A hurried narration of our Thailand trip

I have been meaning to write about this trip for the past 2 days. But my mind is flooded with so much to write that I don't know how to frame the entire thing. Anyway, here is my sincere attempt to do justice only to the itinerary.

We started from Pune on 5th March at about 3 in the afternoon. Reached Mumbai by 8pm, had a sumptuous meal and reached the airport. The flight took off by 12.30am and we reached Bangkok by 6am on 6th March.

Day 1: We took a bus to Pattaya as the check-in time in hotels there was 2pm. We reached Pattaya by 12 noon. We had lunch and started off to visit the Noong nooch village. It had a cute pottery garden, an orchid garden, Thai cultural dance, Thai boxing, Elephant show and stuff like that. We roamed in that till evening and got back to the hotel. We took some rest and then left for a cabaret show called Alcazar show there. It was marvelous. Thai dancers put up a spectacular show. Rich costumes, lot of lighting made the show very very memorable.
We got back exhausted and crashed in the hotel.

Day 2: The next morning we left for Coral Island. A speed boat dumped us there by 9am and they said the boat will start in the evening by 4pm. The island had options for scuba diving to see corals, some adventure sports like banana-boat ride, water scooter etc. It was very much like Goa but a lot more cleaner. We hired the beach-side chairs, had coconut-water and took a good amount of rest. It was hot and humid but the day was very relaxing. We left the island in the evening and got back to the hotel. We hired a 2-wheeler and happily roamed around in Pattaya. We went to a place called Mini Siam. It had miniatures of many famous monuments around the world like the Statue of Liberty, the Sphynx, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Opera House etc. etc. We roamed in that for a while, then went to the Ripley's Belive it or not museum. From there, went to the night market called Walking Street. Apparently, this market is famous for flesh trade. The girls in Thailand were extremely beautiful but it was very very sad to see them earn their living by such means. Every here and there we could see hefty foreigners hanging around with frail Thai girls. That's their way of life..We didn't realise when we got back and when it was morning and time for us to leave the hotel.

Day 3: We checked out and proceeded towards Bangkok. The hotel here was awesome. The interior was extremely modern and I cannot stop raving about it. But, later..
We had plans to see the traditional Thai Wat Trimit etc. which houses the Golden Buddha, Emerald Buddha, reclining Buddha etc. But we were late so missed it all. We decided to take some rest till evening. In the evening, we went for shopping to the MBK Market, Siam mall etc. by their sky-train. People would not believe if we say that we did not buy ANYTHING AT ALL. We roamed in the mall for about 3-4 hours and got tired and got back and slept.

Day 4: We had booked a trip to the Safari World there. It was a full-day trip. It had Orangutan show, sea-lion show, cowboy stunt show, dolphin show, bird show, spy-war show and a zoo and a crocodile farm etc. The whole day was quite enjoyable. We did a Jungle Safari also. From there, we directly went to a dinner cruise. It was supposed to be very romantic with candle-light dinner and stuff. We were feeling a bit out-of-place. But we got bored and the speed of the ship was, I think, 1 Km/hr :D.. There was Thai dance and English music on the ship. People seemed to be enjoying the candle-light dinner. We got so bored that we chucked the dinner and stood on the deck for a while. That was the only nice part of the cruise. We understood its not for practical people like us, its more for the mushy romantics at heart. Again, back to hotel and crash.

Day 5: We woke up early in the morning by 5am and left for the Damnuen-Saduak Floating market. This is a Thai village completely on water. Their houses are on water. And they sell fruits, vegetables, clothes, hats etc. on water. It was very nice. They took us on a long-tailed boat and we saw the enire market. From there, we left to the Bangkok airport, reached home by half past midnight and slept away to glory.


In the whole trip, the only trouble for us was food and language. I had to wonder if this whole country would perish the day fish become extinct. Every food of theirs had something to do with fish or oyster or duck et.al. We somehow survived on salads and thanks to a few Indian restaurants. Non-vegetarians would have had a blast. As for language, the only language that we could use was sign language. Surprisingly, people hardly spoke English. Everything was in the form of signs aided by some sounds like ah, aha, then shaking head vigorously for na. It was hilarious at times. Whatever you say in English, the reply was always the same - a wide grin with foolishness writ all over :D

The other thing that I must mention is the girls there. I couldn't help but be envious. They were so good-looking, had such flawless skin, such perfect weight :( :(.. Its paradise for bachelors.

Thailand is supposedly famous for shopping. I saw Indians buying things by cart-loads like there was no tomorrow. We did visit the most famous malls there but could not find a single thing worth buying. Surely, some thing's wrong with us 'cause so many people can't be wrong.

In all, this was quite a hectic sight-seeing trip, not a relaxing one.. :)Hope to have a rejuvenating trip next time...

Wake up gals!! Chuck the protocols.. There's only one life!!

I often wonder - how free are Indian women? I agree that the urban women enjoy much more freedom when compared to the women in rural India. However, there is still a huge gap to bridge.

The other day I was lazily browsing different channels on TV. On one of the sports channels, they were showing a cricket match. Just outside the stadium, there was a group of women playing beach volleyball wearing almost nothing. They were totally having fun. I was wondering if it is possible for any Indian woman to do that - be it urban or rural. You may say that it is by their own choice. But I completely disagree. Think of the ruckus that is created over Sania Mirza's attire. What I mean to say is that Indian women are brought up in such a way that they are taught not only to suppress their own desires but also to not even think of anything that does not comply to the 'template' created by God-knows-who. So leave alone playing in those clothes, they would not even think of wearing it. Of course, clothes is a very small example to elucidate my point. The so-called values are hammered into their heads so much that they cannot make their decisions purely based on what would give them happiness, or purely based on logic. Their decisions have to consider a lot of meaningless parameters. After all, there is only one life. What is the point in living a stifled life for nothing.

Poor thing is caught in meaningless traditions. Even women working in commanding positions cannot decide not to cook at home without considerable amount of guilt 'cause she is supposed to 'take care' of her family, even if it consists of grown-up adults only. As if her family cannot make arrangements for their own food. A woman breaking out of a bad marriage is never appreciated by the society whereas one putting up with the atrocities of the husband and crying in a corner is supposed to be the ideal Bhartiya naari. And please note that the so-called society will never ever go to help the woman suffering a bad marriage. In case of joint families, women have to give least priority to their friends (with whom they enjoy life) and instead, they are supposed to please in-laws day-in and day-out (who might not even acknowledge her deeds, forget praise). I am surprised to see even women working in MNCs following this and cribbing. What does she gain by all this? To understand my point, you must watch the movie Dor. It excellently depicts the plight of rural women. As for urban women, their situation is better because they are at least financially independent. However, they are not free to make their choices in a society such as ours.

A lot of these rules, rituals were made for a society where living was totally different. Circumstances have changed but Indians are taking their own sweet time to adapt. Though there is a lot of change, a lot more is yet to happen.

What made me loathe these so-called values even more was an incident that took place at a wedding I recently attended. The groom's father had expired many years ago. So, it was his brother and brother's wife who performed all the rituals. Their family was supposedly very modern. However, the groom's mum was not allowed on the stage. The whole stage was crowded by relatives. I was almost moved to tears when I saw the groom's mother standing in a corner and raising on her heels to catch a glimpse of what is happening on the stage. For God's sake, it was this woman who made a man out of that boy when all the relatives had deserted them. And now, just because she was considered 'inauspicious'........ Crap!!!

Having said all this, I want to reiterate my point that I am only against all the social obligations that a woman is either put though or a woman unknowingly puts herself through in India. However, I am totally against reservations for women, tax benefits given to women, thousand women groups formed within corporates blah blah. If you really want to respect a woman, give her the ability to decide her own life and do not judge her by how much she complies to the 'template'. Judge her by her intentions and her deeds.

There is one serious question though. In spite of all the freedom that the women playing beach volleyball enjoy, I am not sure that I can say that they are happier than this woman who had to stand in a corner in her own son's wedding. This has always been defying logic. Who is happier and how? Needs a lot more pondering before I come to any conclusion. There has to be a balance somewhere I guess. But I still feel freedom is important. Its better to be free and make wrong choices and regret than to be tied and forced to make right choices. You anyway won't enjoy the choice made for you. Or you resign to circumstances and force yourself to find happiness in what is bestowed on you. Maybe think about the women in some other countries who are even lesser privileged. I'd rather be called an arrogant girl by living life my way than being called an obedient girl by dancing to someone else's tunes.

So I will decide not to wear skimpy clothes only because I DON'T WANT TO, not because I HAVE BEEN TAUGHT THAT IT IS WRONG. I will decide not to drink and smoke only because I DON'T WANT TO, not because PEOPLE MIGHT THINK I AM A ROWDY. So whenever you make a sacrifice, make sure its worth it. Don't do it because protocols demand so. Its all too complex.

Mumbai Matinee

I had been waiting for this for a long time..March 1st. It was my colleagues wedding. Both of us had joined IBM on the same day and had undertaken the ELTP training. We were very much in touch with each other for the subsequent 5 and half odd years. A lot happened in these years and we had known about each other's life fairly well. I was even involved in his 'girl-seeking' process. Finally, the D-Day had arrived. I had decided to attend his wedding come what may.

As per the initial plan, my friend Ananth and I were supposed to go together. But we found out that 3 others from our office were also going by bus to Mumbai to attend the same. So we decided to go together. From the word 'go', we had nothing but a series of comedy of errors.
The first one being Ananth forgetting to pick the other 3 up from their houses. Poor guys kept waiting only to realize at the last moment that they had been subjected to this. At 5.30am, they had to hire a rick and come rushing to catch the bus. So there we were, waiting for the bus. A mini-van came and picked us up and took us till the bus stop. We boarded the bus and it was all confusion inside 'cause there were no seat numbers. Somehow we managed to seat ourselves. The rest of the journey till Mumbai was mostly eventless.

At about 9.45am, we reached Andheri. We had to take a rick to reach Versova, the venue of the wedding. Rick guys pounced on us the moment we alighted from the bus and they said it would cost us 180Rs. After much haggling, they came down to 150Rs. since 5 of us were there, we would have had to hire 2 ricks. so, we thought a single taxi might prove to be cheaper. The moment the rick guys overheard our decision, they dropped their quote drastically to 100Rs. The fact that they were pestering us so much made it even more evident to us that they were taking us for a ride. We walked about 50 meters and found another rick guy who was willing to use the meter installed in the rick. Finally, we reached the venue and had to pay only 44Rs. IMAGINE!!

The wedding was in a bungalow which had a beautiful sea-view. We had tea and stuff and were just wandering here and there aimlessly. Soon we met some colleagues there and started chit-chatting, then had lunch, bid good-bye to the newly weds and decided to head back to Pune. We did not have tickets though.

One more person joined us and we were now 6 - Ajith, Ananth, Humayun, Nizar Sujith and I. After loonggg discussions on how to reach Pune, the final decision was, hold your breath, to take a local train from Andheri to Dadar and then a bus from there to Pune.

We bought 6 tickets. 2 people's tickets were combined into one ticket. After much deliberation, we figured out which direction the train to Dadar would come from. The train arrived. I got into the ladies' compartment (my ticket with sujith) and knew nothing about the mix-up the others created. Apparently, Nizar and Ananth could not board the train. And, the great Ajith, Humayun and Sujith got into the First Class compartment thinking they had my ticket with them and that I might be caught in Dadar when I get down. No prizes for guessing that the TTE caught them. Don't laugh if I say that they were using their tickets to fan themselves like heroes. What followed next is history. They had to pay a whopping 450Rs. fine (err.. rather bribe). And subsequently, got kicked out in the next station. They were determined this time. They went and bought First class tickets and got into the next train. But, much to their dismay, none checked their tickets this time. Life is ironical...

In the meanwhile, Ananth and Nizar thought they'll act intelligently. They went ahead and bought 2 more tickets for a fast train from Andheri to Versova. It turned out that the tickets they already had could be used for the fast train also. All this while, I was putting up with the pushing and shoving happening in the ladies compartment. The only entertainment for me was Ananth's phone calls which kept pouring in every 5 minutes to tell me a new sob story.

Finally, I got down, or rather got pushed down at the Dadar station. Soon Ananth and Nizar followed. It took a while for the heroes of the day - Ajith, Humayun and Sujith (now known as sujith, the jobless) to reach. Then we had to stand in a looonnnggg queue to get our bus tickets to Pune. In the bus, 2 blabbering aunties forced their company on us by blabbing away to glory about their kids and husbands. We alighted from the bus and 6 of us cramped ourselves into a car and reached our respective homes.

In all this confusion, there is only one thing I learned. It is the fact that Ajith and Sujith are neither brothers, nor twins. I always thought they were. One funny question enlightened me. In the rick, I asked them if they had any sisters.. Sujith replied saying he didn't have any but Ajith had. After yet another round of quarreling, I believed that they just looked similar and spoke the same language and were roomies.. but were not brothers.


If this can't qualify for a matinee movie, what else can??