End of my 6th Week in Chennai

Woah... It has already been six weeks since I first set foot on Chennai. I don't know whether it is a good thing or not that I am always counting the number of weeks and using them as my blog titles. Anyway...

Today I'm so happy that we don't need to go to office. This was because our lab coordinator decided that the lab was very simple and that we could do it within one hour. He gave us the chance to choose whether we want to come back today to do the lab or stay back till late last night. Most people chose the later because they wanted to take the weekends off to go home. Another reason I think he allowed that is because this morning there was a "big" cricket match between India and South Africa (I think....). So, everyone "MUST" stay in and watch the match. Did I ever mentiont that cricket is religion here in India? :P

For this post, I'll cut down on what I want to say about my labs and the rain. Think my blog readers will get bored soon with all the mention of frustrating labs and irritating rainy weather here. I think I shall talk about some culture shocks that I have experience here so far. I can't list all of them but I'll just briefly mention some of the more obvious ones in point form below.

1. No proper public toilet & ESPECIALLY NO Tissue!!
This is might seem like a joke but this is the biggest shock and problem. I'm so used to the clean and well-equipped toilets in Singapore. People laugh when they see that Singapore has a World Toilet Organisation but I think it is good that they have such an organization to ensure QC. At least in Brunei and M'sia, even though there is bad public toilets but can still buy tissue from shops easily. Packet tissue is like a foreign item here. I can find them but only in "Guardian Pharmacy" (A shop with guardian's colours but different name and logo) but it is being sold at quite an expensive price. Not worth buying.... When I go back to Singapore, I'll need to stock up more packet tissues before I come over. :S

2. Poor people and their living conditions
I mentioned this briefly previously. Each time I see them I feel quite sad. I don't know what I should do. People will come up to me and the first thing they do is make eye contact. Although they don't say anything, their actions tell you what they want. They'll clasp their hand and then extend it to you. They'll then repeatingly move their hands that they want you to give them food. Some of them are very persistent even if you say no. Most of them in fact, would because we are foreigners. Some of them are really in need of support while there are also some beggars who I think are healthy and strong enough to do something else rather than begging.

On TV, there is this advertisement about the "Kuwait Fund". The advertisement goes along the line of "If you give a hungry man food, you feed him for a day. If you teach him to fish, grow crops, rear animals, educate his children then you have taken care of him for a lifetime." Actually I do think that many people who have access to education has taken it for granted. Experiencing the condition here, it is very easy to notice the poverty gap between the rich and the poor.

3. Political Issues - The power of the fourth state
I follow the local news channel - NDTV 24/7 every morning. This is the only local news channel in English that I get on my TV (I do have BBC and DW-TV for world and sports news as well :P). The first time I got a shock from this news channel was when a reporter was reporting about the flooding problems in Bangalore. She was talking about the bad conditions that people in Bangalore were facing during the floods late last month and how the authorities were slow in taking action. At first when she was reporting it, I sensed that the news was getting abit too personal as her expression was that she was quite angry with the situation. At the end of her report, I quote her: "The politicians are just good at what they are doing. Political posing". Instantaneously, my friends and I were like "What!?! Did she just say what we heard her say?" Then we started to laugh and of course, compared it with our home countries.

Another show that they have on NDTV 24/7 is a puppet show called Double Take. The puppets are designed to look like the ministers. In this show, they'll use the puppets to tell stories and act out how incompetent the minister is in his post. I was like "woah..." then I found out from a friend that this concept was adopted from Germany. They sent 20+ people to train in Germany on this puppetry criticism.

4. Matrimonials in newspaper
This is very interesting. You know in newspapers, we always get classifieds where people sell/buy products/services,etc. Here, there's another section - Matrimonial. One section which writes - Looking for brides and the other Looking for bridegroom. I was laughing when I first saw the section in the newspaper. Advertisements were like "Looking for fair,slim,beautiful girl from good family background". Some were like "The parents of So&So who is in US working now is looking for an alliance with the family of a girl who is etc etc etc". Alliance? The most interesting one I think was "So&So with MBA degree, earning six-figure salary looking for MBBS etc etc". He's only looking for a doctor wife huh? Oh ya, some others have astrology requirements and locations.

In addition to these requirements, people have to send in their "applications". Most of the people in my class talk about "applications" instead of "proposals". So, I suppose one must first send application, get approval stamp then can continue. hahaha..... I suppose it is still a practice here that continues where some parents still arrange the marriage of their children.

5. Girls one side, guys one side
Although it is not an explicitly written rule on the bus but this seems to be the case. It must have been a horrifying experience for those ladies that some weird guy (ie. my friends and I) sit next to them. Even on a packed bus where there are not enough seats, guys would prefer to stand rather than sit next to the women. I don't know if we are offending their culture or not. This one I'll have to check. My cultural sensitivity is getting abit low these days ^_^.... Making plenty of assumptions or thinking that I will be forgiven because I'm a foreigner.

About culture, people here like to address each other as Sir/Madam especially when it comes to people of higher rank. Hierarchy is a very important concept here. However, for those of us from Singapore, we seem to be different. We would address them by their names and treat them more equally. (I'll blog more about this next time... my surfing time is up again)

Tedious labs & unpredictable weather

After a whole week of continuous labs we were finally "entitled" to a few days break. The reason it is "entitled" is because our basic assembler training is over. Now comes the advance stuff, TPF -> my bread and butter for the next few years...... The theory classes no longer seem simple and easy as it was one month ago. The concepts taught are quite abstract as in I think it will take me quite some time before I can understand what it all means. Assembler was to be like CS1101 and now TPF is like 1102. Also, next week will be another week of labs or should I say, two weeks of continuous labs.... scary but hey, half the training is over. :P

As for the weather here in Chennai, there is another depression over this region. On a day, it can be sunny and extremely hot. Suddenly without warning, sky gets dark and it will be a heavy downpour. Cyclonic rains are very different from the ones which we have in SEA. You can actually see the rain being blown hard by the wind and umbrella is no protection against such a storm. My friend describes the weather as "Mother nature is having her PMS". Heavy rain here is not good especially for office goers. Unlike the schools and colleges here, we don't get a day off due to the flooding of roads or homes. A few hours rain can easily flood some parts of the road. These would make travelling very inconvenient to and from work. Fortunately an idea struck my head that we could easily take a bus to cross the flooded areas. :D

Few weeks ago, I was already predicting that my leather shoes would be worn out soon. Well, now the sole has started to tear open and I can see my socks from the tip of the shoe. :S My poor leather shoes, badly damaged by the weather here. In addition, twice I was splashed by dirty water due to inconciderate drivers. The first time was not very serious, the second time I was very pissed off. I kept cursing that guy for driving so fast. I mean, the road is already "halfed" because one section of it is flooded but he still drives onto the flooded part and I ended up as the victim. *grrrr*

Anywayway, this weekend should be quite a relaxing weekend. My friends and I are trying to get tickets to watch Harry Potter here but are quite unsuccessful because the normal timings are all fully booked. Think we'll have to try again next week. Oh yes, if any of you do get the chance, I'd recommend to watch the Hindi movie "Taj Mahal". I've not watched the movie yet BUT the trailer and behind the scenes look good. Although I could not understand a word they are saying but the body language speaks for itself - the vibrant colors and the very chio Pakistani-French actress.... It's suppose to be the most expensive movie ever made in Bollywood and they spent 3years filming it. Darn, if only they have English subtitles here.

Summary of Week 5

5 weeks have passed and I am still surviving........ barely...... My feat for the first lab was just luck? Nah...partly because I had experience doing something similar when I was in NUS. Lab2 nearly suffocated me. The lab was suppose to start on Wednesaday afternoon, I slacked the afternoon away not doing it because I was too tired to think (....due to Risk). Note to self - never play Risk the night before a lab session.

I freaked out when I didn't do much by the end of Thursday morning. In the afternoon fortunately, I started to understand more of what I was trying to do and slowly managed to finish on time. However, my code was very bad in terms of efficiency but can't complain much. Actually, my colleagues aren't that strong in programming especially when it comes to assembly. Many of them stayed overnight just to finish up their work. I can tell that they are quite stressed out by it. It doesn't help also that their other friends in TCS are not subjected to the same level of intensive training as they are getting. I just realised that I've been working 7 days straight with no break. Get up at 7, start work from 9am to night 845pm(last train) with a 1 hr lunch break. By the time I finish dinner, it is already 1030pm. Take a shower and sleep.. Next morning repeat the process.....

Other than work.... well.. there's a Sri Ramakrishna Maths Publications company. I told YC previously about that. Today I just saw what is behind this publications company - "Sri Ramakrishna Universal Maths Temple" O_O .... .I was like "WAH LAO eh..." ... Universal Maths Temple? They worship the god of maths? hmmm.. I really got to explore more to see what it is about. Btw, Indians are very religious people. It doesn't matter which religion they belong to, they are very expressive about it? I mean, I switch on tv, at least 2-3 channels preaching hinduism 24/7 and another 2-3 channels preaching christianity 24/7....

ok.. time's up. .gotta go

Long Sunday and more labs for the week

Working on Sunday was bad enough. Playing Risk till 3am the night before is worse. My friends and I went to Spencer Plaza (the super huge shopping complex in Chennai) for shopping on Saturday. We ended up buying Risk together to fill our free time (very hard to get any these days). It was very addictive that we didn't want to stop playing until we finally gave up because we know that the game would not end so soon and we have work the next day.

Good thing that this place we are staying provides morning calls. I am really pampered alot here in Chennai. The caretaker of the place would just give a ring to the phone in my room to wake me up. After I have finish preparing then I'll just give them a ring and ask them to bring breakfast up. Anyway, on Sunday morning, I had to drag myself out of bed. Well, my friends and I actually arrived at office late. Supposed to reach before 9am but we arrived at around 10. We had to 'drink tea' with the HR the next day and I expect our score card has some marks deducted liao.

Sunday was just a lab session very much like my first year in SoC. Really dejavu... Aaron Tan's (my CS1104 lecturer) words keep ringing in my head. At times I could suddenly recall facts that I don't even remember when doing my CS1104 exams :S ... This lab session was supposedly an easy lab because when I saw the question, I had the algorithm roughly planned out in my head. I thought that it would be simple and not as tough as how the rest of my classmates felt. (Actually when the question was given, they were all complaining on how it should be done. I felt like shutting them up for whinning so much at that time.)

....However, when I started work on the lab, I realised that it was not as easy as I first thought that it would be. The way to solve the problem would have been very easy if I was asked to write in Java. Unfortunately, it was assemble language... The horror of the tedious branchings and comparing of registers..... argh... the whole day I spent trying to solve the problem ended up in frustrations. I stared at the computer screen for hours on from 10am till lunch and from 2pm till about 5pm... It was only then I realised WTH!! ... I've forgotten the most fundamental rule of programming ->When you are stuck and tired, just leave the program and not think about it. That's what I did and went home to sleep. The next morning my mind was clearer and I realised the silly mistakes that I made in my code which made my program to run in an unexpected way.

In addition, the funny thing was that on Sunday I thought my friends had finished half the lab assignments. It wasn't the case.. I ended up being the first one (or maybe 2nd to that VIT gold medalist.. not very sure because she seemed to be coding furiously even after I finished mine...) to complete followed by the other 3 of us from Singapore. The others were so shocked and one was frustrated by us. He was frustrated because he started to work on the lab 1 day before my friends and I did. He said something like "What the heck am I working so hard for?"... yah.. poor thing... He stayed overnight on Saturday, Sunday and Monday as well trying to finish up the lab. This is one example that hardwork not necessarily equates to success....

Anyway, today they just gave us another lab assignment. My brain was in a deadlock again and I felt super sleepy that I actually took a nap. After that, my friends and I rushed back to our TQ so that we could take a good rest then work on the labs tomorrow. The labs are really tiring. I wonder how long will this 3rd lab take..... Not only that, my brain is becoming more and more like a computer. Java was already making my brain to think in a very systematic way... Assembly language is the ultimate so far... think in numbers... when I no longer look at "The Matrix" in the same way again because I have taken the red pill and understand how to read Hexadecimal operation codes for IBM ESA/390 like 1A 23 means add register 2 and register 3....... goodness... :S

Week 4 ending....

After today, it would mark the end of my fourth week here in Chennai. It has already been 1 month! Wow..... 5 and a 1/2 more months to go before I leave India. Time seem to be passing quite fast now that I have a lot of homework to do. There are lots of assignments and lab work. It feels just like my first year in NUS again. Not only that, the things they are teaching us is very much similiar to what I've learnt before.

All throughout the lessons so far, I was trying hard to recall what was taught by my lecturers in my first year. Concepts taught in 2nd year and 3rd year are rarely used. Now I can follow all the other working ppl who always say that only take the basics out of uni, the rest of the stuff taught is useless. Ironically, the two modules which I was quite weak in my first year - CS1102 (Data structures & Algo) and CS1104 (Computer Organization). A lot of concepts about computer memory access, how computers work and all the binary and hexadecimal numbers are coming back to haunt me. It has turned from my weakness to something that I must conquer else I will have to start looking for another company liao.

Class is starting to become less noisy. I think my classmates have become less enthusiastic about asking redundant questions. This is because the more questions they ask, although make them look impressive but our working hours would be extended until we can complete the sessions. We are on a very tight schedule and must complete by Dec 26th. I think they are having some projects that urgently need people so they want to make sure we grasp all the concepts quickly and can work immediately after that.


AIESEC Chennai's Diwali Night
Yesterday I finally met up with the AIESECers and trainee in Chennai. AIESEC in Chennai had organized a Diwali night for the trainees. I was so happy to meet them. The feeling was like I know these people very well and not strangers. The setting was so familiar. It made me feel quite at home. AIESECers here talk about the same thing - welfare of trainees. The Financial Controller going around getting money from the AIESECers and helping to assign a trainee buddy to the newly arrived trainee, etc. After the normal AIESEC event, trainees have their own trainee party gathering nearby to send off another trainee. It was very very nice to be with people of the same group again.

I met a Taiwan guy who was so happy to see me. His first reaction was like "Do you speak Chinese?". I replied in Mandarin and he was overjoyed. He exclaimed that in his 7months here I'm the 2nd guy from "The Far East" that he met in Chennai. Anyway, other than that I "interviewed" the trainees on their weekend activities. They travel alot during weekends - leave from work on Friday evening, take overnight bus/train and go straight to work on Monday morning. It is very tiring but they say it is worth the trip. I'm looking forward to joining them once my trainings are over. Muahahaha.....

Anyway, think this will be all for my summary of this week although I have more to say but my surfing time is almost up. I'll update again another time. By the way, I have work tomorrow (>_<).... it's a Sunday.... gosh.....

IT and India (Chennai)

At almost every corner here in Chennai, one can easily find posters or advertisements about private schools teaching J2EE, .Net, Java, C++, C and the other popular programming languages. Newspaper advertisements also. IT jobs make up a large portion of the classified ads compared to business-related jobs here in Singapore.

The place where I'm working now is at a city/town or whatever you call it (in Tamil, it is Nagar), Thiruvanmiyur has a lot of developments going on. Currently, there are 3 big buildings there. Tidel Park, El-Net Software City (where I work) and Ascendas. There are a few more buildings coming up. The place is supposed to be called "IT-corridor". The roads at the moment are narrow and with certain sections flooded. It makes me wonder how this place will be 10years from now. Clean, good roads, proper shelters and street lights? Only time will tell.... My friend thinks that it won't be as nice as we would expect it to be. The people contracting this development might just drop the project halfway. Who knows?

Anyway, everyday I walk from my office to Tidel Park (about 10mins walk) for lunch. It is quite a hassle but I have no choice because there is a lousy canteen at my office. Tidel Park has a better food court and more variety. Not only that there's also a money changer, a bookshop, a pharmacy and plenty of ATM machines. This place is not as nice as Raffle's City but this is a good place. I can't complain much. :P

Summary of week 3

My trainings have officially started on Wednesday. Day 1 was just introduction by the HR manager on the purpose of the course and the need to adhere strictly to the timings. We were not allowed to take leaves and our Saturdays were taken away from us. In addition, we were told that Sunday holiday is optional because most of us will still go back to office anyway because we might not be able to complete our homework fast enough. One of my friends calculated the number of hours that we have to work and the pay that we are getting and concluded that we are earning the same amount or even less than Mc Donalds' part time job. Can I have your order? Egg Mc Muffin? Big Breakfast?

My classmates are.... interesting.. as in typical top-class students? They love class participation. They love to try and silence whoever is trying to answer the question and propose their own solution. Most of all, they love to "help complete the sentence of the teacher". All 3 of us from NUS were ... well... typical NUS students - keeping quiet. Hahaha... of course at the end of the day, we were just amazed at how they were so enthusiastic to answer even if what they say have no relevance to the question. -.-"
Some of them just say something extra or ask chiem questions which is of no help to the course or will be better explained next time when we learn more. It is as if they are trying to show that they are very capable and very intelligent which I think I shall not comment on. I think if I find out their grades in high school and uni, I'll have to cover my face and hide in one corner. :P

But.. I'm not intimidated by them. They maybe very smart but I doubt that it would matter a lot. Hahaha.. Don't know lah, 6months down the road see how.... where will I be then?

Happy Diwali

Today is Diwali Holiday. Diwali here feels like Chinese New Year in Brunei. The people have been playing firecrackers non stop since Friday night (after the cyclone). Nothing much to do today except stay in and watch tv.

It is very scary to be walking along the streets during Diwali season. Suddenly someone might just set a firecracker in front of you. Very dangerous. It is worse when I saw a bunch of kids with firecrackers. Who knows one of them might just be "happy" enough to try blowing up a firecracker at Chinese man just for the kick of it?

Unlike S'pore or Brunei, there are no "sales" during Diwali season. I thought it would be similar. Shopping is not the same here. No special Diwali offers. Prices are just the same or even more expensive to take advantage of consumers. Ok lah, that'll be all from me this time. I realise that I have been writing super long essays. This is not good. In A Levels, my GP teacher told me to KISS (Keep it short and simple) my work. In University, my communications lecturer said to KISS (Keep it short stupid!). People hate reading essays. I bow down to all those who finished reading my long winded talk below... Hahahaa