This trip was interesting from many perspectives. For one, I had simply no agenda. I landed in a new country with 13 days and no plan whatsoever. I started off by reading some magazine cutouts on the plane. Later, I figured out that the info was all online.

I ended up going up in a hot air balloon to take in the awesome sight of a lit-up Singapore at night, seeing more than a thousand toys at a toys museum, cycling in an island, sleeping in a library, deep in philosophical conversations by the beach, trekking alone for 20 km in a water reservoir area, watching a 12-year old kid strum ‘Hotel California’, have my roots shaken, admire ancient societies, saw an Indian National Army monument, visited the world’s largest fountain, had mouth-watering Indian food at Bombay Express Cafe, grooved to Felix Da Housecat’s mixing skills at the Zouk Club, prayed at the Krishna Temple on the first day of the new year, saw animals like mousedeer, bat-eared fox, sugar glider and east african bongos at the Night Safari, saw remote-controlled kites being flown, and so on.

There were two big things for me in this trip.

One was spending time with my friends Abishek Nair and Ashish Dantu. Thanks a ton guys for being such great hosts, for the conversations, for making me watch Russell Peters at 2 am, for all the fun we had, and for teaching me so many things without ever having to say anything.

The second thing was coming away inspired. Inspired by the pulse of the city, inspired by their belief that “it’s possible.” ‘It’ just needs a vision, a decision and a team to execute. On the other hand, I’m terrified that people are progressing so fast and working towards their dreams and I’m getting left behind.

I had a lot of time to think, inside out. Putting life into perspective. As Einstein once said “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” So, it’s good to step back once in a while and think about the big picture of your life. The challenge is to avoid getting lost again in the daily grind, which is so hard.

In fact, it’s interesting how many people actually go through these step-back-and-breathe phases, it’s just that it is completely hush-hush, and understandably so, it’s a very personal thing.

On the other hand, there’s so much happening out there from things like man-made islands to the King Abdullah Economic City, an entire city being built on the sea!

This trip made me see how the world is changing and how I should change, rather than me just being a ‘frog in the well’ and not knowing what’s really going on ‘out there’.

Travelling is a necessity for me, not a luxury. It’s my way of overcoming implosion. Our ancestors understood this. As an old Kannada saying goes: “desha noDu, kosha vodu” (roughly translates to “Travel the world, Read books”).

So, I ran a couple of times in my Singapore trip, and I liked the route so much that on Day 13 (Thu, Jan 03, 2008), I started taking photos.

I start right from getting out of Abishek and Ashish’s apartment and getting down the stairs.

This is a proper urban area, not outside the city. Don’t be fooled by the greenery.

Was listening to “Heartbeat – Instrumental” from ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’.

Was listening to “Far Away” by Nickelback.

I love the wide open spaces they have kept for public usage right in the middle of a square area with huge apartments on all sides.

Was listening to “Ninnindale” from Milana (Kannada movie).

It was good to see so many runners around. The best part is that people accept it as normal behavior. And cyclists are given their due respect.

The most startling thing was when I was waiting to cross the road, the vehicles will stop (irrespective of traffic) and ask you to go ahead first. It was actually irritating at first to experience this, but soon got used to it.

Was listening to “Endings” by Dusty Hughes.

Was listening to “One Thing” by Finger Eleven.

What more can a running enthusiast like me ask for?

P.S. If you’re curious on why people run, watch the trailer of the Marathon Movie.

Then, there was this whole one hour dedicated to hearing viewpoints from Veerappa Moily, Swathi Ramanathan and the general public regarding Bangalore’s infrastructure.

Okay, okay, I know most of you by now are saying “Oh, come on, don’t you have anything else to talk about? You’re so boring”. Maybe I am, but when I shift most of my “outside” chores to the middle of the day just to avoid traffic, and hate going out on Sundays because of long queues for everything, it affects me and I’d like to know if the situation can improve or not.

I liked how Swathi Ramanathan explained that the business people have come together to pitch in their part. The way they’ve analyzed the 15 critical junctions leading to the Bangalore International Airport which should have good roads otherwise traffic will bottle up here and will throw us into further crisis, err okay, I’ll stop here.

It reminded me of the Singapore 1:1 Island Exhibition I visited on Day 12 (Jan 02, 2008) of my Singapore trip.

(To be honest, I was a little hesitant to write about this topic, even though this is my space, my blog. The last time I wrote something, people wrote in to say that I’m not Indian enough because I talked negative about our current situation and asked me to go ‘home’ to Singapore or USA!)

You can see many more photos in my Day 12 photo album.

I absolutely loved their Skyline newsletters where they discuss the upcoming developments. Do check out their last Nov/Dec 2007 edition. I can almost guarantee you that you’ll come away inspired, especially the Design Wonders section.

It’s not so much about Singapore that amazed me, it’s the fact that they have such a vision about the place they want to live in, and the effort that goes into planning of such things, the importance given to design and architecture, and finally ensuring proper execution.

And it is a seemingly open process. Visiting the Urban Redevelopment Authority website shows the first sidebar on the left which says “I need info on Master Plan / Land Use Planning / etc.”

Maybe that’s what we need for cities like Bangalore?

It would help if things were more transparent, instead of the government hiding facts like a part of Lalbagh that would be razed for the metro. Or something like what Stefan Magdalinski did with TheyWorkForYou?

CitizenMatters.in seems to be a step in the right direction, but at the end of the day, it’s just competing with the hyperbolic news channels. I think a more useful idea would be a website with a categorical depth of works happening in the different parts of the cities, the government offices involved, what is being done, and so on. But the website is still useful, for example, via an article on ward works came to know about this:

Coalition Against Corruption Guru Ravindranath Tel: 65734444

If you have noticed any governmental apathy in your area, CAC and Guru Ravindranath will guide you in fixing things.

Question is: Would I call Mr. Guru if I do come across something? I have this eternal fear regarding these issues about getting into something that I’ll regret.

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.

Incident 7. Abishek and myself were sitting by the river in Clarke Quay in Singapore on new year’s eve waiting for the clock to strike midnight. The atmosphere was full of revelry with all the Singaporean youth spraying foam on each other or boozing away or chatting. What’s amazing is that women freely walk around without any fear. I’ve seen women in Singapore walk at 2 am freely with clothes that redefine what ‘mini skirt’ stands for.

On the other hand, Abishek pointed out that in India, at new year’s eve, there were incidents of molestation in Mumbai, eveteasing by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s sons, Patna boys barge into a girls hostel, Kochi revelers molest a 15-year old Swedish girl and so on.

Oh, and this is not just inside India. As churumuri puts it, you can take the Indian out of India, but can you take India out of the Indian?

Incident 8. When I was in PUC, I had many a time seriously considered politics as a career (all that “desh ke liye kuch karna hain” funda) but goondaism isn’t my cup of tea, so I dropped the whole idea. Seriously. If you want to survive in politics in India today, you have to know some rowdys or goondas to back you up, or you’re gonna end up in pieces in a ditch somewhere. We all know the familiar story of S Manjunath who ratted out on how the Mittal petrol pump in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh are doing adulteration and he got shot by the owner’s son Monu Mittal and his goons.

Politics in India is simply terrible.

On the other hand, Singaporeans may have less press freedom and such, but I am okay with that compared to the circus that we have here.

Incident 9. Another incident I have to come know of is that there was some random old person who was suffering from a High BP attack and was going in an auto to his hospital where he was undergoing treatment. First, the auto guy literally dumps him on the pavement, takes the old man’s money and runs away. All this in broad daylight. IIRC, that too in Koramangala, one of the posh areas in Bangalore. Second, there are 10-20 people who surround and watch him and do nothing. Third, nothing happened until Vikram (Abishek’s friend) was passing by, shocked at all this, talked to the old man, who somehow was able to convey which hospital he was going to. Vikram took him to the hospital on bike. Fourth, the hospital said they can’t admit without some identification! Vikram said “He’s your patient, please look up your records and please treat him urgently.” They repeated the same statement. Fifth, Vikram who was fed up, says “Maybe Times of India would like to do a story on this.” Suddenly, the hospital staff spring into action and look up his records and take the old man in to the doctor. Sixth, Vikram comes out shaken and calls up Abishek and asks “What if this is my father tomorrow? What would happen to him? What kind of city do we live in?” Pop quiz : How many things are wrong/sad in this picture?

These are real incidents, real stories. Seriously.

Incident 10. What can we do in a place where people have to bribe to get death certificates? Aren’t the families mourning enough already?

Again, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We are just struggling for the basics of life, maybe that’s why we can’t seem to go beyond that.

Sportspersons are fighting for basic equipments, for basic facilities. No wonder they can’t move beyond to think of fighting against the competition. Cricket is an exception for exactly this reason – because the cricketers are so well-paid, they move to the next level in Maslow’s hierarchy and actually concentrate on the game. This becomes a virtuous cycle and hence the game is flourishing.

Apply the same concepts to the other aspects such as political or economical, and you’ll notice that we’re still fighting the same everywhere.

Let me repeat, Post-independence, is there anything to be proud of India, the nation?

I can’t think of anything. And what’s worse, I put this across to a few close friends, and they didn’t offer anything too. In a way, I was glad that it’s not just me, but many others feel the same way too. The sad part is that many others feel the same way too.

Incident 11. The Press likes to make it a point to hail people of Indian origin like Lakshmi Mittal (Mittal Steel) or Indra Nooyi (Pepsi) or Vikram Pandit (Citibank) and how they have risen to those powerful positions. But why is it that they were able to do it only when they’re out of India, not when they are here in India? Isn’t this a common refrain? I again trace it back to Maslow’s hierarchy. Most talented people I know all want to get out of India so that they can do serious work. Sad, but true. Including Abishek who’s now in Singapore making ads for China, Middle East, India, Pakistan, all in Singapore. He would’ve probably never got an opportunity like this in India. And yes, he’s the brains and technical person behind many ads in India you would see from Limca to Airtel to Pepsi.

Again, I see people here in Singapore indulging in running, cycling, shopping and they’re seriously into arts, and so on. They are building a culture. Even partying till late into the night at Clarke Quay or shopping 24×7 at Mustafa and so on. And it’s completely safe for women as well. How do they do that!?

Imagine that a 42×28 km country like Singapore (one of the 20 smallest countries in the world and at the same time the 2nd most densely populated country in the world) is hosting a Formula 1 race in 2008, is bidding for the 2010 Olympic Youth Games, etc.

A country that is more than 4500 times bigger and has 250 times more population is still struggling for basic needs (numbers derived from Wikipedia’s estimates of population and size).

Yes, our problems are bigger and more varied, but the politicians and the press talk about Bangalore becoming something like Singapore in 20 years or so! We are already comparing us vs them.

We can’t even get basic water supply or road transit facilities to an upcoming world-class Bangalore International Airport? (And the only reason it’s world-class is because we outsourced it). Why are things so bad? It’s not the money, we have enough of it. Is it the people? But the capability is there. So what’s really wrong? Is it the leadership? I guess we do really need visionaries who execute like Lee Kuan Yew Is it the attitude of the general population? Is it both? Or something else?

I don’t know, I am disillusioned.

I bought into the kool-aid and that whole India 8% growth story. I want my money back.

Well, people can say that Singapore has no real freedoms, you’re just a puppet and so on. I have an analogy for that. We need a class teacher to maintain discipline (law and order) so that the classes can proceed and progress can be made, otherwise there will be just noise and only people who somehow learn to not get affected by the noise and study on their own (businessmen who succeed). It’s not like there is no freedom, you can always raise your hands and talk to the class teacher (citizens representation to the government) or at least approach the teacher after class hours (write to them)… Irrespective of the type of government (democracy or autocracy or whatever), maintaining discipline should be the primary responsibility of the government, which is what is lacking in India today. For example, why is it that the same Indians who go to places like Singapore suddenly start following the rules? Because they know they’ll be fined otherwise. And once people start respecting each other, keep the premises clean, and maintain civic behavior, things automatically start looking better.

On the other hand, on Bangalore roads, I face road rage everyday. That’s why I prefer to listen to songs on my iPod, so that I can tune out all these unruly people.

Sigh.

I really want to go back to that hotel and argue with the owner. But I have nothing. Nothing.

India is No. 115 out of 157 in the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom. I have no idea what that means, but I’m sure it’s not a good thing.

Even in a “forward” state like Karnataka, nearly three-fourths of rural eighth standard students cannot do basic subtraction, fewer than half of the schools have all teachers present, and only 7.4 per cent of students in standards 3 through 5 can read a sentence in English. The report is simply depressing.

Even our IT boom is debatable.

I hope someday I can go back to the hotel owner and defend India.

Someday.

Hope.

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.

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.

Then, on Day 7 (Dec 28 Fri), Chinmay and me visited the KaalaChakra - Wheel of Time : Early Indian Influence in Southeast Asia Exhibition.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much time because I went there just before the closing time. From what I saw, I was amazed to learn how much influence early India had wielded over most of Asia! From religion to language to politics to trade to war to art to architecture to tamil inscriptions to ancient Libraries to even the Ramayana and Mahabharata (Buddhist Thailand have their own version)!

I used to be surprised about Tamil being one of the three official languages of Singapore, especially with the announcements in the subway trains. In this exhibition, I learned that there is a lot of history to it and it’s not just because of recent migration of Indians to all over the world. Sometimes, a little knowledge of history and culture can have such practical utility.

On Day 11 (Jan 01 Tue), Abishek, Ashish and me visited the On The Nalanda Trail: Buddhism in India, China and Southeast Asia exhibition.

I have to admit that I’m surprised that I visited so many museums and history exhibitions – I used to find history one of the most boring subjects in school! I guess the presentation has been so good in the museums that they make it interesting. It helps that they choose interesting topics.

This exhibition was about the influence of Nalanda University in the spread of Buddhism.

I was surprised to learn about the Nalanda University – there were more than 10,000 students from China, Tibet, Myanmar, Japan, Korea, Sumatra, Java and Sri Lanka. All this in the 5th to 12th centuries! I wonder how they came to even know about such a university when there was no newspapers, television or internet! And they would have had to walk for months or years across forests and mountains to reach this university. And how did they even know the route? In spite of all this, they came to attend this university. Mind-blowing.

The subjects of study varied from Buddhism to Sanskrit grammar, logic, medicine and philosophy. There was an oral exam for admission.

Some of the kings who were patrons included Ashoka, Kanishka, Ming Di (China), Devanampiya (Sri Lanka). There was a map that showed the various edicts erected by Ashoka. There were dots in the India section. I was shocked that one of them was listed as ‘Jayanagar’. They were referring to the Ashok Pillar! It’s a traffic circle today! I never knew there was such a history behind it. I was embarrassed because it’s right down the main street from my home, and I never knew this. And people from all over the world visiting Singapore looking at this map might be thinking that it is some important monument, an important piece of history. Eeeks.

Another interesting aspect was seeing statues from 2-10 century on loan from Indian Museum Kolkata, 8th century paintings from Patna Museum, 11th century bronze statues from National Museum Delhi, and so on. It’s ironic that I came from India to Singapore to view artifacts from Indian museums.

It’s sad that Nalanda was destroyed by Muslim invasion and abandoned as Buddhism in India lost following gradually.

I also never knew that Buddhism and Hinduism were so interlinked. For example, there was a statue of Siddhartha’s birth from his mother Mayadevi with the Shiva and Brahma gods flanking on either side.

Scholars such as Xuanzang and Yijing from China studied and went back, Tao Cheng stayed back – they all came to study monastic practices at Nalanda. The major efforts they undertook were translation of scriptures including Mahayana scriptures and Sanskrit scriptures.

It’s amazing how much advanced a university we had in the 5th-12th century. Imagine the possibilities if it still existed today!

It’s sad that the only reason Nalanda is in the news these days is because 15 male students tried to barge into the girls hostel in a drunken state on 2008 New Year’s Eve at the Nalanda Medical University hostel.

It seems like that we seem to be growing as a society backwards. We’re nowhere near the level of advancement that these ‘ancient’ societies had attained – whether it was politics, sports, society structure or culture and philosophy.

“I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.” - Steve jobs in Newsweek, Oct. 29, 2001

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.

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.

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.