Nostalgia about Udaipur

 
I told Jasmine, my friend who is spending her summer in Japan, that I dream of making a travel blog that also provides Mass schedule. I hope she's willing to write about her adventure in Japan and share with us about the churches in small towns in Japan! ^^

So now I am trying to recall my journey to Udaipur, a small town in Rajasthan, India, three years ago, to make this "travel page" filled (since I don't have travel blog yet =P)

I took a night train from New Delhi. I would strongly recommend that you take class 2-AC (with air conditioner and beds). I spent 12 hours on train and we stopped a lot on the way. On train, you can see that there are many people who entered the train without buying tickets. Therefore, it is not too safe to take non-airconditioner class for an overnight train journey.

I went to Udaipur with two other interns from the same company. We planned to meet our two friends who did internship in Udaipur and two other friends who did internship in Jaipur that is  only a few hours away from Udaipur. I slept really really well on the train =)

We reached Udaipur at 7am and paid Rs 50 to go to Jakdish Temple. We have booked a hotel name Lal Ghat Guest House. (We thought it was Lal Ghat Hotel, so we went to wrong hotel @.@). It was clean and it had a nice roof-top view of Pichola Lake. All hotels, guest houses, and cafes at Udaipur offer roof-top view =P We had a walk along the lake to explore the area around our hotel. We also walked along the market until we reached Chetak Circle. (Chetak = horse). We actually planned to go to Fateh Sagar Lake. After walking for quite some time, we gave up and took auto-rickshaw. This auto was the one similar to the auto in Haryana, we paid Rs 5 per person. I really love the view at Fateh Sagar Lake!!!

Jakdish Temple

View from the top of the hotel where I stayed

another side

Another side. I took this photo to show the "unpopular side" of the beautiful Pichola Lake. Poverty is indeed a big problem in India.

We took boat to Nehru Garden (in the middle of Fateh Sagar Lake) for Rs 125.

A Camel "parked" at the side of Fateh Sagar Lake

Yeay!! =)

The white wall is Nehru Garden

View from Nehru Garden

I hugged pilar everywhere like in the Bollywood movies =)

In the evening, we finally met up with our friends from Udaipur and Jaipur. We had a nice Western dinner near City Palace. (After 1.5 months eating Naan or Uttapam every day, weekend is our only chance to eat non-Indian food =P)
Our friends who did internship in Udaipur brought us to this hidden spot to enjoy the beautiful view of City Palace and a hotel in the middle of the lake:


The following morning, I left hotel at 6.15am because I didn't have any idea about the Mass schedule. I got the address and phone number but the person who answered my phone call didn't seem to speak English, so I thought, "How early could a Sunday Mass in a Cathedral be?" My only worry was I would miss the Mass because it is only a small town, that's why I tried to leave as early as possible.

Since I didn't know how far the hotel from the church was, I just agreed when the auto-driver charged me Rs 80 (1.20 Singapore dollars). But...it was quite near! (not walkable though). The mass started at 8am so I spent 1.5 hour exploring the Church, reciting rosary, and spending time in the Adoration room.

first impression: Why is the church so empty? Apparently it is a huge space to sit during Mass

Everyone rushed to Our Lady after Mass to honour her

So...here's the funny story about my adventure in this Church. I was kneeling in the empty Church once the church was opened, when suddenly a priest approached me and pointed to the church door:
"Put your footwear outside"
me: "huh?"
Father: "Put your footwear outside"
me: "ohhhhhhhhh"
(no wonder the Church is sooo empty).

Apparently in this Church, people take off their shoes during Mass. They also separate themselves based on gender (ladies at the right, and men at the left). One thing that amazed me was even though it was a small town, all people really wore their Sunday best! (If you notice the type of Saree that they wore in the photo, it was not the usual one that they wore on the streets).

So yeah..I finally attended the Mass in a local language (not Hindi, not Malayalam, I'm not sure what language they speak in Udaipur!)

Oh when you take the autodriver, you can just mention "Catholic Church" and the area (Bhupalpura). I think this is the only Catholic Church in Udaipur.

Details of the Church:
0294-2412279
Our Lady of Fatima Cathedral
St Paul's Campus, Bhupalpura, Udaipur Post

After Mass, I went back to hotel and started my adventure with my friends. We went to City Palace. It was very beautiful (and crowded!). They were really strict about photo-taking restriction. We needed to deposit our cameras (that's why I don't have any photos of City Palace). There were a lot of Rajasthani paintings inside the palace.

After going around City Palace, we had this very cheap buffet ( I think Rs 70 for free-flow Dosa) at Natraj Hotel.What I remember was I walked quite far from the market area and found lots of interesting things along the way.

After satisfying ourselves with abundant lunch, we took cable car from Doodh Talai Sunset Point. With Rs 69 we could enjoy the beautiful view of Udaipur. It was drizzling during noon time, so in the afternoon we really had very cool and nice weather.

Travelmates! =)

Enjoyed our last afternoon tea before heading back to different towns again

This poster is unusual because it looks like posters in NUS, our university (National University of Singapore)

My friend bought this bag made of camel leather for only ummm.. Rs 1000? (SGD 30)

This shawl seller wanted to buy my friend's phone! He's so good in persuading us to buy the shawls =)

See you in the next post on Travel! =)

ps. Do you see how tanned I was??? @.@

Flower mood: Jan-June 2014

7 Quick Takes Friday - Vol.39

- 1 -

HR department distributed roses and chocolate yesterday as a "thank you" day. It's such an interesting way to remind us to say thank you to each other. My colleagues and I left thank you post it note for each other =)
I took Xiao Qian's roses and arranged them at home (in addition, I asked my housemate for her leaves. Hahaha). I hope I have time to buy filler flowers tomorrow. Too empty!

 - 2 -

My friends and I started having discussion about "dream" again.
It reminded me of this book:

I read it during my retreat and it really inspired me to keep up my dream alive.
I understand it's very hard to dream and constantly "change" your dream. Furthermore, I'm a type of person who is quite ambitious. Once I aim at something, I will put my whole energy into it. The most difficult thing for me to do is to "see how". However, I slowly learn to moderate my ambition.

- 3 -

This post is a quick takes over three weeks (Sorry!!). Last week I finally went to a market that sells fresh cut flowers. Crazy!! I had over-supply of flowers. Can you imagine they sell 5 stalks of gerbera for only $3.50?? (it's cheap!) Xiao Qian and I split our purple chrysanthemum because for $5, we got A LOT of chrysanthemum. However, even after we divide them, we still have too many flowers. Even though we have many flowers, we don't have enough variety of flowers. @.@ (I didn't want to spend too much money that day). Oh well, it was really a good opportunity to practice various styles of flower arrangement. I would say that day was the biggest failure though. I don't think the arrangement was as nice as the one I made before.

Xiao Qian and our "shopping" of the day

that huge bunch is $5

It's located at Upper Thomson Road. The name is Far East Flora

 

Style 1: supposedly "tall arrangement" Argh! I think I bought wrong flower. I don't really like the white one

Supposedly Round arrangement. I need to cut them shorter

Simple homogeneous style =)

Another one

- 4 -

 We got triceratops in office =) They made it out of cardboard (small pieces of cardboard, do zoom in the photo!! I heard around a few thousands small pieces of cardboard were used). Amazing!!!

This project is an evidence that large-scale prototyping is indeed possible! Their team was working day and night for one whole month!!

- 5 -

I have a new motto, inspired by the fact that my favorite canned iced-apple tea is always sold out in the vending machine.

"Life is like a vending machine. You don't always get what you want because things are sometimes sold out =P "

- 6 -

Tomorrow's girls' club activity is....KINECT DANCE! It's been a while since I did that. I should sleep soon so I have enough energy to dance with them tomorrow. Hahaha

- 7 -

Have you ever felt that the more you do research, the more you doubt lots of things that you did in your research? It's like...are you sure this is the way? Are you sure this is the correct method? Scary.... I wonder if it's normal.

More quick takes at Jen's blog!!

Brilliant advice from mom

So I asked my mother,

What if you always repeat the same mistakes? How to remember not to do it again?

and she said,

Write down your most common mistakes in a "book of correction"

I think she's brilliant. Not only brilliant, but wise.
Yes, we've been doing examination of conscience. However, because I write down the things in the same book that I used for my prayer inspirations, most of the times I can't retrieve the points when I need them. Recently I also didn't really note down things that God let me see in my examination of conscience.

So my mom's short and sweet whatsapp message really struck me.
I will invest on another small notebook special for examination of conscience, confession, and Spiritual Direction. I guess initially I combine them with prayer journals so I can easily pray about them too (just flip!). However, at moments when you have stumbled so hard, perhaps you need to step back and take even smaller steps, even if it means I need two small notebooks now. Hahaha.

Thanks, Mom! =)

How to be less defensive

Perhaps you have read the post on how to talk to a defensive person. Well, I hope I'm not becoming a blind-person-leading-another-blind-person by writing this post, but here are some suggestions from various people, and particularly my mom =)

Step 1: diagnostic test

Are you 'only' defensive?
Are you 'impulsive' and 'defensive'?
If you are the latter, I would say that the situation is quite chronic *oops, welcome to the club*. Nevermind, keep calm and continue reading.

Step 2: deeper assessment,the "WHY"

For our conversational partner, 'defensive' is just an adjective that is a mixture of pride, stubbornness and resistance to change. However, we as people with defensiveness (I like to think about it as a 'disorder' rather than 'trait') actually have various reasons of being defensive in a different circumstances (or is it only me??)

Perhaps...you feel that you've put an effort and other people do not appreciate your effort?
Perhaps...you just don't like being at the wrong side?
Perhaps...you just hope your conversational partner sees you as a 'good person', a 'perfect' person
Perhaps...defensiveness is your first impulse and you have habits of doing it without realizing it! (especially for the impulsive-defensive combo!)

Whatever your reason is, there is no excuse to be defensive. No excuse. Can you hear that?? NO EXCUSE!!!!!! (I'm screaming!) I capitalized these two words to remind us that yes, we love to find excuses. So let me repeat again, NO EXCUSE!

Step 3: baby steps

My spiritual director has been saying that first, we need to acknowledge it. That's part of us. It may sound contradictory because I refused to call it a "trait". However, we should accept that it is a part of us that can be changed. BUT, it is a lifetime struggle. (yes, it's a lifetime struggle). How old are you? If you are 23 like me, please acknowledge that this problem may still occur perhaps 47 years more from now if you live till the age of 70. And oh...ooops, please remind your future spouse too that this is a part of you too =) too bad! If you are married, citing a speech by my senior's parents, "No refund!"

So what's next?

Well, the root is pride. Many people may have reminded you all types of little practices to practice humility, e.g., focus on other people by praying for others, try to serve others, do things that are inconvenient for you, like eating the food that you like less, and so on and so forth.

Even if you feel that you have don't all sorts of these things and you are still failed,

it's okay. Keep calm and continue reading.

Step 4: newborn steps

So you are still prideful.
Perhaps you are the impulsive-defensive type, you just rebuke first, find excuses first, then you deeply regret later on. Or perhaps you are not impulsive, but you are fully aware and plan your defensive "moves", yet after that you realize you are wrong. I guess the non-impulsive type may have easier way to say sorry easily. Congratulations! =)

While for the impulsive-defensive type, we usually don't say sorry THAT fast, but there are two subtypes of people: a) keep rebuking until you are tired, or b) even if you can't say sorry, keep quiet first.
Unfortunately, some of us are in subtype a.

I don't know.

I really don't know what to do if you are subtype a. It's hard, let's shake hand and please stop pitying ourselves. There's a way, there's always a way.

For subtype b, yes, it's a good step to keep quiet first. ^^ Just remember to say sorry as soon as you have the strength and courage to apologize. Don't worry, it's OK to make mistake, including to make mistake of being defensive.

For subtype a, a few things I can suggest is do "damage control".
damage control 1
Find out your conversational partner's language of apology  (be it boss or girlfriend or boyfriend or parents). It took me soooooo long to realize that my boyfriend's and my own language of apology is totally different! (I didn't even know that there's such thing). You can spend so much time crying, wailing, begging mercy, or saying sorry in thousand ways which you think show a true repentance, yet these things make them feel more sick of you because of this different ways of saying sorry.

I'm serious. It's important to know and notice what do your conversational partner's complain after you are super-defensive and say sorry but things seem still not work out?

damage control 2
Never ever think that you have tried so much yet you failed and your conversational partner doesn't understand your situation or bla bla bla (again, excuses). Never. Once you start playing this in your head, damage control 1 didn't work because there was just no true repentance.

damage control 3
Pray.
Well, I should change it to number 1. To be honest, if you are impulsive-defensive-subtype a (3-in-1 package), you've got a lot of things to pray for. =) Firstly, to keep optimistic, to still be cheerful, even though you don't like yourself being this type and being defensive, yet you know God will help you. Secondly, pray for the person who is affected by your defensiveness. For some people (I say some because each person has different personalities), your defensivenss+impulsiveness+nonstoprebuking really multiply and deepen the wound on them.

damage control 4
let it go, be small.

Just follow what your conversational partner wants, what he or she thinks can relieve the situation a bit, and what he or she thinks will help he or she forgive you.

By theory we know we have been at the wrong side, yet by practice it's still hard to just let go and follow the things that may hurt us too. Think about it as a more intensive training that can remind us to be less impulsive next time (so even though we are 'still' defensive, we will remember at least not to be impulsive)

It's okay.

It's worthwhile =)

7 Quick Takes Friday - Vol. 38

- 1 -

I took one day of parent care leave on Monday to accompany my parents (yes, they came to Singapore to visit me, YEAYYYY!). My mom is now opened to the idea of visiting me in Singapore because my dad enjoys being in Singapore (my mom used to think that Singapore is too small and only for people who like to go shopping). Unfortunately, my mom fell ten days before their flight to Singapore and her ligament in her left knee was torn, so doctor insisted that she should use wheel chair in Singapore. However, all the wheel-chair rental centres did not have any available wheel chair. So they still came to Singapore, but my mom was not supposed to walk for too long. Thankfully, River Safari provided loan for wheel chair so my mom was not too tired. Surprisingly, my dad really enjoyed the sightseeing at River Safari too =) (he loves fish!)

In front of alligator-snapping-turtle

We brought my parents to Timbre where we could have beer and live music =) So finally my mom saw me "in action" (i.e., drinking...just one glass, okay right? =P)

On Sunday, my parents also met my boyfriend's parents for the first time. We had four languages in one table. Hahaha. My parents only speak Indonesian, Paul's dad speaks Cantonese dialect to Paul's mom, and Paul's parents speak Mandarin to Paul, and Paul, Paul's dad, and I speak in English to each other. Wah....

- 2 -

I tried to learn knitting from my mom =) Not with two needles, but the type of knitting with one needle (is it still called knitting?)

- 3 -

It has been a very busy week in my office!!

- 4 -

 Somehow the radio played Mandy Moore's "I wanna be with you". So suddenly I was talking to Paul about how different Mandy Moore is from Britney Spears. Now that we've grown up, we really could see how the trend from mini-skirt to other crazy and sensational things Britney Spears did lead to a life that is quite...sad. I also read an article about how Eminem was anxious that his daughter is dating a guy who is a fan of Eminem's songs. When we were pre-teens or teenagers we didn't think much about the lyrics or the singers. However, now that we see the "evolution" of the life of the singers, I guess it's getting clearer that choosing entertainment is not something that can be taken lightly.

I really enjoy doing karaoke. However, I just realized that sometimes we don't realize how bad the lyrics of the song is until we sing it in karaoke and feel quite "disgusted" or disturbed!! The type of karaoke clips that are available in the market is also quite disturbing sometimes. I mean, come on, who wants to sing karaoke with your boyfriend and friends and watching girls wearing bikini while you sing your favorite song?? Interestingly, the study centre that I usually go to with my friend bought karaoke DVDs from the Philippines and in those clips, we only see beautiful scenes of the country while we sing. Hahaha. Safe for family karaoke! yipeeee! =)

- 5 -

Today in adoration room, Paul and I saw a little boy knelt and bowed very low in front of Our Lord. Sooooo cuteeee. There was another girl with a father and the father whispered to her to say that Jesus was there, present in the Blessed Sacrament.

We were very amazed by these families. It's very beautiful that the parents really made an effort to help the kids know Jesus and accompany Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, while we as adults sometimes take it for granted that Jesus remained there in the form of bread for us.

- 6 -

Half-way of May! Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo fasttttttttt @.@

- 7 -

I found this video through someone's facebook:

I think this video is really beautiful! Recently, I met a lady from El Salvador, she's my housemate's friend. She shared about her sister who also has down syndrome. She shared how fast her sister learned to use facebook and how her sister is currently working in her hometown (her sister is already 34 years old). She said the prejudice is very strong, but her family is really supportive and I could see how this lady really loves her sister!

Once I was writing about abortion on my Indonesian blog and tagged some of my friends who are studying medicine on facebook. One of my high school friends commented and asked, "So is it okay to abort the baby when the baby is diagnosed with disabilities or down syndrome?" I was so sad that my friend asked this kind of question, but I'm very relieved that my "future-doctor" friends answered, "No, because they are humans too"

I guess in Indonesia, most people do not agree with abortion. However, I think there are still misunderstandings about "doing abortion to save the mother's life". That's why I think this site is very useful for people who want to know more about this issue. I think one thing to take note is we can't deny that there are cases that are complicated. For example, I've met a mother who had twins, one of the twins did not develop, but this baby 'sucking' the food from the other one. They checked thoroughly to a reliable doctor and found out that both babies were alive (the other one was not just a collection of cells) and there was a risk that both babies will die. So the baby whose nutrition was taken by her sibling survived, and the other did not. This girl once told me, "I have a twin, but my twin died."

What I want to say is...yes, there are complicated situations, but at least it is important to know the principles and to have the mindset of 'saving life' and to know whom we can consult with in moments of doubt.

More quick takes at Jen's blog!!