Of Intimate Thoughts and Fledging Sanity

In Hinduism, the cow is considered sacred and its protection is a recurrent theme in which she is symbolic of abundance, of the sanctity of all life and of the earth that gives much while asking nothing in return. Most Hindus respect the cow as a matriarchal figure for her gentle qualities and providing nurturing milk and its products for a largely vegetarian diet. It holds an honoured place in society, and it is part of Hindu tradition to avoid the consumption of beef. — Wikipedia

Cows here just wander in the streets.people dont mind them as they are Sacred to them. They dont even honk their horns when there’s a cow in front of them, unlike if its a person.

And if there is cow, theres dung. they are everywhere here, so imagine dung being just a round the corner. but i think they clean it cause if they didn’t then this place would stink pretty bad

its just fun to watch a cow being the cause of traffic in a city hehehe

Vehicle name: Autorickshaw

Location: India

Engine Type: 2-stroke gas engine

Passenger capacity: 3

This mode of public transportation is akin to the Philippines’ Tricycle. You can see this vehicles in and around the streets of India. Although its the cousin of the tricycle, this vehicle can also be seen in expressways where normally only large vehicles like cars and trucks only travel. This is because of the Drivers of autorickshaws has a mindset that they own all the roads in India.

Think jeepney drivers are bad, wait till you have a ride on one of this things.they make jeepney drivers look like saints. In the philippines at least the jeepney drivers and tricycle drivers give way(sometimes) but for autorickshaw drivers, theres no such thing as YIELD. its every driver for himself around here. I won’t allow my parents or any other people with heart conditions riding on one of this things cause they will give you a shock with the way they navigate through the crowded streets of India. they will squeze into any available space, missing cars by an inch literally. I measured the spacing of the autorickshaw that i was riding with the car beside us and it was an inch, maybe less. They tailgate every car,truck, motorcycle and other autorickshaw. Plus if you’re a foreigner, they will have you pay in a fix price ride no less than 20 INR(Indian Rupee). One time we were asking an autorickshaw driver to drive us to a place. He asked for 100INR, although it would normally cost around 30 INR. We refused to ride in his vehicle as it was too much. We then approach another driver and he agreed to take us for 20INR.

Drivers here use there horns every chance they get. this is also true for autorickshaw drivers(the horns sound like crows). i’ve manage to get the jist of the types of honking that they will do for a particular situation. if the driver wants to cut on a lane, he would use his horn twice in succession (beepbeep!). if there is a pedestrian in his way, even if he’s 10 meters away it would sound like one long honk (beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep). if there’s a car blocking its way it will make a short honk(bep). Then imagine that there would be 50 vehicles doing these simultaneously on one lane.

I think this would be how pinoy drivers will be in 10 years if they continue the trend of disregarding traffic rules and blatlantly violate them and if the gov’t would not enforce the Law with an iron fist.

if your lunch consists of a loaf of bread, a bottle of orange, and a sachet of sandwich spread. something must not be right. i do have the money but i can’t buy things that i would love to eat.although im not complaining much cause this is food, but if your stomach can’t take the food that they are serving, what can you do but to not take those and eat something else. hay, im just wondering when collegues/guest go to the office in manila, they are serve with foods that they are accustomed to. if they are muslims, they are served with halal foods, indians, vegetarian/no beef meals.but for us, we have to endure their foods, eventhough you dont want to. i want to buy foods but since they are prepared by them, they will still be just like their food.

Yesterday was a good day for me(for eating). for one i have a breakfast (hurray!!!) which consists of fried/scrambled eggs, 2 toast, jam, a bowl of fruits and a glass of freshly squeezed juice(apple/orange/mango/melon). i did not drink the juice cause i’ve read that the water here is filled with microbes that its not advisable to use the water from the tap for gargling.i dont know what water they have used on the juice so i dont want to take the risk. i brought instead a juice from the store(well if i get stomach aches i can sue the producers of the juice)

For lunch, we were serve with fried chicken and i was surprised that it tasted good.too bad i did not get more rice cause i was expecting the worse. i also tried the vegetarian dish and  it was ok..i think, but it was way way too spicy for me. It funny cause me and richelle were like kids enjoying the friend chicken. stripped the chicken to the bone cause it was that good.

For dinner, i bought a footlong subway tuna (yummy) then the orange juice that i bought from the grocery :D. i ate the 6 inch yesterday and left the other 6 inch at the ref.hopefully it will not spoil so i can eat it again tonight.

as long as the food is like this then the travel here might not be so taxing for me. its bad enough that im in another country which has a totally different culture than the one im accustomed too,but to not have food to nourish you the whole stay here then that’s just not right.

hi again. its day 3 and its still the same here. i think i wont transfer to my colleagues apartment cause im already settled here. i even started doing my laundry yesterday. i think im gonna get a microwave in my room, but again the ref still remeains elusive hehehehe.

yesterday i started my training with the dev standards or symbols and i must say the SOS people are something. they now the stuff already and i feel that im the one learning from the training. i was ashamed at some of the code that i was showing cause it was not following the standards that im discussing. i was cut during my training cause the guy that will get my bag to be fix(remember the day 1 event?). i had to leave work early and go to the apartment to give him the bag. funny thing is that i rode with the guy in his motorcycle and man, i experienced the motorcycle skills of an indian and it was scary. atleast in a car you have a rollcage to protect you in the event that you get into an accident. ina motercycle..your dead if you hit the ongoing cars/buses.

i forgot to buy dinner yesterday. i only had 2 muffins, some nuts and the conrflakes mam eisel gave me(without milk) i looked like a hobo trying to scrounge up some food. man..how i hate this having the money to buy good stuffs but im in a place where good stuff dont exist.

I finally had my breakfast, wifi and hot water yesterday. seems like luck finally gave me some pity(yes pity, if luck smiled at me then i would be out of this country today, but that’s another story). Although i am still missing a ref in my room, the guy in room service said that i can use the ref in the dinning area (although im not sure i want to use it, but if i dont have much of a choioce then ok..ill just find a way to secure my things in the ref).

but im still pondering on the option to move to the apartment where my colleagues are right now cause they have the same ammenities plus the ref.

today would be a slightly busy day for me. i would be discussing to our indian colleagues about the development standards of SSA with regards to EOC(CBS). that was one of the reasons why im here. and be ready to be asked about those things agan once they start using what they have learned. im not saying that i dont want to be ask, but by the way they work here, i would need a big-ass umbrela(ela..ela..ey ey ey) and a raincoat as the questions would definetely pour.(also a nice patience compensation package would be appreciated but i know better that ther’s no such thing). maybe i could use the lessons learned in the guthrie-guthrie "seminar" to help me…well what was that again? nevermind..ill just be the guy who when aggitated will scream "I DON’T F-ing KNOW OK?" or "GIVE ME A NICE BIG JUICY BEEF BURGER, WITH NO CHILLI OK?" or just give them the simpson’s APU version of "THANK YOU COME AGAIN".

Hi guys, im back. it has been a long time since I posted something here. I’m currently in Bangalore, India for work and currently im feeling a bit down at the momment.

"Why is that kyle?" you may ask.well, going from manila to bangkok(connecting flight to india) was ok. I checked in my luggage from manila and was told that my bag would be in autochecked in once i arrive in bangkok so i did no have to get the luggage again and checked it in again. That was good, i dont have to drag the 22kilo bag around the airport in bangkok. so in my mind i was hoping that the flight will be smooth and i should be in my room before 11pm if all goes well. but things changed from good to worse when upon getting my luggage in india i was shocked to see that my bag was mauled, the main zipper broke loose sending the contents spewing out of the conveyor belt. wow, first day in a new country and already im having a bad impression of things. my bag which i tediously prepared was destroyed in front of my eyes and i cant do anything about it but just to give a complaint to THAI AIRWAYS. I told the guy i was speaking that you destroyed the bag so you should give me a new one. but for him the bag was just "DAMAGED" and they would just "FIX" it. by that time the blood rushing through the veins of my head was so strong that i dont even had the energy to say something insulting back just a high piched "WHAT THE HECK?!?". then i told him that this is my first time to this country and already im having the impression that… (by this time no words were comming out from my mouth) then a Hindi guy(lets call him good guy Hindu) approach me and the THAI AIRWAYS guy and told me that it has happened to him to and he was sorry for what had happened. then in their native tongue he spoke to tha THAI AIRWAYS guy(he was also a Hindu) i think he explained my side to THAI AIRWAYS guy cause i distinctly recalled the good guy hindu saying the word "IMPRESSION" in a scolding manner to the THAI AIRWAYS guy. by that time i started to calm down albeit there were tears forming in my eyes(i think something was in my eye there) and started to give the complaint and work a system on how my bag can be "REPAIRED".

"How did you get out of the airport?" you might ask. Well they put my bag in a large plastic bag and put tape around to secure it. then i just took it our of the airport where a driver was waiting for me.

"So after that it was just smooth sailing again right?" you may ask. well not exactly. the driver was indian, and based from my past experiences in pakistan, the drivers in this part of the world gets scarry. the jeepney drivers of the philippines are saints when compared to how drivers drive in pakistan, here in india it was no exception.they are the same reckless drivers as in pakistan, but with my driver yesterday..he was far worse than anyone before. He cut lanes, speed up at a curve, speed up in an intersection. tailgated cars while doing 60-70. at one point he almost hit the back of the car infront of hime, good thing his breaks were working and turned the car sharply to the right. after all that we arrived at my place for the duration of my stay here.