Malaysia- Romance in the air!!!

If Singapore was more of shopping and Sentosa Island, Malaysia was more of sightseeing! There were so many places we saw. The best was obviously the Patronus Twin Tower. It was as magnificient as what I read and heard about or maybe more than that. It did bring back the Sep 11 memory to my mind but here stood the towering Patronus in all grandeur.

The Menara tower is the fourth tallest tower in the world. Looking down at the entire city of KL from there is just a thrilling experience. You just can say there were only 3 places in the world that was above me at that time but still I was on top of the world!!

The Batu caves were another lifetime experience. Here we were climbing the 272 steps to reach the opening the cave. There were drops of water trickling from above that seemed like the Gods showering blessings. The peace and quiet of the place enthralled me even more. There is this golden statue of Lord Subramaniam that is visible from miles away before reaching the caves.

We also went to other places like the Titiwahsan park, Merdecca Circle, Empire building and how can I forget the famous Genting Island!!!One thing I understood is it is really a place for romance and people in love. Huge parks, quiet country sides...aah...and I went alone...Sigh!!!

Malaysia 2007 and us!!!

Malaysia was a very different place when compared to Singapore.Well the truth is that it is very much similar to India.

• It is not a litter free place as Singapore. Some roads here resemble India a lot.



• You can say good bye to the smooth traffic free roads here. We were stuck up in traffic quite a many times.



• Corruption is very open by traffic police. They ask you very clearly how you want to settle fines..Ha ha...Definitely reminded of India right?



• Taxis and buses compete for passengers, break the rules and go on emergency tracks at times.



• The two lane paths always has a two wheeler path in between.



• The people are more traditional here. They live with parents and have joint family systems in most families.

So Malaysia was quite a resemblence to India. The Petaling street here reminded me of Shivajinagar market except they had strret singers. More on Malaysia sight seeing coming up..

A salute to the Country!!

Today was a day I was to go onsite along with an engineer. I was assigned to Edwin, a name that seemed so familiar in most cases we dealt. Now what was official can be left aside. I am already dreading the time I would have to return to office and speak about all this. But there was a different learning experience in this trip for me.

I was taken onsite to the Military Camp (MINDEF) that was a long drive up north of Singaopore. It was just like a Mysore highway drive but even moe sceneric on the way. There were resovoirs on the way where we stopped. Edwin told me that here was Singapore a country with no much natural resources but they sell water to some countries including China.

The camp was mind blowing. The security is very strict here. we had to surrender our identity passes at the guard post.What I saw inside...Hmm..where do I begin??? There were so many young guys being trained. they were involved in so many physical activities, running sprint, march, swimming, learning to use the big guns...and they were all my age or younger.

Edwin explained with pride how each Singaporean had to attend to 2 years in the camp where they served their nation. He recalled is times with so much passion that I was amazed they could love it so much. He said they believe in "Nationality before community, Society before self."

I met up with many officers and cadets. Spoke to them about so many things and one common voice that echoed from each heart was "Proud to be a Sinaporean." There were many who beleved that it is the people who made singapore so rich today. He said that the government comes from the people and we are the people.

I met WO Raja, name we had so often seen in our records. I was awed by this person. What a man, what personality and aura he had. With people like him you have no doubts a country will progress. He believed that accepting change is the biggest ability of a nation. If we change according to times we will prosper, individually and as a community. But they also held high value for their history and roots...

Now you know how smitten I am by the visit. A real eye opener...and now on the lighter note...more shopping!!! He he!!

The face behind the voices

Ah!All play comes to an end where we get to the serious part of the visit...But yes the day was exciting. It was discovering the face beind the voices day. The world seemed smaller now. Met people as if we have known for a long time. This is now beginning to be a learning experience in all ways. I never can thank my lucky stars and people around me who made this possible.

Now there are loads of stuff that i have been awing about other than the ones I've been talking about so far so here goes the age old bullentin board (Never fails me!!)

• The city is spick and spark where citizens take effort to keep it so. I actually saw this old lady who picked up a chocolate wrapper and put it in the waste bin.
• People are very proud of their country and hold it in high esteem..
• The temples here are very traditional all complete with the pujari too but God forgive me for saying this. the Indian Gods somewhere have a Sinaporean appearance..He he!

• On a 3 lane road,vehicles keep to the three lanes only even though Indian standards could have fitted some 6 distorted lanes on them.



• Hotel room instructions clerly state that "Drinking for the tap is perfectly safe." Now would anyone try that even if they wrote it down in our country??

• The time alloted to cross a road is just 5 seconds more than what is required....eeks!!I have to run at most signals...


• The favourite passtime for the people here is "Shopping, shopping and even more shopping."

So now that their favourite passtime is shopping I should just go along with the crowd so here I go shopping!!

The island of Happiness-Sentosa

I was greeted with the soft white clouds beaming at my face in the morning and I remembered that I was on my way to singapore. Landed at Changi airport and was in love at first sight. You could spend the whole day here and still have more to see. All the world's brands under a roof. Checked out and took a taxi. Hmm.. What a place??Even the taxis are Mercs here..Sigh!!

There was this extraordinary taxi guy who took us to Park hotel, telling us on the way about Singapore, the government, rules, people, land buying and all!! I just reinforced my thoughts about these people, friendly and simple!! Checked in at Park Hotel and left immediately to Sentosa!!

The journey itself was an experience. The MRTs are out of the world and a piece of art and technology.The system is so well thought of and designed. Well and I did think about Emraan Hashmi and the movie "Train." But yes..I am awed by the MRTs...He he!!

Reaching Harbour Front we took a cable car ride to Sentosa Island. well only anto and I really took pleasure of this as both others shut their eyes throughout the ride and also screamed at us for risking their lives at such heights..Ha ha!! There was this Star cruise we saw on the way all complete with swimming pool looking awesome from above.

We then set off to see the butterfly and Insect Park. As it is the guys had enough butterflies to see walking around and now tere were ones flying around too..Hmm..What to do!! Let them enjoy all of them!!

Then went to see the underwater aquarium..what a pleasure to count the teeth of such huge fish..he he..I loved the touch of those ray fish but a bit slimy..Yeah what else did I expect!! The layout is what impressed me the most here especially the horizontal escalators or travellators. Good for my already aching legs!!

Went to see the dolphin show which was really cute..The dolphins impressed us with their tricks and stunts.I wished I was chosen to go down and touch them.I sceamed my lungs out to be chosen too but bad luck!! On the way back we took a ride on the no roof bus around the island. Come on..I had to pinch my legs to check they were there by now and it was scorching hot!!

In the night we went to Little India. Here was our land and people just replanted in a foreign land. There were the road side food, the tender coconut stalls and even the paan waalas. Well no land without an Indian!! Also dropped by Mustafa center where supposedly every Indian goes to according to Singaporeans. Just reminded me of a "Mega" Big Bazaar!!

Cozed up in the room watching Zee Music the only channel that's familiar!!

And we took off!!

What a start t a journey. just a day for Bangalore to decide to start raining cats and dogs. Instead of washing away all my tensions for the trip it just doubled it. Was this a bad omen?? My mind was at unrest...

But then I kind of composed myself to get into the airport for check in. Gosh!! the airport of te silicon valley sure has a long way to go when compared to even the Muscat airports i saw 5 years ago!! As Anto was saying..."Most disappointing!Can't even find a Tinkle digest to read in here."

Well yeah habits never change and so does Indian sentiments. Here was Vishak who started crying on his mom's shoulder for a week's departure. Hmm...now that was a huge comedy. I escaped before i could laugh out aloud..

Lot has changed over the ears. Gone was a time when my mom used to cram our cabin luggage. Now a days people travel real light. Technology seems to have taken over life. Music player's, mobiles, laptops, palm tops and what not!! And speaking of technology we met the man himself..Azim Premji...Did go over to him and talk to him..And tell him that I loved his speech at last year's Wipro annual day!!

India's national insect was here too, waiting for boarding. Anto and I was instructing one of them as to who was a better prey! at the end of the day we all were tired and exhausted especially KD who reached the airport at 7.45pm for 12am departure. That too delayed for 1.5 hours thanks to rains.

So all i remember was getting in the airplane and sleeping..In between there was Vishak ordering beer,eating the airhostress brain and then snooze!!!

And here I go!!

There's a messenger status i believe in and se often, "When life ets mundane a new chapter begins."..Well that's exactly what I felt whne my manager called me to tell me that I was selected for an onsite visit to Singapore and Malaysia. an oppurtunty that knocked at my door very early in my tenure at HP and I opened the door all beaming and blushing as most noticed!!

So here goes my experiences along with the other 3 characters who would be a part of this blog for a few days now, Anto, Vishak and KD. Yeah I know, I get stuck as the only girl in most occassions....

Kya kare!!

There are certain objects we grow so attached to in life. It could be little things gifted to us, or things we use through a long time. They might be of any monetary value but they are priceless according to us.

I have grown attached to many such things in life. My 3310 mobile that I refuse to change is one. I have used it for the past 5 years with not even one servicing and I refuse to buy a new one unless and until this fails me. This is the first asset I bought with my own money. There are certain pieces of jewellery given to me that I refuse to part with. The list just goes on and on. It is very characteristic of Cancerians to grow attached to little things.

This is not exactly what I am worried about. I get very uncomfortable when someone asks me to lend them something I consider so precious. I am facing this problem with my Sony camera these days. I never know what to tell people who ask for it. My electronic stuff have always been a treasure to me and this tops the list as I bought it on my birthday for myself after I came to Bangalore.

I can never handle such situations. I can’t say “No” in a cut right manner as well as this would be people I like. I never understand how others handle it. I make some excuse or another but it hurts me too thinking I am lying to the person concerned. Well I guess sometimes there is nothing to do!!

My desktop

I wanted to take up this tag to share something special in my life. Well not the desktop, actually. This has been my desktop appearance for quite some time now. It does change occasionally but always to a Krishna photo. This adoration towards Krishna is something I share since a long time and that traces back to the time when "Mahabharath" serial was aired.

During that time we were in Muscat and those were the days where cable TV was non existent. Once in a month the 4 episodes shown that week on TV used to be made cassette and released in the video shops. We caught up with the craze quite late so did manage to see most of the videos toegther.

How much I used to enjoy them!! The attraction was that Lord Krishna was never perfect. He was naughty, he was cunning, he was deceptive and still God! Whenever I used to get naughty I used to pray to him to forgive me. Later on in life this continued. There would always be a Krishna Idol or photo somewhere in my room, definite.

There goes my desktop story!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday. Now not that I actually remember birthdays especially because we celebrate birthdays according to star signs. It changes every year to a new date so I lose track.

I asked mom what she got on her birthday (My gifts are usually postponed to the next time I go home!) She started off in the over excited tone. I knew by the tone she was blushing and out of the world. She says Dad surprised her, took her to Malabar Gold and bought her a pair of earrings. He also bought her a new saree.

This is something usual if you ask me. The unusual fact was the love and happiness from my mom’s voice. I wondered firstly, that any day if my mom is presented with gold or saree she will react the same way. I have always seen her like this and it is amazing it never changes with years.

And as usual I admire the togetherness in my parents’ life. They seem to have new chapters in their life every now and then. They still do stuff to make each other feel special and hmm…still do petty fights too!!! They are complete with each other..

I am bored!!

I am psyched due to inactivity. This happens once in a while or what the hell it happens every two weeks…When I feel I am not doing anything at all.. I maybe having a nice time, I maybe enjoying myself at office and doing something or another during the weekend still I feel psyched due to inactivity!

This is what having super weekends like the last one to Malpe beach does to me.. You feel such a high at one point of time where you try to cram as much as possible into 24 hours. You try to do as much as possible during those hours that the rest of the week irritates you.

I always have a nice time during weekends. However sometimes I miss work when it is Sunday. I feel like being at work. It’s just the grass is green on the other side effect. I always want opposite of what I am doing at the moment. If I am busy, I want to relax. If I am idle, I want to be busy.

And now I seem to have reached a point blank state of mind where I am not thinking anything at all. I don’t even know what I want. Moreover I don’t know why I am writing all this in the first place..Sigh!! Life goes on…