Friday, September 15, 2006

Greetings From India

Thank you to all of the well wishes. I am doing fine here in Manipal. It's always raining here, but I don't mind since it kept the weather cold enough for me not to waste my money on air-conditioning. But it does get a bit too cold at night. Had to use two thick blankets, a pair of socks AND a sweater to keep me comfortable.

The food is good, alhamdulillah. I've been eating a lot of vegetarian foods lately. Fish is quite scarce, but I ate one two nights ago at Fish Point. It was really tasty. I still miss my sambal belacan and kangkung belacan. I get good (and cheap) laundry service and good housekeeping here. I was initially given a single room that I applied for beforehand. However, the price they quoted was a lot more expensive than the one they had included in the booklet. In the end, I shifted to a double standard room, which is a lot cheaper, and Maziah, my classmate in INTEC, becomes my roommate. The room is not luxurious, but it's good enough.

I get to meet a lot of new friends, and I instantly bonded with two girls from KMB and KTT, Hani and Najwa, respectively. We tried foods from Snack Shack, Saiba, the food court, Fish Point and various other places. They're relatively cheap as compared to Malaysia, with Fish Point being the cheapest so far. 7 of us had our dinner there, and that only amounts to Rs 127, which is roughly about RM12. Snack Shack has good food, but unfortunately, it is too loud at times. The lecturers here are very nice and helpful. My mentor, who is my "parent" here, is Dr. Maneesh. He teaches Biochemistry, and he is extremely nice and calm. My seniors (from the March batch) are also nice and friendly, and they helped us around with buying things (and bargaining), finding good food, registration with the police and things like that.

I had my first lecture yesterday on the subject of Biochemistry, where we learnt about amino acids, and then another lecture on Anatomy, in which we were introduced to the anatomical positions and movements. This morning I had my first encounter with the cadaver and we had a lecturer who showed us the basic things we should know, like nerves, veins and the likes. The time difference between here and Malaysia is about 2 and a half hours.

Unfortunately, the mosque is quite far from our hostel. Not only that, there is no allocation for women at the mosque. I do see Muslim Indians from time to time here. We have not been given a surau for our prayers, so we had to settle for prayers in the room. My friends and I are making our effort to perform as many solat jamaah as that we can afford. I reminded a male friend of mine to convey whatever they get from the mosque to us girls. Insha-Allah, when things are totally settled down and established, we would begin an usrah.

So far so good. I'm loving it here.

20 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

you sound like you've lost your cheeriness somewhat (only abit) which im sure you'll regain after several more days/weeks once you're more settled.

hope the process of settling in will continue to be a smooth one ...

4:21 PM  
Blogger Jalilah said...

It looks like you are doing more than okay. Hopefully your journey there will bring you a lot of joy and insights.
I have to say I am quite shocked that there is no allocation for places for women to pray in the mosque. I thought India has a lot of muslims but then again, shah rukh khan never practices Islam pun :-)

11:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

alhamdulillah. keep us posted!

12:38 AM  
Blogger pycnogenol said...

Guess you are still in the process of settling in but still unsettled.

I hope you feel better soon. I am sure you will as the moving stress settles down.

Good Luck!!

7:34 AM  
Blogger Jamil said...

Yes, you do sound a bit tense. Like a BBC newscaster reporting on the current affairs of Tony Blair.

Try to loosen up a bit :)

10:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Solehah,

Thanks for taking time updating and keeping us abreast of your latest ups and abouts.

Alhamdulillah that you are doing fine and loving it there. (Never mind that the guys are getting those 'tense' vibes from your entry.Notice how guys are so sensitive about such things)

p.s. Are you able to receive my sms thru that number?

1:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alhamdulillah!

It was good to be able to see you off that Friday.

Keep us posted, and I have something for you. Check your email :)

5:24 PM  
Blogger Mama Pongkey said...

Good to hear that you are fine. Takes a while to settle down properly in a new place, it took me a year really to settle down in the UK. The bad side to settling down is that you might acquire too many things that it is a hassle when you need to pack. :)
Hmm.. unfortunately in some Indo-Pak areas there are no women areas at an mosque. It is rather cultural. But think of all the barakah in your room as a result of so many people praying there: a hotspot for angels! :)

1:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sampai sampai dah kena kelentong harga bilik. i used to travel in india and the advice that was given to me, "kalau jumpa K____g dan jumpa ular, pukul K____g dulu." even then i was cheated indirectly once. ;)
be careful at least until u master ur tamil or urdu... just forget the japanese fo a while. masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang kerbau menguak. masuk selatan india menamil, masuk utara india meurdu.

selamat menyambut ramadhan.

4:46 PM  
Blogger ahnali said...

welcome to manipal~!!! *^O^* (tho i'm still at malaysia now..^^'')

hohoho.. that sounds very much like them.. welp.. they love increasing the hostel fees each year.. thats why its wayy more expensive than the price the quoted.. i always call them vampires.. wahahaha

all of the eating places sounds familiar.. huhuuuu.. guess i'll be eating there again for another 6 months.. T.T
and yeaa.. snack shack is tooo loud to my liking.. >_< altho the foods there are good.. still.. having to shout all the time is annoying.. XD

about the usrah.. they usually conduct usrah every week or once in 2 weeks.. since all of the seniors are having their holidays (except for batch 18)i guess they stop the usrah for a while..

our batch gonna come back this friday and be there on saturday.. i'll try to meet you as soon as possible and greet you properly ^^v (p/s-i'm quite a shy person at first.. hehe)
and do e-mail me your phone number.. =D

7:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

glad to hear that ur doin fine there =) and food for 7 ppl only cost u guys rm12? gawd i wanna stay there! :p

11:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

welcome to yindia my friend. when are you kambing back? call us, will send you. howw doyou find manipal? mr samy used to visit manipal. ok...good study. thank you

9:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

vel..vel..vel...good to hear you settle down vel.
By de vay, take care of your tummy. If you get 'cirit birit' on those curry, you're gonna miss your mummy.

9:23 AM  
Blogger Arifah said...

Sol, hope you're doing well there. Keep us posted! Take care. =D

7:23 PM  
Blogger ayumi said...

Salaam everyone..

Hahaha.. suddenly I get a lot of these "you're too tense" comments. Sorry everyone. Didn't mean to sound like that. Rest assured, I'm not tense. I'm doing really okay, and I like this place. I wrote in that manner probably because I was rushing due to the short time. I promise to write in a more cheery manner next time.. whenever I'm free, that is.

Ramadhan al-Mubarak everyone ;)

8:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

happy ramadhan.

and hope you will succeed in your upcomings.

9:25 AM  
Blogger Syazwan Rosli said...

Happy Ramadhan!

11:28 AM  
Blogger pycnogenol said...

Busy Ayumi?
Take a breather this Aidil Fitri.
Selamat Hari Raya from Bea and me,
And the rest of the family. ;)

3:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Selamat Hari Raya yang pertama di perantauan. May Allah give you strength and Guidance.

3:01 AM  
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3:34 PM  

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