The little India

My working life is absolutely the same with the rest of millions of Malaysian white collars workers, of which our daily routine revolves around the small cramp cubicle. However.... there is something really unique about my office. My clients who came to my office will usually spot the difference the minute they stepped in, its not the office decor nor the amount of cubicles (sometimes it does looks like a call centre) inside the office, well its the people.... cuz there is a little India in my office.

Best employee of the month

Its funny that people said that technology brings the world to your doorstep, well in this context, technology really brought alot of Indians from India to my office doorstep. Actually its not surprising that nowadays many IT companies hired software engineers from India, cuz they are skillful and cheaper to hire compare to grooming local IT fresh graduates (long gestation period). I am not a racist by the way (if thats what running through your mind), my Indians colleagues are a bunch of friendly people, and i have no issue mixing around with them, however, i cant deny that they really are a unique group of people, they are so distinct to an extent that their 'overpowering force' of cultural and linguistic influence threatened to takeover the office.

Ok, maybe thats a bit too much. However, dont you agree that how similar the Indians are? The way they talk, gesture, choice of food, interest (cricket, cricket and cricket) are really similar, and when they come together as a group, literally you can see the Indian aura is getting emitted out in strong waves. Well, who knows, maybe they view the chinese people the same way as well.

Anyway, some of the distinct differences of the Indian culture in my office are:

1. They like to use big words and sound intelligently (technically)
I have to say Indians are blessed with the gift of language, they can speak technical/science soundly without any effort while Malaysian will be struggle to find the vocabularies which is hiding somewhere in their brain. I thinks thats how they gained their respect and acceptance in the professional industry. However, thats provided you understand what they are saying in the first place, cuz their speak in such a thick Indian accent, and to make it worse, every state of India have their own distinct accent.

Sometimes when we have discussion with local clients and when my Indian colleagues speaks, i can see suddenly my clients become very quiet, and then they will started to look attentively at my colleagues's mouth movement, by then I know my colleague had lost them completely, and the rest of the meeting will be the class to master the art of lip reading.

2. They like to confuse people
They like to say yes sir to everything and shake their head while they agree. This is something which i am still learning after 2 years of working in my current company, sometimes it confused me so much that i dont even know whether they really understand what i am saying, or its just their habit of responding every sentence with 'yes mam'.

3. They like to disappear..... and come back with a wife
Arranged marriage is still very much in practice in India. They are very particular about geographical region (North and South Indian does not mixed marriage) and caste system when it comes to making babies. Parents will have the ultimate say in deciding the choice of the spouse of their son and daughters, and some of them never met each other before the wedding day itself. When my Indian colleagues applies for holiday for a month, for sure you know that wedding bell is ringing. They either come back to Malaysia with a wife, or in the case of lady colleagues, its a resignation letter, cuz its written in their 'commandment' that:

"Thy wife must follow thy husband wherever he goes."

So, they have no choice but to resign (leave Malaysia abruptly) and follow their husband to the end of the world.

4. They only eat Indian VEGETARIAN food
Majority of the Indians in my company are Vegetarian since the day they were born, thus they dont have many choices when it comes to the food served in company cafeteria. Its either Chapatti or Tosai, EVERYDAY. The vegetarian dish which they ate together with their main is always mashed and discoloured, so i can never tell which is which cuz they all tasted the same (heavy spices taste). They dont like the leafly vegetable and noodles, especially when its black in color. There is one time my Indian colleague tried the Char Kuay Tiaw, and end up puking and taking the MC for the next day because she cant take the soy sauce.

Before joining my current company, the indian food which i know is only Roti Canai and Masala. Chicken. Mind you, Indian perceived Roti Canai as poor men's food cuz its made of very low quality flour with no fibre content at all, so they will not take the Roti Canai which Malaysian are so proud of. Nowadays, i have learn to appreciate certain Indian food which are quite tasty in my own definition, e.g. Rava Tosai, Masala Tosai, Claypot Briyani etc.

Rava Tosai/Dosa
the usual tosai but with some chili and onion. I really love the coconut chutney which comes along with dhal and another red colored chutney, it taste a bit sweet and not too spicy

Masala Tosai/dosa
I think most of Malaysian know this dish, its again the same tosai but stuffed with mashed potatoes which is mixed with onion, spices, the only problem with the dish is the amount of ghee in it. Sometimes the tosai is submerged in a layer of yellow colored oil and it tasted very 'jelak' after a few bite.


Anyway, I will write more about indian food in my next blog.

So, back to the topic, to be frank, I do appreciates the diversity factor which my Indian Colleagues had brought into the office, and its actually quite fun to interact with people with different colors of life from different parts of the world.

slumdog millionaires-photoshoped

After hearing so many good reviews about Slumdog Millionaires, i've finally decided to watch the movie yesterday night. I have to say, even without caramel popcorns, the movie was awesome, with a balanced taste of entertainment and inspiring message. It is a complete unexpected detour from what people usually perceived of Bollywood movie (singing, dancing, heroism), as it potraited the naked, ugly, pathetic life of millions of slumdogs in India to the world once and for all, with no reservation (except for the groupie dancing in the credits at the end). Frankly, it must be the most honest real-life renderring movie in the history of Bollywood. The story was presented as flashbacks of the past converges with the presents as Jamal told his story, and this gave a darker appeal to some of the scenes.

However, its kinda weird as it was an British Director (Danny Boyle) who made this movie (in another term it is a British film), and that all the actors speaks flashy English with no apparent Indians slang at all, which is the biggest lie in the whole movie. I can testify this cuz i have more than 20 India's Indians colleagues and none of them speak without shaking their head and Indian Slang. Well you can really see the ambition of the director in this, making the film in such a way to cater for the hollywoord mainstream and of course the critics and judges of movie awards.

What really triggered my interest is the appearance of Lord Rama in the movie. Although its only like a split second, however the image was so vivid in my mind. The deity was shown as a kid in bluish, holding a bow when the Hindus-Muslims riots taken place where Jamal's mom was killed. I cant really make a sense out of that scene as according to my understanding, Lord Rama is the incarnation of God Vishnu, the god of maintenance in Hindus's belief (Hindus have the trinity-alike concept, where the other two Gods are Brahma the creator and Shiva the destroyer/death). The Hindus Gods were believed to incarnate as different people to end a particular age (not human physical age, but the age of the world, e.g. age of industry, age of end time etc.) in order to pave the way for the start of a new era.

The Lord Rama in the movie and artist impression, are they look alike?

At first my interpretation was Lord Rama appears to end it all when the slum area were destroyed by the Hindus, however according to my Indian colleagues, Lord Rama is said to have taken birth on earth to annihilate the evil forces of the age (He is always holding a bow and arrow indicating his readiness to destroy evils).

Which means in this case, the muslims were seen as the evils in the eyes of the Hindus. And thats why Jamal said he wished that he had never saw the Lord himself. Not sure whether you have realized it or not that both Jamal and Salim are Muslims? Especially in Salims's last scene whereby his last word is "God is great", the "takbir" in muslim. Its a famous arabic expression, especially in Muslim terrosists movie. Anyway, further googling showed that such speculation had been wide spread and the Hindus are protesting and banning the movie as the image of Lord Rama was badly demontrated and as such denigrating the religious sentiments of Hindus.

Demontration by Hindus

Nevertheless, its still a good movie, i love how the movie directors playing with the myriad of colors to make the movie really stand out. If you still the image, the scenes are so breathtakingly beautiful, its like telling a real story in such an artistic way. anyway, below are some of my favourites:

The reunion scene of the brothers reminiscence their past life in slum area

The endless train ride

The river and the toilet

Its a cookie cutter world

Human comes in a myriad of colors, needs, background, ethnics, ability and ambitions. We are so different from each other, yet we all living in this cookie cutter world that shaped us into similar being. We've been taught to be a good person by our parents, since we were young, we've been bombarded by tons of media influence everyday, we view beautiful as good and ugly as bad, we think that the earth revolves around us and that we are always right and others dont understand us when they dont agree with us.

Think about the people we marginalize just because they are different from us. We call some people as cult when their frame of religious believe does not fit into ours; we call the mainstream as tradition followers without even looking at the their life quality which is beyond the conventional; we call some people as sinner or lost when we dont even know that we too, sin every second or minutes; We call some people sluggish and non performers and we moves too fast and unwilling to slow down to wait for others.

Previously i was labeled or 'called' by some other people as bookworm, show off/fake, dominant etc., and the funny thing is when i confronted them, it seems like the reason is always because i didnt fit into their perception on how 'Susan' ought to be. Do i really need to prove myself that i am worthy of their expectation?

Our judgment and opinion are all based on our own set of assumptions and deduction. We judge a person based on fitness against our parameter, appearance, short encounter and glimpses which vaguely represent the reality.

In the end, who will fit into YOUR cookie cutter?

Or.. you are making a cookie cutter for others too?