India: An Experimental backpacking to the North & Goa

Part 2

Hannah & I, on the way to Tona fort.

Train station at Lonavla, that day...

02. 09. 2005

Carolina (Colombian), Gamma (Basque county) and I left Lucky 7, my apartment to the train station at around 7.30 pm. I played Fatboy Slim’s “Don’t let the man” and Blink 182’s “All the small thing” to kick start what would the greatest traveling I ever had in my life. Ya Ting (Taiwan) and Martin (Germany) were there to bade us farewell and wishes us good luck and safe journey for our traveling.

Together with the girls, and my 12 kilo bag pack and sleeping bag, we took a auto rickshaw to Pune railway station. We entrained at Pune station at 8pm. The journey to Ahmedebad, place in the state of Gujarat took us about 12 hours and we arrived at Ahmedebad at around 9.30am.


The train to there was full as usual. While Carol was in another compartment, Gemma and I were in the same compartment. We took a sleeper class. I begin my train journey with the book I read at that time, Gregory Roberts’s “Shantaram”. Shantaram is a very special book brimming with an open honesty that takes you on the journey of the heart. In many ways it's a story of bare survival where the heart beat of India takes the author through the most dramatic events of India and the mind blowing, piece of intellectual philosophies of the author and his band of criminals and friends. So, after about 150 pages, I went to the door for a rest. I open the door and sat by the entrance, loosing up my legs out and feeling the splash of speeding air through my skin. I was enjoying the night scenario of the passing villages and its peaceful towns and thinking of the romantic night with Hannah, which at time, felt like yesterday. I took out my CD player, and put on Lionel Ritchie love songs namely “Stuck on you”, “ Easy”, “Hello” to resemble the night at my balcony. It was a beautiful night. It was indeed serendipity for me as we grew closer to each other. The melody of the song with the night surrounding brought me back to the time where I was fetching her back, riding the wind with Dawson’s super bike from Naughty Angel café, the night of Yerwada market where she was having the shock of her lifetime after being crazily surrounded by the local goons and how I was her hero and companion, getting her out of the madness, our time in Lonavla and Karla caves and the best moment of all, the romantic night at my balcony. I don’t usually include my personal story or mellow-ish of sort in my journal but this one I think should be exceptional because it ran in my mind when I was sitting on that train that night thinking and embracing the moment.

My all time top 5 babe I met in Pune/India

1. Kathrin (Germany)
2. Christine (Egypt)
3. Hannah (Germany)
4. Zoya (Canada)
5. Magda (Poland)

I couldn’t sleep that night. I can’t stop thinking about her, the moments with her and the many possibilities if she haven’t left India. I wasn’t complaining. I was glad to even know her even though it was a short moment. At the height of that night I was smiling and begin to shift my mind to other endless thought like what would happen to me after all nice and beautiful things come to an end and empty contemplation like the beauty and silence of the night. At around 2am, I decided to rest myself and close my eyes for the first time since I left Pune few hours ago.

I woke up 4 hours later and the sun were starting to shine the day and the dark sky gradually gone. Some local passengers started to brush their teeth and other morning cleaning by the sink. I lighted up my first morning cigarette by the door, where I was cherishing good moment few hours ago. Soon after I was being approached by an ear plucker. It was nice to let your ears being clean once in a while.

At around 9.30am, we arrived at Ahmedebad train station and we met up with Carol. From there, the chaotic train station, we took an auto rickshaw to bus station to arrange a bus ticket to Udaipur. Before I move on, here I would like to quote something beautiful from the book Shantaram, which I read night before. In one of the chapter, Vikram said to Lin: “A man has to find a good women and when he finds her, he has to win her love. Then he has to win her respect. Then he has to cherish her trust. And then he has to like, going on doing that for as long as they live. Until they both die. That’s is all about. That’s the most important thing in the world. That’s what man is yaar (friend). A man is truly a man when he won the love of good women, earn her respect and keep her trust. Until you can do that, you’re not a man…”

India: An Experimental backpacking to the North & Goa

Part 1.

21 October 2005. 15:00, at home in Penang.

I haven’t start writing yet but I have a feeling that this piece of journal will be the longest to put into words. In a nutshell, this piece of journal will touch upon my backpacking trip to the north of India, short break in Pune and Goa from 2nd of September 2005 until I left Bombay airport on the 10th of October 2005. Like many travelers, I had my own share of my experimental experience, train of thought, beautiful places to remember, amazing landscape to cherish, unforgetful journey to ponder and the very special people I met along the way. And for this memorable trip of once in a lifetime opportunity, I will write so that in twenty years to come, I can flash back my memory lane to India. I don’t have anything but my short script I wrote on my diary every morning of my traveling, in different places. India is a amazing country and to travel India is like to travel in a sort of sub continental of the globe. Every state and part of town has its own uniqueness and each with its own diversity of cultural and historical differences. The people are indeed very friendly and at time very accommodative. Lots of things has been said about India and definitely lots of things has been stereotyped against India and its people but for a person like me who had been there, right down to the corner of their villages, traveling by feet, by its local buses, crappy lower class train- my confession is, not all of them is truth. In fact, this country is amazing and my overall traveling were blissful and experimental.

So, without further ado, I would like to continue to pursue my writing of this great experience.

In my dream, I always dreamt about myself leaving my beloved country, to walk and see the world. I always dream of going to places in Europe, Latin America but India has never been in the list. Sometime, the dream was so true that it was almost real and when I woke up to reality, I almost gasped in disbelieve it was just a dream. And of course when this occurred, my day begin with cry of disappointment.

Even sometime when I was in the middle of my beautiful traveling in India, I was afraid that when everything is over and when I open my eyes, I will be crying of my dejavu dream. But thanks God now that I am back in Malaysia and to see myself so two step behind the demand of our materialistic society, to see all my friends advance in their careers with their own set of success like their material possession, I sometime smile in happiness that this was all real, that I am the same old me, broke and nowhere, because this sign and state of life prove only one thing, that I had been there and done that, that I had finally and eventually left my comfort zone, broaden my horizon and live life to the fullest without regret. This sign has shown that the time has definitely moved since I left this country sometime last year and so is my life, but in a very and uncommon way. For that I will be forever be graceful.

So now I rewind to the day I begin my 40 days traveling and let the curtain of my writing roll up for the show is about to begin. It all began back in…

Notice

Hey Blog Army!!

Just a short notice to say that I will be travelling from 02/09/2005 until 09/10/2005 in Northern India namely the state of Rajasthan, Agra, Shimla, Manali and Dharamshala. And if time permit, I will go to Goa and Hampi again. This blog will not be updated until then. Do come back for more great songs. Carpe Diem, Ciao!!

Annabelle

It is a long, long, damn long and fulfilling weekend!

Friday I am in love

Hey what’s up people. I hope everyone is having a good time, one way or another. For me, it was absolutely a blast and fantastic weekend. So many great things has taken place, just like my first three months in India had happened and I was glad to be part of everything.

As I am writing this blog now, I really couldn’t believe that my days in India are number and it is really counting. Fourteen days more and I will fly away across the North region of India, all the way to the Tibetan government in-exile, Dharamshala. I guess one year living in the paradise of India had makes time travel faster than light, deeper than the ocean and higher than the mountain. And to let go all this moments and experience is truly uninvited but unavoidable. As melancholy as it may sound and as truly as I wanna hold on, but there is nothing I can do but to see life goes on. So every little hours of my remaining time does really count and I try to live life to the fullest as the final moment is ushering in. That’s why right now, I am compromising my tight budget, for more enjoyable time at the very last minute especially after few month of self-restraining on money-related events.

Anyway, back to the subject of the damn long and fulfilling weekend, which almost satisfying to the core of my heart. While others weekend started on Saturday or some even on Sunday, I started mine one day earlier, which is on Friday.

It was a lazy, chilly Friday morning and my dream was intruded by the sound of my alarm. I was almost glued to the bed, most probably still feeling stone from yesterday’ excessive smoking session with the president of smoking club, The Polish Peter. Anyway, the dream I had must have been sweet and hopeful that I was having trouble to get out of the bed. Then, the evil thought jump onto my mind, urging and tempting me to stay on to what I was doing, neglecting of my responsibility to go to work on that day. I was very tempted but the little will I had in me was moving me hard to move but only hard enough to get me out of the bed to the living room, but not out of the house. The lump of devil’s thought already eating up my head- so I decided to start my weekend on Friday. So I fabricated bedtime story to justify my deed.

I started my happy Friday morning with one thing on my head, to copy all the cool music from Polish Peter’s laptop which I always wanted to do but defeated by a lame excuse such as no time and such. It is a new genre that I am now into, which is mostly chill-out, dance, trance & psychedelic music. I spent about two hours listening to all samples of the songs which is about hundreds of them, if not thousand and ended up with 400 songs.

Following that, I continue to read Gregory’s “Shantaram”, which took my mind and wild imagination to the life of Gregory, sensitivities and his philosophical of him and his bands of friends, enemies and fellow slum dwellers alike. I followed through his life with sometime comedic laugh, his beauty of story telling, the tragic and poignant moments, melancholy love drama through his turbulence life in the Bombay underworld. As I am typing now I am at 450 pages and half more to go. The story is about to begin. If any of you are into reading, I would really like to recommend this book to you. This book contains sublime descriptive passages of life, love, philosophy, less-than-ordinary people of Bombay but yet richer in characteristic and intellectual knowledge. It is full of beauty and charm and honestly, merely words aren’t enough to justify the worthiness of the book. I hope you read it before Johnny Depp takes it to silver screen.

Then decided not to go on with the book, as I was reluctant to finish it. It was too suspense, adrenaline rushing, too dramatic to go on. So I decided to watch few episodes of “That 70’s show”.

Without realizing much, much of the afternoon gone. The darkness was ushering in and the light and sunshine of the day was faded and subsiding. One by one of my flat-mates coming home.

That evening, Jana, the German trainee had a farewell party in about to close trainee apartment, C1. We had a party and it was great. Lots of people were there, trainees and non-trainees, including some of our Indian friends. Salvador, the new Spanish cooked for the farewell. Some of the delightful meals were Pasta, macaroni, Spaghetti, fried rice, chips, beers, vodka and rum and other alcoholic drinks. Xabi, the Spanish guy, brought along his Shisha and was preparing one when the party was at its peak. First it was Strawberry favor, than other fruity favor, and lastly, we mix the tobacco with weed and begin our trip to odyssey.

After a few round of traditional speech, by the drunk Japanese Yoshi and another drunk Norwegian girl, Trude, we proceeded the party to another level. Polish Peter and I decided to leave, and not without a bag of chips, which later at night, our snack for “That 70’s show” session.

Saturday hanging on the rooftop.

I couldn’t remember much of Saturday except for more reading, that 70’s show, smoking joint all-day round, eating and all that jazz.

But in the evening, Ina came to our place and cooked us very fine dinners. Then we were invited to Julian, the new German trainee, whom opted to stay alone, to his own welcoming party in his rooftop. We were impress by the cozy and greenery style of his rooftop ambience and surrounding.

We just hung around, basically did nothing but grooving to the dance beat, of various genre, drinking, smoking, chatting until the late hours, which around 2 in the morning. From Julian rooftop, we went back to our apartment, Lucky 7- to continue to smoke Shisha, weed, and forgotten conservation until around 4-5 in the morning.

Sunday Morning and rocking hard evening!

Despite the inadequate sleep I had, I woke up around 9.30 in the morning. Prior to that morning- I was inspired by Julian rooftop- so I invited the same people to my rooftop for a morning breakfast, which is much higher, broader, windy and more spacious. Ina and I went for a morning shopping and I brought milks, juices, and dozens of eggs, cheese, cookies and all those breakfast jazz. I started to cook and rock the kitchen while everyone still deep in their sleep. I made a very tasty and crunchy butter-garlic toast breads, 5 big plates of Peter’s special omelets- with butter garlic, black pepper, salt, thin- soya sauce and onions. At the end of my cooking, most of the pigs already awaken from their one-night-dead. The last was the stoniest smoker- The Peter Polish a.k.a. Leo.

On top of our rooftop, it was very windy, cozy and the weather was gray and blue. It was again, very serene and romantic scenario that will drive anyone into deep contemplation. All of my apartment mates were there namely Julius (Germany), Polish Peter (Poland), Barbara (Austrian), Benny (Germany), Martin (Germany), and I. Others were Barbara (Germany), new non-trainee who spent a night in our apartment, Trude (Norway) and Ina (Germany).

After chewing and swallowing the tasty omelets, and wetting our throat with juices and milks- we went up to the further up. The views of the rivers across our apartment, onto other side of town, other apartment and its rooftop were nothing but serenity. We started to roll a morning present and passing around the joint. It was great and utmost satisfying.

In the evening, my housemates and I, Sabi (Spain), Ina, Martin (another German) attended a rock concert. The even was being named “Freedom Rocks” 05 and the line up was some of the finest battle of the bands of India namely “Unbound”, “Va-yu” and “Strange muse”. It was so much better than the last one which I attended in EY. The night was a blast and was a truly rock festival. Even the Europeans gave a thumb up to those bands despite the fact that they had seen many rock festival like Green Day, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Foo Fighter etc.



The stage was not so big, enough for a 5-piece band. It was equipped with all the standard light, smoke machine and a simple backdrop. We came late and we missed the first band which the vocalist had a voice of Axl Rose. In facts they did sang two song from Guns n’ Roses; “Civil war” and “Don’t cry”.

The highlight of the night was the second band. The name was vayu. It was a four-piece band with one guitarist, bassist and drummer. The front man has the stage performance of Steven Tyler. With long hair and flowery loose surfing shirt, he and the guitarist and the drummer rock the stage, work the audience, drove out our love for rock music to yet another level. The band started with a song from Pink Floyd, followed by a hit song from Jimi Hendrix. The third was The Doors’ “Break on Through” which is the best song of the night. The rendition of the song was very powerful and full of angst. Then again, a song from Pink Floyd, Steve Morse, Deep Purple before the vocalist sighed in exhaustion. And he said tiredly to the crowd- “Ok, thanks for being here, so the next song I am going to sing is a love song from Bryan Adams…” and immediately being boo-ed by the crowds and thumbs down united-ly by the audiences. It was a joke and provocation. He then continued with a firm shout-“Ok, this is Pearl Jam for you!!” and the crowd again was drown and bathed in their own sweat and swing their arms in the air as they sang Pearl Jam’s “Alive”. From time to time, he raised an Indian national flag, as a sign of celebration of Indian independent day, which is day after. He went on to sing songs from Sting, Megadeath etc.

The third band was more hard core and more heavy metal. It was a 5-piece band, with keyboard. They sang songs like Maroon’s 5 “Harder to breath”, Steve Morse, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd’s “Another brick in the world” and other great band. When he reluctantly sing Linkin Park’s “In the end”, the crowd in the front low loose control and went nut and pushing and jumping on each other like a barbarian, bottles of beers were crashing everywhere on the floor. The empty space were spare for those barbarians which reminds me of my own acts in those gigs I attended some 9 or 10 years ago. Anyway, Martin and I were in the circle of barbarians, and it was quite violent, just like a riot but luckily nothing ugly happen. We were doing this in the spirit of rock, I suppose. The band ends their performance with Van Halen’s “Jump” and the encore was Iron Maiden’s hit song which I didn’t know.


After that, we went to a nice restaurant nearby, Ola. Polish Peter already had a joint ready and we were secretly passing among us under the table. After the dinner, we proceed what we were doing to our own apartment. Again, Sabi prepared for us a round of Shisha and we were playing trivial pursuit. At around, I was quite stone and sleepy so I went to bed just to awaken by a phone call from Tanya, around 9.30 am- to inform me that another trainee has arrived and she would like to send her to my house.

I was awoken again, from the same person, this time by a doorbell. Through the fish eye, I saw the new trainee and she was gorgeous, sexy and blonde despite the fact that I was still half-asleep.


Monday the Independent Day!!

I was semi-naked when I open that door and I was still half at sleep when I usher her to the house. The new sexy blonde name is Susan, and she is from Germany. As everybody was still asleep, I wash up and brought her and show her around, kind of orientation on Koregeon Park, Pune, India, people etc.

The whole field trip was about 2-3 hours. I was very happy to see a fresh eye and fresh reaction to many amazing things of India. She was fascinated, and occasionally grasped in disbelieve when she came across cows, stray dogs, slump, beggars, crazy traffic, key makers, camel and elephant on the street and so forth. We stopped by for her first Indian food and we ordered a set lunch of Thali and many round of Chai. The lunch was my treat, as a token of welcoming.



I found it pleasurable and kind of happy when doing orientation of the city, country and its people to newcomers. I was equally exciting as they were. It was satisfying and paid off when I see those first reaction, excitement, disbelieve, laugh through them. The last time I did this was to another German, Nills the big guy.

We walked from Lane E, along the busy and chaotic with amusement of itself North main road, passing through Lane 5, Lane 6, Pizza Hut, I-way and we stopped for lunch at Thali place, near the chips store and wine shop. From there, we walked pass through Lane 7, up to the bridge and we turned left to Kriyaginagar. Again, we walked through the 100 meters strong bridge of Kriyaginagar, and we turn left for another hour walk until German bakery. She almost see everything as I showed her the unknown places where one will truly see and experience the authentic life of Indian. We even came across the street show by some Indian self-trained professional circus freaks. It was entertaining and I rewarded them with a generous appreciation of ten rupees.

Along the North main road, we met Sabi and Barbara and Sabi on the scooter, Black Martin and Magda and Julius.

Later, we went on the scooter, to Inox to book tickets for Madagascar. It was a very funny movie. Sabi, Susan and I were on the same scooter while Julius, Benny and Julian on the other one. The ride was cool, fast and furious.

Prior to the movie, I brought to one of the best coffeehouse, Barista, which just located opposite Osho commune international. This time it was her treat.

Monday night completed with a very simple yet exquisite dinner invitation by Johan, Swedish guy, who live in my company guesthouse, beside my apartment. He cooked us very fine Swedish pasta, salads and toasted cheese bread, round of beers and Scotch on the rock. It was a great evening. Few more episodes of “That 70’s show” and 3 chapters of Shantaram completed my night.

All in all, it was a good time and the weekend was long. I was happy and fulfilled. 14 days more and still counting. Soon my days here will be over and I will come back knocking on employment, begging for jobs. Real life begins at the end of traineeship and I can already smells that it is stink and I don’t like it. Whatever it is, I had live it through the moments and I had seized it, for that I will feel bless forever without an ounce of regret, whatsoever.

Regards,

Peter

Hey Man...That's cool man...

Hey Man...Wussup man...

Are you all cool?? Yesterday was cool, man....Really, I am not kidding you, man...it was real smooth and cool man...Do you know about yesterday?? Listen up, man...about yesterday, it was actually, cool man...hahaha..I don't usually talk like this.That's Leo talking. Leo who?? Yeah man..Leo from That's 70s show.

Today is wednesday. Yesterday was Tuesday and my company declared a holiday because of the constant rain and the Monsoon rock, man...Monsoon rock so hard, as hard as Led Zeppelin that my company was so freakin out that they gave out a holiday like a free condom in wal-mart, man...Isn't that cool, man???

Hey-you know what else is cool?? I don't know man...Can you tell me what else is cool??

OK, it all began yesterday when I woke up in the morning. The rain was still down on us and the morning was cold and bluesy. Then, I really wish to have another dream but you know man...when you already awake, everything is not cool anymore man....especially you have to drag your heavy ass to work. But then, a magic call to my van driver makes everything back to cool, man...He told me the company is down for one day-So, I tried for another sleep but in vain, man...

Anyway, I gotto tell you this, man...it was so cool...since I couldn't sleep again, I started my marathon on the "That's 70s show", completeted season 2 and when the night come knocking- I didn't realized that I was in the middle of season 3. Wow, that was really something cool, man...Isn't Leo??

The whole of Tuesday Morning, noon, evening, night were wasted with weed, weed and weed. Peter and I started our expedition to the hitchhiker's galaxie 5 minutes after noon. And that was our first joint of the day. Together with Barbara, the new trainee from Austria, we went to German Bakery for a breakfast. After that, I went to the train station to book my ticket to Ahmedebad, my first pit stop of my upcoming 5 weeks travelling.

It was tiring as I had to wait for almost 2 hours. The first hour was completely in vain because I was waiting in the long line. I was waiting for almost an hour just to be told that the line was meant only for Indian soldier. Well, am I an Indian soldier?? Which part of me look like and Indian? Let alone Indian soldier...Now, that's not cool, man....

Cool or not cool, that's India. I dealt with that almost every now and then. So, no sweat man...It took me another hour to book my ticket on the 2nd of September-2005.

I met up again with the Polish Peter and Barbara in Pune central. We walked back to our apartment and another joint followed. It was great, smoking along the busy messy road. We ordered lots of food and I started the series of 70s show again. We rolled and rolled again, and again. We got real stone and wasted. Then we started a party. We drank some beer from the fridge. It was cool, man...whole day doing nothing but smoking, watching the 70s and drinking, not forgetting eating up...

Before we reached home, we stopped by the wild flowing river. It was great,and cool man...to see the monsoon rocking hard on the river...It was a road full, overcrowded with human being, cars, lorries, motorbikes, bicyckes, auto-rickshaw, occasionally elephant, camel, dogs, cats and Oh....a giant frog- the size of a TWO kittens.Wow, the giant frog was real cool man...because he did nothing by the padestrian walkway but just pretending dead. Maybe he was stone too man....too much Monsoon can really drive a frog goes crazy, man...

The river was flowing fast and hard. Sprinking rain becomes heavy downpour and weather becomes really moody and mellow. It is like the Monsoon God just entertained himself with a very good wines, most probably from the wine shop nearby. I stood up tall and proud on the edge of the bridge- just beside the silver lion (Indian national icon or sort of something important)...And you know what's cool??? The view from where I stood was really extremely crazily sickingly rockingly coolingly COOL, man....

Hey man...hey listen up! In the evening, we smoke, drink and ordered pizza. Did I said Pizza?? It was Martin and Ina who ordered that Pizza. And it was cool man...because they offered me a pizza when I was stone man...Why cool? Because it was a pizza man....and it was free...and the beer too was free except for the weed which suplied by me...

Then, we went to "Fire & Ice". We partied there for a while but we ledt quite early as nothing is new for me and I was quite bored at the music. It was techno and it wasn't progressing. So I couldn't tolerate anymore and I decided to leave.

I reached home at around midnight and I started to watch 70s show again,and joint and beer and coffee.

It was cool and I was wasted, stone, and full of crap yesterday. Even when I am writing now, I am still fullof crap man...and that's cool man...

Actually- It was not cool, man...I used to do this and when it got onto you it will not be cool anymore. U know what I say, Leo?? Oh Man...U only wanna getlazy and wasted and that is no cool at all. So one day is OK but parental advisary- Don't do it everyday. Do it once in a while and that will be good for health.

Hey Polish Peter man...Do you wanna me my Fatger, man??? Hah got ya- Just joking.Sorry, now I am sober and I am going back towork and be productive again after the whole wasted day of yesterday.

I went to bed and sleep like a child. I woke up today and it was not cool man...because I have to drag my ass tooffice and try to be cool again, and that'snot cool man....because I have to pretend to be cool while I am not. I guess that's all about the cool jazz man...Ciao!

Lovingly cool man...,

Peter

For Whatever- Nevermind the update!

Monday morning blues.

Hey you!
I am back, with my stomach still protesting, since Saturday. Today is Monday and the time is 10:45 and I am seating in my cubicle, updating my blog. I am not only suffering from stomachache and dehydration (from yesterday’s party) but I am also suffering from a weekly syndrome which most people call "Monday Blues"
The weather now is very mellow because it had been raining regularly since last week. Monsoon is at its height I guess.

Peter, the new trainee from Poland arrived last Friday. I met him when I got home from work. Finally, we have the other Peter in the house, after all of the Martins and Thomases- no thanks to the Germans.
Despite his sometime bizarre questions, I kind of like this guy and I think he is a cool chap. Similarities wise, he drink, he smoke and he had a complete seasons of "That 70’s show" and lots of movies in his hard drive.


Bringing down the bridge

Last week was a new experience I encountered with Monsoon season. In fact, it was also a new experience for most Punites as the situation I was about to tell you never occurred before according to one of my manager (born and bread in Pune). According to him, geographically, it was not possible for the event to happen as Pune was protected and surrounded by mountains and hills.

Our company received a note that one of the bridges would be close down by the authority because there was a prediction that the river will over flow unto the main roads. Since that bridge is quite a link to most places (Kasarwadi bridge)- most people were advice to leave the office as soon as possible and it was only 3 pm. The whole office was kind of chaotic as everyone busying escaping the office. The scene is like a last minute evacuation.

Anyway, the bridge was being closed down half an hour than expected. The river had taken over the road and some places, especially the slump area, which close to the river, had been severely hit by a major flood already. Earlier that day, I visited one of the slump areas, near to my company, which most of the kids Omar and I taught every Friday resided. Some hut houses was already half-drowned by the flood-people were moving-with their little equipment, like kitchen stuff, radio, old television and a lot more. The kids, unaware of the panic and worries faced by the adults, was having fun playing in the flood and dancing in the rain. Most of the affected families were being moved to a nearby school. Miss Beena, the head of my company’s corporate social program invited some of the families to our company and offered them a place to stay and some foods to keep their hunger away temporally.

One thing I learned from the slump and the flood is how these people deal with the problem. They were very cooperative, rendered a helping hands to each other, and very smiley despite the fact that the flood was hitting their house-taking away most of their little properties. These people made happiness out of the sadness. They faced the problem like a man. They found remedy instead a more problem and complaints. Sometime we are so blessed that we forgot that there are other people whose living condition is far from sufficient and yet, they were happier than most of us. It is amazing to see Christian complain everyday and harping on all negativity- rather than recognizing the positivity- hence seeing it from the bright side

We were on the road, bustling through the heavy traffic and accompanied by heavy rain. For 3 and the half-hours long, we were stuck and stranded on the road.

Falling in love for second time

Jana, brought a complete DVD of "Sex & the City" (All seasons) from Bombay last week. So I slower down my reading speed on Gregory’s "Shantaram" and continued where I stop- the fourth season. It only took me two episodes to fall in love again, with Carrie Bradshaw. At the time of writing- I still have last season to go.

Farewell of the Crybaby

Christian the Crybaby organized a farewell party in our apartment last Friday. I hate to say this but it was one of the good parties from the good old day. The party was with unlimited supply of beers and snacks (by Christian) and Polish Vodkas (by Peter) and weed (by me).

There was so many people known and unknown. By midnight, most of us were already high, drunk or stone. Yoshi, the crazy Japanese guy were proposing a toast and giving his drunkard impromptu farewell speech to Christian. I said my piece as well despite the facts of our recent heated argument over the differences in our deeds and principals, disagreement, war, controversial emails that make him hated me so much. Honestly for this guy, I don’t hate him even though our sometime stormy friendship had continually deteriorating, sparked and triggered by many issues. But this, he couldn’t understand. Prior to that evening, I told him I would gladly approve him to organize his farewell party in Lucky 7 (my apartment), complete with best wishes and all the flowery words and jazz.

On the contrary- I also wrote that my principal said it was wrong for you to do a party because of his irresponsible act of sudden departure and his failure to fulfil his promises to us, which leave most of us ending up paying huge sum of rent. He ignored my email and thought I was very selfish to deny his party, which was untrue. And he hated me for that.

In my farewell speech to him, which is very short, I said "Christian & I, we are friends. We had a good time together and we had a bad time together. I just want you to know that, whatever happen, we are still friend and farewell to you" . I hope this time he get it that having a disagreement in deeds and principals with you doesn’t mean that I hate him, doesn’t mean that if he fall, I won’t pick him up, if he hurt, I wouldn’t lick his wound. In fact I will do that even though I don’t have a respect for him and I despise his negative attitudes.

The party was great. Cleaning lady didn’t came in the morning. I woke up in the morning, D-tox and dehydrated and was surprised by the messy house, which look like just being hit by an atomic bomb. I cleaned the whole house even though it was Christian’s mess. He came much later and someone told him I cleaned the whole damn house. Eventually I think he get the point which prompted him to expressed his gratitude to me with a firm handshake- very formal.

Paradise for the cow

Ina, Julius, Ya ting and I woke up at 4.30 in the morning to join my colleague in his weekly trekking in Sinhagad fort. It was my idea. Kate was suppose to join us but apparently she was tied up with her moving out stuff.
We took auto rickshaw and arrived at Shaniwarwada bus station around 5.45 am. We took a public bus to the foothill of Singahad fort and arrived there at around 7am.

We had a breakfast before my friend arrived. My friend, Anup, is a trekking freak and a advanced certified mountaineer which entitle him to lead an expedition to any mountain climbing or rock climbing and any other trekking.

FYI, Sinhagad is a hill fort located near the city of Pune, India. The fort rises about 800 metres above the surrounding countryside. The fort has been a strategically important location since at least the 14th century, and has seen many epic battles.

The serenity of the place is unquestionable. At the bottom of the hill, where we had our breakfast, small and fast flowing water was busying flooding up the uneven, bumpy tiny roads, with lots of potholes. The climbing up experience was astounding. The way up was full of rocks, greenest of grass (which is why I say this is a paradise for the cow) and the path up was quite steeping, rocky and at time can be very challenging. I started with minor ache and discomfort in my stomach. I don’t know why every time I go trekking, I will surely have either diarrhea, stomach upset or ache. It must be a jinx.

The diarrhea was getting worse and I climb higher. At one point, I know I must let go- answer the damn call of the nature. So I found myself a bush on the way up and thanks to Ina for her toiler paper, I let go the toxic and the poison-out of my ass.

After that, I got better. We passed through many small huts, some were selling local sweets, some were selling fried Bhajee and hot masala chai and some was just an empty hut. The higher we went the thicker the fog. The rain was perfect, accompanied with lazy wind and morning breeze. At the halfway, which is about 500 metres from the ground below, we stopped for a brief rest. Ina and I started to smoke a joint. The feeling was great. Suddenly we saw some of the cow hanging around and we taught those cows must had been a holy cows since they were in a cow’s paradise. We continued our journey up- the rain getting herder and harder (but still soft on our skin), the fog was getting thicker and thicker, the wind blew harder as well and with all the morning breeze jazz, it makes us so cold. All views from the halfway up on the tiny villages, huts, farm fields was getting tinier, blurrer and eventually becomes invisible, hid behind the gathering fog.

Quarter to the top, we saw a tiny waterfall and we refreshed ourselves by splashing the cold water onto our face and body.

The feeling at the top was indescribable. The scenes from the top, amid the gathering fog, morning breeze, lazy wind, constant rain, few huts serving hot tea and snack/steam ground nuts make me feel so blessed, with such a beautifully endowed, gifted and God-Sent landscape of the hill. The feeling and the view were amazing, super-fantastic and almost unreal. Lots of local trekkers- we greeted each other and had a brief chat, over a hot chai…
Anup, my friend, took us around the beautiful places at the top. He was explaining the historical point of view of each place, which make the place even livelier and surreal. We came to his place, which is known the end of the world. It is one of the edges of the fort. At the edge, with the wind was still blowing and rain still harder, we stood proudly on the edge- looking down at the tiny greens through the gathering and thicker haze. The scene was like those of the scene in "Lord of the ring" where the fellowship throws the ring down the fire. The only different is, the fire here is the tiniest greens and thick haze, heavy rain, cold weather- at about 17degree.
Then, one of the old man approached us wanted to sing us a song, in Marathi. He rapped about 3 minutes, with all kind of body movement and at time he seems like cursing at us. Anup told us the song was about the heroism of the war of King Shivaji. We gave him some money and we left for more discoveries. Ina and I came across two very beautiful small lakes. The closed lake looks like a concubine’s private bathing tub. The rain drop were gathering tiny bubbles on the lake and the fog were moved lazily by the wind and this made the whole scene look like the angels in paradise were bathing-only thing is it was without angels.

The last stop was when we reach the only leftover watchtower of the fort or Shivaji’s then kingdom. It was very high, standing proud at the height of 1200 meter from sea level.

Before we decided to go down the foothill, we stopped by the small hut- to warm ourselves over the fire, having a hot tea with just-friend Bhajee and a one big joint. After 30 minutes and I was sure at that time I was completely stone, reaching the state of enlightenment of the soul, we left the top of the hill. They were some group of individual trekkers on the way up and they were chanting "Jai Shivaji". It means, "Hail Shivaji"
We left the Shihagad at around 11 am with public bus and reached our home, sweet home at around 1pm. The experience of this trip was so much better than the last trip to Logahad. Clearly it was much greener, steeper, rocky and more challenging. This is going to be one of my unforgettable trekking experiences for a long time to come.

Omar’s invitation and moving out!

Sunday evening, two of lucky 7 resident moved out. Tejas moved to somewhere nearby his college. Kate Hudson moved to her friend’s place, which is very near her company and apparently she didn’t have to pay any rent, on top of that she got her own bedroom, bathroom and only two inhabitants in the house with Feng-Shui jazz. One thing for sure, I am gonna miss her I-Pod.

That night, one of my company division- International business division, were organizing a party for one of their staff that had been promoted and Omar’s short trip back to Egypt. The foods were very delicious, cooked by Omar and some of his colleague. The party was held in Adina society, my company’s guesthouse located side by side my apartment. We also invited all of Lucky 7 people but Kate didn’t join us because she was moving away. I brought 2 cigars-which I enjoy smoking occasionally for yesterday’s party. I lighted one after dinner and offered the other one to Sunir- Omar’s division boss. Lots of alcoholic drink- whiskey and rums and lots of smoke-including Shisha. I was high and drunk. It was a good party.

So, with this I think I should sign off for now. I hope all of you fine and best wishes whatever you plan to do. Don’t be negative, whatever you do- be happy and allow me to quote Monthy Python’s Life of Brian- "Always look on the bright side of life,uh-uh.uhuhuh…."

Rgds,
Peter

Pink elephant (The dumbest song)

Written by Peter

Hey you!
I know you are not watching over me all night
Hey you!
I know so coz’ you ain’t there when I look around the room
Hey you!
You said you see me
But that ain’t true my eyes ain’t see you anywhere
Hey! Hey! Hey!
What you said was just not possible
Coz’ there ain’t any pink elephant
Eating up lemon pie
Hey me!
I know she knew it was a spooky lie
When I said I would be watching over her watching over me
Hey me!
Don’t be dumb
It was just a game of a child
Nobody is watching nobody doing nothing all night
You ain’t see me and I ain’t see you
No third eyes hanging on the roof
And no pink elephant swallowing up lemon pie
Why are we not acting our age?
You tel me...
Coz’ you were the one that started the silly game
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Hey! Hey! Hey!

Negativity (Updated Version, July 2005)

Dear Blog-Army
Foreword

This is an updated version. The song below, entitle "Negativity" is a song that I wrote some months ago. For those who knows me, and Christian- this song is about him, about his negativity. When I first published this song on my blog, some of you already mailed me to ask if it was about him. To those who asked, yes indeed, you were smart and sharp- it was about him. So, you ask, why out of the sudden rush, I re-post this song, complete with all the foreword jazz? It is because of my recent "controversial yet expected war" with Christian. This is not a close secret anymore and this is my blog. I think it is my duty to include detail about the war here.

The song was written and inspired by his sickening negatives attitudes and drives me and I believe almost everyone into great annoyance, irritating or sometime, exasperation. One of my friend (she’s a babe, swing…) shared the same feeling with me as she experience almost the same thing with this guy. She wanted me and encouraged me to mail him my song. I didn’t want to do it then but now I don’t care.

Few days ago, I sent the song to him but that was not the jazz that triggered the war. It was the enclosed email I wrote to him as a rebuttal to my proposition (please see the email after the song, posted up fresh, without any changes and unedited). I reckoned and admitted that my email was strictly blunt, bloody undiplomatic, straight to the point or like my Swedish friend would like to put: " Your email is like a shooting an enemy many times over with machine gun until the enemy dead on the ground and still, the shooting never stop" Paragraph by paragraph.

The email was intended for him and was not meant to be discussed, debate and need no further explanation. It was solely for him, to wake and shake him up to the real world, to the reality. I wrote that mail with clear conscious and offer no apology whatsoever, not now, not ever and not in this lifetime. Even as I am typing this, I still think it is a right thing to do. If I don’t do it, I know few people who gladly do it, either through words or verbal. Hence, my war with him received support and back-up from most people we both know especially those people who wanted to say the same thing to him. If you read on the mail (after the song), you will realize I wasn’t a evil- as Christian would like to put it, I was only playing the role of devil’s advocate. I was the bad guy with good intention. I want him to change but apparently as arrogant and egoistic as he always is, he failed to grasp the hidden message.

Instead of acting like a man, he choose to launch a war with me, smashed in the middle of the office. It was an ugly war and shone out the foolishness and weaknesses of both of us. And now we both act like a little girl- not talking to each other. I will talk to him for one last time, explaining the reason I wrote that email BUT if he still ignorance, then I am sorry for this dude. I was only playing the role of devil’s advocate.

After all, why should I care about him. I will not be seeing this guy again, most probably in this life once my traineeship is over. I couldn’t care less. All I want is for him to change and if he fail to see that, again…sorry dude, where’s my car??

This song and email is and never about other people, it was and is always about him and me. If your name is mentioned in the email, please take my apology in advance.

Sincerely yours,
Peter

Negativity

Written by Peter

People are running, you are walking
People are jumping in happiness, you are squatting with sadness
People are smiling with utmost joy, you are frowning with sheer agony
People are climbing up, you are sliding down
People are blessed with the shining sun, you are merely sweating
People are dancing in the rain, you are in-hiding, afraid of the wet-ness
People-Stereo, You-Mono

Draggin’ me down
Draggin’ me down
Draggin’ me down
Into your shallow negativity

I don’t want to swim in your negativity no
I don’t want to dwell in your discomfort anymore
I don’t want to listen to your petty complaint no more
I don’t want to be bothered by your stupid annoyance

Listen you prank, I am shouting out to you- I don’t want to know everything stinks about you anymore
Listen you shit-head, I am shouting out to you- you are nothing but nuisance
Your problems and your attitudes drive me into exasperation
Listen you knee-jerk, I am shouting to you- don’t give no more any of your pulp fiction
Another one coming- you’ll gone from the face of the earth

Draggin’ me down
Draggin’ me down
Draggin’ me down
Into your negativity

In this life I choose to see beauty, but you want ugliness
In this life I see blue, but you insist on seeing red
In my blessed life, I want white
But in your fuck-up life, you want black
I make love, you make war!

Draggin’ me down
Draggin’ me down
Draggin’ me down
Into your negativity

The Email that triggered the war!
Hi all,

When I sent this email, I wasn’t preparing to debate over mail. My mail was intended to send out my proposition and was not in anyway targeting anyone in anyway. It was unwise channel of communication to debate and argue over an issue. But after a round of heated argument and debate with Christian which ended up with no common understanding, allow me for once and for all, shed my opinion on this issue. After this, you won’t hear from me again.

After Christian’s reply, now I chose to be straight to the point and write as blunt as I can. If my mail hurt anyone or displease you, please be reminded that this email come with NO APOLOGY at all, not ever, not in my lifetime because my conscience is clear.

Christian, first of all, let me remind you that you are NOT the only victim here, so stop acting like the only sole victim. As a matter of fact, I was the victim too...I ALWAYS came early than the actual time, whether or not going or coming back. I always wait for the latecomers LONGER than you do.

So if anyone deserve to go mad and complain like a cry baby, it should be me. Not you. Let me be frank here, you are nothing but a nuisance. You are nothing but negative, you have an attitude problem. You don’t seek to understand people and be peace with people. U need a shrink. U know what...the whole waiting issue is not about respect or the latecomers, I think it is all about you. It is always about you. I am gonna be honest and mentioning name here.

True, nobody like waiting but everyone is tolerating without such a big fuss. True, Omar may be inconsiderate and irresponsible, always late-without a message- BUT in my trainee life, never never any trainee or forbes or chris the van driver himself, or any other passengers or Thomas make a fuss and big issue over waiting. The most we do is Thomas will tell Omar. Sometime he was unhappy over waiting BUT never ever he demanded the van to leave without knowing the other end.

Why?? Because we are friend. And you, your technical laws and rules, have to be this and have to be that stuff is cruel and heartless and no human soul. Take yesterday for instance- the difference between you and me was YOU ASKED THE VAN TO LEAVE WITHOUT WANTING TO KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH JOHAN AND OMAR- U DEMANDED THE VAN TO LEAVE BECAUSE THEY WERE LATE. YOU DID NOTHING BUT CRYING FOR LEAVING WHILE ME I ONLY ASK THE DRIVER TO LEAVE AFTER WALKED TO OMAR’S DESK AND JOHAN DESK, TO BE SURE THAT THEY ARE NOT COMING.

U think technically you are right, that the van is leaving at 5 sharp and those who come late say more than 15 minute, should be abandoned. Well, I say this to you, technically, there is no technicality. No one have rules that the van leaves at five. It was unwritten law or common understanding. So, DO NOT use this common understanding to impose you self-selfish rules onto others. You don’t know nothing about the van arrangement- so-for God sake, before you start barking again, go and do your homework!!!

And for the matter of clarification, the van is NOT there to serve ONLY us. It is for everybody and all the employees. The trainee end work at 5pm and if there is any employee coming at 5 or 6, YOU have to wait. And that include Omar who is always late. You wanna mess up with him>??? You want him to go and propose to management to wait until 6 or whatever time his is finish?? You think he cant do that?? Do you know who got us the van in the first place?? Again, do your homework…He can do that, and when he does and the van decided to leave at 6, I am gonna launch war at you….mark my words. So remember, the van does not serve only trainee and does not leave at 5. It leave when he is suppose to leave. It is all according to the van driver’s schedule. You and me have no right to determine when it suppose to leave…

Like I say above, this is not really bout the van issue, it is all bout your freakin attitude. U r negative. We are your friends and sometime we want to help you but u are just one egoistic maniac who never want to listen. If I alone think you are that, then I may be wrong. But if you really wanna examine yourself- just ask everyone around you. Ask Omar, ask Christine, ask Johan, ask me….Not enough?? Ask all the trainees, ask Anita, ask Martin, ask Andreas, ask C1 people….not enough?? Ask Chris the van driver, ask the HR department, Ask the thermo guys, ask wasim and the IT department, ask Purohit…just ask every inhabitants you ever came contact with and see what kind of feedback you will get…you don’t know man….but I tell you what, you are merely a joke, a big jokes.

I speak the truth here and the truth hurt. It is up to you to take it from here, positively or negatively. Bernard is the biggest A*shole I meet in my life and yet I have a respect for that man. As for you, honestly, I lost that little respect for you I used to have after I accidentally eavesdrop on your conversation with Andreas last night. Don’t worry, I won’t be a B*tch and I won’t tell a soul. That’s your and Andreas problem.

Respect?? You wanna talk about respect with me?? You are not the right person to talk with me. But since you raise the subject, have you ever respect people?? Have you ever respect about people needs? NEVER…All you think before respect is your vulnerable and fragile health, what is annoying to you-what is irritating to you, which directly and indirectly robbing away pleasure from everyone. How dare you to request Chris the van guy to shut the his window just because the mud and the air irritated you?? How dare you to direct and urge him to drive your way when the traffic was heavy??? How dare you to smash his new car’s door just to throw your tantrum?? How dare you to request the sound/volume in the van to be soften?? Time and again I said, you do not own the van. And that makes you the selfish person…If anyone were to decide the rules of the van, it is the van driver. That’s respect.

Talking about respect…Have you ever respect Chris the van guy?? Ask him for evaluation? Van services may be a service provided by small time company to Forbes but in the vicinity of the van, you respect the driver. This is my value, this is where I came from, this is what my upbringing principal taught me. But in Germany if they don’t teach you this, then I am sad. I hope it is only you but not all Germans. The nearest analogy I can give you is if I were to go to toilet to pee and the janitor is playing radio or chatting something so loud, I will not demand him to soften the radio just because the noise hazardous may be damaging to my health…and I will not ask him to lower down his voice neither do I am gonna ask him to clean the toilet space for me just to make me feel safe and my health protected. The toilet is him and I respect that. But in your case, you will ask him to stop and if he refuse, you will cry to the boss of the boss, like a boy crying out to mama…This is the case for the van with you.
This is what I think about you, as an honest friend. I am not humiliating you but merely stating all of your weaknesses, which made you politically incorrect, and generally dislike by others. If you are smart, you analyze my words and opinion. Take the truth and reckon it and improve it and those I said is untruth then burn it. It is free will.

Do not try to shoot me back or attempt to reply to me. This is my speech to you and I DON’T WANT ANY REPLY. If you do reply. I WONT READ. This is not a debate, this is a one way mail. You can agree with me and disagree with me until the cow come home, that is your problem. I don’t care and I couldn’t care less. I am only playing devil’s advocate. I sincerely hope you see truth and the hidden meaning of this email. And I hope you take it from me as a friend even though the respect is now gone. You gotto change and earn it back.
Last but not least, I had composed a song sometime ago about you, mainly about your negativity and your nuisance. I had talk with my guitarist back home and we are eager to make it a hit song when I go back since my guitarist and I can feel the energy of the song. The below song is about you and is dedicated to you. Enjoy. (Refer to the song above)

Note: This mail was not written in the heat of the moment. It was calmly written. However, it was written by a man that they said "If you drop a drop of watr onto the glass full of water"

Peter

Me

Name: Ooi Keat Khoon, Peter

Pseudonym: Rock-star

Zodiac Sign: Pieces

Place of birth: Penang island, Malaysia

Nationality: Malaysian

University: University of Malaya, Malaysia

Course: Bachelor of Economics

Favorite Lecturer: Dr. Ali Boerhanuddin & Mr. Lee Hwok Aun

Present company: Forbes Marshall, India

Previous company/organization: JobStreet.Com & AIESEC in Malaysia

Previous menial jobs:

Bartender
Waiter
Dishwasher
Assistant cook (kitchen)
Liner
Ticket seller
Dispatch
Co-Van driver
Book store assistant
Construction man
Surveyer
Researcher
Free trader at flea market

Favorite Pastime: Listening to music, watching movies, writing, reading, surfing the net, contemplating, travelling and chilling.

Favorite Genre of Music: Rock n' roll (60s, 70s, glam rock, progressive rock, grunge, acoustic), 90s, post-grunge,new glam-rock, Oldies, Old school malay/indon rock and glam/raggae and,Jazz, Chill-out/ethnic, Jazz and BLUES!!!


Favorite Movies: NujumPak Belalang, Moulin Rouge, CONfidence, The Last Castle, CinemaParadiso, Roadtrip, Gilbert's grape, The Last Don, Blood in blood out, Braveheart, Can't hardly wait, Forrest Gump, Ghost of Missisipi, LOTR Trilogy, Spinning Gasing, The negotiator, School of Rock, Detroict Rock City, Almost Famous, The Rock, Still Crazy, Gladiator, Mostly Martha, Bill & Ted, A time to kill, Buz Lurhmann's Romeo&Juliet, The client, Airhead, reservoir dogs, The Contender and Pulp Fiction

Favorite Male Actors: Denzel Washinton, Johnny Depp, Gary Oldman & Al Pacino.

Favorite Female Actors: The 3-Kate; Kate Hudson, Kate Beckinsale & Kate Winslet

Favorite bands of all time: Guns n’ Roses, The Beatles & Nirvana

Favorite Malaysian singer/bands: Old Butterfinger, M.Nasir & Amir Yussof

Favorite albums of all time (local & international): Aquarius (Amir Yussof), Let it come down (James Iha), 1988 (Tracy Chapman), Ballads (REO Speedwagon), Child of the light (Ernie Smith), 27 #1 singles (The Beatles).

Favorite Books: Resurrection Day (Meade), Conversations with God trilogy (Walsch), John Lennon in his time (Jon wiener), Jim Morrison Biography (Davis), Veronica, eleven minutes (Coelho), The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons (Dan Brown), Kane & Abel Trilogy, First Among Equal, Sons of Fortune (Archer), The Last Juror (Grisham), Tuesday with Morrie (Albom), Stupid white man (Moore), Rules of the bone (Banks), Shantaram (Gregory Robert)

Favorite website: www.malaysiakini.com / www.rockstarpete.blogspot.com / www.malaysia-today.net / www.google.com / www.rollingstone.com / www.imdb.com

First Concert: Deep Purple

Last Concert: Scorpion

First international celebrity (up-close & personal): Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big

Second international celebrity (up-close & personal): Incubus (the whole band)

First Gig: Rock World 95 (Featuring OAG, Bullock, Acid Rain and other Thrash/Punk bands)

Favorite Gig: Amir Yussof at Bangsar

Unforgettable moments: All those times travelling in Thailand and India, motorcycle inter-state (road trip) with Azlan & first trip to Pehentian island and my childhood moments (those were the days) & High school/university times (to the good old days).

Favorite quote: Do you wanna bark all day or do you wanna bite? :- Line from Michael Madsen, from the movie- Reservoir Dogs.

The reason I came up with this brief biography was because I am lazy and snaking in the office. I think this is dumb, so I am gonna remove it from my blog one week from now.

Note: My grandma used to say, those who write and act is crazy but those who read and watch is dumb.Haha...Sorry dude! Just kidding, where's my car??

Monsoon Fever!

The return of the innocence

Greeting ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and enemies alike. My name is Peter and I am back with writing my daily life after being absence for about 4 month, writing nothing and posting nothing to this blog except some poems I wrote. Since I came back to Pune, from Malaysia, to continue the second half of my traineeship with Forbes Marshall, I had decided to give up writing on my daily life, the people I met, the event that took place, the books, the movies, the parties, my train of thought, poems and songs on weekly basis, which I used to enjoy doing.

The main reason I gave up writing 4 month ago was because the life and its excitement I found and experience during my first four months was gradually subsided. The feeling fun of discovery was kind of stagnant. Daily life becomes stagnant, repetitive, routine and sometime dull- even though it may be a fun thing to do in most eyes, like farewell parties and going out at night, but when it become routine, it becomes repetitive. When thing become repetitive, then basically there isn’t nothing much to write hence the giving up.

But nevertheless, some meaningful events happened in between, during my absence to the blog, which I expressed through my poems. Some of them were happy moments, some of them were sad moments, heartache, headache, stomachache, self-discovery and all the jazz.

Part of the reason also because I stopped travelling. So, nothing to report and write. My travelling in and around India is still very much insufficient. Therefore, in April, I already told myself that I am going to finish what I am destined to, and do the things and visit the places I want to, no matter what, come high or water, with or without anybody, I will still go and my life will goes on. Nothing will stop me from travelling- at least I hope, nothing big enough or nothing catastrophe enough to bring me home without laying my eyes on those God-gifted, endowed, beautiful and serendipity landscapes of India and its amazing people. Because of my clear travelling plan, I vow myself to live a budget life, meaning less of going out, less of clubbing, less of expensive dinner and all that stuff. For months, I live my life sufficiently, not suffering, with little money- all in the name of travelling. I cooked very often, or even if I were to order meals from outside, I will order from the cheapest place possible like the one nearby apartment, which sell chicken fried rice for only 25 rupees. That run-down place is "Lucky"

The limited budget never failed to stop me from buying books. Throughout the budgeted months, I still spent money on books. The latest I brought was Paulo Coelho’s "The fifth mountain", "The Zahir" and the soon to be adapted into a major film, starring Johnny Depp and Halena Bonham Carter, "Shantaram" written by Gregory Robert, based on his true story.

The reason I choose to write again, went against my initial thought is because I can, again, feek the energy of the past. I thing that the entire happening thing in the past, especially my first three months, is coming back to me.

Monsoon fever in Pune is indeed a time to revisit the first quarter of my traineeship. Monsoon ushered two new trainees, whom arrived unexpected, in short span of 24 hours. For the past few days, we had a tremendous fun, with parties and new trainees (7 more to come in 2 weeks time), just like the good old day. With all that, plus my upcoming travelling, I feel like my life is back on track, hence the writing and the update.

My Travelling

Like I said in some of my email to you, I was supposed to travel with Erin initially. Erin is a trainee, (not an AIESEC trainee) from Louisiana, United States. We were submitted to the plan of travelling together. We couldn’t be less enthusiastic and excited about it. We started our trip much earlier and both were eagerly and anticipating the moment to come and take us away. But strange thing is, when we were starting to plan, something deep inside me, or at the back of the mind told me that travelling with her somehow will not take place, for whatever reason it may be which in later part turned out to be true. Of course it didn’t matter much to me. The strange thing is, why the feeling? Was it because she is from America and the fact that Americans don’t travel much? I don’t know why, maybe it was just a voice of my soul.

Anyway, as expected and as anticipated from the voice at the back of my head, she ditched the whole plan and pulled out without a solid reason. It didn’t affect me much, just that I need to revise my budget again now that I will be travelling alone.

One fine morning, she woke up and something deep inside her told her that she got to go home. The feeling was so strong, so she ditched the plan, just like that. Well, I am not mad, but for whatever that it may be, I respect her decision and thankful that she told me of her suspected depression or possible breakdown, rather than forcing herself to come travel with me through India- because honestly I don’t prefer to handle ugly scenes during travelling, if you know what I mean.

To cut it short, my brother and friend might be travelling with me halfway through. We might be meeting up in Jaipur, the same place I will be meeting up with Hui Lin and Bonnie. Erin’s place is being replaced by Gemma, also another trainee with a private company, from Spain. Somewhere along the way, I will also be meeting up with other individual travelers, known and unknown.

New Trainees

One fine evening, I came back from my work as usual and to my surprise I saw a huge luggage by the side of the table. It surprised me because we are not suppose to have any trainee until mid of August to early September and we were not suppose to have any returning trainee, be it from travelling or whatever.

The mystery answered two hours after that. The new trainee has arrived, unexpected, just like most trainees in the past including me. Her name is Zoya. She is from Toronto, Canada. Now what I like about her is first, she reminds me of someone I really want to meet in my life. Second, she is outspoken, cheerful, always active and smiley, hyper, sociable, lively and all that funky jazz. After recalling hard whom she resembles, the moment finally paid off. Her smile, her look, her hair, her body, her height, the way she talks, the way she does everything is exactly like Kate Hudson. This is not my opinion. Everybody agreed with me she look like Kate and some think sort of. She just graduated in HR and will be working here for one year.

The second unexpected trainee arrived the morning after. His name is Julies, from Germany. He is very un-German which is very good. If you look at him from the side, he looks like Brad Pitt. Of course, this is only my opinion and I don’t have the gut to ask other’s opinion because I wasn’t sure.

Back to Kate, since Andreas, my German friend/housemate whom I always goes running with, whom I dance naked in the middle of the night, on top of our roof, welcoming monsoon rain some weeks ago and I, is a big fan of Kate Hudson, particularly Kate in the movie "Almost famous" directed by Cameron Crowe and its main song, "Hold me closer tiny dancer" by Elton John…we just couldn’t stop playing the song and just looking at her sweetness dreaming we were looking at Kate Hudson a.k.a Penny Lane.

With the newly arrived trainees, come with hell lots of parties, as well as farewell. It is like Hello to this one and Goodbye to that one.

Last Friday was also a farewell party for Andreas. Co-incidentally, it was also a welcoming party for Kate Hudson. I asked him 4 days before what would he plan to do for the farewell? And not to my surprise, he said nothing much, just ordering chicken friend rice, chips and some beers for the guest. I said it was pathetic and soon after, I got myself into big trouble. Because of friend that we are, I offered him my service to cook for his farewell- for 25 invited friends.

So, I started to prepare to cut and slice the vegetable on Thursday night. It was quite tiring but was paid off by songs of Poetic Amno and Van Halen through our big speakerbox, specially transferred to the kitchen.

I completed the night with a cigar and round of chat with Kate Hudson while she unpacking all her stuff.

Friday night was fantastic. I started cooking at around 6.30 pm and done around 9pm. So, what did I cook?

I was the assistant cook to Barekhat, Jamaican friend, during Anita and Diana’s farewell some weeks back. But for Andreas’s farewell, he was my assistant.

I cooked about 1.5 kg of noodle. I named then Malaysian Hakka salty noodle. Secondly, the 2 kg of steam rice, cooked by my assistant- we named the dish "Yellow rice from Jamaica"

And then there was crush chicken goes to Bollywood. It was my specialty. Crush chicken meat, marinated with soya sauce and black pepper, fried along side with 3 eggs, onions, butter and little bit of sugar. This is eaten together with the noodles and the number fourth dish, which I named it Lucky 7 (our apartment) tomato gravy club forever. It was mixture various type of vegetable namely carrots, tomatoes, onions, papitas, cucumber etc. Gravy was a mix of real tomatoes and tomato ketchup with black pepper. It was great.

Number 5 dish was lemonade-fried salads, garnished with steam salty potatoes. Kate Hudson had the privilege to name the dish, which she named "Fucking Salads".

Last but not least, the best of the best, which goes well with the yellow rice, was Chicken Hyderabadi. 2 kg of chicken, blended with potatoes and the spices use are from the state of Hyderabad, India. I tiredly and passionately prepared it, which in the end- praised by the guest (which is not the thing that prompted me to cook in the first place). Most important it was appreciated by Andreas. At around midnight, I took up a bottle of beer bottle and make a toast. I made an opening and impromptu farewell speech to him, followed by Martin, the dead drunk Japanese Yoshi (always) and others.

We proceeded to a round of shisha. Prior to that lots of beer and vodka had been consumed, as well as cigarette and cigars. I was quite stone already and little bit of high. The finest point was when Xabi, the Spanish guy, mixed the shisha’s tobacco with weed and the usual junkies came around and smoked away the night. And the new junky was Kate Hudson, which when she smoke make her look even cuter.

I woke up dehydrated, but not hanging. That morning was arrival of Brad Pitt’s cousin- Julies. In the evening, there was another party- this time it was at Erin’s house, which situated 45 minutes from my place. It was a welcoming party for a group of 27 Thais people (TATA’s trainees) as well as Erin’s unofficial farewell party.

It was a crazy party and the group of Thais was a great young bunch of party animal. One of the girl, which is very sexy and pretty ( nama aku dah lupa dah…) cooked us "Tom Yam Kai" which means Chicken tomyam. It was great and it was absolutely fantastic. I ate until my stomach almost burst. And again, lots of vodka and beer.

Just like Andreas’ farewell, the usual kitchen people- meaning people who dominate the kitchen during the party time, was Kate, me, Martin and some others. I am sure you know why kitchen it the best place to hang around…

That is just a beginning. I can sense that the cycle of trainee paradise- just like when I firstly arrived 9 months ago, is coming back. My time here is almost up and I am waiting to travel to the north of India. After that, we will meet again- IshyaAllah…

Kindly regards

Peter

Beautiful Day, Beautiful dream

Written by Peter

It was a beautiful day
The birds were chirping a melody
The wind were blowing the sound of nature
The sun were shining happily
The trees were swaying weakly
The frogs were hopping for better places
And the street were full of happy shiny people

It was a beautiful day
I was smoking marijuana
Entertaining my imagination

I was thinking and I was dreaming
I am walking through the lively street
Full with happy shiny people
Everyone talking everyone smiling

I am in the world’s greatest Rock n’ Roll band
Touring around the world
Selling lots of record
Meeting lots of chicks- scoring almost everyone of them
While making lots and tons of money

I am the biggest and most successful idealist
Living life bigger than it should be
Lecturing and sharing my point of view
To the youth and to all the people
Across the regions and continents

My glamorous ideas and popularity
Is greater that The Beatles in the 60s which claimed to be greater than Jesus Christ
My ideological and philosophical thoughts is more profound than the anti-war sentiments in the 70s
My words and my power is more influential than the Reegan administration in the 80s

I am the youngest and most successful entrepreneur
I am the brightest and most promising corporate dick head
Battling through every stages of life difficulties- like a cancer patient fighting for his survivor
Climbing up every step of corporate ladder- stabbing and killing all sort of bastards and bitches

I am now the most cunning bastard and your beloved bitches- the omnipotent one in this world
People I used to kill and stab along the way
Is now kissing my feet and worshiping me like a God
Betraying their very own consciences, their principal values and their credo
All in the name of money- no pride

I am the greatest rockstar
Making love with the most beautiful girl in the world
I am the world’s biggest idealist
I am the world’s richest man
I am king and I am God
With power and tons of money- but lonely at the top

And then the rain start to rain on earth
And the sun hid behind the dark clouds
The thunder strike through the space between- breaking the silences

The bubble of dream burst like a pop!
I realized I was only dreaming
With Marijuana still burning

It is still a beautiful day
And all I want is to get the fuck out of here
Move on to another phase of life
Where I live a quietly and happily ever after- Cinderella’s dream

With the girl of my dream
And my favorite dog
On my beach house
With my own pub or record store
Across the street

Author’s note: "The end is the beginning is the end is the beginning…."

The Pain

The Pain

Written by Peter

I was sleeping alone, for another night
And then came along
The pain and the agony

It strike hard, yet so tender
The pain was attacking while the agony was terrorizing
The centre capital of my body
Killing me softly
The pain was grave
And the agony was beyond my wildest imagination

I was shaken in the dark
I was trembling in the dark
I was groaning in the dark
Screaming out for my mama
Yearning for God’s help
Hopefully a divine intervention
But nothing really happen

I was restless, hopeless and shirtless
Eventually naked and defeated
I was alone in the battle against the invisible enemy
The pain and the agony

In the dark and in the darkened room
Everything became annoyed and irritated
The sound of the lovely music seems like drilling my head
The sound of the beauty silence seems like axing my brain
Everything and anything was driving me into virtual insanity

The clock is ticking, but the time never moves
Only the pain and the agony
I was sweating, tearing and my skin turned pale
The pain was smiling while the agony was laughing- so happily
And the time frozen to witness all of these- I almost see heaven

This is not a dream
It was a reality
A reality that I was crawling slowly and struggling desperately
Through the frozen time, indescribable pain and agony
Across the seemingly endless million miles

And thanks God,
Eventually I reached the victory line, ALIVE!

Blast from the past [Part 3]

Day 3

We woke up at 8.30 am. We had our breakfast across our guesthouse. Again we walked non-stop, for about 7km, across the peaceful street, flowing river, surrounded by all the beautiful shapes of rocks and shining sun. As we were walking, we came across some local tourist touring around with tour guide, explaining everything about the statues, temples and places. I was thinking to myself, what the fuck is these people thinking? Don’t they know that learns nothing but wasting time and money? The best thing to discover historical places to feel and experience for yourself. I mean, how much information can they absorb from the explanation given? At the end of trip, this idiotic will end up with lots of information but will not remember which is which.

In the afternoon, Rambo, Gokce the Turkish girl, Michael the drug dealer and I decided to break apart with the rest of the group and we went to this restaurant called Mougli house. The set up is almost the same with the Mango tree. But only this time the wide view in front of us was a huge farm field and tiny river surrounded by various shapes of rocks, mostly tiny. The sun was on the way down. This café is like a smoking café. I started to roll a joint, which later shared by Gokce, Rambo and Michael the drug dealer- it was his first joint. By the way, Rambo- he’s a graduate from Montreal University, in the field of Industrial Engineering and he is a weed rolling motherfucker. He rolled so much of my joint that he started to feel guilty. But he’s a funny guy. Always mumbling in Arabic and sometime French.

In the café, we met up with a Dutch guy and Leo, an ex army from Israel. He also happens to be an engineering graduate. There is some other guys and girls, all Caucasians. Leo rolled his hash every ten minutes or so. He’s a fucking intellectual guy. Somehow you can tell from the conversation we had.

After getting stone and some sleep, we crossed to the other side of the river and checked in to another guesthouse, to be reunited with the other group of our friends. There it goes again, big number again. Anyway it was of course a great feeling to be reunited after a three long days of separation.

We paid some money for the village guy to cook us a dinner and we did a campfire dinner. Lots of people were there. After dinner, 18 of us, all lying down the empty field, under the million shining star, strong wind and cold air, occasionally catching a shooting star. It was great.

Day 4

Day 4 was the end of trip. Our last day in the great Hampi. All 18 of us woke up before 8.30am for another round of get-together. Again, the village guy cooked us a breakfast- a combination of Indian and western variety namely fruits salad, Tosai, scramble eggs and hot coffee.

That morning was great. I did a quick breakfast and proceeded to the field, lay down under the morning sun, and began to write few lines of my travelling script which I am composing now.
Lars, the Quentin Terantino look alike parted with us and went to Bangralore to meet up with another group of trainee. You remember Michal, the Polish guy who almost got me into a fight with a rickshaw wallah? Yes, he went on to meet up with Michal, Kaske the Japanese guy and Jos, the Dutch guy who look like the lead vocalist of Nickelback.

Jack Nicholson, Patrow and Gokce the Turkish girl went to another city, Bijapur, 6 hours away drive from Hampi. The rest of us went home directly to Pune. In the midway, while dropping off two of my favorite girls at Bijapur, the feeling was sad but then I thought, what the hell…I am gonna meet them again in a day or two but what I never thought was they are leaving for good in a day or two. Sad but true, but life gotto goes on.

That’s all I can tell, another 15 hours of tiring with many blessed moments, back to Pune. The journey was with the same view with lesser people. I was feeling blessed to be seated in between two of my favorite girls. The songs that played on my CD player before the battery ran out was my all-time favorite Malay band- Wings. Songs like "Semalam yang hangat", "Suara kita", " Misteri mimpi Syakilla" and "Taman Rashidah Utama" made my journey even more bluesy.

One part of me was on top of the world and feeling high and happy because of the whole Hampi trip but the other part of me was rather sad, leaving the most beautiful city of yesteryears as well as leaving without the girl of my dream. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a melancholy feeling (and the infinite sadness)- Smashing Pumpkins!

Whatever happen, sweet or sour- this journey or road-trip and my about to begin traineeship will be the best thing happens to me in my life. Trust me, there is so much things that I can’t describe it with words. You know, John Lennon used to sing that money can’t buy love…in the 60s but now that the fact of the song is somewhat irrelevance, I say money can’t buy time, the present time, the time we are living here, and now. Some corporate dick head will tell you that life begin at 40. That will not work for me and I don’t believe in that shit anyway. You may have a happy family and tons of money but you will never have back the feeling of your youth back when you begin your life at 40.

The journey was long, so for one last time in South India, we rolled a joint in the jeep, and say goodbye to Hampi. The time might had passed but for us, we will forever cherish this memorable trip, for a long time to come.

Post Hampi Trip
[The whole part is removed by the author]

The End!

Blast from the past [Part 2]

Day 2

We woke up as early as 8am. We continue our so-called expedition by walking and discover the historic profile of Hampi ruins civilization, for about 8 hours from one place to another. Our expedition was not only by walking but also involved lots of climbing (to the high and or top of the place) and walking up the steepest route to the sacred place.

First, we walked up to this place. It is like up the Penang Dam but of course higher and more beautiful than the Penang Dam. The journey to the top was surrounded by the greatest views of all, the beautiful nature namely the river, the rocks and best of all, an overview (from the top) of the ruined ancient city of civilization.

About 45 minutes after that, we all reached to the top. We snap lots of beautiful photos from the above. It was very windy at the top of the ruined temple, the monuments are simply excellent and wonderful.

Until that point, I still couldn’t believe what I was doing. But anyway I tried to believe it. The feeling of being at the top, overlooking the many cities of ancient civilizations was amazing. We were so high that for a moment we thought we almost touch the morning sun.

There was this temple, on top of the top, so Omar and I didn’t feel high enough so we decided to climb up and higher. While Omar already reach to the top, leaving me under him, still struggling to be atop. I almost fall to the ground, almost got killed like falling from heaven when one of the edges I hold unto, cracked. You can see the stone fall down and the sound of it hitting the ground was never heard again. I was hooked with one hand on the still edge, just like Stallone in the movie, "Cliffhanger"

God saved me and I am still alive and typing this diary. I had a shock of my life for a brief moment. After the incident, I was calmed and cooled by Gytneth Patrow.

Photo: View of Hampi farmfield from the top

Photo: Gokce & me against the backdrop of Hampi ruins civilization

From the top temple, we walked down to the ground and keep walking through the villages for about another 5km and reached the Monkey temple. The Monkey temple was located at the top of the mountain and we had to climb up the staircase (to heaven). The staircase look likes that staircase of Great Wall of China. We reached the arch (bottom) and came across a resting-place where we met a group of Swiss travelers. After a hot "Chai" (tea) and few bananas, we continue our journey all the way to the top. It was extremely tired but bearable. All tiredness paid off when we finally reached the top of Monkey temple.

We visited the inside of the temple where we saw a priest, giving blessing to those holier than thou wannabe while smoking hash at the same time, with a bamboo pipe. In other word, he was stone, dead stone and nobody give a damn anyway. I didn’t stay longer so I decided to go on the other side of the top, together with Gytneth Patrow, Michael the drug dealer and Omar the Rambo. We were lying on the rock, the edgeless rocks. So you can imagine, if any of us misstep a little, sure we going to fall to the ground, crash boom bang!

From the edges, we also overseeing and overlooking the huge farm fields, the villages and the ever serendipity views of the ancient cities while the wind blowing onto our flesh weakly.

So who was missing? Of course Gokce the Turkish girl. Where can she be? Actually at the time when we were amazed by our surrounding, she was with the priest I mentioned earlier, smoking hash and getting stone. The rest of the journey down from Monkey temple and all the long walks through the green fields, rocky mountain, river etc was kind of taken care by me because she was kind of stone- you know the after effect or the slow reaction after smoking up. I cherished every moment spent with her and I am going to miss her when she’s gone. She’s one coolest girl I ever met after such a long time but she’s going off soon making my heartbreak into million pieces. [smile…ha ha]. This kind of remind me of Elton John’s "I want love, but it’s impossible…" Sigh…

So we were lost and failed our way out. But eventually we did. While we were searching for the way out, we bump into this guy, an old man who spoke only three understandable English words namely Hello?, Grass? And Rs 400. I didn’t say much. I just handed him Rs 200 for about 10 grams and trust me, it was good and it was a great deal.

When we reached to the other side of the river, with coracle, which stopped at a slippery rock, about 5-meter from the shore, I slipped and fall flat to the river. The same unlucky even happened to Bernard as well. We were wet and soaked.

On the way back to the guesthouse, we were starving so we decided to stop at this café called Mango Tree café (fake one, because the real one, which recommended by the LP is located at the other side of the river). It wasn’t bad at all. It was like an open space, equipped with long tables, mattresses and pillows. You can lay down and eat. The best part about this café is the songs they played. Mainly the greatest hits of The Beatles like "Yesterday", "Love me do", "Help", "I feel fine" and a lot more.

Back to the guesthouse, while everybody was busy showering, removing the dirt and the sweat of the day, I met this punk, from the Netherlands. With piercing, tattoos, Trojan hair and joint, he looks like he is one of those hippie who just got back from Sex Pistol’s gig or from Woodstock. He was reading one of Dan Brown’s novels, which I couldn’t care to remember what was the title.

FYI, Dan Brown is one of the novelist that is currently famous with his work, "The Da Vinci code". The Hollywood, particularly the director of "Beautiful mind" and "Apollo 13" is currently persuading Tom Hanks to play the main role in the adapted movie. So, people, better make sure you read the book before it hit your local screen.

This punk guy had been travelling to some of the places including Malaysia. He told me that one of the best things about Malaysia was his Penang trip, the food paradise. Being Penangite, I am, needless to say, proud.

That evening was great. We had some trainees and local friends from Bombay visited us in Hampi. Among them are Sunir, who when drunk in Bombay’s pub during my previous visit to Bombay, shouted at me "a fucking Japanese", his Polish girlfriend, Gabrielle the Mexican girl and some others. Sunir and I having fun sharing about our passion for Rock Music while listening to the likes of Poison, Firehouse, Joan Osborne, KISS etc.

Together we went to real Mango Tree café. It was only a 5 minutes walk to the inside of rural area and from the outside, it looks ordinary and nothing special. But most of us were amazed and appalled by its charm and our feeling was completely different from 5 minutes ago. To exaggerate, I would say it look like the hanging garden of Babylon. The seating area is actually on the floor, on the cold cemented floor, leaning against the steep wall, facing the big and calm river, accompanied by strong yet lazy wind and on top of us was a million smiling stars.

In the café, just by the side of our long table, there is big trees, tied with a swing. So I went up the swing, I felt like swinging in the air with nothing below me, nothing but the river. I feel like I was gonna fall at anytime.

The dinner was great. After that we rolled a couple of joints and start to smoke them. The regular smoker was Gokce, Omar, one Indian mix Dutch girl and I.

I tell you, Hampi is a great paradise and it is one of the recommended areas to travel to in India. This is a weed paradise. For a moment, you wouldn’t tell a different between Hampi and Amsterdam.
Hampi trip has also brought me closer to Patrow. We were so close it somewhat spark a strange chemistry. There is a kind of happy feeling whenever being with her.

I guess maybe it was just Hampi or matter of fact India that it makes it all light and easy for travelling like that. There is no border no discrimination and suspicious of sort that made us all closer like lover freind and family. So occasionally we were holding hand and hanging out together while enjoying the serendipity landscapes (from the top) and the sound of the nature but I guess deep inside, through unspoken words, we both know it means nothing but friendship and companionship. I love to be with her. That’s my sensitivity talking [smile…]

[Remove from original journal]

To be continue…