Making a memory

Friends and family are clearly bored with how proud I am of Singapore.
They disowned me when I wanted to by ‘I Love SG’ Christmas ornaments for the tree. They make fun of me when I refer to LHL quotes. Manu knows to look for me in the "Singapore section" if I went missing in the library, even though he accuses me of being an extremist and a brand switcher. Back in 2010, I hated the idea of spending the rest of my life in Singapore. I disliked Singapore even during the transits. In my defense, How can the Singaporean attitude fair positive against the humble Japanese or ever tolerant ever best chaotic Indians ?
The exact moment when the idea of loving Singapore first struck me was on the beautiful twilight of Aug 9 2011. That is when I heard 'Majullah Singapura' for the very first time. Well, it ain't just the anthem, but the collective force of Red & white clad people assembled at the Marina Bay area, the NDP, the anthem & the grand fireworks! The emotional results were complicated and I can see your perplexed face as I am trying to put the feeling into a single sentence. I had goose bumps, I missed the Independence Day celebrations back home, I felt patriotic and missed India, but somehow that was exactly the moment I started wanting to live in Singapore. But then, the hour which sealed the deal occurred a year later, when I watched the telecast of PM Lee’s speech, which he delivered at the NDP rally at the NUS campus in 2012. I remember wishing I could run to NUS from Ghim Moh right then, and be right there at the auditorim. It is the most impressive, thought provoking speech which I have ever heard. I felt leadership, vision, sincerity, true concern for the public, integrity towards the nation.
Now that I think back about it, one of the major reasons why I continue to choose to live in this city is that touching speech & his focus on Hope, Heart and Home. Another reason is the friends who have made Singapore a ‘Happy’ place to be.
The biggest beating Singapore gave me came after this speech. If I hadn’t heard that speech, we might not be living in SG right now, I wouldn’t have decided to apply for Permanent Residency, we wouldn’t have decided to achieve what we want in SG itself. The very fact that I follow LHL on FB, walk dismissively past the Indian stalls at food courts to queue for Char Kway Teow, be extremely defensive abt SG policies, being a strong believer of IRIS, know the bus numbers and transits even in semi-sleep state, devour incredible amount of local news, politics, history and SG events is described by Manu as Singaporean traits.

So, you can imagine how privileged I felt when NLB invited to me to pledge my blog as part of a Singapore memory project. Thanks, is what I would say, to motivate the lazy bones in me to restart writing.

Ads - A world of their own!

I love Ads!

I was always noted for watching commercials in between, rather than the movies :-|
Seems the media does care for people like me. There is this program in Channel 5, "Sport Rockz",on Mondays 9.00 PM, dedicated to sports Ads :-) No irritating programs in between !!

These were my fave 2 from today's show!
First one is a dance Ad - Ballerina Vs Dancer

Second is on Football. You are gonna love this!

Am sure you are humming a tune by now :-)

Bali - Go Ubud

We had our plans all set to go Rafting with Nickie & rest of our friends, once the dive camp is done. Usually the end of diving is associated with depression and strange behavior like trying to stay under water in the pool. So, the idea for going rafting right after the dives sounded good.. The activities associated with water is more exciting. But, Manu was catching cold and showing signs of fast approaching fever. So, we had to take the hard choice of abandoning rafting. But we still were planning to move to Ubud.

Since Divya and Seleena  recommended the Git Git falls, we thought of taking a detour to Singaraja, on our way to Ubud. We saw multitude of temples on the way. We stopped at Batur first. The place and people were getting ready for the major upcoming ceremony on the full moon, over the weekend! I still don't know what these people do for a living and a full time job. They are at a temple in the mid-day making some offerings!

As the hunger stirkes, we decided to stop at a place on the way. A very small and tastefully decorated place, which serves western and Balinese food.. Price is not too cheap, but the food was beautiful and delicious with generous portions. To top it all, the view was amazing! The restaurant is facing the sea :-) Would recommend you to visit this place, if you are near Batur. Restaurant name - Mar Puthu. Oh, they have free wifi too.

See the scenic route ...

As we travel to Git Git, I was talking to Gade (our driver) about the Balinese culture and beliefs. I was too curious that, even with the hell load of toursits and modernizations, how is this simple and religious life preserved in Bali? Is the younger generation as religious as the ones before? I even dared to ask him, do you find it a disturbance to have so many visitors here ? Maybe Bali and people need a break ?  His answer was quite simple. " We, Balinese, believe in Karma. If we do bad things, we will suffer.  There was a time when some Balinese had stopped going to temple or give offerings to God. But, they all had some disease or problem or bad luck; which taught us not to deviate too much from the old practices." He insisted on having more tourist coz he sees it as an opportunity to make Balinese get over the poverty!

Thats the key.. Belief and faith is what drives them!

Anyways, back to the landscape.. We reached the parking spot for the waterfalls. From there, a long walk is required to reach the falls. The path is quite beautiful with small common house, rice terraces and unavoidable souvinier shops. The falls and stream is very beautiful.. And seeing the statue of Gods right at the mouth of the waterfall, I couldn't help smiling.

Next stop is at Ulun Danu temple, quite beautiful reflections.  The place was misty and a bit cold. After Bali Kopi and snacks, we went into this small serene temple. (Ticketed entry at 30,000 IDR/ Pax )

Later, after an hour plus drive to Ubud we were reaching the location by night fall. I got a glimpse of the night life, fancy restaurants, shops selling wonderful clothes/ interiors.. We drove on to a quiter lane, with rice fields all around. I was wonderfing where my stay would be. When the driver was finding it hard to locate the place, I got a feeling that itz going to be a wonderful stay :-)

As promised by the owner at the home stay, it was a beautiful Balinese cottage in the very midst of a rice field !

Wait for the next post ..

Photo courtesy - Dragonfly

Paranoia Kicks in !

The trip to India has left me emotionally very weak and paranoid.

I heard too many incidents on cancer, tumor, vital organ failures and many other fatal diseases. Surprisingly, this is affecting people in my age group, which makes the impact harder. As Priyanka put it right during a discussion yesterday, few years back Cancer was a disease which affects people whom we do not know.

PS : This gets a special mention here coz this is the First ever sensible statement from her, from the time I met her !

But, these days every other person has lost a relative or friend to these chronic diseases.
I have given a lot of thought to it and came up with some actions to execute ASAP.

• Make more people aware of these, and hence the post.

• Grapes - The first fruit we always pick up while shopping. But, seems it is the crop most sprayed with insecticide. So, at home, Mom soaks it for 4 hours in salt water and rinses it. I plan to make Manu do those, if he ever buy grapes!

• Just out of curiosity, I soaked the apples in water over night. I notice a white colored substance sticking all over the the peel! I have decided -Am always gonna carry a peeler whenever I carry apple for snacks. I still don’t know how to remove the wax coating from apples. So, I always choose the apples from the not-so-beautifully polished basket, sitting next to the Red-delicious shining ones.

• Cabbage always tastes delicious with brown rice & Mom taught me an easy recipe. So, it appears very frequently in my kitchen. I heard a shocking fact from Raigon. Since cabbage grows layer by layer, each leaf will be sprayed with the pesticides! My budget is still not big enough to allow me to go to organic shops. So, I decided to reduce cabbage consumption. And even when buying, I should buy the small ones, rather than gigantic ones. Also to wash each leaf thoroughly.

• Chemical reaction which plastics have with warm food never occurred to me until Manu’s Dad explained to me. So, all those beautiful containers are tucked away in the cabinet and we are using only glass or porcelain dishes to microwave/ store/ reheat the food. I find it challenging to bring lunch in glass dish though. Maybe should go back to the old style steel containers to pack lunch.

• I have started cooking regularly- you must understand that it is daily. This gives me control on the ingredients, how many times I wash them, no re-use of the oil, cook hygienically. We had more than enough street food, the snacks fried in zillion times reused oil combined with the dust and dirt from the polluted road side . Aah.. How delicious they are!!

• We have decided to have dinner from home every day, at least on week days. Probably we should schedule dates like once or twice a month to eat out. Lunch is still a challenge, coz even if I cook extra for the dinner; somehow we are left with nothing for the next day. I should improve upon my estimate. I have decided to stop my take away lunch, from Monday on.

• Most of the patients I heard are neither drinkers nor smokers. So, I am going to investigate on the positive effect of alcohol and tobacco to fight against these diseases. I believe in the theory “Innocent until proven guilty”.

• Travel more frequently and actively. What if I die before visiting Grand canyon, Puerto Princesa , Manarola village & the Jaisalmer desserts. And do whatever else I have ever wished so hard.

• Re-visit my insurance options. One friend’s insurance money ran out by the first phase of treatment & he is still pending the Liver transplant :-(

• I am still debating with Manu on Why should we have savings .
What if we save money & still get some disease. Will have to give whole load of money to doctors, which in turn won’t be enough and then I would still die of the pain. Then, what’s the point?

• And the ultimate question. What if I am actually diagnosed with the disease? What should be the next step?

• Think further, what are the critical points I have missed out until now.