The Disadvantages of Drinking

...till you're dead drunk anyway.


Some local liquor – dirt cheap, maybe 100 rupees, depending on how many of your friends / colleagues you wanna treat
Some namkeen (tidbits Indian style) – 100 – 200 rupees, again depending on how many people you wanna treat
A photo in the internet, of you plastered on your bed, dead drunk, with your shorts and bed wet with pee, just because you’re too drunk to make a trip to the toilet or to even notice you need to go – Priceless!...

Memories of Mizoram

Mat River near Thenzawl, where our precious 'BC' stones come from. Wanna know more about BC stones of Mizoram? Send me a personal mail...

Farewell Mizoram! Yeah, sadly it’s goodbye, for the time being anyway. Till we meet again (and I’m sure we will, since it’s Anu’s home), here’re more pictures of a place which has given me a lot of friends, a lot of fond memories, a lot of experience and a place which I've already kinda considered home. Anyway, here’s to wishing everyone a Happy Happy Brand New Year! May 2007 bring abundant joy, peace, success, prosperity, luck, love and hope!


Rani, our lovely 'daughter', the hardest one to leave behind in Mizoram


Mausen Village, the village I and Anu were gearing to shift in (for work, it's on the Project Road) before we fell in love, etc, and changed everything...


Mucking around on the Kolodyne River Bridge (between Lawngtlai and Saiha); from left - Nela, Tony, yours truly


Aizawl's Bara Bazaar (meaning 'Big Market' in Hindi)


Serchhip, the biggest town between Aizawl and Haulawng, where we used to stop for lunch, dinner, supper..., depending on the time we reach this place while traveling


Angels of Haulawng at the Vantawng Falls; from left - Anu (with Rani), Rini, Amrita and Anny

Destiny's Path

Recently I got married. …Huh? What?!? Yeah, it’s true, after all I’m friggin human, I’m 36 bloody years old, I’m not gay, and I also wanna have a family of my own, and like it or not, destiny seems to have decided that it’s about time this …err thing happened.

Although destiny didn’t put it in such a straight-forward kinda way. No, don’t get me wrong, everything went on quite normally at first. There was friendship (we knew each other since January 2006, but never in our minds thought we’d be together, …we used to tease each other and pair each other off to potential partners). There was love (of course) and then a proposal (first, on the phone with my now-wife and then I went to her house and family in Assam state and formally proposed to her mother and her brothers). There was courtship (for about ONE WHOLE MONTH, after she accepted my proposal hehehe – when in India, do as the Indians do, right?). There was rivalry, …a lot of rivalry (after all my wife’s not that bad looking and somehow seems to attract a lot of …unwanted (on my part) attention, which include big names which I will refrain from naming here, and yours truly isn’t that bad in the attraction department himself, never would have guessed huh? hehehe). There were a lot of obstacles, ...there was a lot of heartache (refer to my earlier entries – “A Note of Illumination” and “Casualties of Love”). And finally there was our daring escape from Mizoram, when my wife left everything and everyone that she knew, to be with me, God bless her, and it’s no easy task to escape from Mizoram or for the matter of fact, her village (and her house which is inaccessible by car), without a soul knowing about it (don’t believe me, just let me see you do it). So, there you have it, we’re together and happily married now, far from the reaches of Mizoram.

And somehow, after you’re married your writing creativity and inspiration just don’t seem to work?!? …beats me, …but maybe there’s just no bloody free-time, …oh, YES HONEY, I’m coming…

By the way, my wife’s name is Anu, short for Anuradha Rajput.


Gary & Anu at the Sun Temple, Konark, Orissa


Gary & Anu at Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh

A Stone’s Throw from Bangladesh

View of Bangladesh (the flat area in the background) from Khoh Ramhah, Meghalaya

The state of Meghalaya lies just north of Bangladesh and is located atop a high plateau mostly flat at the top with deep gorges cut by the incessant rain on all sides and criss-crossing the state. Bangladesh is that flat expanse of low land hugging the Ganges Delta just beyond the plateau. The effect, Bangladesh’s all over the place, wherever you go you see …Bangladesh!! Especially in the Cherrapunji area which is just beyond the Bangladeshi border. So here’s some nice views of Cherrapunji and ...Bangladesh, what else?


Khoh Ramhah, the basket that became a huge rock - (some stingy bugger in ancient times tried to hog all the food in a huge weaved basket, he died and the Gods left it as a remembrance in the form of this rock, for the generations to come, or so the legend goes...)

Cold War at Shillong

Meghalaya, Abode of the Clouds

Shillong is the capital of the state of Meghalaya in North-Eastern India. Meghalaya is also known as ‘the Abode of the Clouds’ and true to its nature, it’s friggin overcast most of the time with drizzling rain, heavy rain, monsoon rain, intermittent rain, you name the rain, you get it. Not surprisingly then, Meghalaya is also the home of Cherrapunji, the wettest place on earth.


Cherrapunji, the wettest place on earth (formerly, now I've heard some other place's taken over, don't ask me where ok, I have no friggin idea)

What made the British make Shillong the capital (former) of all North-East India in the yesteryears, beats me! (Back then it was all known as the state of Assam, now it’s broken up into seven different states.) Maybe it’s the incessant rain, makes you feel like you’re back in Britain, doesn’t it?


Nong... err something waterfall at Cherrapunji, mates illuminate me if you can remember the name willya?

Anyway, it’s a wonderful place, …Cherrapunji, lovely scenery. Dunno much about Shillong city itself, don’t even have pictures of Shillong, actually, didn’t even go out much in Shillong except for a short jaunt in the bazaar. No pub-hopping (although Shillong’s cheap on beer as opposed to bloody Mizoram where beer’s BANNED!), no visits to the local discos, no trying my luck at the casinos, no mingling around with the local gals (and believe me, Shillong’s full of pretty babes, after all it’s like a melting pot of North-Eastern India – and I can tell you, North East India’s full of diversity, Orientals, Aryans, Dravidians, hybrids of the most exotic, there’re Hindus, Moslems, Christians and Buddhists, not to mention the odd Sikh or so. The Mizos, Khasis and Nagas are of oriental stock and are mainly Christians. Arunachalis are a mixed lot, consisting of many different tribes of different religions. There’re hordes of Nepalese, Tibetans and Bhutanese who’re either Hindus or Buddhists. The Assamese and Bengalis are mainly Hindus or Moslems. The Manipuris are mainly oriental looking and are Hindus (or Moslem). There’re others too, too many to name). Anyway, what do I make of Shillong, what do you make of any place when there is a cold war brewing in the midst? Nope, I’m not referring to the many terrorist outfits that populate the North East. What do you do let’s say, when you have your recently ex’d lover and your new love together with you on the same trip, staying in the same bloody hotel? How stupid can one be huh? (Yup, I can be very stupid sometimes). You’d be lucky it didn’t fester into an all-out bloody war, and I thought it’d be fun and educational for some possible stint at the UN (maybe) as a peace negotiator in future. Anyway, to cut the story short, the potential UN Peace Negotiator failed miserably in his training… Enough said.


The Haulawng Gang at Cherrapunji (from left - yours truly, Rani our little dog, Rini, Tony, Anu, Anny, Amrita)

A Note of Illumination

Some of you ardent readers of my blog (not that I think I have many) must be wondering, why the heck is he suddenly putting an outta-no-where Love Story into his blog?? Truth is, that story reflects something which really happened, and yours truly here is mightily involved. Exciting, ain’t it? The ending’s not that great though, not how I wanted it to end, but that’s life… And I just wanna dedicate my thoughts to a really wonderful girl, to a lovely little dog that brought us close, and to a relationship that was never meant to be… Now be silent for a minute, k?

ONE MINUTE OF SILENT CONTEMPLATION…

Anyway, this is how I guessed the story will continue, Prince Ohim, broken-hearted, quietly left Aramtea, and was never heard of again in the land of hills and valleys. Not long after, the King and Queen abdicated and also left Aramtea. Hara and her Ukhara Prince finally became a loving couple and lived happily ever after. Reyna remained in Aramtea and soon became a much-respected and trusted aide of the new court. Hara’s three remaining sisters in South Aramtea were returned to The Ukhara by the new King and were reunited with Hara bringing much joy to the sisters. THE END.

But of course, there might be alternative endings, but that is another story…

Casualties of Love

Let me tell you a story, about love…

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, lies the Kingdom of Aramtea, a Kingdom of hills and valleys. Aramtea was ruled by a wise and learned King, a King loved and venerated by the masses regardless of creed and class. The King ruled with a fair hand and was assisted by his Princes and his courtiers.

One such Prince was Prince Ohim, a Viceroy of South Aramtea, who was a humble and care-free bachelor, well-liked by the people under his care. He had a lover, Reyna, the Court Historian, but as Prince Ohim preferred a care-free lifestyle, he had never agreed to marry Reyna or loved her as a lover. Reyna’s love however was unconditional, and she loved him despite the lack of love from Prince Ohim.

At Prince Ohim’s fort in South Aramtea, stayed four young daughters of the Ukhara, a warrior clan from a friendly neighbouring land. The Ukhara had always assisted Aramtea in matters concerning defense and as a matter of fact, provided most of the Generals and soldiers of Aramtea. The four daughters were however not soldiers but court maidens of the Ukhara, brought there by Reyna to help Prince Ohim with matters concerning the upkeep and running of his abode, the Fort at South Aramtea. With time, Prince Ohim grew to regard the four maidens with high regards and loved them as his followers.

The King of Aramtea also loved and regarded these four maidens as his own daughters, and the maidens in turn regarded the King as their father. One day, the King brought his favourite among the four Ukhara maidens, Hara to the King’s Palace in North Aramtea to assist him for a short while and Hara was promised that she would be returned to South Aramtea in a short time. A month went by, and then another, but Hara still stayed in the King’s Palace in North Aramtea. Hara was a sweet and charming maiden, kind and caring to all but the worst. She was also brave and could as much wield the sword as she could prepare the most sumptious of food. Like Prince Ohim, Hara was care-free, always cheerful and had provided Prince Ohim which much joy during her stay in South Aramtea. Hara would always bid Prince Ohim farewell when he had to carry out a mission away from the Fort and would wait for his return even when her other sisters were asleep. Hara used to come up with ways to cheer Prince Ohim up when he was unhappy and to keep him company during bad times.

When message finally came to Prince Ohim, that Hara, due to the long absence from her sisters, was feeling alone and sad in North Aramtea, Prince Ohim decided to return a favour to Hara by conveying daily messages to the King’s Palace to cheer Hara up. As time went on, a love slowly blossomed between Prince Ohim and Hara, and in one of his messages to Hara, Prince Ohim finally proposed to Hara for her hand in marriage, and Hara happily accepted although both knew that a marriage between two people of different cultures and backgrounds would be difficult, but love knew no boundaries. When the King found out about the proposal after Hara confided in him, the King was furious, as unbeknownst to others, the King harboured a secret love for Hara, beyond the love as a father figure. Blinded by love, the King started wooing Hara for himself regardless of his love for the Queen or his Princes. Prince Ohim and Hara were distraught and appealed to the King to extend his consent and blessing but the King persisted, intent on winning the heart of Hara at any cost.

On the other side, jilted and overcomed by grief, Reyna became emotionally unstable and plotted with the King to put an end to the love of Prince Ohim and Hara. The King banished Prince Ohim from North Aramtea and forbade Hara from leaving North Aramtea, so that he could poison Hara’s mind to break her love for Prince Ohim. When the Ukhara found out about the whole issue, they demanded for their daughter to be returned to them. Unbeknownst to all but the Ukhara, Hara had been earlier betrothed to a prince of the Ukhara. The Ukhara took the opportunity to force Hara to marry her Ukhara betrothed, bringing much grief and sorrow to Hara. Prince Ohim secretly sneaked back to North Aramtea to try to stop the marriage, but had to grievingly concede to prevent bloodshed and conflict between Aramtea and the Ukhara.

There is no happy ending to this story. There are no winners in this affair, as everyone is selfish to a certain extent, especially when it comes to love.
The King had to live with the shame of knowing that because of his selfishness, he betrayed the trust of the Queen and his princes and to finally swallow his pride and learn that sometimes the cost is too high to pay, if one wants to win something at any cost, the price this time, the grief of all concerned, especially to his beloved, Hara and to the Queen.
The Queen had to live with the fact that the King betrayed her love and trust.
Reyna had to suffer grief and sorrow as Prince Ohim loved someone else despite her unconditional love for him.
Prince Ohim had to pay for the consequences of leading Reyna on, and had to suffer the sorrow and difficulty of breaking his promise and having to tell Hara that he is leaving her so that she can forget about the Prince and put undivided love to her betrothed, despite Prince Ohim’s promise to Hara that he will never leave her and will help bring her away no matter what the consequences.
Hara had to learn that the things one does some times although insignificant earlier, may come back to haunt one, like agreeing to the betrothal without putting enough thought to it, and to suffer the pain and anguish of not being able to do what she truly desires.
The Ukhara prince had to suffer the grief and sorrow of knowing that her betrothed, Hara’s heart had gone to someone else although Hara married him.

Looking on the bright side, the King and Prince Ohim can finally put their feud at rest. The King can learn that sometimes you have to accept that you are fallible. The Queen can get back the undivided love of the King. Reyna can finally learn that love cannot be forced and that Prince Ohim’s heart would never be hers so that she can move on with life. Prince Ohim can discover that Hara had a betrothed before and he can move on with life as Hara is now already married. Prince Ohim and Hara can learn that there are always consequences to the actions one does. Hara can hopefully focus undividedly on her new life with her husband now. The Ukhara prince can regain Hara, and hopefully in time, Hara can give undivided love to him. Aramtea can save the shame of a big scandal. The Ukhara can save the honour of their community.

Depression Mode

This posting’s meant to be a first, a first written during a period of depression. One that’ll show my true feelings, one to show my weaknesses, one to show that I’m not all the time good-natured (a misconception of some of my friends), one ring to bring them and in the darkness bind them in the lands of Mordor… (oops, that’s from the Lord of the Rings, sorry).

Anyway, I can’t pinpoint the actual source of my depression, I’ve lost the enthusiasm to fight the jungle battle, my mind has been wandering farther and farther away (to Nepal, Tibet, and beyond), my mood has been brooding dark, my patience is wearing thin, I’ve kinda adopted the ‘come what may’ attitude, what the hell is wrong with me? Here’re some of the things I attribute my depression to: -

No 1 (but not foremost) – the advent of our company’s ‘communist’ leader of Haulawng Site aka Chairman Mao Tse Toh (name changed to maintain anonymity) and the great changes he’s done to bust (NOT boost, mind you) the morale of the site organization by introducing innovative measures to save money such as delaying staff’s salaries and cutting electricity from 11pm to 5am, besides complaining about everything everyone’s done everyday, questioning and overturning decisions made by yours truly (hey, I have an ego problem too, ok?), emphasizing again and again that he’s in-charge (as opposed to yours truly), complaining and implying that everyone else’s management skills suck when compared to our one and only venerable ‘communist’ leader, boasting about his achievements (everyday, till he was told off, by who else but yours truly, ahem), taking away my responsibilities from major areas (which truthfully, made me quite happy, until the other bosses came and screwed me about them, “hey, that’s not my job anymore, k?”), shirking off the responsibilities for things gone wrong because of his decisions (yeah, almighty ‘communist’ leader can’t do no wrong, you know?), yadda yadda yadda (see I can bitch too huh, feels good, I hope the company doesn’t see this).

No 2 – the incessant rain and gloomy weather everyday, who wants to be stuck in a place like that for days on end huh? Real mood damper! Besides creating multiple landslides which our ‘communist’ leader adamantly refused to clear in the beginning (because of contractual implications). He later broadcasted to everyone that he has been the prime mover for clearing landslides (yeah, my foot!) This is fun, writing about him, can’t get enough of it!

No 3 – the bloody mess that our semi-constructed road has become (due to rain and landslides) and we call ourselves Road Builder!

No 4 – THE DRYING UP OF FUNDS (need I elaborate?) No money, no honey, man.

No 5 – the drying up of diesel (and almost everything in Haulawng, including our power supply, runs on diesel, albeit ‘slightly’ adulterated diesel in our case, yeah never mind that it’s a mix of 50% diesel and 50% kerosene, or 40% diesel / 60% kerosene, or whatever mix it comes in, never mind that kerosene f**ks up all the engines big time, as long as there’s something to burn, right? …But even that, we don’t have)

No 6 – the appearance of a new boss, …err no wait, two new bosses, err no, let’s go back to one, why don’t we have 3 instead, hey since we’re already at it, let’s have 4 new bosses, the more the merrier huh, and let’s shift the operations to Haulawng, …no wait, shift it back to Aizawl, no, let’s split the whole damn thing up, divide and conquer!

No 7 – Sid Meier’s Civilization 4, a birthday present from my beloved brother, a turn-based computer game where you can stop play at anytime and continue later, yeah just a bit later, just a little while more ok, …bloody hell! it’s 2 bloody am! shit, gotta wake up at 5!

No 8 (last but not least) – Naruto, chapters 1 to 100 to be more exact, the cute Japanese anime series to keep me sane during the non-workable monsoon season in Mizoram. If only the producers stop trying to lengthen the series by making 4 chapters for what they can show in 1, and why do they always end the chapters when it is at its most exciting? Anyway, it’s only about 20 minutes per chapter, yeah still early, just two more chapters ok? Err, ok, one more, err… bloody shit, can the Hokage defeat Orochimaru? Just another one, f##**#g 1 bloody am! If only I could Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!!

What’s gonna happen to me? Beats me… an employee with THIS type of attitude!?!? Is this just a temporary phase?? Can I snap out of it? Will the Company forgive me??... Will I forgive myself? Will update again soon.

Where in the World is Khoo Kongsi?

Guardian Lion of Khoo Kongsi (although it looks more like a bulldog to me)

Nope, Khoo Kongsi is not a person, it’s a famous landmark in Penang Island, the Clan House of the Khoo family.

But just try asking any Malaysian, or Penangite for that matter, and chances are that they’ll have absolutely no idea where this, most famous of Chinese Clan Houses (in Penang), is. Wanna know where it is? Just ask one of the many tourists roaming around Penang.

(Hint: It’s located within a courtyard ringed by shop-houses on all sides. Entrance is through an opening in between some shophouses on a narrow street fronting the Achehnese Mosque.)




Khoo Kongsi, Penang


Lantern at Khoo Kongsi

A Tale of Two Cities: Part 2 - Penang

Somewhere in Penang, near the Achehnese Mosque

Penang is actually another pretty unique place in Northern Peninsular Malaysia. Like Ipoh, it has its own special variety of famous hawker food, - laksa, chee cheong fun with shrimp paste!! (sounds yecch but it’s actually quite appetizing), fried koay teow (with Chinese sausages, cockles, prawns, oysters, …yummy), and loads of nyonya food (nyonya’s actually the colloquial term for the Chinese who have settled down and kinda adopted Malay culture in many aspects, such as food!).

Unlike Ipoh, Penang hasn’t really discarded its colonial past with as much zeal as Ipoh or for the matter of fact, any other towns or cities in Malaysia. For example, the capital of Penang is still officially named Georgetown, not that many locals use this name (they just fondly call it Penang (which actually refers to the island as a whole) or Tanjung (which means cape in Malay, how unimaginative can it be huh? There must be a thousand Tanjungs in a maritime country like Malaysia!)

The result of this err… reluctance in moving ahead (ala Malaysia) is that it has so much more character, with narrow streets (and of course traffic jams, what do you expect when the streets are narrow), with colonial bungalows and buildings, rustic pre-war Chinese styled shop-houses and hordes and hordes of temples, Chinese, Thai, Burmese and Hindu, not to mention quaint mosques and churches. And of course, you still have the ferries that carry you across to the mainland. Kinda like a trading town that time stood still!

And last but not least, it still retains street names like Love Lane, Chulia Street, Gurney Drive, which is so much more err… romantic than the lengthy nationalistic names which nobody remembers anyway.

Gurney Drive, Penang - how can there not be a picture of the sea when you're in Penang Island huh?