The past few days were quite tense here in India. Two cities have witnessed consecutive bomb blasts in less than 1 hour. Last Friday was the beginning of it all in the city where I'm currently living in, Bangalore. 8 small intensity bomb blasts happened in a time span of 1 hour or less. They all took place in the south part of the city which is far away from where I live or work. One woman died and 13 injured.
The second series of bombs, which happened on Saturday, had a stronger effect. It took place in the city of Ahmedabad, north west of India. There were 17 consecutive bomb blasts leading to 45 deaths and 160 injuries. An Islamic group claimed their responsibility for the Ahmedabad blasts saying that it was a revenge of what happened in Gujarat, an apparent reference to 2002 riots in the western state which left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Ahmedabad was the scene of much of the 2002 violence. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_violence)
Everything now is calm, at least in Bangalore. Security measures are being taken and investigations are on going. It's not really sure though if the two events are linked in any way. No companies were targeted at all. Bangalore is considered the Silicon Valley of India and it contains many leading IT companies including Microsoft, IBM, HP, etc.
As for me I'm fine!! I actually enjoyed a great weekend in a great city called Hampi, which I will be writing about. I don't think there's no need to panic. All I need to be concentrating on is my internship. If anything ever happens, then its meant to be. Me being worried won't change any of it. But with some common sense and come prayers from freinds and family, I should be fine. I'm here to stay!! ;)
Mee3o over and out.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
First AIESEC LC Meeting
Since I've arrived here and I've been wanting to attend an AIESEC LC meeting. Back in my LC back home we used to call trainees to invite them to LC meetings. Here it works quite opposite. You are the one who has to go and ask to attend the meetings. That's exactly what happened. A Greek trainee wanted to attend an LC meeting as well, as he was already in aiesec before, so when he knew where and when it was he gave me a call and we went together with another trainee from Poland.
I was very very lucky today as there were a lot of other trainees in the LC meeting. Something that doesn't usually happen according to what they mentioned in the meeting. We were like more than 10 trainees!! So it was a great opportunity to meet them all today. Most of them just arrived a couple of days ago on a DT internship.
I must say that the LC meeting was a little bit too hyper for my taste :D They were all having fun big time, yet in my opinion it was a little bit too much at times. For those from AAST Cairo LC that are reading this,,, I taught them "2o2mor ya gameel!!" :D. I was asked to come and present myself and they wanted me to do a roll call. Of course I wasn't really prepared with anything so I taught our famous "Hey AIESEC!!" response :D It was soooo nice :D I'll make sure they say it every time I'm there :P
It doesn't stop there!! I met this trainee from Malta, her name is Viola. She turns out that she knows many aiesec people from Egypt. She remembered Sherif Elshayeb, Abdo, Samy, Shahira. She also knew some arabic. When I got to know what she knows in Arabic I wasn't surprised as she knows Shayeb :D
For those who know Geet a.k.a Githanjali, I met her sister today, Mana. She's an aiesec member in the DT team. Yes, they have a specific team for DTs. That's how it is in all India I guess. It was great meeting her finally. Also Geet will be coming back on the 15th of August. It would be great to have her in one city again :D
It was a great day!! Looking forward for going to more LC meetings and see if there's any means of interaction.
I used a couple abbreviations in this post so here is what they stand for:
Mee3o over and out
I was very very lucky today as there were a lot of other trainees in the LC meeting. Something that doesn't usually happen according to what they mentioned in the meeting. We were like more than 10 trainees!! So it was a great opportunity to meet them all today. Most of them just arrived a couple of days ago on a DT internship.
I must say that the LC meeting was a little bit too hyper for my taste :D They were all having fun big time, yet in my opinion it was a little bit too much at times. For those from AAST Cairo LC that are reading this,,, I taught them "2o2mor ya gameel!!" :D. I was asked to come and present myself and they wanted me to do a roll call. Of course I wasn't really prepared with anything so I taught our famous "Hey AIESEC!!" response :D It was soooo nice :D I'll make sure they say it every time I'm there :P
It doesn't stop there!! I met this trainee from Malta, her name is Viola. She turns out that she knows many aiesec people from Egypt. She remembered Sherif Elshayeb, Abdo, Samy, Shahira. She also knew some arabic. When I got to know what she knows in Arabic I wasn't surprised as she knows Shayeb :D
For those who know Geet a.k.a Githanjali, I met her sister today, Mana. She's an aiesec member in the DT team. Yes, they have a specific team for DTs. That's how it is in all India I guess. It was great meeting her finally. Also Geet will be coming back on the 15th of August. It would be great to have her in one city again :D
It was a great day!! Looking forward for going to more LC meetings and see if there's any means of interaction.
I used a couple abbreviations in this post so here is what they stand for:
- LC: Local Committee (A local division of AIESEC in a country)
- DT: Development Traineeship (Traineeships where you get to work on development and community based issues. Mainly working in NGOs)
Mee3o over and out
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
