Myths About India

I went for a short trip to India, or more accurately Chennai, recently. No, it wasn't a sight seeing trip, nor was it a temple trip. I went there for my friend's wedding.

I have heard many stories about India - too many in fact.
The stories have made me not want to go to India.
I was actually afraid of going to India because of all the things people have planted in my head.
Now that I have gone and experienced India myself, let me clarify a few things that have been said about India.

1. India is very dirty.
It is as dirty as Malaysia is. I don't think we have a right to comment on others regarding this issue.

2. You get diarrhoea if you eat their food, drink their water.
Let me tell you something, as far as I know, out of the 6 of us Malaysians who went to India together, none of us had any gastroenteritis. We had food at hotels and restaurants, we had bottled water, we had their tea and we had bajji (which they fried at the seaside) and we survived. So guess that is not true as well.

3. There are beggars everywhere and they will all rush and come ask money from you.
Throughout my stay, I saw only 1 beggar I think. Try walking aroung KL for a day and tell me how many you saw.

4. It is hot and dusty.
It is dusty, yes, but then that is because of the lack of rain. But to say it is hot, we don't exactly live in the Artic, you know..

5. Many times, I have heard stories of how the people in India 'relieve' themselves everywhere and everywhere.
NOT TRUE! (At least, I didn't see any)

6. Pickpockets are everywhere.
Once again, please look at your own backs*** before you talk about others.

7. It's noisy.
This I agree. Horns blaring everywhere! But I guess that is their style of driving.

8. You have to wear sarees/punjabi suits wherever you go or people will be staring at you.
I wore jeans EVERYWHERE. The girls there wear jeans as well. No big deal.

9. Shopping in India is good.
It's not just good, it is INCREDIBLE!! Never in my life have I shopped like that. I practically had to tear myself away from the shops. The punjabi suits and sarees are so cheap and beautiful..and the variety they have is AMAZING!!

10. When you shop there, the people will try to cheat you.
I am not much of a bargaining person, so I went to all fixed price shops, and I think I got a good deal. If you are so afraid of getting cheated, just go to such shops.

I can't think of anymore things..but here's what I am trying to say, India is not at all that bad. I never thought I would say this, but I WILL go to India again. For sight seeing and for shopping. Or maybe I should say for SHOPPING and for sight seeing. And to see my friends there (who are such gems and took care of us like children when we were there)

I will put up another post with pictures and more details of my trip - don't have any pictures with me right now.

Dinnertime

You would think that after a month of not writing anything, I would have loads of interesting things to tell. You are wrong.

My day to day life has now SO monotonous that the days have just blended to one another and I can't tell a Monday from a Friday.

Here's how a typical day goes - wake up-go to work-review patients-rounds with MO-rounds with specialist-do ward work-lunch-pm review-ward work-go back home-go for dinner-back home-bathe/go online/read story book-sleep.

This is a daily routine. The only spark of excitement in my life is dinner.

I now have permanent dinner mates, all of us housemen, which means that our topic of conversation is about the specialists, MOs, housemen and cases that we saw that day at work. And to imagine, that is the most exciting part of my day..

Here's the thing. In the morning, you go to work feeling neutral (not happy, not sad, not angry). But throughout the course of the day, things change.

Most of the days, things go wrong. In fact, I come back almost everyday, angry about something. Maybe it's just me (or maybe it's not). But I have to say, I am quite glad that I am getting out of this department soon (hopefully I don't get extended). It's not the work, it's just the people that I have to work with that I can't stand. What is the use of having 20 people to drive a car if no one is willing to offer to drive it or if they can't be bothered to properly learn how to drive it?

There were also days that I came back smiling. Days when it felt like nothing in the world can make me feel bad. However, such days were rare.

I am getting out of the topic though. All I'm trying to say is, good days or bad days, one needs to pour their heart out to someone, and who else better to talk to that those who know all the characters in the stories? Right?

So that's why our dinner topics are such a bore. In fact, it's not just our dinner topics. It's our all the time topic, whether we meet in the hospital or out of the hospital. It got so bad, till KR complained that that is the only thing we talk about and he is bored of it.

I guess I am lucky. I have people around me who actually care for me. Who buy for me dinner whenever I am oncall because the oncall food sucks. I have people who listen to me when I complain, who look at me and in one glance know that I am unhappy about something. I am lucky because I have managed to find myself a few true friends, who really care about me.

A year ago, I used to eat dinner alone everyday, with a storybook to keep me company. Nowadays, I hardly have time to read my storybook because I spend that time having dinner and talking stories. Maybe that is one of the reason of my inactivity here..Can't blame a girl if she's too busy talking to write, right?