73. It happened/happens to me….. again!!

Airhostess (announcement): “The seatbelt sign has been switched off, however for your own safety…blah ..blah.. blah… refreshments will be served shortly. We will be serving food for the children first.”

Me (Gosh! I’m so hungry, now I will have to wait till all those pesky kids are fed! Hmph! )

Airhostess (reaches the row behind my seat, with her food trolley and her one-liner): ”We will be serving the children first”.

Me (How much longer?! Sigh!...The smell of food made my tummy growl)

Airhostess (reaches my row and repeats her chant): “We are serving the children first”

Me (Alright get on with it fast. There are no children over here……. Wait! Was she looking in my direction?!!!)

I gave her a meaningful ‘matured’ smile just incase.. you know.. to avoid any confusion…

Airhostess (her eyes and wide smile fixed on me): “Do you want veg meals or non-veg meals?”

Me (swallowing my pride along with a few years of my age): “Okay, veg meals please”

I was served orange juice with the meal. No wine. No coffee. No tea. :-|

72. And that being the only thing I did in the past 2 years remotely close to blogging..

I recently came across a free offer from Vistaprint to get name cards. Though skeptical about this tempting offer, I went ahead with ordering 250 of them. Had to tread through innumerable pop-up menus offering added offers at ‘low’ cost before I finally got to the shipping page, when I realized the catch –I had to pay for the shipping. But I guess 250 of these pretty cards was worth paying 7$ for the shipment. I just love the design 

But I wonder what to do with them now. 

71. Nam Wah Pai!

Even I don't know what that means. I came across this term for the first time during my initial jobless days in NUS when all that I used to do were whine about the high cost of living, whine about the high tuition fee and then whine again about the high food prices.

If it were not for the orientation programs conducted by the innumerable clubs and faculties in the campus, I would have died of either too much whining or too much boredom or too much loneliness, if not of too much joblessness. There are a lot of departments and clubs in the uni, and each of them organize various fun activities at the beginning of the semester for introducing themselves to the newcomers. Most of these events not only involve various interesting  activities, but often food and goody bags are also provided for all those who drop in to help them fill their seats. I see these as perfect opportunities to get back at least a fraction of the money invested in the exorbitant tuition fee at NUS. Sometimes these goody bags are really good with really goody stuff. So far I have managed to collect items ranging from Coffee mugs, water bottles, notebooks, t-shirts, post-it notes, travel pillow, marker pens , gift vouchers etc.

Thus my calendar, during the initial parts of the semester was filled with the schedules of all the orientations in various departments and those with either goody bags or free food were highlighted.

Coming back to Nam Wah Pai, it was one of the orientation programs that I happened to attend. Like I said before, I didn't have any clue as to what it was, other than that it was some kind of sport and free refreshments would be provided. Yes free food...so I didnt have to think twice ;)

I arrived 20 minutes late for the event, helping to reinforce the general opinion of the Singaporeans that Indians indeed have poor time-management skills :-/

From the costume of the students there, I figured out it was some kind of martial arts. The students were working out in pairs -one helping the other to stretch. It was the warm-ups. I stood there watching and wondering how silly this looked, when 'Master Shifu' asked me to join in. I was to help a girl to do the stretches in a similar manner. Piece of cake...or so I thought...

And...

I found out she was quite flexible!...way too flexible... I was so afraid to help her stretch too much, fearing that her back might just break into two! But she just kept insisting to push her back down and down until her torso and legs touched. There were few other scary stretches like the ones shown below, and I was glad to finally get done with it.

Little did I know my happiness was short-lived for it was my turn to be stretched next. I found that my entire body was stiff, and my torso, legs and other joints couldnt stretch beyond 30 degree angle. But I had help -from the girl whom I had helped a little while ago. And gosh did she help!! I felt my entire body being ripped apart and feared that my ligaments and bones would snap any moment. I was cursing her under my breath, wondering if she had some personal grudge against me. :-|

Phew! And after two excruciating hours of more torture, I limped back to my hostel munching a tuna sandwich, reminding myself that free food often comes at a price! :-/

70. It happened/happens to me!

Me(at Japanese Cuisine Stall) : "Auntie, one Curry Rice"
Japanese Stall Auntie(scans me up and down): "You student here ah?"
Me(nods vigorously smiling) : "Yes Yes"
Me(wow! thats new.... at least in this part of the world, they think I look older than what I really am..*grins broadly*:D)
Japanese stall Auntie(grins back): "You look very small la!"
Me(grin disappears :| )

69. Different people, and their totally different eating styles -Observations

The same kind of food; the same kind of mouth; the same kind of hands -but gosh! there are a hundred and one different ways of making the food reach the mouth!

This is one of the observations that I have made during the past few months in S'pore. Many gadgets have been discovered over the centuries to aid people in this 'laborious task' of making the food reach its destination. With varying latitudes and longitudes, the  permutation&combinations of different tools used varies -fork&spoon, knife&fork, fork,knife&spoon, chop-sticks&spoon and so on. However, from what I have observed, whatever be the kind of food they are dealing with, people generally prefer to eat it the way they have been taught at home by their mom, during their 'table manners' course. So that means, be it rice, noodles, yong tau foo, the Chinese can tackle anything that comes across their way with the help of two puny sticks. Likewise, the Europeans equip themselves with fork&knife. Singaporeans -fork and spoon and occasionally a pair of chopsticks too. And we Indians...well we don't usually require any eating aids. Why bother when God has given us awesome hands!! (But still most of the people, all over the world are taught that eating with bare hands is ill-mannered!! [sigh])

Rice and curry, I can eat with a pair of spoon and fork; noodles and the like, I can manage with a pair of chopsticks(my latest achievement :D ) but when it comes to chicken and other such dead animals which have bones, I need my hands desperately.

I realized this truth when I was lunching with some of my European and  Singaporean friends.
It was the Dutch guy's birthday, and the birthday co-ordinator selected this fancy Indonesian restaurant to celebrate his b'day. Browsing throug the menu card made me 'gulp'. The starting price for the main-course was10S$. I ordered roasted chicken rice for myself since it was the only comprehensible item in the menu that suited my budget. (My brain was calculating: 10S$ = Rs 400. I recollected those days in my UG college when one month's canteen fee was around Rs. 1200 = 30S$ . I gulped again.)

Our food arrived in no time,and all of us geared ourselves with fork and spoon to attack the food. 
'Uh Oh'... The chicken had bones, unlike the usual chicken rice. I so totally don't know how to tear the flesh out from the bones using fork and spoon. The Dutch guy was complaining too -he wanted a knife instead of the fork. I sat there wondering what in the world to do with the two metal pieces in my hand. My hands longed to reach out to the morsel.

Nevertheless, I dug in. With all my might and skill, I managed to finish off the first piece fairly decently. Hmmm...Unlike most of the other times when the chicken was half cooked that made me gag, this one was especially tasty. Yumm...I was into my second piece trying to do the flesh-bone-separating act, when, the spoon slipped and the chicken and the fork went flying away in opposite directions. I sat there stupefied, while the others burst into laughter. Needless to say, I was embarassed to the core:| And I was sad, and guilty too -sad for the chicken who sacrificed its life for nothing, and guilty for wasting money...that chicken piece would have cost atleast 2 S$. Sigh!

My so polite friends(Europeans are always nice) bent down to take the spoon for me, and I deftly used the time to grab the next chicken piece and have a bite ;)
..
..

Weeks later, I was lunching again with my international friends. This time, I played safe by sticking to  vegetarian food.

Our random conversations reached the Indian boundaries, and the Singaporean friend suddenly remarked: "The way Indians eat their food is so cool. They have special skills to eat their food. They not only eat rice with hands but can even tear dosa and pratas with one hand easily. The way they maneuver their fingers dexterously to take food and push it inside the mouth is amazing."

Well what can I say? I beamed at my 'awesome dexterous skillful hands' and ever since I have a special regard for my hand whenever they 'maneuver their way to get food into my mouth'. ;)

68. Bleed Blue!

I had sworn that if India won the Semi-Finals, I would blog right away(after a lull of 4 months). And hence the post!

I’m neither a cricket fan, nor do I watch cricket matches often. I don’t even understand the game very well for that matter. And I can hardly name a handful of cricketers!! 11 fools playing and 11,000 fools watching....Bah!


As a rule, I pay a visit to the sports channel only when there is either Cricket -World Cup Finals, or Football -World Cup Finals, or Tennis -when Federer plays.

But the Mohali match last Wednesday had this bewitching, enchanting effect that made not just me, but millions of ‘laymen’ who are hardly acquainted with the game, feel the THRILL!!! Fingers were crossed, butterflies played their own cricket match in the stomach, heartbeats got paced up, lips kept murmuring prayers, the whole body tensed up–I know I was not the only one who went throught this experience.

I happened to watch the India-Aus quarter finals, thanks to my cricket crazy roommates. Thought of watching the match as a time-pass while preparing my dinner. But hardly a few minutes into the match, the dinner was forgotten and the half cut onions were crying for attention, while we were shouting and cheering for India. Though the match started with everyone anticipating the thrice world cup champs repeating history, our tigers eventually hunted down the kangaroos moving on to gun down the ‘terrorists’(no offense intended).

The hype created over the Mohali match was humongous. The high security alert, the terrorists threat, the No-Fly zone over Mohali, the Gilani visit, all just kept the tension at the pinnacle.

I was eagerly waiting for it to be Wednesday.

And sure enough Wednesday came, after Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday dragged by.

From morning, there was an incessant inflow of the World Cup forwards which kept chocking up my inbox. Many private companies had given half day leave to their employees also. I was cursing my ‘mokka’ company for not being 'patriotic' enough. K

There were very few people in my department. Some were on leave. Some took half day off. Both my bosses had gone for ‘site visit’. (But I have my doubts as to whether these 'site visits' are just code names for ‘watching World Cup’). The rest few who stayed back, were rooted infront of the Samsung LCD in the lobby.

However the bickering later turned to praise and adoration for my 'super-cool' company when I came to know that the match was being telecasted at our Convention Centre. It was awesome!. The lights were off –only the skylight seeping in through the small opening of the dome shaped roof lit the auditorium. The sound system was amazing –had the feel of watching a Hollywood thriller in a theater. The crowd was in full form –I never thought I would get a chance to howl and scream again after college.

Like someone rightly tweeted, very little activity happened in the Indian subcontinent in the afternoon of the March 30^th- the day when India took on Pakistan!

It was not just a game. It was some sort of a battle, an epic event that will be etched in the pages of history!

The volume of the crowd in the Convention Centre kept on varying, depending on who was batting. Half the crowd disappeared after Sachin got out. I was bugging the hapless colleague who happened to sit next to me with all kinds of doubts – Who is batting? Who is bowling? What’s a power play? Is that a wide? What is a wide?........

At the same time I was 'sms'ing updates to my unfortunate friends who were restrained to their workplace.

After India’s batting got over by 6 o' clock, we hurried for home. Like I said, very few things happened in the country that day -the roads had a deserted look, the shops closed early, people were huddled around roadside TV shops. However the fast food home deliveries jumped 50% on that big day.

Sure enough my other roomies were glued to the TV by the time I reached home. We had only DD National, that too the picture quality was very poor and it was full of 'grains' most of the time. But that wasn't enough to diminish our spirits. Though we could hardly make out where the ball was going, or barely comprehend the Hindi commentary, I cheered along whenever I heard cheering from my roomies and from the neighboring houses ;)

The whole country was in jubilation after the match. It looked like Diwali came a bit too early this year.

It was one heck of a match worth watching... Tomorrow's 'Lankadahanam' is gonna turn out to be an even greater spine-tingler. And I just pray that our Bosses have yet another of those 'site visits' tomorrow. ;)

There's a dress code for office tomorrow -Blue! Yeah! We're gonna Bleed Blue!

67. Short-‘lived’ relationships

I have got into many relationships…have had quite a number of people in my life! But unfortunately (or fortunately??) they don’t last long –they come…but as soon as I start getting to know them, they leave and disappear…Life’s so not fair!!!

The latest one came to my life quite unexpectedly…

It all happened last Sunday, when I was buying flowers at the florist’s after church…(I love red roses!) I was haggling over the price with the florist lady. That’s when I noticed ‘him’ –medium built, strong firm arms, long slender legs…..He was sitting there alone…But it was the bluish-green colour that appealed me the most! It was love at first sight...I knew he was the one for me (but so have I thought with the rest of ‘em too..sigh!!)

But I wanted him sooo badly…I was determined to take him to my home…

Suddenly, I stopped my row with the florist over the price, ditched my red rose, and quickly picked the pink one on which he was perching, eagerly awaiting for me. He’s all mine now!! :D

A rose and a bug...hmm….not a bad buy for 7 bucks!

Christened him Chow Chow (well that was the weird looking vegetable that we cooked for lunch that day) But I liked to call him Chitti…that was his pet name.

Speaking of Chitti, my mind now drifts to yet another relationship I had…back in college days…That too was a short-lived one.(though much longer than this one)…There were four of them –cute tiny fishes –Chanku, Manku, Chinky, Minky. Everything was going fine…just perfect… until the day when I noticed the water in the make-shift cookie-box aquarium, turned murky all of a sudden. The fishes were behaving a little strange –lethargic and sluggish. I became a little suspicious. I was wondering what to do, when a friend suggested changing water. But I wasn’t convinced. What if??....I googled(what would I have done without Larry and Sergey?)…and my suspicion was confirmed! My joy knew no bounds! Yes... it’s breeding time!yaay!! Am gonna have kids..er..my fishes are gonna have kids!! I dared not touch the water lest I should disturb the eggs. That night my dreams were filled with little fishes playing about in my room and I was one of them…

Next morning I woke up to find all 4 of my fishes DEAD. Dead like dead fishes!!!... Now I know what I would have done if not for Larry and Sergey –I would have changed the water and my Chanku-Manku-Chinky-Minky would have been alive nowK

Back to the present...

We had a nice time together –Chitti and me. He was crawling and groping all over my body. We were playing ‘hide and seek’ and ‘police and robber’ –he kept running away and hiding here and there. So, like a good mate, I played along and kept running after him and brought him back. I let it use my rose as a make-shift house. But once it darted straight out of the kitchen window. It was with great difficulty that I found him outside on the cloth-line…

My roommate suggested that I should keep him in a plastic cover for sometime while we cook. This time I thought of heading my friend’s words. So I kept it in a plastic bag and gave him rose leaf, coriander leaves, curry leaves and some water for lunch…

Lunch was yummy. I meant mine…(cos roommate cooked). I bet Chitti had a feast too. After that I let Chitti enjoy his afternoon siesta while I got engrossed in the Sunday evening mallu movie(some weird ghost story where an aborted ‘kid’ comes to haunt her parents)…

After the movie and a hot-water bath, I decided to make Chitti a comfy home. I emptied my ‘jewel’ box and furnished it with a water-pool, plenty of green leaves and some rice…

It was time for Chitti boy to move in to his new house. I placed Chitti onto the leaf bed. I knew he was thrilled by the awesome new sanctuary I made for him. I knew he was waiting to explore the whole area. He took a few hesitant unsteady steps…and then suddenly, without any warning, he flipped onto his back, his legs crumbling up together -It was DEAD. Dead like a dead bug!!!

I don’t know whether he was overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the new house I prepared for him, or it was the desperation of missing me for 4 hrs(the commercials in between the movies take up more time than the movie itself!!)

I will miss him dearly…Hope he will rest in peace and not come and haunt me… (Sheesh! I should stop watching these scary movies K)…

Dedicating this post to my latest true-love.RIP. Love you forever... 

66. Getting OLD! :O

Ahh! Those were the days! ...When thanks to Captain Planet your day was saved, and Dexter used to be your alter ego and Didi bore a striking resemblance to your annoying siblings, and Tintin used to be your only true love....

I honestly never thought that I would ever grow up enough to give up Cartoon Network. I was Razor and my brother T-bone of Swat Kats.In The Centurions, I was Ace McCloud while my cousins were Jake Rockwell and Max Ray. Jonny Quest used to be my long term crush, until I ditched him for Tintin......The stoy goes on.... I used to pity mom and dad and all those unfortunate souls out there who were deprived of the pleasures of the world of cartoons.... I’m not sure when HBO, Star Movies and NDTV took the place of my CN domain..but it did, and so completely that now I seriously don’t know whether the good ol’ CN still exists!! :O

Gone are the days when Tinkle and Balarama used to be the ultimate encyclopaedias. A transition from those comics to more ‘serious’ books were not surprising...but I used to think of storing up Archies comic strips to last me till I turned 60! Alas! even Juggy has now become bland, vapid and insipid! (Barrons’ wordlist :P )

World wars used to erupt frequently at our house when someone got us(me and bro) chocolates. I used to be such a chocolate freak! Along with Philately (collection of stamps), Numismatics (collection of coins) my hobbies also used to include ‘Candytely’ ( collection of candies) and ‘Chocomatics’( collection of chocolates). But lately chocolates rarely interest me, save for a few favourite ones( Snickers, Twix, Toblerone....)

What do all these omens portend? Am I really getting older?? Am I also becoming one of those ‘boring adults’ ???

A couple of hours back, I turned 22. And I feel soooo old already.....(But thankfully I haven’t spotted a grey hair yet!:O ) But soon I will have to hear kids calling me ‘aunty’(Sigh!).(Thanks to my unique stature I have escaped this so far ;) ) Also I would not be able to get away with taking half-tickets much longer (believe me, I still do that ;) )....

Sigh! why do time travel so fast?!!

PS: I still have a thing for roses, cushions and balloons.....in case if you are wondering what to get me for my bday :P..and recently I also happen to develop a thing for N97, fastrack watches and shades, and sony HDR ;)

65. Do you like often like like saying 'like'?

Click on the pic and read

Like the plethora of the uninvited things that had entered into our lives and have taken roots, like those large ugly pimples, 'like' has become a part and parcel of our lingo. It has now got stuck to our tongues like leeches. Though it proves to be a convenient filler to the speaker, it is just like an irrrrritant gad fly to the listeners. Some of the other common fillers are 'means', 'mathlab' and 'you know'. You know....they just like spoil the beauty of the language....means they just destroy it!!

64. Hurt

People can hurt you only if (and only as long as) they matter to you!

-Blah