failed home delivery dinner or Sorry Sir message next morning

"Good morningsir. Sir it's from dhabba-express. Sir. We r very sorry to yesterdays's our poor service. Actually my delivery boy faced an accident that's we r late sir. sir pls forgive us. We promise u that next time we serve u as well as we should..than u sir...We hope u understand our problem sir...."

hallo?hallo?halloooo?!!

this "hallo" technique or better to say culture is very strong in India. People just love playing this hello game on the phone.. imagine, today i was on the conf call with at least 10 people, more than half of them indians...they had enjoyed themselfs hello-ing

Left! Left? Right! Right?

That's not a political discussio, and i didnt get lost ( this time..hehe)
Yesterday I went out for dinner with two colleagues from the office. Somehow we start talking about driving in different countries...
Since India is former British collony and as one of the british heritage here is traffic on the left side. Yesterday my colleagues tried to convince me that "ONLY US DRIVES ON THE RIGHT SIDE, ALL EUROPE THE SAME AS INDIA".. "GERMANY- FOR SURE LEFT"....and quotes like this..I asked, have you been to Germany, he said- no....:)
then we had a bet with another guy, who has been to Belgium and was absolutley convinced that traffic goes on the same side as in India. He even called some "other guy"... at the end of the day I was very kind and chose that winner get's nice swiss ice-cream dessert:)

sweet taste of being RIGHT

simple sunday

late sunday noon...fixed myself extremely comfortable on the balcony- brought bed mattrace to the balcony...saw nice sunset or at leat the best what you can get sitting on my balcony.
facebook is filled with sad and desperate status mesages- LT basketball team didnt make for a medal...national disaster in LT. shit happens...what to do!?
Now it's already dark, im having cup of tea, playing light jazz music, indian portion of noise is in the background. That's what I call lazy days! That's what I like:)

tomorrow- office almost after 2 weeks away:1 weeek travelling and 1 week recovering from a stupid bite. i think i have lowest motivation to go to the office ever. again- shit happens..what to do?!

beauty in simplicity

One more wedding

Wedding seasson around the world. Facebook is flooded with wedding pictures, news as well...India- wedding seasson never slows down. Yesterday my colleague wes getting married. It was the first christian marriage I've attended here.
Since last few days I was staying at home, till the very last minute I was doubting should I go. When finally I made my mind it was 4.30pm ( the first indian wedding in normal time!!!) the time when the ceremony was about to start. The church was just few hundred meters away from my home...so i was there bit late...but everbody was relaxed ( except the groom, the guy i know, hahaha)
well...it was normal level of messsyiness and IST...of course ppl kept looking to me A LOT...i was in VIP role again hahaha:) one old woman came to me and with a nice expression on her face start talking to me...in tamil. the only word i understood was the name of the groom... then i told her that i dont understand what is she saying... so she repeated again in tamil...and so 3 times...:) i just kept smilling.
general impression- crowded and no gala feeling. there were 6 or 7 priests and they didnt really talk about their roles before it seems...few of them start talking at the same time or look confussed who should proceed...the sermon was also more rediculous than teaching smht:) at least for me. ppl of course didnt bother swiching off their cell phones...
while the ceremony was taking place and the serious part was going on...there were constantly at leat 4-7 ppl going in front and taking pictures of the couple with their mobile phones or cameras... ALL THE TIME! can u imagine how messy it looked: 7 priests, the happy couple, 2 prffesional photographers ( who didnt look that proffesional) and constantly running guest with their cell phones.! total mess!!!!
on more thing- at some moment- the groom had to take out his shoes and kneel down..hahah he was wearing white socks!!!!!!! with a black suit on the wedding day!!!! :) toooo funny!
the last but definetly not the least thing- when everything was finished the band ( !!!) was playing wedding march...the couple was walking ( not catching rythm at all, but who cares, they just got married and looked very scared:) and the next song they played was JINGLE BELLS!!!!! i have no explanation for this!!!

wedding crasher

still something new: hospital patient

After 1,5 years in India got new experience... this time- patient in the hospital. I got pretty bad mosquito or spider bite on my hip...Im not sure what kind of beast bite me, but it turned pretty bad. Finally I decided to go to the hospital. There is one pretty nice hospital ( actually looking better than lithuanian hospitals) near my home. I've been there before when some friends of mine had problems.
SO.... this time, the first time- im in a patient role. Well.. at the very end it's still India... so "check" my bite came one doctor and 7 nurses!!!!!!! and they kept calling for more.......
at the very end i got a shot, list of medicine to take and 2-3 days at home:)
oh, one more thing... while filling papters at the reception I had to name my religion! I had no problem doing this, but was wondering why whould they need this info...nobody from nurses army couldnt explain me this.

Indian hospital patient

GOA Baby!!

My very traditional...Baby! post. This time GOA! During my first year in India I didnt even had an idea of going to GOA, it sounded so touristic and boring. But since I came back to India to stay longer...I will give a chance. I cant reist idea to enjoy sunset into the sea. here in chennai, or on my side of india, only sunrise is from the sea.
My train to Bangalore leaves only in early afternoon, so no bags packed yet:) the plan is Chennai-Bangalore-Goa -Hampi-Bangalore-Chennai.

Today we were watching Bejing Olympics opening ceremony! It's absolutly amazing to see this and realize that i am cheering Lithuanian team, while beeing in India with people from all around the world cheering their team, and also each others!!! I think that's a real olympic spirit! Also the ceremony was breath-taking! I read that The choreographed show took seven years to plan, and costs are estimated to have hit a record-breaking $40bn! hard to imagine.
One good friend of mine has an ambition to organize olympics! Im sure she will succeed!

Olympic spirit Goa

Office life:) me turning indian...

OK, you cant see IT... but finally I decided to wear Bindi ( THE DOT)...everybody got very excited and kept pointing to me! yep, after more than one year, finally I did it:) My boss even spilled his coffee=)

Exciting moments!

Mahabs. 2am

Natural Highs..1.Falling in love.2. Laughing so hard your face hurts.3. A hot shower.4. No lines at the supermarket.5. A special glance.6. Getting mail.7. Taking a drive on a pretty road.8. Hearing your favorite song on the radio.9. Lying in bed listening to the rain outside.10. Hot towels fresh out of the dryer.11. Chocolate milkshake.12. A bubble bath.13. Giggling.14. A good conversation.15 The beach16. Finding a 20 dollar bill in your coat from last winter.17. Laughing at yourself.18. Looking into their eyes and knowing they LOVE you19 Midnight phone calls that last for hours.20. Running through sprinklers.21. Laughing for absolutely no reason at all.22. Having someone tell you that you're beautiful.23. Laughing at an inside joke with FRIENDS25. Accidentally overhearing someone say something nice about you.26. Waking up and realizing you still have a few hours left to sleep.27. Your first kiss (either the very first or with a new partner).28. Makiig new friends or spending time with old ones. 30. Having someone play with your hair.31. Sweet dreams.32. Hot chocolate.33. Road trip with friends.34. Swinging on swings.35. Making eye contact with a cute stranger.36. Making chocolate chip cookies.37. Having your friends send you homemade cookies.38. Holding hands with someone you care about.39. Running into an old friend and realizing that some things (good or bad) never change.40. Watching the expression on someone's face as they open a much desired present from you.41. Watching the sunrise. 42. Getting out of bed every morning and being grateful for another beautiful day. 43. Knowing that somebody misses you.4. Getting a hug from someone you care about deeply. 45. Knowing you've done the right thing, no matter what other people think.

those days

Some cold beer on the bech enjoying one more beautiful sunset...
or a cup cappuccino with a choco pie and nice piece of conversation...
all this and much more I would perfer much more than monday at the office... today today is especially hard to find even smallest piece of working mood...

Listening to old songs and dreaming about the breeze on the beach

Shenoy Nagar BBQ or meat fest in Chennai

Last weekend after long time our grill was in use AGAIN... BBQ party!
3 meat experts ( MEN!) and me went hunting meat around chennai... when we entered the first meat shop... the smell, the look... then i decided i need to have a walk and went to get a drink... our "meat board" didnt approve this shop (im glad) and then we went all the way to spencers... where lot's of BEEF STEAKS and other meat fest got for the party!
everything was just great... lots of ppl- ppl i see every day, some ppl not that often, some ppl just see, some new ppl... there were ~ 25. there was one problem- RAIN.. and the main idea of hosting bbq was to enjoy it on our fabulous rooftop...

one memorialble episode: Pasha and Peter trying to ignite the fire and the coal...both blowing...then i brought my hair dryer and party was saved!

Thinking out of the box

few pieces of Chennai

This poster with 85 years old Chief minister of Tamil Nade ( guy with sun glasses) and some heroes...most probably from some indian movie:) ( Guindy railway station)

On the way home from the office. Train. ladies compartment

One of Chennai " rivers". Looks good on the map and even in this picture. Luckily photos cant capture the smell. This is sooo multifunctional: laundry, cooking, swiming cows, morning bath, garbage, etc

Sunday Sunset- Mahabs

google thinks LT:)

Chances

iNDIA! diverse, big, close and open, full of stereotypes and strangest troughts.
Beggars - stereotype and reality here. Stereotype- because we hear it a lot, but it's coming from ppl who are visitin touristic places...no wonder that beggars attacks happen... here in chennai there are no trourists ( coz here is nothing to see- hahaa:)) so amount of beggers on the street is pretty normal.
But i just love how ppl take their chances here- even today happpend to me. I m walking to the train and some old man is walking opposite direction, then he "spotted" me....and came with ususal line" maaa maaaa maaaaaaaaaaaaaa". after one sec i was continuing going my way, he was taking his way.

chance ilea

music & ring tones in India

The louder the better, usually singing along- that's the way of setting ring tones or just listening to the music in India....
Local songs from movies...for me sounds all the same, but here everybody knows the movie, the actors, knows how to dance all 5 dances from each movie and sing along... when it comes to the mobile phones - i think im extremly small minority who keeps cell phone on silent mode.

I've notices here in Chennai and in Sri Lanka Modern Talking is pretty famous these days...G. Michael, R. Martin and other last century heroes:)

One more very important and interesting detail- car revers tune! YES, when car is reversing some strangest noises ( mellodies) playing...among all these reverse tunes- even x-mas theme is here!:) imgaine my neighbours car every morning makes x-mas song tune. Of course, nobody can beat indian songs... but im not an expert in this area

enjoying my iPod!

Safety

Today was reading that EC wanna make higher standarts for car safety in europe...while in india...last week i had a small discussion with my colleagues at the office explaining what is Air Bag in the car, how does it work :)

One more good example. In Europe and US it's mandatory to have baby chair in a car...while in india is perfectly fine to bring babies on a bike, together with another 3 ppl

different standarts

football madness

I remember when summer, 2 years back in BXL everybody was going crazy...football world cup ( i guess) was happening and since the city, colleagues at the office and my friends group was multinational- so every night was loud celebrations, and silet sadness. Remember Italians winning- then all italian colleagues brought cakes to the office to celebrate:)
now it's seems there is the same madness in europe...but im safe and far away in inida:) just see friends facebook status meassages changing:)

football free india

after something old, something new has come

Life in india keeps me busy. These days Im mostly occupied with my work, and less with a social life. Remember talking to my friends and almost betting that Sex&The City movie wont be shown in India. Loreta was even ready to send me dvd to india:) Thanks to globalization and open minded tamil nadu- the movie is here. last week i went to see it. What can i say- movie is not thaaaaaaaaaat great, but i had a good time watching it...probably because it was continuation of old and well know story, and second reason- im stucked in india and this not that great movie brings nice and good emotions about " the other" world.

On the way back to social life

mango seasson

India is just great for ones who love fruit and vegetable. water mellon seasson has just finished, endless tender coconut seasson, and now mango is everywhere...all fruit stands on the streets, shops. recently discovered that there is one mango tree just inftont of my balcony:)
no single day without sweet, juicy mango =P