In Vietnam!

As a kid the first time I had heard about Vietnam was when I saw a movie on how American soldiers had fought a ‘brave and moral’ war at Vietnam. Though physically and technologically superior, they couldn’t defeat the peasants for more than 10 years. Later on, I read so many articles and stories on the war that Vietnam as a country always intrigued me. There was always this desire to visit the country and compare my ‘so called imagination of Vietnam’ to what in reality it is. So last weekend I took a trip to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City or HCM (as it’s now known)…

The day before I was to leave for Saigon I converted 100 SGD (Singapore Dollar) to Vietnamese currency and I got in return 1.4 Million VND (Vietnamese Dong). I had become a millionaire in an instant. Holding couple of 500,000 notes made it a unique experience. But the feeling was nothing compared to the experience I would later have in Vietnam. Four days in this beautiful country was really revealing. The best part of the experience had been the people there. I haven’t met more hospitable and friendly people anywhere in my travels till now. I was even invited by the youth hostel owner to have dinner at home on April 30^th, which happened to be their reunification or Independence Day. I found people to be really sweet and friendly. Their hospitality made me decide to come back here again very soon.

Saigon as a city is the centre of the economic growth for Vietnam. So you can see a lot of immigrants there. The city houses about 9 million people and most of them are immigrants from southern parts of Vietnam migrating for work and better prospects. A motorbike is the most common means of transport for them and there are about 3.5 Million of them in the city. Most often than not buying a motorbike is a huge investment for the people there (the cheapest one being about $1000), but still you can see thousands of them on the street every second zipping by and chocking the roads. One can see that most of the so called economic growth is happening in the city and the countryside is still mostly underdeveloped. Agriculture is the occupation of most people in Vietnam, but slowly quite a few people are trying to migrate to the cities.

Majority of people, as expected, are unhappy with the way things are run there. Complaints range from lack of education, poverty, corruption to lack of employment opportunities. I met this gentleman who happens to be a marketing agent and apparently earns 7.5 Million VND but can barely survive in the city. The next generation is highly dissatisfied as most want to go abroad for work but their lack of fluency in English language is a big hindrance. So you can see loads of English teaching institutes trying to make the dreams of these youngsters come true. But they have a long way to go. I took part in one of the communication seminars held at the hostel I was staying and the eagerness with which they were listening to me was just too much to bear. All they wanted to was talk and converse as much as possible in those couple of hours to get a hang of Oral English. And at the end of it I had this sinking feeling of not being able to help them in the way I perhaps could have. So I again conducted another session the next day. But it was still disheartening because in the end many will definitely find it difficult to go to the next stage in their career/education, but I hope this perseverance of theirs will help the future generations. Also all this interest, hopefully will soon translate into the changes required in their education system.

I also found the people staying in the hostel there to be more friendly than others and made quite a few friends (maybe because of the general prevailing friendly atmosphere in Vietnam..:)). It was quite interesting to learn about their lives and how they had spent the last few months traveling. Some had taken a career break while others were managing to survive by working at a new country every few months that they traveled to…Hope we keep in touch.

Coming back to the city - the Ho Chi Minh City in itself had been at the centre of Vietnam War, mainly because the Americans had made it their base fighting the guerrilla fighters few kilometers from there. It was also housing the President of Southern Vietnam that the Americans were supporting (apparently more of a puppet). So, one can easily see the significance of this city in the war and the best place to get the complete history of the war and its effects is the ‘War Memorial Museum’. Though almost completely one sided and mainly bashes the US, it gives quite a picture of the war and is definitely worth a visit. One can also visit the Independence/Reunification Palace and take the English tour to give you another leap into the history books. One can see the multi-level war bunkers and the Presidents war rooms even now.

The best tour though would be the Cu Chi Tunnels about 60Km from HCM City. A tour to this place is a must to understand the life of the guerrilla fighters. The way they used to live in those three level tunnels is mindboggling. The way these tunnels were dug, the designs behind them, the strategy of war etc is something no book/article can explain better than the experience of being there. A 100meter of that Tunnel took me 15 minutes to navigate and I was completely drenched in sweat at the end of it. The experience gave me cramps for 2 days. I wonder how they used to do it every night (day time they used to stay put inside the tunnels as there was continuous American bombardment of bombs). The whole journey through the tunnels gives you a good experience of what life would have been to those people at that time and makes you think of all the things that had happened there in the area just 35 years back.

One of the unforgettable experiences for me at the tunnels was me firing an AK47 for the first time. It was really something. The force of the bullet and its corresponding counter reaction on the gun makes you almost fall back the first time. Holding it correctly on your shoulders really helps you balance. But still I kept wondering how those malnourished and under-weight people managed to use these weapons against the marching Americans.

A Vietnam trip isn’t complete without going to the countryside. Visiting the Mekong Delta gives one somewhat a realistic picture of the real Vietnam (or the majority of it). A bus ride and then a boat ride from HCM city will take you there. From traditional honey and toffee making to canal rides and folk music, each one was more exciting than the other.

At the end of four days at Vietnam all I could think of was when I would be back to this country. It didn’t help that my experience of teaching English to some of them left more of a hole or void than the satisfaction of helping them out. Will definitely want to meet these sweet people again very soon and maybe stay for longer to give something in return for their hospitality.

Some snaps can be found here...

The tracks

There was no beginning,
Nor there seem to be an ending,
Parallel as they go,
Analogous is what they seem.

Born to weather the storms,
Smelted to carry the weight,
Bolted to follow a definite path,
Chiseled to reduce the frictions wrath.

Destined to never meet,
Designed to never quiver,
But, fate has its own free spirit,
And never follows a script.

At the first junction,
Their paths crisscross,
A few seconds is what they got,
Hitting them like a dart.

Bringing a new face to the fore
Changing lives evermore
Miles they go for the next intersection,
Eagerly waiting for new perceptions.

Singapora: The second edition – The highs and lows…

Now that I have officially completed one month in Singapore I feel I have enough experience to comment on the highs and lows of this place (my perspective, of course.:)).

It has been a totally absorbing and interesting experience so far. I am still not able to completely come to terms with the fact that I am staying somewhere other than my hometown (Bangalore) and that I am here permanently (atleast for the time being..:) what an oxymoron! :)). Though that didn’t stop me from buying an iPhone, a Broadband connection and a TV connection all with 2 year contracts..:)

But the fact of the matter is I am still feeling like I am on a vacation rather than staying at a place called ‘home’. Maybe it requires some more time getting used to.

The best part of Singapore has been the Infrastructure and the way people lead their lives. It has been just amazing to experience the quality of life here. The opportunities to do new things, learn and experience them are just too much. The metro/bus can take you to any part of Singapore in an hour. The drives here are amazing mainly because the roads are excellent, the infrastructure is awesome and the surroundings are just beautiful. Despite having a space crunch there are lots of open spaces, parks etc providing enough breathing space for all. The amount of planning that went to building a city like this is immense and one would feel it’s too good to believe it’s even possible.

The people are very athletic, health conscious and spend a lot of time exercising. Makes one feel good to see so many healthy people around. One can hardly find any obese people. You are an odd man out if you go to gym in Bangalore, but here you are an odd man out if you don’t have any physical activity. And that says it all. The sheer number of activities that’s available to choose from has been heartening. I have started gymming and playing squash here. Next on my list is badminton (with my colleagues) and swimming. Its not that we don’t have these activities in Bangalore (infact I was playing badminton and also gymming regularly there too) but because of the bad infrastructure a single extra activity would tend to fill your day, which makes everything else difficult.

The work ethics here is really good. People are highly professional. I see that a lot more work gets done here in the same amount of time than in Bangalore. Though I still miss the tea sessions I used to have with my colleagues there, I sometimes feel this is for the better. Makes you utilize your time better at office and ultimately outside of it.

Singapore as a location is very ideal to travel to any South East Asian country or even to Australia and NewZeland. That’s another thing I like about being here. People travel a lot and it’s really good if you are a kind who loves traveling. I have booked my tickets to Thailand (Bangkok and Pattaya) for the Good Friday weekend and planning to go to Vietnam during the May 1^st weekend. This kind of frequent travel to other countries wouldn’t have been possible if I were in India.

Also, since Singapore is like the epicenter of South East Asia and also since it’s a major financial hub you get to meet people from various ethnicity and backgrounds. The rich diversity here is another attraction for people looking for a truly global experience.

Having said all this, there are quite a few not so good things about Singapore too. Many of the reasons I might divulge here might not be because we are talking about Singapore as a city but they might be true of any city that is not your ‘hometown’.

Anyway, the weather here is pretty fickle minded. It might rain at sunrise, bright sunshine later in the morning, heavy downpour in the noon, back to sunshine in the evening and might become cloudy and cold in the night. Irrespective of how the day goes, one thing that’s common is the humidity. It’s pretty humid all through and you end up sweating like a pig. I know one cannot get the famous Bangalore weather everywhere, though the people here try to beat the weather (or nature) by having air-conditioners everywhere.

Another thing you might miss is your own social circle. I understand that at any new place it becomes difficult to have a big social circle but I feel it might take me years to build one here. It’s never like your home country or your home town. This feeling becomes especially true if you are the type who doesn’t venture out, take part in activities like sports or even have the simple habit of going out and making new friends. So if one is not busy here with some kind of activity it can actually get quite boring or depressing especially considering your beloved family is also not there.

The other day when I left for gym early in the morning I felt severe stomach cramps. It was as if my life was being sucked out and I was in terrible pain. I had to travel about 45min in the bus to reach my Gym and the whole of the journey I just wanted to shout for help. Ultimately I landed in the gym and I puked for the first half an hour. I was in severe pain. My analysis was that it was mostly due to food poisoning and hence was more than happy to throw up. Most people in the gym that day saw that I was in severe discomfort but not one asked me whether I needed any help and these guys had seen me in the gym for 2 weeks. It was pretty bad. Ultimately with a friend of mine I went to the in resident doctor at office and he was not ready to treat me without signing all the documents and agreeing on the payment. Back in India it’s the same for surgery and accidents, but for stomach upset? And especially when the patient was visibly suffering? My first feeling was ‘a foreign country is always foreign especially when things start going bad’..:)

The other problem is the real-estate. For a crammed room and a so called kitchen and bathroom you end up paying exorbitant amount of money. Hence most people stay in shared accommodations but that has its own disadvantages. Also, unlike my earlier perceptions/assumptions sometimes I felt that the people here are racist too, though the behavior of people from India/Bangladesh/Pakistan here might have added substance to their belief/behavior. Also to be honest racism is prevalent in most countries in some form or another. So one shouldn’t be complaining too much about it..

That’s all for now…:) More on my thoughts in later posts…

Some snaps so far: Around Singapore…

Singapora – My First Impression!

Bangalore was like ‘home’ and staying there I had setup a nice routine for myself. There was that perfect blend of work and play, an ideal mix of friends and relatives, and a wonderful combination of relaxed days and days that were studded with activities. Apart from the so called ‘work’, there were badminton outings combined with weekly parties with my colleagues, parties and get-togethers with my other friends, daily gymming, numerous marathons, biking, trekking and music concerts…I mean you get the flow right? It was never boring. In fact I really don’t know how the last few years flew by…Didn’t even have the time to think about it and I was not complaining!

But then here I am today at Singapore, which is in many ways poles apart compared to Bangalore. And combine that with my non-existent social circle here and living like an alien in a foreign place. ‘Why’ - is a standard question that many have asked and which infact I too have brooded over.

This was not something that happened because of my initiation. But when the opportunity presented itself and when I was asked whether I would like to move to Singapore it got me thinking. After some digging, the next question that kept cropping up was as to ‘Why’ I hadn’t thought of this myself and given it a shot before? There are so many reasons as to why this seemed perfect and it somehow felt the right step forward given all my aspirations and ambitions. The whole process of resigning at Bangalore and joining here hardly took anytime. I got my first taste of Singaporean efficiency at Bangalore when I got my work entry/visa done within 3 days and that too without even submitting my passport in original! These guys are so efficient, methodical and automated that they know you can’t do anything wrong coming here and if you do you cannot get away with it!

As my last post elaborately explained, February was a very hectic month and I hardly had time to think about anything. Thankfully I had couple of good friends here who said they will help me out with everything. Generally before landing at any new place I read up on a city and do some basic research, but because of the lack of time and also because my friends being here I didn’t go through the usual motions for Singapore.

I landed at Singapore around 8AM Sunday 6^th of March. There was no problem with the immigration. It went very smooth. I was not quizzed about anything. All they asked was for my passport and the IPA letter (In Principal Approval letter – A letter with which you can enter Singapore to work and then get the actual work permit later). Everything went fine. My first thoughts were on the infrastructure. It is so good that it talks volumes on the amount of planning and hardwork the government puts in here. They are continuing to build and improve and it’s done so neatly that you wouldn’t even notice if there was a huge construction project underway right next to you. Stark contrast to the way the Metro construction is happening all around Bangalore.

I hired a cab to go to my place. The cab gave me a peek of things to come. Some of the busiest streets, but hardly any haphazard traffic, such disciplined driving! Huge buildings but lots of free space everywhere, with trees and greenery all around. Just loved the surroundings!

The first shock came in the form of my apartment...It really didn’t look one bit like a 'home'..:( After all these years of being at Bangalore it was quite a fright..:) The amount of rent that I am paying is insane for this place. But that’s Singapore for you. There was one room, a small kitchen and a so called bathroom (luxury only for ultra thin people). There was of course a living room with a sofa and a glass table (which I broke when I kept my laptop bag on it. The entire thing shattered to pieces and the post-mortem revealed that the legs on which the table stood had completely rusted). My friend who was staying there had just shifted to a new house the previous night and so the entire house was quite dirty. Had to so some initial cleaning, but it still is quite dirty and i dont think i can clean it any further. But it atleast looks livable now.

After couple of days, nothing looks as bad as it had seemed…Life is like that, isn’t it? :)

Went around Singapore in the afternoon with my friends. Had a nice lunch treat in one of the Indian restaurants. Shopped at Mustafa (supposed to be a famous outlet in Singapore located at Little India. Its almost like an infamous landmark here) for groceries, fruits etc..Was back at home in the evening. Without the laptop I was extremely bored and had all the time in the world to feel homesick!

Landed at office the next day. Travelling in the MRT and public busses is quite an experience. It’s kind of very amusing and never boring. Will talk about it in my next few posts. The HP office felt like home and as soon as I entered I felt its going to be good out here :). It’s a different office atmosphere compared to Bangalore. But definitely nothing to complain about. More on office in another post.:)

Later in the day I got my broadband, landline, TV connection and the best of all my brand new iPhone 4. All this put together took like 1.5 hours. Ridiculous isn’t it? I mean it would have taken me atleast a month to setup all of this back home. I also got my Employment Pass done the same week and it was issued with the same level of efficiency (that I now expected of them..:) ).

First impression had been pretty even. Mixed feelings actually. Missed many things - my family, friends, my various activities, my colleagues, the work atmosphere, and the rest of the things that I was comfortable with back home..:)

But after that, the journey has been pretty great. Feels right to be here and more importantly I feel good. Have now setup a routine for myself here. Joined the health club at office. So I getup at 5.30 and go all the way to office for the gym, have a nice workout, freshen up and go to work directly. Reach office by 9. Have found good company here for lunch and there are quite a few food courts with an Indian outlet (which serves pretty good food). By evening I am all set to take the MRT and explore Singapore. Just waiting for my first salary here to make it a bigger exploration. Singapore is like a door to entire south-east Asia. And its waiting to be explored. I am sure this will be a very good experience for me and that I would love the time that I spend in Singapore.

Will keep my blog updated on all my experiences here, both good and not so good ones..:)

February weekends!

This February has been one of the busiest months…All the weekends were booked and the weekdays were filled. Spent the first weekend at Hyderabad with my dearest niece (and ofcourse my sis and bil..:)), attended Bryan Adam show, followed it up with ‘Fireflies’ and concluded with a 650Km bike ride on a 500cc Bullet!.

How much of a music buff are you? Irrespective of the degree to which you love music, you would have loved the experience of the musical concerts that happened in those couple of weekends at Bangalore. An absolute blast!

Firstly, the much awaited Bryan Adam’s show happening after 5 years. I had been to his last show here and was really looking forward to having a great time once again. Had booked the tickets for this concert almost three months in advance. Boy! Didn’t it live upto its hype and expectation! Hearing all his songs live and simultaneously singing with thousands of people was worth it!

And then the next weekend Fireflies happened! What more can I say? It was even better than last year with some amazing new bands playing some incredible music. My favorites this time were ‘Yodhakaa’ (A fusion of Sanskrit slokas with different musical instruments), ‘Thermal and Quarter’ (An excellent no-nonsense band), and ‘Something Relevant’ (They rocked the place at 5.30 in the morning). If you can get hold of an album from any of these groups it’s worth a buy. As far as the venue goes, it was under the same banyan tree as last time which made the event even more rocking (hopefully they wont change the venue). We were a lot better prepared this time as we had made sure we had all the necessary material (including mattress!!) to sustain us through the night. The venue, the ambience and the quality of music was so good that I vowed I will be there next year too.

The last weekend of Feburary was one of the best. Went on an awesome ride with some of my best buddies on a 500cc Battle Green Bullet! Rode around 650Km covering Belur, Mullayangiri, Kemmangundi and Chikmaglur. Had hired a bullet especially for this purpose and it was worth every penny. The only sad thing was I suffered from a stomach upset on Saturday afternoon during which time we covered the best section of the ride (full bumpy roads laden with stones). Would have loved to be in good health to do such mountain kind of biking on a bullet. But unfortunately I was so down with fever and stomach pains that I couldn’t really enjoy it much. Apart from the riding, the visit to Belur temple and the stay at Chikmaglur resort were the highlights of the trip.

With that it was the end of Feburary and my stay in Bangalore for the near future. I was gearing up for another exciting month ahead. March 1^st was my official joining date at Singapore. Yep! Have joined HP Singapore and have had a fun and unique experience here so far…More on it in my next post soon!

Sach is Life!

Twitter - the micro-blogging sensation has been my source of some of the most interesting material/reads for a long time now. I don’t tweet at all but I am quite an avid reader, actively reading all the tweets of people I follow. Following people who are funny, witty and who tweets articles/links that are quite interesting/resourceful has become a hobby. Like most things, twitter can be very useful if one knows how to use it.

But the topic I wanted to dwell into was not on Twitter but on icons/role-models on Twitter. In particular I wanted to talk about my experience in following the great Sachin Tendulkar on Twitter. Being in a generation where I have vividly followed, idolized, and prayed for Sachin, I had built a larger than life image of him. Like for most others, to me he is the ‘God’ - because of whom I religiously followed cricket. Apart from his cricketing skills, his down to earth conduct and the manner in which he has handled himself despite the tremendous successes made him a true role-model, a perfect ambassador to a sport and a ‘God’ worthy to follow.

After watching him play for more than 2 decades and reading thousands of articles on him I had imagined and depicted him in the most positive way. Placed him on a pedestal high enough where no one could touch him, no one could shake him or change my perception about him. What I had not envisioned was that one day the ‘God’ himself would be on Twitter talking directly (even though its pseudo!) to each of us. When I first heard about it I was one of the first few thousands who had followed him in the initial few hours. How could I have missed such an opportunity? The initial few days were as if he was talking to me directly. I was ecstatic. It’s not everyday that you get a peek into your idol’s life.

But the joy didn’t last long. Its not that he said/did anything wrong but its just that I had imagined him to be a very different, compared to the person I was seeing on twitter. Maybe I was expecting his tweets to be as good as his cricketing skills or maybe I was expecting him to discuss issues on twitter that otherwise he wouldn’t delve into or maybe tweet anything that’s as interesting or as exciting as his antics on the cricket field. I am not sure of the reasoning but I really felt let down. And after a few weeks I un-followed him.

Again, its not that he did anything wrong, infact he was actually being his normal down-to-earth self, but it just somehow didn’t fit my image of him. It’s interesting how we imagine and hypothesize on the lives of people whom we have hardly met or known. And when we start actually get to know them a little better we react in different ways. This incident is just one such example.

Mistakes and experiments!

It was very funny. My friend had gifted me an iPod Shuffle about 4 years back and after all these years of consistently using it I just found a new feature on it! Obviously by mistake! If you are an iPod user you would know that there is no need to read up on any documentation as it’s all intuitive (as is the case with most Apple products) and so you tend to use the product straightaway after some initial exploration. But today, by mistake I found out something that I had not known was possible on a shuffle. Because after all these years, does one really go out of routine to try anything different? But there it was a new thing observed and learned.

It made me smile. How aptly this experience could be applied to ‘life’. Imagine a life with no mistakes, how pathetic and routine could that be? Most things we learn, experience, and become wiser are because of the mistakes that we make and not because of the successes. Maybe that’s why in corporate world ‘mistakes’ are always termed as ‘learnings’…

But sometimes we reach a stage where one stops making mistakes, one starts to follow a routine that one is comfortable with. This might fetch rich dividends, but in the long term he/she is the loser. So continuing to experiment is the key, as that would mean breaking the shackles. I have had my share of mistakes in the past, which I like to believe were because of my experiments, and I have not regretted them one bit. Hope the future is as dynamic and would lead me to unexplored territories and unchartered waters!

The year that was and that wasn’t!

A whole year has passed and we are in the start of a brand new year. January is the month in which one generally contemplates on the year that passed by, pass judgements on it and then call for new resolutions. Here I am, definitely not trying to do that but only briefly touching on the subject so that I have a new post to publish..:)

Well it had been one of the most topsy-turvy years that I have ever been in. Had some of the greatest moments, but by far it has also been one of the most disappointing years. There are some outstanding things that I am really happy about - One is my new travel/backpacking venture http://backpackingtoeurope.com/ that really took off right from the day it was launched. I still remember how happy I was when I logged into my Citibank account to see the payment that was made by my first customer! Since then there has been a constant stream of customers, thanks mainly to my friends who have spread the word and popularized it. I can’t express in words what this venture means to me!

The other thing I am extremely happy or proud about was my completion of the 75Kilometer Bangalore Ultra Marathon. A feat that I never thought I would even attempt let alone finish one. It was one of those amazing moments that give you the confidence that anything can be achievable in this world. There are moments in life when one feels whether the thing one aspires for is really achievable? There are moments when one feels whether even trying or pursuing a goal is even worth the attempt? Goals that you somehow thought were beyond your reach…During those moments I think of this experience and I smile, I smile thinking what if I had given up half way? What if I had not crossed the finish line? What if I hadn’t even registered for it or even attempted it? ‘There’, I get my answer and I continue…It is these experiences that really makes life worth living and I just hope this year and the coming years I will have more such stories to tell..

Apart from these there have been several others exceptional moments and phases that I don’t want to dwell into here. I have also lost the count of the number of trips, treks etc that I have taken this year. Each one has a story to tell and an experience to live. A phenomenal year on several counts!

However that’s not even half the story. As fate has it I feel the year 2010 will be remembered not for these things but for some of the greatest disappointments I have had to face in my life. A very heavy setback in the first quarter of the year to start with, ultimately finishing off with one of the biggest ever disappointment towards the end of the year. And this when I don’t even consider me missing the Athens Marathon and the subsequent backpacking trip to Europe as a disappointment! Now that sums it up!