Saga de Singapura - The Return

In this final post about my recent Singapore visit, I would like to mention all those unmentioned but interesting moments of this trip.
It starts with the Night Safari trip I had on Saturday evening. We first went to send off Darshan - Maheshbhai's 9 years old son to airport. He was flying back to Ahmedabad in Singapore Airlines. He came to Singapore for a two weeks vacation.

While waiting at the airport, I noticed this time table display. Its mechanical one and when the details change, its fun to watch each character/digit flips through to next character/digit. I wish though Changi Airport can afford to change this display to LED one, it should continue with this display as long as it can so that kids like me can have fun watching it flip through...

We reached Night Safari at 8:30pm and just after we bought tickets, it started raining very heavily for half an hour.

While waiting for rain to stop, we went for a drink and enjoyed some tropical fruit juices. We boarded the tram once the rain stopped and had a wonderful ride. After the ride, we watched animal show and it was indeed the best of all. Show lead person was Indian Singaporean girl and she was very hilarious but equally expert in her job.
On Monday evening, Ding and Joline took me out for a dinner. As I no more eat outside food and Monday was a fasting day for me, my diet was very much restricted.
I joined Ding from Paya Labor station and Joline joined us at City Hall station.
We went to a very expensive Japanese restaurant and while Ding and Joline enjoyed good meal, I sipped tomato juice. Interestingly, I had brought some papadum packs for Ding and Joline and in order to educate them on how to roast these papadums, we used the candle lights placed on the table... It did not work well and we ended up requesting the waiter to get it roasted in kitchen. He was not sure if the cook will agree to roast it for us but cook turned out to be equally nice and kind to us!

D and J were quick enough to enjoy it before I could take this picture :)
My return flight was on March 18th leaving at 1900HRS Singapore time. After Botanical garden visit and meeting in afternoon, I packed my luggage at around 1700HRS and then rushed to the airport. Earlier, at this airport, I noticed huge sign saying that liquids and gels are now allowed on board. I had packed huge bottles of shampoos in my hand bag as my check-in bag was already overweight by 10kg. When I reached at the gate, the security person there confiscated both bottles there... He said that liquids and gels purchased from duty free shops within airport are only allowed in carry-in bag and that too only upto 100ml per bottle. I regret that I did not read in-between lines in that huge sign at check-in counters.
Once I was in security area, I got busy sending final emails and text messages. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice: "Oiee! What are you doing here?" and I was surprised to see a friend from Las Vegas! He was Kishorbhai at whose motel in Las Vegas I stayed during my last visit in US. He and his wife were traveling to India to participate in Festival of Colors held on last Saturday.
After boarding the flight, he moved to a nearby empty seat and we kept on talking talking. When the plane started moving, a crew member noticed that he had not yet put his belt on and he rudely asked Kishorbhai to put on the belt. While Kishorbhai was definitely at fault, he did not deserve such rude treatment from that crew member and I took up this issue with him (the crew member) later once the flight reached its final altitude. After few arguments, he apologized for his rudeness and turned very friendly with Kishorbhai as well as me. When he came to serve my fruit platter, he noticed that I carried my own burger (thanks to Maheshbhai and his burger making skills) with me. He asked me if I would like to warm it up and I accepted his proposal very gladly :) He also offered me few butter packs and bread.
Funny thing happened after the landing. As I mentioned in my earlier post here, I chose the tail end seat to avoid any loo-disturbance and also to disembark quickly through the rear ladder. When the plane landed and stopped at Ahmedabad airport, I went to rear door and stood there waiting for it to get open... He (the crew member) told me that rear door would not open for passengers and all need to disembark from front door only. I was slight hesitant as in many of my past flights, I disembarked from rear gate and before I could make up my mind, the door opened and a ladder was there :) So, he was sorry one more time... Seems he was flying this sector first time.
Anyway, the trip is now over and with this final post, it will be virtually over too:)
For this trip, I wish:
1. P could join me in the trip... You should be above your attitude.
2. Sissie could come SG this time too...
3. C C Kaka was still in Singapore... so that he could take me to a day trip of KL.
4. I could visit X-Ray factory in Penang... so that we can proceed further to finalize on this matter.
5. I did not have tomato soup in that Japanese restaurant... I suspect there was onion in it.

Saga de Singapura - Botanical Garden

On Monday Mar 17th late evening, I got a text message from a friend requesting for a walk together in Singapore Botanical Garden... Botanical garden is located in very center of the city and has been one of the landmarks of Singapore. Founded in 1859, this garden has been long supporting the green of Singapore.

As I never had a chance to visit this place and my next day morning was relatively unoccupied, we planned to meet up at 12 noon there.

The day was perfect for a walk as it was partially cloudy blocking all harsh sunlight. The entrance gate is very thematic and worth photographing...

Our walk lasted for almost an hour and we had a very informal and non business talk all along. Whenever I could, I tried to capture the scene using my iPhone and below are some of the samples.

While the walk, I regretted my carrying the backpack and formal shoes... I wish I was light weighted and with sandals that I could walk barefooted and feel the land there. I also regretted that I did not bring my DSLR with me in this trip... this location is very perfect to try and improve my macro photography skills and also to capture as much green as my CF cards can hold.

In my next trip to Singapore, I want to spend at least half a day here and do some serious photography. It would be a nice place to bring someone special here and do a one to one talk :)

Saga de Singapura - Starbucks

It was long back since I had my favorite Java Chip in Starbucks and on Mar 15 Saturday afternoon, Maheshbhai, his son Darshan and me went to Starbucks on Orchard Road.
Entering Starbucks and smelling the atmosphere inside instantly brought all those sweet memories of many Starbucks visits during my last US trip...

The counter was pretty occupied and we had to wait for a while for our turn. As usual, I ordered my favorite and typical Java Chip - double pumps of mocha, light ice and double blended! The girl at the counter gave me a nice smile when she realized that she has to work little extra for making my Java Chip... Since Maheshbhai was experiencing Java Chip first time, I recommended the normal one for him. He liked it and thus, one more addition to Java Chip fan club!
My next visit to Starbucks in Singapore was at Changi Airport when I was to catch a flight back home. This time too, Maheshbhai was with me and after depositing my check in luggage, we spent some time at this Starbucks.

This time, since he too wanted Java Chip, I did something which only Desi like me would dare to do! If you have noticed on Starbucks menu, the price difference between Tall size drink and Venti one is not more than $2. In Singapore, Java Chip Grande costs S$6.30 and Java Chip Venti costs $7.80. If you have further noticed, size of Venti is almost double of that of Grande... Anything clicks in your mind??? YEA! We ordered Java Chip of Venti size and requested to pour this Venti into two cups... Starbucks has a policy to pour Venti size drinks to Grande cups and I did nothing wrong and saved S$4.50! Again, our Java Chip was double mocha, light ice and double blended so that chocolate chips don't get stuck in my teeth cavities...

The girl at the counter was very cheerful and appreciated of me "exploiting" Starbucks' kindness...
It was April 14th of last year when I was at the same Starbucks. I was on my way to LA and had a few hours stop over in Singapore.

Ding and Joline came to send me off and we had a good time at this Starbucks. I was Latte loyalist that time though.

Saga de Singapura - Singapore Flyer

On first day of my visit, I had meetings, meetings and just meetings but everything fell in place and I was free by 4pm. I met Maheshbhai, my host in Singapore at NSU where he is doing his Singapore government sponsored research in the field of the nano technology.
As we had about four hours to spend, we planned to visit the Singapore Flyer.
(Photo courtesy: www.SingaporeFlyer.com.sg)


Fortunately, when we arrived, there was no queue at ticket window. Ticket was a bit expensive S$29 per person but worth for the experience to follow.


Passing through metal detectors and a very small queue, we boarded one of the capsules of the wheel.


Along with us, there was a group of students, a couple from Malaysia and few others.

When our capsule rose slowly, Singapore skyline started appearing and when it reached top, the view was splendid.

It took about 37 minutes to complete the cycle. The capsule next to us seemed to be bought by a couple and they were making romantic scene there and when they realized that many in our capsule were catching those moments in their cameras, they were forced to stop the free entertainment!
While it was indeed a great experience, my technical part of the brain also appreciated the efforts to make this wheel...

Its engineering marvel on its own...

Saga de Singapura - The Departure

Mar 18 2008:
Its about 2330HRS in Singapore and 2100HRS in India and I am currently in between Singapore and Ahmedabad somewhere flying over Indian Ocean and have just entered Indian territory. In an hour time, the flight will be landing and I thought to blog about all the happenings of past few days.
I am on my way back from Singapore and in three hours time, I will be landing in Ahmedabad.

This afternoon, when I checked in with Singapore Airlines, I chose the tail end seat and avoided any disturbances of fellow passengers when they gather around loo... And very fortunately, I had no companions around and thus, I could use all three seats to my disposal!
Earlier, I flew to Singapore from Ahmedabad on Mar 13. When I reached airport, the airport was full of people and it was so difficult to cut through this dense crowd and to enter the airport building.

The reason for such huge crowd? For each student traveling to Australia/New Zealand, at least 50 relatives would come to send him/her off...

When I reached to the counter, the queue was not long but it took about 45 minutes for me to reach to the counter. The staff was just slow for reason unknown.
My fellow passenger was a grandpa of 71 years who moved to Singapore when he was 6. He happened to know some of my Singapore Indian friends. He and his wife were going back to Singapore after attending some wedding in India. When the drink was served, to my very surprise, he asked for beer and his thirst lasted for three glasses...
When I landed Singapore, it was 0730hrs Singapore time and I headed to friend's place in Geylang.
I know your eyebrows are raised now but his condo was on a very outskirt of Geylang and it was safe enough for me to stay there. You can still continue to be proud of me that I am still ******!!!
I have to stop using laptop now as they announced for the landing. I plan to upload this blog once I reach home. In coming days, I plan to blog about some interesting events of this trip.
Its Mar 19 2008 0027HRS IST when I am about to hit "Publish" button of Windows Live Writer...

Few more Barista stares..

Last evening's Barista stare was the one which would be difficult to forget. But I had few stares in Barista with each of them carrying some story...

He is Ayush and this stare was recorded on 19th March of 2003... Five years back... I was in Barista that evening with Honey and Darshan and Ayush came there with his parents. He was calm and cool and gave me this stare... His smile is very mature and very rare for a child at this age.


He came to Barista with his mother on 25th March of 2005 and while she went to order, he looked at my table and we clicked! His mother was kind enough to allow me to record this stare. His eyes are amazing.


Nidhi came with her mother and two friends of her. She was placed on the table while their drinks were being prepared. All ladies continued their gossiping while I captured this stare. Her right ear is a bit unusual but her smile is very charming. (21st Feb 2004)


Funny? Yea and Gaurav was equally naughty. While his parents were busy in their talk, he approached my table and started asking me about my laptop. We became  friends instantly and he gave me this funny stare. (3rd March 2004)


It was 20th June of 2004 when me and Sissie went to Barista for a chill out. This little cute girl was very cooperative and gave such a curious stare.


Ghanny's younger daughter Mahima!!! We were in Barista on 23rd of last month when Honey was to introduce his honey to all gang members...


Honey and his honey and the stares... Though her stare is behind glasses in this picture, recently, she underwent eye surgery and got rid of the barrier... Now, Honey has nothing in between them ;)
And now come some of the family stares at Barista....


Dr A and me went to Barista on 25th Jan of 2004...


Deadliest and scariest stare from Sissie... It was an evening of 30th June of 2004.


Hehe... Two gorgeous ladies... Two killer stares... Though white balance of the picture was messed up, it shows the stares perfectly.


Not really stares but perfect picture to conclude my Barista stares...

The stare in Barista...

I was in Barista today evening and I was lost in finishing an important design before I go on travel. Earphones relayed my favorite Tomato songs in my ear canals and my fingers were dancing on the keyboard. My tongue was enjoying sips of Barista Blast at a regular intervals and my legs were shaking on Tomato tunes. Things were moving good and I was approaching to the completion of the design.

Suddenly, I felt a bit uncomfortable with some sort of breathlessness. I felt as if I was getting tied by a rope that I could not even move my hands... Don't know which hormone started flowing in my blood but it should be mixer of many, that even now, I cant describe or understand that feeling.

When I forcefully raised my head out of my laptop screen, I noticed that someone was staring at me... Its very USUAL in India to be stared (and to stare) and girls feel happy when they are used for "Optical Exercise" by guys... But when a guy gets stared by a girl, definitely something is wrong and when a guy of age 40 gets stared, everything is wrong... When there are millions of "worth a stare" handsome ones in Ahmedabad, how come me get a stare??? Before I get an answer of this, my eyes met her and rebounded immediately. A whole body shivering jolted me with a 10000KV electric shock and before I could regain myself, she got up from her seat and started approaching me.

You can guess that my heart started pumping at 180 ppm... My brain started working on contingency plan of how to protect myself if she was gonna slap me... The forehead started dripping sweat drops and adrenaline level in my blood shot to the highest... Vision started fainting and Tomato song got faded out in my ears... Earphones dropped out of my ears due to excessive enlargement of ear canals and fingers fell dead on keyboard. While legs became water bottles, my stomach started twisting and churning... Breathing speed increased with exponential rate and with every inch of decreasing distance between me and her, end of my world was approaching... By the time my heart was about to burst, my eardrums about to rupture, my eyeballs about to explode and my lungs about to blast off, her killer voice penetrated my ears "Is this iPhone?"

Election season...

Seems world wide, election season is going on. Malaysia, Spain, Russia, Pakistan and of course, US presidential nominations... We also had election last December where I got my favorite black line...

The reason I am writing is a blog I read today here... It goes like:
"The moment I walking toward the registration booth, the BN and DAP people were there shouting asking us to vote for them. I got my number and went to the respective room.. waited for my turn and they checked my IC and then gave me two pieces of coupons to cross for the DUN & Parliament party. After doing that at a semi-closed booth, I put in the coupons in the respective bin."

If I understand correctly, it was a "manual" voting and the voter dropped his/her ballet into ballet box as the blogger mentioned above. Another unusual thing I noticed is that the election campaign went on even during voting time... Here in India, election campaign ends a day before voting day and no slogan shoutings or any campaign inside 100m radius of the election booth. Even at the counters set up by various parties out side this limit, one can not do ANY campaigning activities... This does not seem to be the case as the blogger said. One thing missing here is the "black line/dot" process. Each voter in India gets black marking on left index finger so that he/she can not vote second time on any fake IC. Sissie told me few days back that this "black marking" step was scrapped by that govt this time even though millions of money was spent to procure black ink.

The blogger then continues:
"That night while having dinner with my parents, my dad's friend was there saying that DAP won a lot.. in Malacca as well as other states. He was truly excited. After that, we went to Giant to buy some neccessities and quickly went back to check out the results. The three of us sat down in front of the TV watching Astro Ch 501 as they announce the result one by one. We watched till about 1am and went to sleep although the results were not all out yet. But we were satisfied with the results. The DUN party which the 3 of us voted for won. =)"

If it was a manual voting, how come results starts coming so soon??? How do the counting happens??? Its really amazing... just because, here in India, election for even a single state like Gujarat was spanned on three different days and after third voting day, results did not start appearing so soon even though we used electronic voting machines... After the voting ends, all voting machines are brought to a secured place/building and the counting begins not before next day in the presence of the agents of all parties contesting this election. So, its interesting to know that results start appearing so soon there. I noticed that the blogger mentioned about the party she voted for... I would never explicitly name the party I voted for though I can leave enough hints if needed. Its just not something you should openly reveal... For me, my vote is confidential and it should remain confidential.

Anyway, I understand from other sources that the ruling party did not get 2/3rd majority and opposition parties claim to have dented its armor if not broken now. The same thing has happened in Pakistan where the ruling party lost miserably. While American presidential election is due next year, presidential nomination caucuses and primaries have stunned the world about their outcomes... While Obama was rated as an underdog before these primaries, he has emerged as the top on the list with highest delegates and highest fund raising. Hillary was by large expected for this position but somehow, majority Democrats seem not to prefer a woman president. History suggests that whenever there was so close fight in Democrats, it had lost the final election. So, lets see what happens this time.

PS: I know what you are thinking.Just dont be negative, ok?

What's wrong with me???

I keep on wondering what's wrong with me that in last two days, I saw two Hindi movies.... Can you believe this? Even I cant believe it...

Last Hindi movie I saw (I was compelled to see) was in 1989 when I was in third year of my graduation. I don't remember the name of that movie but since then, no Hindi movies or even English movies for more than a decade... I don't remember exact year but it was Matrix Reloaded which I was again compelled to watch in a theater with friends...

My "Movie phobia" is deeply rooted in my brain since my childhood. That time, whenever I was in a movie, everything happening in front of me was as if it was happening in real and I just could not stand any Bollywood movies as they are just full of emotions, sentiments, third class stories and illogical and unacceptable twists and turns and with very predictable ends. Two components of which a Bollywood movie is made of are romantic songs and fightings and both of these have never appealed me somehow. Of course, there were few extra ordinary movies like Sholay but very few to name.

Last night, while having a dinner, I was flipping through some news channels and I accidentally landed at one of the movie channels and I saw some familiar scenes. It was "Khoobsurat", the movie I saw when I was in a primary school. Shilpa has seen this movie for 25+ times and if she gets a chance, she will still prefer to have one more screenings... It is not a typical Bollywood masaalaa movie and that's why I was ok to watch it one more time. Even after so many years, I enjoyed this movie very much.

This evening, when I returned, Akshar was watching "Jab we met" and some comedy scene was going on and it was really funny. While having dinner, we continued watching this movie and it was interesting and funny enough movie to consume two more hours... Though I missed the first hour of this movie, I could relate to the story from in between and I enjoyed it. While I am not a film critics writer, I would like to recommend this movie if you like movies like KKHH - Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai... I saw KKHH In Singapore at Anjan's home during my very first trip to Singapore.

Its very difficult and nearly impossible for me to understand the reason of watching movies, especially in theaters. May be because I am not into movies and I still take everything in movies at a face value... May be my brain is not yet convinced that "its just movie"... Few years back, I had a chance and an excuse to go movie but fortunately, I was not pushed for it and I could survive. I have been recently pressured even heavily to spend some "togetherness" in the "darkness of a theater" but I stand by with my few years old promise. So, just don't worry, I am loyal and faithful. I prefer to spend those hours watching and re-watching Tom & Jerry instead of torturing my brain...

Train journey after a long...

It seems that every alternate weekends, I am destined to be in New Delhi. This time, it was Monday though and I could manage to get a train ticket on "Tatkal" quota and ended up saving more than Rs. 1000 against air travel. And instead of traveling by Rajdhani Express, I had to travel by Ashram Express as Ahmedabad-New Delhi Rajdhani does not run on Mondays.
I reached station half an hour before train departure time and the train had not yet been on platform.
I noticed that though tracks down there looked dirty, they were much cleaner then before.


After a while, the train finally arrived at the platform. Ashram Express is one of the longest passenger trains with total 25 bogies. It uses two engines to pull them and takes 17 hours to reach New Delhi.


As I had some documentation to finish before reaching New Delhi, I had booked a ticket in two tier AC sleeper coach. Fellow passengers were kind enough not to snore during night and no noisy kids in the compartment too!

After stowing my bags in the coach, I came out to picture another difference I noticed this time.
The queue for unreserved coaches was very systematic and policemen were ensuring sequential entry of passengers in those two unreserved compartments. One day, when I will not need to carry any valuables, I want to travel in one of these unreserved compartments and experience the heat, the dust, colorful and smelly people, noise, beggars, quarrels... may it will bring humbleness in me and make me complain less about what I don't have.
On my way back to Ahmedabad, I traveled in Rajdhani Express. But I could not take any advantage of Rajdhani travel as no more "outside food" ruled out Mutter Paneer and Jeera Rice... Too bad too bad... I did take some pictures of New Delhi station, Rajdhani Express but I forgot to download them before I upgraded my iPhone's firmware to 1.1.4 this afternoon... Too bad too bad one more time!
Yea, how can I remain silent so long without bragging about iPhone? But I will brag one less now! New firmware allows sending a text message to more then one contacts!!! Of course, I hardly need to use that feature but still, at least one useful improvement in this firmware.