Worry Not!

Do you worry about gaining a little weight? Do you worry about not having the best car? Do you worry about not being able to buy your dream phone, handbag etc.? Then, stop worrying 'cause you are amongst the luckiest on earth.

All of human kind needs a challenge to live. And worry is one of those. Of course, to each his own. But give a thought about the kind of stuff you've been worrying about lately. While it is not fair to classify worry as genuine or superficial, I definitely believe that we do end up inventing reasons to worry about trivial things and wasting our emotions.

The next time you worry about anything, think about those who are disabled, who have lost loved ones, who have been exploited, who are unfortunate to endure poverty and .......................

Not such a hard life after all, eh?

One wonder of the world - tick!

Warning!: This is going to be one LONG post. I hate doing that, but still going ahead and doing it, like with many other things in life.

Mainland China, Hongkong, Macau are the countries I visited with my husband recently.

We did have a good time but just had to brave the cold, speak sign language and survive by grazing grass. Yeah, we belong to the vegetarian species. But what the heck, we are alive AND we set foot on the Great Wall of China. According to some Chinese tradition, we are now heroes! So much for the title! Totally worth it?

Here's the proof (no, not photoshopped. I would have chosen to be at least seen in the photo, in that case!)

If you're thinking that its such a boring photo, let me whet your appetite with this one:

THAT's what it took for us to get one small tick against one wonder of the world!!!

We started the trip at Shanghai. We saw all the standard tourist spots like the Bund, Shanghai art museum, People's (Renmin) square, Jing'An temple, Jade Buddha temple, Yu garden and went on the mind-numbingly boring Huangpu river cruise. In Pudong, we went to the Oriental Pearl tv tower
and the Jin Mao tower. I know, all you can hear is, blah blah, mundane stuff, blah blah. That's all it was. Yu garden was quite interesting though and of course, the X'ing Guan photography mall, a 7-storey mall dedicated to cameras and camera accessories.

More than the city, we enjoyed visiting Suzhou. We chose to travel by train and it went as fast as 282km/hr. Not so fast, apparently. Took us 30 minutes to reach there from Shanghai Raliway Station.  It was a nice little town. Travelling by bus from anywhere-to-anywhere costs only 2 Yuans. We experienced what it feels like to be a foreigner with every single living being staring at us like we were aliens. Kids would nudge their parents to take a look at us. Duh! However, we wandered around happily here. The only tourist spot we went to was Tiger Hill. And if I don't mention the hogging we did at an Indian Restaurant called Namaste, it'd be unfair. We spent a fortune to get there by taxi and ate like never before.

The next flight was from Shanghai to Beijing. Wow, what a blend of old and new. While on one hand it oozed tradition, culture and heritage, on the other, the modern skyscrapers kept bringing their economic strength and commercial success to the fore. Our very helpful guides filled us in with a lot more than we could take, mainly because while they were proudly narrating their history, our present was making our future look bleak. Yes, I am referring to the -13degree Celsius!!!  But it was an experience to remember forever. We visited the Tian'anmen square, Forbidden City, Chinese medical centre, Temple of Heaven, Pearl free market, Summer palace, Ming tombs, Jade carving factory
Great wall badaling section, the Chinese Silk museum and the Bird's Nest 2008 Olympics stadium. It is built on the coveted Dragon line. We also learnt how much everyone there loathes the Dragon Lady. We had traditional Chinese lunch. We met some very interesting people and noteworthy amongst those is a lady called Dolly. She was 50+ and travelling alone and had more stories to tell that than we would have liked to hear. All about her daughter living in the US, her maids, her Louis Vuitton bags (she claimed it was not bought from the fake market in China. Yes, that's a huge attraction for tourists and locals alike. Replicas of famous brands of bags, watches etc.), her Pashmina shawls, her pets, her cooking, her travel experiences.. Phew!

Our adventure spirit got the better of us and we decided to take the train from Beijing to Xi'an, in Shaanxi province. We took the Z19 train. The berth was comfortable but we were subjected to the music of 2 men snoring throughout the night. We visited the Bell Tower, Shaanxi Museum and yet another Indian restaurant called Delhi Darbar. We also saw the City Wall, Big Goose Pagoda, Silk factory, Terra Cotta warriors factory, Terra Cotta warriors, Hot spring, Bangpo museum and the spectacular Tang Dynasty Show. A picture of that is a must:

Yummy spicy Tofu rice I gobbled in Macau

From Xi'an, we flew to Hongkong. We decided to visit Macau first, since its only a 45-minute ferry ride from Hongkong. Luckily, we met 2 of our colleagues in Macau and spent the day with them. It was a nice little island with lots of casinos, lots of food. Portugese egg tarts were a speciality there. We went to the Senate (Senado) square, the ruins of St. Paul Cathedral all by walk. Our colleague Guy decided to get adventurous and try the Macau beer. My husband had hot ginger coke!! As Guy put it, "now it feels like we are travelling..:) ":


Next day we spent in Hongkong. More people spoke English here. There were more food options for us here. Yummy bakery stuff. There were trams on the roads. As for tourism, we went on the famous peak tram, Repulse Bay, Tan Hui temple, Stanley market, took a Sampan Ride at Aberdeen, went to St John's Cathedral, Hong Kong park and went on yet another cruise called the Star Ferry Harbour tour. Of all those, we found the sampan to be very.....cute?

The Sampan

Star ferry: HK to Kowloon

There are ferries plying between HongKong and Kowloon islands every 5-10 minutes.

We decided to take one and go to Kowloon. We saw the HK Shopping districts (Nathan road), Golden Bahunia Flower, Man Mo temple and the HK Space and arts museum there.


With that, we came to the end of our China tour. In spite of writing a novel of a blog, I feel I have not done enough justice. But this is the essence of it all. One thing both my husband and I noticed is the fact that in spite of being a thickly populated country, the public places are clean, you are not taken for a ride by taxi drivers. We just clicked photos of the address (in Chinese) of the place we had to go to and showed it to the taxi driver and commuting was never a problem. All in all, it was a rewarding experience.

Brain wave!

Oh!Well.. The previous gibberish of a post was not that pointless after all! I figured that writing about things I enjoy is a good start and *could* keep the momentum going.  Travel and photography for one. *yawn* Technical stuff *yawn* for another. Will see how well I go with putting it all down in words...

Brain dead...

..its been a while since I blogged. Calling it "a while" is an understatement. Not that I don't think about blogging. Its just that I don't know what to write about.

Having said that, I must admit that I do get bogged down by looking at other's blogs. Its colourful, has pictures, has varied content, looks more "professional" and is interesting too.

And the whole of point of writing this blog is....??? Ranting?
It sure looks like it.

Desperate times call for desperate measures!!!!

You are afraid...

...to swim across the ocean, 'cause you think you might die
...to sky dive, 'cause you think you might die
...to climb mountains, 'cause you think you might die

Everyone wants to live and not die
The question is WHY?!

The IPL Auction - wonder what is actually up for grabs here!!!!

Don't know where and how to begin...
Maybe by saying that money does suck life out of you at times. And the beauty is you don't even realize it..

The concept of IPL messes with my head majorly.
It is supposedly a win-win for everyone except the game, or so I thought until recently.

Everyone knows how the advertisers, the sponsors, all the cricket boards, the team owners, politicians, the TV channels, the audience, the players, even the cheer leaders and that weirdo Lalit Modi are "benefited".

All these days I thought the only thing murdered here was the game. I shudder to even think about sportsmanship. That is more of a weed I understand..

Whether it is good or bad for the economy is beyond fathomable limits of my minuscule brain.

So, the summary so far is:
Winners: Almost Everyone
Loser: Cricket

There is one BIG factor left unconsidered here. Of course, because it doesn't affect the "benefits" in any way at all. And that is - the emotion of the players (or should I say cattle?). I would categorize the players into 3:

1. Those who have been bid..err.. I prefer saying bought.. for the highest amounts. Ok, you guys have nothing to complain or so I would like to believe.

2. Those who feel they have been bought for lesser than they deserve while someone else has been bought for more than they deserve.. Eg. Dravid - $500,000 and Ravindra Jadeja - $950,000. Hmm.. sad... but better luck next time is what the system says! I am SO SO hoping against hope that there is no next time..

3. Those who have not been bought at all. Spare a thought for these players.

My heart reaches out to Ganguly especially and I can't believe that there was actually a huge lump in my throat yesterday when I saw his name in the list of players left "unsold" (yikes, makes me feel pukish saying that word). The system is such that it is deemed fair to crucify the man who once changed the face of Indian Cricket. Yes, I know that we should not live in the past and that the man is not in the best of his form anymore. That still doesn't justify something so bizarre which would not have happened, but for this circus called IPL!

There were others too, including Chris Gayle. This insanity sure is a voluntary infliction. And all of us are part of this catastrophe, willingly or unwillingly.

Its killing to witness the stalwarts of the game dwindling into mere pawns. They are left with little choice and are fading into mute veiled spectators watching the spirit of the game dying a silent death. There is no place for dignity in this cash-stricken IPL-world.

IPL Auctions SUCK BIG TIME!!

As I said, we are part of this and will surely watch IPL.. Not helping, I say!!
The saga continues...

Racism

From the day I came to Australia, the one question that I have been asked over and over
again by people in India is - "How is the racism there?". I don't blame them. The news
channels and other 'information' media have shouted loud and clear that the white-skinned
people are racists in many instances.

However, I want to shed light on somethings the media, for some reason, is not interested
in projecting. I am talking about the behaviour of the brown-skinned people and the
Chinese/Vietnamese etc. I will limit my discussion to just Indians as I do not understand
the ways of the other races.

If you see a flock of people walking together blocking the way, talking loudly, cracking
jokes, you don't have to think twice about who they could be. While it is not illegal to do
this, it is considered extremely ill-mannered here. But no, "We don't care. We have friends.
We are social animals and we will live like this only. After all, I am working here and
contributing to the well-being of their economy."

The buses/trains have boards clearly stating that eating/drinking in buses/trains is
prohibited. But..."No, only I can cook the best 'smelling' food. And I don't have any other
place but the train to eat it. To hell with those who feel pukish because of the 'aroma' of
my delicious yummy food. After all, I have paid for the ticket."

Again, buses and trains have 2-3 seats reserved for the old and disabled. It is clearly
marked as "Priority Seating". But my fellow beings are least bothered. There are other seats
in the bus. But.. "I will sit here only since this is close to the entrance. So what if
someone is having to face a little more difficulty. They can always go and sit on the other
seats."

Oh! And yes, I forgot the most important time. Boarding time for a flight!!!! "I don't give
a damn if they announce that only rows 1-20 are supposed to board. Even though it is pre-
allocated seats, I will still rush in first so that I can have all the overhead luggage
space for myself"

And then there are the guided tours. Some tour guides are unnecessarily generous and decide
to distribute some goodies. Immediately, our Indian friend gets a doubt.. "Hey Mate! (Ya..
notice the way they are 'adopting' Australian culture). Is that for free?" URgghh.. I squirm
and try to hide my face. What to do, I can't change the colour of my skin. Darn! The guide
says, "Yes, Sir." Indian friend discusses with his other friend, "How many do we need? In
any case, lets take many. After all, it is free". And with that, only instant death looks
like a feasible option, not hiding my face.

I can go on and on and on.. I see such instances everyday, everywhere. Lifts, cafes, banks,
everywhere. The primary motive is: "I should get as much out of as less as possible AND Let
the rest of the world go to hell. I don't care. I will live life my way only."

Of Course, the above cannot be generalized to all Indians. There are many sensitive ones
too. But picture this: You are walking on a busy street. A lady comes running to you and
asks you for some money. You are not sure if this is a genuine cry for help or some sort of
game to trick you. In most instances, you walk past her. The white-skinned people are facing
something very similar.

They do not know which one of us is good and which one is not. They do not want to take
chances and hence simply try to avoid you. Some don't sit next to you in buses 'cause they
never know when you'll pop-out a lunch box. In some cases, they just ignore and in others,
they yell at you. All this is attributed to racism.

It reminds me of an incident I once saw on the road in Pune. There was a lot of traffic and
it is very common for a rick guy to drive perilously close to a 2-wheeler. The same thing
happened and a 2-wheeler guy lost balance. He got wild and started bashing
the rickshaw driver. A lot of people gathered and the next day I read this in the news..
"Muslim guy bashes Hindu rick driver on the road". I was speechless.

Discrimination is everywhere. In India, in Maharashtra, there is a fight to drive Biharis
out. Brahmins consider themselves superior to non-Brahmins for no apparent reason. South
Indian, North Indian. Your accent is funny. Your turban is funny. So many castes, so many
religious differences.

Having said that, I do completely agree that not all of whites are saints. Some could be
having the feeling of superiority and what not. But for one person to hurt another, there could be a million other reasons. The guy could be drunk. The other guy could have provoked him. Even
if there is no valid reason, such incidents are common and happen everywhere. Its only when
a white guy and brown guy are involved, does it become racism.

There is no end to this and no solution to this. Just don't label it as racism. Don't buy this crap that the media sells. It only makes matters worse