Just reminiscing the amount of travelling I have been doing since 2009, makes me swoon. I am a vaguely introspective person and like placing my fingers exactly on the future. It is not to make it more predictable, rather it is to ground me by just making me realize how wrong I was, am and will be, and how much there is still to take in. Knowledge, might have become flat, with all the technology around, but our capacity to absorb it remains the same, and hence there is always plenty in this cosmic world. In 2009, if anyone would have come up to me and said that you are going to travel 18 countries in the next 2.5 years, I would have asked that person to take a hike. Nevertheless, somewhere I must have had an inkling, which prompted me to renew my passport, a good 1.5 years before it was set to expire, just in case. Truly cosmic. And the same power played its role aplenty in this short, outrageously fast trip. My expectations were pretty much balanced, didn’t expect much, especially after Europe. I was in for a surprise, one that I liked.
As Friedman said, The World Is Flat. Everything became more predictable, as and when I saw pieces of Singapore flying by in front of me. I truly thought, within Asia, all countries would look more or less similar. But the development that Singapore has gone through in the past decades does two things for me: ‘Has India been sleeping?’ and ‘I was wrong again’. The latter just opened up Singapore for me. And the predictable part that I spoke about earlier, follows everything from the European experience.
Development comes at a cost. Someone said it, and rightly so. Typical perceptions about Singaporean culture and its closeness to how Indian it is, all came to a shattering death. Talk about how westernized you can get, 100%. Not that I am complaining, but sometimes, some things that you observe, lead you to believe, it is not all that rosy. Pick the first MRT train journey that I took, and it reminded me so much of the Terminator world, in the sense that people are completely devoid of emotions, mechanized, moving like machines, busy on their gadgets, and listening to music. I am pretty sure if I had pointed and shouted, “There’s a Bengal tiger in the train”, I would have been the only person running for the emergency button (The reason would not be Bengal Tiger’s being extinct :D, they read a lot, and are knowledgeable enough). And to put things into perspective, even in a vacuum, more noise could be heard. Wherever all this stems from though, one thing is for sure, credit should be given to Singapore for pushing through far away from the Black Hole that is Asia. And what is the most beautiful irony about this cultural shift? The Singaporean Dollar still having Tamilian scribbling on it saying what not.
Then comes the time to party. Transformation, completely in sync with your average European, and they would put all the chatty Cathy’s to shame. The only thing is, it gets real shrill out there with their peaky dialect, one that I was almost able to filter out successfully from my senses. And it is like the tonic you don’t want when you are sleepless in Singapore. You still party though, and hard, and you can have anything and everything that you want. Westernized. Beautiful, beautiful cultures, void of the stupid stigmas that come along with something like Indian Culture, and that has been imbibed into their psyche so much so that you probably would not need to take the first step. And they are super sexy people, with all their shiny hair, shiny skin, shiny clothes, and mini’s :)
Exploring. The truest way to this in any new place is on foot. And the fact that my feet still hurt tells me I took that too seriously. Worth it though. Walking almost half the breadth of Singapore, upon landing, just to reach Marina Bay Sands, and start on a high. And go higher further with tastes from wildlife, fauna to kayaking, partying. There is no end to what Singapore can offer to you in particular. That’s the best part about adopting four different cultures since its inception and then westernizing. There was never a dull moment.
Amidst all this was the event (Trade Conclave 2012 – Resource Scarcity in Rapidly Changing World, organized by IIFT & SMU, in collaboration) for which the Singapore opportunity actually materialized. I wouldn't get into the details here, press would do that aplenty, but what shone out was the start, the keynote speech made it more than worth for whatever time I had managed to scoop, each and every damn second.
Recommendations: Santosa Island, Universal Studios (I missed, again), Botanical Garden, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Eye, F1 Circuit, Chinatown
As Friedman said, The World Is Flat. Everything became more predictable, as and when I saw pieces of Singapore flying by in front of me. I truly thought, within Asia, all countries would look more or less similar. But the development that Singapore has gone through in the past decades does two things for me: ‘Has India been sleeping?’ and ‘I was wrong again’. The latter just opened up Singapore for me. And the predictable part that I spoke about earlier, follows everything from the European experience.
Development comes at a cost. Someone said it, and rightly so. Typical perceptions about Singaporean culture and its closeness to how Indian it is, all came to a shattering death. Talk about how westernized you can get, 100%. Not that I am complaining, but sometimes, some things that you observe, lead you to believe, it is not all that rosy. Pick the first MRT train journey that I took, and it reminded me so much of the Terminator world, in the sense that people are completely devoid of emotions, mechanized, moving like machines, busy on their gadgets, and listening to music. I am pretty sure if I had pointed and shouted, “There’s a Bengal tiger in the train”, I would have been the only person running for the emergency button (The reason would not be Bengal Tiger’s being extinct :D, they read a lot, and are knowledgeable enough). And to put things into perspective, even in a vacuum, more noise could be heard. Wherever all this stems from though, one thing is for sure, credit should be given to Singapore for pushing through far away from the Black Hole that is Asia. And what is the most beautiful irony about this cultural shift? The Singaporean Dollar still having Tamilian scribbling on it saying what not.
Then comes the time to party. Transformation, completely in sync with your average European, and they would put all the chatty Cathy’s to shame. The only thing is, it gets real shrill out there with their peaky dialect, one that I was almost able to filter out successfully from my senses. And it is like the tonic you don’t want when you are sleepless in Singapore. You still party though, and hard, and you can have anything and everything that you want. Westernized. Beautiful, beautiful cultures, void of the stupid stigmas that come along with something like Indian Culture, and that has been imbibed into their psyche so much so that you probably would not need to take the first step. And they are super sexy people, with all their shiny hair, shiny skin, shiny clothes, and mini’s :)
Exploring. The truest way to this in any new place is on foot. And the fact that my feet still hurt tells me I took that too seriously. Worth it though. Walking almost half the breadth of Singapore, upon landing, just to reach Marina Bay Sands, and start on a high. And go higher further with tastes from wildlife, fauna to kayaking, partying. There is no end to what Singapore can offer to you in particular. That’s the best part about adopting four different cultures since its inception and then westernizing. There was never a dull moment.
Amidst all this was the event (Trade Conclave 2012 – Resource Scarcity in Rapidly Changing World, organized by IIFT & SMU, in collaboration) for which the Singapore opportunity actually materialized. I wouldn't get into the details here, press would do that aplenty, but what shone out was the start, the keynote speech made it more than worth for whatever time I had managed to scoop, each and every damn second.
Recommendations: Santosa Island, Universal Studios (I missed, again), Botanical Garden, Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Eye, F1 Circuit, Chinatown
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| Singapore, from my lens. On top of Marina Bay Sands. |
18 countries in the next 2.5 years! :O
ReplyDeleteTake a hike :P
Those are quite some observations for a 2 day trip!
Though would have loved to hear more on Exploring part :)
Lemme know the place and time, where I should take that hike ;)
DeleteYou would know me this much by now, I am a keen observer.
And I know, when I decided to write this, I was like I should just talk about the travelling part, all the places that I saw. Pata nahi philosophy kahan se nikli, but flow bann gaya tha, so...