Singapore, as Viewed !

Well this account was written a few months back, when I was still working out of Singapore !

As I gaze at the rain water, running right across the window panes blurring the lush green view of the adjoining “Bishan Park”, and look back upon the past 4 months, I feel that today Singapore looks strikingly beautiful! But wait it’s not the rain, not the greens but something else that makes me feel so good about today, it’s the fact that today’s a Sunday! Being in Singapore has made each one of us realise and appreciate the true worth of weekends. But this new enlightenment is accompanied with a new fear, a terrible fear of the Mondays. Believe me, it exists! But for the moment let’s savour the joy and comfort of the Sunday noon else the tone of the entire passage might be affected.

Singapore, the first onsite assignment , the first opportunity to bear the expatiates’ tag, these and several other promising thoughts had occupied most of our time before we actually arrived in Singapore. Though time and again there were those precarious moments, in the weeks just before our departure, which kept pushing the project into jeopardy. But finally the trip was confirmed although the date of arrival remained a well guarded surprise, even for us, till the day we actually took off for Singapore. For any one arriving in Singapore, especially, form India the first impression has to be a positive one. The reason being the two contrasting airports one that you have just departed from and the one you have just arrived at. And this first impression itself leaves no roam for guessing why Singapore has become the most preferred port city in this region of the world, indeed round the globe ? And in the months that have followed whenever any one of us has tried and compared even the most developed of Indian cities with Singapore we have only ended up discovering new ideas for improving our Delhis, Mumbais & Banglores.

Well that’s the change in the surrounding i.e. the background, what was even more dramatic and tougher to cope with was the change in foreground i.e. our day to day lifestyle. Singapore has brought about, maybe forcefully, a new sense of discipline and time management in our lives. If I talk to you through a single working day it should be sufficient to summarize these 4 months of stay, because each day is exactly similar to the previous one and gives no reason to believe that the one following would be any different. Our lives can be tracked almost perfectly with the help of a very simple and jam packed schedule. The ever applicable schedule goes something like this, every morning the alarm clock gets up at 6:30 am and ensures that most of us are up by seven o‘clock. And getting up this early is surely not a matter of choice but a norm out here. Right from that moment on its a one and a half hours race against time. Grabbing whatever quick bite one can grab in the name of breakfast, putting on our best possible office formals we are out on our way to MRT(Mass Rail Transit i.e Metros in normal English) station. I know that timing might take some of us back to the good old school days, but the analogy ends here itself ! Once at the MRT station we have thousands of Singaporeans for company and for them all this seems so very natural. But its their company that has taught us how to make the most of the 40 minutes of bus/rail journey that awaits us from that point on. Emulating these seasoned Singaporeans, today none of us steps out into the open without his/her favourite tracks singing into their ears via the miniature MP3 player/I pod and a interesting book which is invariably in reading position for the majority of these 40 minutes. These were some of the habits of the local residents we found very amusing during the initial few weeks, slowly we have realised this travelling time is probably the only spare time one is going to get in the next 24 hours so better make the best use of it. Finally ,almost awake, we step out on to the Brash Bashar Street, which leads to our office. And it during this 5 minutes of walk that we realise how hot and humid Singapore is, because until now we were enjoying the air conditioned public transportation system of Singapore.

At the end of this 40 min ordeal we finally enter our working place, usually on time ! The place, for a change, provides a true atmosphere of an office. Or in other words there is always something serious and depressing in the air that keeps reminding you that you must not be yourself, probably that’s what is commonly referred to as professional behaviour. Once settled in to our seats we go through the usual chores of checking mails, reading Indiatimes/ndtv.com in order to catch up with some Indian news etc. But once those 20 min are gone we begin to realise the true demands of working out of client’s location. It can be seriously demanding in 2 situations, either you have a lot do as a deadline is nearing and the deliverable has to be ready in day or two or you have hardly any thing to do and don’t really expect the situation to change in the days to come. I know the choice might seem very simple lest I mention the underlying condition that you have to ensure that you appear equally serious and diligent in both the scenarios. So the race against time continues, for some to keep check of time to know how much more time they have on their hands to accomplish the given piece of work and for others to keep check of time to know how many hours have they successfully evaded . But for most of us its usually the former scenario, that’s true and believe me better as a small stint of the latter scenario has made each one of us realise that its much easier to be in the former. All in all it’s a steep learning curve, which you have no other option but to climb, both behaviourally and technically!

During these sober office hours comes the beautiful and eagerly awaited lunch hour. An opportunity to break free, talk at the preferred loud volumes and a necessity to recharge ourselves for the remaining part of the long day. But lunch comes with a new set of scares although now most of us have become more or less accustomed to it, but still as we head to into the local food courts the sight of those roasted turkeys and chickens dangling at various food counters serves as a perfect de-appetizer, especially for the dominant vegetarian species amongst us . No wonder that just to avoid these sights most of us have limited our lunch options to either a Indian food shop known as “The Jaggi’s” or “The Subways“. The choice of Subways has no relevance with the calorie conscious image, its just the fact that no other fast food chains like KFCs or McD spared a though for the vegetarians, they don’t have even a single veg sandwich/burger on their menu. Well once back from the well savoured lunch, which we always ensure to stretch to its one hour limit, it back to business as usual, accompanied with the never suppressible after lunch drowsiness. And this time around the only break to look forward to is the end of the day, which for some may be governed by the clock while for the most of us by the status of the workload. But usually we all manage to make a move around 7pm. That leaves us with just enough time to cook, have dinner and squeeze in an hour to enjoy the vast array of facilities our condominiums offer. The facilities at homes usually comprise gym, swimming pool, squash/tennis courts but still with the laid back Indian lifestyles engraved in most of us as true Indians, we prefer to make sure that we grab the couch and utilise that hour for an hour of refreshing TV viewing everyday.

But come the weekends the sunshine is restored in our lives all the dark clouds of starting the day early, sitting in that mourning office atmosphere vanish as we head out of the office on Friday nights. Once out of the office each one has his own recommended stress busters, for some its the loud music and the bold crowd of the dance floor, for others its a game of pool, for some ,the more passionate movie buffs, it is to ensure that the Singapore stay in no way effects their movie premiere attendance. Well the coolest thing about Singapore is the option to catch Bollywood releases on giant screen, although the quality of that screen is a different story altogether. Having enjoyed our Fridays and having balanced our sleep debt the next day we step out for a much more serene and calm outing on Saturday nights, usually its just a long chat and a few beers in the sand by the ocean side, at the East Coast Park. And Today is a Sunday ,I am still trying to wake myself up from those “few” beers we had last night at Beach Cabana, the dreadful Monday is approaching and lets not even think about it .

But what we can still think about is the city itself! Having visited Singapore one is but forced to appreciate the order, the infrastructure, the smoothness and the definite class that the city possesses. Everything appears to be flowing in perfect harmony, everything would occur in the manner and in the order it was designed to occur and there would be no exceptions to it. Singapore is a city where you can actually save your travel time using the local trains/buses, where u don’t need to hit the national highways to drive at speeds greater the 100 kmph, where u forget that power can also fail, where u never need to brush your black trousers or shoes, and where you don’t have to visit an expensive ramp show to view those well sculptured………….. All in all looking at Singapore makes us realise that this is the way a city should be; it’s a perfect working model for an urban setup. Apart from this perfect planning Singapore comes with a world famous tag of a shopping paradise and believe me I do have sufficient evidence to prove the same. Just for start the city has converted most of us into tech savvy persons who just can’t help listening to their favourite tunes when travelling in a train thus always have to carry their miniature I pod/MP3 players, who are always tempted to capture every observable or non observable sight/event in with their jazzy new digital cameras, who can only think about laptops when someone refers mentions a “notebook” and this tale of technological advancement continues………

Just before you all feel that all the above mentioned praises may well be applied to any other world class metropolitan, let me share most exclusive attribute of Singapore, something intrinsic about the nature of the city which can be observed and appreciate only when you become a part of the city. It is not something apparent and may not be noticeable even to the eyes of the keenest of tourist. The city posses an extensively knit social fabric. Citizens who love to abide rules, form queues even when not asked to, protect and maintain the facilities that the city provides them with. With the warmth and respect with which you are met on any possible interaction, suggest that the city is a perfect example of how a multi religious and multi ethnic community should exist, Singapore proclaims and lives as a city with just one race.

But with a roam for all the aforementioned improvements and many other shortcomings, India is too beautiful to be separated from! And we realize this fact more than ever before as……..