National Day Parade

Was close to Marina Bay on the weekend when I came across the National Day Parade rehearsal. While I couldn't see much of what was going on on the ground, I caught a glimpse of what the attendees could expect to see up in the sky.

Have a look.



I won't be here for the actual parade, but going by the looks of it, I think it will be awesome!!

:(

Visited NUS the other day, when I came across this notice put up at the football ground:

*click on pic to read it better*  

So trying to put it as mildly as possible:

WHY THE FUCK IS THERE NO BACK-UP OF PhD RESEARCH!????

And oh.. wait..

WHAT THE FUCK WAS YOUR ONLY DATA SOURCE DOING HANGING AROUND IN THE FOOTBALL GROUND!???

Breaks your heart, doesn't it? 

Need a ride?

I am a sucker for personalized stuff. And especially if someone puts in effort, it simply wins me over. Like this cycle-rickshaw that I came across in Bugis. Check it out. 

Dual silencers at the back + Superman logo 

Enfield-style headlight + Superman Logo 

 Jaguar motif on the front wheel 

Powerful (looking) engine :P

The Harley motto grilled on the fuel tank 

Groovy handles + Superman logo (again!)

I so wish I could have met the driver and got a picture of him riding it :)

Not Kool

That’s the name of a kindergarten school in my neighborhood. I know some people might go “AWW…” over it, but I wouldn’t let my child anywhere close to this school. Sorry.

To begin with, English language anyway has fucked up spellings, with no set logic whatsoever. And on top of that, you introduce quirky spellings! Tell me, how on earth am I supposed to explain the child that SCHOOL is correct spelling, but SKOOL is well… correct on the signboard, but incorrect everywhere else.

I pity the teachers who would be answering dumbfounded kids day in and day out. 

“But TEACHER..!!!”

Dr Jiajia

Apparently, two kids have caught the attention of this country. They talk in Singlish, ramble about local issues, and going by their popularity, I guess they speak what's on every Singaporean's mind.

I personally didn't find it too witty, but it surely helps to feel the city's pulse. Check it out. The series is called Dr Jiajia.

Well guarded

Was at the Botanical Gardens yesterday afternoon when I came across this HUGE tree. It was sure fascinating, but even more fascinating was what I found under the tree.  

Seriously!? A lightening protection system that protects the tree!? Aisa bhi hota hai??

Airport symphony

I have always been fascinated with airplanes. Probably because I love to travel and I know that these are machines that can take me far far away. And as luck would have it, I landed a job that (at least for now) allows me to work in close proximity to these marvelous machines. And more importantly, the people who make these machines work.

It's a pleasure to watch them work. I swear. Have a look.

PS: Touched the wheels of an Airbus A380 the other day. Nope. Can't explain what it felt like. :)

Swing it, uncle!

I have always wondered what people who live in a country as small as Singapore do for entertainment. I mean, the touristy things are ruled out by default. There’s only so much food you can have. And travelling in either direction for more than half an hour would qualify as international travel!

So I found my answer at Hougang mall. A group of uncles and aunties had cordoned off the atrium, put on some music and were swinging to the beats all evening! The aunties were dressed up and the uncles were going all out to fit in with the ladies’ moves.

And the best part was the thumkas that each one was putting in to jazz it up. I tell you, had they been dancing in a circle, it would have looked like garba from far far away.

Such fun it was.   

Death by silence

I have no clue why, but some reason, Singaporeans don’t talk to each other. And no, please don’t tell me it’s a “culture” thing.

Take this instance:

Man sitting in MRT with one empty seat to his right, and the other to his left. Couple enters and the mush makes it clear that they want to sit together. Fair enough. They look at the dude who is busy on his phone. Then, after contemplating for good 5 minutes, the girl sits and the guy decides to stand next to her.

WTF! All you had to do is ask the guy to shift a seat!!

I think this is a big problem.

Guys, if you don’t talk, how will you make friends with people who take the same train every day? Tell me.

Look for the hand!

So people here complain that many new buildings look so alike that its hard to make out one from the other. More so, no character, no charm, etc. 

But most importantly, I feel it gets so tough to give directions! No laal colour ka bangla, no corner ka paanwallah, no Hanuman ka mandir on the junction. What on earth do you say? 

Which is why the artwork. Wouldn't it be cool to tell your friend, "Yes yes. The building with the HANDS! Come on in. 4th floor."  :)

The proposal

East Coast in Singapore is a beautiful place. Why?

Because at the East Coast, you see guys waiting in cycle rickshaws.. decorated with balloons...

and a message which reads...
 

Then, at the cue of a phone call, the guy and his friends cycle hurriedly towards the beach...

... where they meet the girl... and catch her by surprise..

The guy says something that makes the girl cry... while friends are busy taking pictures and videos

The girl seems to have said 'yes' ...  

And that .. my friends.. makes for a picture perfect evening .... 

PS: How do you define true friends?
The ones who willingly clean up the confetti after you have proposed to your girl.  

PPS: The evening reminded the Bollywood junkie in me of this... 

 

It happens only in (Little) India

At a shop in Singapore's Little India. 

Well, at least she wouldn't complain that people don't recognize her "potential" :P

Blue is the colour

Note: Click on the pic for better view

And this is my colleague Jeff. And just in case you didn’t notice... he is a Chelsea fan :)

Don’t we just love people who wear their hearts on their sleeves and their love on their walls?

Be-Car

How to kill somebody’s love for cars?

Step 1:

Mission accomplished. Return to base. 

Up in the air

I have no clue what is it about skyscrapers that fascinates me so much. There are various things, I guess.

To begin with, it makes me proud of sharing my planet with people who can build such marvelous things. I haven’t lived in the time of pyramids, but I have definitely lived in the time of Burj Khalifa, Petronas and Taipei 101. Not bad, eh?

They tell me what a long way I have to go, and that there’s room for so much more. I am still at the ground floor.

It makes me think how peaceful (lonely perhaps?) it would be up there. I may love the madness down here, but at the end, when I retire for the night, I would want to be somewhere up there.

It makes me think of the view from up there. A privileged view for a privileged few. If I ever happen to own a home up there, I would get up every morning, and take a picture from my window. A decade down the line, I could make a stop motion picture of the city’s changing skyline. Now wouldn’t that be something? 

Move it, people!

Singapore has an excellent transport system. Seriously, it’s awesome! But not for me. Why? Because a (prohibitively expensive) taxi ride to office takes 20 mins, but a bus ride takes 1 hour 15 mins. I kid you not, almost four times the time!!

Why? Because to begin with, the bus stops at every stop, every signal and every time a bird poops from the sky. And then, when the bus gets crowded at the entrance and there’s not enough room for people to enter, instead of the Bombay local train maara-maari, nobody says anything. The door opens, and people outside simply stare. That’s right. STARE. And then, the stare-me-not Chinese whispers continues all the way till the last guy inside who will then decide to move two inches, and a couple of people will get in.

The process takes 3-4 minutes and in that much time, the Mumbai Virar Fast guy in me dies a slow death. At the end, I take the same amount of time to travel to office as I did in Mumbai. It's just a slower version of it :P

And the biggest bitch of all. The transport system is actually designed in the right way. It’s comfy, covers all of the island, and minimizes the need for personal transport. But then, a Singaporean doesn’t know the joy of jumping into a local and catching a window seat, does he?

Memoirs from Singapore...

And so, it’s Singapore for three months. I don’t think I will ever forget the Christmas morning three years ago when I opened my eyes at 30,000 feet and the pilot announced that we will be landing in Singapore soon. That moment was, without doubt, the best Christmas moment ever.

This time, I hope I get to know the city and its people better.

So there, it’s three months of a true-blue Mumbaikar trying to find his way around Singapore, figuring out its rights and wrongs. Should be fun!