Beach wedding

Before I got here, one of the things on my list of to-see was a beach wedding. I missed one because I was so tired and sleepy. The second one I kept a close watch so I could be there and hop around like an excited tourist.

Hop around I did, with my camera I was all over the place. I can see by the puzzled frown on your face that you are wondering, where on earth are the pictures then? Soon, soon, my photo deprived reader.

It was a super small gathering, very unlike our Indian wedding troops which are gathered months before the date. This party included a few members of the staff who helped setup the cake and champagne, the flower girl, musicians, the organisers, photographer, the stars of the show and of course yours truly.

The bride looked absolutely stunning, she had blue eyes and a beautiful lace patterned gown. She had a heart shaped cut at the back which was strung with pearls like a curtain. The groom had a more casual outfit, he stopped at waitcoast. It was too warm for a blazer anyway. They were absolutely adorable. They could not get enough of each others, like little love birds their eyes and lips hardly left each other. I think I teared up.

At that moment it was so much to take in, the beauty, the awesomeness of having a beach wedding and the confusing emotions that tumbled out when I thought about how it was just the two of them present. This made me wonder if they had already gotten married and this was just sort of a dream for them. I suspect not but I didn't ask them. Instead I took a picture and left them to enjoy their wedding day.

They were a combination of embarrassed and awkward but at the same time thrilled by the big event that just happened in their lives. Meanwhile upstairs I was thinking at the end of the day at a wedding all one needs is the bride and the groom and someone to unite them. Materially speaking it is just a custom, a rite, something to make it official. Everyone else can only watch, their contribution is minimal when it comes to the wedding, the union between two people.

I still don't know if they already had a wedding before or not. I am happier conjuring back stories in my head about the truth. What I do know is that I am totally having a beach wedding, at sunset.

Ticket to Bollywood

Indians and Bollywood synonymous terms! Before begin on this, let me start with some funny ways people have asked me about my nationality.. 

#"You are from India so you can speak Indian right?"
#"Hey..can you do the Indian dance?"
#"So sing us a Bollywood song!"
#" Hey. Slumdog millionaire! Jai ho! (paired with the bicep pumping dance move they do in the video)

None of this offends me in the least bit, it shouldn't offend you either. I find it absolutely adorable when connections like these are made. So everybody from everywhere has watched at-least one Bollywood movie in their life, even if it's Danny Boyle's Jai Ho (I will reserve my comments on this matter. For now!).

"I love Bollywood movies, they have so many twists! So unexpected,  suddenly he has a twin or he is somebody's brother or he is reborn! So much more exciting to watch than English films!", one Philipino friend told me with glee on her face when she discovered details on my homeland. This by far is my favourite reaction.

I even met a few people who can sing some wonderful Hindi songs from the 90s, some can go further behind. It's jaw dropping how they nail the lyrics. Often when I walk by someone breaks out into a dramatic Hindi song from my parent's era.

Next very interesting question for you, how did they learn Hindi?
Wait for it... They didn't!
Nobody taught them the language, they just picked it up by watching Hindi movies and soap operas. So often they can quote some very old and classic Hindi dialogues out of the blue.

Not just the Maldivians, even people from other parts of the world absolutely love it. One time, the only time I felt sad when someone casually asked if I had any Bollywood movies on my laptop and after much thought and sorrow I had to say no. *sigh*. It made me do a double take and think about all the times I was told you know my roots, embrace them and be proud of them. Funny back home we are so busy trying to learn about other cultures we forget about ours. It becomes mundane, stops fascinating us. 

However I understand the pressures of being a citizen of a metropolitan city; we are constantly moving back and forth culturally. One step forward with technology and then trying to re-live and re-create the past using art. In my defense over the last few months I have began to give special attention to culture back home, small things like how we eat, interact, communicate and other small things. While I am here, it makes me think about them over and over from a fresh perspective. Small things that makes us India. 

Besides the skin color, which is a dead give-away, the dark hair, sometimes the accent, the demanding nature, tendency to ambiguously nod our heads, dark eyes, at times an accent.... All of these things make us part of one country. I don't mean to get patriotic and poignant here so that is that.

Meanwhile you over there enjoy your ticket to Bollywood which is so easily available to you. For so many others it is the only glimpse into our culture. So actively participate to promote, develop and effect it so people around can get as accurate an image as possible. 

On solo travelling

I spoke of solo travelling in my earlier posts but didn't quite get into the details. Solo travelling unlike family and large group of friend expeditions is quite a holiday adventure. This can be quite exciting and sad souding at the same time.

Solo traveling allows your to be a lot more flexible and free in comparison to group travel. For instance there is no need to take democratic decisions about where to go, what to eat, when to eat, how long to spend where and you know what I mean. You can take spontaneous decision and just go with it. Also you have nobody but yourself to look out of. I had great fun buying a gigantic bar of chocolate all for myself and just taking spur of the moment decisions about what I feel like doing tonight.

On the not so sunny side it takes copius amounts of  mental strength to embark on such a journey. Mental strength to fight homesickness, feelings of loneliness and sometimes physical consequences. If you are like me and dream of travel all the time homesickness is an easy battle. The other two you need to be your greatest supporter; me,myself and I need to help you stay upbeat and fight the urge to be a big baby and cry or some such emotional exercise.

So if you are the kind who gets bogged down easily, needs to be taken care of and are very demanding..um..you need to rethink some things. I found that all this is good in theory but once I crossed the security check into the airport and said goodbye to familiar people it hit me like cold air conditioning.

I spent hours with no one to talk to and found it difficult to stay jumpy all the time. I was so relieved when my friend came to pick me up. So you see normally when you make trips you have like family, family or even just friend but I didn't. Okay I did but geographically no (she is on another island and me on another). So I am living in a new environment with new people, new experiences and working in a new industry. It's all very new and novel for me and also a teeny tiny bit daunting.

This is why I speak of mental strength to hold on to and bank upon. Not only does it make you stronger and more independent but helps you define yourself better. For instance when someone asks you 'tell me something about youself' and you are mentally going through some archives frantically to say something sensible. When you solo travel, everything becomes significant - how you like your coffee, what is the first thing you do in the morning, how do you conduct yourself, what you need at a certain point and so on. This is because no one but you can and will make these decisions. The more often you make them, especially in unfamiliar environments (which means it's less influenced by the people around you,  in a way), the more comfortable you become with who you are.

An analogy for you. Imagine that feeling when you scale a cliff and you are standing atop looking at the sea below. Now at first you may worry about what if I fall and will it be the end. Slowly you will smile as you remind yourself you can swim and you can see a spot where you can get on land and find your way back.

That is solo travelling. That journey, that reassurance and knowledge that everything will be okay because you can handle it. Once you have conquered that in a fraction of a few seconds you will start to enjoy the view of standing atop this cliff. It will began to seep into you, the beauty and magic of the moment.

Monsoon is here

Monsoon for any holiday destination, especial a beach holiday destination is bad news. It entails low season and no business and the few guests who do stay here always make it a point to give you disappointed looks and ask you things like 'where is the sun, man?'.

On the bright side for employees this means they can go on a vacation to visit family. They can also (wait for it) request a temporary transfer to work on one of the sister resort islands.

Resort or no resort, the monsoon is my favourite season of the year. I feel happiest when I can feel cool breeze and look at rain droplets soak the trees and flowers around me. It washes everything away like forgiveness and makes everyone the same- wet and clean-equal. It's makes them a new person, fresh like after a bath or a dip in the ocean.

Unlike most holidaymaker, for me rain on an island is just perfect. It's always a pleasant surprise I welcome with joy not disdain. It allows you to see the skies and it's many shades. The lack of skyscrapers gives you full access to the clouds, birds and tree tops.

One of the quirkiest and more fun things about being here is, you can enjoy the rain in your summer clothes (bikini, flip flops, flowery shorts, crop tops and anything but sweaters and jackets) here because anything else would be just wrong. Imagine the blue ocean, the clean white sand looking, the sun loungers and the all ready for sun anytime atmosphere and imagine wearing sweaters, plastic raincoats and thick scarves and big rain boots in such a scenario. If you cannot, just like I cannot (the horror!), my work here is done.

5 things you should do before coming to the Maldives

1. Learn how to swim! 

It's the ocean on all four side, you cannot come all the way here just to spend time on the sand. You miss out on more than half the joy of coming to the seaside (i.e. snorkeling, scuba diving, night snorkeling, windsurfing, kayaking... just swimming in the sea.) 

2. Shop for clothes in light colors, cotton material and make sure nothing falls below your knees. 

I assure you pants are a total pain here. Its WAY to hot for full sleeves and jeans. After a point you will want it all off!

3. Work out. 

Not just so you look smokin' in your beach wear, but also so that you have the strength and energy to be up and about in the hot sun. You will need the strength when you are exploring the ocean and talking (what will seem at first) leisurely strolls on the sand. 

4. Keep your hair short. 

Humidity and constant sea dips can make hair wash exhausting and half way through the day, you just end up putting it all in a bun. Anything to get the breeze on your skin!

5. Carry lots of soap and lotions 

because you will need several showers a day! 

*this post is subject to being edited and extended. 

Life under water

One of the biggest attractions of this region is not just life on an island but also the water surrounding the land and all the life in it.

At first seeing such clear and blue water seems surreal. Over time turquoise, navy blue, royal blue, sea green, sky blue, deep blue become your favourite colors. In fact you begin to find some sort of comfort in them as you take a walk on the shore. As you listen to the waves crash. As you catch a peek of a dolphin or other fish that jump. If you are fortunate you even get to see some sharks.

This experience I speak of occurs from staying simply on the land.
What happens when you venture into the ocean?

At first it's a bit scary to just go into the sea, because unlike a swimming pool you cannot see the other end. You can however judge depth based on the shade of blue.

So you begin with baby steps, keep walking until you can feel sand beneath your feet.... and then what?

Then you swim. If not let go, suppress the momentary urge to run back to the shore, to run back to safety and steady ground. Just float. 

Once I established a sense of comfort with the sea I decided to take on a new challenge: snorkel.

Hire some goggles, a tube to breathe through, some flippers and jump from the deep end and work towards the shore..this is in reverse to the actions performed before (from deep waters to steady ground).

Saltwater in your eyes, panic, salt water up your nose, a feeling that you are going to drown(even though you can swim), all that aside. It is beautiful to be able to open your eyes and look at the creatures under the sea.

Finding Nemo is just a teaser. Nothing in comparison. The blue all around you, schools of fish in oranges, blues, neons, yellows and reds. Turtles swimming with fish. There is a different kind of calm under water. A more quiet one that drowns out noise that comes from your head. Like a lullaby or a pleasant dream you don't want to wake up from.

A Language to Call My Own

By birth Hindi and Malayalam would be my language. However a series of events have made it more complicated than that. Since Hindi is my mother tongue, my father instilled this practice of speaking only in Hindi at home so that the language does not become foreign to us. On matters of Malayalam, well right now only my grandmother has the patience to listen to me speak broken Malayalam. Doesn't sound complicated?

So I grew up in a Metropolitan city, attended schools that taught in English, a British legacy. As I grew up I took to reading in English..result: English is the language I think in, I breathe in and I can swim in it. Sometime in school I did French, but it didn't stick in my head. Much later I took Spanish. In my city I learnt the local languages while communicating with the auto-walas and my maids. You see what has happened here...

Why this little history lesson? In Kuredu English has sort of alienated me. There is no one here to converse in Hindi, for the first time I feel sad that I cannot speak a language of my own. Something deep in my roots, so close to me by legacy, by blood, a heritage. Instead I have inherited a foreign language. It has a beauty of its own but....

However on the flip side, all is not lost. I am so thrilled because over here we have staff from over 17 countries. So we have Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans (which is what people initially think I am!), Mauritian (my favorite) German, Chinese, Philipino, Scottish, British, French,Russians.... and so many others including Maldivians themselves. This was one of the first things that got me really really excited. 

So far I know [Pardone the mis-spellings] Guten Morgan, Guten Arben, Chus, Petiche (German), Moya,  Doh! and Lobby which mean crazy, right (like you use in colloquial conversation not the direction) and lover(respectively) in Divehi (the Maldivian langauge), Privet! and Lipka (Hello and sticky in Russian), I can do a hello! How are you? conversation in French and some bad word in Mauritian which I don't know the meaning of yet so more on that later. 

An ever expanding vocabulary which I try to revise often so I won't forget. So many times I just stand and listen in awe to conversations in foreign languages. For instance:

One night, I was at the bar with some French guests, a fellow French speaking island host conversed fluently while I just listened to the exchange and smiled. I didn't understand everything but I caught the essence. No one translated for me, I just tried to use my knowledge of language. Didn't really help.

Sometimes at dinner I hear my Russian friends discuss their day with each other. Or listen to a German conversation between a guest and island host. Other times the Maldivians talk to each other. Or Mauritians do a rapid fire exchange in Creole or a Chinese conversation with all its intonations. I do not understand a word but over time I try to find patterns and have developed this habit of trying to read facial expressions and body language. Honestly its great fun. Hard work. But so fun. It makes me smile like a lunatic when I understand something without a translation. Of course I double check before I celebrate! 

What I love most about this experience is that no matter how much you think you know, there is so much you don't. I find that I am never too tired to learn, I just need to keep reminding myself to stay patient and curious. Occasionally some of the Bangla bartender  have basic conversations in Hindi and I feel so thrilled because its my language. Haha.
 

Meanwhile. English which you would think is a universal currency language for everywhere lays dormant inside me while I discover other ways to communicate on this island.

Time differences and multilingual conversations

Okay so turns out on day three I typed up a potential blog post on word. Here goes. 

When I was younger my mother would always set the clock ahead by 5 minutes so we would make it school on time. It worked until one day we noticed that our watches and the living room clock never matched, and my mother’s excuse of “oh, yours is ten minutes behind” was getting old. Eventually we unraveled this mystery.

Here on Kuredu, we are one hour ahead of Male time (which is half an hour behind India). Well sometimes we tell our guest it’s so that our guests get a longer holiday. But you can work out the ‘factual’ reason. 1 week and 3 days into my internship I have learnt a lot of things. I have learnt things about people, about the professional environment, about solo travelling and the consequences, about myself, about the island and so many more things. I will try to share with you the different things I have discovered. Sometimes I am busy being here to update my travelogue, but I will try. You can see by the 1 week delay how thrilled I am to be here.

So the experience is special, for me this is the first time I have worked in an environment so diverse. My island host team has been from across the globe, literally. For each and everyone of them English is a foreign language. All my life I found myself able to connect with people because of English, but it isn’t so. It is experiences and feelings which all us of have, which sometimes cross paths and appear similar. That is all. Not language, not nationality, more basic things. It quite complicated and exciting to unravel means to communicate with all the people here.

First it’s just understanding them. All of them come from a culture of their own and have a language to call their own. Often I find myself in the middle of 4 different conversations in 4 different languages and it gives me so much joy to be present there.

And then there is the scenic beauty of the island. 

Rough seas and dol-fins

So I will post my travelogue in no particular order, not weekly or daily or monthly, just a schedule based on various circumstances. Today was my day off so I just sat by the beach and read a book, I also did a little sunbathing because I needed to make my tan even (my arms are much darker than my legs. Meh). 

The most exciting part of my day so far was a boat ride I took from Kuredu to another island to receive guests. What happened was that, the guests from our resorts had landed on another one so island hosts had to go and receive them. Sadly I was off duty so I could have almost missed this opportunity but a series of good things lead me to be on that boat. 

The sea was pretty rough, as the monsoon is beginning here. So we had some rain, a lot of wind and rough waters which would normally discourage someone from getting on a boat ride. Not me, okay it did make me a bit worried at first because I am normally motion sick, sea sick I had no prior experience. I went regardless. It was great fun. The accounts I have read of sea sickness often explain how the strong motion of the tides is what makes one loose balance and feel uneasy. However for me it had the opposite effect, the rocking of the boat felt soothing. The feeling is kind of like how trance and electronic music mimics a person's heart beat and as a result affects their emotions. Same theory. 

The water ranged from turquoise to deep blue to almost grey and some shades of green occasionally. Mostly the palette revolved around shades of blue. It was gorgeous; I also managed to catch a glimpse of a dol-fin. (hehe get it? It's a pun. Figure it out. Hint: Its a sea creature name pun). The up and down of the boat made me so drowsy at one point I could have fallen asleep but we reached our destination. 

On the way back, the sea was a lot rougher and we had some rain drops too. I was amazed by how even the water droplets turned a shade darker when they touched the water, rather than blend into one color. So when you looked out to the sea you could see more shapes than just tides. Absolutely gorgeous, rainfall on an island. This is bad for business because tourists did not come to the beach for the rain but ehh I love it. 

Apologies for the lack of visual images. The internet here is a bit slow, so blogging itself is quite something. Pictures I will upload mostly on Pintrest and Faceboook. I will post links to the albums soon. So look out for those if you are not a text only person. 

Las Maldivas

The Maldives, which means a 'necklace' because if you look closely at a map you will notice how the islands resemble a long necklace. Nearly all of it is water and a very small % of it is land, which what you will also notice whilst examining this map. Geographically the Republic of Maldives is made up of 25 'atolls'; the word 'atoll' refers to a group of islands. Fun fact: There are about 1190 islands in the Maldives. 

So out of these 1190: you have 2 kinds: local islands inhabited by the people and resort islands which are also inhabited by people but not necessarily native. The latter are for purely commercial purposes. A third kind I want to add is an airport island. I find it fascinating how the airport is an island on its own. So you have Male City and Male airport. So once you get off your airplane (which if you are coming from another country is the only way to get here, at-least the sensible one) you take a ferry to the island of your choice. I am still learning the names of the islands here, so more on that later.

Kuredu Island Resort is one island that falls into the second category. And this, my compatriots is where my life-long dream of travelling the world begins. Haha, no I am kidding that journey began a while back. It is the first journey this blog will begin with. 

This blog is not only an attempt to record my travelling but also a way to work on my writing as it is something I eventually intend to make a career out of. So treat this like a forum, leave me a comment, feedback, query, appreciation. I look forward to contribution from the other side of cyber space as well.

I will end this post with some advice for you, list..no read carefully if you are also one of the people who wants to travel the world (same boat scenes):start travelling now. Regardless of your age because once you start instead of dreaming and planning,it will all happen much faster than you sitting down and making circles on the calendar. Especially if you are a student, make the most of every little opportunity because as a student it is possible to travel super cheap.In today's day and age you can travel (find food and shelter) in exchange for work, which is kind of what I am doing. However if not internship you could also register for volunteer programs. Okay nuf said.