Back Home ! India was fun !

First - wishing all my Chinese friends a Very Happy and Prosperous Year of the Ox ! Gong Xi Fa Chai!

I guess the GEW Malaysia Launch was one of the first celebrations to welcome the New Year - with the Lion Dance and all !

To the rest of my non-Chinese friends, I hope you all had a good break. I know some of you are still on leave- till next Tuesday?

Malaysia - we seem to have too many long weekends, let alone holidays. Perhaps its good for family unity ? For some, its time to catch up on chores and maybe some reading.

As for me, I was away in India. I left with my family the day after the launch of GEW Malaysia on 21 Jan and returned last evening.

It was more of a private trip - I took my kids along. They were rolling their eyes when we mentioned India !

Visiting another country is always fun - though unsettling. You need to pack and unpack and also more importantly you are away from your usual creature comforts. This alone is enough to put your patience to test. Thank god, my kids are good travellers - they did not pose any problems.

Chennai was buzzing with entrepreneurial activities. The retail shops were jam packed with people. Not sure if these people were aware of the economic crisis. So were the other 2 cities we visited - Madurai and Trichi. People were all buying and visiting eateries as if there is no tomorrow.

The story of Manmohan Singh, the Indian PM being admitted in the hospital for a bypass was hogging the headlines for a few days. News magazines were carrying stories of Satyam.

However, one thing that struck me during this visit was that the cities (at least the ones I visited this time) are all looking increasingly dirty. There were rubbish everywhere.

Though this phenomena is not unusual in India, I think this time I just became too aware of it.

Many thoughts were running in my mind - why are people careless about cleanliness? What do we make out of a person who keeps their private living space in a mess?

I was reading Malcom Gladwell's Blink where he talks about "thin slicing" : taking a quick glimpse of a person and accurately making an observation without thinking !

In life, I always believed CLARITY is Crucial. Clarity arises from an uncluttered mind. An uncluttered mind is, usually a result of an orderly and neat environment.

Sometimes I wonder how some people can work on an untidy table.

Coming back to India - Does poverty justify messiness?

I was recently in Hungary and visited a few rural communities. I don't think they are in poverty but they are relatively poor. However, the streets in these villages were clean and the homes tidy...

I asked a professor of mathematics in India, "what if the government outsourced the cleaning of all villages to their villagers themselves, do you think the country will become neater? " - This may give jobs to the poor people and help them educate their children. The good professor was thinking but I think he has given up too.

India, is a great nation, no doubt. She has a great history and deep culture.

However, she is a paradox !

I wish they do something about cleanliness lah..its not soothing for the soul !