Righto. I've put this off for an extra day, God knows why. Where was I? Oh yes, traffic. Simply murder. I mean that quite literally actually, if you don't see the auto rickshaw that is coming in the direction that it shouldn't be coming in, it will most definitely kill you and no one will care less. I was watching Top Gear the other day and they mentioned that there is a highway that stretches from Pune to Bombay where at least 1000 or so people die. I don't remember the exact figure's but when I heard it, it was staggering.
The food. That is the interesting bit. Indian's are not completely meat eaters. We are more subdued in that sort of meat eating aspect. We don't eat beef for religious reasons and that is an irony in itself the way I see it but I'll let that pass. We observe vegetarianism for certain months of the calender or when someone die's or there is a religious thing going on. The reason being that God is a vegetarian. Another irony in my opinion, but again, I'll let that pass.
If you are Malaysian and a non-Indian, you would think that our food is mainly based on curries and rice with lots of veggies in it. And you would be right. You would think that the local 'anne' in the curry house serving you mutton varuval and chicken chettinad shows the true form of Indian food. And you would be dead wrong. That doesn't even scratch the surface of what real Indian food is. We don't need to use curry powder if we could avoid it. Real Indian food is so rich and so totally different from whatever nonsense you get from shops like Maalas Curry House or Shammini's Chettinad King Cuisine or whatever be it in the trendiest part of Bangsar or Bukit Bintang.
The kind of food that makes you think of five star service and what not in Malaysia is actually what you can get from a road side stall in India. It puts you off it does. I go there almost every other year and I can never get used to the food. Always something or the other will go wrong and my stomach will not be on best terms with me for the duration of the trip, which is a big dimmer in the whole experience. So much so that every time I do go there I am bound to lose weight. Which is a plus point.
I would recommend going to India though. It's different. If you think we Malaysian's have it tough with work and education and family and all, you are all wusses compared to what they have to go through. There are people there surrounded by poverty and no chance of seeing the outside world but they persevere and I suppose they have the "If I don't get there, my son/daughter will" sort of attitude. Its amazing. I was watching the news there the other day (In English) and there was this huge accident where two trains had crashed into each other. I dunno how many had died, but within hours, normal service had resumed. Tell me that isn't impressive.
Not long before that, the attack on the Taj and the Oberoi. I was there. I was in Bombay at the time. Just getting into the city in the morning after being in Calcutta for the whole week for my cousin (another one) was getting married. People were killed and the city was in lock down. Soldiers carrying machine guns were staring at us with suspicious looks and armored vehicles were everywhere. The next day, everything is back to normal.
Its a great country if you enjoy different culture's. India is diverse too. Only while here we have differences that are noticeable, I mean, you can differentiate an Indian to a Malay to a Chinese, and we are all free to choose our own religion, there everyone is an Indian but religion is up to what you believe in. So you have a bit of everything and maybe more. A lot of festivities and the gap between people was broken a long long time ago. Now, they dont need a politician going around telling us that only through 1 Malaysia can Ali and Cheong and Raman be good friends. They were there long ago.
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I will keep going there again and again and again. I hope if you can, you do the same. Because it is India, and in my opinion, where it all started.
The food. That is the interesting bit. Indian's are not completely meat eaters. We are more subdued in that sort of meat eating aspect. We don't eat beef for religious reasons and that is an irony in itself the way I see it but I'll let that pass. We observe vegetarianism for certain months of the calender or when someone die's or there is a religious thing going on. The reason being that God is a vegetarian. Another irony in my opinion, but again, I'll let that pass.
If you are Malaysian and a non-Indian, you would think that our food is mainly based on curries and rice with lots of veggies in it. And you would be right. You would think that the local 'anne' in the curry house serving you mutton varuval and chicken chettinad shows the true form of Indian food. And you would be dead wrong. That doesn't even scratch the surface of what real Indian food is. We don't need to use curry powder if we could avoid it. Real Indian food is so rich and so totally different from whatever nonsense you get from shops like Maalas Curry House or Shammini's Chettinad King Cuisine or whatever be it in the trendiest part of Bangsar or Bukit Bintang.
The kind of food that makes you think of five star service and what not in Malaysia is actually what you can get from a road side stall in India. It puts you off it does. I go there almost every other year and I can never get used to the food. Always something or the other will go wrong and my stomach will not be on best terms with me for the duration of the trip, which is a big dimmer in the whole experience. So much so that every time I do go there I am bound to lose weight. Which is a plus point.
I would recommend going to India though. It's different. If you think we Malaysian's have it tough with work and education and family and all, you are all wusses compared to what they have to go through. There are people there surrounded by poverty and no chance of seeing the outside world but they persevere and I suppose they have the "If I don't get there, my son/daughter will" sort of attitude. Its amazing. I was watching the news there the other day (In English) and there was this huge accident where two trains had crashed into each other. I dunno how many had died, but within hours, normal service had resumed. Tell me that isn't impressive.
Not long before that, the attack on the Taj and the Oberoi. I was there. I was in Bombay at the time. Just getting into the city in the morning after being in Calcutta for the whole week for my cousin (another one) was getting married. People were killed and the city was in lock down. Soldiers carrying machine guns were staring at us with suspicious looks and armored vehicles were everywhere. The next day, everything is back to normal.
Its a great country if you enjoy different culture's. India is diverse too. Only while here we have differences that are noticeable, I mean, you can differentiate an Indian to a Malay to a Chinese, and we are all free to choose our own religion, there everyone is an Indian but religion is up to what you believe in. So you have a bit of everything and maybe more. A lot of festivities and the gap between people was broken a long long time ago. Now, they dont need a politician going around telling us that only through 1 Malaysia can Ali and Cheong and Raman be good friends. They were there long ago.
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