Selamat Hari Raya Puasa

It is called Eid in some parts of the world and here in Malaysia it is called as Hari Raya Puasa, I guess it is named after the fasting month whereby “puasa” in Malay means fasting. Being in a multi racial country, this day brings back a lot of good childhood memories as my neighbours were Muslim Malays and I can remember the goodies being sent over in the morning, dishes like ketupat and all the other mouth watering kueh would be served on a tray to our house in the morning.

But now since I live in an upmarket Township and also there aren’t many Malays in my neighbourhood, I guess my holidays would be spent at home with my family. Maybe I would take a drive to Town tomorrow as I know there wouldn’t be any traffic and as everyone has left for their “kampung” to be with their loved ones.

I am sitting in my office and I can see that most of them have already left or either on leave and they would be back by Monday. Oh, how I wish I could turn back the time….and relish on those goodies and visit all my childhood friends.

Goodbye to my bachelor pad in India

Well what you see below is my little pad in Sainikpuri which is about 40 minutes drive from Hyderabad and why I chose this place was that it is a relatively quiet place and I like the design of the house with it’s marble flooring. It is more of a studio apartment with only a master bedroom, a nice huge toilet where I can place my washing machine and a spacious kitchen. It definitely is a setting for a bachelor life, where everything is within reach. I had even set up my office in the living area and with my workstation in my room. Even my dinning is in the living area.

So it’s going to be goodbye to this pad and back to normal life in Kuala Lumpur. Gonna miss my privacy though but hey look at the bright side, I would be with my family.

Happy Birthday son

Well my boy has turned 18 today and I spoke to him this morning and what a sad feeling as I couldn’t be there with him. He would be cutting his cake in the church this evening and I wonder what would be going through his mind. Daddy has always been away from home because of his work (for his well being). I hope he understands that he is always in my heart especially on this special day for him. I told him that he is no more a “boy” now but a man and this little man would leave for Moscow in September 2008 to pursue his studies to become a Doctor.

How I remember him from the time he was born, he was a C-section birth and what a little bundle of joy,who was very inquisitive and loving, oh how time flies.

Happy Birthday Son with lots of love from your dad.

My years in India

I always wanted to write a piece on my stay in India and on what I felt being here from October 2002 until now on my official work of running my company’s office in Hyderabad. What have I learned here over the years which has enriched my life or which made me into a monk (like the Monk who sold his Ferrari)? You decide!

1. Read a lot of books on philosophy

2. Learned to be patient

3. Look at life in a holistic way

4. Learned humility

5. Learned to cook like chef out of desperation

6. Learned to hold my drinks, not like an alcoholic

7. Learned to forgive

8. Learned to be alone

9. Learned to share

10. Travelling and meeting new people

Reading has always been my passion and what better place can I do that when I am alone most of the time in Hyderabad. Books on philosophy had my mind working overtime and also the landmark course that I did had helped me to look at things in a different light. I know I can’t change others but I surely can change myself and my perception about others.

Learning to be patient is a virtue that you will imbibe once you are in India with its age old wisdom and the pace where thing go by. Over here when someone says “2 minutes” it really never will be a 2 minute, it might be 20 minutes or 2 hours. So stay cool as ‘2 minutes” is really an expression without any time frame attached to it. And I know when I give someone an appointment; I have to wait for ages. Even the church here never starts on time, I remember the pastor was making an announcement asking the parishioners to be in the church by 9.00 a.m. and not to start from their homes at 9.00 a.m. and eventually lead to the service starting at 9.15 a.m., in Hyderabad, and even God has to wait.

I remember I was waiting in the office of the number one person in this state and I am sitting there in his office waiting for his P.A for fixing my appointment for my company director to see him, after 2 hours I called him (the P.A), just to find out that he has left the office and had to go through the whole waiting game at another venue the following day. So patience is what I learned and I can sit like a statue for hours with just staring at the walls.

Being humble and forgiving is another trait that I was forced to pick up. Thanks to our partners whom I sacked and they fixed me up after that. And it was revenge I guess served as a cold dish. I came out of it shaken but not stirred and that got me looking at life and freedom at a different angle (Don’t ask me what they did, as I have forgiven them, but God hasn’t I pray so).

Sharing is what I like to do here, be it materialistic things or knowledge. I know for sure that the more you give, the more you would gain (being selfish eh). It’s a never ending process. They also say that to be in an enlightened state, we should share with others what we know.

The last item on the list is travelling, I love to travel in India and try out all the different varieties of food that is available for the palate. I would pick Chennai as my favourite destination for breakfast and banana leaf food. I love Mumbai for some very exotic variety of food followed by New Delhi. Ahmedabad in Gujarat is the worst place that I can think off, for the food and the place being a dry state, meaning no beers to quench your thirst after a hard days travelling and getting your stuff from the permit room like some hard core alcoholic.

And finally it is Hyderabad, for the chaotic traffic, laid back attitude and fiery hot spicy food which I don’t think you can find anywhere in India, maybe Warangal should take the title for pungent chillies. Warangal incidentally happened to a place where I did my Engineering at the Regional Engineering College (during my student days). I remember how I used to wash my chicken pieces in the curry with hot water and still find it hot.

©sukku2008

My journal entry

I would like to share what I wrote on 22.10.2006, which was my journal entry and I was feeling nostalgic about it. Infact this was my last entry in my journal after I had gone through a spell of rather difficult times here in Hyderabad. I just wanted to share it with you what I felt then after clearing my problems. I am not altering anything from my entry and God only knows what I had gone through.

Dear Journal,

Ah! the number 22 that is 2 + 2 will always ring a bell. Maybe the bell of awakening. I am sitting here in my room in Hyderabad (from yesterday evening the cable went off - cut off from the external world, no TV, no internet).

What is running in my mind - greatness(it’s because I’m reading Robin Sharma’s book).

How long will I have this leisure of being with myself. No phone calls and no one to disturb me - not even my loved ones. Loneliness is sometimes a blessing in disguise.

I was sitting on the balcony watching nature from 5.00 p.m to 6.00 p.m. It was getting dark and also the mosquitoes would be out in full force for their share of blood.

How am I going to spend the night, should I read my other books that I have already read. Should I listen to my Ipod or maybe watch DVD.

So many shoulds but there is only one thing that I can do at a time.

I think I would let my mind do the wondering and be thankful to God for letting me be just as I am.

sukku

Back and running

This is my continuation of my saga with my computer. I got it back in shape after screwing it up. I did the inevitable and restored it back to factory settings. On 17th evening I bought an external HDD of 160 GB by Western Digital and backed up all my files. And at nearly 2 a.m. on 18th, I pressed the Recovery Manager, which comes with the HP laptop and voila! it was back as new. One of the reasons that I wanted to do it was my system was getting slower and I know over the past year I had been storing a lot of junk, downloading and deleting free softwares.

I find that the storage space in system restore is inadequate and I am trying to increase it as I read it somewhere, it’s always better to have a bigger storage capacity so that you can undo based on the older images. My advice to the vista users would be as I mentioned in my previous post, is “don’t touch system registry” and you will end as what I did, spend a whole day getting the system running back to how you liked it. And I had problems installing MS office but after cleaning the disc with a little soap water, I was able to install it ( a trick I learned after reading somewhere in the net).

Now I have changed my mind in switching over to a Mac as I see I have gained back the speed and it’s pretty easy restoring it back to what it was.

I think I have a problem with my DVDRW device, maybe a loose connection or it has to be replaced but thank God that I had my extended warranty for another two years left and when I get back home to Kuala Lumpur, I can get it replaced F.O.C.

Now you might be wandering why go through the hassle, but given a choice I would like to spend my evenings and nights with my laptop, maybe it is an addiction. If ever you have a problem, feel free to ask me as I am an experienced hand in this now.

Detachment?

Being familiar with a place for quite some time I am sure we would get attached to it. I have been in India for fairly a good of life, it started off when I came to this country in 1979 for my pre-university with ideas of doing medical studies but things didn’t work the way I wanted and after my higher secondary exams and based on that results I was nominated by the Central Government of India under the Foreigners quota to do my Engineering at a place called Warangal in Andhra Pradesh at Regional Engineering College. During my year admission to IIT’s was through our Government and I was very reluctant to do Civil Engineering and thought of joining the college and maybe try for medicine. But things don’t work out that way and I ended up graduating with a B.Tech degree in Civil Engineering. So I had spent a great deal of time in India then, say 7 years (2 in Chennai and 5 in Warangal) and I was happy to head home but with a sad heart as the best part of life was in campus and I was worried whether I could fit into the Malaysian society.

I did just fine, started working in Singapore for 3 years and after that in Malaysia and I was not destined to be stationed at home. I was in the East Coast for 3 years and then in North Malaysia for 1 year and even when I was in Kuala Lumpur, my working hours were crazy. I get in to work by 8.00 a.m. and sometimes finish off by midnight. During the boom time in Kuala Lumpur work was on a hectic pace and everything had to be finished like yesterday. And for 2 years of my life in Kuala Lumpur I was busy with my M.B.A and I lock myself up at home after work so that I can complete my studies and I am glad that I got my degree but then again it was like being at home spiritually and not physically.

Then in October 2002, I was posted to Hyderabad, a place in India from the state where I had graduated my Engineering. Now after about nearly 5 years plus and I am heading for home and I would be running down to another continent altogether, Africa.
So I guess attachment is a loose term for me, I was never really attached anywhere and I know it would be difficult to leave Hyderabad as I have spent nearly 12 years of my life in India. Is it Karma or something that is attracting me to India, I know my great grandfather was from India.

Over the years I have seen my children growing up and before I could realize it my first boy would be leaving for his further studies to Russia and what would his conception of his father be. The reason why I am away from home is for a better living standard so that I could afford sending my children overseas for their further studies. I only hope that they do understand that my detachment is actually my way of securing a better future for them.

©sukku2008

Coliseum Cafe

Coming to Coliseum cafe (Kuala Lumpur) does bring back a lot of memories for me. This is the first time that I brought both my boys for lunch at this restaurant. I remember I had my steak here about 20 years ago with my wife, after I got my first job in Singapore.

This place has got a new coat of paint and the sizzlers don’t sizzle at your table like the good old days (everyone would notice you when the sizzler arrives at your table). I had a T-Bone steak and my boys had a sizzler (minus the sizzle) and my wife had her grilled NZ lamb.

The waiters are I guess are as old as the establishment and to my suprise, the steaks are still good (not that it wasn’t before). With Kuala Lumpur developing at a fast pace, I hope that this cafe would still be around for my kids to enjoy and perhaps they would bring their kids too maybe in another 30 years from now.

6 years in Hyderabad

Yes that is how long I am in Hyderabad and I can remember my first trip to this city of 6 million inhabitants, the airport was empty and I flew in by Silk Air with my Architect and Quantity Surveyor. In Hyderabad, our local Quantity Surveyor met us and we all stayed in the same hotel.

Since it was a transit flight from Singapore, by the time I got into Hyderabad, I was hungry and could eat a horse. So I went down to the only restaurant that was opened in the hotel, and there they served midnight Briyani and it was also the fasting month for the muslims and hence they had this muslim speciality called “Haleem” and I didn’t know what the hell it was. So for the Briyani buffet, after filling my plate with “Gosh (mutton)Briyani”, I went to help myself with the haleem and to my my surprise there wasn’t any mutton pieces inside the gooey stuff, I thought to myself, hey these people are short changing me since it is mid-night and it could be left overs from lunch or dinner. It was like dal, and I took the haleem and had my supper without complaining as I am in a foreign country.

The following day I casually asked our partner who was a Hyderabadi, what happened to the mutton pieces in the haleem and the hotel is not giving what it promised and to my surprise, he told me that haleem is cooked with flour(maida), spices and mutton over 6 to 7 hours and everything becomes gooey and I had a good laugh.

The most glaring difference that I noticed was the head shaking, they move it sideways for a yes and I had a little bit of a problem with the Indian accent too. I couldn’t understand a word they were saying and I guess they couldn’t understand my accent either. I got over it now and when I go back home, now they can’t understand me.

Visiting the Government offices was a drag, it was just like what the British had left when they left India. And the dressing was casual, the officials wear chappels and shirts not tucked in. I was weary of the water they serve at the Government offices, just didn’t want to fall sick.

I stayed in a Hotel for 7 months and I got used to life in a Hotel, I was upgraded by the Hotel management to a Junior Suite with free fruit baskets and a bottle of complimentary beer everyday along with Lays potato chips and other stuff. I also had complimentary cocoktails from 7 pm. to 8 p.m, which I normally extend by double parking on my drinks and the tidbits would serve as my dinner.

When I think back of those days, the streets in Hyderabad was relatively free from traffic and I guess over the past 6 years, things have changed much. Hyderabad has got it’s new airport and traffic is chaotic now. The beautiful trees are chopped down now in the name of road widening. And I can feel the heat when I am in the city. More pubs and restaurants have opened up and I see many new shopping malls have opened up too as the middle class has increased in proportion.

The only positive thing that I have gained from Hyderabad is learning to be patient(I can sit in a place for hours like a buddha meditating) and also my tolerance to spicy food has increased ten fold.

Anecdotes from Hyderabad

There are many incidences that I can recall to have a good laugh at times and I still remember an incidence with my driver.

We stopped under a fly over and I realized that we are waiting for the lights to change colour. I also noticed that my driver had the emergency light indicator switched on. So I asked him, is there anything wrong with the car for you to have the lights on. He said to me, “ No Sir” and then I asked him, why are you having the emergency indicator on. To which he replied, when both indicators are flashing, it means the car is not turning left or right, just going straight. So I asked him, how did you get your license, to which he replied, Sir, I sat for the exam and then went for the driving classes and then passed my driving test for the license, little did he realize that I was being sarcastic with him.

The other incident occurred with my secretary, both us went out looking for a laptop for the office and we were at a complex waiting for the lift. I knew the lift was on the upper floor and we had go to the upper floor too. I pressed the lift button up and shortly I found my secretary pressing the down button. I asked her, why are you pressing the down button as the computer shop is on the 5th floor and down is only car park and basement. She gave me an answer that I won’t forget, she told me that since the lift is on top, she pressed the down button for the lift to come down for us. It really shocked me with her concept and are the lifts in Hyderabad really that intelligent. Anyway I can’t blame her as I had noticed most of them do that here and some press the buttons very hard hoping that the lift would arrive faster.

I hope to share some more in my next postings.

©sukku2008