Rajiv in India

Dr. Vijayalakshmi Suresh

2008-07-26T21:51:00.002+05:30

What a woman. She serves as the Asst. Prof. of Pediatric Cardiology at the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology in Bangalore and man, she knows her stuff. More importantly is the way she carries herself. She is the kindest most motherly cardiologist I've ever come across. She even has a twinkle in her eye. She's the type of person who's presence is felt as she walks into a room.

To the left of her desk is a table full of dusty awards that she pays little attention to. They are unnecessary for her job satisfaction. She does her work with the greatest joy and as a professor she trains her students really well in a tough love sort of way.

Its unsurprising that she did her residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I thought it was cool that she wore her saree underneath her white doctors coat. I was also impressed by her Aum ring tone. She is a devout Hindu.

She is simply a saint. She has found joy in life through serving others with her well tamed proficiency in complicated medical science. She is definitely an inspirational character who's lessons I will not forget any time soon.

The Raj meets The Taj

2008-07-18T07:25:00.004+05:30

It goes without saying that the Taj Mahal in Agra, India is hands down all that AND a bag of chips.

My eyes have never beheld anything as beautiful and tremendously romantic.

My entire journey to India led up to this moment. All of the struggles I faced here dissolved. My mind was fixated on absorbing the magnificence of the Taj.

I was overwhelmed. I didn't expect it to be as great as it is. The complexity matched with simplicity was too much for me to handle.

My time here is complete. I can go home.

Early Return: July 23

2008-07-17T20:21:00.003+05:30

Due to some unexpected things at home (nothing serious) I will be returning to California on July 23.

I am not looking forward to leaving India but I have to admit that I am looking forward to some upcoming things at home: brother's wedding (7/24-29), AUM camping trip (7/31-8/3), family retreat (8/3-8), Olympics (8/8-24), etc.

My life will be back to normal on August 9th.

Time to hunt for a job.

-----------
Currently I am in Delhi. I went to see the Taj Mahal yesterday and will be visiting the Ganges River and Himalaya Mountains in the next few days.

Trust

2008-07-12T18:01:00.003+05:30

Finding trustworthy strangers in India is not an easy task. It is far less difficult to come across someone who will do their best to take advantage of your vulnerable situation.

I was alone on a local bus heading back home from a day of touring Bangalore. I had only a memory of the location that I needed to get off at. It didn't help that it was getting dark and monsoon rain was starting to pour. The kind gentleman that instructed me to get on that particular bus also partnered me with a stranger who claimed he was getting off at my stop. I only had the kind gentleman's phone number written on a napkin in my pocket but I had no cell phone. For whatever reason I wasn't concerned that the stranger did not speak any English. I had to trust him.

I looked at my watch -- 5:30pm. I was told that I would arrive at my stop at 7:30pm due to the very heavy evening traffic. The time passed quickly as I discovered Bangalore (and Indian in general) is fascinating to look at from the bus window. Shortly after 7:00pm the bus stopped in the middle of the road. Apparently the route was blocked and the bus could not get to my stop. The stranger indicated that we needed to get off.

As I exited the bus I began to smile. It was dark, raining, and I had no idea where I was. An adventure was to be had.

I felt I had been on that street before. I felt that we were not too far from my stop. But then again, so many streets looked the same in India and I really had no idea how to get home.

After the bus started down the street the stranger handed his bag to another person and started to run after the bus. I figured he forgot something on the bus and would be back shortly. His friend and I waited for quite some time before the stranger returned with another bag. I guess I was right.

We started to walk. I could only pray that we were going the right direction. It felt right so I was still smiling. I was smiling up until the point that the stranger decided to veer off the main road into a darker street. I understood that he was trying to tell me that it was a shortcut. My stomach started to tremble.

I guess I should have insisted to stick to the main road or I should have phoned the kind gentleman who did speak English. I decided to follow the stranger down the dark road. I figured if he tried anything fishy I could walk back to the main road and make that phone call.

Oh, I forgot to mention I was carrying my camera bag. Throughout my time in India I have carried my camera. Its both a blessing and a curse. I've enjoyed taking lots of photos but without it I would have blended in easier. Aside from my inability to speak the local language, carrying an item of that kind of expense was a surefire indication that I was a foreigner. They knew.

As we walked along the 'shortcut' I forgot the way back to the main street. Dozens of scenarios flashed through my mind. None of them positive.

After a half an hour of walking through dark streets, through fields, through the unknown we came through to another main street. Whew. The strangers pointed the direction in which I should continue walking. I was unconvinced and one of them started walking in that direction. I followed him and fifteen minutes later a huge sigh of relief overcame me. At 7:45pm we were finally at my bus stop. I emptied the money from my pockets into the stranger's hand. It wasn't much but it was all I had.

The strangers could have lead me anywhere. Anything could of happened. I was so grateful that the right thing happened- I made it home safe and sound.

I'm glad that there are good people out there.

Identity of Sir Naipaul

2008-07-12T15:59:00.005+05:30

I was napping on a concrete floor during the afternoon. I was in a remote village approximately 250 km from Bangalore in the middle of Bandipur, an Indian National Park. From my perspective the floor seemed to be pressing hard against me, though I felt it should have been the other way around. I decided the feeling was poetic. I was only pushing against myself.

I had just finished reading the beginning of a book 'India: A Wounded Civilization' by VS Naipaul, a Trinidadian born Indian like myself. Reading this book in India is haunting. It really is like reading about me. His account of India mirrors my own experience even though the book was written 32 years ago. He is very critical of the country but the following struck a deep chord within me:

"India is for me a difficult country. It isn't my home and cannot be my home; and yet I cannot reject it or be indifferent to it; I cannot travel only for the sights. I am at once too close and too far."

I decided that I would like to meet Sir Naipaul. I feel that he would be able to tell me about me. He would tell me what its supposed to be like to have lived a life as a Trinidadian born Indian living abroad. He would explain how he coped with appearing to be Indian yet feeling disconnected from India.

From what I hear about Sir Naipaul, he would tell me to be me. His reputation as a Nobel Prize winning author defines him simply and yet completely as V.S. Naipaul. Would he tell me to define myself simply and completely as Rajiv Ramdeo? Perhaps that his solution to having a complex identity and perhaps that is exactly what enables him to be outstanding.

Rocket Man by Elton John

2008-07-09T06:20:00.001+05:30

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And i'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much i miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight

And i think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think i am at home
Oh no no no i'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science i don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

And i think it's gonna be a long long time...

An Uncomfortable Tap

2008-07-05T13:16:00.002+05:30

Tap tap tap tap. An eerie tapping.

What is that noise? Its a young girl trying to get our attention. She's tapping her fingernails on our car window while we're stuck in traffic. Its dark out and its beginning to rain.

Tap tap tap tap.

What does she want? She's trying to sell us some things made by her family. They are poor. The driver rolls down the window and asks her if she goes to school. Selling items on the road is how her family makes money. Her parents need her to do this for the family. She does not go to school.

This was the third time I felt chills through my body from such tapping.

The last time was on the train from Pune to Bangalore (a 21 hour trip). This little boy with no shirt on and a string for a belt was on his hands and knees on the train floor with a hand broom sweeping all around. He stopped at each row and tapped his hand on the seat to ask for money. If you didn't look at him he still stayed there and tapped louder. Man- that was pretty bad.

The first time was horrible though. It wasn't just a noise. I was in a market in Pune. Toren was shopping for gifts for his family. I felt a prod on my leg. A nudging. I wasn't sure what it was. I looked around to see that it was an old lady in a wheelchair. She was poking my leg with the stub of her arm that was wrapped in a cast. OH MY GOODNESS. That was a VERY uncomfortable feeling.

These people that tap, they are just trying to say "Hey you. You person with money. Look at me! Don't ignore me- Don't ignore the poor!" They force us to face the uncomfortable reality that there are millions of people who must resort to begging. Things need to change.

Playing with Bald Kids

2008-07-05T12:59:00.002+05:30

The bald kids are cancer patients who are bald from the cancer treatment. Its a government hospital (KIDWAI Cancer Institute) that I visited so its in poor condition. The people go there because the treatment is relatively affordable. So they are village people who are often illiterate. Only one person is allowed to stay with the kid. It usually is the mom.

They are a lot of fun. We hope to train the moms to take better care of their kids. They are super sensitive to infection.

The supervisor of the children's ward is crazy. She yells at people who want to visit the kids. I was sitting on a counter that I didn't realize was a counter and she told me to "stop dirtying up her India." Then she let me play with the kids.

Orientation in Pune

2008-07-02T15:32:00.005+05:30

The second week after I arrived in Mumbai was spent in Pune, a city three hours away. Orientation was awesome.

What made it awesome was the people. There were two other volunteers from America. Torren from California and Shikta from Seattle. Toren's dad is from Trinidad and he had recently visited there so we talked alot about how things in India are similar to Trinidad. That was awesome. Shikta is originally from Nepal. She laughs at everything.

[me, torren, milind, shikta]

Saurabh and Milind were our orientation coordinators. They are awesome. They have both spent many years of their life doing social work and are very knowledgeable about social work in India. I suppose that was the purpose of the orientation, to get us familiar with the climate and culture of social work in India.

Saurabh is actually a researcher at Tata Insitute of Social Science, a prestigious school. He's in his mid-twenties and spends all of his time working for the organization. He's soft spoken and has a cool way of going about things. He brought us breakfast every morning and did morning yoga with us.[saurabh]

The best thing about Milind is that he whistles when he drives his motorcycle. Hahah, thats not the best thing but its great. Milind is already married and works. He works for Sewa International part time and he has a great sense of humor.

They were both with us pretty much every day and took us to different project sites like an after school activity for poor boys, the slums, a women's self help group (they save money for their family). I felt really honored to be in the presence of the impoverished. I have never faced such difficulty in my own life. I commend them for their ability to live through such adversity.

I got sick but now I'm better

2008-07-02T15:18:00.004+05:30

My body was sore. I had a fever. Digestive issues. Constant headache. And I couldn't sleep. I was like this for two or more days.

I remained calm and collected even though I was unhappy with India in general.

It was the fumes from the street that made me sick. It was the uncleanliness of everything that made me sick. It was people insisting that I eat more food than I wanted that made me sick. It was the endless thoughts about everything thats different here that made me sick.

Even though it had been three weeks since I arrived here jet lag finally caught up with me and it was not fun. I definitely had to put meditation to good use and breathe through it. And I did.

I feel better now.

Mailing Address Until July 25

2008-06-25T11:44:00.002+05:30

Rajiv Ramdeo
c/o A.R.Vijendra Rao
1363, 15th Cross
Kumaraswamy Layout 1st stage
Bangalore - 5600078
Karnataka, INDIA

Things I'm grateful for

2008-06-25T10:41:00.003+05:30

Whenever one embarks on any journey there's always a few items of concern.

When I told my friends that I was going to India they warned me about the hot weather, spicy food, mosquitoes and food poisoning. I'm grateful to say that I've some how managed to avoid all of these. Of course some new concerns have arisen that I will get to in another post. Now that I'm somewhat settled its now easier for me to look back on my trip and think about the things I've enjoyed.

Two of the greatest things here are the amazing food and the rides on the two-wheelers. I think I've taken for granted the splendor of meals I've been served as I was more concerned about being able to finish them, hahaha. I'm worried that when I get back to the US I'll think all the food is bland. The rides on the two wheelers are always thrilling. This morning I was nearly part of a head to head collision with another motorcycle on the way to the office. I was unaffected. This type of thing is common place on the chaotic roads of India. For a short while we were even driving against traffic.

Some other things I love here are the cheap food prices (huge meals for $2), ghee (an Indian butter), chai, bright colors, tropical fruit, the opportunity to meet inspiring social workers, and the endless opportunity for amazing photographs.

The Atheist Pilot

2008-06-24T17:43:00.003+05:30

So far I haven't seen much of India's beautiful sights and scenery. However I must admit I've uncovered some hidden treasure in meeting some really interesting people.

One of these such persons I met at the Guest House, the pilot in his early 30's that I mentioned earlier. One day I sat down to chat with him while we were eating lunch. It was an open discussion that began with me asking if it was common for there to be no toilet paper in the bathrooms of India. We eventually progressed to our interests and our passions. Of course I brought up spirituality to get a feel for what its like in India. To my surprise the pilot mentioned he was not Hindu and in fact he had refused adopting any sort of religion ever since he was little.

He believed in himself. He said that people should have more confidence in themselves. He was disillusioned with the amount of people in India who blindly follow self-proclaimed gurus who ride in air conditioned private jets. Encountering an atheist was the last thing I expected so early in my journey in India.

The pilot mentioned how his mother had fallen sick with a terminal illness and that he fought as hard as he could getting doctors to see her and treat her even though they thought it was futile. He was proud to state that not even once did he seek help from a higher power and in the end his mother did survive. I will not quickly forget the wide grin on his face as he seethed with joy and said how great it felt to accomplish that on his own.

Although I thoroughly agreed with the pilot's contention with blind faith and I thoroughly respected his perspective and his reasons for it but personally I find it wiser to seek knowledge from our predecessors. I value others experiences and take all the help I can get.

He left the guest house before I had a chance to say goodbye but he did leave a note with his contact info which I will shortly get to now that I've gotten to connect my laptop to the internet.

Ramesh Subramaniam

2008-06-24T17:12:00.000+05:30

This post is seriously outdated. I should have written it two weeks ago but I haven't been able to connect my laptop to the internet until yesterday.

Anyways Ramesh (far left) was the first person I met in India. He greeted me when I arrived at the Mumbai airport.

I will remember Ramesh for his dedication to the improvement of his country through his many years of social work. He is now a full time social worker for Sewa International. While I was in Mumbai I had the opportunity to observe his hectic lifestyle. Each day was unpredictable. Ramesh was always bumbling around working some sort of project so I don't feel so bad for spending so much time waiting at the guest house. I'm not sure if he ever gets a full night sleep and he hasn't taken a vacation for years. One unique feature of Ramesh is his hazel eyes which one has to carefully observe through his glasses and half open eyes. This man is a walking encyclopedia. I enjoyed his discussions ranging from the plight of the Native Americans to the history of India, or Bharat as he would insist on calling it.

To my right is Chinmay, a Kuwaiti Indian and Amit, a South African Indian, and Chinmay's mom who prepared a delicious healthy meal for us.

I wont forget how Amit insisted that I try the mango ice cream because it was more delicious than any other he had ever had. Hahah. It was very good!

Meeting with the Elders/Think Think Think

2008-06-11T23:00:00.000+05:30

(this is probably a boring post because its late at night after a long day and i'm tired, hahah)

A few days back this gentleman wearing an orange shirt in an orange car came to pick up Ramesh and me from the guest house. I wasn't quite sure where we were headed or who this gentleman was but by that point I had gotten used to just following along. In a few minutes Ramesh introduced the gentleman as a senior officer of Air India and a management professor at a local university. We were going to a meeting for senior members of the Hindu community (RSS, the parent foundation of the sewa international program) who were interested in contributing to social work.

I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning and was awake since 6am so I was pleased that there was hot chai and some food at the meeting. Of course I was expecting it to be in some sort of conference room in a western style establishment but of course I was wrong. We were at the upper floors of some educational building. I was clearly the youngest person there and I was pleased to see that the elders were all wearing traditional clothing. Most men around here wear typical western shirts and slacks. The meeting proceeded as sixty or so of the elders sat together to observe a few presentations. Naturally the meeting was held in Hindi so I didn't understand anything. I was shocked that there was only one woman. They mentioned that Christian conversion was on their list of concerns. I thought that was interesting.

It became apparent that Ramesh and I were there as technical support. I had brought my laptop as instructed and when we plugged it in and put it on the table next to the projector I imediately felt a strong current go through it. I couldn't touch my laptop or the table without getting shocked. Ramesh said not to worry... I was impressed by his resourcefulness as he tied up a projector screen using some random twine found in a closet.

The meeting was still pretty inspring because I picked up the theme of social work and started writing my own notes on what I was planning to do. I'm trying to figure out how I can apply the social entrepreneurship concept to the education field. I've decided that I want to work on education reform but I'm still figuring out how to do it.

During the lunch break (it was one of those all day conference type things) I chatted some more with the orange shirt professor. I discovered that he followed the teachings of the same guru as me, Paramahansa Yogananda. This was surprising news because I hardly run into people like that and of all places, India. I suppose it was meant to be. We had a deep conversation about leadership and societal trends in India. It was quite plesant to be sipping chai while the rain was pouring outside (monsoon season is beginning). The management professor resasurred my concern that everyone had leadership potential, its just a matter of cultivating it. His theory is that charisma is not something that comes from within a person, instead it is imposed by other people that hype up the reputation. I never heard that perspective before.

I've been reading this awesome book: How to Change the World. Its about different stories of social entrepreneurs. I'm really emotionally stirred chapter after chapter, story after story of people who struggled so hard to maintain basic human rights. The book seems to be centered on the Ashoka Foundation and the stories of the social entrepreneurs funded by it. Ashoka is really good at identifying and supporting social entrepreneurs but I would somehow like to reform our current education system to train and inspire socially/environmentally/globally conscious people who's motivation is to positively contribute to this world rather than hoard for themselves and their associates.

I realized that people confine their reality within the communities they associate themselves with. For example somoene from California isn't necessarily considerate of the needs of someone in Nebraska or Paraguay for that matter. I'm not saying we need to learn all about all the different places of the world. We should just be more aware of how things we do here affects things over there and vice versa. In this closely connected modern world, we're missing out if we don't expand our personal associations to more global communities. Ah, the difficulties of being a 21st century human.

This trip has been no vacation. My mind has been chruning away. Hopfully I will have more direction in a few weeks!

In Johannesburg We Have a Saying...

2008-06-08T15:03:00.000+05:30

"You can take an African out of the farm but you can't take the farm out of an African." said Amit, a tall friendly Indian from South Africa.

to be continued...

In the City.

2008-06-08T15:02:00.000+05:30

On Friday morning I found myself zipping around the crowded streets and narrow alleys through cars, bikes, and crowds of people on the back of Ramesh’s two wheeler, his motorcycle. I forgot to mention it was in the rain, so my pants and camera bag got soaked and I found new appreciation for my waterproofed shoes. The thrill of zig zagging our way around the city on Ramesh’s two wheeler was hard to appreciate as the surrounding view was of rampant poverty. I’m glad I’ve previously been in Trinidad because if I didn’t know what a third world country looked like, I think I would be freaked out. I think I was still freaked out.

I think I was going through culture shock the entire day. My brain was struggling to make sense of this completely foreign place. All the while I was worried that my health would be jeopardized from any number of the presumed health risks present in India. I became stunned. Even the cattle in the street or the people walking barefoot in mud didn’t shock or surprise me. My expectations were confirmed and I even thought it would get worse. And of course it did. I was disheartened to see the extremely dilapidated apartment buildings that looked like they would come crumbling down with just a nudge. They were similar to abandoned buildings in the US except of course, they weren’t abandoned. I have to say that one thing did catch my eye. We were speeding through a back street and I saw an older gentleman smiling underneath his tattered rainbow umbrella while waving at someone. His happiness put a smile on my face. It would have been a picture perfect moment. I also have to admit that I love the varied smells of India. California certainly does not have the same diversity so I’ve been appreciating the cornucopia of scents which have tickled my nostrils. I have yet to find myself in a stable context.

More about the Guest House

2008-06-08T15:01:00.000+05:30

Ramesh picked me up late Friday morning. He got held up by something important. I felt that he was stretched too thin so I wasn’t too upset about all the down time I had in Mumbai waiting and sleeping at the guest house. I’m also surprised how accepting I am of the living situation as the one I was used to in California was personally far more favorable. I think a lot of it has to do with me hoping that things will be better in Bangalore, haha. Also I think things are just different here for better or worse depending on who’s perspective. For example they don’t think it’s a bad thing that they don’t have toilet paper, they just prefer using water.

I’m super grateful for Santosh, our thin, very dark skin inn keeper, who has a talent for cooking delicious non-spicy Indian food. When he’s not cooking or cleaning he’s in the living room watching Indian movies on TV. I wish he spoke English so I could see what’s on his mind and so I could tell him to stop feeding me so much! Haha.

The other two guys who are here are also nice. They seem like they are in their late or mid twenties. They greeted me the other evening when I sat down at the kitchen table for dinner. They were on their cellphones the whole time but occasionally they would mention some things to me. They were pilots in training and apparently they had spent some time (less than two years) in Texas so they understood how different everything was to me. I was unsurprised to wake up that night to find my room floor flooded. It was raining pretty hard so there must have been some sort of leak. I just picked up my wet bags from the ground and went back to sleep. I hope nothing was damaged. One just has to get used to the constant loud noises coming from the streets, surprises, bugs crawling around, things looking old, worn, and dirty... like the bathroom.

The Director Visits

2008-06-08T14:59:00.000+05:30

On Thursday (6/5) night I was informed that the room I was staying in was normally reserved for “the directors.” I wasn’t sure what that meant but I was instructed to move to a smaller room without a connecting bathroom because a director was coming. I immediately realized how much more I should have appreciated the first accommodation as the new room had stained walls, geckos crawling around, and less space for my things. The new bathroom was much smaller, more decrepit, and had a hole in the ground for a toilet. Needless to say I was relieved when I found out that the director was only visiting for two days.

There was a pleasant surprise when I turned off the lights to sleep. Floral patterns on my bed sheets lit up in the standard glow in the dark green kind of way! How cool!

Too bad I couldn’t sleep well that night because I had spent the day before sleeping while waiting for Ramesh to pick me up, which he never did. Apparently he had a crazy day.

The next morning I awoke to find Mr. Director, Divesh Mehta of Calcutta, himself sitting there at the kitchen table wearing nothing but shorts getting ready for a smoke. What an interesting sight to wake up to. He proceeded to kindly greet me as I sat down and had some chai. What a philosopher Mr. Mehta was. He told me about his job as a marketer for an outdoor lighting company and he told me parables about finding success and stories on how to motivate people by helping realize that they already have what it takes, they just need to ‘warm up to it.’ My attention was perked when he stated with conviction “I love my country!” Its been a long time since I heard anyone refer to the United States in a similar fashion. I’m glad to have befriended Mr. Mehta. He seems just as glad to find someone who listens to his stories with curiosity.

Adapting.

2008-06-05T12:00:00.001+05:30

I actually began to think about Vivian, the subletter of my room for the summer. I admired how quickly she made my place her own. She is an international student from China doing her Masters in Advertising at Michigan State University. She only started last fall and already found herself an internship all the way in Newport Beach, California. She doesn't even have any friends out there. If I were her I would have been much more timid and cautious. She had never met me before and only knew about the place through my craigslist ad. So I'm going to take a lesson from Vivian. I realized that she has to trust people because the other option is to be worried and over concerned all the time. It's a very gung ho approach to living in a foreign place where you don't know anyone and your only choice is to adapt.

An Experience with Corruption.

2008-06-05T11:58:00.001+05:30

I arrived in Mumbai at about 10:30pm. Upon leaving the aircraft I was greeted by an overwhelming smell and a wall of heat. I was stopped when taking my bags through customs. They took me aside (two officers and a security guard) and explained that I would be charged $250 USD for carrying my fancy camera stuff. They told me they would only charge me $150 if they didn't write a receipt. My goodness what's a fella to do?? I was surprised that I had to pay a duty on my camera in the first place but I was too tired to think it through. I agreed to pay the $150 and the security guard took me to a shady room- it was just like in the movies – dim lighting, green walls and a burnt out candle. When I took out the money, the guard said $170. I was like "?!!?!?!" then he agreed to $160. First hand corruption. I walked out of the airport to see a sea of people with signs with people's names. I didn't see mine. I eventually found a phone and called my contact Ramesh. While talking to him he walked up right next to me. Hahah. I told him about the money I just lost and he was outraged. For him it was a matter of principle. He didn't care if I wouldn't get a refund, we had to report it. We asked around some people, and I was guided back to the guy who took my money in the first place. After demanding to see his supervisor and telling him how he had no right to charge me a duty he reluctantly got the security guard to slyly hand back the cash. Thank you Ramesh.

We loaded my stuff into Ramesh's old white car, seemed like it was from the 50's, and started driving. I was silent as I saw how many people were sleeping on the streets as Ramesh talked to me about a little history of India. It was a very strange experience. I'd seen nothing like it except in Trinidad and in movies.

We eventually parked behind a Domino's pizza place which was actually where I would be staying the night. Hahah, actually the building had apartments. Ramesh got me set up in a room with my own bed, AC, bathroom and a balcony. Of course the quality wasn't so great but I was impressed to have so much space to myself. He got me set up with this little device that plugs into my computer that allows me to access the internet through cell phone technology- how cool. I was surprised to be online that quickly and of course I checked facebook and updated my profile picture.

Malaysia is Awesome.

2008-06-05T11:57:00.001+05:30

I had an 8 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was an amazing city. I was glad that I wasn't tired or hungry when I left the airport to do some exploring. Too bad I had to carry around my super heavy carry on bags. I definitely think I brought too much stuff. Within a short while I found myself at the twin towers and I was lucky enough to get a guy to take my picture- what a sweet picture he took. I was disappointed that the tickets to go to the skywalk were sold out and I thought it was interesting that the base of the tower was just a huge shopping mall- it felt like I was at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA.

The trains are awesome in Kuala Lumpur, I really enjoyed the view of the jungles and the city scape while riding around. I was surprised to see the light of a big screen TV shining through the wooden walls of a shack in a small village. I thought it was so awesome to see so many Muslim Malaysian women, they were everywhere. I have a lot of respect for people with strong commitments of wearing religious garments, especially Muslim women. I also took the taxi around the city. I was worried about this because I didn't know who to trust and I thought they would charge an outrageous amount for the fare. I don't know if I was ripped off but I made it ok. I thought the Malaysian accent was cool and everyone calls you sir and they call their co-workers colleagues.

When I got back to the airport I found out that they had pre-arranged city tours for people who had long layovers like myself. Oops. Hahah. It was then that I felt really tired and irritated about the trip length. I then went into a sleeping spell and fell asleep at the airport only to wake up to fall asleep again on the plane.

Flying became my reality for those 36 hours. I got used to sleeping, waking up, eating, and sleeping again. I was glad to have brought a neck cushion and I should have drank a lot more water.

First Post

2008-06-05T11:55:00.001+05:30

I'm really lucky to be here. I'm in Mumbai, India after travelling over 36 hours from Los Angeles. First I have to mention that I'm so grateful for all the people who have helped me plan this trip and for my brother for putting together the going away party and for my friends who came to give support. What fun we had.

The flights went pretty smoothly. I found the service on Malaysian Airlines to be amazing. The flight attendants were well mannered and polite. No delays and I spent most of the time sleeping. Haha. The guy next to me on the flight from LAX to TPE (Taipei, Taiwan) was interesting. He wore a cowboy hat and was originally from Kansas. He was on a study abroad program from U Minnesota to Japan to help improve his Japanese, he was a 2^nd year Japanese major but my brother would call him a neehongophile. He was a gentle fellow with strong anti-establishment sentiments. He said he was in a conundrum because he was both religious and believed that there should be a government but he also felt that there should be no structured organization because as he said- with absolute power comes absolute corruption and vice versa. To my right was a pre-school teacher from Pasedena. She was travelling to Sri Lanka because her daughter was giving birth at the end of the month.