One of the best experiences are the ones where I glimpsed how Indians live and work in the towns.
Of course I cannot generalize because we got to see only 3 towns – Pulpally, a tiny town minutes from Vanamoolika; Irinjalakuda which was near the Ayurvedic centre we stayed at and finally downtown Kochi on our final day.
But each town gave me a lovely insight into how India really is. It is also telling that these towns aren’t the types of places tourists usually visit so we caused a bit of excitement wherever we went!
After all it isn’t common to see Chinese and Caucasians walking about their towns. While we ogled at them, they ogled right back at us! Kids were the friendliest – they’d wave and say hello to us each time we smiled.
Everyone wanted to take a photo especially with Bastiaan (whom I had nicknamed Brad Pitt just for fun!), Marcel and Ingmar. When the guys went off to see the Athirapilly waterfall, a magnificent jaw-dropping fall (which I’d missed because I wanted to go exploring the town with Uma, Yvonne and Gwen), the Indian men and boys were falling over themselves to take photos with these ‘white gods’. (You can see Bastiaan’s video of the waterfall here.)
Pulpally town was the smallest of the three towns but it had a lot of character. We had a quick 45-minute stopover in this town after we visited an organic farm not too far from the town. Like dazed tourists, everything we saw was curiously interesting. I didn’t know who watched whom; the townfolk were spilling out of first-floor balconies looking at us.
In every place I go, I like wandering in towns and looking at their supermarkets or shops. (Oh HK supermarkets were absolute cat’s whiskers which I know, I know, I have yet to blog about).
It was the same in Pulpally. Nic and I looked into their tiny shops, the size of our Penang ‘ottukedai’. Everything was cheap to us – I bought some sliced fruit cake at a mere 30 sen.
In Irinjalakuda which was a slightly urban town, we still got stares. There we were, 4 women walking down the streets and stopping ever so often to snap photos while greedily munching on our chicken kebabs. The kebabs were like god’s food to us the moment we spotted them. We had by then started craving for meat because throughout our stay, we had vegetarian meals mostly. Spotting a kebab stall outside a shop elicited delighted screams from me, Uma, Yvonne and Gwen. And at 40 rupees (RM2.80) each, it was a steal.
In Irinjalakuda too we walked into a no-aircond Indian supermarket. The interesting bit is that it had a whole shelf of Ayurvedic medicines and oils. I went a bit nuts buying camphor oil, neem oil and herbal soaps, utterly forgetting how much I was allowed to check-in to AirAsia.
In Kochi, again we walked about with no intention whatsover to buy. It was more of seeing what went on in the town. I think Kochi is a city so it was a lot more cosmopolitan. When you see a place with shopping malls, it is definitely more than just a town.
Again, the action was happening outside the malls; I saw a roadside tattoo artist with a customer! Of course, to all Indians, we were Japanese. They kept asking us “Konnichi wa?” and waving their wares at us.
It was good that we had Uma with us. Uma helped us bargain and put on her “touch-me-and-you’re-dead-meat” grouch face if the vendors tried to raise prices (which they did when they saw us trailing behind Uma).
Do you love exploring towns and poking your nose into what people are doing?
I know I do! That’s the best bits about travel!
Month: October 2010
My Kerala Trip: Women Power Indeed
VanaMoolika is an interesting story indeed of women who work.
This is an organized group of women who lead other women to improve their lives and their families’ lives. I had a glimpse of how courageous and insightful they were when we met them the morning we arrived in VanaMoolika.
After a quick breakfast and shower, we assembled in the main hall where some Indian women were sitting shyly. They wore their finest sarees, each a colour more vibrant that the next. In no time, the blue plastic chairs were filled up. These women stared at us just as we stared at them. As guests, we had the honour of being seated in front of the hall, facing them.
When every woman representative had arrived, they stood up to sing a song. Though I didn’t understand a word, it sounded very calming and beautiful and seemed to give them strength. It was a prayer song.
I didn’t know how much they understood when we introduced ourselves. We must’ve looked and sounded strange to them. For a moment, I realized how far from Penang I was. To these women, Penang was just a word, not a place.
Women are often thought to be shy and quiet in accordance with our feminine nature. It isn’t true. A woman can speak her mind and be vocal, no matter what education one has had.
One by one, these women farmers were eager to pick up the microphone and tell us proudly what they’ve done, what they dream for and what they really need. They were quietly confident and ready to articulate with pride their work as herb farmers.
They were proud that their herb farming gave them a chance to raise their families and allowed them to contribute to their community. Although they spoke in their local language, one could sense the hopes they had for their own village and future. They had big dreams and why not? They knew they had to have better in life and farming herbs could be one way to reach those lofty dreams.
Their herbs are used to produce Ayurvedic medicines which are helping the sick. Besides medicines, their herbs are also used for beauty care, the natural way, without chemicals or synthetic materials.
VanaMoolika also runs a shop which sells its own brand of herbal powder shampoo, herbal hair oils, balms, facial masks, even organic pickled chilies and organic vanilla pods. All these are made based on the 5,000 year-old system of knowledge called Ayurveda. (Kerala is famous for its Ayurvedic treatments, hospitals and clinics. Good health, simple food and close family ties are incredibly important.)
I had travelled a long way and I found that women everywhere are the same.
We know what we want. Sometimes we have different means of getting what we want but in the end, it is still the same.
Women power indeed.
A salute to these courageous women farmers of VanaMoolika.
My Kerala Trip: When You Need To Go, You Go
The 12-hour car journey from Bangalore to our destination, VanaMoolika, was an experience to savour. I say ‘savour’ because it will be something I will remember for a long time to come.
Travels must be accompanied by humour and curiosity – only then will the journey be as memorable as the destination!
I was like a child in a sweet shop – for India is a bit like candy, multi-coloured, multi-taste!
It is, like Nic says, a feast for all five senses.
As unfamiliar as it was to me, it wasn’t all together new to me.
I grew up with a best friend who had acclimatized me to everything Indian.
I used to hang about her home during Deepavali. I had Indian neighbours – I grew up playing with them. I love exploring Little India in Penang especially looking at trinkets and stuff at my favourite Indian mini mart, Ramani’s on Penang Street. And eating Indian food is something I don’t have problems with. (I used to proclaim I must’ve been an reincarnated Indian princess much to my bestie’s amusement the way I drooled over her mom’s chicken sambar!)
The 12-hour journey would not be so uncomfortable if the roads were not so pot-holed or dark. Sleeping was out of the question. I dozed off part of the way but it wasn’t a fitful sleep. We stopped a few times for toilet breaks. Our local driver had no problem just doing his little business by some bushes near the road. OK, we’re Malaysians so we didn’t want to do anything by the roadside.
The funniest toilet break happened when we stopped near a mosque. It was almost 5am. We were told there was a toilet behind the mosque so all of us women went in search of that elusive loo. We were sleepy and grumpy. The loo consisted of three low cubicles sans doors! In India, squat loos are common. I didn’t mind the squatting type of toilet.
Imagine…our bladders are bursting, it’s dark (no electric lights at all) and the loos have no doors! This is where I couldn’t give a damn. I had to go so I had to go. As it was dark, no one could see our privates anyway. The water from the tap was a mere trickle so my hand sanitizer gel came in handy! And just as we got out of the dark toilet, the morning prayers from the mosque sounded. That was quite a moment!
Our bladders were full because a few hours prior we had our ‘snack’ break at a shack which looked like it catered for truck-drivers and bus drivers. At 12 midnight (India time) which was 3am Malaysian time, we were sitting in a tumbledown shack in the middle of nowhere having Bombay toast, chapati and a thick dhal parapu curry. It must’ve been something as we look like wide-eyed aliens in a shack full of truck drivers! Almost everyone stuck to their bottled water though hot coffee was available. We were scaredy cats and didn’t want to take chances.
Coffee in India needs a bit of getting used to. It’s the pure thing where it’s just kopi-o (coffee and sugar). Unlike our coffee beans which have been roasted with margarine and sugar and what-not, theirs is just made from pure coffee beans. (Speaking of which, you cannot find Coffee Bean or Starbucks in India, according to Jegan, our guide as India does not allow foreign coffee chains into the country. The local coffee chains are either Coffee Cafe or Coffee Day.) The Indian coffee is not thick and black like what we have in Malaysia. Theirs look like tea which has been brewing forever.
After another 2 hours of driving, we finally reached VanaMoolika in the Wayanad District. (GoogleMap says the distance from Bangalore to Pulpally is about 4 hours. Now we know that is not right. Google thinks all roads are American freeways?)
Before reaching this hilly area, we drove past the town of Pulpally. In the early dawn, many Indian men and women were up and about, carrying steel buckets. I later found out they were walking to milk cows.
If I had to wake up, walk a long way to get to the cows and milk them or get milk from the farmer, I wonder if I’d want to drink milk. It seemed like a lot of work. Do I consider myself lucky that I drink milk out of a carton instead of milking the cow? Not necessarily.
The people of Pulpally seemed relaxed, with all the time in the world. They retire early to bed, as early as 9pm and are awake before dawn.
I cheered internally when our convoy of Innova’s drove into the curved driveway of VanaMoolika. It was 7am then and the morning mist was slowly dissipating.
After a whole night’s journey, we had arrived in VanaMoolika. VanaMoolika is a centre which supports a community of women farmers. These women are organized under a woman leader each to plant herbs which are then sold to the centre for making Ayurvedic medicines, hair care, skincare and body care products. The centre comprises dormitories for men and women, mess hall and some special stand-alone chalets within the forest surrounding this hilly area. It also has its own HACCP certified herb processing facility.
We would be spending 3 days here before we leave for an Ayurvedic centre near Kochi.
To be continued…
My Kerala Trip: Arriving in Bangalore, Day 1
Never in a million years would I think of going to India.
Not because I’m snooty or anything. It’s just that I wouldn’t know if I could survive Mother India, after all the stories I’ve heard about “don’t drink the water”, “don’t get ripped off by porters” etc. My best friend travelled to India many years ago and she told me that they had to do their toilet business somewhere in some bushes, covered only by opened umbrellas!
So I didn’t really have that much expectation when Nic and I went to Kerala, India recently with our client, the team and management of Paul Penders Co. We were invited to tag along as they were doing a feasibility tour of a new business they intend to embark on in the state of Kerala.
I wasn’t even excited. I was thinking, OK, this is for work. Hopefully I won’t get dysentery or some stomach bug.
The AirAsia flight from KL to Bangalore took 4 hours. The thing is, we travelled to the west so we gained time. Though we left KL at 3.05pm and the plane actually took off much later (after some dawdling on the runway), we arrived in the ultra-modern Bengaluru Airport about 6pm India time. Bengaluru is the local name for Bangalore. For our Malaysian stomachs, it was 8.30pm and we were thinking of dinner.
Before we could exit the airport, we had to fill in the immigration forms. I felt a bit peeved because the form asked for so many details. Fortunately the Indian customs officers are not as rude or curt as the HK ones.
It was here that we met an Indian national who had completed his work contract in Malaysia. He was smart; he heard us speak BM and pounced on us in a friendly way. He wanted me to help him fill in his entry form because he was illiterate.
Anyway, what with the form filling and etc, we finally got out of the airport and Joji and Jegan, our Indian hosts for the one-week trip welcomed us with fresh roses. So there we were, a huge group of different nationalities – Dutch, Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian. We were going to be travel mates for the next 6 days, exploring the Ayurvedic-herbal route.
According to Joji, we were going to travel in a convoy of 4 Toyota Innova’s from Bangalore to this place called VanaMoolika in Wayanad district, Kerala where we would be staying for 3 days.
What we didn’t know was the car journey from Bangalore to Wayanad was going to take 6 hours. In the end, we found out that it is possibly 6 hours if the roads are like our PLUS highways. On Indian roads which are pot-holed and narrow and in some places, without adequate street lights, the journey took us 12 hours!
(At this point, I am glad we gobbled our ‘dinner’ aboard AirAsia. A travel tip: Eat first if possible. One never knows how long some journeys are. It is better to eat dinner twice than not to have one at all. Even going by local time, we figured we would arrive in VanaMoolika at midnight. Someone said there was going to be a feast for us! By Malaysian time, that would be 3am. Could I even eat at that hour?)
As we left the airport, we headed straight into the city and by that time, it was the evening rush hour where people were getting off work. Jegan, who sat in our car, told us that some 27 million people lived and worked in Bangalore. That’s like the entire Malaysian population in one city.
The most eye-opening experience for me was the fact that honking is very much a driver’s pleasure and pastime. The second was their utter disregard for traffic. Cars, autos (resembling tuk-tuk’s in Thailand), lorries, buses and animals all wove their way on the roads, honking, swerving and driving too close to each other. I didn’t know if it was our driver who drove badly or the traffic was horrible but the start and stop jerks of our Toyota Innova made Hong car-sick.
The third eye-opening experience was everywhere is your personal rubbish bin. When Hong puked into a plastic bag, she was gripping tightly to it and told us she was going to throw it at our next toilet stop. Our Indian guide told her to wind down the car window and chuck it out of the car! (Over the next few days, I found out that it is so hard to locate a rubbish bin. You see people throwing rubbish everywhere!)
Finally our Indian hosts decided to make a quick stop at a local hotel so we could go for our toilet break and have some tea and snacks before the really long car journey. I thought, “OK, this is where we get some food!” By then we had all but digested our airplane food.
They still insisted that we would be having our ‘dinner’ some 5 hours later so some snacks would be good. In the end, we really had tiny morsels of food, samosas which were tasty but too small to make a dent in our tummies. Luckily I downed it all with a cup of masala chai, a very silky smooth milk tea scented with cardamom.
We packed ourselves back into the Toyota, bracing ourselves for the next 5 hours.
To be continued….
The Story of An Accidental Author
We were fretting if anyone would come to Joan Hon’s talk.
After all, we know how Malaysians love to read (yes, that is said with a sarcastic grin).
And the true test is that, the talk was going to be held on a Tuesday afternoon in downtown Penang. It was a double-whammy all right – first, no one attends a week day event and of course, no one reads so who would be interested in Joan’s talk right? That’s what everyone tells us.
Wrong. Oh. So. So wrong! (Damn, I love proving naysayers wrong.)
You see, if you want it bad enough, and in our case, if you do your prep early enough and get enough media publicity and promote it like crazy (Josephine and I emailed almost everyone we knew and literally told them this was a once-in-a-lifetime event and “you’d be crazy to miss it”), things do happen.
Lyndy, a friend who works with The Little Penang Street Market, wanted to help us promote it at the market too but unfortunately the timing was not right (the market is held on the last Sunday of each month). But I am grateful so many friends helped us forward the email out and came forward with suggestions to help!
Yesterday we had a blast of a turnout for Joan’s talk. I bet even she was surprised!
We had anticipated only 25 people since the venue wasn’t very spacious. But so many people turned up – so much so that some had standing room only. It was a special event supported by WomenBizSENSE, my businesswomen’s network.
Joan’s talk was made possible because Josephine believed in a dream – a dream of helping her fave author come to Penang and promote her book “Star Sapphire” and “Relatively Speaking”. Josephine had read “Star Sapphire” as a 14-year-old school girl and never forgotten how it made her feel.
Now interestingly the talk attracted a number of attendees in their 50s and beyond. It even attracted 3 visually-impaired attendees who came from St Nicholas Home for the Blind. One Mr Liew flew in from KL that morning just to meet with his longtime teacher too. It was so heartwarming! And even a famous Hong Kong celebrity attended. Two astute attendees recognised her (later I saw them taking photos with her).
Many who attended were there to learn about the ins and outs of writing. Some were writers who had published their own books! It is heartening to know of so many aspiring writers in Penang.
In a way we were all learning about Joan’s learning curve as she referred to herself many times as the ‘accidental author’.
With self-depreciating humour, Joan recounted how she became Han May (the pseudonym she used for “Star Sapphire”). From Joan’s words, I felt that she enjoyed being Han May the most. Joan uses her real name Joan Fong when she writes Singaporean curriculum books (she was a physics teacher) and Joan Hon when she writes non-fiction books such as “Relatively Speaking”, a book about her father’s growing up years and his Finance Minister years in Singapore.
Her first draft was 100 pages long, typed out on her typewriter. She then gave the draft to her daughter to read and she also did research by reading other famous authors like Joseph Conrad (though she admitted she didn’t really like his style). Later, her entire draft turned out to be 700 pages long!
Luck and being with the right people at the right time possibly helped Joan’s work – she knew the right people who not only helped her get the draft done well but also when the book was published, helped with publicity and promotion. Having a good editor was a bonus too.
Joan looked pleased when she told how her daughter’s NUS English professor liked her book “Star Sapphire”. After all this English professor was known to be terribly critical of written work. To have this English professor enjoy her book was an incredible compliment indeed!
Of course she recounted these like mini stories and one elderly gentleman decided to leave because it wasn’t what he had turned up to hear. It was not like she didn’t give her tips on publishing and writing. It was not listed out -one had to listen to her stories to hear the pearls of wisdom in them!
If you are keen to buy Joan’s books in Penang, you can get them at Precious Ones Collections. “Star Sapphire” sells for RM30 while “Relatively Speaking” sells for RM60.
As for me, I met some friendly bloggers too namely Alice Teh and the jovial husband and wife duo,Gill and Jason. All this because Josephine took the time to attend Blogfest (which happened the weekend I was in Kerala, India) and got to know these nice people!
Alice has written a lovely post with even lovelier snapshots of the talk yesterday. Go on over to view them!
P/S: One final thank you to Mr Khoo Kay Soon who gave me his book “Madam White Snake” to read!
The Star Features Miss Hon
Happy news!
The Star published their interview with Miss Joan Hon today. Thanks to Christina and of course to Mr Choi, the editor. (Who’s Joan Hon? Read this for a quick background update and of course, please come attend her talk on 12 Oct, which is free!)
Hankering for Penang
By CHRISTINA CHIN
PENANG-BORN Joan Hon — an accomplished author and daughter of Singapore’s former finance minister — hopes to retire in her hometown which still evokes a myriad of fond memories.
The 67-year-old ex-teacher sees herself settling back in Penang where she used to live on Logan Road in her childhood days.
“It has always been my intention to retire in Penang where I’m happiest,” said the Singapore-based writer in an email interview on her coming talk in Penang.
Hon said her husband had just passed away and she was trying to redefine herself without him and still had attachments in Singapore.
“Penang is so different from what I remembered as a child. There are so many tall buildings and new condominiums now.
“My childhood haunts have disappeared but my favourite foods like heoh pneah are still available.
“Now I’m discovering a bunch of relatives I have never met which is pretty exciting,” said Hon, whose last visit to Penang was for the Feast of St Anne in Bukit Mertajam recently.
Better known by her pseudonym Han May, Hon will deliver a public talk about writing at the WomenBizSENSE premises, 56, Lorong Selamat, Penang, at 2.30pm on Tuesday.
Hon, whose writing is inspired by “simply having things to tell and talk about” said she would speak about the subject closest to her heart — writing.
“It will be motivational. I will be speaking about how I came to be an accidental author — and liked it; what I have been writing; my books; and how to write.
“Hopefully, some of the participants will find the impulse to start writing if they haven’t tried before,” she said.
Hon graduated with a BSc Honours in Physics and Diploma in Education from Singapore University and is a member of Singapore’s Institute of Physics.
She has published six non-fiction books — two of which received the Highly Commended Book Award and another the Com-mended Award from the National Book Development Council of Singapore while her only fiction work, Star Sapphire, also won the Highly Commended Award.
She also described her father, Hon Sui Sen, as a very well respected person.
“I learned from him integrity and honesty — and not to have too great a regard for money.
“I have never seen him lose his temper and wish that I had that quality in me,” she said, adding that they both shared a love for music, science and books.
For details about her talk, e-mail info@womenbizsense.com. Admission is free.
A Writer's Journey by Joan Hon
I just got home from Kerala, India after a delightful one week.
India is pure madness, a country of such incredible contrasts that it is Incredible India.
But before I delve into that post, here’s something more important.
This is a free talk that my businesswomen’s group is organizing on 12th October.
Josephine, one of my friends and a die-hard fan of Joan Hon’s books, mooted this idea and asked if we could help her organize a talk for the Singaporean author.
Joan is a 67 year old Singaporean who has ties with Penang. She has written both fiction and non-fiction, with her most popular fiction being “Star Sapphire”, a sci-fi novel about a headstrong girl called Yva Yolan on her adventures in space.
Her science-fiction romance Star Sapphire won a High Commendation Award from the Book Development Council of Singapore in 1986, the same year when she was also awarded a Commendation prize for her better-known book Relatively Speaking on her family and childhood memories.
Josephine had presented me an autographed copy of Star Sapphire; I am halfway reading it now (as I am also halfway reading Edward de Bono’s Simplicity, Brian Tracy’s The Psychology of Selling and a book I got from India called Healing Mantras).
Come join us as we pick Joan’s brains about writing and being a writer. The fact is, it is rare for writers to come to Penang so this is really your golden chance to speak to a writer who is making a special trip here and whom you get to meet, for free!
We have limited space though as it will be held at 56, Lorong Selamat (1st floor). Here’s a map to the venue.
Title: A Writer’s Journey by Joan Hon
Date: 12 October (Tues)
Time: 2.30pm
Venue: 1st Floor, 56, Lorong Selamat, Penang
[Open to public, men and women alike]
Please spread the message to your friends too, especially those who love writing, love books and want to meet Joan, who is also the daughter of the former Finance Minister of S’pore (her father, the late Hon Sui Sen, was actually from Balik Pulau).
She wrote a book “Relatively Speaking” chronicling her father’s growing up years in Balik Pulau and later his position as the Finance Minister of Singapore. Among the anecdotes were about her father’s attempt to learn Mandarin together with Lee Kuan Yew, and how they shared tapes and monitored each other’s progress!
Her late father was often regarded as one of Southeast Asia’s most successful economic planners besides being one with the most integrity! A British official, upon meeting Joan’s mother, says, “Pleased to meet you. I hear your husband is the most honest man in the [Singapore] civil service”. This remark, says Joan, was to her the highest accolade and the most meaningful among all her father’s achievements.
The Star will be publishing an interview they did with her, hopefully before Joan comes on the 12th.
Joan will share snippets of her writer’s life and how a physics teacher like her ended up a sci-fi writer!
Below are some areas she will be talking about on 12 October (as copied off her email to Josephine):
* I would tell my “accidental author” story how I came to be writing books.
* Account of how each of my books came to be written.
* How I seem to have three identities: Joan Hon writes non-fiction, Joan Fong writes Physics, Han May writes fiction.
* Giving talks to sell my books in schools and libraries, book signings in bookshops.
* My attempts at printing my own books. Setting up Hope Publishers.
* Difficulties of publicising and the options nowadays. POD publishing.
Email (info@womenbizsense.com) to reserve a seat at this talk.
I will also be talking to Joan Hon when I meet her next week so stay tuned, I might dig up more anecdotes from her about the writer’s life! I’m super excited!
The online community is also helping to promote Joan’s talk in Penang, thanks to Josephine who attended Blogfest recently. Thanks Jo and thank you fellow bloggers!
Alice Teh’s blog
Taman Sri Nibong RA Blog
YourPenang.com
PenangBloggers