Welcome to the 2nd part of this 3-part mini-series "Dude! Where's my weekend?"
In case you missed the 1st part here is the re-run (I'm kinda proud of this one).

Ok so,
one week later ...

Triin finally made it to Kolkata, after having braved a 7 hour bus-ride from Dhaka.
I wasn't about to SMS her again (hoo boy!) after her little "Maniac SMS" episode earlier that week, but had managed to be there to pick her up from the bus-stop along with Raksha from AIESEC India and Beyhan.

For you people out there who aren't familiar with Triin...

Meet Triin Noorkõiv. Estonian. Finally figured out from her blog that her birthday is Aug 27. A belated Happy birthday Triin! We first met in Singapore some time back and she was the main reason I wound up here in India. Since she was headed this way, I had thought I'ld show some Singaporean hospitality and host her for a weekend.

She has a lot more free time than I do, so she's written about her stay with us first. I like to take my time with these things. Since her description is a trifle short to say the least, I think you had better stick to my account.

Let's see, she arrived on a nice humid Saturday morning, I forgot what time exactly....
Like the wind she came and like the wind she went, silently leaving her invisible mark on those she passed. OMG, Purple Prose! Somebody shoot me please...

Weeell, it was true, kinda. I rather enjoyed her visit. I'm sure Beyhan, Maxim and Alvarro did too. Yes Triin, it's Beyhan, Maxime and Alvarro ;p. Not Marcus and his three house-mates.

We almost missed her pickup. Out here in deep kolkata, there are no bus-stop signs. Heck, there aren't even alot of street-signs (this is still better than Mumbai where there are NO street signs), and some buses don't even bother to stop. (You kinda have to run along side the bus, it slows down enough for you to make a running leap for the door. I don't advise missing.)

Anyhow, we found her (eventually) and took a cab back to our little pad to stow her gear. By some happy chance Alvarro had just left Kolkata for Mumbai on assignment for the weekend and we had some bedspace.

I have to admit that I was a little unused at first to the increase in the volume of conversation that was suddenly going on. Our house is, unlike the house upstairs, is a fairly quiet place. People from upstairs used to come down here to escape the maddening crowd.

Breakfast in the morning consisted of the four amigos sitting around a table communicating by grunts. So, you can imagine sparkling conversations are not really our forte. Triin could REALLY talk. I think she sensed an aural vacuum present in our group, and proceeded to single-handly fill the air with light-hearted banter.

Her optimism was like ... like a ray of sunlight piercing the darkness that shrouded me. Unfortunately, when a guy is sleeping comfortably in the gloomy dark, you DON'T shine a torchlight on his face. It was a little discomfitting to say the least. (Shucks, she talks even more than Alvarro, the lengendary amigo who can interrupt a group in conversation and proceed to convert a dialogue to a monologue.)

It took some time to get her settled. I can't quite remember why, but only Triin and I were left to decide what we wanted to do for the weekend. She wanted to see a temple mentioned in her lonely planet guide - Belur Math.

Belur Math was a temple which belonged to a very famous preacher. This fellow founded a religion (can I call it that?) that included elements from all the major religions of the world. This temple was in the northern regions of Kolkata. Actually, it was in another city entirely, Howrah. Howrah and Kolkata are joined to each other like a pair of siamese twins, their fates intertwined and sustained by their common umbilical cord that is River Hooghly.

We took the metro to a point close to the Howrah bridge which spanned the Hooghly. It was ...an interesting walk across the bridge. From the Howrah train station, a special train took us straight to Belur Math.

There, in front of the Howrah station, we had our first near-death encounter. A super-sized truck bore down on us and we noticed the truck only at the very last minute. Actually, Triin noticed the truck at the last minute. I would just have been so much pate on the road.

Darn...running out of time again.

Continue this sometime...

Some people say the passage of time is a relative thing. At times it slows down so much that the very seconds seem like hours, at times weeks flash by in the blink of an eye and you go "whoa dude...where did the time go?"

The last 3 weeks ... they zipped by in blur.

Three weeks ago, I attended my colleague, Prasendjit's wedding. His was a Hindu traditional wedding in every sense of the word, and in the fashion of the most traditional of traditional weddings, this one was arranged. Which meant before now, neither groom nor bride had seen hide or hair of the person whom he/she was to live with for the rest of his/her life. Ahh...and they say life is like box of chocolates.

Prasendjit was quivering alittle when I greeted him with the rest of the TCS invitees outside a three storey Ceremonial house specially rented for this occasion.
Poor sod. Yeah, I wouldn't trust my mother to pick my nose...much less my bride.

I had a sudden mental picture of Prasendjit completing the ceremony by unveiling his new bride to reveal Jack Neo staring back at him. (or worse, the slovenly shaven guy in Jack Neo's comedy shows, you know the one who picks his nose with his pinkie?) At least this time I didn't have to resort to the Orange Bag Technique. Yeah yeah, I know...I can be a bit of a bastard sometimes.

Unlike so very often in real life, this story actually has a happy ending. To Prasendjit's visible relief, unlike my mother, his mother has excellent taste. The blushing bride was Indian princess barbie and Indian Ken rode off with her into the starlit night.

They wish...

What actually went on was the traditional greeting of the elders on the second floor. Since this is India, the number of elders and assorted relatives one had to greet was well nigh intolerable. Anyhoo...to cut a long story short, we adjourned...finally downstairs to take dinner.

Dinner was excellent. Normally, Indian meals were almost always too salty by half and too spicy by far.
This time though, half the meal was dessert. Death by sugar comes closer to describing the last half of the wedding dinner. At one point I had to grit my teeth to swallow a pancake like item which was dripping in some syrup.

The last item of the night was some kind of leaf folded neatly into a triangular shape. There was something suspiciously insecty about the whole affair. Previous contact with the Indian culinary arts gifts you with a highly sharpened sense of paranoia, coupled with a natural tendency towards pessimism, you must forgive me if I was looking rather slightly askance at this rather innocuous item.
(Having half the room giggling at me in amusement, like I was about to be the butt of an enormous practical joke didn't help either)

I'd half expected something to crawl out of the leaf.

Not wishing to offend my guests I took the leaf. Crunchy...but I didn't want to think about that. It wasn't too bad. After having managed to convince myself there wasn't anything remotely resembling a bug within the leaf, the net result of a few minutes of vigorous mastication was a taste akin to swallowing half a tube of colgate. Wierd....but good. (I happen to like the taste of colgate)

Outside, the rain was starting to fall...again. The gentle pitter-patter of rain-drops hitting the roof coupled with a nice stiff breeze brought this monsoon wedding to a rather satisfactory conclusion. It was quite romantic really, if only I didn't have to share a cab with 5 men who had rather Indian ideas about what was acceptable for physical contact between men. ( I will elaborate further in a future post so stay tuned)

So many things have happened this past week, I wonder if I remember them all...still, I shall try.

Since we moved into our new quarters on 7 Gurusday road, it's been a pretty busy place. Other than the four of us living on the 4th floor, the 5th floor flat housed 8 AIESEC trainees from all over the world. So, here's an update on the cast of characters in this little charade.

The Usual Suspects:
Yours truly, Alvarro, Beyhan, Maxime.

And:

Conrad(Poland), Amrat (Turkey), Daniela & Mickey (Romania), Yi Xiang (PRC), Keika (Japan), another Polish girl whose name slipped my mind and of course that Dutch guy whose name I'll never remember.

Memory flashback : Shaving cream can be bad for your health....

Me, Beyhan, Keika, Mickey, Amrat and that Dutchman (D) were sitting around in the apartment on the 4th floor making idle conversation. Maxime and Alvarro were sleeping soundly in their rooms.

D started to get "creative" (meaning dumbass) ideas about ambushing Max and Alvarro with a bottle of shaving cream. However, he managed to egg Keika into doing his dirty little deed for him.

"BANZAI!!!"Keika charged into the room, shaving cream spraying wildly. We rushed to the door to wait for Keika to re-emerge.

Q: "Did you get him? Did you get him?"
A: "Yes!! Yes!! I hit!! I hit!! I spray can at Max"
(Use your imagination, Japanese-accented English)

She stepped out into the light...and ...what a mess. ;p. Turns out that the NOZZLE was aimed the wrong way and she wound up emptying the contents of the shaving gel all over herself.

I guess you really had to be there for the full effect.

Finally, an Internet connection...

A pretty good one too, almost as fast as home. At 15 rs an hour, a steal.

Anyhoo...

Whatever I was going to say I posted on one of my friend's blog already. Feels lame to repeat it. Triin, the Estonian lady who started this entire madcap adventure going just completed her stint in Singapore and is coming to Kolkatta.

I hope AIESEC Kolkatta is aware of this, but I'm going to make sure she gets picked up. Will thee or nil thee...

I see India every day when I walk out in the streets, when I go to work, and when I return all beat up and tired. There's so much pain and suffering, true. Poverty is a real problem in many areas, again, true.

What amazes me is how, in spite of all that, life endures. If there's one word to describe India, it would be...ALIVE. Every one is in constant motion trying to stay alive, and they do it with a smile. I get the feeling that if tomorrow, Calcutta suffered a nuclear attack, next week everything would return to normal. That is, chaotic.

I watch a particular dog (I call him Rusty) when I go to work everyday. Rusty's hind leg is broken but he goes about his daily business with the same vigour and energy every morning on 3 legs. He is still alive.

Indians are an unbelievably friendly lot. Sometimes a little too friendly. Hugging and hand-holding among male friends are common, but I draw the line at butt-squeezing, that's just gay. (Or as Beyhan says ... Ibneh).

Going to attend my colleague Prasendjit's wedding on Sunday. Should be fun...monsoon wedding. There going to be a long weekend. Finally.

In India, to stay alive you have to switch off your imagination. Your imagination's gunna kill you. When I drink the filtered water in India, I have to pretend what I'm drinking is milk (no kidding). The tiny shiny black piece I just swilled down with my rice is NOT a bug, it's pepper...it has to be... please gawd. No, that's not a rat I saw scuttling away in the kitchen. It's the cat....at that size...it has to be....please.

So far in India, I haven't tasted a single boiled dish yet. It's fried or extra-deep fried. Oh yeah and roast. My colleagues assured me that they DO have boiled dishes. Now that's a relief. You hear medical studies showing how Indians might be genetically more supscetible to heart-attack. B.S. It's their diet. It's going to kill them...and maybe me with them.

Today, I get to exercise my badly atrophied Chinese again. ;p. My group is handling a project for a Japanese subsidiary of AXA. So now I'm pressed into service (in addition to the modules assigned to me) reading Japanese Kanji and translating them into English. I think it should work. I recognize most of the Kanji.

If my entry seems a little fragmented, sorry. My stomach is acting up again. I just ate at a restaurant whose tagline is "Innovative and Tasty foods in a hygenic setting". You know you're in India when a restaurant's selling point is "hygenic".

Well, looks like we're moving into our new quarters tomorrow. We don't see any internet cafes near our place.

Looks like I'm going to be offline for a while until I locate an internet connection.

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What's ****ed up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I walk alone
I walk a...

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...

Triin, please please please get this message. ;p.

Joon or Lisa, if you're reading this help me get this to Triin ok?

Here's the whole story:

It all started when I SMS'ed Triin's Estonian number. I wanted to know when she would be arriving in Kolkata.

Triin sent back one SMS reply which was truncated because of an error in sending the message. An hour later the same SMS was received, and another and another.....

It's been a day or so now. I'm being spammed by Triin (or her Telco)!!! Help. I've been forced to shut off my handphone all day...

In case you're wondering, yes I tried to SMS to Triin to tell her that her Telco is barraging me with duplicate SMSes. So far, no response...

You know, when I get home, I'm swearing off attending any parties for at least a year. All the parties are starting to drive me crazy.

Beyhan the big baby drank like a fish and danced all night, and promptly became feverish. I took his temperature and gave him a panadol, I should have known better.

That idiot popped it down without first having had any dinner (too busy dancing). Coupled with all the alchol he was swilling so liberally and a gastric problem, we wound up taking turns hot-towelling and massaging him for the rest of the night. It was 2 a.m. before I got any sleep.

You would think it's ok, since it's a Saturday night right? Nahuh...got to work on Sunday too...how crappy.

He wasn't the only one on the floor that night. Some Indian hombre drank himself out as well and we just tossed him into the bathroom to sleep it off.

Please Gawd...No more parties...I can't take it anymore.

On the other hand, we met more new friends. Let me see...Saori, a Japanese, A pair of Romanian vampires (Mickey {Mikhaila}...and the other girl, I forget her name), a dutch girl who will also remain nameless...

Alvarro was putting the moves on her all night, but man...it looked so funny. Alvarro was roughly half Dutchlady's height and he spent the rest of the night with his head cranked upwards. The very next night, he was complaining of neckache for the entire duration of a movie we were watching. Which, incidentally, was pretty good. "The Island"...anybody watched that?

The house in Kolkatta we're moving into is one of the best rentals I've come across so far in India. It's also the landlady's house. Fully A/Ced with DVD player and TV and a large bathroom...all for 3000 rs per month. Oh joy! ;)