A Rat Ate My Backpack

Stupid rat!

Recently made a 3 week trip back to Malaysia and India. Visited both our families, wife’s and mine. Took advantage of Justin’s school Spring Break holidays. It’s now or after the birth of our second child, as when Justin breaks for summer, it’d be too late (and too big) for Anu to fly.


Anu and Justin, at the brand new international airport at Mumbai, India, about to board the plane back to Dubai

Nothing much happened. Had a string of tasks lined up, so it was like a friggin errand trip.

In Malaysia, we visited families in Butterworth, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur, …OK, just a li'l bit of KL. We spent a total of ONE night in KL, and went back to Ipoh the next day… short of time, plus the family in KL’s caught up in some sort of a family crisis then. Got some flak from Anu and Jipek for making them sit so long in the car for the trip to KL. Justin didn’t seem to mind though. Managed to watch ONE movie with dad and mom, Captain America, in Butterworth. And visited ONE friend, Ajit’s family, in Ipoh.


Justin at the 1919 Restaurant, Ipoh – that plate of rice, with steamed tofu in soy sauce, was the fastest Justin finished a plate of rice, ever, in his four years of existence


Justin, his ‘chau ko-po’ and Bear-Bear, the toy dog, OK, it’s real


More scenes from Jack’s house at Kota Kemuning, Selangor – that Chinese character on the wall happens to be one of Justin’s name, Xin.


In front of Jack’s house, Kota Kemuning


Anu at a Chinese restaurant in Gurney Plaza, Penang


Water feature at the Ipoh Swimming Club

In Silchar, I found that my trusty old backpack (rucksack, whatever) from my university days in the UK, a Mountaincraft backpack with a lifetime warranty, has become a pile of shreds and tatters, compliments of a bloody rat. Half of the straps bitten off, holes all over. This backpack has been with me since 1994! Has travelled with me in like 2 dozen countries in Europe and Asia. Felt like I’ve lost an old friend… RIP backpack, may the rat end up the same way as you did.

Pesky rat also munched big holes in our bank passbooks, and ate some insurance receipts. We hope that’s all it ate. Also discovered that termites made a nest out of Justin’s Mothercare cot. But luckily termites don’t have teeth like friggin rats do. So cot is still intact, save for some tiny little holes. Gave it away to Anu’s sister’s newborn daughter, Mahie.

Silchar was dusty hot when we arrived, no problems with me as I’m used to dry weather. Besides, there’re less mosquitoes when it’s like that. A day plus later, Silchar had a hailstorm (or more like a series of hailstorms) that blew off signboards and uprooted trees, and Ta-Da! …no friggin power for 24 hours (ok, …almost). We were in Fulertal, so we spent our time chilling out in the Barak River… Hailstorm fell two betel nut trees in our Silchar house compound, but no damage to the house. And that’s about it folks!


Hailstorm in progress, Itkhola, Silchar, Assam – ‘antiquated’ version, made with my blackberry phone, easy process, especially with the amount of rickshaws around in Silchar


Caught by the camera – Justin sabotaging the cake, on the occasion of Anu’s sister’s wedding anniversary. Justin’s not a big fan of cakes, but he likes messing with it, and everyone’s too busy to notice


Taking a dip in the Barak River, Fulertal – Justin with his mama (uncle) and maiju (aunt), Anu’s brother and sis-in-law

Oh, and a congratulatory note to the people of India for voting in a strong government. It’s about time they got rid of the ineffective and corruption-tainted present government of theirs. Let’s hope things get better now.

The Cast of Daund

And here’s the rest of the cast of Daund – heroes, baddies and onlookers, all together. The people who made it possible, the ones who made it hell, and the ones who made it hmm… interesting. But, that’s all part of the challenge! What would the experience be, if it wasn’t for these people.


The Consultants and the Client, at the Four Seasons Winery in Roti Village, about 20 mins drive, off our project road – from left, Francesco Bafaro (Material Engineer), Andrea Wolski (a representative from the Client), Warren Tan our Project Director, Dr Deokate (a representative of the winery, with a doctorate in viticulture – i.e. study of grapes and wine), CL Chong (Deputy Project Director / Structures Head IJM), and Hermann Berlot (Team Leader).

Our staff: -


Project Manager, Vijay Kumar, at Wirtgen’s function in Bhandgaon


Temple Busters of IJM – from left, Sunil Tiwari, Korra Ravi and Promod Misra, in front of a temple in Ravangaon, just before the demolition – Run, if you’re a temple, mosque or religious structure!

More Client and Consultants: -


Tree Planting Campaign at a school in Khadki – clockwise, from left, Faruque (with safety vest – Safety Officer IJM), Pramod Kumar (in light blue, with longish hair – Admin Manager IJM), School Headmaster (man with white hair), Yours Truly, Sanjay Kalbhor (village elder), Anand Kale (Client’s Safety Manager), Sunil Verma (chequered shirt – Resident Engineer), Mohanadoss (man planting tree on the right – a Client’s representative)


Wouldn’t you believe it? Yours truly, giving a speech at the school! From left, Umesh Kshirsagar (Admin Officer IJM), yours truly ahem, Paresh Galankar (Deputy Safety Manager IJM), Pramod Kumar (Admin Manager IJM) and the class teacher

The high and mighty subcontractors: -


The Brothers Gadhoke of Jitendra Singh Group, bloody rich! Diamond rings, Breitling watches, solid gold bangles, fancy cars, nothing unusual to them


A K Mallick of Kolkata, provider of our trucks (some of ‘em anyway)

The politicians: -


Marriage hall inauguration, a function hosted by the main political party of Daund, the NCP (National Congress Party, nope this ain’t the same as the Indian National Congress, the ruling party in India at the moment). The ones I can name: Supriya Sule (lady in blue making speech, current Member of Parliament, daughter of Sharad Pawar, the NCP supremo and current Agriculture Minister of India (pictured in the banner with the red turban)); Ramesh Thorat (in the middle, slightly raised, holding spectacles, also pictured in the banner second from top left, the current state assemblyman of Daund constituency); Rahul Kul (bespectacled man in the middle, just to the left of the two men in white caps, also pictured in the banner, on the bottom left corner, Chairman of Patas Sugar Factory, ex-assembly man and arch-rival of Ramesh Thorat); Rahul Khapre (sitting on the right of yours truly, friend and owner of a quarry in Bhandgaon). Getting Ramesh Thorat and Rahul Kul together in one function is nothing short of a miracle as the two go at each other like cats and dogs, and they’re both from the same party!! Funny politics in India.


A billboard commemorating Bal Thackeray, Shiv Sena Party chief, and de facto ruler of Mumbai, on his passing away in November 2012 (see earlier post ‘Two Deaths about Mumbai’). The entire state of Maharashtra ground to a halt on his funeral! Anyone caught working, was beaten up! Two million people plus loads of VIPs attended a funeral held in a Mumbai public park fit for a king! And the most amazing thing is that he held no official posts at all! Incredible, huh?


Yours truly, sporting a Maharashtrian cap, in the middle of a god damned divider! From left, name forgotten tree-planting subcon, Siddu Chinchali (IJM’s Deputy Highway Manager), a Field Engineer of our Consultant, yours truly, and Rahul Bhalerao (Leader of the Dalits (Untouchables) of South Maharashtra) in an inauguration of the tree planting work at our Project

The common folks: -


Chicken sellers of Patas


A shepherd beside the Railway Bridge


Shepherds and their flock of sheep, at our half dug rock hill at KM69


A local roadside restaurant in Kurkumbh, near our office

There’re a lot more people that I don’t have photos of, or I’d have put them in here as well. The likes of Rakshit Jain, the driving force behind our Client, the local goons, the village big shots, the wily mediators, the activists like Umesh Parge, the sand mafia, the crooks (whom I shall not name), the cops, the politicians, the Girim Village cartels, the quarry cartel of Bhandgaon Village, the high profile subcontractors, the odd gun-toting electrical subcontractor, the horde of smile-in-your-face and stab-you-in-the-back personalities, just to name a few. See? Working in this place has all the excitement of a gangster and political drama huh?

Spot the Difference

Just an experiment I did trying to compare photos taken from two different periods of time. What d’ya think? These are from my last project, the Pune Solapur Project in India. Always thought of doing something like this, just to capture the change in a project. Actually started doing it then, but never finished (What? Think I have the luxury to fiddle with things like this in that Project? Didn’t even have the time to shit! Bloody workload!) Will be better the next time I get another project to handle, hopefully…


Road along Malad Tank / Pond – The top picture was taken at the end of the dry season in 2011 (notice how much water it still had, 2010 had a particularly strong monsoon with the water levels reaching nearly the road itself, road works was done by partially filling up the tank); the bottom picture was taken towards the end of the monsoon of 2012 (it was not a good monsoon – see how little water there was even though it’s the monsoon)


The eastern approach to Kurkumbh


Kurkumbh from the west with the completed flyover in sight (bottom pic)


Between Warvand and Chaufulla – this was a particularly slow stretch. 2.5 years wasted for settling disputes on land acquisition before we got the green light to proceed with works!


Eastern approach to Patas – a series of bridges / flyover will pass through Patas town centre


Different stages of the railway bridge construction

Remembering PSP, again!

No, not the Sony Playstation PSP. The Pune-Solapur Project, what we call the project for short.


'Deep Canal', a deep irrigation canal that we had to extend in the Project

I thought – aww, what the heck! Might as well chuck in the rest of the photos of PSP I’ve collected in my special ‘PSP’ folder in the computer. Heard that the project’s completed (except for that friggin stretch of 4km in Bhandgaon, which is stuck in Court, which will probably take another umm… 10 years?!?).

I heard that Tata (the client) has still not issued the Completion Cert (like the jackass that all clients generally are), although they’ve started collecting toll since before I left the Project. That was like one and a half friggin years ago, bloody hell! In any case, it’s nothing to do with me now, hehe.


Kurkumbh Section completed


Khadki Section KM92 stretch, before the works, beautifully tree-lined, but bumpy like hell!


Some section after the works, but taken from the other direction (notice the small pink temple on the left, it was on the right in the photo above)


Deep canal - construction of an arch culvert in the irrigation canal


Deep canal, with water released – bye-bye construction materials, that’s for not finishing on time


Half completed ramp to the Railway Overhead Bridge


Same bridge, almost completed, one side anyway

The Village Without Doors

Shani Temple, Shani Shingnapur, Maharashtra, India

I’ve decided to do a one-off post for this place, …just because I fancy the title haha! There’s nothing much of interest here unless of course, if you’re a Hindu. Then Lord Shani can be extremely helpful, or if you cross him, devastating, as he’s believed to be a very potent god. See the post before.

Shingnapur used to be famous for being a village without doors. The houses only have doorframes, no doors. Nope, we didn’t go check out the houses. Thefts don’t happen as people believe that Shani punishes anyone trying to do that. That was until 2010. I guess the thieves finally became desperate enough to take a chance huh?


Another view of the temple


Mom-in-law at the entrance of the temple, Shani Shingnapur

And here're some bad news from another front. Malaysia Airlines MH370 has officially been declared crashed at sea, with no survivors, ...very sad news, God have mercy on them and bless their souls.

The ‘Unprecedented’ Mystery of the Missing Plane

How can an airplane as large as a friggin Boeing 777 go missing in this modern age?

I woke up on March 8 with a slew of birthday greetings and some unexpected news from my cousin brother in the UK about a missing Malaysia Airlines flight. That plane is still missing, after more than 2 weeks!

Fancy having such a news to finally put us on the map? ‘Unprecedented’ is now the catchphrase of the season, thanks to our dear ol chief of the DCA. And thanks to the constant string of contradicting statements from the different personalities of our great and mighty government, we’re now a target of ridicule… and a model of clueless leadership.

But I stand by our nation. There’re more than 20 countries looking for that plane, including the likes of the USA, Australia, and China… The search has now spanned 5 seas and 2 oceans, thousands of hectares of land and sea and has entered the ocean in the Antarctic region. It’s anyone’s guess, what happened to that plane. (but… it'd do no harm if our officials consult each other before they open that gap of theirs, right?..)

Now the only thing we can do is pray. There’s no point blaming the pilot, the co-pilot or anybody for that matter until something, anything is found. Who knows, they may be just as much a victim as the others… Maybe there really was a technical glitch, and I believe the crew would've done everything they could to save the plane.

This incident has become one of our favourite topics of discussion during our lunch breaks. Being the only Malaysian in an office full of Chinese (this is after all, China State Construction Engineering Corp) doesn’t help. Now we hope (against all hope) that the plane has been hijacked (instead of crashing into the sea). At least then, there’ll still be some hope.

Some of the more far-fetched theories that have crept up…

Military strike and cover up. It’s shot down by India, Malaysia, the US or heck! Even China. What would you do if you’re the military and you gave warning shots to a huge Boeing flying over your sensitive territory and it doesn’t respond? Shoot it the hell down! Who knows what targets it is looking for? Better safe than sorry! And then, SHIT! This is the friggin aircraft half the world is looking for. Better burn all the evidences and keep it top secret!

Alien abduction. Thirty years later you’ll meet Captain Zaharie coming back from the grave, looking the same as he was when he disappeared. Only now he has the powers of the Human Torch …or Dr Doom. Or maybe, you’ll meet this group of Chinese calligraphers 60 years down, and they’ve not aged one bit since they disappeared. And now they’re intent on taking over the world for their master, the Supreme Overlord of the Galaxy, starting with China.

Time travel. They’ve somehow travelled back (or ahead) in time, into a parallel dimension, or something. They’ll re-emerge sometime in the future having no clue of how they’ve ended up in 2120.

Stealth operations ala ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. The plane’s landed on a stealth aircraft carrier cum submarine owned by a terrorist organization like err… COBRA (G.I. Joe) or SPECTRE (James Bond), but why anyone would want a Malaysia Airlines aircraft is anyone’s guess.

Marooned on an island ala ‘Lost’. At least they’re alive, but the mysterious island has knocked all technology dead, and there’s no way of contacting the outside world or to escape from an island unseen by the world.

Enough of that. These people who are lost must be wonderful people in their own special way. The profiles in the newspaper certainly show them as ordinary, loving and well-loved people. God, look after these people and their loved ones, have mercy on them, bless them and save them if they’re still alive.

On a Pilgrimage Spree

My blog’s becoming sort of like a social network messenger, with short announcements and tweets, only without the coverage and feedback. And I find that I’m drifting more and more towards short, easy to write messages, just to get it done with. And I’m strangely not bothered!?!? (maybe because I know that very few people read this now, hehe). I’m personally irritated with my slowly deteriorating standard of English. I no longer have the ideas or inspiration anymore, like before. And I bloody forget words, especially when I’m mid-sentence into a speech! I’m not confident of the meanings or spellings of certain words anymore (luckily, we have Google now). And the temptation to use short forms and emoticons are strong, but I’m resisting.

I keep thinking that one day next time, maybe when I retire from this inspiration-killing work, that my flair (and memory) will come back… But I dunno for sure?!? Maybe it’s because I’m short of time due to my commitments. Maybe it’s because I’ve stopped reading fiction for some time. Or maybe it’s just age catching up! Scary…

Anyway, it’s Shivratri in India (OK, it WAS Shivratri! Last week). I remember the long arduous trek we made up to Bhuvan Pahar (hill) in Assam ages ago on Shivratri (see blog entry ‘A Different Type of Trek’, Mar 2011), spending the night huddled together against the freezing wind and rain on the hill top, and scaling down the steep slopes of the hill to get down the next day due to the landslides that happened in the night and the unimaginable amount of people stuck (some going up, and some going down) on the hill trails. Our gang made it down that night, but there were a lot more unfortunate people who had to spend an additional night on the hill top before they could make it down.


Mom-in-law, offering prayers to Shiva, at Shingnapur’s Temple to Shani (the planet Saturn)

That was the start of a string of pilgrimages to Hindu sites we’ve taken ever since. Last January (2013), we decided to go on a pilgrimage spree, right before I was to finish my work at the Pune project. We started with the goddess of wealth, Mahalakshmi at the temple in Kolhapur. Then we made a trip to the Tirupati Balaji Temple in Andhra Pradesh while returning from a trip to Sri Lanka. And just before we left Daund for good, we made a trip to Shirdi to the abode of the original Sai Baba. And that’s not counting the non-Hindu sites we visited along the way. Written too much, I’ll let the pictures do the talking…




Mahalakshmi Temple, Kolhapur, Maharashtra


Tirupati Balaji Temple, Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh aka the most visited religious place on earth (that’s what claims say – 30 to 40 million people per year! Astounding!) Fancy being in a queue for 3 hours and being squeezed like sardines? This is the place to be.


In front of the famous Sai Baba Temple, Shirdi, Maharashtra – this was our second visit (first was in 2011), specially for the sake of my mom-in-law who visited us in Daund. This is the original Sai Baba, the one with the white beard and white bandanna, not the afro-haired Sai Baba known among Malaysians. The afro-haired one is supposed to be a reincarnation of this one. Shirdi is the top tourist spot around Pune for Hindus. No Hindus will give this place a miss if they have some time around Pune, after all it’s only 200 friggin km from Pune! (that’s considered near, by Indian standards). It’s slightly nearer from Daund – 160km.


Temple of Sai Baba, Shirdi, Maharashtra – the building with the golden roof behind the stalls – nope, wasn’t able to get a better pic, cameras not allowed in the temple


Shani Shingnapur – Temple to Shani (Saturn) a very potent god according to many – he can make or break you. Some Hindus even avoid praying to Shani for fear of offending him. It’s roughly halfway between Shirdi and Daund.


Mom-in-law at the Siddhivinayak Temple at Siddhatek. This is one of the 8 Ashtavinayak Temples (temples of the elephant-headed god Ganesh) around the Pune area. Legend has it that if one manages to visit all 8 in one day, all his wishes will come true. That's not difficult, ...if you have a helicopter. Nope, I didn’t tag along for this trip. We’ve been to Siddhitek before. Anu, Amrita and mom-in-law managed 3 out of the 8, the other 2 being Morgaon and Theur, both near our project road. So I guess they’ve got about 37.5 % chance of their wishes becoming true huh?

And now for the non-Hindu sites: -


Mahabodhi Tree, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka – this is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world with a recorded planting date – 288 BC! This tree is a direct descendant of the original Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya, India (see blog entry ‘The Capital of Buddhism’, Mar 2007) where Buddha meditated under and gained enlightenment. The tree in India eventually died (thanks to a jealous wife – go ahead, look back at my previous entry hehe), and the Indians had to get a sapling back from this tree in Sri Lanka. I don’t have a better picture of it unfortunately coz we reached this temple after sunset!


Mihintale, Sri Lanka – the place where the son of India’s Emperor Ashoka met the then King of Sri Lanka and converted him, along with his country folks, to Buddhism. That rock at the back there was supposed to be where he landed (yeah, he came by air, people could fly then)


Temple of the Sacred Tooth, Kandy, Sri Lanka – this temple contains a tooth of the Lord Buddha (yeah, you heard right). Don’t ask me which tooth, OK?




San Thome Basilica, Chennai, India – houses the tomb of St Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, one of the few churches in the world to actually have a tomb of an apostle.

...I think some of these sites deserve a special post by themselves. When I have the time, OK?