India Again!: ASEAN-India Youth Exchange Program, Part 4 - Delhi and Gurgaon

- Dec. 19-23, 2012. Thursday to Monday.

- Our remaining days were spent in Gurgaon, Haryana, and short moments in Delhi for the ASEAN-India Car Rally Flag Down event, and a school visit. The program itself was only supposed to be until the 21st, but our flight was scheduled on the evening of the 22nd (or rather, around 12:30am of the 23rd since our flight was delayed.)

- The morning after the legendary Agra trip, we visited the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT,) one of the top schools in India, for a short interaction with the dean of alumni affairs and international programs, Prof. Ambuj Sagar. Prof. Sagar was joined by some of his students to talk about IIT's festive, and highly-interactive campus life.

Prof. Ambuj Sagar.

Japs and Tyrone. HAHA.

- We had our morning tea and lunch in Radisson Hotel, one of Marriott Gurgaon's neighboring hotels. I think we were held in Radisson because its ballroom can hold 210 of us. Ms. Pia gave us time to rest and rehearse a bit for our gala dinner's cultural presentation.

- There were two speakers after lunch. Mr. Subhashis Gangopadhyay, director of  India Development Foundation, talked a bit on governance, and some pop culture as well, and  Ms. Bidisha Ganguly, economist and consultant, talked about India's economic overview. However, I suppose most people were a bit tired and restless, and some a bit anxious about the gala dinner's cultural performances.

Mr. Gangopadhyay.

Ms. Ganguly

- We had some time to prepare ourselves back in Marriott Hotel. We were all shocked after realizing that the gala dinner would be held in the open-air poolside area. Most regions of ASEAN countries lie in tropical areas, and are expected to have thinner clothes- if not shirtless, as for the men. The temperature in Gurgaon that evening fell to more or less 10 degrees. Since it was compulsory to wear our national costumes, many tried to brave the freezing evening. (One of the Indonesians, I believe, fainted.)

- The Cambodians, Lao, Thai, and Burmese performed colorful folk/national dances. The Indonesians did an intricate dance drama excerpt of the Hindu epic, Ramayana. The Bruneians did an interesting exhibition of the Malayo-Indonesian indigenous martial art called "silat." The Vietnamese did an energetic "youth" dance, while the Malaysians vividly interpreted their experiences from the whole Indian trip, and the Singaporeans showed their Singaporean pride through songs and speeches. The Philippine delegation presented a speech, as requested by the CII, and a short dance to an excerpt of "Sumayaw Sumunod."

I don't know what we were up to. Haha.

Spot the ghost.

With Lao friends.

With Malaysia's Max.

Hi John!!

ASEANNNNN!!

Pon!!

Cambodia.

Indonesia.

Freezing Filipinos.

Brunei.

Laos.

Malaysia.

Myanmar.

Philippines.

Party Pilipinas???? Haha.

Singapore.

Thailand.

Vietnam.

- We all had dinner afterwards, took more pictures of each other wearing interesting and peacock-colorful costumes, and went inside our rooms to freshen up and rest. It was also Manunudlo's last night in India, due to some flight-schedule concerns from Manila to his hometown. Because of this, we tried to get together in Manunudlo's hotel room to have a "send off party," which ended up being a horoscope-interpreting session, care of Gracie.

Trying to play a game.

- Everyone was sick the next day (OK, almost everyone,) to no surprise. The 5 buses were tasked to visit different companies and schools as the day's main agenda. Our bus comprised of Filipinos, Lao, Malaysians, and Vietnamese, were joined by the other bus made up of the Bruneians, Cambodians, and the other Filipino delegates. We visited Maruti-Suzuki, and saw how their company produces cheap, but durable cars.

Philippine map shirt!!

Taught Vietnamese friends a short Filipino song, after teaching us one of their never-ending songs.

Thanks for my new "pet," Minh!!

Trying to balance two Vietnamese dragonflies,

Mhel/Manunudlo tries to balance both of them too.

- We had a free afternoon in the hotel, while waiting for our call time to visit the "Kingdom of Dreams." The Kingdom of Dreams is a Bollywood-themed compound that houses a theater that presents Bollywood-themed plays. Buildings were made with whimsical patterns, adorned with lights and colors. One building was a dining hall, another was a shopping "district," (that sold really expensive things) and was made to look like an Indianized "Moulin Rouge" ambiance, and the biggest building contained the theater itself. Teaser performances of folk and classical dances and music made the place alive; I was able to see a demonstration of the Kathakali, one of India's growing number of classical dances.

Betel nut store.

With Agyeeta and Ince. :D:D:D:D

Bangkok?!?!

- The Kingdom of Dreams is comparable to Bangkok's Siam Niramit, where guests can enjoy their buffet dinner before the show, go around the location to entertain and amuse themselves before the main theatrical performance. However, Siam Niramit's main theme is traditional Thai culture and art, as opposed to Kingdom of Dream's "Indian popular culture" theme. Both Siam Niramit and Kingdom of Dreams impressed me anyway.

Kathakali performer.

With Bruneian friends. :D:D:D:D

Fathin the photo bomber.

More Kathakali.

With Auji and Monica.

Phantom of the Opera??

- The show for the night was Jhumroo, a play made as a tribute to Kishore Kumar, one of classical Bollywood's big names. The story was about a boy who loved to sing, but couldn't, and was further discouraged by a fictional singing-contest judge akin to Simon Cowell. Kishore Kumar's spirit possessed the boy's body once in a while, so he could perform well, and ended up passing himself to the finals of a singing contest, where the Simon-like judge was part of, to the judge's surprise and suspicion of the boy's "talent." The judge was able to re-confirm the boy's lack of singing talent, and despite this, the boy won the singing contest. The boy mustered enough courage to tell the truth, and everyone lived happily ever after. (This is a really shortened summary of the almost three-hour Bollywood-like rom-com play.)

- We had our latest dinner in the hotel, around 10:30pm I think, and everyone ate like mad. We were instructed to rest earlier for the following day's event, and the highlight of the whole exchange program, so everyone ate faster, to have time left to freshen up, and sleep.

- In the delegation's last full day together, we attended the most-awaited Car Rally Flag Down event. As explained in Part I of this blog series, the car rally is an ASEAN-India project where 11 cars, each representing the 10 ASEAN countries + India, with drivers from these countries, are to race starting in Southeast Asia, and up North to India. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was present, of course, leaders from each of the ASEAN countries (the Philippines was represented by Vice President Jejomar Binay,) and other dignitaries. No cameras were allowed, and we were only allowed to bring ourselves, the clothes we wore, and nothing else. ASEAN-India race flags were distributed to us.

Took a photo of the National Museum.

Hurrah!!

- The main problem we experienced in the event was the lack of portable toilets, especially when 90% of the delegates needed to pee. The organizers had no choice but to make us walk a few blocks just to pee. We were warned that it would be the only time they'd bring us to pee, so everyone had to make sure that they'd "pee everything away."

- Mavreen and I got interviewed by an Indian newscaster, although I wasn't able to catch which news program the lady was from, since I was suddenly asked to sit next to Mavreen, who already started answering the lady. I just gave a short and sweet message.

- Many of the delegates had their things packed, and were ready to leave. Two groups from our delegation were to fly home, one to Guangzhou, and another to Bangkok, and then to Manila. Almost half of all the delegates flew home that evening, and we felt awkward when we heard less noise in the lobby, or in the dining hall. It was also strange that the hotel had enough seats for all of us, since the dining halls were not enough for all 210 delegates, plus CII personnel, and some people from Skarma. Most of us made the most out of the time left we had with each other, and just hung out the rest of the day, and sent off the first few batches to go home.

Mahfuza, the lost child.

My Thai friend Kaimook.

- As for the 7 Filipinos left, the Indonesians, and the Burmese, we had our last hurrah on the 22nd of December. Ms. Yani brought all of us to Ambience Mall, a small mall in the heart of Gurgaon, for an hour of shopping. We Filipinos did some quick shopping, before shopping by at McDonald's to taste how India's burgers tasted like. India's veggie burger did not seem to appeal to us, although my chicken raj burger was a winner. The buns were not firm, had too much sauce, but the burger still tasted great. The thousand-island dressing of the burger was heavily spiced, but not too overwhelming I think, and the chicken patties were just the right thickness.

Chicken raj burger.

- The early afternoon was spent packing, resting, and preparing for our late night flight to Guangzhou. We said our goodbyes to the Indonesian delegation who had almost the same flight schedule as we did. The Burmese delegation had their flights the day after, so they didn't go with us to the airport.

- Jayson, John, Joseph, Japs, Gem, Tyrone, and I had an adventure inside the Indira Gandhi airport, trying ever so hard to spend all of our remaining rupees, since Indian rupees are not allowed to be brought outside India, especially the larger bills.

The big Surya statue inside Indira Gandhi International Airport.

These guys got free henna tattoos inside the airport.

Gem and Joseph in Guangzhou.

- We flew from Delhi to Guangzhou, and slept during most of the flight to Guangzhou, and from Guangzhou to Manila. Despite the long flight, I could not help but think how fortunate I was - we all were - after being given this grand opportunity. It meant a lot to me, since I am very much attached to India, and this trip served as one giant Christmas gift from India (thank you CII!!) to me and my co-delegates from around ASEAN. It was great to have met all the people I did, although I must confess that I was not able to interact with all 210 delegates; I tried to though. This was also the first "official delegation" experience that I had, and I really enjoyed it. Too bad the National Youth Commission of the Philippines only allows people to join their programs after every two years, so other people will have chances to join and participate in programs like these. Despite all the frustrations, the tiring moments, or the sore bus-trip butts, the more than 30 "rainbowed-and-glittered" weddings and 23 people peeing on the sidewalks (we counted them as a past time in the bus,) the perfection of the Taj Mahal, Big Bazaar, and all the silly moments we had with each other indeed made everything worth the experience.


Epilogue:

- I left the airport, and met my mom and sister who were waiting for me. I sat inside our car, thinking of my comfy bed, and finally getting enough rest for myself, when all of a sudden, I was told to pack again, since we were going to Baguio the day after (24th,) until the 26th of December. I felt a bit irritated since I had enough of travelling for the moment, barely had rest, and my butt was still sore from frequent bus rides the previous two weeks.

- I was so tired I slept all the way to Baguio the next day, while snoring loudly inside the car. I was really exhausted, and became more tired in hilly and chilly Baguio. Now that I'm back in Manila, I still barely feel my supposedly "relaxing Christmas vacation," and realized that school's about to start next next Tuesday. I hope I still have time to finish all the things I need to do. Sigh.