Traffic

On the busy road today back from work at the traffic lights, I heard a siren wail and suddenly realised that there was a Fire Truck two cars behind mine, in the bumper to bumper traffic all the cars tried to create space by moving into their side lanes to make a partition. Then the lights turned green and everyone was still looking behind if there is space for the truck to go through. My car was the one obstructing the truck and then I floored it as all traffic in front mine cleared, going over the speed limit so that the fire truck can go faster.

Two weeks ago, when in Hyderabad, when crossing the road (on foot) in bumper to bumper traffic cars and bikes refuse to let me get through, would they have let a fire truck or ambulance through? Not sure about that.

At the Hyderabad airport when the guests (of the travellers) to travellers ratio was 15:1 and a queue to get in the terminal, every other person broke in not allowing the patient ones to get through and one foreigner turns around and tells his friend, "Same rules as traffic!". I guess it will take some time for us Indians to think about others, if only for a second.

To India and Back

Inspiration lost and laziness is to be blamed for the absence of any blog postings over the past few months. Quite a few changes happened to me personally, which I won't bore you or myself with.

One major thing and a highlight of the past few months was me visiting home. Now, if you go by my previous post ranting about visiting India then it was a very good experience overall. I thought the best way to get through Indian customs is to not be guilty of doing anything wrong at all. I didn't get any gifts for my blood relatives or the hosts at the airport at all, which helped me walk with my head up through the customs gates at Hyderabad.

A 6 hour wait at Singapore airport for my connecting flight allowed enough time for me to go on a free tour of Singapore sponsored by Singapore Tourism. If you have enough time there then it is recommended you take this opportunity, no visa required. Just ask the helpful staff at the airport and you will be pointed to the right direction.

Singapore in itself is a remarkable country, though I saw most of it through the bus in about 90 minutes, which kind of makes it very small, but the history of the country is something very interesting. From what I heard, its name was changed by the Japanese once as well. A large part of the land there is reclaimed from the sea, only for a golf course and a park to be built. But a remarkable congregation of three very different Asian groups: Chinese, Malay and South Indians is something that is not to be missed.

Nothing very notable about Hyderabad, except that the traffic has grown and with it the number of vehicles. Every second car I saw was newly purchased. The Nithari murder case of Noida was a rude shock as it shows how we Indians react to news this horrible. The blatant politicisation of it by our emminent rulers made it worse. We Indians have to realise that something of this kind may affect one of us soon and this is not something that is happening only on TV at some far off place.

I am back to work in Australia now. I am still contemplating if I should apply for citizenship here or not. Losing my identity is one of the top concerns, or may be I will be a very good example of "You can take the Indian out of India, but not India out of the Indian".