Singhs on a plane !!!

With the recent incidents of Indians being harassed at US Airports particularly India’s Permanent Representative at the UN Hardeep Singh Puri’s turban being asked to be removed as part of the intensive security search at Houston airport , one can go on arguing whether we should do the same to US national coming to India, why should we take this lying down and many more likewise ideas. Though individual religion beliefs should be respected but why only diplomats and babus get extra cover than normal ppl. But the question is, are the Indians only being marginalised, I guess all passengers are being searched as part of security clearing no matter which religion or natonality.

I presume,  westerners while at job, just do what they are expected or told to do. Nobody wants to roam the courts for cases and legal sues for negligence at work. They I guess might even frisk their own siblings to cover their jobs. Which doesn't seem wrong in any sense, so why not we just leave them do their job. If there is nothing to hide, why to worry. In India, a popular person could easily pass thru all security barriers without much fuss, which looks less cumbersome, but is that the right practice ? 
Recently I saw the movie - 'Inside Man' starring Denzel Washington about a bank robbery in NY. There was a particular scene which they would not have included had it not been rampant. The movie was superb, not to mention the Indian presence thru out the title and end credits by AR Rehman's Chal Chayan Chayan song being played along.


In the movie, the bank robbers release a sardarji outside the bank with hand tied and a message hanging on his neck. The police first thinks him as part of the robbery team and while checking, they remove his turban. The sardarji repeats that he is a Sikh and against his religion to touch the turban (reminds me of my old friend - Nimmo). Denzel Washington interrogates him but sardarji asks for his turban back before answering any question.

Sardarji : F****** tired of this shit. What happened to my f****** civil rights? Why can't I go anywhere without being harassed? Get thrown out a bank, I'm a hostage, I get harassed. I go to the airport, I can't go through security without a random selection. F****** random, my ass.
Denzel Washington : I bet you can get a cab though.
Sardarji : I guess that's one of the perks !!

Siam safari with a medical twist

Few months back, a dog near my villa mistook my foot for a hamburger and pierced its front teeth quite firmly. Though  it went back calmly, I was left bedazzled as to what next I would do, as it was late evening and no known hospitals close by. Luckily, a colleague came to my rescue and took me to Phuket International Hospital. While the admin staff and nurses were busy dealing with my wound, I saw many foreign nationals in the hospital. I was pondering as to how come so many nationals from other countries cud get sick in one time and descend upon the hospital though back in the mind I knew that Phuket being popular tourist destination might have its own share of tourist accidents and sickness. My colleague reading my thoughts intervened and said they are here on a medicinal picnic. I shot back at him – medicinal what ? picnic in hospital ? I was so engrossed with physical pain in leg and mental pain about my medical bill, that I dismissed that as some kinda jargon scheme either floated for westerns or for medical/doctors fraternity to benefit.

Later one day at our hotel, one of the guests at breakfast was asking me direction to one of the famous hospital. He was also inquiring about the general hygiene and other local stuffs. I told him about the relative safety of hospitals here and asked him citing at the cheerfulness of the morning hour, as to shouldn’t he be planning trips to Phi-Phi island or James Bond island instead. I was taken by surprise when he said that he has come to Phuket to get a hip replacement operation.

I was amazed as to why one would come to Phuket ignoring its lovely beaches and superb atmosphere, to get into certain complex surgery. I repeated this incident to the same colleague who had taken me to hospital the other day. To which he explained that this is called medicinal picnic by tourists or rather more famous  and  known term coined by economists as medical tourism. I learnt that due to high cost of medical treatments in ones own country, with waiting time and all, people from other countries visit nations which cud provide same treatment with same or better quality and importantly being lighter on wallet. 

With continuous work on computers, few weeks back, I had developed soar eyes and my HR dept took me to the Bangkok Hospital in Phuket town. The lobby of the hospital was so beautiful that I have never seen such a reception in my entire hotel professional life. Back in India, when one visits a hospital, the first thing that strikes you is the typical odour of medicines. Here it was so clean and tidy. For my return trip back home, my driver was struck up somewhere in traffic, running him late to pick me up. So I took this opportunity to talk to the lady at the counter about the touring community from different countries coming to their hospital for treatments. She answered my queries.

She told me that since medical facilities and infrastructure in Thailand are with par with any developed nation and costs are quite affordable, many foreigners come to get themselves treated here. These medical tourists do their homework beforehand by checking the various accreditation earned by hospitals like from JCI (Joint Commission International), ISO to name a few. Due to huge influx of patients from other nations, most of the big hospitals have a department or team who handle such exquisite foreign national patients. This core team handles transportation arrangements including ground or air ambulance, coordinates the admissions, scheduling appointments, hospital stay, assisting in financial arrangements including dealing with third party insurance companies and smooth discharge back to home country.

 

Compared with neighboring countries like Singapore, the healthcare cost over here is half and one-third compared with Hong Kong. So its not a wonder why Europeans and US nationals come to Thailand since the cost here its about 10-15 times more cheaper. People come here for wide range of treatments apart from the normal dental and cosmetic surgeries like face and forehead lift, liposuction, nose correction and neck lifts, the affordable price with professional services for hip or knee replacement surgeries, infertility treatments, drug rehabs are also high in demand.

Though Thailand is a developing country, hygiene and safety in prime hospitals are not compromised. Though there are no major viral threats, there is also no special vaccinations which are  recommended before coming here. Getting a treatment in such a gorgeous tropical environment, with lovely beaches, luxurious spas, entertainment options would surely be a dream for many.

Anyone ever imagined why Bollywood actress don’t get tired of twists n turns dancing routines in every alternate typical Bollywood movie songs, well the answer is many of them frequently visit the kingdom of Thailand for their cosmetic needs and rejuvenate themselves in various health spas here. So if somebody next time says that medical tourism at Thailand is a blessing in disguise to keep Bollywood ticking in world scenario, it should not be taken as flippant or frivolous enuf !

Eat Pray Pierce

That wud have been the title if Julia Roberts had come to Phuket instead of Bali after praying in India. The Phuket Vegeterian Festival has ended yesterday with the final farewell to Gods in various Chinese temples over here. First I thot Phuket Veg Fest was all about not having non-veg food for 10 days giving countless species a sigh of relief. I was wrong, there was more to it. I was shaken out of my myths when I saw the procession by devotees with the ultimate self mortification on the penultimate day. The cavalcade started from Kathu went towards the marine pier at town and back. Myself, my wife n kid with other local residents were on the street corner early morning to see the march close to our building on the main road.

In my childhood, I was zapped to see for first time, the aesthetic display of ppl piercing vels and trishuls in tounges or cheeks at a temple in Vikhroli-Bombay built by erstwhile Vardharajan Mudaliyar in an annual Thaipusam festival. Later in our native, saw devotees being hung from tractors with thier back stucked with hooks in the local Mariamman Pandigai (festival). Lately, when a friend from Malaysia sent snaps and web links of the Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves Karthikeyan Temple, I was surprised to know ppl there being more adventures then their counterparts in India. But what I saw with my open eyes over here in Phuket was bewildering and very puzzling.

As said earlier, In India had seen simple vels and trishuls (iron rods) been pierced in body, but devotees here were a step ahead, apart from regular spears, one cud see baseball bats, test-tubes, guns, sickles, umbrellas, knives and even bicycles pierced in and around ones mouth, face being the favourite part for piercing. Every alternate devotee was trying out different material to puncture himself with. Adding to the fervour was the continous shower of fire crackers, to wade away evil spirits. Though same concept of hindus, but here Diwali is mixed with Holi. Back in India, where we normally toss them away after igniting to a safer distance, here fire crackers are lit and thrown on each other as if playing holi with colors.

Li'l brief history, way back in 1825, when Phuket was thick with forests (it is still so), one touring opera company from China got seriously sick. They underwent veggy diet and worshipped their Gods to cure them from the unknown fever. The disappearance of the sickness made them put full faith on the powers of their diety and from then on with various modifications and cultures binding it thru the years it has come to the present state of festivity. This is primarily done to keep the evil spirits at bay and bring good luck to community.

One thing that caught me dumbfound was a little team of govt workers/sweepers who kept on cleaning the trail lane, as each unit of devotees passed by throwing flowers among other things and igniting fire crackers resulting in huge paper trashes on the road. After an hour or two, none of the craps were noticed and the road was as clean as always. Had some Indian municipal officer seen this, his face wud have succumbed down with shame, where the wastages are left to take its natural course of dispersal and scatter.

And from the various Chinese dieties that were taken on palkis in the procession, one that was distinguished was a goddess very similar to our own Lord Kaali. Since this happens here same time every year, when in India ppl are celebrating Durga Pooja and Navrathri, with only Bay of Bengal in between, was wondering whether there was some kinship or connection??

JAI MATA DI !

One Cuckoo flew over Bollywood nest

For past few weeks, gone thru many news n articles on Rajnikant after release of his Endhiran (tamil) dubbed Robo (hindi) movie, some speculating that a new box office records is on its way, how SRK & Hrithik are expanding their budget for RA1 and Krishh2 to match the sfx of this movie and some other waggish stories. But the thing I am waiting for is, the new Rajni jokes in the famous - What Rajni cant’ nobody can series. Some like - The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikanth kicked one of the corners off. Rajnikanth's every step creates a mini whirlwind, Hurricane Katrina was the result of a morning jog. Superb ! I guess, only Santa Singh-Banta Singh surpass him in that field and it’s a moot point to even discuss the comparison though some of it may be bemoaned by Rajni’s die-hard fans, still the sheer genius of ppl coming up with such soaring imagination is admirable.

There are certain items in print that I don’t agree with. Thru my days in Tamilnadu and whatever part of the state I’ve toured, I’ve never seen any temple for Rajnikant. I know and have met many die-hard fans of his, but no one has time or are brain-sick enuf to construct a temple. The huge garlands and aarthi to his cut-outs on movie release is south-indian style of welcoming home a hero from a long stay away, since he accepts a movie once in 2-3 yrs or so. It’s surely an idiocy to even comment that people in general treat him like real God and worship and other craps.

When western media made whimsical comments on Aamir Khan being 45 yr old  enacting as a fresh 18-yr Engg student in 3 Idiots or memory loss hero in Ghajani, no wonder why their counterparts in India wud spare 60-yr Shivaji Rao Gaikwad flexing his mannerism. Last time, with the same charm, he took the NDTV entertainer of the year award, apparently given by the same media. Wud he, this year too ??

Contrary to the funny series, there are many things which Rajni can and others cant apart from his unrivaled fees, having 60 shows of his movie in one single day in all the screens of a multiplex, the most striking which cant be matched with any actor anywhere in world is his ability to refund back his fees to producers and distributors if his movie is not a blockbuster let alone a hit.

When a friend from Dubai struggling in queue for first show at 7:30 am morning at  Grand Cinema - Hyatt Galleria tweeted that car parking collections from the theatres featuring Endihiran wud surpass the box office collections of Anjana-Anjani, I cud not stop laughing on the capitalist at heart to take notice of Superstar. Unfortunately, in Phuket there are no theatres which show Indian movies, neither Hindi nor Tamil. Thru an acquaintance, I’ve got a DVD of the movie dubbed in Thai. No clue how much I wud understand the lingo, but quite eager to know what exactly he says in Thai while bashing the villains like fruitcakes. Maybe, I cud steamroll some of it in my office on my staff with a piqued intolerance oozing from my gaze and ending the dialogue with the Thai equivalent of ‘Mind it’ !

Blame it on Lord Ram

I bet with recent hype with the Ayodhya issue, even Lord Ram in heavens must be glued to satellite TV for breaking news and wud have requested his IT team to keep the bandwidth of his net conection without hiccups. Intrestingly, while Lord Indra handles monsoon, Lord Kubera best at finance, am was wondering which Lord is handling the additional or rather new responsibility for IT & IT related stuffs above or have they outsourced them to the Greek Gods.

With around 13 crore Hindu Gods, why only Lord Rama was selected for the longest legal battle in modern India. The seventh incarnation of the God Vishnu is most famous second only to Lord Krishna in this era, ironically being not at par with the mischievous being of the latter. His epic, Ramayana thru which Valmiki conveyed how to be an ideal son, ideal brother, ideal king …failed to depict how to be an ideal citizen or rather importantly how to be an ideal minister.

As said earlier, this avatar of Lord Vishnu, has His epics in various versions around the world. Thai, Malay, Burmese and even Laos have their own version of Ramayana. Here in Thailand, they even have a city in the name of Ayutthaya named after Lord Ram. When Hindu politicians in India are untrammeled they cud go imprudently to world media to say that Thailand cant claim their Ayutthaya as the original birthplace of Lord Ram, which actually they are not even pretensing. And the funds lying in the one of the largest commercial banks in Thailand – Bank of Ayudhya, actually belongs to Lord Ram.

Other Gods in heaven must be very jealous of Lord Ram as any earthling who starts anything related to Him, get their points across, like the filthy politicians, irrational leaders claiming to uplift Hindu community, businessmen waiting for a wicked opportunity. Such is the mania, that the the actors in the popular TV serial of Ramayana of late 1980s also got famous. Leave aside Deepika(Sita), astonishingly even Arvid Trivedi who portayed Ravana is into politcs thanks to Lord Ram.

In the present jet-ski world, when ppl are forgetting even to spend a minute to worship the creator of the world, this is how He is making us remember or pray to Him. All those person who wud be travelling today till this weekend in India, wud be praying to their wits end. No wonder Railways has got so many ticket cancellations for next few days and some offices are closed.

In a nutshell, please dont get fooled around by the delirium spread out by politicans who wanna gain for their own political mileage. Remember, this is not going to end, after the High Court verdict, there is always an option to challenge it at Supreme Court, which might take anaother generation to reach a verdict.

The only avatar who cud get the country out of the present mess including CWG is none other than, you guessed it right – RAJNIKANT ….

Indian Gods in an everyday life of Bangkokian

With a whole day at disposal for my trip to the capital of the Thailand, I thought of roaming around the streets of Bangkok with those things which shows glimpses of Indian culture. I narrowed down that search for Hindu gods in everyday life in the main streets of this megacity. Just like India, one cud find Lord Ganesha statues all over Bangkok. Vignahartha is at His best and so is Lord Vishnu with Seshnag in a corner of a bus stand on my way to Bangkok ...

The board 'Arulmigu Sri Mariamman Kovil' in tamil lingo was such a treat to my eyes to watch tamil in a foreign land. This temple of Uma Devi is based in the centre of Silom - the financial district of Bangkok. From Silom BTS station I had to ask many local about 'Wat Kaek' as thats' the name they have given the temple in their lingo. Saw many tamil devotees at the temple and a board stating it to be bilt around 1879..

Lord Erawan (Brahma) - how many of us have been to any Brahma temple in India, I guess none. But here in Thailand, Lord Brahma is cherished more than any other Hindu God. The Lord Erawan Shrine of Bangkok is based near the Chit Lom BTS Station at Ratchaprasong intersection of Ratchadamri Rd and it has a very long and intresting history. At regular intervals there is a dance troupe which perform regular skits which are either based on Ramayana or Mahabharatha. Lord Brahma is reffered as Phra Phrom in thai language quite similar to Parha Brahma in hindi. 

Phra Intra - I definetely have never been to any Indhra temple in India. I guess, there are some mythological reasons why this king of heavens does not have a shrine back home. There is a more famous statue of Lord Indhra with his three-headed elephant at Wat Arun which is also referred as the temple of dawn in Bangkok.

Lord Vishnu & Lord Garuda ..

Krut Pha - Lord Garuda is the national symbol of Thailand Goverment. Its referred as the symbol of royal family and authority. One wud find his statues on all major banks, govt and corporate buildings.

This is first time that I am watching a Ardhanareeswarar statue (Shiv-Parvathy) outside Tamilnadu. The best one is based at Tiruchengode on a hill temple. This one is very beautiful and just outside the street connecting Indian Embassy. Superb depiction of the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies of Shiv-Shakthi in Bangkok ...

T-20

It was 24-Sep-2007, final match between India and Pakistan in the first ever T20 world cup, broadcasted live around the world. It was thru channel Ten Sports that me and my room-mates had intended to watch the match. Unfortunately it was Monday, so no off from office, though we spent most of the time in office talking about what India team shall do to win it, relaxing in the fact that we didn’t had any Paki in our office to subdue our opinions.

Just to go back, T20 was new to us with India sending a lesser-known young team to the tournament but when on 19-Sep, Yuvraj hit those six consecutive sixes against England, the interest towards this format had taken its prominence. India suddenly looked a great team after entering super8, then beating South Africa to enter semi-finals, beating Australia to entre Finals.

When I left office India had done with its batting for 157/5 in 20 overs. Not so impressive keeping in mind Pak batting order. I reached home to find my room-mates already glued to the TV screen. When I came back from my shower, I saw the TV was blank and the room deserted. I asked my neighbors as to what happen, to which he replied DEWA was experimenting with the electricity wires of our building. I already guessed that my room-mates would be cursing DEWA(Dubai Electricity & Water Authority) to mistime their adventures. I knew my room-mates wud have gone for early dinner to catch up at least the last leg of the match.

I too went towards Vasanth Bhavan. I was not amazed at the thin traffic on roads and people gathered around TV shops. When from Al Faheedi Street, I had passed Astoria Hotel and towards Khalid Bin Waleed Road for Vasantha Bhavan, on second lane from Astoria, next to Sind Punjab Restaurant, suddenly one of my room-mates pulled me towards him. He was staring at the TV screen of a video shop which was projected for public viewing of the match. Even I got interested to stand with him unknown of the fact as to how much time people from DEWA wud take to repair stuff in our building. We were running out of choices. I sort of shouted when Irfan Pathan took the wicket of Shoaib Mallik and Shahid Afridi in consecutive balls. Suddenly my friend spoke to me in Tamil and asked me to keep my emotions to minimum. Only then I realized I was surrounded by dozens of Pakistanis around me. They had an air of confidence with themselves that Pakistan wud easily pull this thru, but when their star batsman Shahid Afridi went for duck, they were furious. And I was instantly subject to stares from them. I also realized that this was first time in my life that I was watching a live cricket match between the arch rivals surrounded by more Pakistanis then Indians. Most of those guys were cabbies who like us Indians, patronage Cricket very much and wud throw a bash every time Pak beats India. Though it was scary and I was rethinking as to why am I putting myself into such an ordeal. As Pakistan needed only 54 from 24balls more Pakis came around as the win for Pak was certain. Somehow me and my friend still stood there with all our guts. But we decided to withdraw from that scene when Misbah-ul-haq hit 3 sixes off Harbhajan Singh in one over with the crowd rejoicing, celebrating and sort of squaring on us Malabaris. By the way malabari is a generic term used at Dubai for all south Indians. We were not use to this and felt fretful when we realized that we were the only Indian standing there. We decided to quit when in next over Sohail Tanveer hit two more sixes.

Going away from that place we thought of dinner. Question popped as to where exactly. At Vasantha Bhavan were we had intended to go first or to Saravana Bhavan near HSBC close to creek or Madurai Vilas. Then my friend suggested buying a razor from Gift Land (5-10 dhiram shop) near Thomas Cook Al Roustamani Exchange before proceeding for dinner. After he was done buying his stuff, we decided for Vasantha Bhavan.

As we were nearing the same sight which we left minutes ago, the crowd was suddenly dispersing. We knew the match was over but we were finding it difficult to locate an Indian among the crowd to ask as to who won. We feared asking any Paki for what if India had won. Huh ! no way…chance ille, I spoke to myself. The few Paki guys that we recognized didn’t show a face of rejoicing which was delightful. Out of eagerness, we asked one of travel agent shop about the match, to which he said India with much fervor. We were very happy though missing those final moments was lingering within. We decided to treat ourselves, not going straight we took the road adjacent to Vinverth showroom and headed towards Rangoli on Meena Bazaar lane.

It was only next day that we saw thru news and net as to how Misbah paddle-scooped to give away Sreesanth a catch. Later me and my room-mate laughed about what happened last evening and our chances of listening to some harsh remarks by Pakistanis towards us malabaris when the catch was taken by another malabari-Sreesanth. We know what Pakistanis must be quoting that this people come up at every place possible.

We also chewed the fact that for few days we cant dream of venturing into Karachi Darbar ! huh ! People talk about keeping politics away from cricket….how about keeping cricket away from food joints …