)Around 1 and a half weeks ago, 18th November or so, my father, mother, two cousins and two good friends came down to Singapore on vacation. My parent's main objectives were to get our current situation somewhat settled, while my cousins and friends was sight-seeing. On the 20th the entire lot of us went out on vacation to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we stayed with my uncle for 2 days. They went shopping, whilst the rest of us enjoyed ourselves nicely )and where I picked up a stick of 512Mb DDR
). One of hte days we went to the extreme park nearby, which was still under construction. However, they did have Go karting and ATV rides available. I went go-karting, while my relatives enjoyed the ATV rides a lot
. one thing to note was that there was a shooting of Fear Factor: Maylasia going on at the time, so that was pretty thrilling to see as well (the stunt was quite ok - lady taken up to large heights and supended on a beam, has to go get the flag on the other side and come back, 4 trips total). But generally being the TV purist that I am, I was cursing the stupid program all the way for ruining TV with it's disgusting eating rituals Ill get some pictures of that up on satuday or sunday.
Oh, thats the other thing I forgot to mention. My father got me a new phone from India to the replace the one I had (despite my arguments against the matter). I was (and still am) holding onto a Seimens M55, that's being held together mostly by lots of scotch tape. He brought me a Samsung phone - not sure which model it is exactly, but it has a camera built in, so I was clicking away throughout the trip with the phone
Overall, the two days were pretty fun, but it soon became better. The next two days we went to Genting, a hill station nearby. Its a regular tourist spot, with people going for the Casino (no, we didnt go) and the theme park rides there. I became camera man for a day as everyone except me went on the roller coasters and other insanely extreme rides. I didn't mind though - I loved the weather, and the fact that I didnt have to worry much about sweat or rashes all that much anymore. We were staying in the first world hotel. The rooms were small, but practical - not to mention dirt cheap. They were pretty darn good for the price we paid. Another cousin joined us on the trip from here onwards. He was reaching the end of his service in the army, just like I had a few months before, and was clearing leave and off, so he decided to join us as well.
Some things to note: taking the sky-way up to Genting is simply fabulous! Although at first it seems like an ordinary cable-car arrangement, as you go up the fog nad the clouds blcok out any view past a few meters. Its incredible, to say the least! Between the cable towers, when teh cable just disappears into the fog on either end, and you cant see anything below either - you feel like your literally taking a cab up to heaven! I have pictures of this as well, which ill post once I can figure out how to transfer em
The only major thing I did was go for Go-karting on the first day, and then also go for the extreme show that was on. It was a fantastic show, that! Although some acts were downright dumb, others were thrilling and exciting! I managed to snap a picture of one of them before being warned by the security guy that pictures weren't allowed. However, in the middle of the show, my parents recieved an urgent phone call and left for the hotel room....although I didn't know it at hte time, my vacation would start going downhill from there.
Later that night we slept at 2 AM, after my cousin thought us how to play a game of Dosari (card game) and then bugging me continously about his ORD (operational release date for non-singaporeans) for over an hour. It was hilarious and heck of a lot of fun, to say the least.
The weather was nice and chilly that night, just the way I like it. I slept like a log all the way. Dunno why the others were freezing so much - perhaps having too many layers of fat must have given me an advantage in this case
The next morning the plans were simple - we roamed around a bit, here and there. There was a indoor sky-diving training complex (you know the one with the wind tunnel) where we tried to go. unfortunately, they said we had to untie our turbans to get in. My cousins and brother agreed to this (well, the girls didnt have to) and went for it. Unfortunately, unlike them it takes a half hour for me to tie back mine on, so I refused. Instead, I went up and got the bags down to the reception hall, as we had to check-out by 12PM. I ended up sitting in the hall, baby-sitting over a dozen bags for almost an hour before anyone came back. It was a long wait, but I was patient. However, there was something...off....something wrong, I couldn't quite place it. Just a feeling of uncomfortableness, some slight depression - as if something was missing...but I blamed it on possibly thin air and the altitude and pushed it to one side.
After this, we all went for another thrilling ride down the sky-way. It marked the beggining of the end of the trip for us, but unfortunately, it would be just about the last thing we'd enjoy on the trip.
When we reached the ground, we missed the bus back to KL, with the next alternative being over 3 hours later. Rather than wait, we took two cabs back, costing a rather hefty amount (150 Ringgit total), but in the long run saving us a lot of trouble. The girls all went straight to the shopping centre, dragging my cousins along mercilessly. For my cousin sis, it was her first time in KL, while both my friends had never been out of India before. Rather than just complain, I volunteered to take all the bags back to my uncle's place. I was once again babystitting all of them again - and I nearly lost one too! Fortunately, the taxi driver that took me back was a good person, and kindly returned it the flat where he had dropped me. it was the bag with my cousin's wallet and camera, and both returned intact. I silently thanked god for still having kind and honest people around - such a thing would have never been possible in Singapore.
However, that was the least of our worries.
When my parents returned, I finally heard the news.
The phone call that my parents had recieved in the first night was from Hyderabad. My grandfather had suffered another stroke. They said it was not as bad as the previous one, and that his condition was stable, which was some relief at the least. But it was still bad news. What was worse however, was the fact that my parents kept it from me! They didnt tell a soul because my aunt didnt want her daughter to hear it, and I had to hear it second hand from elsewhere. My parents did the same thing once my dog had died, at which point I made them promise not to do such a thing again, and yet they did! There are somethings you keep from your son, granted, but not the goddamn fate of your grandfather!
I dont care who you are, or where you are from - keeping a secret on one's parents is one thing, but one's grandparents is another! Grandparents are one of the most sacred things on the planet, and especially mine. He already suffered once from a stroke, not more than a year before, and became half-paralyzed. He was making progress, being finally able to speak clearly and legibly again, when bam another one comes and hits him, wiping out the progress he's made in the past year or so, essentially throwing a double tragedy at us. How dare! How dare they withhold such information!
This was not only one of the kindest persons I knew, but one of hte greatest as well! He lived through the India-pakistan split when he was just a boy, raised an entire family, built one of the best home I have known, still loved all his sons even though some of them clearly abandoned him and this is how life repays him?
If it's not sad enough, though, the other news was even more heart-breaking. My uncle paid for an expensive medicine that helped to bring down the swelling (I think thats what it was) and relieve the stroke a bit, but all the while he was arguing with them not to give him the medication. From what my parents told me, it seems my Grandfather doesn't want to go through all that again.
Its depressing, to say the least. It put a big gloom to the end of the vacation. On the train trip back to Singapore, my cousin-sister broke down; hell, I was almost at hte edge myself. My parents had to calm her down as much as possible, pointing out tehre was nothing they could do now - we already had the earliest tickets booked, and there was no way we could get there sooner.
The mood was rather ominous for the rest of the trip back. My cousins and fiends spent another day in Singapore before taking their flight back. My father and mother then left the next day. I've been calling them up everyday to check up on my grandfather, and I'll be getting me and my brother's Visas done this week, in case we have to head back should the situation turn for the worse, which I sincerely pray it doesn't.
And since then, its been going even more down. On monday, I finally managed to land a job at my uncle's place. Its not bad - rather easy, mostly just data entry. But since its my first few days, they dont have that much work to give me yet, leaving me to sit for hours at a time with nothing to do. Its agonizing, to say the least. Every moment im stuck sitting there, my thoughts roam back to my grandfather...out of fustration, I spent 3 hours yesterday phoning up all my old army buddies, just so that I could have someone to talk to and not have to spend all the time by myself. Worse still, I appear to have hit an emotional low recently, not connected to my grandfather. Its been lurking around here and there and I could feel it to an extent, but the Genting trip made it disappear and restored my spirits.
But after the news....well, guess it found the perfect time to pounce at me. The past few days have been very depressive....for some strange reason, I seem to lack purpose....to lack direction of any sort. Everytime I leave home to work, everyime I come back....its like im dragging my legs everywhere, that the reason for moving them has left, leaving only an empty shell behind. It is only inertia that carries me forward, that leaves me breathing and that keeps my heart beating.
I do have a purpose, in a sense. A few specific purposes, actually, that keeps me from killing myself at this point of time. While my sense has no reason to remain here, it cannot deny the existance or memory of the creations before going, or the wishes and plans of my parents for that matter.
So yeah, roughly, I had a good time. Good times went to bad, and now im a zombified paid worker that cant do anything for nuts. >_<
