Finally, a post!

It’s been almost two weeks since I have made an attempt at writing something for either myself or for anyone else . The account of my stay at Singapore that I had so fervently hoped to maintain has got lost somewhere in the muddle of time, fleeting as it always is. Maybe I have just been too lazy or maybe too consumed of thought and feelings that have flooded my being in the last two weeks. Reading what someone else writes about oneself, about rap music, about rainy days and if you get lucky, about yourself as well has just seemed so much more fun and exhilarating all of a sudden. Or is it just the last two weeks? To be honest, that is what I have been doing since mid-March when on an otherwise ordinary day I was introduced to the world of delirium and delight and how seamlessly one can look at one as the other. Life hasn’t quite been the same ever since.
Doubts start creeping in often enough as to whether I am making too much of what there is in an attempt to dream about what I would like it to be. But that’s the best thing about thoughts. You seldom have any control over them. So, when they take you on a ride into a world where everything is exactly as you would like them to be, you just don’t wanna get off. Reality kicks in soon enough and you are left with the knowledge that the gateway to the “perfect world” is yet to open. Just keep standing in the queue, you seem to tell yourself. The time will eventually come! The taste of the fruit is not always in eating it but in pining for it, you see.
So, to come back to what I have been upto . Work and food have been the most prominent features. Laboriously working at something that you just know isn’t your cup of tea is an experience in itself. I won’t say I have been loving it because it teaches you how to overcome obstacles in life and all the crap that I parroted in the interview. I just look at it this way. I am here to do a job and I will do it to the best of my ability. The money I am being paid and all the amazing experiences that I am having out here more than makes up for the moments of self doubt and sheer disgust that creep up often enough. It’s Economics at play. Whether the remuneration of labour is more than the cost of it and in my case it surely is. I won’t bore you anymore with the philosophy and economics fundas . So let’s talk about Singapore, about Clarke quay, about Turkish ice cream and Chilean wine and futsal at the beach.

Starting in reverse . It all started with ours bumping into a senior from college and ended with an hour of sweat soaked ball chasing at the beach. We sucked at the game, all of us and it was shame that guys twenty years our senior appeared so much more agile and adept even at their age. Then the counsellor’s voice in my mind came to the rescue. I was having fun at the end of the day feeling proud of the fact that I was here, at Singapore , on the beach , playing with seniors from a college where the fact that you area a KGPian is all that it takes to bring you together. The age, the place, the time doesn’t matter. Who cares if I sucked? I suck at so many others things as well. Football is just one of them. How easy is it to rationalize with oneself, isn’t it?
Coming to Chilean wine , margaritas, chocolate chip muffins, prawn fillets, mega mac burgers, ………the list is endless. What a gastronomic delight my stay has been at Singapore which I can safely anoint as the food capital of Asia. You ask for any cuisine that comes to your mind and chances are high that a restaurant within a one kilometer radius serves it! Not only do they serve great food, the entire experience is what makes it even more memorable right from the ambience to the courteous service. They almost make you feel embarrassed by the number of times they say “thank you” for each and every little thing! And yes, how can I forget the Turkish icecream. Facebook bears testimony to what a katwaing experience it was but I would recommend it to each and everyone who visits this place even at the cost of making a fool out of yourself in public. The taste’s worth it, I guarantee!
And so it has been ! Time has really flown, just to use a cliché. It’s been three weeks in a new country and it seems like yesterday when we landed at Changi , a little dreamy eyed. The rest of our ten week stay is going to pass even faster as each of us gets involved in more serious work and with our planned trips to Malaysia and Bali taking up the weekends. But yes, to be honest there have been moments even in this fastlane that have made time stand still. Moments that made the heart skip a beat, that made an otherwise boring day appear magical. When the fullmoon cast a spell in the sky , when sun signs started acquiring a meaning of their own, when discussing allergies over ISD seemed fun, when all that mattered was just the realization that Life for, all it’s miseries and disappointments is just too precious to whine and grumble about.