Incredible India part IV

Everybody knows I hate India to death! Seriously, it's not a place to be. Nobody wants to live in this country. But this time around, let's forget all the hatred I have for this country. This is about humanity. This is about the less fortunate people living in this poor country. This is about survival. This is about India.

You'll be seeing wonderful pictures depicting real life in India. Pictures that speak a thousand words. Oh yeah, Malaysians are becoming so fond of photography lately. Funny thing is, they are soooo fond of shooting female faces (and bods) to the extend of main sebat je model mana pun janji kau perempuan. LOL.

A big LOL indeed. I've been stalking some Malaysian photogs pages with their model sebat, I adore the skill, but the models? -___-" Becoming a model isn't really that hard nowadays LOL.

I beg for Malaysian photographers to wake up and take photos that screams humanity, emotions, life, corruption and love. Pretty faces can wait.

Eh eh, okayyy. Nobody wants to read my craps. This is India, no words, just pictures ;

greedy man. lazy but demanding.

sympathy behind syndicate

beg for hope

"i used to be a manager, but look at me now.."

if only they had been there, they'll understand

man with laws

sleeping beauty

sad angry woman

"we're muslim and we're proud of it"

Don't just look at the pictures, instead, try to comprehend the pictures. The photos really speak a thousand words. And they're all taken here in India, Incredible India.

p/s : These brilliant photos and captions are courtesy of Fairuz Shah who's willing to share his work here in my blog. Thank you for that.

Read Incredible India part I here
Read Incredible India part II here
Read Incredible India part III here

we girls have amnesia :D

we girls are very forgetful,
we forget things all the time,
we forget about almost anything and everything,

therefore,

we need to be reminded again and again,
of how much you love us.

we need to be reminded again and again,
of how much you adore us.

we need to be reminded again and again,
of how much you miss us.

we need to be reminded again and again,
of how much you need us.

we need to be reminded again and again,
of how important we are in your life.

we need to be reminded again and again,
of the reasons why you love us.

we need to be reminded again and again,
that life sucks without us.

because if you don't do that,
we'll forget.

because we girls suffer from amnesia,
so deal with it, guys!

Incredible India Part III

Semalam, hidup aku dekat India diperkotak-katikkan. It was just like a joke. But Indian jokes are not funny, Indian jokes adalah jenaka paling brengset.

I woke up yesterday morning (well, afternoon) to an sms from a friend, she wrote something like this :

"Ira, exam commed esok postpone rabu depan sebab india ade strike"

Macam tak cayeee, tapi bila bukak facebook, semua orang pun buat status happy2 sebab the admin postpone our exam to the next Wednesday. Wah, time tu rasa senangnya dalam hatiiiii. Confirm la tu memang exam postpone. Bahagia.

Just so you know, commed is community medicine and this exam is no joke. This is our 2nd internal assessment which means our marks carry a portion till our final exam so it is clearly a serious exam. I mean, bukan la stok exam yang kau boleh buat perangai malas nak ambik sebab bukan effect carry marks or anything pun. Nah, ini exam memang bermakna buat final kami-kami sekalian.

So, since mereka telah men-postpone-kan examku kepada Rabu depan, maka adalah kerugian yang maha besar kalau tak menggunakan masa yang ada untuk pergi tukar duit ringgit and beli saree yang orang kirim. Kalau tak, kena tunggu sampai 1 day before my departure time to Malaysia barulah I will have the time to do all those things. But thank god, exam got postponed. Thanks to the upcoming strike. Suka suka

And so I went out. Struggle cari saree orang. Business beb. Lepas tu struggle bargain for the cheapest rate to change my rupees to ringgit. Done. It was around 6pm, tengah order iced tea and blueberry cheese cake when an sms came in ;

"Ira, ko tau tak esok exam jadi balik sebab india tak jadi strike esok, diorang nak strike hari rabu kot"

Cilakak.

Dah 6pm, baru order makanan, from that place to my house ade la dalam 30-40 mins, sampai rumah kau ingat aku boleh terus terkam buku ke? Penat lagi, pening bau asap auto lagi, nak mandi lagi. Brengset. Ingat peperiksaan Bahasa Melayu ke boleh taram buat esei "Bapakku kawin lagi".

In community medicine, you have to memorize facts and to memorize facts you need to have clear mind and how do I have clear mind knowing that I can only start studying the most pon at 9pm (lepas dah tolak mandi, rehat express, tido express) and I have 3 really big chapters to cover?

Seriously, pernah terjadi ke dalam sejarah hidup orang lain di mana exam telah ditunda dengan confidentnya tapi last minute nanti dia kata exam tak jadi tunda. I don't think so. This can only happen in India, coz in India, nothing is impossible.

That's why they call it Incredible India.

p/s : well I hope that makes us all incredible medical students.

In case you missed Incredible India part I and part II, you can click here and here.

Aidilfitri in Bangalore, India :)

Raya falls on Saturday, sehari lambat daripada Malaysia. It's always like that. Orang kat Malaysia dah sebok2 raya we in India still kena puasa lagi sehari. So btw, after the pre-raya celebration at Mcna's, me and some girls balik kampung. Kampung konon-konon je. Kitorang sleepover rumah Husna malam raya tu. Kiranya Husna jadi nenek and we all jadi cucu2 la. I siap bawak baju raya terus k sebab nak bersiap kat sane je. Baru meriah sket kan ;p

Disebabkan kegagalan mencari bunga api, maka malam raya kitorang disajikan dengan cerita hindustan. Dahla raya dekat India, malam raya pun tengok cerita India. Tapi korang jangan sceptical dengan cerita hindustan k. Cerita hindustan sekarang bukan jenis guling2 bukit macam dulu, now most cerita hindustan adalah berkisar tentang humanity, race and religion discrimination, so on and so forth. So, hate to admit but yeah, bollywood is much better than malaywood. Ehhhhh apesal aku lari topic???! I am supposed to talk about my raya in Bangalore, sekali terpromote cerita hindustan plakkkss!

OK maka kitorang tidur beramai2 depan TV. Dengan segala miraclenya, kitorang semua bangun at 6 am okayyy. Melantak nasik himpit dengan rendang lepas tu semua bantai tido balik. Golongan mulia bangun la around 7 ke 8 camtu kot, pergi sembahyang raya, golongan hampas membuta sampai pukul 11 pagi. Punah impianku untuk merasa suasana pagi raya bermaaf-maafan sesama rakan taulan dan bergambar ala2 keluarga bahagia. Penat je tau lantik Husna jadi nenek, Fatin jadi atuk, kitorang cucu2, last2 cucu2 kene tinggal terbongkang kat rumah tatkala atuk nenek pergi menunaikan sembahyang raya.

So, gambar di pagi raya memang haram takde. Gambar di tengahari raya ade lah. This is the pic tatkala baru melangkah keluar rumah, make up pun still tebal di muka muka kami lol. Tunggu sat lagiii, caiq semua make-up.


On our way to Sanjay Nagar, ada open house my batch. The food was soooooo much my stomach can't handle it. Semua ada ok? Nasik himpit, rendang, kuah kacang, laksa, mee kari, nasik ayam, lontong yada yada. Tapi sedap sedap! Ni gambar2 di sekitar rumah Tikah and Mimi at Sanjay Nagar.




Then, pulang ke Gokula, ada lagi satu open house budak my batch jugak. Time ni dah tak larat menyumbat makanan heavy. Makan kuih muih sajes. Perut haruslah di jaga. Kalau dah tak boleh stretch, usah di paksa kerana ia mengakibatkan kebuncitan yang hodoh. Well, ni dekat rumah Shasha, Tikah Hamdan and Baya.


And lepas dah kenyang semuaaaa, baru teringatttt "eh koranggg, kite tak tangkap lagi gmbar untuk salam perantauan next year!!" Padahal time ni memang dah tak sesuai langsung nak shoot gambar sebab memasing muka dah kekenyangan lagi kepenatan. Tapi layan kan je. Padahal aku rasa next year we'll be celebrating raya in Malaysia. Rasenye lahhh! Ni lah konon-konon gmbar salam perantauan next year.

OK OK then by evening, balik rumah terus terbongkang till malam. Malam tu I kena pergi rumah Ninot nak buat chocolate cake sebab esoknya kitorang punye open house pulakkk. Ninot prepared the ingredients while I did the mixing. Mengantuk amat k mmg nak tertidur2 time mixing tu.

So as I mentioned, the next day bersamaan 2nd day raya, was our open house pulak. It was held at Nadia's place. Erm nothing much I guess. So just enjoy the pictures lah!







And after this open house, maka tamat sudah sambutan Aidilfitri di Bangalore. Sebab the 3rd day raya sudah ada class and clinical posting. Kami selaku warga berjiwa kental pun datang la ke kelas untuk menuntut ilmu. Cewah. Mulia gila ayat. Maka rugilah mereka-mereka yang masih di Malaysia menyambut raya, nampaknya ilmu yang kami pelajari hari ni agak melimpah ruah.

The best part of raya is, you get to be together :) I suka la leh lepak2 with everyone from my batch. It wud be sooooo much nicer if dapat celebrate raya together with the seniors and juniors jugak. It's always good to get out of your own little world sometimes , kan? Let's hope for a better raya celebration next year! Much love, tataaaa!!

Pre-raya Celebration in Bangalore

Guess everyone is still in raya mood kan, unfortunately we have started our classes today, on 3rd day of raya. Heee. Ku tabahkan jiwa dan raga jugak pergi ke kelas hari ni. Cewah, padahal tak rase pe mende pun, pegi je la dey. Apa ada hal?

So btw, demi menceriakan blogku yang kusam dan masam, I'll be uploading raya pics yang tak seberapa ni. Gambar adalah hasil usaha sama dengan Blackberry Am. I didn't bring my camera sebab cameraku sudah pun berusia 3 tahun, paham2 je la, 7 mega pixel jer, segan deyyy, camera orang lain mantap2 gitu. So let's start off with the pre-raya celebration here in Bangalore.


Okay la, seriously, nothing much pun. Hehe. The plan was to break the fast at Mcna's house but semua pun cam kalut sket tak siap masak lagi so cam around 7.30pm la kot baru leh makan dengan riang gembira. Before 7.30pm tu memasing cuit sikit kek la, cuit kuih la ape lah. Lapar kottt. Kata puasaaa! Oh ohhh, satu tragedi menyayat hati juga took place at Mcna's house di mana telah berlaku kebakaran sebab somebody tuang petrol (eh?) masa nak start the fire utk bakar satay. Ok time korang cerita ni aku dah mamai2 so kalau tersilap info do correct me ;p Tapi, Mimi telah bertindak sepantas kilat dengan melenyapkan kebakaran tersebut dengan melemparkan her blanket. Maka, problem solved. Tapi bak kata Aina, beliau sudah cuak gila takut nanti keluar berita '9 orang pelajar jurusan perubatan di Bangalore rentung dalam kejadian kebakaran menghidupkan api satay'. Rentung ok lagi kot Aina? Haha. So, get the idea? Mane tak kalut kan?

So as you can see, it was an all-girls gathering. Hehe. The guys pun ada pot luck jugak time ni. I prepared sambal ikan bilis untuk dimakan along with lontong ;p Ada banyak gak makanan lain, rendang, kuah kacang, nasik himpit, nasik hujan panas, ayam percik, acar, satay, banyak laaa! Sampai tak termakan semua.

Time ni dah pasang lagu2 raya. Siap ngan lampu lip lap lip lap. Ada gantung2 ketupat jugak. Kasi rasa sket suasana hari raya. Well, at least terubat la rasa sedih tak balik raya tu kan. Kental ok. Fatin prepared a raya video, saje mau kasi feeling2. Hehe. Lepas tu, kami berkaraoke lagu raya, tapi pakai youtube je -__-" and penyanyi utama tak lain tak bukan adalah pencapub nombor 1 Bangalore, Baz.

Oh ohhhh, kalau anyone of you rasa cam kenal je baju yang I pakai tu, yesss, tu baju raya 2 tahun lepas harap maklum. Material adalah kain silk saree with stones. Exclusive youuu, kalau nak order saree, let me know coz I'm going back dis October. Jangan lepaskan peluang anda. Eh ehhh. Sorry ter-iklan saree plak. Ni susah kalau business-minded sangat. Tapi jangan lupe k calling2 kalau nak saree.

Time ni rasa thankful sangat that we actually have each other di perantauan. Yelah, bayangkan u have to celebrate raya alone? Tak ke sadis? To tell you the truth, celebrating raya abroad is not all that bad, as long as you have your friends with you :) It was, well, I can say, a wonderful experience. Compared to raya celebration masa I was in my first year, this year's celebration is so so so so so so much betterrrrr!!

Sekian dulu saya melaporkan perkembangan hari raya di Bangalore. Khas buat rakan-rakan yang struggle pulang ke Malaysia untuk menyambut raya terutama sekali buat Denin classmateku yang belot pulang raya di Malaysia dengan ucapan, jangan bawak balik budu je deh, kuih raya dan kerepek2 raya jgn lupe deh!

More to come soon!

Amazing Race FINALE : London

I know this is like soooo last season lah kan! But, I'm writing this for the sake of completing my travelogue ;p plus I'm sure gonna read this when I miss my Euro trip one day. In fact, I miss it nowwww!

Sooo, from Paris, we took the bus to London. Not really that comfortable. Reached London at night, stopped at Victoria's bus station kot. Then, went to Bayswater to check-in the Malaysia Hall. For your info, you need to book the Malaysia Hall through the net first, you can't just barge in like that. I got to stay alone in 1 room coz there's no triple room, Ninot pun dah cakap awal2 she didn't wanna stay alone coz dia takut ada pontianak in London ;p

Big Ben

Nothing much about London, everyone pun dah pergi London kan so there's really no need for me to brag about it here kan. We basically went sight seeing in London. Big Ben, Eye of London, the Parliament, Buckingham Palace etc etc. The next day, we went to Manchester. I didn't wanna go but I had to coz my friends yg dekat London semua cam tengah busy exam and all, so I can't stay at their places kan, so I've to go to Manchester :( sebenarnya taknak, sebab Manchester ada stadium tu je kot. Which I tak fancy pun. Baik stay a little longer in London so I can shop more. In Manchester, we all tumpang rumah Jannah! Thanks for the hospitality babe! :)

Eye of London

Then, went back to London. This time, no more sight seeing. It's time to shop! Berbekalkan saki baki duit Western Union yang my dad transfer, I did a little (yes, really) shopping! Actually dah spare 400 pounds to shop in London but aaaaaaaaaaaa, terima kasih banyak2 la volcano in Iceland, you took my money away :( so shop sikit je lah. But seriously, I wanna go back there nak borong all the shoessssss!!!!!! Sumpah jadi sawan tengok all the shoes in Oxford Street. I did buy one pair, thought of buying another pair, but if I really did buy another pair, I bebetul tinggal sen sen je lepas tu.

the double decker bus!

Oh one highlight to be shared lah, cerita pasal Malaysia Hall. You know, from Manchester, we went back to London kan. We did the online booking already. Time tu pun airport dah start operating after the volcano thingy kan. When we got back to London, nak check-in Malaysia Hall, memula the receptionist said actually the rooms are all reserved for those ppl who are stranded, but there are plenty of available rooms. Plus the volcano ashes pun mcm dah nak clear kan, so the receptionist cam bagi kitorang check-in. Dah siap kasi kunci okay.

Tetibe when the warden(yes, Malaysia Hall has a warden) came, she insisted us to give back the key sebab macam she couldn't allow us to stay in Malaysia Hall sebab nak jugak reserve utk orang2 stranded padahal the rooms byk gila available pls. Plus airport dah bukak kot! Semua airlines pun dah start fly kot! (OK berapa kali nak cakap daa) She insisted us to check-in the hostel nearby! Eeee kerek gila. Siap cakap macam ni ;

"Kamu kan backpackers, pergi lah check in hostel je"

Sumpah tak exaggerate. Bengang kan kan kan? Dahlah masa dekat London sgt suntuk, coz of the volcano of course, masa in Paris and London mmg rushing sket sbb volcano tu. Tapi warden ni lagi nk buat drama. Thank god time tu ade dis pegawai MARA who happened to be someone yg jaga budak2 IB KMS dulu, so he allowed us to leave our baggage in his office in Malaysia Hall. Baik gila! So we left our luggage there and went off to do some shopping.

Back to Malaysia Hall only to know that the so called 'meeting' they had to discuss whether or not we are allowed to stay in Malaysia Hall was not yet over. Annoyed la kan. Bukan nak tolong kite, lagi nak bagi kite masalah ade la kan. So kitorang decided to just leave the Malaysia Hall and check-in the hostel, which is just sebelah Malaysia Hall. Kerek tak kerek la kan.

what's the name of this park again?!

otw to Buckingham Palace

I intended to bring back some chocolates but too bad, duit I semua habis shopping. Luckily I'm not a big fan of souvenirs so agak save di situ. Thank god jugak my dad was willing to transfer some money, if not memang merempat lah! Finally, the Euro trip came to an end. We were already too tired, baju pun dah berapa kali recycle hahaha except for a few yg memang hantar pergi laundry. Tapi stillll, pardon me for having just 2 jackets LOL ;p

Buckingham Palace at the back!

the only one picture I have in Manchester.
Didn't even get into the stadium.
Not even tempted to go in.

Our Euro trip memang agak adventurous lah. Merempat tah mane2 je dah berapa kali. No tour guide at all. We are our own boss. Jalan semua ikut map, thank goodness the guys were there to read the maps. Saya failed kot baca map ;p there were salah faham here and there during the trip tapi it didn't last long, berapa minit lepas tu okay balik ;p hehehe

It was a wonderful experience!! I am now planning for my next euro trip, heheh, since Farah pun now dekat Glasgow, Scotland, studying in the exact same university my dad used to so macam lagi lah I wanna go there kan. My dad pun support I suro pergi Scotland. Hahaha. Support pakai air liur je lah, bukan pakai duit. Now pun duit tengah kering kontang tapi I will surely start saving soon! Hopefully lah ada cuti and ada duit! ;p

So, back to Bangalore! India kembali.

Amazing Race : Pisa and Rome

We took the train from Venice to Pisa. Left our luggage at the train station and off we go - Piazza del Duomo. This is where the leaning tower of Pisa stands! Besides the leaning tower, there are few other monuments in that area.

Piazza del Duomo

And the signature pose one must do when taking picture with the leaning tower! Everyone does it! Including me ;p

The signature pose

My turn

doesn't turn out so cool

Leaning tower of Pisa

Nothing much about Pisa though. We spent around 1-2 hours taking pictures, and quickly took the bus to the train station. We had a train to catch up! Euro star train to Rome!

Reached Rome at night. Found a hostel which was quite expensive, but we were too tired to search for a cheaper hostel maka, layan! Off to bed early, gotta be early for the Colloseum!

Early never seems so early for us girls ;p I guess the guys were getting too much annoyed with us. Geez. It's a girl thing. You'll never understand anyway. Funny enough, this top world wonder is located just next to the main road. Sungguh tak mystical. Seriously, keluar the train station, terus nampak the Colloseum across the road. Once again, sungguh tak mystical.

In brief about the Colloseum ; it was something like the ancient version of our modern stadium where it can occupy up to 50 thousands spectators at a time. Basically, the games held were those of gladiatorial fights, men vs animals match and animal hunts. These form the basis of Roman entertainment -_-" sangat cruel kan? Mostly, the gladiators were the slaves, prisoners of the war and condemned criminals. But there were also volunteers who came up front for the sake of monetary reward and fame! Now that's my hero!

But what we see today is just the ruin of the Colloseum. All blame goes to the earthquake, fire, stone robbers and other natural disasters. Much of the original structure which are supposed to give the lavish decorations of the Colloseum are nowhere to be found. But you can see some remains at the Colloseum exhibition.

That's a very brief information about the Colloseum. Outside the colloseum, bangla-bangla sumpah bersepah and yes, they recognize Malaysians and they'll speak malay with you. Campaklah bangla kat mane2 pun, they'll survive. Ha kan dah masuk cerita pasal bangla.

Colloseum~

the ruins of Colloseum

Inside the Colloseum

The interior of Colloseum

Next, we went to the famous Pantheon. Pantheon was built during the Roman Empire, and it depicts the symbol of God, heaven, and things like that lah of the ancient Rome. It is a burial site for some important Italians. Too bad the building was under construction during our visit. Hm.

Pantheon means All Gods

Next was Trevi Fountain. Ala terlupa nak upload pic. It's somewhere in my facebook photo album. It's just a fountain, a beautiful and famous one. People are throwing coins every now and then into the fountain and they get roughly 3000 euros per day!! That's crazy man!

And did I mention that beggars are everywhere in Italy? But beggars in Rome especially, adalah sangat stylo. They don't wear shabby clothes and they don't smell like ikan kering. All they need to do is pretend to be 'someone' or 'something' amusing, and gain money out of it. Some even dance in the middle of the crowd to earn a living. But at least :)

The invisible - the beggar

another beggar

The next day we went to Vatican City, the sacred place of Christians. Nothing much really. Not lucky enough to meet the Pope LOL! Vatican City adalah sangat kecik okay I thought the area is big coz it's a whole different country kan! That makes Vatican City the smallest country in the world.

Joe is my tangkap-gambar-kasi-poyo partner. At Vatican City

Vatican City

St Angelo Castle is just a few steps away from Vatican City. Tanak cerita banyak about the castle (yes you got me right, I dunno much about the castle pun) It was originally built by Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum, later functioned as fortress and currently is a museum. Okay, I only know that much. The history isn't that interesting anyway!

St Angelo Castle

Piazza di Spagna was up next. Also famously known as Spanish Steps. Spent a few minutes there coz really there was nothing interesting pun. Wonder why it attracts tourists, sebab cantik semata la kot? But anyway, there were churches up there, so maybe that's why.

Piazza di Spagna

Lastly, the Colloseum at night! Taraaaa, memang cantiklah at night! But you can't possibly get into the Colloseum at night, tangkap gmbar dari luar boleh lah.

Colloseum at night

That night we refused to check-in the hostel coz our bus to the airport leaves at 4am so mcm not worth la check-in hostel then dapat tidur till 3am camtu je. And anyway, there was supposed to be a 24-hour cafe so intended to just hang out at the cafe till 4am. Malang itu tidak berbau, cafe yang dimaksudkan tutup pulakkk! Tensi! And we get to know that the cafe was closed pun dah late at night. Lagilah tak nak check-in sebab rasa tak worth it.

Okay buat muka tak malu tanya the receptionist of the hostel if we could just hang around at the lobby till at least 3am. Dengan segala kesiannya, they refused to let us stay. Eiii sangat takde courtesy okay! Dahlah we stayed at the hostel for 2 nights kot! Courtesy to the guests takde kee?!

Clueless about where to lepak till 4am. McD closes at 2am, so it'll still be the same, plus you need to spend some euros if lepak in McD. So tell you what, I suggested that we just lepak dekat the ground floor of the hostel as the receptionist won't get to see us still merempat in the hostel vicinity. At least tak mati kesejukan if terpaksa lepak luar kan.

Tah macam mane, tetiba there's this one pakcik datang, halau kitorang okayyy!! I believe the pakcik is the owner of the hostel or the manager ke apa tah la. Won't forget his words.

"You better leave now before I call the police"

Okay, macam pendatang asing kan? Sumpah biadap. We stayed for 2 freaking nites at the hostel, paid quite an amount, takkan kau sikit courtesy pun takde? It's not that we don't have money at all, it's just that we need to save some for future purposes! I was not bold enough to pull a dramatic act so okay pakcik, we left the hostel. We end up joining the homeless ppl outside Rome train station that night.

Believe me when I say, kiri kanan kitorang adalah homeless yang bentang surat khabar or kotak2 utk tidur and berbau hampas hancing hamis yucks yucks but we had no choice wehhhh so terpaksa join. Baru landing beberapa minit, ada pakcik homeless selamba tahi kencing just about 10 metres in front of us. Redha.

Outside Rome train station

And I overheard a passerby said "Pity them...."

Damn it.