Govindas @ Thailand

GOVINDAS AT THAILAND

by

Murali Murthy

A celebration to remember, a trip to cherish. It was our good friend Srinidhi's 50th Birthday and it had to be celebrated in style.

It was his long time wish to take us all to Thailand and celebrate his Birthday with his favourite people. The doer that he is, put his wish to action and booked flights and a Resort in Pattaya, Thailand.

The excitement of a full scale Govindas trip and a grand celebration awaiting, we all were charged up, and eager to reach Thailand soon.

Maybe our excitement had to be tamed a bit, and many in the group felt "Kisi ki Nazar lag gaya", and the Flight got cancelled due to a technical snag! It was such a disappointing and sad feeling...the drive back home after a long night at Bangalore Airport was painful and with dejected feelings.

Preeti was even like "how can this happen to us"!

Once back home, we gathered ourselves back and started exploring options to move the schedule to next day on the same flight.

It was a Deja vu moment as the entire evening played out again...we getting ready, Goodbyes at home, booking cab to Airport, reach Airport, Security check, Immigration, boarding...the entire process was a strange feeling as if we were stuck in time!

The Flight eventually took off as we were anxious till that time.

And here we were, in Bangkok!

We started out by freshening up and some quick breakfast at Suvarnabhumi Airport, before we headed out to our Day 1 activities that included Emerald Budha and Grand Palace visits.

Though the place was beautiful and we were tirelessly clicking away pictures, since we had 2 sleepless nights, we all were tired.

We managed to end the visit and started our journey towards Ravindra Beach Resort, Pattaya.

We checked in, and quickly assembled back at the Resort's restaurant for Lunch.

After a quick walk on the Beach, we rested for a while..in the evening, we headed out to the Alcazar Show.

It was a dazzling display of dance, showmanship, lights and Sets.

We later headed for Dinner at Beer Hubb. They served some good Indian dishes, which added the "happiness" to our celebrations and made the party more delightful.

Day 2

The agenda for the first half was "The Sanctuary of Truth", supposedly a museum to showcase Thai art built entirely on Wood. It's again a visual spectacle.

We then headed to the Floating Market, a shopper's paradise. The ladies had a good time, shopping away endlessly.

Malgudi Restaurant inside the Floating Market was supposed to be an Indian Restaurant, but did not taste anything Indian, still we were ok to get some Veg items to eat.

We returned back to the Resort, slept well. At a coffee shop in the evening, we launched our Coffee Book table to mark 25 years of our friendship.

Later in the night, went to explore Pattaya's famous night life.

No doubt it is colourful, a unique experience, uncomfortable sometimes, exciting a few other times.

After exploring the Walking Street, we settled down at Boss club for the party scene.

We hopped for a quick visit to a Russian dance club to get another unique experience.

Though it is entertainment at that moment, it feels sad and depressing to see girls shredding self respect and making themselves an object. I understand it's a profession and it's their livelihood, but somewhere it hurts!

Day 3

Since we ended the Walking Street visit early in the morning, we couldn't start the day early. We did some last minute changes to our plans, cancelled our Nong Nooch visit and instead chose to spend some relaxing time at the Resort for the first half.

Some of us chose to spend time at the pool, while the ladies went to the Spa.

We then headed to the highlight of the trip - Yacht ride!

It was yet another unique, exquisite, elitist experience in the waiting.

A 5 hour ride on a Private Yacht was a dreamy affair, food and drink well stocked in the Yacht. We danced, we celebrated, we laughed, we played in the water. But the last segment of the ride back, with some nice romantic songs, sleeping on the Yacht's nose, with the Sun setting in the background were not only picture perfect, but we truly experienced some magical moments.

Back to resort, we explored couple of options to settle down for Dinner, eventually chose Bacco Beach Restaurant, to have some relaxing, calm Dinner by the beach.

Day 4

The last day of the trip, we had to checkout from the Resort at Pattaya..we drove towards Bangkok and stopped at Tiger Topia, to interact with the wild animal that is atleast 6 times more powerful than we humans!

Similar to the experience at the Walking street, it was entertaining at that moment to touch, feel and pose for cameras with the Tigers, it felt bad somewhere that such a wild, ferocious animal was lying helpless, surely drugged and tortured!

The last agenda of the trip was the Chatuchak Market. Since it's a weekend Market, that operates after 06:00 PM, many shops were yet to open. We managed to do some shopping at the JJ Mall nearby, and since we were also running late, we rushed back to Suvarnabhumi Airport, to end our Trip.

It was just a fantastic trip, we partied hard, we celebrated hard, and more than anything, it's etched as a landmark Trip in golden words and created a wonderful memory.

Long Live this group - Govindas! We yearn for many more such good memories to be created!

All thanks to Neena (Mini and Jone Hospitality) and her supplier Hema (DASH group) in Thailand, who were as usual fantastic. Hema was absolutely brilliant and took care of all our requirements and constantly coordinating, making arrangements, ensuring everything went smooth! Kudos to their dedication.

Fee Thoughts - 7

Hoarding

The emotional attachment we have on things, on material we possess, we dream to own, is natural...we see, we feel, we experience things around us. Even as per Philosophers - "Pramana" (experience) is enough justification to believe it's real, and if something is real, we are bound by attachment.

The contradictory view of Philosophers is to detach from reality what we feel and experience, but go towards something superficial, imaginary.

I also contradict my own views as I find it funny and unnecessary when people are emotional, attached and possessive about Home, building bigger houses. I was actually laughing when my mom and wife cried when we moved to a newer home years ago, I was like "it's just building"

The catch there was not the attachment towards the building, but the years spent in the building, memories created that they had to part with.

A middle class family's trait is to stack up the most trivial item like a plastic cover "don't know when we might need it".

My wife has this OCD to organize things, at the same time she can't discard anything. She is attached to every single dress, ornament, purse, footwear and keeps hoarding everything...she just can't let go and finds it joyful to look for things in the heap of "organized stack".

Is this a simple case of emotional attachment to everything she owns and possesses? Or is it a Psychological condition?

Pretending

Our views, our impressions, our perspectives are never Binary, it's never either "I like you" or "I don't like you".

I would say it's Abstract Binary views that we cling to....beyond "I like you" or "I don't like you", there are two more "I pretend I like you", "I pretend I don't like you".

The pretention need not be intentional, it's just the state of confusion that forces us to pretend we like something, which is better than disliking something.

I am afraid I might fall in the third quadrant when it comes to Belief systems and God. Do I pretend that I know God & believe in God?

Our ancestors were way too intelligent, they knew we humans needed to be controlled, because we are capable to do anything at our whims and fancies. When we do not follow rules, law, Govt, there had to be something projected to be beyond and above, something that is incomprehensible.

The idea of God could just be a set of rules, morality, knowledge that could possibly keep humanity sane and in control!

Don't Agree but I like your views

A friend of mine said she enjoys reading my write-ups and finds my views interesting, however doesn't agree with most of my perspectives.

This I thought was contradictory, how can you like something that you don't agree on!?

For Ex: I was reading about Taoism, and I didn't find the philosophy making much sense, as it just talks about disconnecting from the world, leading a life with no ambition or aspiration, so I stopped reading it as I didn't like it. I don't appreciate any philosophy that preaches us to disconnect from the real world we live in, but to aim for an imaginary world, be it liberation, heaven or jannath.

Not that I express my views, I write my thoughts for people to appreciate or like, but just doing the job of introspecting, questioning as a Seeker.

But her approach is also inspirational. Despite not liking a viewpoint, she appreciates other's perspectives, and she says her beliefs are strong enough not to be influenced by other's perspectives!

It's re-established again and again as I dig more, that truth is perspective based and there's no absolute reality or absolute truth, it's just my truth.

For Ex: People don't agree if I say "Jahnvi Kapoor is beautiful", but they will be ok if I say "I find Jahnvi Kapoor beautiful".

The Happiness Index

The new Indian Happiness Index Report has put torch lights on States where a large population are generally found happy.

The top list of states with "High" happiness is crowded with 10 Indian States, which is amazing.

And these top 10 Happy States include: H.P, Mizoram, A&N, Punjab, Gujarat, Sikkim, Pondy, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya.

The most common factor amongst these States is People's proximity to Nature (Beaches/Mountains/Forests).

As per the survey, people are leading a happy life who are close to nature, states blessed with serenity all around, States that are buzzing with Tourism, States that are rich in culture and celebrations. People in such states feel they have more meaningful people-to-people connection.

A glaring evidence and reason for us to go back to the roots!

My Frustrations - 3

Puppet instruments of democracy

The pathetic state of the Roads that I travel everyday remains the same from last 20 years, and last 20 years has seen all three major parties forming Govts - This is to establish and rule out that any Political Party would make any difference to City's infrastructure.

Now on the Govt's proposal to make changes to the Municipality which they think will be better, is vehemently opposed by citizens and opposition. Not sure what the citizen's expectations are - be it one Board or multiple boards, it's the same people, same system and same inefficiencies. What worse can happen? The roads, water logging, traffic, Dev works will remain same!?

Atleast the Govt is thinking! They are "trying" ways out...beyond that, none of us have any hope!

A Law was proposed, passed in both the houses, opposition did not have numbers to stop it, so they took the backdoor route and asked the Puppet Governer to stop it.

Unlike in the Center, where there is no one to question and Laws are being made at whims and fancies, and cases of Farm Laws is still not a lesson!

Desperate American Dream

A loosely knit 28 sub nations together, is bound to be filled with chaos, yet we are born here and we have to play our role in keeping the country going, with all it's flaws and impropriety.

Though most of us pour out our frustrations about politics, infra, value for life, dishonesty and I myself vomiting my frustrations in every single writeup, do we even think running away from the country is the solution?

What Trump might be doing could be with a good intent, but the audacity and offensive way in which he is rejecting all other countries and their people, is shocking. Yet, I don't understand the desperation of people to forcefit themselves in US, shunning their own country and their own people, to live an American Dream!!

The rest of the world has to now learn and adapt to survive and sustain without depending on US. It's like a past relationship, no point clinging on when we are abused, humiliated in the relation.... it will be difficult, we will sulk, but let's move on!

Why should US reject, let us all other countries isolate that one country, and rest of the world can continue with international trade cooperation.

Fading US hold

Hope the thinktank has started to realize a world without America, and the world's dependency on America for acceptance, approval, advice, jobs, technology, economy, aid, trade and business.

Once we realize this, the next step is to see what can we do to be self reliant.

Unfortunately, India has seen an influx of Startups just building Apps to deliver, deliver fast, eat, sleep, breathe, shit. We need to start building real Technology that can solve real world problems.

The present startup ecosystem also cannot be blamed, since they were only matching the demand, where these MNCs were paying vulgar, insane, unjustified salaries to the Employees.

And since everyone had money at hand, the spend, convenience and comfort were the focus areas. Though these Startups did generate a lot of Jobs for unskilled labour, it again doubled the traffic problem.

A friend working in an MNC said interns were being offered a package of 16 Lakhs, it's just hysterical!

Now that the economy will slow down, exports will cease, salaries could be normalised, demand for convenience slows down, let's focus on building real Tech, good products that can make our country more strong and self reliant, especially FinTech, AgriTech, MedTech

Politicians and Diapers should be changed frequently - Part 8

No asker, No teller

Every budget, every announcement is only getting scarier every year.

With "No asker, No teller" state of this dispensation, that has reached such a peak, that it no more can hear or feel pains of the common man and businesses.

Even the Chief Economist Advisor's advice to our Meme fest queen was "Get out of the way" of businesses.

Support, help, relief is the last thing Businesses and Middle class expect from this Govt.

Just let us be! Stop using your goons (Dept officials) to harass Businesses. Just take the tax we pay for what we earn and when we spend, and do whatever you want, just do not trouble us!

Sabka Harrass

Am only glad that she will stop being a meme material, atleast over the next one year.

Much needed respite for the middle class, after being the scapegoat for every successive Govts, as we became an easy source to raise funds.

It's unfair that 18% of Govt funds are raised with 6% income tax payers.

While many retailers, shops, farmers enjoy tax free earnings, which none of the Govts have cracked a code to collect tax from them, instead of burdening the same handful of bakras.

Though this is yet another budget where MSME, Startups are mentioned for the sake of it, none of these funds / loans are accessible by businesses, as most of the times it's given to "favourites" of the officials/ministers.

Before we get excited about the Income tax cut, we have to wonder how else the Govt will get revenue!

While the Budget speech was still going on, the goons (Dept officials) started calling us, serving notices to collect some old GST interest dues. The Govt is hoping to increase collections via GST and I know how it's collected! Not sure about sabka vikaas, prayaas, but it's surely sabka Harass!

The Tax War

The Tax War that these supposedly leaders wage on the citizens, is sadly the new kick they get of reaching orgasmic levels of Power.

Be it Sidhu, Trump or Modi, Taxing citizens seems to be the easy way out. The Former atleast has an agenda and purpose. If one raises every possible tax to serve his selfish ego and vehemency in fulfilling his freebie promise.

While the other's bad economics has some good intent to slow down import and encourage self reliance to boost Jobs. One economist said "There's so much wrong with this approach that it's hard to know where to start". No country should discourage imports, as there is an established international trade and economic principles.

Only God or the Godly person himself should know why the Latter increases the tax burden and what purpose is it serving!

Who governs who

It's a "Nuclear missile against Democracy", if the Courts direct the President to do their Job or stall a Law passed by the Central Govt.

It is absolutely fine if the Governer stalls/rejects a Law passed by the State Govt.

If Courts cannot be the Super Parliament, can Governers be the Super Parliament?