Out of the Wilderness, but Not for Long

Hi folks, ...I’m out of the wilderness for a few days. Unfortunately, there’re tons of work waiting for me at my old Gurgaon office. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten 80% of what they’re about (told you I have really short term memory). Unfortunately, in life (or is it just this company?), nobody likes doing work left behind by another, unless they’re forced to (example, me, usually me..)

I’m scheduled to fly back into the wilderness in about two days. No worries, I’ve completed nearly err…25% of the darn things that I must do here (don’t ever ask me about time management, ok), but what the heck, life doesn’t only revolve around work, right? So, I’ve been checking on mails (yeah, thanks again for all your mails), and on some of my favourite blogs, e.g. from my lazy sis (who’s started to write again, surprisingly), my wandering brother, my crazy niece (this one’s a real cool one), my family-orientated cousin, my godly father (this one’s getting to look more like a blog for the Prai River Bridge, my previous project), etc. Reading’s much easier than writing, especially nowadays, when my brain turns up nothing but, …. ‘when is this friggin project ever gonna complete?’, ‘when am I ever gonna get out of this rut of a place?’, when can I hike across Nepal into Tibet, or Pakistan into China, Iran into Turkey, across the Stans, etc etc etc, when am I ever gonna get married …...huh?!?! Did I just say that? Hehehe (bet dad must be excited) but believe me, Haulawng does funny things to your head.

Now, come to think of it, Haulawng really ain’t that bad. Haulawng’s actually a great place to: -
- Do absolutely nothing
- Sulk
- Daydream, …and fantasize (coz that’s about all you’re gonna get, …unless you fancy hill-tribes)
- Sit on the toilet bowl for as long as you darn well like (one of my favourite pastimes, maybe read a novel or two in the process)
- Read
- Work (coz that’s about the only thing worth doing)
- Talk, …about work
- Slim down (there’s no shortage of hills and fresh air for you to train your stamina on. Ever since I came here, I’ve lost 2 inches off my waist, an achievement huh? 32 inch waist now hehe)
- Learn how to cut your own hair (you can practice on the dog, I did)
- Surf the net (if it works, …the last time it did was in July, …or was that June?)
- Catch up on the latest movies via HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, Star Chinese and a slue of other movie channels (now, if only I could get that darn satellite decoder to bloody work)
- Play computer games (no, that’s anti-social)
- Socialize, …socialize?? maybe I should go to church… hmmm, church services start real early, …and the services are all in mizo language, …would prayers be enough?
- Sleep
- Learn how to play a musical instrument
- Start drawing again
- Write
…now I’m coming up with ideas, …BUT I better get back to work, only another friggin 75% to go…


Haulawng, City of Wonders (ya, in my dreams, ...maybe in a century or two some Mahathir-type person would be born here)

Nightime at Gurgaon

Gurgaon, view from the office

India Update: Deep into the Jungle

Hi mates, nothing much’s changed lately here in Delhi. The weather is kinda oven hot now, the mosquitoes are still around, my waistline is still hovering around the 33” mark, I still can’t fit nicely into my 34” jeans (I could fit in actually, but because of my smaller than desirable bum, 34” pants / jeans don’t really look nice on me). I can no longer wear my entire range of 32” pants / jeans (the buckle / button can’t seem to meet). They DON’T sell 33” pants / jeans here. I am not exercising as much as I’d want to. My back has a slight chronic ache (which I don’t think is serious, probably caused by my 3 day ‘epic’ driving excursion into the hills). The movies on tv still get interrupted by tons of advertisements and frequent blackouts (the apartment I stay in has standby generators to take care of this fortunately. Unfortunately, the cable provider may not have such reliable generators). My colleagues from KL have been visiting more frequently (that explains why I’ve not been that frequent at updating this blog).

And my boss just told me a few hours ago to pack up my stuff to head deep into the jungles of North-East India (in Mizoram state wedged between Myanmar and Bangladesh) to help out with the workload, temporarily. Temporarily in my boss’s vocab may mean anything from a week to a few years. Of all times, now, when I’ve gotten kinda used to the absolute bliss and freedom of not having a boss around, far away from every other office. He said that I might have to stay till the monsoon season. That usually happens sometime around June, so hopefully I can think of an excuse to come back hehe. Flying off to Calcutta on Tue evening, then off to Mizoram on Wed morning (12 May).

I think the jungle does not have very good connections, internet-wise, heck even telephone-wise, so I guess the next post will have to wait for lil while. Till then, take care.

Two Years in Delhi

Hello! I'm back. Today is Sunday, my favourite day of the week (coz I don't need to work, usually, and I can sleep late, usually). This month marks my 2nd annivesary of my stay in Gurgaon, India. The climates have changed from cold to pleasant, becoming hotter everyday. The mosquitoes are on their way back from hibernation, or wherever they go during the winter. My job still sucks (actually it ain't that bad, the groove is slowly returning each and everyday hehe). I am still sorting through the more than 1200 CVs of job applicants, and have not decided who to employ. Unfortunately NONE of the applicants are girls, believe it or not!!!

Besides that, slight changes have taken place since I first set foot in Gurgaon. Oh don't worry about the animals, the cows, the pigs, the donkeys, horses, buffaloes and camels are still having a helluva time around. The scenery in front of my apartment is no longer an expanse of green field (yellow in summer) dotted by huts and shelters of construction workers. It is now blocked by a rapidly rising shopping complex due to complete by end 2006. The drivers surprisingly, don't honk as often as they do (they still drive on the wrong side of the road when circumstances demand, which happen pretty often). The trucks still like to use their headlights high beams to shine the shit out of you at night (maybe those trucks don't come with low beams, who knows?) The people are less in awe of the escalators, they no longer cause traffic jams at the head of escalators. They no longer call the lift down by pressing the 'down' button when they want to go up. My cook is getting better by the day (or I'm getting more used to the cooking by the day). Pretty girls are still hard to come by, except on tv, magazines, or if you linger around posh restaurants in 5 star hotels. I am still single and unattached. My Hindi still sucks. My English is slowly getting Indianized. In India, people expire instead of die, pass-away, pass-on, etc. Transvestites are called eunuchs, even if they still have their balls attached. Water heaters are called geysers. Air-cons are always referred to as ACs, never as air-cons. Goggles do not only refer to the ones that have elastic straps for swimming, etc; they also mean sunglasses or shades. Grass (as in the one you smoke) still grows wild in the dividers and road sides of Delhi (although they've tried to clean it up last year). And i still have the luxury of a 3000 sq ft office with stacks of work on my 'keep-in-view' tables all to myself (coz my one and only colleague is still on leave due to the 'expiry' of his father).

And I better get started on Myanmar before I run out of steam.