Singapore 2017

 In1819 Stamford Raffles wouldn't have dreamt the tiny island he landed on would become an example for one of the most prosperous, business friendly, eco-friendly work cultured, law abiding, beautiful tourist spotted nation of the world in a century.

To the English is was habit those days to land as merchants spread their wares make deals split the locals and quietly take over the place and make it a British settlement and thus Britain became great Britain the empire where the sun never set naturally but these days the sun does just that ,sets quite fast in tiny Britain !

Singapore eye 

Changi control tower

let’s get back to Singapore ,it was the quintessential oriental island country with a hot steamy climate ,the sea ,the port the back canals with pointed hatted Chinese driving rickshaws, ebony dark Tamils unloading the cargo from the ships and local Malays walking around till the second world war came ,history looked at Singapore then ,the Japanese conquered it and the days were filled with horrors arrests and crime till the British got it back at the end of the war ,Singapore continued to be a priced possession till 1963 when it got freedom and joined with Malaysia to form a federal republic ,somehow the unity never lasted with a bigger and bossier Malaysia not considering a smaller and resource less Singapore to be an equal partner and then it was the leadership of one of the greatest leaders of our times came into action Lee Kwan Yew the president of Singapore took the brave decision to separate from Malaysia and go alone as the republic of Singapore

Changi Airport

subways

police woman

The divorce proved a success because of the stern determination of the president and his men their hard work and the cooperation of the people within a decade they had starts showing Singapore as a miracle country and even Malaysia learnt a lesson or two from them then Today both countries have become advanced and are in amicable terms .

I had been to Singapore as early as the nineties the times when it was a wonderland and manna put together for Indians who had never set sights on its modern traffics laden shops etc slowly the influx of Indians to Dubai and middle east and other parts of the world would make Indians lose that much awe and just enjoy it without any wonder!

The last time I was in Singapore I had been to a conference in NUH and it was more of an academic exercise all sterile with cabs taking me from hotel to venue and just walking around a bit in orchard road where I stayed I just couldn’t enter it s soul

This time i was more on a business pleasure trip I had gone for getting a Schengen visa which incidentally is not a visa to china though it sounds like one and I kept telling this to many its a visa to European nations and has got nothing to do whatsoever with china though it sounds suspiciously Chinese on hearing

Goes on to say don’t believe what you hear

so my itinerary was all set land at night next morning go to VFS global the agency who manages the nitty gritty of visas tell them to tell the Italian embassy I needed to go back to Brunei and needed my passport and cannot wait the normal three weeks hence to get it ASAP

all this had been conveyed by me by mail and by repeated phone calls ,but the lady in VFs seemed to be my bête noir she was young inexperienced and insisted no visa is ever given in one day and if I go back I need to come back to collect it and no embassy will send the visa etc. etc. ,I just kept quiet later she found the documents adequate an took my finger printing which was mandatory these days and the said your papers will be sent o Italian embassy tomorrow but I wanted it to be sent the same day for spicier handling ,after all it was in same city why delay it for 24 hrs and I offered that I could taker the documents for which she reacted vehemently and said the documents are never handed over to a customer etc. ,so I told her to call the Italian embassy and find out which she did and they just told her yes we know he had mailed us so just send the documents with him now she sheepishly gave them to me and I took the MRT changed lines and in a jiffy was in Novena square and the office ,one thing i have to tell about the Singapore MRT it was out of the world punctual neat organised and user friendly ,one got the hang of things in a short time and I was confident of going to any corner of Singapore without asking anyone

I was informed that the visa if I am lucky i could get on Friday the next day if not would be sent by courier as I had to leave on Sunday

I was staying in Bugis a shopping area with lot of malls eateries etc. I was in an predominately Muslim quarter near sultan Masjid mosque and it was full of Indian Muslim restaurants streets like Arab street ,Kandahar street Ahuliwal street etc ,the cottages were very cute colorful and the whole area looked lovely with skyscrapers in the horizon

it was a nice area to walk around with lot of small shops

Sultan masjid mosque

Murtabak deer meat in zam Zam restaurant 

s

even a naileur was available which I assume was a nail specialist

I dined in the zam zam a famously known restaurant the place was filled and had lot of Tamil and Malayalee waiters running around with colorful dishes.

Dear dear I missed that

In the evening it was cloudy and pleasant and I went to the famous Bay area, the reclaimed part of marina reservoir into the gardens of the Bay a veritable green area with tall man made steel trees with branches with creepers covering, it was the symbol of the place called super tree groves which are steel frames with entwining greenery rising from 80 ft to 160 ft ,they have photovoltaic cells which can generate energy from solar sources ,they provide shade lighting and work as environmental engines for the garden and later maybe the city itself

It covered around 250 acres of reclaimed land

In 2006 an international competition was held for the best design ,more than 70 entries from 170 firms from 24 countries took part and two British firms were awarded the contract as they had the best design

The Singapore Government aims to transform Singapore from a city with gardens to a city in a garden!!

The park had more than 20 million visitors by 2015 November

The Marina terrace also loomed ahead near it was the Bay area MRT station

I walked around the place going into the cool green cocoons of gardens it appeared like I was all alone in a tropical forest while I was in the midst of a very busy modern island city country!!

In the flower dome I met an elderly Singaporean who told me the water that saw was not salt water but pure drinking water which was recycled from sewage and made so pure that it could be drank off the tap!! 

The buildings the bridges were all mind boggling and showed the grit and determination and focus of the country

There was a also the flower dome and the cloud forest which are closed centres of tropical gardens one of Mediterranean and other from higher altitudes ,one needed to buy entry tickets for them

The Marina bay sands facing the Marina bay is an integrated resort with three towered 2560 roomed luxury hotel, world’s largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1600 slot machines ,sands mall ,shoppers museum ,theaters ,skating rink, convention exhibition center ,celebrity restaurants ,topped by a 340 meter long sky park which can hold 3900 people and has an infinity swimming pool of 490 ft ,an architectural feat ,its shopping complexes have the best brands in the world ,theaters ,two large crystal pavilions .

Next day morning saw me in Little India Serangoon road to meet two of my relatives for breakfast in Komala vilas .

This hotel was famous not only in Singapore but a legend ,it was started in 1947 in Singapore ,there were two branches in Little India small neat and ambient ,the masala dosas were out of the world in taste and served with love ,Little India was really a piece of India and like in Kuala lumpurs little India was the place where the Indian community a vibrant part of Singapore having settled there for years ,it had many shops a few temples hotels flower shops jewelries and a busy market ,the Mustafa mall had existed as a magnet for all Indian tourists for them to shop from sewing needle to sambhar powder anything was available round the clock in Mustafa

This day I had to shift from my hotel in Bugis as I planned to move into Fragrance hotel Ruby which I booked online through Agoda a favourite hotel booking site of mine it looked nice and reasonable also I booked, it was in Geylang but when I mentioned this to my relatives they gave a strange look and said Hari Geylang was famous once for being the red light area of Singapore!!

I took a cab and went into a crowded area full of shops and hotels and fairly wide roads in parallel formation called lorongs or lanes in Malay ,the cab driver told me the area had very little to call itself a red light area these days and it was more known for its food offers !

By 2pm I had to be in the embassy in Novena square which I reached by MRT ,unfortunately my visa was not ready and I would have to wait till Monday for the same ,with my return flight on Sunday I had no option but to return back to Brunei with passport and later courier it to the embassy ,by the time I am writing this all this is done and I have my visa and passport with me .

On Friday evening I just walked around Geylang as I was bit tired and it was raining too .

Next day morning I took MRT to Orchard road station, the station itself is in a big building called Orchard road ION which is a massive shopping complex with so many floors of branded shops hotels and all sorts of fun and entertainment .this turning of public transport hubs into huge marketing entertainment complexes should be learned in India which has its railway and bus stations in some of the juiciest real estates of its cities but sadly unused and decrepit.

I walked around a lot seeing the Christmas decorations in the mall, later I took MRT to reach Khatib another residential area towards Changi as I had to make a visit to one of my relatives later after a fine lunch I went with him to marine parade to visit some more relatives and thus the day went,I returned back to Geylang in pouring rain at dusk and started packing for my early morning flight back to Brunei .

Like a Lark to fly

Like a lark .....An ode to 2017

And so another year is past
We dont know how many more we last
Things small and big.. good and bad
Angry frustrated joyous contended and sad

Every minute that ticks in our life
Through rigors tests trials and strife
Pass like a mirage into thin air
Some are expected some unfair

Is there someone sitting with a remote
To push pull reach out or promote
Or is it only our hard work and desire
That igintes our lives afire

Day becomes night light gets dark
Life too in a cycle so stark
One minute our joys are unbound
The next we cry in despair unfound

Whos it who makes and decides
Whose toys are we to play and rest
In the short span of a life lived best
We need to question at least in jest

Who are you and why do you do
What you do day after day
Who made us like this so naive
That we do forget and waive

Show us some light in our tunnel
That we may pass through the funnel
Sleeping dreaming waking doing talking
Thinking making taking and faking

Whats the purpose or is there none
Whats the universe the galaxies the suns moons
What are colors sickness happiness and the croons

Why do we sing dance write and act
Emote enact enrole with great tact
Create destruct maim and make
Give life happiness but also take

Why no clue no idea of what we are
With no knowledge of how much more far
Better to calm our mind to silence
Let it be far from anger and violence

Will then the answer come to us
All by itself without any fuss
Or is it only when we are dead and gone
 The victorian secret will be shown

None knows none ask some care many not
Life is but a cast iron wrought
And our soul is bound in it so tight
Casting ourselves free shud make it light

And so at the end of another year
I ask questions get no answers or fear
Look to an unkown future light or dark
Oh to  fly away from all this like a lark .....

Harimohan

Bonded to Brand

Are you bonded to the branded ...

To many branded consumer goods like clothes watches shoes handbags jewellery are fashion statements .
Its like a declaration of ones tastes to the world and goes beyond utility.
Theres nothing wrong if one could afford to spend on brands .
To many brands arent a compulsion either because they cant afford it or they may have no passion for it .
I think iam in second category
This does not mean I dont buy brands I do if i like them and consider them as better quality but iam not obsessed with flaunting labels
A calvin klien suit with a hugo boss shirt carrying a st laurent office bag of the finest leather pointed milano shoes glimmering on my feet and a Rolex watch to boot with a fine mont blanc peeping from my waistcoat and an air of confidence exuding from my Ralph lauren silk shirt and the Armani sprayed on its cuff .
No I am fine without any of them for one it would pinch the miser in my soul for another I would just be what Iam wearing all these .
But then I do posess one brand of my own
My smile and all it costs is happiness .

quackery

India is one country where anything goes rather anything that is delivered with drama and panache are believed by the millions of gullible but at same time any advice coming from the trained and professional who knows what he is talking about is doubted .

so we find numerous charlatans acting as swamis to deliver nirvana ,evangelists who cure by touch ,and quacks who treat anything in the world but when qualified doctors ask people to take immunization for their kids they listen to mullahs who tell them not to !!
.
I had been reading an FB status where the merits of celibacy were discussed thread bare ,
majority of them in the post who posed as experts knew nothing but ramblings of what they heard or read from others who knew nothing ,old texts were quoted and imaginary energy was graphically portrayed travelling up from the locked navels into the head and the body then getting suffused with energy so much so that nirvana was instantaneous .

Good imagination
maybe true too ,but these people tell it as if they had seen it all and experienced it as they have no need to prove anything
they can get away with their creativity and the best part is the number of nodding gullible who take it like it was Buddhas sermon .
As if the answer for their quest for superpower status lie in their testicles and the whole secret is all about blocked semen !

i just cant stand these kind of gumption where in the name of science people just ramble on their pet theories and not only get away with it but also influence some poor sod who will bottle up all his releases and one fine day may burst it like a pregnant pustule !! to the discomfiture of his near and dear

People please enjoy your life with limitations
be it food or sex ,
live a healthy life,
its not by denial but by acceptance we get satisfaction
and for Gods sake dont fall hook line and sinker for every fable by every con man

CHO

Many of those not having lived in tamilnadu would not have heard of Cho Ramaswamy and most of them who did would not be those who havent heard of him .
The first impression of Cho with his trademark alien completely shaved scalp protruding exopthalmic eyes and wearing trademark kaki always would be one of intelligence .
Cho radiated intelligence 
Be it by being a good lawyer ,screenplaywriter,actor,comedian,satirist,journalist,editor,director,producer,thinker,spiritualist,theatre personality Cho as he was fondly called was a bundle of talents and posessed an intellect as sharp as as a Sheffield knife .
The best part of Cho to me was his satire
This man was the king of satire
Yes ..was because he just passed away at 82 years .
The very flat cool way he cracked his jokes with a benign smile made his victims squirm in discomfort and stunned to silence .
Amongst his targets the quintissental tamil politician with dark glasses flowing shoulder scarfs and starched white dhoties with retinue of cretinous followers were his favourite he delighted on pulling the legs of these vacant zeros who squirmed in helpless anger as the brilliant lawyer covered himself from litigation or repartee by his intellect .
His sarcasm was highly cerebral and was to the point delivered with panache with the timing of an actor .
His plays were political punch machines where his victims were turned into helpless clowns 
Cho had a special intrest in tamil politics he just couldnt keep his cool over the archetypical tamil politico with trademark dark glasses and streaming dhotis and flung shawls and delighted in turning them to imbeciles of the finest order not very far from thier natural selfs but they could hardly retort as his deliveries were so sharp and to the target and being a lawyer so cleverly put to make his victims legally and socially helpless objects of fun for the populace .
He was so cool in delivering those epitephts that the only response would be raucous laughter .
His journal Tuglaq has been a text book of sarcasm for decades which are never understood by those who dont read tamil 
I remember picking up back volumes of the magazine from a neighbour after summer holidays and a kerala trip one couldnt miss weekly Tuglaq named after mohammed bin Tuglaq the maverick sultan who Cho used often to spread his fun .he even created a famous play and film on Tuglaq .
Chos plays in later years were definitely more intresting than his films in his younger days , though even in films his way of presenting it was unique 
one could feel his disdain in his dialogues at his sorry state of living with less intellectually empowered humans though in a very funny sense !
Cho was the father of sarcasm 
Most of his fun making was back handed and never direct and there were blockheads who missed the whole point .
So he was hardly the run of the mill tamil comedian slipping on banana leaves but a highly educated very sharp intellctual ,gifted to profess his ideas with satire and sarcasm
The world will miss him 
I will for sure .

The Rose Milk

Thanks to the Hindu for the picture 

Madras today's Chennai was always known for its sultry humidity ,imagine if one could get a glass of cool milk flavored by rose syrup there it would be ambrosia itself .

So was the rose milk sold by the famous Kalathi and sons which was a small newspaper mart in East mada street corner near Kapaleeswarar temple the downtown of Mylapore itself .

Even after five decades I find kalathi continues with the same popularity of course the original owners have handed it over to their sons and nephews ,

The rose milk of kalathi was made of pure milk with no additives and rose syrup and powdered ice and churned well ,those days I remember the ice used to be in saw dust laden sacks as Refrigerators were yet to make an appearance and the owner himself would take a big rock like piece of ice and put it in a sack and hit it with a hammer like handle and then put the crushed pieces into the glass and give it a quick whisk with his spoon and hand over the glass of rose milk ,it used to cost 25 paise and today too it isnt very costly it is fifteen rupees for a glass of paradise .

As the cool milk flavored in rose touched out tongue myriad sensations would well up and the icy coldness would spread a pleasant chill into our souls and all the stress and heat would seep off ,it would taste till the last drop the same .

which is why the rose milk was so popular ,actors like Sivaji Ganesan were regular visitors and fans ,the nearby R R Sabha was a well known theater for live dramas and most drama personalities were also aficionados ,

once when I was in eight standard I think I  had gone to a drama with a friend and found Nagesh the well known comedian who came as a guest for the day walking out with AP Nagarajan the very famous director ,

we watched them sending their car off telling the driver 

we want a walk and we will reach home ,

there was literally no one in the streets and we followed them to the shop ,they were very surprised at Nagesh who was very popular then ,they did not have a rose milk but bought a cigarette which Nagesh lighten with cinematic elegance looking at us children following him later he whistled for  an auto and they both went off .

I found an article in the Hindu on this shop 

It had a phone number and I called up the owner and told him of my nostalgia for his rose milk he was thrilled to hear it though he wasn't born when I had taken  rose milk from his shop .

So when you go to Chennai dont forget to take a rose milk from Kalathi stores in East mada street Mylapore 

For details, contact Pushparaj at 9840919797.

So in honor of Kalathi and sons I made a rose milk which wasnt bad at all