i always wanted to write an amazing blog. you know mindblowing.... something to shake the earth and hundreds of comments pouring in and stuff. Alas! that remained a dream and i was facing a task of filling up these huge Mbs that i had so naively reserved for myself. so i did me a little exploring to find out what it was that others were filling up their blogs with and it so happens that people are trying to put their lives on paper. and it does happen to be an interesting read. not a bad idea i think. of course i might have the unusual sparks once here or there and those will be posted on the other thread called ramble on.. but my shattered ego does need some material on this journal to start writing again. so here goes nothing...at the time of writing this i am posted in the second biggest city of Indonesia called Surabaya on the island of Java. doing what you might as well ask. so here's the answer. i am kinda trying to understand the intricacies of the soap manufacturing process in Unilever Indonesia (i work for HLL back in India so that explains it i hope). at the same time i am trying to come to grips with existence in an alien land without the linguistic capabilites, financial prowess or physical attributes to attract any sort of agreeable company. so generally put in a nutshell, i am getting thoroughly bored with life. so it was this spirit of boredom that forced me to retrospect and introspect about whatever little i had seen of Indonesian life. pretty interesting observations these...
1. Islamic State = Talaq + Burkha (??!!?!?!?!) - Prior to setting foot on the land i had heard that Indonesia's population was around 80% muslims and i had conjured up pictures of burkha clad women on the streets and every man on the street sporting a beard. i even half expected the factory workers to be in the traditional Arab dresses (that was just an exaggeration).but the first sights were probably the best description of "pleasant surprise" ever. if i were correct in visualising females in burkhas, then somebody did a double take on me and redesigned the burqa as a sphagetti top and a mini skirt (i have no idea what the former looks like. just read it off a fashion page in the newspaper once so guess it must fit the description). and women were as much empowered as men. in fact i was totally taken aback to find such a sizeable female contingent working in Unilever Indonesia that my visual associations of an Islamic state have turned on their head. i took a weekend trip to the biggest mall in town (and the best tourist attraction here. woe is me!!) and i could easily have been standing at the trendiest plazas in South Ex or Gurgaon with all the fanfare of the terribly-rich-teenage-brigade that saddi Delhi is so famous for. so much for my mental image conjuring capabilities.
2. Religion meets Technology - if the above paragraph made you believe that Indonesia was not an Islamic state and i was factually wrong... think again. every day every person in the factory prays an absolutely unimpeachable five times!! and then returns to supervise the fastest and the best packaging machines that the world has seen till date. to me even the situation of the prayer room is symbolic of this. it is located right next to the process control room. in one room man controls the process of manufacturing soap and in the next he goes and acknowledges the supreme being's control over him. and on Friday...... yes you guessed it. the factory is off for about 1 hour for the noon time Namaz
3. Grass is for cows..... and cows we can eat - if there was one thing that i would not touch after landing in India it would have to be non veg! i was born into a Bong family and therefore with my birth certificate came the no objection certificate to eating anything (albeit with the obvious Hindu limitations. a custom long dispensed with among the travesties of life in Delhi). but the amount of meat (and the varieties of it) that i have consumed over the past 5 weeks has been enough to make me do a serious rethink on the diet. once back home i am living off roti and dal for the first week and then slowly graduate to some form of sabzi or the other. i might return to my omnivorous tendencies sometime in the far future but it seems highly unlikely right now.
4. No Bahasa... know Nothing - My father has been posted in Korea for sometime now and his stories of how difficult life can be in places which don't give English the place it deserves in the primary curriculum for someone who has unfortunately been born in the wrong country to be there were always a constant source of amusement for me. guess who is the family clown now? i stare blankly at the wall while having lunch because everyone is cracking jokes in Bahasa, i stare blankly at the wall while attending the weekly production meeting because it is proceeding in Bahasa, i stare blanky at the wall during get togethers because everyone is singing in Bahasa and what do i do when i go to the market..... (no not stare blankly at the wall, there is no wall) i try out my proficiency at dumb charades!!! the various contortions that i have effected till date of my body parts to mean things like bread, eggs, cold drinks, etc have renewed my faith in my body's agility (and thats for the ones who doubt my figure). vocab till date consists of Salamat pagi Nasi Goreng Ayam mie which mean Good Morning Fried rice chicken noodles respectively.
5. Booked under Indonesian Penal Code for being Fat - Ok! its official now. i am not going to be awarded the Indonesian Passport if they nuked the world and i was the last man on Earth and i wanted to be an Indonesian citizen. the reason you ask... well apparently it is a crime for one in Indonesia to look well fed (that is how i justify myself back home). every damn person on the street has the bestest figure possible as if there weren't reasons enough to make me feel a complete outsider. i fear deportation on those accounts any day now.
thats all from the Indonesia diary for now. hope i will return soon
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