INDIA!! part 3

DAY 5 : 14 Dec

And so the next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunset and fresh air, despite having to take turns to bathe. Then each of us out of appreciation collectively gave a donation towards the Crematorium through Rtr. Suman, as he had sponsored many meals for us. After that, we left Topslip and stopped by at RC of Udumalpet center to receive the receipt of the donation. Rotaractors from RAC UTP and RC of Saibaba Colony also received souvenirs from RC of Udumalpet. Subsequently, we left for another long journey to Coimbatore, a city inside Tamilnadu, where the RC of Saibaba Colony is based. As we entered the place, we could feel a distinct coolness of the air, as Coimbatore was experiencing winter, as i mentioned earlier. We then paid an educational visit to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, a high-tech public university situated inside Coimbatore.

There, Rtn. Sundra Babu and Dr. Vadivel hosted us, and gave us a tour and briefing about the university. The university mainly does research in agriculture, and the new techniques are passed on to farmers to carry out their work to increase production, etc. Currently, they are researching the use of Jatropat in the biofuel industry. They showed us their university's yea-old online portal, at www.agritech.tnau.ac.in. The portal contained a myriad of information about the types of plants, climates, and even showed a daily list of the prices of vegetables that can be accessed on-the-spot by anyone who had an internet connection. After visiting their conference room, we presented our souvenirs and pendants to them.

We proceeded for lunch at Sree Annapoorna, where Rtn. Arthur's wife, Jessica, joined us. Anil, Santhosh and Udhaya, from RC of Saibaba Colony joined us too. The food there was good, and subsequently we headed for Coimbatore's main shopping street. A few others from another Rotaract Club joined us there. There, we split into several groups, and each group went their own way, each wanting to buy different items. But in the end, almost everyone of us had bought the same items, ranging from sarees, scarves and bangles, to kurtas and elephant keychains of different sizes and colours.

As night fell, we attended a joint meeting with the Rotary Clubs of Coimbatore West and South. We were introduced to them, and were even requested to sing a local song. And so our ever sporting Rtn. sang 'Getaran Jiwa' while we happily hummed along~ It was a thrilling experience, to be able to attend a Rotary Club meeting, all the more in a land far away from home =)

We duly exchanged pendants, politely listened to the speeches, and it was time to end the meeting, before singing the Indian and Malaysian anthems. Dinner was served in-house and we totally enjoyed it, and by now all of us were used to using our hands to eat. That night, everyone slept at different places. Eric slept in Vignesh's house, Graham and Jerry slept in a Rotarian's house, while Jonathan was supposed to sleep in Vishnu's house, but ended up sleeping at the apartment with the girls. heee!

At night, those staying at the apartment helped to pack the materials needed for the next day, which would be our community service.

DAY 6 : 15 Dec

We awoke early as usual, and our van brought us for breakfast at People's Place. There, we stuffed ourselves with typical South Indian poori, thosa and porata. Having enjoyed the food (as always), we left for the Isha Yoga Center, a meditation center, based on the Hindu religion. The place was a peaceful and serene place, with brick and stone domes and marble walls. We managed to catch a glimpse of Sadhguru, the yoga master. We were given a chance to watch some videos that featured Sadhguru being interviewed. Then, we were allowed to step foot inside a pool of water with a huge solid mercury ball in the centre, which was deemed as pure and holy. The water was icy cold to the skin, but we had insufficient time to take a full-body dip into the pool. Shortly after, we were then given a chance to perform a 15 minute meditation inside an enormous brick dome. The dome is claimed to be the largest brick dome in the world, if I'm not mistaken. Later, we visited the gift shop and most of us bought T-shirts, while some bought bags and yoga meditation CDs.

Skipping lunch we headed for our first community service at an orphanage, Jeeva Jothi Trust Children's Home, where we'd start our community service. We were then joined by 2 girl Rotaractors from the Rotaract Club of Saibaba Colony, Sumathi and Vaishnavi. As we arrived, we were told that there'd only be about 10 children there, as the rest were having exams in shool. Anyhow, we started to introduce ourselves, and then gave the children a chance to tell a little about themselves in turn. Then we proceeded by playing selected games with the children. For the first game, we played 'Simon Says' with the children, but we kept on winning. Next, we played a game, where we split all of us into four groups, and the goal was to see which group could make the longest line using items on their bodies (e.g. shoes, hairbands), in the shortest time. Lastly we played a game, where everyone formed a circle, and had to follow the moves of the person next to him. At the end, we presented stationery and smiling cards with inspirational words to the children, which they received with ear-to-ear smiles. And we also presented several trunk boxes to the orphanage. We left the place after taking a photo with the people at the orphanage.

The next home we were to visit was the Douglas Memorial Children's Home, which was situateed nearby. When we reached there, we had to wait about 20 minutes for the children to return home from school. When they arrived home, they rushed in to greet us. But not all were small kids. They ranged from small primary school children, to a few teenagers. As we were short on time, we did not play any games with them, so we proceeded by presenting the stationery to them as well as old clothes and stuff brought by us from Malaysia. After taking a photo with them, we left for the next home.

The next home was Saranalaya, a home for the girls, which was also located nearby. There we also had lack of time, so all we did was hand out the stationery to them and socialise with them and take a shot with them.

Later on, we rushed to the Centenary Hall of Coimbatore Texcity to have a joint meeting with the RC of Saibaba Colony and the Rotary Club of Texcity. The first part was a meeting hosted by the former. There, we exchanged speeches and pendants, and were once again introduced to the audience. The highlight of the event was when Rtn. Arthur gave away a hearing aid to an Indian child, who had lost her hearing ability. Then, the night proceeded with a meeting conducted by the Rotary Club of Texcity.

After all that, just as we thought we were finally going to have our lunch dinner, we were driven to another unexpected meeting by the Rotaract Club of CUG (Corvai User Group). By now, meetings and all its proceedings were a normal thing to us and we sat patiently through the meeting =)

Then came the best part of the day, dinner time. haha. Dinner was by the CUG and they served us nice Indian ice-cream for dessert =)

That night we slept in the same places as the night before. Before we slept, all of us stayed back at the apartment and talked and shared each of our experiences. Graham and Jerry even convinced Arun to join the RC of Saibaba Colony.

DAY 7 : 16 Dec

The next morning, we awoke early, with a heavy feeling of dread in our hearts, as we were going back to Malaysia. We knew that it would be a painful parting as we'd all grown so close, as close as a family, since we had been together and did everything together ever since the first day. They even did a special joint bulletin featuring our trip to India.

Anyway, we awoke at 6a.m, normal time, and as we were waiting for the van to pick us up at the apartment, Barathi took out an Rs. 10 note, with a small note of appreciation written on it, and signed by all the members of the RC of Saibaba Colony and presented it to Xiao Ci. In exchange, Xiao Ci took out a RM 10 note and did the same, writing a short note with our names there, and handed it to him. What a nice souvenir to exchange.

When the van came, we all went to People's Place again for breakfast, and it would be our last time together. Even Vishnu, who had initially planned to attend college after skipping so many days for us, finally decided to skip one more day, just to bid us goodbye.

Everyone was hugging and you could see that all the faces had the expression of trying to stifle a cry. We took our last photos together, and welcomed them to Malaysia anytime. We would be going to the airport alone, as it would be inconvenient for anyone of them to follow us there, as the journey would take up to 10 hours to and fro. As we boarded the van, some of us couldn't control our emotions, and tears rolled down from the puffy red eyes.

Finally, we left, and as we entered Kerala, we could feel the vast difference of temperature, as it became much more humid and hot, compared to Tamilnadu, and all of us were sweating. The driver that took us there was such a reckless driver, that almost all of us came out of the van feeling dizzy. We ate at a restaurant opposite the airport, and boarded flight AK 204 at 5.00p.m. India time. On board, we met a guy who claimed to be an Indian actor, and we even took photos with him. We landed at the LCCT around 12a.m, ate at Old Town White Coffee and slept at Starbucks Coffee. Then in the morning we headed for our hometowns.

On behalf the Rotaract Club of Universiti Teknologi Petronas, I would like to thank all the members the Rotaract Club of Saibaba Colony for the perfect hospitality and fun that they had showered upon us throughout the whole trip, and for the months of planning, the sleepless nights and the vast numbers of meetings that they had gone through to make this trip a success, and by that I mean a truly remarkable and awesome trip!

Thank you Rtrs. Barathi, Vishnu, Vignesh, Sethu and Abdul Basith, Rtrs. Udhaya, Anil, Santhosh, Mr. Naga, Rtr. Suman, and all those who had contributed either directly or indirectly in making this trip a wonderful and smooth trip. Special thanks to Vignesh for arranging everything for us, as the itinerary was seemingly flawless! We really enjoyed it thoroughly, and we are waiting here in Malaysia to welcome you and be your host when you come here for your international service~

Thank you once again and see you in the near future!

" They came as strangers, and went back as family "

" The highlight of the trip was when Vishnu gathered everybody to show the malaysian friends the 'touch me not' plant hoping that it would be an unheard plant for them, ironically, Izzah walked away in an instant saying 'hey we do have this plant in Malaysia and we have seen it many times', and you should have seen Vishnu's face at that time! - Priceless! "

Barathi~

" Great is a less word to explain the enjoyment with RAC UTP "

" I dun know why time moves so fast I miss all my bros and sisters of Malaysia :( "

Vishnu~

" Omg though only seven days...!! We have really become one family and now I miss them badly...!! :( :( :( "

" Missing my Malaysian family very badly...!! "

Sethu Raman~

here's a nice tamil song =) go listen