Sawatdee Khrap!

5:58 PM Shanky 2 Comments

Courtesy: Google Images

Courtesy: wikitravel


This is the first time my Indian issued passport is going to get a foreign stamp or should I say "Farang" stamp as they say here in Thailand ;)? Thanks to the company I am working for, I will be in Angthong province in Thailand for a 3 month training stint. Angthong is around 110 kms from Bangkok and so weekends are not going to be sober ;) But only after coming here I discover that even weekdays need not be sober :) So on 18 Sept, 2011 early hours I started my epic journey to Thailand. Thanks to Air India, we were delayed and practically held hostage at the Mumbai International airport for over 3 hours after scheduled departure time (I was so pissed off that I could have slapped any employee who had the guts to justify with some stupid reason).

After the delay, tiring flight and some 4.5 hours of time later we arrived at the Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok. I was too tired by now to be even psyched about being there! Damn you - Air India! After the usual airport checks me and my friend (he is to be stationed 15 min from the nearest skytrain station in Bangkok!! Lucky Bugger!) were searching for our company placard holding driver! And to our horror neither of our drivers spoke English!! After dancing around in the name of sign language we got into our cabs and drove towards our respective destinations.

So with no Thai from my side and no English from their side most of my conversations with factory workers, drivers or shop owners were like Sunday 2:00 pm DD news! But I love to learn new languages and so, I started off with internet (www.learningthai.com) and it was pretty useful. Unlike Indian languages, Thai is a tonal language and pretty difficult to master without you actually hearing them speak the words. That is where learningthai.com was better than other sites and they usually have an Romanised version of the Thai word phrase or sentence and on clicking the Thai version of it, you can also hear a native guy speak the word out to you.

So, equipped with some basic Thai and loaded with some Baht, my friend and I decided we should go around Bangkok the following weekend-day (I have a 6 day workweek :x and hence the new word). I took a commuter van from Angthong to Bangkok on Saturday evening. These vans are very comfortable with Aircon, LCD TV and plush cushion seats. However, there was only one problem, they don’t speak English and my "basic"/"Fair" Thai was not making any sense to them. As fate would have it, I ended up at a farther off skytrain station that lengthened my journey as well! But what the heck, I was in Bangkok!! I took a sky train to my friend's place in SamutPrakarn and the skytrain system is exactly like our Delhi Metro system minus the bag checking and extensive security. Luckily the automated voice announced the stations both in Thai and English which made it easier. We then passed our time off at a mall in Samutprakarn. We roamed around the mall marveling at the variety of stores, size of the mall and the hotness quotient of Thai sales girls. The night was well spent!

The next day morning we decided to visit the three most important tourist attractions of Bangkok - The grand palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun. After landing at few wrong stations and then shifting trains (Luckily I had a 30 day pass for the skytrain), we reached SuphanTaksin station on the Silom line. From there we had to take an express boat on the Chao Phraya river to reach the Maharaja pier where all the three attractions are located. Grand Palace has a hefty entry fee for foreigners (THB 400) and I think it is worth the money. It also houses the Wat Phra Theow, the temple of Emerald Buddha. Emerald Buddha is the most revered and loved Buddha in all of Thailand. The other two attractions will cost you THB 50 each. Wat Arun is across the river and ferry service for THB 6 per person (up & down) is available. You will definitely be approached by scamsters claiming the palace is closed or is under renovation, just ignore them and go see for yourself. (We were approached by a guy with a "Tourist Police" tag with the same story)

After tiring roundup of the famous attractions in Bangkok it was time for me to leave for Angthong and this time I was better off in finding the right commuter van and was back safe at my company guest house.

Practical Information:
  • Never ever trust someone who is willing to help you unsolicited and more than required. Insist on meter when in taxis and tuktuks are best avoided.
  • You get better exchange rates in the city than at the bank counters in the airport (1THB = 1.6 INR in the city while it was 2.5 INR at the airport. 1USD = 30.1 in the city while it was         29.1 at the airport)
  • Buy a lonelyplanet guide or at least go through wiki travel pages and take printouts if need be
  • Bring along the two pin US to India travel adapter/converter

2 comments:

The Departed Mafia

3:15 PM Shanky 1 Comments


One of the important value-add through my MBA at IIM Lucknow was the introduction to a game called Mafia and redemption from the stupid Mafia wars on FB. The new mafia is a game involving real smart, enthusiastic people. That’s it! No boards, no dice, no cards, no timekeeper or any other equipment/prop. Its a simple yet powerful game and you will be so engrossed that you will forget time passing by you, tapping your shoulder and saying a quick "hi". This was one of the biggest tactics used by us to have breakfast which is ever so elusive otherwise. "Let’s play Mafia all night, then have anda maggi from GnB at 7" someone would suggest and then after furious messaging you have a gang of 6-9 students playing mafia with mild music in the background, alcohol is optional. "Enough of the teaser!" you say. Ok. Let me introduce to you, the best strategy/psychology based game ever - Mafia!

This game involves an imaginary village with lush green fields, prosperous and dutiful citizens and one banyan tree. Yes. Banyan tree is a must; where else will you gather for the night meetings? Now, their peace is being disturbed by the presence of 2 Mafias (This can vary depending on total no. of players) camouflaged as villagers among them. Every night the village headman, also known as coordinator of the game, brings the entire village together to identify the mafia members through logic and reason. During night, everyone sleeps (just close your eyes but be attentive!) while the Mafia is awake. The Mafia takes advantage of sleeping villagers and scheme to kill a person. They identify the target to the headman and go to sleep. The headman asks only the doctor/witch/angel of the village (A villager with special power) to wake up and gives him/her the choice to redeem/purify one of the villager. Now, if this person identified by the doctor/angel is same as the mafia target, then he/she is spared. On the other hand, if that person is not the same as mafia target, then the target dies and the one chosen by the angel gets nothing. When dawn breaks, the headman asks everyone to wake up and announces the actions from previous night without revealing the identity of the perpetrators. Usually this is followed by pandemonium - Villagers desperately trying to find the mafia and the mafia trying to defend them. Then there is voting to find the accused (like Jury style justice in US) and the headman eliminates the person with maximum votes to the cheers of others "Let’s kill the mafia bitch!" and declares the dead person's identity. Yes. Mafia also votes. Dude, democracy man... Come on da! Ok, now this is one day in the village. The days passby until all the villagers are killed or all the mafia are killed and depending on that we have the group winner. 

You may ask why the headman is not revealing the identity of the mafia. One, this is a game, stupid! Two, he is elected by the people but paid by the mafia. Got the flow? *wink wink nudge nudge*, huh... huh? The roles are assigned by a fair means (which is random chit picking). Also you can get imaginative and improvise on the roles, add some new characters and give them powers. But worry not, whichever role you play, you will enjoy this game. The amazing thing about the game is the worry/excitement that villagers display to choose the accused in the morning. Also, every action you take during the day has repercussions in the night, just like in real life. Finally, the discussion, alliance formation, argument and final decision of choosing the accused is awesome. The reason behind the choice can be as lame as "On the basis of Maslow's hierarchy law and the porters five force model he is the mafia, I think" or as logical as "I heard him move when the headman asked mafia to wake up, he is the mafia!". What? You are going to play now? Wait. Wait. I want to tell more. 

When a game is so close to real life, can't a movie be so close to a game? There might be many movies that have taken this game as the base. But The Departed is one movie which really kicked some serious ass and which I loved a lot. Martin Scorsese is a wizard in Hollywood churning out magical movies. He has some great movies to his credit and The Departed would have been just another day in office for him. My humble opinion is that this movie loosely adapts the game. Maybe I am wrong and it is just two scenes that inspired me to write this post. The movie is about a mole (Matt Damon) in Massachusetts state police dept and a counter-mole (Leonardo DiCaprio) in one of the city’s gangs planted by the police dept. The gang is headed by Jack Nicholson who had planted Matt in the police ranks. In essence, in the movie, there are two villages - Policeville and Gangstaville. They have their own set of villagers, mafia and coordinators. Information flows on both sides and both sides get to know they have a rat in their ranks. This is when things get interesting.

Now, everyone is under scrutiny and everyone is tensed about his fate after inquiry. The game actually reveals itself so clearly in one of the scenes where DiCaprio, one of the latest recruits of the gang, is questioned by Jack. The answers, logic and the body language that DiCaprio brings in that scene is tremendous! Partly because of his skills, partly because of the director and partly because of the nostalgia (about the mafia game) that the scene brings out, it easily scores a perfect ten for me. There is another scene in a deserted theatre where Matt Damon tries to convince Jack that he can find the rat in the gang's ranks. This scene is another gem which again replicates the scheming sequence of the game. One big difference between the movie and the game is the absence of a doctor/angel. Though one can argue, the two officers who trained Di Caprio could be considered as one. These two mini mafia games collide to form one big mafia game like how the 3*3 squares form the su-do-ku puzzle. Before you even realise, truth reveals itself and there is a mega explosion - of blood and awesomeness! 

PS: For a 7 member group - Have one headman, one doctor/angel villager, 3 normal villagers and 2 Mafia men. You are free to improvise on the schema, no copyrights involved!

For complete rules, tips & tricks - check the wiki page - Mafia (party game)

1 comments:

Blind!

3:14 PM Shanky 1 Comments


Pic Courtesy: www.danlew.com

Rainbows used to be the magical color palette of the nature until you found out the science behind it. The stars were mystical beauties until we realised its just a mega giant torch burning far far away from us. Many things that were wonderful and beautiful becomes mundane and uninteresting once you find out the science behind them. So is it that being ignorant is bliss? Nope! Poets, writers and painters see the same moon, same stars, rainbows, lovers everyday and still are inspired by them every day. They see the beauty in what they have and what they don’t. They are not seeking perfection from these elements; after all they are not some ill-grown manager. They are inspiring leaders who see the beauty in the positive as well as the negative. That is why, I have a simple rule "never be in awe of anyone/anything". Respect everything/anyone that will make you humble and realise how little you have achieved. However, if you are in awe you will only end up as a blind follower. Being a blind follower you are paving way to two kinds of blindness - Learning the right lesson and missing the beauty. 

The frenzy around Steve Jobs is a prime example for blind following. He resigned and the whole world had to write eulogy, and rightly so, as if he died in war! This man has shaped how more than half the world does its work today, converses with others and in some cases even how it thinks. All the praises that we have showered on him is worth every word of it. But then there are two side effects to this frenzy. One, we fail to grasp the real reason why Steve was so successful. Second we fail to look into the failures of Jobs and hence lose the lessons in the loss. I am sure most of us think he is some kind of wizard who dreamed about ipad and unleashed his creativity one fine morning to capture our imagination. But truth cannot be far from it. Here are two articles that somewhat captures the enigma behind Steve's success - Article 1 and Article 2. These are way better than the "Steve is god" posts on most other sites which would sound like a pre-teen raving about Justin Beiber. Also, here is one article that points to one of Jobs', probably biggest, mistake. 

If you have to appreciate the real beauty of a person then you have to understand his/her positives as well as negatives, if not appreciate them. This is the second disaster that blind following leads you into. One small mistake and you tend to trash the person who you revered moments ago. Had you not been in awe and just followed your reason, respected him as a human being then you will be able to appreciate his real beauty as well. Our fathers are prime example for this! He was our hero during our child hood and whatever he did was the best. But wicked life adds its twist and we are revealed that dad is conservative. He cannot even surf the net. In short, he is not "cool". And then like sudden brakes in an otherwise smooth travelling Volvo cruiser you feel a push and then a pull. You stop seeing him as hero and the gap widens. This is when he stops being the handsome, strong dad to a vile, destroyer of freedom, dad. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, only because the brain said so! Garner some respect for everyone and everything; understand the good and bad of everyone and everything. Beauty will reveal itself from within you!

P.S: I have committed my share of blind following as well. I am a human being and I am a huge fan of Kamal Hassan, APJ Abdul Kalam, Sachin Tendulkar, AR Rahman and Illayaraja. In my blinded state I wrote a piece in this very blog on how Sachin is a god's avatar to show how a sportsman should be. Just like how Lord Ram came into this world to show how a ruler must be. Even Lord Ram had his share of shortcomings. He was not the best of Husbands, some might argue. Sachin too slipped from being a good citizen. Not once, but twice. At least the first time can be termed as a casual mistake - When he got a Ferrari without paying customs. The second time he has committed (almost) the same mistake pertaining to taxes. Well, he has twisted the laws to suit his pocket. Read from here.

1 comments:

Mankaatha - Movie Review

6:25 PM Shanky 3 Comments


Just before the interval, Ajit plays chess and rehearses his moves to eliminate his partners. He would declare with finesse and arrogance "I am the King... maker!" That is when u sit up, smile and tell yourself "Bring it on baby!". The movie is about four rogue friends trying to complete a heist. Now money is evil, the only thing more evil is the desire that it creates. With 4 rogues, one planner and so much money the film heads into a topsy-turvy roller coaster ride that you shall enjoy. This is the first true multi-starrer for Venkat Prabhu, the director of the movie. With 2 Established heroes, 1 upcoming fellow, few sidekicks, 4 heroines... phew that is a plateful to handle. Venkat Prabhu has done a decent job in helping the male stars to shine as much as they can while the female stars have little to no role to play. The movie line is such. 

3 comments:

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