My first day to work from my new home. I feel like a primary school kid going to school on her own for the first time. Many people gave me advice on the types of transport available, where to alight, what to look out for, etc. I managed to catch a lift from the apartment owner to work in the morning. Coming back, I had the options of hailing an auto, taking the public bus or walking home.
The evening was cool after an earlier downpour, I decided to take a leisure walk back and at the same time I can also estimate how much time it takes to commute by foot to work. Though it’s already dark and I have not gone back on my own before, I’m pretty confident of the way back as I have been to my new place by car three times and I had identified some landmarks and turnings. On top of that, I know the stretch of main road quite well too.
I had estimated the walk should take about 30 minutes and I checked off landmarks as I go along. However, it was more than 10 minutes after the last landmark and I have not yet reached where I was supposed to make a turn. Also tired after a day at work, I thought to myself, this is too much of a walk home everyday. I continued walking, looking out all the time for the turn, until the rows of shops ended, the crowed thinned and the road turned quiet and sparsely lited on an uphill.
The surroundings did not look any familiar at all. I do not remember going on an uphill when I traveled there by car previously. I checked the time, 45 minutes had passed since I started walking. Instinct told me to turn back. I traced back the route I took til the last landmark. From there, I started afresh and just 100 meters ahead, I saw the turn. I let out a sigh of relief… I wasn’t prepared for a walking excursion and an additional 2 kilometers on the same busy noisy road drained me mentally and physically. One crossing, one more right turn and I’ll be back in the house.
Things did not turn out as expected. I missed another small turn on my way in and all the right turns either led to a dead end or construction sites. I ended up walking back and forth the estate a couple of times, before I finally decided to ask a security guard outside one of the houses for directions and he pointed me to the correct lane.
As I try to locate the house, I actually walked past it unknowingly and luckily Ranjit who was in the driveway called out to me when he saw me walking past the gate. That saved me another few hundred meters.
It’s not all that bad for the day. At least, there was a delicious home-cooked dinner waiting for me…
Monday, October 6, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Mooniversary
Borrowed the word “mooniversary” for the title of this entry from a friend who coined it together from “moon” for month and “anniversary” to mark my first month here in India.
Last Run
There was a heavy downpour in the early hours of the morning on Saturday. I had planned to do my last run in the institute before I move to my new place. Instead, I ran a fever, blew out my nose and stretched my lungs under the blankets in my bed…
What luck.. I still had to go to work and on top of that, I had yet to pack my stuffs for moving to the new place on Sunday. Arghhh…
New Home
Today, there were showers of blessings for my relocation to my new home: a room in a 3-storey house 2 kilometers north of the institute. The service apartment is located in a quiet estate, about 10 minutes walk from the main road, from where it’s another 30 minutes to the institute by walk or 10 minutes by car.
Breakfast comes with the room while lunch and dinner are charged separately. The service apartment is taken care of by Ranjit, a young little fellow who speaks Hindi and a little English. He holds the all keys to the house and also does the cooking. He is like a butler to the guests.
Mooniversary
My first relocation. My first falling sick. My first home-cooked dinner.
The rest of the “mooniversary” was spent unpacking and arranging things to make myself feel more at home, orienteering myself around the house, and getting to know my new little Indian butler.
Last Run
There was a heavy downpour in the early hours of the morning on Saturday. I had planned to do my last run in the institute before I move to my new place. Instead, I ran a fever, blew out my nose and stretched my lungs under the blankets in my bed…
What luck.. I still had to go to work and on top of that, I had yet to pack my stuffs for moving to the new place on Sunday. Arghhh…
New Home
Today, there were showers of blessings for my relocation to my new home: a room in a 3-storey house 2 kilometers north of the institute. The service apartment is located in a quiet estate, about 10 minutes walk from the main road, from where it’s another 30 minutes to the institute by walk or 10 minutes by car.
Breakfast comes with the room while lunch and dinner are charged separately. The service apartment is taken care of by Ranjit, a young little fellow who speaks Hindi and a little English. He holds the all keys to the house and also does the cooking. He is like a butler to the guests.
Mooniversary
My first relocation. My first falling sick. My first home-cooked dinner.
The rest of the “mooniversary” was spent unpacking and arranging things to make myself feel more at home, orienteering myself around the house, and getting to know my new little Indian butler.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Culture Exchange – Part 2
Another dinner outing with the MBU folks, this time 10 of us, at Neel, an Indian restaurant on 80 Feet Road. The group was half vegetarian and half non-vegetarian. By now, I have got accustomed to people having mainly vegetarian food here. However, this time round, I noticed that one of them ordered fish as his main course but for the rest of the starters, he took only the vegetarian ones.
There were whispers and nodding of heads. I asked Likesh who was sitting beside me if there was any problem. He told me in a hushed voice that this particular guy’s religion requires meat to be prepared in a certain way, thus he could not have the meat dishes other than fish as this restaurant does not follow their religion’s requirements.
Turning to the guy, I asked casually, “Tariq, you are a Muslim?” He seemed pleased, while the rest gave me surprised looks. “You know Muslim?”, they asked.
I smiled and shared with them about the different ethnic groups and religions in Singapore, dietary requirements of some the religions, about Halal certifications and the cultural sensitivity practiced when going out for meals in a non-homogeneous group. They were even more amazed when they learnt that I have had lassi, naan and dosa before, and also knew what gobi, bhendi and roti were.
Going back, we decided to take the bus as it was a short distance to the institute, just two bus stops away, and since it was past 9.00pm, autos are expensive and hard to get. I was really excited as it was going to be my first trip on public bus!
We walked to the main road and waited at the traffic junction. I asked if that is the bus stop as I did not see any shelter, signboard or indications of a bus stop. “We will get on when the bus stops at the lights.” I learnt that one can board and alight the bus anywhere, as long as you are able to get onto it and get off safely.
Service 276, a light blue and white bus, driver and conductor dressed in khaki uniforms, for Rs3.00, it will take us back to the institute in 5 minutes. Ladies get to board and alight the bus from the front door and the first four rows of red seats in the bus were reserved for ladies only. Buses get very crowded and sardine-packed during peak hours and I definitely would not want to be sandwiched between the men!
It was a very short but smooth introductory bus ride. Once again, at the traffic junction, our bus stopped to make a right turn. All of us quickly hopped off the bus…
There were whispers and nodding of heads. I asked Likesh who was sitting beside me if there was any problem. He told me in a hushed voice that this particular guy’s religion requires meat to be prepared in a certain way, thus he could not have the meat dishes other than fish as this restaurant does not follow their religion’s requirements.
Turning to the guy, I asked casually, “Tariq, you are a Muslim?” He seemed pleased, while the rest gave me surprised looks. “You know Muslim?”, they asked.
I smiled and shared with them about the different ethnic groups and religions in Singapore, dietary requirements of some the religions, about Halal certifications and the cultural sensitivity practiced when going out for meals in a non-homogeneous group. They were even more amazed when they learnt that I have had lassi, naan and dosa before, and also knew what gobi, bhendi and roti were.
Going back, we decided to take the bus as it was a short distance to the institute, just two bus stops away, and since it was past 9.00pm, autos are expensive and hard to get. I was really excited as it was going to be my first trip on public bus!
We walked to the main road and waited at the traffic junction. I asked if that is the bus stop as I did not see any shelter, signboard or indications of a bus stop. “We will get on when the bus stops at the lights.” I learnt that one can board and alight the bus anywhere, as long as you are able to get onto it and get off safely.
Service 276, a light blue and white bus, driver and conductor dressed in khaki uniforms, for Rs3.00, it will take us back to the institute in 5 minutes. Ladies get to board and alight the bus from the front door and the first four rows of red seats in the bus were reserved for ladies only. Buses get very crowded and sardine-packed during peak hours and I definitely would not want to be sandwiched between the men!
It was a very short but smooth introductory bus ride. Once again, at the traffic junction, our bus stopped to make a right turn. All of us quickly hopped off the bus…
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