My Singapore Holiday !

Exotic. Simply , 'Zimbly' ( remember Tamil is official! ) exotic.
That's how I would describe Singapore.

Our tour began upon landing at Changi on June 12th after which we headed straight to Little India - the township where our hotel was located. The drive was superb. Clean roads, beautiful cars , green trees and super sexy bikes ! Seeing Chinese people ride them reminded me of Police Story ( Jackie Chan ) ! There are some really cool models in China/Singapore ( most of them come with a front glass ) .
The city is very well planned and structured. Quite literally so ; for, we came across a truck carrying labourers and even the labourers were seated in an orderly fashion ! There were exactly 3 striaght rows with 8 people each ! :-)

Day 1 was the Night Safari trip. A lot of work has gone into simulating the real jungle experience and it is by no means wasted. You are taken on a long tour on a tram into a forest where you see wild animals on either side and very close to you . As you move along, the announcer gives you very interesting information about the animals you see and she makes it so exciting ! The quiet atmosphere and flawless rendition reminds you National Geographic ( only , this time you are inside the TV ). Great Experience.

On the side of the entrance , there is an Animal show every 1 hour called Creatures of the Night. We sit around in an open Amphitheatre and the host brings animals to the stage and makes them do interesting things. I am amazed by how they make it not only entertaining but also educational. Most importantly, they spell out a hidden message on Environment And Conservation. Like the mongoose in the show which picked up plastic bags and neatly dropped them into the waste bin !



Day 2 was the visit to Jurong Bird Park and Sentosa Island. The bird park is so big , it will probably take you two full days to see all of it. It is as exciting as the Night Safari , there are two interesting shows with birds ( Hawks , eagles and other birds of prey go wizzing above your heads !) . We went around on a mini-train and stopped midway at a place called the Lory Loft where you have a huge netted enclosure of lories. You can move around with a small cup of bird seed and feed these birds .They coolly perch on your hands - but if you try to touch them , they'll fly away !

Sentosa Island is a beautiful place. The underwater world is one of the best attractions there. You walk through a transparent glass tunnel where you see exotic fish and shark swim all around you. Other attractions are the Dolphin show ( which , surprisingly - is not very great. My parents tell me the one in San Diego is much better ) , and the Merlion . The cable car ride where you cross the sea is fantastic . The tour ends with a laser show called 'Songs of the Sea' where they use water , lights , music and fire(!) to construct an amazing visual experience lasting half-an-hour.


Day 3 was a tour of the city. Did you know that Subhash Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army in front of the City Hall at Singapore ? The Supreme Court of Singapore is located on top of the City Hall. I must admit I was amused when the tour guide called it the 'supreme' Court - I mean, it is serves only a small city of 4 million people ! However, it is by no means taken lightly by the people there . The law is very very strict in Singapore. For example, drug trafficking invokes a mandatory death penalty. And corruption attracts rigorous imprisonment and caning on the seat of your pants ! In fact, the court is in the shape of a flying saucer. Supposed to be symbolic of a gateway to hell for the wrong-doers !
If you drive around in Singapore, you can't miss the skyscrapers. ( You could have a panoramic view if you take the special sky ride at Sentosa ). Some of them have lovely shapes - there is one which looks like a slice of cake, one which is a chocolate and one which...was meant to be a mike ( stage microphone ) but looks like a jackfruit ! ( This building is where plays/operas are held ).

Out tour came to end on Day3 and we reached Changi Airport four hours early for our 20:15 flight back to India. The airport is simply mind-blowing !! If you go to Singapore budget some time specifically to go around the airport . For those familiar with Bangalore, imagine a super-mall comprising The Forum + Garuda + Bangalore Central. Multiply the size of this mall by a factor of 20. Now , you might get something close to Changi. You get the idea.
Seriously - its incredible. After security check, you can catch a free movie or work out at the Gym. Or , you could sit around in the Lounge and watch TV. Or, you could go back and forth in the Travellator ( the 'horizontal' escalator ) :-)
Well, you begin to wonder if Changi is primarily an entertainment super-mall which , INCIDENTALLY, manages to land planes !


Ah, that brings me to the end of this travelogue. I must not forget to narrate that funny incident at the Mustafa Center ( Singapore's 24/7 shopping mall ). I was wandering around when three burly policemen came out of nowhere , gave me a handout and walked away. The handout said, " Beware of pickpockets and shop-lifters ". I felt good ( thank-you- that- was-very-kind ). I turned over the page and saw - " Shop Theft is a crime ! If caught ......." . Oops . Now, why the handout ? Was I a potential victim or the thief himself ! LOL.

The Pompous Autowallah of BengaLooru

Bangalore's Auto Rikshaw drivers never cease to annoy and irritate me. Especially the ones who park their vehicles at the auto stand near my place.

If you walk up to them and politely tell them you need to go to place A , they do either of two things : Look away from you and pretend they didn't hear you. Or, give you a nasty look ( as if I asked to be chauffeured to the neighbouring galaxy! ) and shake their heads.

Sheesh! What is wrong with these people ? Am I not paying for the service ??

Hmm, makes me wonder where this arrogance comes from. My first thought is the Demand - Supply Dynamic , there are probably way too many people who want to travel via autos.

Or, say I am an Autowallah. I probably make too much money already ! So, I don't have an ECONOMIC INCENTIVE to strain myself doing that extra trip to place A. The gain from that extra trip is at best marginal. So, why should I care ? ( Call it 'Freakonomic incentive' if you have read that amazing book )

An autowallah is a self-employed person. What can incentivise him to do more ( or better ) ? Well, if you were a Company or an Institution , you would easily answer that question. There are SO MANY things you could do : Expand your business, diversify into different products, produce more , improve quality and so on.

But what should an Auto driver do ? If there were a private agency running these autos , you can rest assured the driver's manager would stretch him, push him harder. ( Ah, we all have personal experience , don't we :D ) At least, you are assured of a commutation facility to place A. But, with a self-employed auto driver who is answerable/accountable to NOBODY, you have a very difficult problem on your hands.

Yes, probably the Government could intervene and make those meters tick slower. In fact, the Government is probably the source of all trouble ( heh! ) , why did they fix the pulse rate so high ?

I will end by making a comparison with Hyderabad where I lived for nearly two years. Most places in Hyderabad are connected by "Shared Autos". Now, shared autos are a very interesting concept. To put in software parlance, they are highly customizable :-) . Which means, if Person A is going from X to Z, and you are person B - you can get into the Auto by stopping it at some place Y ( between X and Z ) , and get down at ANY place W ( again between X and Z ). Amazing ! So, you must have guessed that - it is not 1 or 2 people travelling in these autos - they are literally bursting with people ! Commuters can just drop off where they want , and new ones get in. Yeah, very similar to a bus service. Of course, you pay only for that fraction of distance you have travelled. Oh yeah - those auto wallahs can quickly proportion the money you need to pay. All this basically implies that people get to quickly travel short distances by paying small amounts - 3 to 4 Rs. It really helps them do a lot of things in a day, travel is no longer a constraint, unlike Bangalore.

From the economics perspective, Auto Drivers in Hyderabad end up COMPETING to get customers by stopping at various points. Naturally, competition drives prices downwards. Also, they are cordial and well-behaved , after all they want you to be their guest :-)

To summarize, it is not self-employment that is the fundamental problem - but, the ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT where self-employment is practised.

The Test Cracker and his Curse

I am a big fan of The Great US Universities : The Harvards, Stanfords , MITs and the like.
My 'fan-dom' arises partly from the contribution they have made to academics and mostly from the very highly accomplished individuals that form part of their community and culture.

Now, of the several criteria on which a potential candidate is evaluated for Master's admission into these institutes - an important parameter is your score on a Standardized Test such as the GRE. So, an Indian student from a very good undergraduate college ( say an IIT ) only needs to ensure that he has a high GRE score and is in the good books of his Professors ( by getting top grades ) .
Getting top grades with a high GRE score is no mean achievement...[ Our Test Cracker has shown you how to do it ] BUT ,

That's it - That's all it takes !

You really don't need to bother about WHAT your Statement Of Purpose is , or ASK YOURSELF WHY you really want to do Post Graduate Study. In other words - an MS from a Top Univ appears to be a function of your aptitude / analytical skills and hard work.

So, why is that a problem ? What am I driving at ?
"Unfortunately" ( note the quotes :) ) , these aptitude skills ( and good grades ) are ALL you need to crack the MBA entrance exams - such as the CAT.
So, our Test Cracker from IIT, has aced the CAT too. - yeah, the same dude who has admits from Top U.S Universities.

So, now he is in a dilemma. Do I choose an IIM over , say a Berkeley , a Stanford or even THE MIT ?!
Whew ! This is something that can give our Test Cracker sleepless nights ! As per statistics, there is a whole bunch of IIT grads losing sleep at this time of the year :)
[ Recently, I saw a few cases of this sort . That is what set me thinking....and can you believe it ? There are one or two people with a Stanford Graduate Fellowship - something that is probably given to 12 students across the WORLD in a given year ! You must be really really good to get that . ]

Okay, so before trying to offer a solution to this problem, a question is in order : Is it the Test Cracker's curse that he is EQUALLY GOOD at everything ? Had he been lousy in his technical subjects in undergrad - he might probably be better placed today to make a decision . Or wait -is there a FUNDAMENTAL problem with the whole setup of admissions ?

How did two TOTALLY different programs ( Business Administration v/s Science Masters ) offer admits to the same student ? Okay, they BOTH asked our Test Cracker what he intends
to pursue , and our Test Cracker cleverly put forth his answer 'as appropriate'.

Hmm..I wonder if there is a practical solution to this problem ? Some method by which Universities could get people who are 'REALLY' ( slowly , this word is losing its meaning ) interested ?

I have to mention here that Ph.D programs ( both in US and India ) come close to getting the 'right' candidate. Why ? Ph.D prgrams don't rely much on Standardized Test Scores, they actually want to see an inclination towards research in a student.

But imagine an IIM or a US University filtering out candidates WITHOUT the CAT or GRE scores ! Jeez, it would take them YEARS to get 250 odd people - so they probably decided -

" Nah! Not worth it . Give them a test and it makes it so easy for us ! "

Easy for them. Uneasy for the Test Cracker.

Big Big Change

I resigned from work today.

Wow - it was a nice feeling . My learning curve was flattening and was definitely starting to point in the '-Y direction' , whew ! I ' Yessscaaapp 'ed at the right time !!

I am off to do an MBA now. Yay !!
A combination of Providence ( The Verbal Section! ) and work ( the other Sections:) ) saw me through the CAT paper. Funny, I started off in Electronics and ditched it for a software job. Now I am getting rid of my software job for an MBA. I believe , this time , I have made the right choice - but again , it is what I make out of the MBA that finally matters.

It is definitely a great feeling to go back to school - I hope I will be able to utilize the opportunities that I am provided with.

Oh, btw - my salary would probably get credited today. Call it TA . ( No, not travel allowance ) - TREAT allowance !! haha

Carnatic Music and Thyagaraja

I am slowly beginning to appreciate Carnatic Music. The other day, my mother and her music troupe had a group-singing on the Pancharatna Keerthanas by Thyagaraja

I enjoyed the rendition of the music. In fact, it got me thinking on the nature of Carnatic music and the structure of its 'key deliverables'.

The most striking characteristic that came across was the consistency of structure that these compositions maintain. It struck me as very mathematical.
You are given a sub-set of Swaras from the 7 musical notes - and the entire composition is a collection of complex permutations of exactly the same subset.
It is amazing how the consistency is maintained throughout the whole song !
Probably, there are very few music forms in this world which have this immaculate structure built into them.

Pop music, on the other hand - is a collection of totally random musical notes - where the listener can make NO correlation to any antecedents or consequents of one particular section of the song. But hey, I do like pop music too !

So, that brings me to propose that appreciating a particular genre of music over another has entirely to do with your state of mind at that point of time. For Carnatic music, you need to be in a relaxed, calm state - almost completely switched off from nagging thoughts and worries. Here the music is akin to medicine administered in minute doses - giving the 'patient' a world of time to heal !
Visually, Carnatic music should look like this :

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLMkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLMNkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkKLMNOkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Notice how the music slowly SWAYS into different sets of musical notes without abrupt jumps. I would ascribe this pattern to Old Hindi film songs too.
Now, Rock music is propably at the other end of the spectrum ( Imagine substituting all the 26 letters of the alphabet into the above pattern - and throw in some Chinese characters too !! ) But again, I need that music when I am bouncy and jumping ( say , I won a zillion bucks in the lottery :) ).

Different moods, different music. That's what makes life interesting . For those with the perception that Carnatic music is for the older generation -
Hey You ! Carnatic Music Roxx !

Media's lack of Morality ?

Recently, 280 youths in Pune were arrested by police during a "rave party" - and it came out big in the news. Within a couple of days, a popular news channel - let me call it '168' :) ( 24 * 7 ) organized a "debate", ostensibly to get different 'perspectives' on the incident. So, here was a debate going on with the Police Inspector who conducted the raid and another 'dude' ( forget his name, but he comes on such debates all the time - always supporting the wrong side ! ). So, let me call him the Crazy Stupid Dude - CSD.
The '168' news reader was the moderator.

Here's how the arguments went :

...
...
CSD : The police just want to hog media attention. These things are happening everywhere.
They don't have the guts to arrest the big fish ( aka politicians, film actors ) ....
...
...

What was that !? Look at his argument :-
"Because you can't catch the big fish, you let the small fish go ?!! "
Jeez - and then the '168' correspondent takes a que for his argument and tries to bring the heat on the police inspector ! Really ! I was very annoyed. Here we have a police force cracking down on an illegal activity and instead of applauding / encouraging them , we try and find SOME STICK to beat them with ??

I find this a clear instance of abuse of the Right to Free Speech. Observe how CSD coolly uses the phrase , "..don't have the guts .." . Somebody should tell CSD to show a little bit of respect to the set of people who are trying to make his life safe so that he can have a good night's sleep daily. ( Believe me, it requires guts )
Okay , don't get me wrong - I am not saying that the country's police force is full of honest, incorruptible people - there will always be bad eggs here and there. In fact , there might be many...BUT , that doesn't mean we talk so lightly about them - and more importantly when they have done their duty !!

Which brings me to ask whether media was right in holding a debate like this. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court may give a ruling against a psychopath who probably murdered lots of innocent people and there you see media playing God by being the moderator and giving a 'fair chance' to the guilty party. With a million Indians watching the show, there is bound to be some people who will turn in favour of the guilty , especially if we have people like Mr.CSD who can speak impressionably.

My point is just this - after watching the program - you MIGHT begin to wonder whether the police were right after all. Now, there will always be two sides of a coin - so if we keep highlighting the wrong side - what should become of our sense of morality ?

In their enthusiasm to show 'both sides of the coin' , the media seems to find it "fashionable" to look at it from the criminal's perspective. And that is exactly what scares me .....

Broadway at NCJ

I decided to document some jolly memories of my pre-university college days at National College Jayanagar....What brought me to do this ? It was Vinay's Promotion Treat( Good work Vinay! ) - and the four of us ( Vinay, Avinash , Bili and I ) kept yakking about all those incidents that kept us entertained back then - and continue to tickle us even now.

It was the annual Drama competition at NCJ and the four of us along with NRP and Sunil Bhargava were all set to present our new creation - " Poorna Viraama". I don't remember the story line well - but the theme was on Psychology - how a person can die of shock if someone were to convince him that the water he just drank was poisoned , even though, in reality it wasn't ! Heavy theme, eh ? I wonder how we cooked it up :)

So, after a couple of practice sessions , we were all set . I was the scientist , Vinay the doctor , Avinash the 'Khaidi' and Pramod ( Bili ) his accomplice , Prasad - the businessman ( who dies ! ) and Linus ( ya, we used to call Sunil that :) ) the Policeman. It was really fun ! The drama was supposed to be a serious one - but unfortunately , we were in - to describe it in Kannada slang - 'Sikkapatte Time-pass' mode ! lol

Two minutes before start-time - we were frantically trying to set the stage right - putting all possible props wherever we could and simultaneously violating Newton's Law of two things not being able to occupy the same place at the same time .Anxious moments - hardly any time left before the curtain went up . For a split second , all of us stopped talking at the same time and NRP who happened to walk in at that instant , looked around and seriously remarked , " I think we should decompose them" - pointing to a pair of desks which were kept adjoining each other!

We burst out laughing ! Decompose ?! What a choice for a verb :) The whizkid of our college was probably mentally solving a linear system using matrices ( - LU decomposition right? ) !!

One joke after another , we started giggling and cracking up when suddenly the bell sounded and OOPS - we had to start the play ! aargh..it was so difficult to start looking serious and start off those high-sounding heavy dialogues.
I especially remember one of Vinay's - ( bcoz I helped write that one! ) - he shows a pen to the audience and says , " Ee pen nodi ..Idhu yaavdara melaadru thanna 'mark' bidabohudu , aadhre - thanna melae thaanae 'mark' bedakkaagaththa? " : err..supposed to be philosophical ! Jeez. Don't ask me why or in what context that came up !!!

Anyway, on and on we went and finally the play came to an end. Hmm..decent applause. But the real "appreciation" came in the end - Expert comments :-
[ The folks at NCJ had taken the trouble to get a professional dramatist to judge our play - he actually observed every part of it with a microscope! Our response was , " Dude, chill man - we were just trying to have fun ! " Somehow, the lecturers and the judge were inclined to disagree :) ]
So, the feedback :-
1) " Over-acting ! " ( No Comments - sheepish grin )

2) " The police file on the table did not have even a single paper in it when the policeman browsed it. " [ You actually noticed that ? :) ]

and finally the best one....
3) " The calendar in the room was at a height of 8 feet from the ground. " [ Hahaha.... How dumb of us ! We actually used a large stool to pin that calendar onto the curtain - it never occurred to us that - NORMALLY people don't use a ladder to hang their calendars in their houses ! It is always something that is at an accessible point ! )

Oh well , in Vinay's words - " It was the death knell to our acting careers " LOL . True, here we are - software engineers !

P.S: To be fair, our "Krishna Sandhaana" play WAS a big hit both in school , college and why - even REC ( farewell party ) ! So, we have that talent you know, we just need a good break - right Boys ??