Tiger Blogfest 2010

As a concerned nature lover, I've decided to participate in the upcoming Tiger Blogfest 2010 that was initiated by a fellow blogger from Malaysia who goes by the nickname Monyet King (http://planetofthemonyets.blogspot.com/2010/03/tiger-blogfest-info.html). This is a great effort and something that we should partake in and help in spreading awareness for the tiger. The majestic beast which rules supreme the rain forests of Malaysia and Asia. If something isn't done to stop the illegal poaching, I'm afraid the future generations would only have old episodes of National Geographic Channel or only pictures to know what this beast looked like. There is no point in having it on our nation's emblem if nothing is done to protect it. What pride there is when our national heritage is in danger of being totally wiped out?

Let's do our part for the tiger and educate others on the need to protect and conserve this majestic beast.

Below, I'm reproducing details of the Tiger Blogfest 2010 obtained from Monyet King's blog for the benefit of others intending to join.

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Tiger Blogfest 2010 – Preliminary Instructions

Period

19 – 23 April 2010 [Why ? Because 22 April is Earth Day]

What to do

Post at least one piece in your blog about the need to protect the tiger. You can plan and prepare ahead of time. Your first posting must be made on 19^th April, preferably before 9.00 a.m.

You are encouraged to post additional articles during that week. But you can just stick to one post if you cannot spare the time. It would however be nice if everyone can post two pieces, one on the 19^th April and the other towards end of that week.

What to write

Post anything that you are comfortable with as long as it carries a message about the need to protect our tigers. You can choose to write a story about the tiger, post a technical paper, compose a song or a poem, draw cartoons, etc. etc. Preferably in English or BahasaMalaysia.

Comradeship

All participating blogs should carry (1) the Tiger Blogfest 2010 logo; and (2) a common message about protecting the tiger. Both these items will be provided to all participating bloggers.

List of participating blogs

The list of participating blogs will be displayed at several tiger and nature-related websites. We are targeting 100 blogs for this inaugural Tiger Blogfest. [we already have unofficial confirmations from 22 blogs]

Other activities

Still being considered :

• Link to a petition, urging the Government to expedite the implementation of the National Tiger Action Plan
• A talk on tiger conservation – all participating bloggers will be invited

Note : The final instructions will be emailed to allparticpating blogs (i.e. those who register)

Interested ?

If you are interested in doing your bit to help protect our tiger and participate in this blogfest, please contact Planet of the Monyets at gbm.ere@gmail.com to register your blog. [and if you want help beyond just writing about the tiger, do let me know too... tiger conservation could do with plenty of help]
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Lying Low, doing nothing

The first 3 weeks I was in India, I was going around exploring but the same can't be said for the week that just passed. It seemed more subdued and quiet. For a start, I suffered food poisoning and was really low on energy. The only high point was that I managed to catch the Clash of The Titans movie and have an Indian cinematic experience. Do you believe that they have reclining seats in Indian cineplexes? It's true and the Indian populace have good cinematic etiquette; no phones ringing, no talking while the movie is going on and no running-commentary on the goings on on-screen.

The week ended rather quietly and I never planned any outings with the guys and since it was a weekend off for my team, most of the people in my team went back to their hometowns. I was lazing away in my room and making full use of the hotels facilities. For a start, I spent quite a lot of my time at the poolside either reading or swimming. The TV had some interesting shows going on and I can't remember when was the last time I was hooked onto tv for a long period of time.

All in all, things seem to be slowing down and now as my 5th week is nearing a close, I'm beginning to feel the slight tinge of missing home. Probably it's the loneliness in a foreign land or what but I seem to miss my dear wife more. Miss the smile of her face, the smell of her hair and her loving touch.... Well in 3 weeks, I'll be home and the first thing to be done is to hug her and feel her warm embrace...

Before signing off though, I share the one song that always makes me feel good, the lyrics-less Life in Technicolor by Coldplay...

 

Bangalore, India... Week 3

As I continue chronicling my stay in India, I realized that 3 weeks had passed just like that. Time sure flies and I'm beginning to warm up to this place. I was initially unsure on how the experience would be but was looking forward to it since it would be the first time I left the comfort of Malaysia/Singapore to be in a totally new place for a long period. Another factor of note is, there are many colleagues who are Indian nationals in my office who were recommending places that I could go to once I was here.

At the beginning of the 3rd week, the guys in my team planned a trip to a theme park that was 30km outside the city. The park was called Wonder la Theme Park. On the day, the plan was to meet in the office for breakfast and then leave. The park opens only at 1100 IST. So that morning I left my hotel at 0815 IST and picked up Satish who lived on the way to office. Rajesh was already in the office as he stayed nearby. Rajesh, Satish and I had breakfast and hung around the lounge until 0930 IST before we left. The reason being to avoid getting stuck in the notorious Bangalore morning rush hour. At 0930 we left in Rajesh's white Maruti 800 which closely resembles the Perodua Kancils found on Malaysian roads. On the way, we fetched Abhilash first and then Mallikarjun. As I had mentioned earlier, this park was outside the city and the journey took almost an hour.

We followed the road signs to the park and when we thought we had reached, we realized that we had to drive further 5 km inland through some uneven, forested road to get to the park.

At last, the park entrance came into view.

                                    

The guys who planned the trip (l-r) - Satish, Mallikarjun, Abhilash and Rajesh

The park consisted of dry rides and water attractions. We reached around 1045 IST and after finding a parking space, we proceeded to the ticketing counter to purchase tickets. Currently the summer school holidays are going on and as expected, the park was teeming with school going children and their families. The was a snaking queue waiting to  tickets at the cash counters and sensing that we'll have to wait long, Rajesh bought tickets using his credit card. While waiting for the 1100 IST opening time, we took more pics.

 

Abhi and I

                                      

The un-official Coke model

                                    

Crowd waiting at the entrance to enter

At 1100 IST the doors opened and we entered one by one. I had mentioned before that you go through security checks when accessing public places in India. Once in we wanted to hit the water attractions but it didn't open until 1230 IST. We proceeded to the locker rooms to keep our bags and get changed before hitting the dry rides. I need to mention that I have acrophobia. Some of these rides actually brought you up to mid-air and within seconds, you would find yourself flipped and hanging upside down precariously. The first ride we tried was the bumper car. It certainly brought out the kid in all. It was fun and a throw back to the days when we were young and care free.

                                  

                                  

After having fun bumping into each other, we moved on to try the other attractions.

                                    

Reached the top of the Net Walk ;-)

                                    

We proceeded to try the somewhat more extreme rides and I'm posting the videos of those rides below. I tried almost all of it except for The Maverick as I felt like puking after being flipped and moved around like a rag doll.

After having our fill of thrills, we moved on to the water park. It was awesome fun with crazy slides and wave pools. Sadly no pictures were taken as it would have damaged my camera but we had fun indeed. Around 1700 IST, we left to return home. All of us were feeling dead tired but we really had a great time and it was worth it.

Bangalore, India... Week 2

After sometime at last I get some time and mood to continue chronicling my journey in India. After falling sick in the first week in India, I recovered to continue exploring this land. Most of my travelling has been in and around Bangalore and boy, this city is huge. There are 6 million people who call this city home and that is more than the population of Singapore!!! Add to that the huge land area and this city easily dwarfs Singapore and Kuala Lumpur combined. The end of the first week saw Zali leaving for Singapore. Since we came together, me and Montjoy thought it would be good to see him off. He was staying at the Ista while the two of us were at the Mercure. We were at Koramangallam and he was at Ulsoor. It was a 30 minute journey from our place and since I was game to travel on an auto-rickshaw, we took one to meet up with him.

       View of the driver seat inside an auto-rickshaw

          The recovering me and Mon at the back

One thing about travelling in an auto is that you see another side to this city that is known as the Silicone Valley of Asia, those of the common man. The IT-based workforce in this city display the vibrant, modern and developing India but then there is also the people who live as time has not moved on post-colonial era. I took more shots to display the Indian common man and their lives. People who have never been here will never know that life can be this colourful.

           Auto-rickshaws converged on the roadside

                                A slum area

 A cyclist on a busy road - He pays road-tax by the way ;-)

                Selling fruits when the lights are red

We reached Zali's hotel and went to the Coffee Day that was nearby. I forgot to mention that there is no Starbucks here. You can find Gloria Jean's but the most popular are home-grown brands; Coffee Day and Barista. 

    One for the album - Mon, Zali and Me at Coffee Day

We left after having dinner together. Since I was working the next day, I had to forgo the idea of seeing him off at the airport. The next day, I finally got the chance the Hyderabadi Biryani that everyone has been raving about. I have to say that it easily the most popular food item in Bangalore and anyone you know off who's from or have been to Bangalore will stand by it's taste. Since I've been hearing a lot and with a peaking curiosity, I tried it and boy I was, to use a cricket term, bowled over by the taste and quantity of this superb biryani. It costs only Rs. 120 or roughly about SGD$ 4. Imagine that, for 4 bucks you get a helping fit for 2 and with 2 pieces of chicken to boot!!! This is indeed food heaven.

 Lunch time crowd building up. You have to wait to be seated

 The shop was super crowded, had to wait 10 minutes for a table by the way

                 The famed Hyderabadi Biryani

   Look at the quantity remaining after half was on my plate

The Muslims have Mecca and Medina as their holy land whilst for the Christians and Jews it's Jerusalem. For a Hindu like me, my holy land is India the land that gave birth to Hinduism. One of the reasons for my coming to India was to visit and marvel at the spleandour of the ancient temples that are here. I am not a devout Hindu but I appreciate ancient architecture and the brilliance of Dravidian temple building. Bangalore has it's fair share of amazing temples. On my off day, I managed to get a reasonably prices package that took me to 5 different temples. All had it's own story to tell and magnificent to be in. It was a very humbling experience and one that I would cherish.

                   The Dodda Ganesha Temple

    The entrance of Bangalore's most famous Bull Temple

                 The main entrance of Bull Temple

The eponymous and huge bull which gives the temple it's name

                  The Jnanakshi Rajeswary Temple

Skilled artisans busy at work at the Jnanakshi Rajeswary Temple

                         The ISKCON Temple

The magnificent Shiva at Old Airport Road Shiva Temple

Before I sign off, take a look at the 3 pictures below and think what is common in all 3.

If you didn't notice the similarity, it's the message to "Sound Horn". One thing about the road users here are that they are honk happy bunch. It looks evident that everyone likes to honk when they drive and this habit seems prevalent in South Asian nations. A friend who recently visited Sri Lanka spoke of the same phenomenon and to quote him "If there was no horn in the vehicles, these people couldn't drive!!!" If people in Singapore or Malaysia were to sound their horns indiscriminately, it was inviting trouble but here you're encouraged to horn. Unique ain't it?

Bangalore, India... Week 1

Sometimes life can be never explained or understood no matter how many experiments or studies are carried out to further understand it. Note in point, me coming to India. I've always had the thought of visiting this land that holds a close spiritual connection but it was never on the priority list. When I was informed that I was to come here, it was a pleasant surprise. No matter if you're a God fearing, pious person or an atheist the presence of a higher power can never be doubted. Now here I am blogging again in India which I had never imagined. Okay enough with my inner thoughts, now let's get to the actual story I wish to convey; my 1st week in Bangalore, India.

Saturday, 13th March 2010 Flight SQ502 a Boeing 777-200 left Terminal 2 of Changi International Airport en route Bengaluru International Airport at 2010 SLT. The flight touched down at Bengaluru International Airport approximately 2155 IST. Three guys from Tech Ops, MTC Singapore of Thomson Reuters were on the flight each on assignments that were between a week and eight weeks. By three guys I mean Razali, Montjoy and myself. We got off and went through the normal Immigration clearance. After collecting our luggage, we had to go through the customs check where I got a first hand experience of India's bureaucracy. I was carrying 2 laptops - one official, work use and another my personal - and declared it to the customs official. I did so as I didn't want to run foul with the customs if they were to inspect my bags. The customs told me that every visitor was only allowed to carry a single laptop and any additional laptops were to be taxed 35% of their market value. I argued that it was my first time visiting India and there was no prior information on the number of devices that each visitor was allowed to carry. Seeing that it was my first time, the officer decided to let me go with a Rs. 5000 "tax" payment. You should get the idea what I meant by "tax". We were fetched at the airport by transportation that was pre-arranged by Sriram, the manager of our Tech Ops counterparts in Bangalore.

 

           Outside of Bengaluru International Airport

We were then taken to the Service Residence that was specially arranged for us - Mercure Homestead Residences. To describe the place in a single word, I should say wonderful. The staff are so polite and their attitude towards guests are top-notch. It's such a hospitable place with your privacy their main concern.

                Mercure Homestead Residences

              The hall/living room of my studio unit

                        The comfortable bed

                   The kitchen and the mini bar

On Sunday morning after breakfast, we decided to make our way to the office just to ensure we had no problems in accessing systems in Singapore from Bangalore. The journey to the office from our place gave me a first hand look at the daily lives of the average Indian populace. Life did not seem as fast paced and rushed like Singapore. You could see people walking on the busy roads, cycles, autos, dogs and the odd cow here and there. Life was really different here.

     The RMZ Titanium where our Bangalore office is in

After a short day at the office we left and got back to our hotel. Since we had nothing much to do, Montjoy and I planned to go to the nearest shopping mall to get some toiletries and light bites. Bangalore seems a nice a place but the same can't be said of the locals. They seem apprehensive towards outsiders and are not forthcoming with proper information when asked. Imagine asking three different people on different floors as to where the supermarket was and getting three different directions which led to no where!!! Also another point to note is that since India has been under threat from terrorism, every public place you go to i.e. hotels, hospitals, malls etc, you have to go through metal detectors and have your bags checked.

On the third day of my stay, I was struck by fever. I guess the dust and pollution just was not agreeable to my body. Now I am recovering and beginning to get used to the environment over here. I am yet to explore this city and plan to do so in the coming week as well as plan for trips to places of interest in India which I could cover in my eight week stay. Top of the list is visiting some of the magnificent temples of South India such as Thirupathi, Madurai Meenakshi, Tanjavur Brihadeeswarar as well as the Mysore Palace and Hampi the ruins of the ancient Vijayanagaram city which was an empire in itself. If time permits I would venture north to visit the Taj Mahal and Varanasi the site where the holy Ganges runs through.

Watch this space as there would be a lot to share over my eight week stay here...