Do Visit my very own 'Food' Blog' for delicious meals

Friday 11 April 2008

Five days have passed since I have landed in Lagos...

it started on a wrong footing...and all due to my carelessness...imagine, I didn't take my purse when I went to a rest room in the airplane, and left my handbag on my seat. I got stripped off my green notes and was quite sad.....but like they say, everything has a purpose, maybe the person who had the courage to rob me needed the money more than I do, so I move on, probably borrow the money and start enjoying my self....coming so far from my home town and mourning over the lost money is not a good idea, I might spoil the fun of others who are with me... So here I am enjoying the nature of Lagos...there are so many trees in this city...Neem, Mango, Coconut, Papaya, Banana.. Everywhere, there is greenery and the air is so fresh.....but there is too much traffic on he road and what amuses me is the number of things that are available at the traffic signals Almost everything is sold on the streets; watches, telephone cards, fruits, vegetables, drinks, cigarettes, magazine, clothes and many more articles. This reminds me of Mumbai traffic signals where we too have vendors selling their wares at the signals. The weather is very warm (hot winds) and it is difficult to breathe without an AC. Most of our time is spend indoors (a wise thing to do) but today we went to market place to get the feel of the city. They roast corn on the roads and fry red bananas. The market was full of handcrafted items and lot of paintings. One particular painting that impressed me was a collage of butterfly wings.. It was very beautifully made, then there were jewelry, clothes, wood craft, paintings and also fresh fruit and vegetables in the market. My cousin who lives here in Lagos has good set of friends and these five days I have met most of them at the restaurants or they have been visiting us. Some of them I met at her kitty party. The Chinese food here is very much different from what we have in India.. It is just fantastic.. very yummy but living is quite expensive. They have Naira currency (125 Naira equals one dollar.) My cousin bought some fruits and vegetables and then she took us(five of us) out for sandwiches and soup and I saw her spent 20 thousand Naira. The local Nigerians are very friendly and they don't stare. (unlike India, where everybody stares) At the market place, they address you as Mama or Ma, and politely invite you to buy their wares...and they are easy to talk to. They speak English but it is difficult to follow because they a different accent, most of the word are rounded and merged with overlapping of sounds. My cousin has two maids, one for cooking and other for cleaning the house. They live in servant quarters, which is behind the building; They take three hours in the afternoon to rest. The day starts quite early; 630 am and the activity in the house starts. The markets are open from 7am to 5pm. Nigerian is the sixth largest oil producing country, but I am surprised that it is having fuel shortage. I saw long queue at the petrol station due to fuel shortage. It has crude oil but no refinenary (sad but true) Do Nigerians have a good love life? (According to the Nigerian youth, he says) "In Nigeria today many, many girls are driven by both poverty and greed. The disadvantaged position of women due to a male dominated society puts men in a position where a lot of them just look at women as objects that can be bought and paid for. There few jobs after leaving school and many parents cannot meet with their kid’s demands. It is a sad situation and unfortunately I don't see any hope as far as the economy remains the way it is. Its all about money for hair, money for handset, recharge cards. Romance and love tend to flee this sort of arrangements so it is getting rarer than before." However, A Nigerian man will marry only if his lover gets pregnant.

Featured post

The Year That It Was - 2015

I have poor memory therefore I tend to forget the good and the bad times easily. What is past is forgotten, each day I try my best that my ...

"I shall seize the fate by its throat....

"I shall seize the fate by its throat....
"I shall seize the fate by its throat....It shall certainly not bend nor crush me completely"

Out of Box

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails