Diary of SpanishI was Born in Latin America, My Friends are in Europe and I'm Living In India… My Daily Life… My Friends… My Diary

The day of my trip abroad came and of course I was feeling quite excited to breathe “new air” and leave the hot and humid India for a while. I don’t know how much I sweat, and I hate sweating. Still amazes me how people around me seem to be so cool and relaxed when I can barely think straight. So the good news is that I had the chance to use the new Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. I wanted to see this new airport and I was excited to see how good it was. Read More…

Last April, I came to know about a man who wanted to make a difference in India and I wrote about it: “Anna Hazare’s Anti Corruption Crusade“. Unfortunately, since last April, the anti – corruption law remained as a draft and the Government of India didn’t do much to make it real. But Anna Hazare was sure to remind everybody that something needed to be done and proposed another fast in protest. Read More…

Few months back I went to see the renovation of the India Gate. I always like to watch this monument whenever I pass with the car and sometimes I go there just to walk around.

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The day when it all started…

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It’s the first time I’m putting my feet on Indian soil. It’s a September night and my plane just landed in New Delhi. From the plane window I could see the lights of Delhi City, I am excited! I farewell my chatty plane friends going to other parts of India.

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I am clearly not ready for the change of weather, I am wearing a jacket that soon I take off. I am sweating so much… my nose is bleeding. Where’s my perfume? In the checked bag. Where’s the checked bag? Sigh. Read More…

The transport in Delhi has one thing I like, the Delhi Metro. Sometimes it’s just nice to avoid the traffic jams, auto rickshaws, cycle rikshaws, cows, etc., etc., etc.

Metro people are interesting too. The intellectual guy reading a book, the techie guy talking with his handsfree phone. Some girl tweeting or surfing the net (that would be me). Group of girls texting and laughing. The business man talking about some bank deposits, the woman doing her make up, the kids making noise, the teens sitting on the floor… So you can imagine how peculiar is the ride. Read More…

Corruption in India has many faces: bribes, people sneaking money out of the country, fraudulent contracts, money laundering, etc. And we have seen a lot of that lately with the great scandal of the Commonwealth Games, Swiss accounts, and well who hasn’t face a corrupt official asking for a bribe. It’s the daily bread.

What surprises me is that India wasn’t having an anti corruption law. Really? There hasn’t been such a law since Indian Independence? Well, that explains many many things. The draft of the law has been around though, but I guess the same corrupt politicians never wanted to approve it.

A man named Anna Hazare, who previously fasted for the implementation of the Right to Information Act, decided to fast again for the acceptance of the draft for the Anti – Corruption law in the Jantar Mantar of Delhi. After almost 100 hours fasting, he finally got his voice heard and the Government of India has accepted his draft and we all hope it will be approved by the Indian Parliament soon. Read More…

I like chicken very much, and of course Indian chicken is a delight. But sometimes I just crave for a different flavour, like the Latin American style of chicken and I heard of a restaurant in Delhi offering Peruvian Style Chicken in their menu. First thing I thought is that “I have to try that!” because I have tasted Peruvian chicken before and well, the expectations were high.

So I went with my husband to the “Pollo Campero” restaurant in the Connaught Place for lunch to taste their chicken. We ordered a Peruvian Grilled Chicken Meal and a Campero Fried Chicken “Picante” (spicy).

I was a bit disappointed when I received my order though. Read More…

Today I want to write about the New Zealand trip but I don’t want to actually type so I’m using the Microsoft Windows speech recognition software.  But since the last 30 minutes I have been able to finish only two lines.

But I’m determined to write using the speech recognition software, so let’s talk about the trip.  Our journey to New Zealand was really boring as we had to sit for almost 11 hours in the airplane so we got tired and bored of watching the same movies and the listening to the same music.  The food which was served on board was really really bad.  I don’t think anybody liked it.  But still we were hungry so we had to eat.  The whole night it was thundering in the sky and we saw the lightnings from the window the whole night.

At 2:00 in the night I fell asleep and so my husband.  Next morning when I woke up I saw the rising sun from my window and it was beautiful.  At 10:00 a.m. we landed at the Auckland Airport.  As soon as we came out  from the airplane we started noticing the self declaration boards everywhere.  At first we did not pay much attention, but later on when we saw that it was all over the airport we really had to think about it. So we checked if we had any fruit, vegetable or any eatable thing inside our handbag. One Sardar Ji who was ahead of us didn’t declare in his form and the official found out that he was carrying an apple in his handbag. As he didn’t declare the same, they charged $500 NZD as a penalty for him and I think he will not eat an apple for the next 5 years coz $500 NZD x Rs.34 = is somewhere around Rs. 17,000/- in Indian currency. I guess he was done with his apple at the New Zealand airport. Poor of him.

The weather of New Zealand was extremely good and it was very pleasant for us, it was like beating the heat of Delhi. We stayed in the main square of Auckland as our hotel was on the main avenue in the heart of  Auckland from where we could see the whole city. The rooms were quite nice and clean as compared to some Indian Hotels. We stayed in a 3 star category hotel so it was good enough to spend some nights at that place. Read More…

The first thing which came to my mind after I got a call from the travel agent about the visa confirmation was “whooooo I’m going to New Zealand!”… the land of natural beauty and hygiene.

So I started the little shopping for my trip… I read a few articles on the Internet about the weather and the fashion. Although I’m a kind of person who can wear anything and doesn’t really bother about what I’m wearing as long as it is decent. Somebody told me that NZ authorities even check if you have dirt in your shoes and can send you back from the airport. I didn’t wanted to come back from the airport, I mean with a feeling of just touching NZ and coming back just because of dirty shoes… so I bought a new pair of Reebok sneakers… hahaha… I really didn’t buy anything special other than my shoes. I just used the same clothes which I bought in the last winter and had used for only once.

I packed everything in my small American Tourister suitcase and also took one HP backpack which I took to my last trip to Europe. LAST TIME it was sufficient so I thought it wud be sufficient this time also.. but I was wrong. Why… I will tell you later…

Well the big day came. I started my journey from my summer place to Delhi. Thanks God we had the reservations in advance, otherwise going in 44 degrees heat to New Delhi… no way. The train was on time and dropped us in Delhi at 9.30pm and then I told my friend to handover me a brand new Panasonic Digital Camera which I wanted for my NZ trip. I also had the Sony H50 Digital Camera but I read the reviews of this one so I thought I will buy Panasonic because I wanted to capture the wonderful pictures of NZ. After a lot of hassle and tussle my friend managed to send a boy at the metro station so that I could get the camera for my trip. Thanks to my friend Manoj for his help. Finally we reached to Dwarka and it was almost 11 in the night. We entered the apartment and spent the night only having cookies and cold drinks. I tried to get some sleep but at the midnight the power went, the AC wasn’t working and the fan could not cool me off, so at 1:30 a.m. I managed to sleep and at 2.45 a.m. I woke up. I could not sleep so I took my bath and got ready. Then I called my cab to pick us at 4:00 a.m. for the airport. We reached to the airport right at 5 o’clock, met my travel agent, took our documents and went straight inside the airport for check-in and security check. Everything went smooth and our flight was at 7.55 a.m. for Singapore.

We boarded for Singapore. We were going in Singapore Airlines. The breakfast was not good at all in the plane and I was feeling hungry as I only had biscuits in my last dinner, but I ate and for the lunch I placed the order of some drinks. I wanted to try something different so I said I wanted a drink called “Singapore Sling”  which was there in the menu. The drink arrived and it was kind of a red juice… I thought no way… so with a little hesitancy I took a sip… and wooooooooooooooo that was amazing… wonderful taste… never took something like that.

Guys you must take it once. It’s wonderful. We finished it quickly and asked for another one. We got another one, finished and asked for another one. We got the third drink without any problem, so I asked for another one and then the air hostess looked at us with the raised eyebrow… OH boy here you go… some problem now… but I just smiled… and blinked my eyes… with little innocence like a small girl asking for a candy from mommy… I guess it worked, she smiled and said wait… 5 minutes… 10 minutes… 15 minutes no drink… but after 30 minutes she came with a drink and some namkeen… hahaha… God the trick worked. We got our 4th drink of Singapore Sling. I knew I will not get another one so I took this with lot of care and taste… hahaha… but I must say, it is wonderful.

Finally we reached Singapore at 2 p.m. in the noon so while going down I just smiled at the air hostess and said thank you for the hospitality… and she smiled back… thanks for the Drinks.

Well, just when we were coming out of the plane I saw one huge plane.. hey this is an Airbus A380 the biggest commercial plane ever made by human. God I have to take a picture of this… I had to have a picture so… OK pictures… 1..2..3..4..10..15.. OK enough pictures, I wanna to go to the loo now… hahaha so I went to the loo which was next. Afterwards what to do… I had 5 and a half hours until the time to catch the next flight… OK lets check out the Singapore Airport Duty Free area and see the new things of Singapore. Read More…

One of the curiosities I found in India is the matrimonial advertisements. They come in national newspapers like the Times of India and they have a special section where the ads are categorized by caste, religion, civil status, etc.

I was really very shocked when I saw this advertisements the first time but later on when I came to know about the Arranged Marriages I understood their purpose. Reading these ads gives me an insight of the Indian society. About what are the ideal preferences or so called “perfect matches” for getting married with. About how even the cast system has been abolished by law, it is more than alive in the daily life. And I’m not talking only about Indian villages, this happens in metros too. Read More…