Life In Sudan...Part I

There are many reactions that I confront when I tell people that I and my wife work in Sudan..Some of them are not aware of its geographical position and some of its existence!! I have to tell them that it is a country below Egypt in Africa (alas!! everybody knows Egypt, while nobody knows about the largest country in Africa, 10th largest in the world as compared to 7th position of India)....while those who are more informed, knows Sudan more as a war ridden country...while it may be true to a certain extent but not what has been projected extensively by media. The people here are more friendly and welcoming, there may be some black sheeps but overall you can give a thumbs up to the people of Sudan. 

One more thing which I feel bad is that whenever anyone talks about River Nile, it is again Egypt that people relate it to (only 1530 km of the total 6700 km is in Egypt!!)...but the irony is that Sudan has two Niles flowing through it, the Blue and the White Nile..to finally merge into the Nile at Khartoum (the place where I am now!)...

Talking about Sudanese people, i think, they just love people from Indian sub-continent..but more India because of Bollywood. Amitabh, Akshay Kumar, Shahrukh are household names for young generations here.

The presence of Bajaj made auto-rickshaws sometimes makes you feel that you are somewhere in India. They are called 'Tuk -Tuk' or just 'Richshaw' and here too you have to bargain the fares to travel. Some tuk-tuks are elaborately decorated with toys and dolls and there's hardy any space left on the dashboard or the windscreen to see, and I sometimes wonder how these driver manage to wriggle past the traffic with this...its a trick that all the auto-rickshaw drivers have mastered whether they are in India or any part of the world!! Apart from the tuk tuks there are regular taxis (costliest) and Amjads (mini vans) for traveling in the city. The tuk-tuks cannot venture into some of the main and busy thoroughfares, it is the amjad which you have to depend and bargain to take you to the other part of the city.

Talking about traffic...well its much more civilized than India. They wait and let vehicles pass at the junction/crossing and believe me, the wait is sometimes so painstakingly long that you may wonder if they have all the time in the world or they are not bold enough to take a risk to cross!!.( In India who cares about other vehicles?...Its always 'me' who has the priority to move, other cars also has brakes installed and they can apply if they wish to ..I am Mr. No-stop be aware!!!)...The load of public transport is taken by the scores of 'mini' buses that crisscross the city. They charge a flat 50 piaster for a ride, no matter where and what distance you go ( it does makes sense when you see people below poverty line living in the capital and working hard to earn a living). Though they have introduced AC buses in several routes but the popularity is yet to catch up.......

Celebrating 4 years of togetherness

Well, there is a saying that "Behind every successful man, there is a woman", but for whatever little personal success that i had in my life i can have the liberty to rephrase the words and say that "Behind every successful man, there is a happy, cheerful, understanding, motivating and successful woman"...And yes that woman in my life is my Ammu...my soul mate for the last 4 years. Ammu has changed the way i saw and lived my life...she gave a new dimension to it. 

In today's difficult lifestyle, happiness comes in a premium and many of us forget what is it as time passes .We become more and more busy with our hectic lifestyles and our ever growing pressure of meeting deadlines.(sometimes i feel that these deadlines will only vanish when we cross our life's deadline!!). But i have learned from Ammu that there will be many difficulties and commitments in life but there is always time to indulge yourselves. As such we don't need any reason to be happy but sometime we do need special days to celebrate so that's what we do and what's more if we can do that twice over!!! We celebrate two birthdays, one regional and one according to the Gregorian calendar and two anniversaries, well one is when we ourselves accepted us as mates and the other when everybody accepted us as mates!! (our official wedding anniversary). So we party twice!!! and by any chance, because of our work or force majeure, we are not able to celebrate, we always postpone it and enjoy later.

It is not that we dont have our share of stress or problem but our approach towards life has become such that you will always find a happier chandu or ammu in between those moments. We make it a point to kiss and make up after we fight............it helps!!

So today we celebrate our 4th "relation" anniversary and since Ammu is not with me now, we plan to celebrate it when we meet..........

My first blog

As reflected from the title, most of my blogs will be issues close to my heart. Yea, now of course you will be eager to know what they are!! Well my wife and my family are closest to my heart but there are certain things which i got attached to while growing up. The city of Kolkata, holds a special place and all the unique things related to it, like trams, the metro, the hand-pulled rickshaws to name a few. 

My love towards trams, trains and flags are not hidden from my friends!!(i envy those countries which have better trams and have no restriction showing off their national flag).

Though i intend to speak my heart out in my blogs and shout at all the things that i think are wrong, it will also have other flavours (atleast i will try to!!) and try to throw out the monotonous element out....

Suggestions are always welcome...