Moments

It is not Onam season now! But getting close to a year in Penang, I am reminded of our first Mallu get together in Penang. No it was not Onam celebration. It was in fact the Expats Mallu group's Vishu celebration. A nice gentleman, Shajil chettan, introduced himself to us at Sunshine supermarket and told us about the Expats group and invited us for the celebrations. It was a first-of-its-kind for us. No membership fees, no "pirivu", no charges for self and invitees for organizing such an event! The venue was a Chinese school, near the Penang airport. It was pretty close to our place and we were there pretty much on time. As crowd trickled in, we walked around meeting new faces, exchanging pleasantries, knowing about their backgrounds. We found that there were folks who were in Penang for the past 35 years! And this was not the real Kerala Samajam. The North Malaysia Malayalee Samajam is a registered organization with members who are actually Malaysians - born and bro

05-10-2015 Dad and mom took me to a place called Apple Kids last week. I was super excited in the morning, seeing my new bag, water bottle, lunch box etc. I had been revising whole night about all these things that I would take to school. I got up early - well I should say earlier than usual, got ready without any fuss. Yippeeeee.. I am going to school. That was my reaction when I said good bye to mom and accompanied dad to the parking downstairs. On the way to school on my dad's scooter, the excitement level was slowly going down. I dont know why but I started feeling sad. The thought of being in a new place without my parents around. May be it is the strangers with whom I dont know what to talk. I know there is a play area there in school and it should be fun. Oh God! I am unable to control myself. As we turned the corner and my school came in sight, my eyes burst and tears started rolling down. A smiley to a criley!!! Kavitha teacher, my class teacher, who would soon b

RM 119 per person Penang to Singapore non stop flight!!! That too in the Chinese new year weekend, an extra long weekend this year! Cheap flight tickets is so luring. I wonder whether the airlines get some kickback from the city administration/government when they carry passengers on discounted tickets. After all these airlines play their part in promoting tourism, especially in a place like Singapore. But the trick about cheap flights is they will always be on days that you may not like. For us, it was for arriving late Thursday night in Singapore and leaving Tuesday early morning. It means two extra nights stay. Nevertheless we decided to take it as we would get to spend 4 full days. Next is visa. Unfortunately, Indians do not have visa on arrival in Singapore. Moreover, there are only 3 authorized agents, all in KL, who can submit visa application in Malaysia. Local agents in Penang charge RM 100 per application as processing charges for just collecting the documents and co