Ireland 2009

I have decided after a long time to return to my blog. I did miss writing little notes on stuff I found interesting or did. So with that in mind I've decided to re-open this blog. This time though it won't be about my experiences in India, but in Ireland, and wherever else I end up.

Trying to stay motivated is a very hard thing I find. Keeping focus when all around you is distraction is difficult to say the least. It's even worse when you have to do something you dislike. At the moment I'm trying to fill in applications for work, which is bloody tedious. "I feel I have the skills for this particular job…" Selling yourself is bloody hard, but not impossible. So I'll keep plugging away at it and see what happens. Who knows, maybe someone will actually like what I write?!

It's summer in Ireland, but don't let that fool you. It could rain at any minute, or the sun could come out and turn it into a scorcher of a day. It's like a very dull and annoying game of chance. What should I wear today? Even on the hottest day I'd keep a jumper nearby, cause at night it gets bloody freezing (like the sahara). But enough about weather, I'm sorry to announce that Ireland got beaten by India in the twenty20 cricket match last night. It's a shame, would have bought the jersey if they had and paraded down Marine Drive (in Mumbai) with it. I still don't understand the rules of cricket though, but that's my loss.

Anyway, I'm going to go back and see if I can progress my life a small bit more. Doing a lifesaving course this weekend. 3 days of intensive training in how to save lives, only thing is I haven't swam in ages, so it'll be interesting how I survive the weekend. If I don't post next week look for my body in the pool!!

Indian food is quite different to what you get in Ireland, or in England. Which is really what you should expect, the Irish palette is ‘slightly’ different to the Indian. Where to start… let’s count them
1) Spices – pretty obvious, Indians love their spice. If it doesn’t have Masala in it, it’s not real food. In fact, Masala just means curry, which the way Indian food is branded you wouldn’t think it. One of the reasons is that food here is a little less wholesome than Ireland, less fresh. Though I don’t think that’s a very good argument, I’ve had very fresh food in India (a little too fresh if you get what I mean) and they still spice it up. Another is that spicey food makes you sweat which cools you down, handy in hot countries. Not really that sure on it. Never particularly noticed it until I heard Jamie Oliver mention it. I suppose if HE says it, it must be true. My opinion is that Indians just have access to a lot more spices than Irish people, and ease of access increases usage. True story though, once I cooked for all Gayle’s family, and two funny things happened. Firstly, Gayle’s mum Hyacinth (and Gayle too) kept putting salt and pepper in whenever my back was turned, and secondly is when the maid, Pushpa came to see what was cooking and of course asked me what Masala we were using. When I said “No Masala!” she actually was horrified and left the kitchen muttering and shaking her head!


2) Method of eating/preparation – This one caught me out when I first came here, though now I love it and it’s second nature to me. In preparation most Indians will do two or three different dishes and you pick and mix from that what you want. The next one was that Indians eat with their hands. It’s not bad manners or disgusting to pick up your hunk of chicken and start picking at it. Or mush up your rice with your hands and mix it up with some dal (basic Indian curry) and put it into your hands (using one hand at all times). Then finally you push the food in with your thumb from your fingers, MMmmmm and satisfying. They do use forks and knives though, and spoons are used for soup. Hands are so inefficient for soup collection.

3) Naan – this deserves a special section for itself. I do not know where we got our Naan from….I’ve never seen it’s like in India. Naan in India is a very thick bready affair not a soft sweet blob like in Ireland (though I do love Irish Naan).
4) Rice – Not every dish comes with Rice! Okay. Just like sometimes, we in Ireland do not eat potatoes Indians pick and mix their carbs. Normally it’s a choice or Rice, Chapati (like burrito rolls only smaller) and Naan. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen look at me and laugh as I eat Naan, dal and rice!
5) Meat/Vegetarianism – Being a meat eater in India puts you in a minority. Hindus are Vegetarians by religion so meat is actually not that big here. In fact, the way we have vegetarian sections at the back of our menu, Indian menus have Non-veg sections. That’s not to say meat is lacking here. They eat a whole lot of meat, the ones that allow themselves to. And it’s funny but here if you’re a Non-veg you are a NON-VEG. You don’t eat vegetarian stuff. Not out of dislike, more like a “I can have so I am going to have it” attitude. I don’t know how many times people have re-asked me what I want to eat because I choose the Vegetarian option. Also, meat here is boney, as that is the juicier part of the meat. Boneless meat, I think is boring for most. “Where’s the fun in it?” I suppose they must ask. Many’s a time I’ve seen Indians clean a bone so well you’d think it was cleaned. We waste so much meat in comparison.
6) Em.. what else? Desserts are desserts in India. Different though the same appreciation as Ireland.

Going to leave it at that. Really the only way to experience Indian food is in India, with your hands.



.......who's hungry?

Guess who's Back?

Long time no chat, so sorry I haven’t been able to write up some new blogs. I suppose you could call it writers block. Still working, wrapping up everything for next week when I finish. But the good news is that I’m coming back after april for another year! So looking forward to it though I am going to have no savings to back this trip up. So first off, congrads to Slumdog Millionaire on its seven Oscars. I think it deserves the ones it won, and a special shout out to Danny Boyle, first for jumping around the stage when he won and second for being very smart about the way he’s paying the slum kids. They are all getting a trust fund set up for themselves as well as an apartment I believe. Also a big section of the profits from Slumdog are going to go towards helping those in the slums here. Of course there are all theses stories in the news of family members trying to get money and long lost parents coming back to see their children etc. etc.
So what other news is there. Well a very good friend of mine, Daniel Callanan is coming on the 4th to spend 3 weeks in India with me, and then coming back with me to Ireland. I’m looking forward to this so much like nothing else. My only regret is that not everyone I know is coming. I think at one point or another I’ve thought how much each one of my friends and family would love this sight/sound/experience in India. The plan is to take Dan to Goa and Thakur Sai, a small village where Gayle’s uncle has a holiday home (one of the coolest places you can ever go see, more on that when I come back from the visit). I’m also planning on taking him to Mahabaleshwar, a beautiful hill station 400 miles south of Mumbai (around a 6hour highway drive). Mahabaleshwar is frickin’ cool. They are places where the British used to go to escape the Summer heat in India, often ruling from there for months at a time. It’s a huge plateau, not sure of the size, maybe the size of Cork city. To get up there you literally have to drive up the side of a mountain. For those that know it think the pass between Castlegregory and Dingle town only bigger and badder….and with Indian drivers. Our driver, though a very good driver zoomed up it like I don’t know what, cutting a large bus on the outside of a sheer cliff turn….not for the faint hearted. The reason we were going was work related, KN ARCON are restoring this beautiful old bungalow up there called Reay Villa. Unfortunately it’s privately owned so I can’t say come and visit, but there is a whole lot more to see there. The restoration process has taken 4 years to complete, with only the landscaping left to do, and it certainly shows the work and skill the guys at KN ARCON have put into it. The inside is beautiful, with a fully resorted decorated Tin ceiling (see the pic attached) in the main room. Mahabaleshwar is famous for a couple of things, the bungalows, the view, the climate but it also has some really nice treats for the visitor to indulge in. Strawberries grow here aplenty so all the shops stock lot sof strawberry-based treats. We had strawberries, ice cream and cream. Sinful but something that still haunts my hungry dreams! Also available was some of the nicest Chikki I’ve had, look back and you;ll find a post on them. I call them Tooth Suicides! But the coolest thing I found there was the juice syrup, the original dilutable. The juices in Mahabaleshwar are something else, being made of a syrupy liquid with mushed fruit stuffed in. The two I bought, Kiwi and Strawberry are just amazing, we still have them and it’s my daily treat to myself. The strawberry one has whole strawberries floating in it! If you don’t have a sweet tooth I wouldn’t recommend them however, the leftover at the bottom of the glass is liquid sugar. MMmmmm After Mahabaeshwar we drove to North of Bombay, to the town of Bhiwandi, a satellite town of the Metropolis. It has a big muslim population there, and a deep history, possibly older than Bombays as it lies a small bit inland, past an impressive wall of mountains that have temples dotted on their sides. The reason we were going to this town was to see a new project, another Juma Masjid, which the Juma Trust who run the Juma Masjid in Bombay town also have an interest in. It’s quite a nice Mosque, similar in style and layout to Juma though not half as elaborate and big. It seems that repairs made a while back are now damaging the walls and pulling a section down, causing major cracks to appear all along the west, south and north wall.

Okay I must go, boss is back so I need to look busy. I will talk to you all later. And again, sorry for the delay in blogging this month.

short note

Hello all, wow I haven’t blogged in ages! Just thought I’d make sure you all know I’m still alive and well. Living here is a quite an experience, from the busy trains to the super clubs. It has the madness of India infused with the glamour of Hollywood and the street-cred of London. Being here is like being at the centre of a large, unorganized wheel that’s constantly moving, albeit jerkily and with a backwards slide or stall every now and then. I can’t tell you how often you will come up against both open-minded hospitality and narrow-minded ideas and politics. Saturday was Valentines day, a day which is a big too commercial for its own good. While many of us rise above this and use the day to share our love with one another in India Valentines day has become a hugely controversial event, centered around western corruption and modern influences. (it ended up with gangs going around beating or marrying people caught cuddling in public in some parts of India!) I like living here, though I have to admit it’s mainly because I get to live with Gayle!

Drinking and dancing in India

Drinking in India is a dangerous thing, not because of the drunks, or the bouncers or even the quality of the bars; it’s the sober people outside waiting to beat you for partying that you need to look out for. Well, it’s not that bad, but recently in mangalore, a bunch of radicals beat the crap out of revellers at a club just simply because they were ‘going against Indian culture’.
http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/2009/01/shri-ram-sena-activists-assault-5-girls.html
This is just the most violent episode in the whole ‘party culture’ that is blossoming in India at the moment. With the rise of the middle class and their children, pub culture has boomed in India, especially in the Big cities like Bombay. However, this new culture is seen by many as yet another corruption from the West, and as many traditionalists and politicians are against this new fad. This goes as far as strict closing hour times (1.30 in most places at the most) and in some parts of India there are extreme cases like in Bangalore, where dancing is banned! It sounds like a bad joke but it’s true, originally the ban was to curb the rise of dance-bars. Dance bars are a very interesting aspect of Indian culure, a microcosm of the strange conservative sexuality that is popular here. Basically a dance bar is a bar where women dance around for men, like a lapdance club. However, and this is where the two establishments veer away drastically in theme because in dance bars, the women are fully dressed. They wear beautiful Saris and all they do is dance to popular Bollywood songs. This is hugely popular here and men go crazy for it supposedly, a better account of them is in the book Maximum City, can’t remember the author’s name but he does a very good job at describing Bombay. Anyway, the law (remember the ban I was talking about) was trying to curb on this but a mixture of over-zealous cops and conservative pressure meant that any dancing became an offence.
After the attacks I talked about earlier many politicians distanced themselves away from the group involved, however what was most frustrating was that they were then quoted as saying that while the attacks were not good it was important that they have raised the issue of ‘drink culture’ in India. They call it un-Indian to party in pubs and though the attackers have been arrested they will more than likely get off without too-serious charges. I think it’s a sad state of affairs when people can’t go out and part without being attacked. I mean in Ireland our drink culture can often be a sorry affair, it is at least accepted as something that people enjoy doing. However, it is different in India, the people who party are a minority to those that don’t and many feel it just another force threatening India’s society. Does it? Are you less Indian if you party, or are you becoming ‘westernised’ when you have a drink in a pub. For me India is in no danger of becoming ‘westernised’ ( a term I dislike anyway) as it, to me, has it’s own vision of modernity, much more so than Ireland, whose culture I do feel is being eroded by a lack of interest in out own background and customs. I think Ireland has a lot to learn from India, especially in regard to preserving it’s identity in a world becoming more homogenised every day. Take traditional music in Ireland for example, it has a foundation and structure, but very little in the way of a modern feel. We learn old songs and use old themes in our music, in India music is becoming modern while staying true to it’s form and styles. Take Punjabi hiphop for example, a genre that has melded two quite different genres historically into a new and vibrant style that is huge in India, even the world (we all know Panjabi MC, no?).

Bollwood Acha hai

... a very rough guide


How big is Bollywood? I’m sure many of you outside of the Indian world wonder that, no? The answer is huge, the film industry in India is one of the largest in the world, and Bollywood is just a small part of the Hindustani cinematic world. Nearly every state has it’s own movies, there are Punjabi movies and Tollywood movies, films made in the Tamil speaking South of India. The name is a portmanteau of Bombay and Hollywood (which many don’t like) and although it isn’t actually a place in Bombay, it’s a very real part of India and Bombay. Its home is Film City, a massive area in the far suburbs of Bombay full of movie studios. I wouldn’t even want to try and guess how many movies have been made there. But since I’ve been here nearly every week a new movie is being advertised, with huge hoardings all across town (the crossing from Mahim to Bandra is a sight with all the billboards there, I’d guess around 20 big ones.) Bollywood is based on escapism, and rarely are you treated to the harsh side of life, unless it is to illustrate how tough a character is. One of the reasons I think that Slumdog Millionaire had a lukewarm reception was its brutal honesty in depicting the slums and people living rough in India. I mentioned before a movie called Dostana; now THAT is a bollwood movie, albeit a very modern ‘hip’ one. Your foundation for a Bollywood movie is the music. Get a good song (and a dance routine to back it up) and you’re halfway there. Commercial music in India is not Britney Spears, it’s the latest and greatest bollywood tracks. A typical Bollywood club involves everyone standing around doing the moves they saw in the song and singing all cool, like the movie stars. And the movie stars? If you make it in Bollwood and become a star (believe me not a simple thing in a very closed and competitive industry) you have the chance to become one of the most powerful people in India, like Shah Rukh Khan.

Who?

Shah Rukh Khan (hope I’m spelling that right) was named one of India’s most powerful people and he’s the movie star of Bollywood. His name nearly guarantees box office success and it was his interview and statement after 26/11 that was one of the most watched. Richard, you know who I’m talking about, the star of Kutch Kutch Hota Hai, one of the cheesiest movies I’ve ever seen, and for all the wrong reasons, one of the funniest.



Then comes Amitabh Bachchan, who when he dies will cause India to come to a standstill, he is the Godfather of Bollywood and has been a star for over 40 years. You may remember him from Slumdog Millionaire, though he isn’t in it. He’s the guy the kid jumps in the poo to get to and signs the autograph. And the way those people were acting, not put on at all. In fact it seemed pretty restrained!

a young Amitabh Bachchan in the 70s

Then there are the women of Bollwood, the sexy bombshells. Women who grown men will weep and cry over. The big name at the moment is Priyanka Chopra who starred in Dostana.

She’s probably the women of half a billion people dreams right now. Now, to be honest my knowlefge of Bollywood actors and actresses nearly ends there, I know that most Indians are like, “what?” Even Gayle, who can’t stand Bollywood, could name most of the big stars.
But I have to admit, I don’t like Bollywood films, especially the serious ones. They are too over-acted for me. Too melodramatic. Not saying that means they’re bad movies, just I don’t enjoy them. I love comedic ones, I can watch them. The over the top acting only makes it better.
Another thing people may have heard about Bollywood is that people don’t kiss in them, which is quite true. There is no nudity and sexual content, which doesn’t mean they are not sexual. They still have the ‘wet-sari’ scene and the sexy dance moves and the wistful looks, but when out hero and heroine come to the kiss they either move to the side (sexy like) or there is a scene cut. While being very conservative they can be just as provocative as Hollywood movies, if not more so.
wet sari scene!
Okay times up. I really should do some work. Maybe I’ll talk a little more about Bollywood some other time.


one of the big summer hits!

Slumdog Crorepati

Back in the office today, after 2 days at the mosque scraping paint off to analyse the original paint colour. Hard work. Especially when your on top of a steel ladder 10ft in the air with no shoes on. Now I have to take all the images I took (around 100+) and catalogue each one. Will do it later, after lunch. Lunch is rashers! Gayle, so good she is to me) went and bought some at a meat store. Very hard to find and these ones are quite meaty. The other ones we got were way too stringy and had loads of rind.
Saw slumdog millionaire last week. Brilliant movie and I highly recommend watching it. Not only is it a nice movie but it’s very true to what life is in India for many people. There is no exaguration in some of the scenes, I’ve seen the blind kids singing. You can sometimes forget that 55% of Bombay’s population live in slums, though there’s always a reminder around the corner. It’s amazing how big the divides between classes is here. You’ve got your super rich (TATA executives etc.) and your super poor here. Even the divide between the upper middle class and the rich is a gulf hard to bridge. What to one man in Bombay is wealth is another’s poverty.
There have been a few complaints about Slumdog Millionaire in the Indian media, criticising its name (in Hindi, it’s a very negative word to use for someone from the slums) and its romanticising of poverty in Bombay. I disagree with their arguments, as there is no glory in the boys life in the slums, only in their actions. The slum for them is a place of filth, violence and despair. It is true that Bombay has more to offer than just slums, but it cannot be ignored that the majority of Bombay live below or just above the poverty line.
In a vote in a popular newspaper here, 47% said that Slumdog Millionaire’s title was derogatory while, while 41% said no. I think it is derogatory, but isn’t that the point? The title is supposed to represent the attitude towards Jamal in the movie. He is seen as a Slumdog, he is called that a few times in the film.
Another criticism of the movie is that some of the younger actors, all of whom do live in the slums (such as the youngest Salim character) live in slums. Their parents live in a hut with no lights or running water. How come? In relative terms to the movie the family have received relatively nothing. Natika’s youngest actor was supposedly paid 38,000rs for her role, which was spent according the family on her father’s medical bill (he had broken his leg recently, a crippling thing for a family in their position). Is this fair? Should more money be given? I think it really should be up to the director and producer to decide, and to see that the families of the young actors, as well as the children themselves, get looked after. However, it’s important to see that this money goes to the right hands, and that the families use the money wisely, especially in the interest of the children who acted so well. The families were complaining that they wanted a flat, not money but can’t money buy a flat? One family was given 1.3lakh (130,000rs) over the course of a year which they claim was spent on food. Surely If they had asked for the money to buy a flat it would have been sorted out. And spending a lakh and a bit on food alone seems excessive for a family living in a hut.
At the same time it is important for us in the developed world to realise that Slumdog Millionaire is a story set in India, not a story about India. It does not tell the whole truth, for as there is poverty and slums, so there is wealth and development. I have been living in Bombay for 4 months now (can you believe it?!?!?) and I can tell you you’ll never be in a more vibrant city as Bombay. There is always something to see and do and there is so much life and culture in this city it’s amazing.