...and there is this!

..................

Throw up!

I remember the last time I had to throw up an undigested potato patty half-way through my work-out at the gym. I felt that I was going to remove my food-pipe the same way I remove my socks. I couldn't eat or drink anything for the next two or three hours. But there are creatures on this earth for whom its all in the day's work!

Postcard from Singapore

I am in Singapore on a business assignment, sitting in our 31st floor office that is really an enclosed balcony (with 30 floors of nothing right under the floor) that overlooks the confluence of the North Pacific and the Indian Ocean.


My short observations of the place.
- British style right-hand drive, to the left-side of the road
- Lush green vegetation everywhere, along side the roads.
- Chinese, chinese and more chinese. Restaurants, cafes are all chinese (people and cuisines). Burger King, ice-creams and baked breads have kept me alive here.
- Tamil letters "சிங்கப்பூர்" in the currency and coins are all that is Tamil that I have seen so far. Few Indians, but no Tamils!
- Disciplined people. Example? I have about 12 students (3 malaysians) in my class. Every day people walked in almost on time. When they wanted to have water, they picked up styroform cup. But as against condemning them to the dust-bin after first use, neatly wrote their names on them and used them for water all day! Impressive.
- Some similarity in their gestures to that of Indians. When they wanted to express "how did you make such a stupid mistake" they hit their fore-head (which I thought till date was an Indian copyright!)
- Most Girls prefer higher-than-knee skirts, and healed footwear. Few of them wear short. Evenings are dominated by shoooooort shorts. Very few jeans, and very few sneekers. Guys....well who cares!
- Indians...they don't change anywhere they go. I went to an authorised money changer (who is an Indian) and exchange USD 50 to get singapore $75 . He just gave me the cash and walked away without bothering a transaction receipt. I asked for it and in a typical Indian style he typed a "50 X 1.5 = 75" in a plain low-quality paper, as if I can't do the math. I clarified him "In case you don't know, a receipt is some thing that has at least an address on it!". He said "You will such receipts in Mustafa! Not in small places like this". I pointed him to the Cash transaction receipt book that was lying right in front of both of us and said with a glower "What is that then? Look, if you are not giving me the receipt, I will get the money changed somewhere else". He looked at me with a "Shit! Busted!" expression and gave me the receipt.

(Don't try to come up with a nationalistic "What makes you think that Singaporeans are better?" How does it matter to me?)

I have pictures, but left my USB back home in India! A typical me!