Singapore and beyond

I finally made it to the place, which I could have just dreamt of. It was a quick decision and last minute ticketing to get there. I surely did not get the best of the deal for my tickets but that did not bother me much. I just wanted to get there.

It was Monday morning, post CAT, I arrived Chennai and got home quickly. I was running temperature. I slept a lot during the day, I still thought my Singapore trip was a day dream and it wouldn't matter if I kept sleeping. But I was really going, I had to start packing, call up people, get expert advice, etc etc. I was finally done, all set to board SQ 409. Dad and jiju came to Drop me at the Airport, and in no time I found myself seated in the last row (64k), window seat, of Singapore Airlines. I wanted to pinch myself, especially after looking at the air-hostesses. I did everything in the Plane except sleeping. I was excited. Listening to music, watching Friends and Mr.. Bean's movie. It was quite splendid how the whole system worked. It was my best In-flight experience. We landed Singapore 5 minutes before time. I was at Changi Airport. It was a huge and cool place. I got some local currency and cleared all the formalities to get to my friends place. I took a Taxi, and I was at my friends place in just about 20 mins driving at an average speed of 110kmph. Quick? It was a like rocket to me! I reached my friends place, Preetam Rai, He teaches in a Polytechnic. Univ close by to his place. He is one the most interesting and different person I have met so far. I'll tell you more about him as we go. He was well built though he used to skip breakfast almost everyday. It was 7, we spoke for a while, got ready and left for M-Hotel at about 8:30. We took a taxi to the Hotel. We spoke about India, Philippines, China and the education system and related issues. He had a good view point, he thought India stood an advantage with our existing education system for the years ahead. He reads a lot, right from Linux, Chinese lang to some cool management books. He has been to most of the Asian countries, may be I can easily list the places he hasn't seen. The list is short: Nepal, Japan and Afghanistan.

Anyways, so I was there at M-Hotel. The conference was at 10th Level. The building was much taller, probably 25+ levels. Speakers spoke about Cartooning, gaming and application development in Flash. Quite interesting it was. Not very difficult things to do, but still quite cool stuff. I was wondering why I was running away from the cool ActionScripts(AS). They made it look quite easy. I was much impressed by a Singapore speaker talking about Math's in Flash. He was explaining the basic Science formulae for Inertia, torque etc etc. and how beautifully they could be applied for stunning outputs. It was quite inspiring. Very simple AS but very creative application of the same, which made it quite effective. Gaming in Flash ain't a very difficult as well. And above all I realized that Flash MX was quite a handy application. It's just the matter of getting used to it. Everyone got a copy of ScreenSwift flyer. I don't know the impact that it made. But everyone saw it I guess. I got in touch with couple of speakers and exchanged Business card. It was good day at the conference. Lunch was the worst part of it. I got rice to eat. It wasn't quite filling or tasty given the fact that I didn't have my breakfast. But then it was okay, my excitement used to fill in all such gaps! I was off to eGurkha which was just 5 mins walk away from the hotel. I met eGurkha colleagues there, I never worked with them thou, they had joined in soon after I left eGurkha. But they were very friendly and were of great help. I enjoyed talking to them, they made me feel at home. I then took the MRT (Underground Train) to Harish BHaiya's place. The train is just awesome, running at 150kmph, the whole system was just too perfect. I got used to it very quickly. I used the train a lot during rest of my stay. I had dinner at Harish Bhaiya's place and slept there as I was very tired and sleepy. He was good, hez got a nice apartment. His kid looks like him, he is probably 6-10 months older than Gunu. I left his place early in the morning and got back to Preetam's residence, got ready and left for the Hotel. Day 2 - It was much more exciting than Day one as we got some hands-on experience coding some cool ActionScripts. I again didn't get a proper lunch (and no breakfast as usual), I ate good amount of salad and then I went to eGurkha and had a glass full Milo. Milo is the so called national drink. After I finished with the conference I left to eGurkha and Anjan Bose who takes of Pre-Sales interaction with Clients for eGurkha in Singapore accompanied me to little India. We shopped at Mustafa. I got myself a mobile phone (Nokia 8250), portable VCD-Mp3-ACD player, tons of chocolates (its quite cheap there), Pringles and other things. It wasn't a bad place to shop. I found the Sales man to be pretty decent. I liked shopping there. I wish I had bought some more stuff. I never felt enough. I should take mom there, she will enjoy shopping. We then had dinner at Sarvana Bhavan. Had lots of Idlies. You know how much I wanted to have a proper meal. It was filling, Anjan's treat. By the way, I have got a SIM now, my mobile no. is 9840111792. Feel free to call me on my mobile. :) I didn't buy more mobiles, as I found out there was hardly any difference in the prices. Infact my mobile and most of others there were of Chinese make. So I didn't really see a point buying more.

I was now done with 2 days in Singapore, I left to Sentosa next morning. Sentosa is a wonderful Island with lot in the offering. I took a Cable Car to get to it from the World Trade Center. I met another Indian there, so I quickly made friends with him. He was alone as well. His name was Rakesh Tiwari, Bihari by birth, but was put up in Delhi. He is Senior Sales manager for Blue Star and also tours SEA (South East Asia) quite often. We had lunch together and had a great time together. I saw the Dolphin Show, Musical Fountain, Underwater and many more interesting things. It was great fun and good value for money. I took a Bus to M-Hotel at about 8 30 that nite. Preetam was waiting for me there since 7, we had planned to have dinner together. He carries his iMac notebook most of the places, so he didn't mind waiting, he was on with his work. We then took a cab to China Town and had good veg. food in a Nepali restaurant. We then walked for 30 mins and got to a Bus stop to get home. We spoke a lot about Singapore and life there. He likes to spend his time more in china and Malaysia than Singapore. He had a flight next morning at 6. He had to be at the Airport by 4 am. We reached home at 12 30 and both of us packed till 1 30 and then I slept in a while. We got up at 4, got ready quickly and left to the Airport. You must be wondering why me. I had no choice, I should have either got to Harish bhaiya's place after dinner but I choose to spend time with Preetam. We reached the airport and then at 6 I took a train back from there to Harish bhaiya's place. Reached around 7 and got ready to explore more of Singapore. My day 4, I was getting used to Singapore so quickly. I never felt like a tourist there. Traveling in the Bus and Train was so easy and I had kind of mastered traveling with ease. I visited the Science Center and the Zoo. Zoo is just fabulous. Big and just amazing. It rained heavily that afternoon. I was hungry so I left the zoo around 3:30 and decided to go to Little India to do little more of shopping. I got some shaving foam, batteries and other little things. I wanted to buy a suitcase or a good traveling bag, but I found it pretty expensive. I finished up with that, had 2 dollar masala dosa and got back home. My throat was in real bad shape by then. I have been coughing all four days. I couldn't not eat dinner that day. When I reached home I found Harish Bhaiya and Anjalai bhabhiji down stairs, they were leaving for hospital. Vicky had a bad fall and fractured his left hand. They got back from the hospital after mid-night. I then had little rice with kadi. I slept around 1 and got up at 5 20. Took train to get to Changi Airport and boarded IC 556. It was quick and seemed like a very short trip. But I was waiting to get home, I wanted to get my throat fixed. I couldn't take it anymore. To my good luck I got great sleep in Indian Airlines. Indian Airlines is really hopeless otherwise. It was late by an hour, but I slept all through, so no worries about the bad service. It got me home! I have been waiting for mom and dad, they are in Pune. They should get here by tom (2/12/02), I'll feel home then!

Singapore will remain on mind for long, it was a wonderful experience. I have learnt a lot, not just flash, but lot of other things. Singapore is really neat and inspiring for professionals. They do business in a real professional manner. They work to generate commercial value of anything. I have also been lately thinking of taking up business full-fledged. I will have to give up my desire to do an MBA. Business is on my mind, and I wanna take a decision towards it. I have spoke to Anil Jijaji about it. He told me its a very tough decision. Dad and mom want me to do a MBA. But I feel its time I do business. I'm very passionate and enthusiastic about it. Let me know what you guys think of this decision. I don't want to be in a dilemma for long and I hope I manage convincing my parents about it. Lets see how it goes from here.