Anniversary at Singapore

Well it’s been now more than a year that I am living in Singapore. Although I have been traveling across the world for over a decade now, it’s been a transition for me and my family to a foreign land over the last one year. And a year it has been to shatter some of my old school beliefs, some assumptions which I had taken as a given, but in a global world I am coming to realize them as too narrow to have a meaning for me today. Let me explore some of these.

1. Education System: Our education system has never been able to address global behaviour and ethics. So my learnings have been mostly first hand. Every day that I spend here I am now able to appreciate, not only Singaporean culture, Chinese culture, North and South Asian Cultures, Australian culture but have started to appreciate Indian culture and things that I miss here.
2. Etiquette: When people ask you, “How are you?”, they are very seldom genuinely interested in your story. All they want to hear is everything is hale and hearty and never could be better. No one has time for your sob stories. So standardize your answers as “Brilliant / Never Better / Great / Having Fun / You know last weekend, we went to this fabulous … “ yada yada.
3. Time Management: Between the two extreme ends of the region I operate in, there is a narrow margin of one hour when both ends are in their working hours. To be able to manage a conference to match everyone’s expectations is an acrobatic feat in Microsoft Outlook Calendar Management. And time does mean differently in different parts of the region. The Japanese people with whom I worked like to work till late in the night in their offices and drink till wee hours of the morning. Australians like to keep things short, focused and finish in time for dinner at 6 and beer for later. Singaporeans love their lunch. Indians have Indian Stretchable Timetable all the time. Jakarta reminded me of traffic jams in Chandni Chowk and Ghatkopar – how the hell do people do more than two customer meetings in a day is a mystery to me.
4. Culture: I realized that just like when we generally look at a sardar, we cannot make him out as different from another. I mean facial features are so similar that unless you understand the person well, they may seem similar. On a similar note, I for one never could differentiate between a Chinese, Korean, Japanese and a Singaporean. At least I have learnt some special habits, cultures, practices and diction that differentiate in my mind these set of people. It has been a very revealing experience and an education which continues as I live on. I have learnt to love Japanese food – who says you cannot have uncooked food? I found amazing Khimchi in Korea.
5. Being a Singaporean: I learnt the passion of an average fellow Singaporean that I can learn from includes, their passion for multi culture cuisine, their favourite pass time of shop till you drop attitude (its amazing to see how they can find out the best sale and discounts, the most value for money deals in any market across the globe) and oh the drive to keep up physical fitness (I have actually seen people jogging on the roads at 3 am – when I usually am not awake, but happened to chance on a late night flight that got delayed).
6. Advancing Years: As I grow older, I have been able to appreciate the “loneliness” of older generation. Most amazingly I have been approached at least couple of times by elderly Singaporeans who said Hi and asked if I would like to become friends with them. Indeed, I now realize that after an age of active life, life after is one filled with pain and loneliness. I hope I will have friends, family and foes to keep me busy.
7. Management: There are tremendous learning that we can take from major management events. F1 Grand Prix Night Race which was witnessed by people from all over the world, was immaculately planned and executed. Every office that I go for government services, its planned and thought through. Transportation system so good, that at times I feel that I own the bus in which I am traveling coz I am the only one and yet, the buses run on time and rarely break down. Means their maintenance schedules are very well managed. Even a Zoo and its management is worth looking at. There is so much to learn all around.
   

I will write again as I live life as a seasoned Singaporean this year.

Indian Restaurants

Well being in Singapore and not writing about the Diaspora of food delights that exist here is a big Crime. So as a true Singaporean (at least I will be while I am here), I will use this space to chat about some of the food joints that I visit from time to time.

Being an Indian, my family loves to eat out at these joints, so I thought of writing about couple of these places that I have been visiting in the past few months.

Rangoli (226 Pasir Panjang Road, Pasir Panjang Village Singapore 118586 ph (65) 6777 6413)
Reaching Here - it is a row of shophouses that stands at the junction of south buona vista road and pasir panjang road. since 1993, it has been slated as a conservation site by the URA.
Food – my favourites are Samosas, Palak Paneer, Mutton Kheema, Chapati, Yellow Daal.
Rating – Food (3/5); Service (3/5); Presentation 3/5)

Zurna (417 /419 East Coast Road (S) 429004 Phone number 63461550)
Reaching Here – Get down at Kembangan MRT, take the south exit, take a taxi, make a right into Jln Kembangan, drive down the Frenkel Road, till you reach the East Coast Crossing. Take a right here and the shop is on the first block on the right side.
Food – tried the Bengali specialities like “Kosha Mangsho” – the literally gravyless mutton, “Chingdi macher malai kari” – the prawn speciality, dal, amongst others.
Rating – Food (2.5/5) Very Spicy; Service (3/5); Presentation (2.5/5)
I hope people visiting my site have a dekko of these places to give me feedback on their experiences.

My next on list to visit is Chilly Code and Bawarchi.

Night Safari

Took the family to Night Safari for the first time yesterday night. These days my parents stay with me. They came along for a view. Never knew that it is so popular touristy spot. The place was crawling with people.

I have to tell ya, this Family card of the Zoo, its amazing, so thoughtfully it allows for the family plus the grandparents all included. Though the tram ride is not covered, I would have loved to get that also as part of the deal. But anyway, I had three free tickets from the promotion that Samsung ran for their LCD. Used them.

The Singapore zoo and its experience is really awesome, but can at times give you a dent in the pocket. And when you have a growing kid who loves Animal Planet or Discovery, you have to dent your pocket a number of times in a year. Use the family card if you want, I liked it. Give me an opportunity to visit Zoo once a quarter to break even.

Visit the night safari website before going coz you would necessarily want to chalk out the time of various shows. We reached the safari gates at about 7:20 pm time enough to get ourselves seated at the entrance to the Safari tram lines to watch the first show of the night. The cultural performance of Bornean Tribals was loved by my kid. He was looking at the fire eaters with agape. I thought the music and hoola could have been a bit more rhythmic and the chanting could have been a little more realistic. But anyhow worth it if you are there for the first time. Here is a picture I took of the fellows.

The trip through the jungle was awesome to say the least. Moderate night temperatures – no rains (luckily): we saw plenty of animals. My camera did not function in the low light, coz the trams were moving and if I had to click, I was not supposed to move. So do not have any pictures to share from that experience. The trip takes 45 minutes. If you have a handycam, it may work coz the light system and illumination may just be enough for you to take pictures of moving creatures by the night.

Reached the end of the trip just in time for the 8:30 pm Creatures of the Night Show. The most awesome display of nature friendly folks. Oh the game keepers are so good. And the show they put up is something worth all the money you spend at the Safari. Very entertaining. Actually Mom was commenting how good the guys are that the show they put up with those smiling faces and cheer in their voices for show after show without failing to entertain the crowd. That is an achievement worth any fine movie performance. And the entertainment with the owls, pythons, the mountain cats, the raccoons, et al. Amazing. Entertaining. Must do if in Singapore.

We finished off the evening with dinner at the Ulu Ulu restaurant. Had the Indian food. Wont say I had a great experience. Would recommend to those who are extremely home sick for Indian food. Ordered one veg and two non veg combos. The chicken was good, but the biriyani rice was tad dry and not too "biryani" ish as claimed to be. Did not get to taste the cocktails or mocktails but that I will leave for another time.

Returned home to a night of thrilling encounters with creatures of the night.