India Trip Photo part 01 of 02

Here are some of the photos taken during my stay in India in June, without any orders.

1. My henna, yes again. I got it while visiting the culture village (Dakshina Chitra in Chennai). The culture village was really worth the visit. It showed a vast traditional rituals and housing architectures etc. And there was a few simple workshops, such as the making of the traditional music instruments, knit work, henna, pottery making, colour painting etc

This henna did not stayed vivid for long, it started to fade within a day. But the smell of it was really fresh, it doesn't have those artificial aromatic additives in there, there are even some hint of the bitterness from the crunched fresh leaves. The ingredients are more original.

But the trace of it lasted longer than any of the other henna I got previously. The henna on my hand now is more than a week already, it is not as vivid anymore, but the traces are still on the hand.

This picture was taken on the day it was drawn, after everything was peeled off.

There was this place in Thanjavur, where the Maratta Palace is located. It is actually a little museum that kept all the belongings of one of the king. I find this music scores rather interesting.

This is the outside of that Maratta Palace Museum.

During a boat trip in Chedambaram, Back Water. This is where the tsunami hitted India few years back, and the Mangrove trees have saved them by slowing down the impacts of the waves.

Some salt was found on the tree leaves during the Back Water boat trip. These were caused by the morning dew that condensated by the sun.

This is the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. There were supposed to be 5 temples there, but somehow only left this one. The carving was really amazing, and it puzzled me how did they have so much time and strength to decorate the place with such large stones.

This is another temple, but this is in Chedambaram, no photos allowed after this arc of the door, which shows many dancing steps of the god. The whole temple was about these dancing steps, and apparently someone did a PhD on these dancing carvings.

There was a tale that comes with this temple. Long long time ago, there was this male god who is very good in dancing. He has a female counterpart who is also a great dancer. She was unhappy that people only worship him and ignore her, so she challenged him with dance.

The competition was fierce, and eventually the god won the competition by lifting his leg to put on his ear ring. She was defeated, because in Indian culture, female cannot lift their legs like that.

So this temple was for that dancing god.

Some local delicacies in a typical sweet shop.

Live wedding band for the Indian wedding.

This is called the Krishnas Butter Ball. It is man-crafted, they somehow managed to find a centre of gravity of this strange rock, and placed it there...

There were three monkeys walking towards the camera in the picture below, and I saw two goats while hanging around there too.

This is the tree leaves that used for making the henna paste. This picture was taken while visiting the Dakshina Chitra.

This is one of the beautiful sand painting made at the wedding hall entrace. I only managed to take photo of this one, as others were having bad reflection from the sun, shining through the glass.

This is the Five Rathas in Mahabalipuram. There are five carving items in this area. All these are carved from the rock which was already in that place. It looks like some armeteur trying to practise their skills behind the master, went to the sea side, pick some large rocks, carving it day by day.....

This is one of the temple that was next to the Maratta Palace Museum. Couldn't get in cause the lousy tour guide spent too much time in the Museum, and missed the last entrance for this temple. So only can take some photos from the outside. It somehow reminded me of the game -- Prince of Persia... you will see later...

This is one of the beaches in Chennai, so crowded. Not many people played in the water, as the waves are really huge, and the shore seems to have a sudden drop, like a cliff underneath the sea.

This is a botanical garden in the heart of Chennai, it is actually a very nice area. Perhaps the heat in the summer has made it rather hot, and most of the plants are suffering from the dry and hot weather.

This is one of the oldest tree in the botanical garden, a Banyan tree. The main stem of the original plant has already rotten away, but branches of it, and the extension of it survives until today. It covers a huge area, can't remember the exact value and unit.

This is a metal chain, that disguised like a rope. It was so long lasting, it doesn't look damaged after witnessing so many generations.

Got confused by the sign -- Highly Inflammable. Checked my dictionary after returning home... it was actually correct. A quote from dictionary.com:

Usage note:Inflammable and flammable both mean “combustible.” Inflammable is the older by about 200 years. Flammable now has certain technical uses, particularly as a warning on vehicles carrying combustible materials, because of a belief that some might interpret the intensive prefix in- of inflammable as a negative prefix and thus think the word means “noncombustible.” Inflammable is the word more usually used in nontechnical and figurative contexts: The speaker ignited the inflammable emotions of the crowd.

Also, notice the Air Bus next to the lorry? I wonder how would Airbus felt?

Came back from India

Just got back from India yesterday evening. Vomitted the whole night, and took sick leave today. It wasn't due to the food I had in India, but the food I had in my home country... sigh... what a shame.

The visited areas are Trichy (Tiruchilapalli), Chidambaram, Mahabaliburam, Pondicherry and Chennai.

The Indian wedding is very grand and beautiful.

India is surprisingly cleaner and better than I thought. It was very very hot there, all the rivers were dried out. But I don't mind that weather. Water is very precious in India.

The food in India is good, compare to the Indian food I had everyday here, it was heavenly. It isn't spicy either.

Traffic in India is scary, chaotic, and intimate. Honks are sounded everywhere since 3am until late at night, as long as there are people on the streets. Most of the road are in bad conditions. People get up very early, and sleep early in India.

I haven't sorted out the photos yet, will update this post again... stay tuned.

Few Reasons I Like about Radley Bags

I first discovered Radley Bags when I was in UK, after started working. Cause at that time, I started to have some money to spend for something more luxury, and have the guts to walk into some high class shopping centers.

So I found Radley Bags in John Lewis years ago, and never have the heart to buy it, cause it was rather expensive for me. Nonetheless, it is always a joy and pleasure to see Radley's bags.

When I left UK, I thought I could never seen Radley anywhere anymore. I still kept myself abreast with Radley's new design, I simply take it as a movie series to follow. Cause it is hard to find lady handbag designers that are so considerate.

Until about a year ago, in two of the local high class shopping centers, I saw Radley again! But over here, it is a total rip off here. The design isn't the latest, and the price is twice as costly as in UK! Anyway, I still enjoyed touching the Radley bags once in a while in the shopping centers.

So, I had become crazy with work, and thought that I should spend some money to get myself something I like, to pamper myself a little. And happened that my friends are returning from UK, so I asked them for a favour to get me the bag.

And here it is:

The reason I like about Radley's design, is because it is so thoughtful.

The zips all are opened from one direction.

The compartments are all large enough to put everything, and yet won't make your bag look bulky.

There are lots of smaller compartments for you to put your car keys / mobile phones etc, so that you can retrieve them effortlessly without opening the whole bag, put your hand into it, and scoop for it in front of the public.

The designs are interesting yet not too striking.

Every small details are being thought through by the designer, which makes it a pleasure to use the bag.

The only problem now is, I don't match the bag, because I am nowhere near to the description of a "lady". This bag would go well with an image like this:

A lady wearing crisp suit, with perfect white shirt and shinny polished leather heels to work. She has no sweat but nice perfume scent when she walks pass you, and her make-up does not melt under the humidity and has no oily face. She pace are so light and elegant.

This is the real life image:

I sweat even in the aircond office, walk so fast that only the loafer would do me good. My shirt gets so crumpy the moment I carry the computer backpack.

I just look odd with a nice bag like that.

Gathering with old friends

I had a great gathering with my old friends in UK. Two of them are coming back here for wedding registration. I got them to get me the Radley bag from UK, with the price half cheaper than here.

One of my friends, he will be going back to UK tomorrow night. I have met with him three times, including today, over his stay this time. He has been my best friend since I started my PhD.

When I see them tonight, it takes a lot of effort to hold my tears, I laughed and talked a lot to cover myself. I miss those days when we were together. I felt that we have drifted further apart, the world we are living in are separated further and further.

They didn't change much, it felt almost like a benchmark from where I left. I have changed a lot, to someone I don't recognise, I am lost and scared.

Will we be strangers eventually? Will we run out of topics to talk eventually?
I hope we can be friends forever, I hope it will be possible.

Crazy

I am getting crazy.

I have too much to do, and I have been under huge stress for the past few months. I need something to encourage myself, to say that I have done well, and I deserve to be praised.

So I asked my friend who are returning from UK to help me purchase an expensive handbag.

I am getting crazy.

I dared to show my finger to the stupid road bully.

I am getting crazy.

I wish someone could calm me down, and share my feelings without invalidating me.

I am getting crazy.

I wish I could just split myself like the amoeba, and get all the things done. But then, I have to compensate on the brain power and the work quality, cause amoeba doesn't have a complicated brain. However, even when I am not splitting myself into multiplets, I am already lossing my temper and brain power, my work quality has gone down so badly, that I don't know what I am doing now.

I am getting crazy.

I am through dealing with irresponsible Cockroach and some other colleagues in the project department.

I am feeling drainned out.

I am thinking of hanging myself to end this crazy cycle. Because that's exactly what I feel now... like a fish dying in a dried pond.

Face off

This is how fast a person can change their opinions...

I had problem getting a decision from Mr. Cockroach to settle the issue with the pump vibration.
I waited and waited, and finally brought it up to the MD.

One word from the MD, is enough to make Mr. Cockroach to change his strong stand, to become very supportive.

On top of that, Mr. Big too, has been dragged into this issue, and he has become very supportive too (at the face of it), when the MD approached him.

This has given me a very clear idea how Mr. Cockroach and Mr. Big deal with their work. Basically, they don't care if the problems are solved or not. They are more concern about how they would look in front of the bosses and the clients, and make sure they don't get caught by words they had written down. I also realised that these people are really good in painting pretty pictures in front of the MD, cause they done it in front of me and the MD. I am not sure if the MD realised it, but I knew very well the information they said was a make-up, but I didn't burst their bubbles, cause I enjoyed seeing them doing their monkey show.

By the way, Mr. Big has resigned. None of us knew, until one of the suppliers told me. But he can't leave until he helped to finish with this pump vibration issue, cause that's the instruction from the MD.

All three jobs that we are struggling now, are handed over by Mr. Big. I saw the way he dealt with the customer today, it was utterly unprofessional.

Oh well, at least I have got a green light to go ahead with what is appropriate now. The rest is beyond my forecast for the time being.

Henna

I had my first henna when I was about to leave UK for good, nearly two years ago, and I thought it was very pretty:

There was an Indian cultural exhibition in town last weekend. I was curious, went in to check it out, and got myself this henna:
This one, I thought, is much prettier than the one I got in UK!

I was so happy to wear it and walk around, but when Monday comes, I started to understand why people stared at me when I was shopping over the weekend -- Everyone thought that it was a tattoo. :(

Most of my colleagues do not know what is henna, and was wondering if I have had a big shock on Friday (cause I walked out of the office). They thought that I went to do some tattoo.

After explaining it several times, it finally got through the colleagues, but my MD didn't seem very happy to see these decorations on my hand.

On the contrary, the henna has brought me some good experiences...

I went to meet up with a nasty customer (and his assistant), together with our regional sales manager, and our contractor. This customer has been an @$$, and has not been respecting our company (by scolding vulgar languages, finding faults, making things difficult etc.). He has been very proud of himself, by telling me
"When you see me, you may think that I look very young, but in fact, I have been working in tough environments for many years. I am very experienced!"

Upon meeting him, he looked like some late 30s, early 40s guys, who try to impress others by dressing up tight jeans, unbotton the first button on his shirt, wearing tinted glasses, despite being rather plum = bad taste (on the tinted glasses, so Austin-Power-without-the-Mojo).

He obviously has not get a good blend of the multi-cultures in this country, he thought that I have tattoo-ed my hand, cause he seemed rather warry of me, kept staring at my right hand.
Well, I couldn't be bothered to speak more than what I need to.

Again, this customer tried to sell his "Experienced, worked tough environment, worked in Multi-National Corporation in the past, don't mess with me, gimme what I demand." over and over during the meeting (As if we care!).

At the end of the meeting, his assistant questioned my background,
"You seem very young to handle our project, and you seem very familiar to me, I think I have met you before somewhere... what were you doing before this?"
"I was in oil and gas."
"Oh, you? Must be just doing M&E?"
"No, I was actually drilling for oil."
I guess they were gobsmacked, cause their reaction was funny, and it took them a while to reply
"Oh, interesting..."

Never did I know, that my miserable past could actually create such funny face out of the nasty customer... I guess it is about time for me to re-evaluate my history... Ah well...

I love this henna, and heck with those who think that I have got a complicated tattoo on hand.