for you.
In-Charge: Yes, I know but you have to send me a mail (giving me the middle finger and giving me the authoritative look)
Chen Bhai: Ok, then it is fine I don’t want it anymore.
In-Charge: (Still looking authoritative but looks a little puzzled (worried?)) Why? You just have to send me a mail and I will give you the thermometer.
Chen Bhai: It’s fine I don’t think I need it anymore.
In-Charge: (Pointing his middle finger again) you just have to send me a mail and I receive it I will give you the thermometer.
Chen Bhai: It’s really fine I don’t want it.
In-Charge: Send mail and I give you thermometer.
I start feeling really pissed off because I really don’t want the thermometer and he kept insisting I get it and he keeps pointing the middle finger at me.
Chen Bhai: (walking away with back facing him and giving him the “talk to my hand” gesture) I don’t want it. *LEAVE ME ALONE! (Screaming inside)*






Air ticket incident (Indian Bureaucracy Case study)
I did not have a credit card to pay for my return ticket to Singapore. So I was asking a friend to book for me. I am known as Chuck with my friend.

Derrick: Hey Chuck, I cannot book the ticket for you. They need the person who is holding the credit card to go down to Taj Mahal hotel to sign a paper. (Taj Mahal hotel is about 2 h drive away due to the horrible traffic in Mumbai.)
Chuck: Ok… I will call SQ and check.
SQ: Hi, good morning, Singapore airlines, how may I help you?
Chuck: (narrated the problem to the customer desk officer)
SQ: Sir but it’s a formality we need to follow. Your friend must come down to sign the form.
I am in Mithapur now. I did not disclose my friend is in Mumbai just to exaggerate the matter a lot.
Chuck: I know madam, I am in the western tip in Gujarat and it will take my friend 12 hours to travel down to the nearest SQ office in Ahmadabad and another 12 hours back. It doesn’t make sense. Can you fax me the mail and I get photos and signature for you if you require it.
SQ: Sir I understand. It is a formality we have to follow. I am sorry I cannot help you
Chuck: …

So much for modern technology and modernising India so that everyone will get internet access when the government don’t use it.

Today marks my last day in Pune Innovation Center. I don't know to feel happy or not. I have had my fun moments here. Chilled out at some of the most secluded area (but still very nice!) in Pune. Drank Breezer that are stronger than beer in Singapore.

They say Indians like their alcohol strong. I thought Breezer was a fun drink but 5% alcohol content is like the minimum here. Usually I don't drink at home in Singapore. Even if I do I don't drink much. Ever since I stepped foot in India I think I drank more alcohol than I ever did my whole life. Well it's time to train up a little of alcohol tolerance before I go out to work. I can't don't drink when I am out at work. At least that's how it looks like when my dad goes out with his clients.

It's good to know that in India, all laws are written and seldom enforced strictly. Everything could be done out of religious reason. There's even an Ashram (something like a shrine) where followers of this guru who encourage people to do whatever they like during meditation, including having sex, taking drugs, whatever they can think of during meditation. I seriously wonder how people even focus while doing those vices.

Anyway, if you think India is a conservative country, think again. Maybe to a certain extend, yes, but to a large extend no. People can do whatever they want including sitting around naked in the name of religion. (Yes... I saw it with my own eyes) They may be conservative in public, but at home they are just like anyone of us. They believe there is a time and place for everything. Pot is widely available in India according to a local friend of mine. He said he was offered pot by a auto-rickshaw rider and they were smoking up together in the lobby before he came home one night. I guess it's true when there are more laws and rules the more likely people are going to break it. It's just like when we tell a kid not to eat cookies, the more likely they are going to hunt it down and eat it.

Anyways, I guess I will never know such things does exist if I haven't stayed in India for so long. My perspective of India changed not for the better nor for the worse. Every country has their vices but in India, it's amazing because the country is progressing despite all the chaos. India really live up to its name as !ncredible India.

Hmm... is it possible for fats to melt in 40 C heat? If it's possible then I think I will always be in fat burning mode... It's so damn hot here... God please help me. Send some snow or something...

It's not like having no power in office for the whole of last week and still going on this week is not bad enough. I had to bear with the sweltering heat every afternoon because there is some problem going on in the local power grid. I was hoping this would not happen in the guest house but it did, again, at 1 am. This is the third time there was a power failure in the guest house this week. Though night time temperature in Pune usually hovers around 22-23 C but when you open the window, you don't know what you are letting into your room.

Within minutes, the silence of the room is broken with thousands of buzzing sound when mosquitoes flew in for a feast. The room was uncomfortably warm due to my initially reluctance to open up the window. Hence, because of that, now the room is both warm and swarmed with mosquitoes. Apparently mosquitoes here aren't repelled by insect repellents as I was bitten on the same spot twice where I sprayed repellents on.

Earlier before we slept, Sandeep was still saying locals are used to mosquitoes biting them. I guess the number of mosquitoes that flew in during the short 20 minutes we left the windows opened really got him. He told me to shut off the window while he sprayed insecticide wildly for the next 30 seconds. The room is now filled with the overwhelming smell of insectcide and faint humming sound as the mosquitoes start to die away. Realizing they have no where to run when they realise all the windows are shut, they succumbed to their fate for messing around with the wrong dudes.

As if this isn't bad enough. We thought we were most affected by this consistent power failure but on top we could hear a lady speaking on the phone sounding fustrated. In the stillness of the night, it sounded as if she was shouting at the electricians at the power station. I guess now I understand what they mean by in India, they only get the whole city lighted up once every few years.

After more than 2 months in this little God-forsaken town, I am beginning to feel more attached to this place. A part of me is excited to get out of here but another part of me just don't really want to leave this place. I am not leaving this place for good because I will be back when my work is done in Pune. I guess I am so going to miss this little town for the next 5 weeks in the place where I spent my first 3 weeks in. No longer can I stand in the middle of the road and chat with my friends at 8pm and no one will horn at me. The next 5 weeks I will have to train up my road crossing skills.

One of the few things I will miss about this place would be the fresh air here. Though we got a power plant just 200m away spewing smoke from its chimney 24/7 but the air is surprisingly fresh from where I stay. No more dancing pigeons on my air conditioner in the morning. I don't know if I would jog that often once I go to Pune since the only time the streets would be less crowded is during Sundays. On the brighter side, I kinda missed Pune when I had to leave the place earlier this year. It would be good to go back and look at the "Oxford of the East".

Anyways, once I am done in Pune, it will be marking almost the end of my stay in India. I am looking forward to going there and getting back from there, to see my friends in Mithapur one last time before I leave for Bombay again. Well it's seems kinda long but I guess time will pass really quickly when I start getting busy again.