I’ve been provoked and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Incident 1. It all started on Day 2 of my Singapore trip (Dec 23 Sun) when a hotel owner was too friendly. Maybe he didn’t have much work, but anyway, he got pretty chatty with us and was asking about how we like Singapore. All we wanted to do was eat noodles.

He started talking about his visit to India, and like most Singaporeans, he had been on a Buddhist pilgrimage to India. I can still remember the angst in his voice.

He said that the central government in India is good but the state governments are bad. Strike 1. I had to agree.

He said that it’s not a safe place for businessmen to invest money. He said one of his close friends made huge investment, but when the government changed, the policies changed and the friend made a huge loss. Strike 2. I don’t know much about such things, but I can imagine that it is possible.

He said that India hasn’t advanced enough, there’s still too much poverty, there’s still so much chaos. He said ‘take a look at China’. For example, if the parents invest some amount with the government, they’ll give back 10 times the amount in 10 years, or something like that, and this is guaranteed by the government to safeguard the child’s future. I don’t remember the numbers he used but I was impressed with what he said. Strike 3.

I was beaten and didn’t know how to fight back.

I’m not a patriotic guy. I don’t go around burning boards written in non-state languages, nor do I go around speaking only in Hindi and refusing to speak in English. But I believe in the concept of India as a nation and I instinctively feel that I should defend my country when someone makes says negative about my country.

But I was stumped. I was completely caught off-guard. I didn’t know what to say. I just nodded. I desperately looked for things to tell him. But I got nothing. Throughout the trip, I kept thinking of things to go back and tell that hotel guy that India is a great country, but what do we really have?

Specifically, the question is:

Post-independence, does India, as a nation, have achievements to be proud of?

I’m not talking about our ancient history or ‘culture’. I’m not talking about what some Indian did when he went to a foreign country, or even someone who went out of his way to achieve something within India (like the paeans being written about Tata Motors and their Nano car).

I’m talking specifically about the 1. post-independence era and the 2. ‘as a nation’ part.

A week after that incident, I was still trying to forget about it. But the same thing happened again on Day 9 (Dec 30 Sun) with the store owner of a bookstore that Abishek and myself randomly walked into. We had a long conversation about Buddhism and our beliefs of God and how we pray. It’s surreal that we randomly started talking our intimate spiritual beliefs with a complete stranger. But such is life. And then she mentioned the same exact things that the hotel owner did. She specifically mentioned that she was appalled at the poverty when she went to Bodh Gaya.

Yes, we are talking about poverty, not just about the beggars on the busy roads of Bangalore, but he fighting-for-food kind, the kind that we saw in ‘Swades’ movie.

Incident 2. After visiting the Kaala Chakra exhibition, I realized how influential India has really been, especially to most of South East Asia, from language to politics to trade, Indian-related stuff is everywhere in South East Asia. I used to wonder about why Tamil is such a common language here in Singapore, and only after I visited this exhibition, I realized that this goes back to the B.C. ages!

Notice the irony that I got to know more about Indian history and influence when I’m outside India.

Probably because there is such importance given to history and culture in Singapore. But people in India have no time for such things, we are still fighting and struggling for our basic needs.

This immediately reminded me of “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”:

We are still struggling in Levels 1-3, that’s why we are just touching Level 4, and we’re a long way from reaching Level 5 of Self Actualization. At least, my point of view.

Incident 3. I know there will be lots of people that say that I’m wrong, and that everything’s fine in India. (It reminds me of Rahul Bose in the “Everybody Says I’m Fine” movie.)

The problem is that everything’s fine as long as nothing bad happens to you or you witness it, only then you realize how bad the situation is. God forbid, you end up in an accident, only then you realize the problems with the police, the hospital, the insurance, and so on. The situation is the same everywhere, irrespective of the aspect of life.

I don’t know how better or worse we are compared to other countries, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be in a better situation. There is simply no reason to! We have the money, the people, the resources…

Incident 4. I came to know recently that at a premier medical institution in Bangalore, teachers are openly telling students that if they don’t “help” the teachers (i.e. pay them money), they will make sure that 30% of the students will fail! I am not kidding you, this is for real. Where’s the sanctity of education? Where’s the concern for the students’ future? Where’s the concern for encouraging future doctors (especially because the number of doctors is already dwindling)? Where’s the concern about setting precedents for future of medical profession? Even if they don’t think long term, how will students afford this? I know many medical student friends who have struggled to pay the hefty fees, what about these students who simply cannot afford to pay bribes to teachers?

Incident 5. Similarly, lecturers in PUC colleges have stopped teaching in college and they tell students that they are anyway going to tuitions. If not, they should join their own tuitions! What happens to all those students who can’t afford it?

Incident 6. Abishek’s close friend and special effects friend Osmand is a third-generation Indian. When he was about to fly from India to China to visit his relatives, he was abused that he was a Chinese person, and this for a person who’s born and brought up in India his entire life! The difference in attitudes was telling when the Indian immigration officer made him wait for 3 hours to prove that he’s an Indian compared to when he explained, that he’s a third-generation Indian originally hailing from China, to the Chinese immigration officer, he said “Welcome home.” Now, Osmand is as Indian as it gets, irrespective of how it looks. Tell me, who’s the racist here? Osmand is so fed up of this attitude that he wants to go back to China.

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On Day 7 (Dec 28, 2007) of the Singapore Trip, I visited the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. Esplanade can be compared to a jumbo-sized version of our own Rangashankara but on a much grander scale – while Rangashankara is a place where plays are produced and played (pun intended), Esplanade is a place for all kinds of performing arts including music. It has a 1,600 seat concert hall and a 2,000 seat theater. It was opened in Oct 2002 and within 5 years, it had 5000 performances and 20 million visitors.

What I was impressed most with Esplanade was the story behind it from the conception to its architecture. There was a ‘Passages’ exhibition on display explaining the story and I watched 3 videos on the TV screens and I was very inspired.

The ideas was originally conceived in the 80s by the then Culture Minister of Singapore. However, he realized the time was not right for a performing arts center when they’re still building a nation. In the last decade, the same person became the Prime Minister and got things moving. There was a long process of conceptualizing what Esplanade stands for, and in the end they said it’s a performing arts center for the people, and the stress on the ‘common people’ aspect can be seen in every decision, in every aspect of the place.

For example, the weird open-glass structure was a result of their focus on “for the people”. How? They wanted common people walking by to be able to look inside on what’s happening and to consider it part of their society and that they can participate as well, and not think of it as just some building for some crazy artists. So, the structure had glass through which people can see, but considering the climate, the architects came up with the leaf-like structure which can be controlled by computers to fold. The result was that during the daytime, people can look inside as well as the sun’s heat gets inside the building. During night, the metal leaves are closed, and the heat remains inside. What a beautiful design! In fact, this architecture has won many awards.

Similarly, they set up restaurants inside the complex so that the general public can use this as an excuse to visit the place. Even the shape of the building is like the common-in-Singapore durian fruit for the very same reason!

On Day 8 (Dec 29, 2007), I went back to Esplanade to experience the free weekend concerts at the WaterFront called “stage@powerhouse”, and boy, was I impressed with the local talent.

There was a performance by ‘The Rhythm Chefs’ who make music out of kitchen utensils! It sounds stupid, I know, but seeing these guys performing live, their music was actually catchy.

Later in the night, they got the audience involved from tourists to mostly kids who were excited at being able to bang away to make some music together.

As I’ve written before, notice how Singaporeans make things as visual and as interactive as possible. The crowd really liked the make-your-own-music session.

There was also a stage show by bands such as the ‘Peep Show’ band. They were decent but the lyrics were way too clichéd. I liked the tune of one of their songs “I know”. There was also a performance by a band called ‘Comic Strip’ (if I’m not mistaken) and they were more of a big orchestra doing everything from pop to salsa-like songs. They kept the crowd dancing by the bay, although I couldn’t understand which language the singer was crooning in (apparently it was English, no offense meant).

The best performance of all, was a performance of ‘Hotel California’ by a couple of 12-year old kids. We were so blown away, Abishek, Srinivas and myself, we were just speechless. The kids were supported by an experienced guitarist guiding them (but carefully and sometimes slyly letting the kids do most of the music). He said “Please don’t think that your 12-year old children or nephews or nieces just listen to music, they can play well too. I would encourage you to send them to Esplanade and help them learn to play music just like these talented kids right here.”

It was interspersed with the singing performance of a teenager girl. She had surprisingly good control over her voice and sung some popular pop and rock songs.

I seriously wonder if I have any talent in anything that can match these kids. Damn.

Even on the way back down the underground passages to get to the subway trains, there were paintings and artwork by 5-year old and 6-year old kids all over the passage.

True story.

On Day 7 of my Singapore trip (Dec 28, 2007), Chinmay and myself were at ‘The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’ shop. The lady in front of us in the queue said this. When we heard this, both of us looked at each other, with the look that meant “Did I just hear that right?”, and then we burst into laughter.

P.S. Oh, and this is my first ToonDoo. ToonDoo has way too many bugs, it took me one attempt to create the comic strip, but 15 min of 4-5 attempts to actually get it to save properly. Even now, the text cloud in the first panel is in the wrong direction even though it was proper when creating it.

On Day 5 of my Singapore trip (Dec 26 Wed), Abishek and myself visited the Greek Masterpieces from Louvre exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore. This was the largest collection ever to be allowed to be borrowed from the famous Louvre museum in Paris (which you might have heard of from ‘The Da Vinci Code’ book).

The exhibition was so comprehensive that I was amazed. I raised my eyebrows on seeing a ‘Sports’ section and went on to read stuff like this:

Untranslatable, the word ‘agon’ denotes a gathering, and more specifically games and competitions, but also struggle, combat and battle, a trial or a debate, and a critical moment even. Personified by a winged man running, the notion underlies the whole of Greek civilization which has been described as ‘agonistic’ that is founded on the spirit of competition.

Then, I remembered that Olympics Games were started in Olympia, Greece. Duh. But the important thing to note is that they started it in 7th century BC! They gave sports so much importance more than 2500 years ago, and compare it to the situation today in India, except for cricket (My theory is that cricket was made popular because it is the perfect advertiser-friendly game ever, where else will you get a 15-20 second ad break after every few minutes i.e. an over!)

Next, I learned that theater was about politics and way to live, and the audience was paid to attend including their wages for several days since they would have to take off work to attend these plays! Now, that is a truly modern society!

There was so much more that I just couldn’t digest it all in such a short time: poetry, sports, religion, philosophy – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, schooling children with 3 teachers on specific areas of life, religion linked to running of the state and city – including patron deities protecting the city such as Athena for Athens, heroes such as Heracles (Roman ‘Hercules’), Achilles, Ulysses, Paris, etc., Zeus was King of Gods, there were 12 Olympian Gods including third-generation gods and goddesses, Alexander the Great was the greatest conqueror of all time, Romans stole most of the Greek artifacts since they were obsessed with Greek history and so they made copies of Greek statues and much of what we know about Greece is actually from these Roman copies.

A very interesting section of the exhibition was the “Dress like a Greek” section. There were a couple of robes kept, just like the ones you see the Senators wear in ‘The Gladiator’. There were directions in a poster on the wall. People took interest in trying it out and taking snaps. I was amazed at how they make everything visual and interactive in Singapore. This idea was a masterstroke in my honest opinion, because it makes something like history that can be so dry to be accessible and understandable for a layman. There were more sections such as a huge wall for kids to write their own sequels to the story of Troy (basically where Odyssey by Homer took off), and there were many hilarious writings by the kids.

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It was Day 2 of my trip (Dec 23 Sun). My plan was to go in the DHL balloon so that I can get a good view of Singapore. When I reached the MRT station, I suddenly got interested in randomly walking around. I really wanted to see the place.

After more than an hour of walking around in the hot sun, I came across a really huge building. I got curious and tried to figure out the name – it was the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. It’s a library?! I just had to get in there, for the AC as well as to explore the books collection. I thought it was a good idea since it would be relaxing. After all, the point of a vacation is to do things you wouldn’t do in daily life, as well as to have a relaxing or invigorating fun time. At least, that’s my definition of a vacation.

I went in, saw many rows of shelves. I clearly avoided the row which had some books with some strange titles like “Java & XML”, I wonder what that’s all about. I picked up a few books from the other rows and went and sat down at the benches. Lots of people were studying, with music on, writing down notes in their laptops and utilizing the free wifi.

I started reading a book titled something like “The Practice of Philosophy – A Handbook for Beginners”. Unfortunately, within ten minutes, I was sleepy. Either it was the exhaustion and lack of sleep the previous night, or it was the subject. I went and sat on the couches and started to doze off. I was encouraged by the fact that there was some other Indian dude also sleeping.

After a while, I realized I was snoring, and there were other new people around trying to read, so I went and washed my face. Then, I went down to Level 1 to give a phone call to Abishek Nair (my gracious host for the trip). He was laughing that I came all the way to Singapore to sit in a library and read some books! He told me to come over to his company VHQ Post (an advertising post-production i.e. visual effects company) in an hour so that he can show me around.

After that, I stood near the wide glass and I look left and see the DHL balloon right there! It was funny since I wasn’t actively looking for it.

I went back inside the library, the books were still there. This time I started reading a book more closer to my tastes – “The Runner’s Handbook” by Bob Glover, and I went prepared with my iPod. Music always gets me going. I started playing “Sutrum Vizhi” and started reading. I started with the nutrition/fuel section because that’s where most of my problems are. Then started taking down some notes:

• Hitting “the wall” refers to that point when you run short of glycogen. This is an experience that every runner should try
  • once. After you’re survived it, you will respect the need to prepare better for your next marathon.
• Learn the values of long training runs, tapering, eating plenty of carbos, and not starting too fast. Ignoring these factors all contribute to hitting “the wall.”
• Most often associated with marathons. After an hour and a half or so of running, you begin to run low on glycogen. For most runners that will be 10-13 miles into a run. The average well-trained runner may store enough glycogen to last 15-20 miles, depending upon such as factors as pace, body weight, fitness level, and how well they loaded up on carbs going into the race.
• When you run low on glycogen, your body attempts to conserve what remains by burning more fat for energy. But since fat is 15% less efficient than carbs as an energy source, you are unable to hold your pace and have to slow dramatically (even though fat releases 9 cal/gm compared to 4 cal/gm for carbs and protein)
• Long training runs develop mechanisms for your body to utilize fat more efficiently throughout your race, thus “sparing” some glycogen for use later. Workouts at marathon pace and faster will also train your muscles to utilize carbs more efficiently at these paces. In addition, starting your race at a conservative pace will help conserve glycogen for later in the run. Tapering for a marathon combined with carb-loading is the key to surviving “the wall.”
• Back-of-the-pack runners benefit most from carb-loading.
  • Dr. Costill notes: The difference between elite and average marathoners is that even if both started out with the same amount of glycogen, the elite marathoner would spare it by burning a higher ratio of fat. Although more oxygen is required to burn fat, the highly developed oxygen transport system of the elite runner allows this. Furthermore, he moves more economically, which means that he uses less oxygen to accomplish the same task. The average runner, on the other hand, depletes his glycogen supply sooner and doesn’t have as efficient an oxygen transport system to burn fat. That’s why hitting the wall is so devastating and why carbohydrate loading is more important for the average runner than for the elite runner.
• For shorter runs (< 90 min), glycogen stores don’t get depleted much and hence carb intake isn’t as critical.

The best part is that I realized that this problem is not unique to me! It’s a documented scientific problem experienced by enough runners to have a section dedicated to it in a runners’ book. Now I know what the problem is! Next, I need to actually figure out how to train to tackle this which the book didn’t explain satisfactorily.

I had lost track of time because of the awesome reader-friendly environment and suddenly realized I was late. I then headed out to meet Abishek. I got to see all the whizbang gizmos they use to create all the special effects that you may or may not notice in the advertisements you see. These guys have amazing talent and patience to do the things they do. But that’s a story for another day.

I never really could imagine what Utopia could be like, but having stayed in Singapore for more than a week, I can say I don’t need to imagine it, it’s already here.

To be frank, it’s spooky, it’s eerie. I think it’s something taken straight from ‘Demolition Man’ script and something’s going to happen now. But it’s for real, and I can’t stop wondering WHY!? Why and how can things work so smoothly here?

Actually, a better description is the last scene in Ajnabee movie where Bobby Deol exposes Akshay Kumar’s password (in big bold letters): “EVERYTHING IS PLANNED.”

For example, let’s just consider the online component to Singapore which is jarring for the sheer depth of information available.

Want to visit Singapore? Sure, just head out to their Itinerary Planner, tell them how long you want to visit and who you’re coming with, and they’ll tell you what you can explore each day! Uniquely Singapore, indeed.

On the same note, everything has a website here:

• whether it is a mall
• whether it is an island
• whether it is a library
• whether it is a river cruise
• whether it is an upcoming garden
• whether it is a new year countdown
• whether it is a competition to paint dust bins to raise awareness
• whether it is a weekend bazaar
• whether it is podcasts from the national radio
• whether it is the latest events
• whether you want to figure out why or how you should visit/live/work in Singapore! (they even have a site specifically for Indian tourists)

Phew.

Oh, and the simplest best way to get around is to consult the Street Directory and it’ll tell you the best way to reach from anywhere to anywhere (including the exact building number) via the bus, metro, walk or driving directions.

That brings me to the topic of the well-planned metro which they call MRT (Mass Rapid Transport), you just need to check out the MRT map to figure out how to get to any place and since every train has a frequency of 6-8 min, you can always get there fast.

You can travel by bus as well and you’ll reach there fast too. In fact, the roads are so good that there will be a Formula 1 race in Singapore on the public streets. This is going to be the first ever F1 race in the night!

What I still do not understand is how such cleanliness, discipline (especially traffic) and order is maintained when there are no cops around! (I have seen them only once so far in the past 9 days).

I guess it has got something to do with this fact:

Singapore legislation requires every able-bodied male Singaporean citizen and second-generation permanent resident to undertake National Service for a minimum of 2 years upon reaching 18 years of age or completion of his studies (whichever comes first), with exemption on medical or other grounds. After serving the two years, every male is considered operationally ready, and is liable for reservist national service to the age of 40 (50 for commissioned officers). More than 350,000 men serve as operationally-ready servicemen assigned to reservist combat units, and another 72,500 men form the full-time national service and regular corps.

That is amazing. In case of any kind of emergency, every Singaporean man can face the problem and solve it then and there instead of wasting time waiting for “a cop”. Probably also explains why they are all so fit!

All this for just an island which is 42×28 km in size. It is one of the 20 smallest countries in the world and at the same time they are the second most densely populated country in the world.

And they’re still charging ahead.

The past month, I have been experiencing what I can only describe as a burnout. When I think about it, I have been juggling too many things, but they were not extraordinary tasks, so I wonder why I felt ‘stressed’.

Things have been so hectic that I even missed foss.in this year (I have attended every year since 2003) but good to know that it went so well.

The good thing was that the vacation was right around the corner which kept me going. Even an hour before leaving from home for the flight, I was struggling to complete chores.

I am now in Singapore, staying with my friends, and exploring the place since the last 5 days.

Singapore is a really amazing city to live in. Everything is streamlined. Even the fish in the Underwater World at Sentosa Island are RFID-tagged!

IIRC, I once saw a board that said there’s a 1000 SGD (singapore dollars) fine if you are found sitting on the stairs of the underground metro. I need to get one of those T-shirts that says ‘Singapore is a fine city’. Heh.

P.S. If you’re in Singapore too and want to meet up, give me a holler.

Update: Looks like Ben Rockwood is going through a strikingly similar phase.

Aug 10 2007 Fri 6 pm. After missing the last night drive that Azmi and Rishi went to, I wanted to go for a night drive too, and Azmi was happy to oblige.

At 10pm, I was at his house. We opened up Google Maps, MapMyIndia and the Weather.com. We decided to drive to Yercaud which was a good 205 km from Bengaluru. It involved Hosur Road, NH7 and NH68. Things looked good.

At 11pm, we decided to sleep for a couple of hours, get up at 1am, and start driving by 2am. We set the alarms and dozed off.

Azmi wakes me up at 2.15am. We’re late. We realize that both of us didn’t set the alarm properly on our mobile phones. Luckily, we didn’t wake up too late. As usual, Azmi, the chef, cooked something fast and satisfying – boiled corn and maggi.

At 3 am, we took out his Pulsar and started driving.

During the onward journey, Azmi did most of the driving, because he was more enthu, and I am not that used to night driving yet. Besides, there was just way too much lorry traffic on the road. Even at 4 am.

At 5 am, we had tea and dosa on a roadside shop. I wonder why food at such roadside places taste so much better than swanky restaurants.

We continued driving on the smooth road and enjoying the scenery and the speed.

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It was a crazy 4 day trip. Crazy because it was 8 related families going together, that’s a total of 23 people. 23. It should be easy to imagine the cacophony that followed…

The highlights of the trip was something like this: sultry mumbai atmosphere, hare krishna mandir, watching dabbawallas, mouth watering vada pav, fantastic four part 2, running on the beach and wide mumbai roads at 4.30 am, mumbai darshan, planetarium, aquarium, museum, marine drive, catching two buses and a local train and a boat to reach essel world, water rides in the rain in water kingdom, rain dance to bollywood songs, finding ice skating easy, jostling for life in local trains, lonavala, famous lonavala chikki, disappointed by khandala, air deccan flights, two days of sleep after coming back home.

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