Irony

In India all us foreign people try to eat in 'clean' restaurants. and not eat from food off the street. because we think that the food will be 'safer'. this is probably excellent advice. though, my house mate got taken to hospital last night because she had been vomiting and also had diarrhoea, food poisoning of course. a few of us had started eating food off the streets and had not got sick. but my house mate went to this restaurant that is very pleasing to the eye and ate something that gave her food poisoning. so you try so hard not to eat of the street, spending the extra money and time. yet you get sick from the food you thought would keep you away from the hospital. is that irony?

what always makes me wonder is behind them doors of the restaurant anything can happen. you really just don't know whats going on. also you just don't know how long that food has been there for. because not much is make from scratch. but on the street, you see everything. and there is a very quick turn over of food. because so many people are eating form there. which means that the food is always very fresh. by default. 

the advice my house mates father gave was, "always go where everyone else is eating", basically saying, don't be the guinea pig...

Congratulations!

my 'bro' Kibriya has now Become a father. strange thing to say but its true. i am sure he's beyond happy, delight etc etc. even though he stole my Birthday i'm very excited for him and can't wait to return to see his kid. anyway i'll post the picture i received of the baby. i don't know if i should but i guess if they want me to remove it i will. though for now i'll share the moment with every. i feel thats what they would want to it. such a beautiful baby... oh and by the way.... its a boy... don't think they have given it a name yet. but if they have let me know!

1 cup chai 2 saucers

600 years of Ahmedabad, everyone is doing a lot of cultural exhibitions, video's lectures etc. their are a vast amount of interpretations of what Ahmedabad has, is and going to be. also there are many different ways in which people see Ahmedabad. but their is one consistent theme that everyone mentions. and that is the notion '1cup chai 2 saucers'. when ever a group of friends come for chai they get one cup and two saucers. so 3 people can share the chai. at first you think its miserliness but when you really see the consistency and the manner in which they enjoy the chai. you realise its not about miserliness, but about sharing. enjoying a moment together in its entirety. that is something i feel we on the other side of the work have forgotten. we have gone to the extreme of privacy, this is MINE kinda attitude. maybe we can break this habbit and the next time we have the opportunity to share [and i mean more than just offering] maybe we can try the 1 cup chai 2 saucers approach.

happy sharing!

Waste

This is how the waste water is transported around the city, kind of smells.....but you get used to it

how beautiful....

Camel Ride

So from left to right : Laurits [Germany], Mariana [Portugal], Sakshi [India], Arturo [Mexico], Tanya [India] and Anand [India].

Aladdin maybe?

Street- just like Aladdin

Jesalmer

My Mexican room mate is leaving so went to visit the sand stone city called Jesalmer. was very nice, i'll post a few pictures of the place. this is of course Arturo....

Thank You

Thank you everyone for all the comments, its amazing to see so many people contributing. the comments give me a lot to think about and a lot to smile about. i'm reading a book at the moment called 'The Book of Five Rings'. its a very short book, 50 pages. i think you can get it off the net. if you google the title and then pdf. if you read it and finish it please let me know what you think of it. 

all gone.....

Tragic times... i was putting my stuff on the shelf before i went to sleep, including my hard drive. then suddenly... crash! my hard drive falls to the floor... i didn't think much of it. just picked it up and put it back. next morning at work. i plugged it in, and the hard drive could not be recognised by the computer! on this hard drive is everything i have done in the past 2 years! and now... its all gone... i spoke to the technician about repairing it and he said it was a hardware failure and some other technical jargon i didn't understand.... i was going to get angry, but then i thought about something i heard. when tribulation happens with either two things, god testing you. or its a result of something you did to didn't do. either way its a purification process. so i began to try and see some wisdom in the moment and the tried to extrapolate some lessons...... i lost a really expensive fountain pen as well a couple of days ago... thinking about these things made me realise how irrelevant they really are. objects come and go. while we have them, we can enjoy them. but once they leave us we shouldn't feel empty without them. because they are not the things that complete us. anyway thats just a thought....please let me know of precious things you have lost and how you felt.

Eid Mubarak!

quick post. its that time of year again! the wonderful month of Dul Hijjah. the millions of people have performed their pilgrimage. i guess only those who have been can really understand how amazing the experience is. it'll be the first eid away from family and friends! so we'll see how it goes... i've asked one of the workers to bring in sweets to share with the office. so it'll be nice to share the day with everyone. also moved into my new place. its a nice change of environment. everyone is a foreigner so its cool getting to know people from different cultures. anyway... eid mubarak everyone. now time to sleep . hopefully i wake up on time!!! peace

the roots provide an excellent stairway

follow the yellow brick road

Laurits is shown the way to Kutumsang by a kid on his way home from school

24hrs on sleeper class in Dewali,Enough said....

Chilling out in Kathmandu

After a long trek it was nice to sit and drink a cold, freshly made, fruit juice.

As requested.....

People have been asking me to post more pictures of myself. so here i am half way up with a crazy t-shirt on my head to stop the sun from draining all my energy. it was advice we got of an Israeli trekker at the start of the trek.

A sense of responsability

on our journey through the mountains, we only came across 1 or 2 cheeky kids. the rest had a real sense of responsibility. carrying goods, taking orders, coking the food, translating for the parents. this is including the boys. i can't remember what i was doing at that age, but i'm sure it was something quite opposite. getting into trouble or being lazy in some way or another. but it really makes you think, how  little responsibility we undertake in the west. we can stole through our childhood, some their whole lives, without doing much.  some idiots then argue, children should be able to have fun. well they do. once they kids finish serving the food for example. they make paper aeroplanes. kick a football about. or whatever kids do. amazing....

a new meaning for public transport

whoever thought getting on a bus was as simple as getting on, waiting for your stop and then getting off. would be right in most parts of the world. but not Nepal, you get on and hope you don't die before your stop arrives. to the left is a picture of another bus from our bus, which looked exactly the same. now imagine going up or down a mountain. rocking side to side. 30cm from the edge. with other buses like that heading towards you. it just doesn't bare thinking about, let alone living through! once you get over that bit, and start admiring the view from the bus, its becomes a quite beautiful experience. you can then being to appreciate the driving skills of these people. Lewis who? also the memory of the money collector. because he collects to money when people get off not as they get on. so he has to remember so many faces over such a short space of time. and they are continuously changing.

Companionship

While trekking, between the pain and more pain. you have a lot of time to reflect. one of the things i was reflecting on was companionship. its so Important to have companionship on a journey. in whatever you do. and that doesn't just mean someone you over, someone you have known for a long time or a close friend. its has to be someone with the same aim as yourself. even if you are vastly different people. because then you can help each other towards to goal. if you don't share the same aim. then you will both be travelling in different direction and neither will achieve anything. but if travelling in the same direction. your more likely to hit the mark. on your own, its difficult to always make clear decisions. at times your judgement will be clouded. 

After The Himalayas

we just got back from trekking in the Himalaya's. arrived in Kathmandu yesterday night. my whole body is destroyed. because of our lack of time. had to do a 6 day trek in 4.5 days..... it was worth the pain, i think... the views from the mountain were amazing and the stars are night breathtaking. i will post pictures soon can't upload them from the cyber cafe. each time we think that the complexities of the trip are over and we can relax. something else comes in front of us. thats just life i guess. also a point to note, anyone who loves the thrill of roller coasters. try taking a bus up and down a mountain!!! a 30 seater bus with 100 people on. hanging off all corners. and on the roof. charging up and down a narrow path. with other buses heading towards you and rocking form side to side. as my mate Laurits said. "30cm to the side and we are dead" so credit to the drivers. they are very good at what they do. its funny looking at all the tourists. even though they span from America to as far as Israel. they all look exactly the same. with their costumes on. and all the Nepal's are dressed how we dress normally. when we become tourists we feel we have to put on a costume to 'integrate'. maybe its more important to try and learn the language than become part of a pantomime. i will speak about my reflections once i'm back in Ahmedabad. peace for now. 

Kathmandu

just  quck update, we had a 10 day Dewal holiday. everyone in the office went to Koltata. Me and Laurits didn't have anything to do so we decided, why not go Kathmandu. niether of us had even seen a picture of this place. it was jsut a name. so we set off withotu any plans and hardly any money. travelled in general class sleeper for 24 hurs, was hel1! but worth the experience. then we got to luknow. our train got cancelled. we met a guy who brided a ticket conductor. and let us into AC 3rd classs. which was heaven compared to general. then we had to get a 3 hour bus from Gorukpur to the Sunali boarder. but our bus broke down. we noticed another bus coming. so Laurits heroicly bus onto the roof of the bus untied our luggage and we ran after the second bus to the boarder. then we got husted at the boarder. and finally made it to Nepal. then all the remained was a 10 hour bus to Kathmandu. in a very very cramped bus. 50 people on a 25 seater bus. something like that. then we finally got to Kathmandu. more detais to follow. peace.

i just watched this....

i just say this video, for those of you interested click here

i liked this comment someone gave, 

"As Hippocrates once said 'Life is short, art is long'. Seneca the stoic remarked "Hence too the grievance, most improper to a wise man, which Aristotle expressed when he was taking nature to task for indulging animals with such long existences that they can live through five or ten human lifetimes, while a far shorter limit is set for men who are born to a great and extensive destiny. It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it."

We are such wasteful creatures. In a way, only death can truly show us life.

Live well :)"

at Sept University, looking like a student.

"Madam, FOTTO FOTTO!!"

Children looking at the picture Rita took of them.

Education, what a wonderful thing

what to say about a child's eyes?

Mirchi

The woman is sat here sorting out 

'Mirchi' in her front 'garden'.

Long weekend!

we planned to go to Mumbai this weekend, booked the tickets and everything. then Sonke[boss] came on thursday evening and said, oh we have to hand a model into the client on monday[we haven't' even started it yet]. so you guys will have to work on the weekend. so we spent all weekend on this. finished 10pm on a sunday! mad 'ey? but its ok, when you doing stuff together nothing seems like a chore. its always feels like a wonderful experience.

the bone collector

so we went onto site, to see the foundations being started. they dug the whole and started to work on the shuttering for the concrete. then we noticed a bone! that was found whilst digging the whole for the foundations. we assumed it was a human bone because it fit perfectly on Roberto's arm. maybe its his ancestor![can someone tell us if it is or isn't?] now, that isn't the strange thing. the strange thing is that the builders used it to mix the concrete!! as they say.....only in Inida.

Dance

Here in India they have a series of festive days before Dewali. and everywhere across the city are people celebrating at night. me and my flat mate could here this incredibly sound noise from our flat. and thought we would see where it was coming from.  as you can see the building is a really run down concrete structure. and this is where all these people live. very poor condition. yet they dress up really nice and are so happy. thats one thing you notice a lot of the time. relative to us. they are living in such dire conditions, yet they are always filled with such joy. and when we have so many things we still walk around with dull faces. it brings the question of what really makes us happy and are we chasing the things that will make us happy?

monkeys at work!

so we walked out to eat our lunch, and what do we see? about 10 monkeys scattered around the garden. swinging in the trees. its so strange seeing wild animals just mingling in your lives. and there isn't anything isolating them or a barrier between you and them. was this scary for everyone? yes! it was hilarious, when the lunches got delivered. the monkeys were on one side of the garden in the trees and the people on the other holding their lunches, too scared to open them! quite the comical site. 

The end of an era

Forgot to post this picture earlier. I grew up in this place and it taught me a lot. i hope everyone in Gamestation is good! and they don't get too stressed out in the christmas period! i know how crazy it can be.

so thats how its done!

so yes, quick note for all those travelling to India in the future. one of the Italian interns told me how to use the rickshaw! you tap the meter to tell them to zero it. and then this is the important point... what it says on the meter is NOT the price. you have to divide it by 3 and then you get the price. in the night you divide it by 2 to get the price. and if they try to cheat you. ask for the chart. they keep it hidden. they have to keep it by law. and also no rickshaw driver knows street names. so no point knowing them. they only know landmarks! so you have to tell them landmarks if you want to get anywhere because they'll just pretend to know the street and take you here there and everywhere. like i said, they should tell you this kinda information on the plane or something!

Work

SO! as the dust settles, we can now speak about the real issue. the reason i set off on this journey. WORK.

i'm working for a company called Vastu Shilpa Consultants, founded by Balkrishna Doshi. he worked with architects such as Le Corbusier and Louis Khan. some of the most famous in History. and things are raised or reduced by what they are associated to. so you can imagine the measure of this man. the company is very well respected, like Manchester United in the footballing world. therefore making him like Alex Ferguson. 

Now the amazing thing about him, is his approach. every week. at least once. He gives a personal talk/discussion with all the student interns. teaching them about architecture. also he just spends time walking around the studio speaking to them. i found this to be a fresh approach to the architecture world. breaking this arrogance label that if often put on architects. 

the whole institute is run like a kind of temple of architecture a place where young people can learn and are given the opportunity. they have a mentoring system and get you straight into real work. none of this paper shuffling. so you are given to an architect and they look after you and teach you everything and get you to work on their top projects.  i have been put in a project called 'inflibnet', information library network. its a repository for universities to keep their journals. so universities from certain parts of India, can use it as a place to research and also store their journals.

what i would do for public transport!

well just got mugged of £5 from some rickshaw guy! they know your a foreigner and just take advantage. what i would give for public transport right now! just get on a bus and you have no worries. instead of trying to not get strewed by some Indian. i thought i'd last more than 4 days before i happened. but oh well. i guess you can't prevent the inevitable. so yeah.... public transport is amazing. typical india to be so backwards they can't work to get a proper bus service going.


i could buy a bike, but i would just die on these crazy roads. you can't imagine how crazy they are. anyway, i'm back in the flat. we'll have another go tomorrow. maybe better luck!

one thing no one told me....

Before i left for India a lot of people were giving me advice. and advice is a funny thing as Baz Luhrmann said in his famous graduation speech, "Advice is a form of Nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off. painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth". so i had to be careful what advice to take. some people make you feel very exited and tell you a utopian out look. and others tell you are really scary story. then you end up really worried. 

when giving advice its important to put your emotional bias aside. try and give a balanced and fair assessment of the situation relative to the person your giving it to as well. a lot of the time we give advice based on our own ways of handling a particular situation. remember its the other person who is going to deal with the situation not us! amongst all the advice one thing every single person forgot to mention and prepare me for. was the fact it would be lonely. 

the journey started back in england, its all full of excitement and nervousness. packing my stuff to go to another land. it didn't feel like i was moving, felt like i was going on trip or holiday. even when i landed in India and saw all the craziness. only when i reached this shed of a hotel and put my bags in, closed the door and lay down on the bed. did i realise what had happened. i had travelled 1000's of miles away from everyone i know and love. i would actually be alone in a country.

that moment was sad, but its important to remember that its times like this we find out things about ourselves we didn't know. when we step outside our comfort zone and try to sand up straight in a difficult moment. we have to remember that moments are like clouds, once they pass they will never return again. we take each moment as it comes and grow from it.

here is to character building!

India

OK so i made it safely to India. arrived at 3am got to a random hotel.... i would be lying if i said i wasn't scared! it was terrifying people. cars, motorbikes, animals and people all on the same road. just travelling in some hypnotic streaming of movement. anyway. got a amazing taxi driver, showed me around. helped me find an apartment. spent a good 7 hours running around looking for apartments. anyway finally found one. its nice. i will post pictures soon. i've just been in total shock if i'm honest with you. don't know how i'm going to last here! 

Dubai

well , got to Dubai safe and sound. staying with a really nice family, the flight was really very comfortable. emirates have really made economy class to a very good standard. the airport was amazing, because emirates have got their own terminal making everything so smooth and easy. while i have been here i started reading a book. "a New Earth". he makes some important points as concepts. the way he goes about the whole thing might not be to everyone's liking.take it with a pinch of salt and it might be worth a read. you never know your whole outlook on the world may change. oh yeah and Dubai looks odd! random tall buildings in the middle of a dessert.... old Dubai looks a lot cooler. its raw. but i guess people like the glits and the glamour.excuse my poor arrangements with the pictures, the laptop is annooying me because it keeps turning up in arabic and i havn't got a clue whats going on lol. but you get the general idea of things. right i'm off to sleep. didn't get a chance to sleep on the plane was speaking to some guy who's moving to Australia for a year. similar age to me. 

Welcome Sackboy

Here we say welcome to a new member of the Trajet family, Sackboy. it was a kind gift from a Gamestation brother. we started the company together and after a 4 year slog it is time to depart. Sad times...... so now Sackboy will accompany me on my travels and hopefully i can keep it consistent!

Who Moved My Cheese?

someone mentioned this book to me and as we all do, we whip it into good old google. little did i know how famous this book is. apparently it has changed peoples lives! well thats quite appropriate for a book that  tells you to welcome change. 

anyway, the book uses a fable to tell the story of change. and how complexity usually isn't the best option. keep it simple and welcome the change that is taking place. it begins with 2 mice and 2 small humans. the different attitudes and the journey to change. using the cheese as a metaphor for the goal you have set out and a maze as the journey you take to getting there. [you can google a better summery]

for muslims it highlights some nice topics. when things change, both ease and tribulation, its always from Allah so embrace it. hold strong and have faith that Allah is the best of planners. also eludes to becoming attached to things can cause a delusion. therefore hindering your progress on this journey. continuous gratification for what you have now because you never know when it can vanish. also not becoming content and comfortable, because these lead to laziness. just a few i have reflected on. maybe you can read it and let us know your feelings?

Read this book, you will like it. relate it to yourself it'll bring about interesting thoughts. very thin about 100 pages, the story itself is only 50 pages long. taking you a couple of hours to read. though i'm sorry to say it won't unveil the secrets of life to you, but it'll give you another perspective on things. happy reading.

Enric Miralles, Igualada Cemetery

Here is something that made me reflect. Enric Miralles designed this cemetery in Barcelona, where he now rests himself. the picture above shows a small section of the cemetery. the concrete slabs elevating themselves to the sky represent our journey after death into the heavens. the ground is the earth of course. then we see a gap/void between the earth and the inclined concrete slab. this is exactly the height of Le Corbusier's modular man and we sit into that space/void. it represents us and the moment we are in between life and death.

just a thought.

'Fr*sher' Advice

In universities all over the country people are starting a new chapter in their life. moving away from home for the first time, 'freedom' as some might say. everyone of them is about to change whether they like it or not. so here is some advice to those starting and those helping them to start.

lets start by stating one thing here. calling someone else a fr*sher when your not a fr*sher is like calling someone a p*ki when your not a p*ki. 1st year is a more appropriate word, or their course, or maybe even their name? i was reading one of them society txts they send to invite you to an event and the amount of times the person wrote fr*sher was awful. it actually made 1st years not want to go. unfortunate.

anyway a lot to say, so i will narrow it down and focus on ISoc [Islamic Society]. Muslims will come into university for an opportunity to taste that wonderful 'freedom', and ISoc members across the country are ready to destroy that dream!... i'm only joking. 

the sad reality is, most people see Isoc as this. something that isn't 'fun, but quite the opposite. its somewhere you can use as a platform to flourish. the unfortunate thing is that members are a little to crazy!

two things to look out for and do not get put off by this. its just part of their craziness.

1. the members who are so concerned with events and dragging you to them. they forget you are a real person who has interests of your own. so instead of spending 2 hours to get to know you. they want you to sit in a lecture hall listening to some guy singing or asking you for money. its like trying to get to know someone by taking them to the cinema. Not very wise.

2. the members who are so concerned with you being a fr*sher, they treat you like a baby. and again forget that you are a real person not a 2 year old who needs continuous attention and care. its important to remember that even people who are 1st years can teach you something about yourself, life, academia. remember the story of Ghazali and how he took the words of a bandit, therefore memorising all his books.


let Brotherhood/Sisterhood penetrate everything you do, its the light that makes everything colourful.

if you are a first year. be kind to these members. they mean well. just a bit crazy. bare with them and your time in ISoc will give you that platform to grow. once you join you will have given yourself a chance to change for the better. if you don't i'm sure ISoc will give you a full refund :)

actually if anything 1st years should be free membership because they are giving the rest of ISoc something to do! instead of eating and playing PES/FIFA.

Here's to another person giving their 2 pence worth

Here goes! I have now joined the endless list of people giving their two pence worth on the Internet. something i have been trying to resist for some time, but as Guy Debour says 'surrender or die' and i think Hamza Yusuf puts it a bit more religiously ' Qur’anic verse, “Resist with the same weapons with which you are being aggressed upon.”' as he has just started his own blog and reasoned why. Many have tried to persuade me to join that really popular social networking site. and i mean like 3 years of continuos peer pressure. So i thought i'd come to some sort of middle ground and start a blog instead. If people REALlY wanted to hear what i had to say they can respond to this, otherwise stop pretending to like me, in order to increase your own Facebook friends number! i'll just post the random nonsense that runs through my mind and the very little i'm getting up to.

lets see how this journey turns out.....