Exhibition at the Alliance Française

I just don't know what to say...

So yesterday I read an article about an Indian 20something living in the UK.  He is the son of a successful businessman, and has been over here helping run the business.  And one evening he went out to the movies or somewhere with three Swedish girls that he was friends with.  They enjoyed the movie and went back to his hotel room and ordered room service and had dinner.  All very innocent I’d point out, and after a few drinks, the girls fell asleep in his room – two on the bed and one on the couch.

Now here’s where it gets interesting…

In court his lawyer described him as a geeky guy, unaccustomed to western ways, and that – quite accurately – such a situation is unheard of in India (3 girls sleeping in a guy’s room).

However, now we’ve all been in different cultures, unsure of what to do in certain situations, but hands up anyone who’s thought that rape is the appropriate solution?!

In the middle of the night he got himself naked, took off one of the girls’ skirts and her underwear and jumped on top of her.  She didn’t wake up, but one of her friends did.

But of course it gets better… what would you suppose the British courts would deem a fitting punishment for this sexual assault?!

…An apology.

I just had to laugh with disbelief when I read it.  Un-frikin-believable.

PIGS Brunch

Here's an invitation to the next PIGS (Punjab International Gourmet Society) Brunch. New trainees - this is an informal get together held every month for all the foreigners in Chandigarh. All trainees are invited.

~~
hi everybody,

it's time again for another PIGS brunch.

Date: Sunday, 6th August 2006

Time: 11.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m.

Venue: [Address omitted - message/e-mail me for the address]

Please bring along some snacks ( sweet or salted, hot or cold) preferably no salads,
also some juice, cold drinks, coffee!

If you like to swim please bring your swimdress and a towel along.

Looking forward to meet you!

Maria and Walter Kissinger

Reading Recommendation: Third-class Ticket

Here's a new reading recommendation to follow-up on a prior post and comments.

Third-class Ticket
by Heather Wood

I just started this book and I really like it so far. I borrowed it off my boss who bought it when she was in India ten years ago, so I hope it's still in print.

An old wealthy lady dies and in her will, she leaves enough money to the Indian Railway Company to send all the people from her poor village on a railway tour of India. These people have never seen most of their own country and are amazed and changed by the journey. The author is a Canadian (from Red Deer, Alberta) who was lucky enough to travel with them for 7 months and penned a novel recounting their story.

one more: best/worst/funniest

No posts for quite some time here, so I just thought I'll drop a line to the Chandi-Blog. I had been in Chandigarh from Nov 2004 to July 2005, so that's quite some time ago. Does anybody remember Manimajra House? (MHA??!)

Anyway, I am quite late with this, but wanted to mention best/funniest/worst India experience. It's tough to fix it to a single one each, but in the end it really doesn't matter.

Best

We had just come back from a one-week stay in Srinagar and it had been at quite the end of my almost 9 month stay. At ISBT I jumped out the bus from Jammu, and I already had a sensation of coming back home. Packed with luggage I looked like they perfect prey, so it was the normal situation "Sir, where you go?" "Hotel? Cheap? Come!" and rickshaw guys pushing you in some direction. Over time I had begun enjoying those situations, but this time a guy topped it all:
From the rear part of the crowd he quickly stepped to the front through the other guys and proclaimed: "Ahh, Mister Hennes! Manimajra? Modern Housing Complex?"
I was so happy that I had almost hugged the guy. That really felt like coming home! I didn't even ask the price, and as far as I remember, it was the normal 40-60 Rs....

Funniest

Riding a cycle rickshaw was definitely unforgettable. I still remember the smile on the driver's face, sitting in the back next to Luisa and all the other rickshaw drivers shouting something and laughing. At the same time I have to express my respect to those cycle rickshaw guys, because after two sectors you clearly feel your load and the fun is turning into some real exercise!

Edited/added on August 6th: Actually at minute 2:20 of this video you can see that rickshaw thing. Btw, I uploaded the whole bunch of videos I cut, just go to the playlist.

Worst

Well, who would be stupid enough to put all (ALL!) his valuable belongings into one single backpack when travelling to Goa? I did, and that one got stolen from right above my head from the waiting deluxe bus to Delhi. It didn't only include digicam plus all tech equipment like CF cards, MP3 player etc., it also carried my diary and other personal stuff, which I think was even worse. Being in Goa without camera, a nightmare.

At the same time I got in close touch with Indian bureaucracy. That is, going to the police office at ISBT and trying to "fill in" (free-form!!) a report, which name I don't remember (maybe F.I.R. or similar). In fact, I had the choice between two versions, a simple missing report and another one, which would induce an investigation. That actually only Rahul from AIESEC could explain to me after he arrived at the scene (thanks again for that!!) Before that no one spoke any english, no one felt like explaining anything, and so I wrote that 2-page report 4 (!) times, because each time something was missing and could NOT be solved by crossing it out *sigh*

By the way, we could catch the deluxe bus to Delhi 2 hours later and also could catch the flight to Bangalore!