Reflection: October - December (2005)

October
The start of my 4th quarter of my year, 2005, was plagued with many decision making situations.

As stated with my previous entry. The decision to go overseas for an attachment stint came into effect. I was expected to stay one month with the Singapore regional headquarters of my attachment company, Scandent Solutions Corporation.

The background of my attachment company… the company can be considered as a Multi Nations Corporation as it has operations at Singapore, India(Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore) and with several establishments around the United States of America.

It has always been my desire to work in a MNC as I want to be exposed with the working conditions at several different locations for the same company. My attachment stint would be better if I could simply travel around their different establishments at different areas of the world… but, dream on… :P

Now, back to the topic… the decision for an overseas attachment. For the month of October, as mentioned above, I started working at the office located in Singapore. It was a nice place… situated at Jurong, International Business Park(aka IBP). It wasn’t my first time working in this area. This was so as in the past, when I was working with MobileOne(M1), I had to travel all the way to this portion of Singapore. In fact, my previous workplace is just beside the office establishment… such coincidence! *grinz*

The first month of work there was merely training sessions for us… getting us ready for our about-to-start work at India, Chennai. Everything went pretty smooth throughout… and yup… before I know, my one month attachment with the Singapore establishment was over.

Now, for my thoughts… from my 21yrs of life in Earth, I have never thought that I would ever lay my foot on the soil of India… hahaha… serious! I mean, not many people will have thoughts of coming to India… especially for no particular reasons… so, I would say, my decision back then was definitely one to be applauded for… hahahah… but, till now, I have no regrets coming as this trip definitely mould me to become a better person… will mention more about it as the blog posting goes on…

As for the other areas beside my decision and work, there were also definitely feelings going on… that’s so typical of an emotional aArOn…

Hmmm… well, I would say, October is a turning point to my feelings… a turning point whereby I started to lose hope. In fact, there were times during this month which I thought back… why was I so so so stubborn…? why would my friends lie to me about what they see and understand…? Why am I heading into nowhere?

There were so many whys back then… which I simply can’t answer myself… or, I don’t even know where to get the answer from… still, I struggled myself through all these thoughts… thinking that everything will turn out fine once I forget about what happened to me for the past few months… and, yes… I did it! I finally decided, this isn’t the way to go on… why am I pinning hopes on simply a “no-hope” situation?

Just like what others say… this is “reality”… so, “Welcome to the real world!(both in terms of emotions and work!)” hahaha…

November
Yeah! I finally lay foot on India!

From the start, when we landed in the airport, everything seems very much like what I have pictured in my mind… a very lay-back feeling of the place, whereby I am going to stay for almost the next 3mths of my life… From the looks of the airport… till the conditions outside the airport… and lastly, the road condition… everything seems to fall into my thoughts over how India looks like… well, but, that’s typically how it looks like for a developing country… especially when India is duped as the largest population democratic country… things are definitely very hard to be controlled… as in the living conditions and such…

Well, back at the airport, we were greeted by our back-in-Singapore immediate supervisor, Ms. Padmini… she was in India to settle some household stuff and, to lay the “path” well for our coming stay.

She was able to organize everything well, and ensured that we are fine with the living condition before she head back to Singapore. Was very grateful to her as she has shown us lots of hospitality, in terms of both her job and personal obligation. Wait… I don’t think its her job obligation to help us up here… so, yup… very nice person we have here!

Oh… by the way, forgot to mention this… the day we arrived here was known as Dewali Day(Deepavali). Everywhere was fireworks… you know, those kind whereby we can only get to see during National Day… envy us, right? You wouldn’t be envying us if you are here for more than 2hrs… its so damn noisy and irritating when you just keep hearing the sounds of explosions… worse, the sound continued even the next day! This time round, it was louder… they are putting firecrackers everywhere lor… those kind which are banned in Singapore… wah lao… can you imagine the noise pollution??!?! How I wish I brought my ear plucks back then… hahahaha….

For the start of our work in Chennai, we started out again with training… this time round, the training sessions scheduled for us was more to those verbal types of talk-sessions. We were introduced to the basic operations of software development in their office at Chennai. Followed by a test of our abilities… wooohooo… yeah… there was also a test of our patience… by providing us with limited Internet connectivity and a legacy system to facilitate with our works here… hahaha… but, essentially, the system has sure helped to increase our patience. :P

Alright… at the start of our trip, we were all very homesick… missing all the things which we took for granted back in Singapore. For example, the well-controlled traffic condition… the well-established electricity supply infrastructure… the unlimited usage of the Internet… the always well-cooked food prepared by our mum… the cheap usage of toilet rolls… always on time taxi bookings, the ready-to-drink piped water that runs from our tap and many more!

Hahaha… why did I explicitly mentioned those above? Well… here is the justification… Well-controlled traffic condition, hmmm… can you imagine a road which is planned to accommodate a 3-lane traffic being used by like 5 vehicles at one go…? Here in Chennai, if you wind down your window(in fact, you have always got to wind it down as air-conditioned vehicles is like only 50% of the vehicles on the road), you will be able to reach out for the door of the vehicle next to you without stretching at all! This explains how close they drive to each other…

next, the well-established electricity supply infrastructure… have you experience frequent black-outs, excluding the one which we experience last year? So frequent that when you are asleep, suddenly, the whole place turned so dark… and you start wondering… who switched off all the lights? Then, slowly, you realize, eh! ya ah! The fan is not moving too! Hahaha… after that, you realize… did the electricity just went off again? Hahaha…

Ever been living on limited bandwidth usage since the time of dial-up connections were over? Well, we face a limitation of bandwidth usage here… so much so that I can’t surf the websites which I used to in Singapore… every single entry to the net has definitely be “planned”… hahaha… that is to avoid any unwanted usage of bandwidth… :X

Well-cooked food… hmmm… been eating chicken here… chicken that is sometimes so blend… sometimes, so salty… and most of the times, oily!!! Hahaha… that is “cooked” by our “Chef”… Jimmy… oh man… at the very least of it, it is somewhat edible… better than nothing…

A toilet roll that cost you about SGD1… heard of it? Its everywhere here in Chennai! We all realize that the people here doesn’t really rely much on toilet rolls… that explains the expensive nature of it… hahaha… just a single roll can cost you so much… that with the amount you pay, you can get half a dozen of it back in Singapore! :X

The most headache problem which we face here… the always “on-time” taxi bookings which we make… imagine… calling for a taxi to be at your workplace at supposingly 1745hrs… then, they only come to you at 1930hrs… how piss can you get? And, it isn’t only once… but more than 5 times!!! Oh man… we will probably be named the most patient Singaporeans around… wahahha….

Lastly, the “ready-to-drink” state of water we have back in Singapore… the water here in Chennai… hmmm… could be in yellow colored state… could be in brown colored state… aiyooo… there are so many different states of it! *grinz*

It was during the late of November, whereby I got to meet up with this person known as Shannon… he is a Singaporean working here in Chennai. He has also been here for more than 2years…

The first month of stay at Chennai is definitely something I won’t forget in my life… ;)

December
Into the second month of my stay in Chennai… everything passed much faster when we started to explore around Chennai…

This is the month whereby most of the happenings in Chennai occurred! Hahaha… but, before I start narrating what has happened… I shall start with something I wish to mention…

For the start of the month, many things happened… this includes birthday celebrations which I have missed… and many others… most importantly, there is this event, someone’s birthday occurring this month… well, didn’t do much though… but, what I did was like, a promise I make to myself… wanting to make someone’s birthday very different from the other years she have spent… don’t think I have achieved it… but still, at least I make an attempt in completing what I had wanted to do… though, it might not be significant to that person… but, it marks the end of all my months of waiting… putting all my feelings for her to rest… and, hoping, it will never come back… ;)

Back to my life in Chennai…

Most of the time, we were walking around the place during the weekend… from places to eat… till the places to shop… and also, the places to explore!

During one of our exploration trips, by a chance meeting, we met up with Shannon again!

He told us several things which I kept thinking about… that is, how many times would you be coming to India… for what reason would you be here… and, what is the point of staying at home during the weekends while the thing you could do is to go out and explore the outskirts of Chennai?

Really found his words very true… especially when I enjoy so much of the scenery when we were out of the city area… so many things which I don’t get in Singapore… I will be able to see it here in Chennai!

So, during the second last weekend, we finally materialize our first trip out of Chennai City… that is to an outskirt town of it known as Mahabalipuram. Basically, it’s a place whereby there are lots of stone scriptures and shore temples around. There were quite a number of pictures I took… but, will only post it up when I return back to Singapore! Like what I mentioned above… bandwidth usage is very limited here… hahaha… so, no choice… :X Well, did I forgot to mention that the scenery I got to see during the trip is breath-taking!? In fact, it was fabulous!

Besides that, I also took a chance to walk past the slump area which is just beside my apartment… so many things to see! Usually, I only get to see those sights in documentaries… now, I actually get to experience it in real life… many thoughts just came upon me and kept me thinking of it for quite sometime… that is, how much I should appreciate the surroundings… aiyahz… its all within my own thinking…

Oh ya… another thing I forgot to mention… this month was also a month whereby we were being shown great hospitality from Shannon and his wife… they have been inviting us out for meals… and also, btw, the trip mentioned above to Mahabalipuram, they were the one bring us around too… hmmm…. So nice of them… especially when they have no obligation at all to bring us around… whats more… they were the ones who presented to me, the first laksa ever found in Chennai, that’s home cooked from their place! Tomorrow, that’s next year, 01/01/2006, they will be showing me the first ever seen Nasi Lemak! Hahahah…

Alright… should end this lengthy entry here… but, before I do, here is my new year resolution! The first ever I gonna make in my 21years… that is, “To curb my temper down and hopefully, don’t get upset with things that is going to occur in my upcoming year ahead!”… besides that, I also have some personal resolutions… which I won’t mention here… good luck for all of you back in Singapore… whether you are working or studying… hope you live it to the fullest! *grinz*

(That should be the end of my 2005!)