the world is not enough

everything under the sky

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Aishwar has written about his opinion on my previous post as comments. Initially I felt compelled to reply to his opinion, in some sense my reply in my mind was trying to force a view that what I had written was right, but then I decided not to write. Everyone has a different opinion about any view and yet they all co-exist. I think that is one of the reasons that makes this planet a wonderful place.

But what I intend to do is that I would like to elaborate on my view in the previous post sometime soon. I think it suffers from a detailed breakdown on meaning, of what I wish to say.

Aishwar and Rajeev are going to India for their vacation and Aishwar should be coming here on Monday and I am looking forward to his visit. There will be a lot more discussion that will happen when the three of us get together and the views that we carry are divergent and yet they converge (more of a dichotomy here) which is what makes all the discussions very interesting.

So long...

Saturday, December 11, 2004

It is 12.45 AM. I was tossing on my bed unable to sleep, with a scrambled thought in my mind trying hard to take shape. Finally I got what I was trying to put together. Here it goes...

"To make a person feel whole and complete he needs just two other persons. One who will listen to him and the other to whom he would like to listen to."

Don't just read this like just another blog entry. Do try to ruminate on this and relate it to your own life. Do let me know if you find this true by writing your comments.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Slowly recovering from a stiff neck. This has been troubling me for the past few days. Anyway, I wanted to share a small story that set me thinking. It goes this way,

Long long ago, in a distant town, a piper was walking down the street playing a pipe. His music was so melodious that people on the streets started to dance. Even passers by who heard the music stopped by and started to dance to the music. It was a wonderful feeling. Then came along that street a deaf man. He saw a bunch of people moving around in a funny way. It did not make any sense to him and he started to wonder whether the people in that town have gone crazy and he stood there watching them unable to comprehend the situation. And he moved on...

I hope you can imagine it. Many a times we have looked at things around us, things that we couldn't comprehend or felt that it was unintelligible. We come to conclusions that it is "crazy" and move on. What we could have been missing is melodious music that we couldn't hear.

As human beings we function by judging everything around us. It is the way we have learnt to exist. Judgement arises based on the various elements like intelligence, sensory powers, intuition, randomness, knowledge etc., that we develop over the years either by reading, listening, experiencing, practicing or any of those infinite ways in which we could gain them. What we fail to recognize while we judge is the fact that the knowledge that we possess could be limited and may not be adequate enough to make a qualitative judgement. We might have been like that deaf man unable to hear the music.

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

I chanced upon this news item and was very excited about what Nokia is trying to do. The link is http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62702,00.html?tw=wn_story_related.

A totally useful idea from Nokia and kudos to whoever thought about it. It sure raises a lot of expectations among users and there is a weblog from Christian Lindholm, Nokia's director of multimedia applications to tone it down. The service for now will only be a logging tool and not a blogging tool. But I can see where Nokia wants to take it. People can now blog on the go with an integration of SMS, MMS and the jazz.

I hope to see the effects soon!

Sunday, November 28, 2004

On the Thursday (25th November, 2004) Minister Mentor Mr. Lee Kuan Yew made a speech in the parliament defending his bilingual policy which he championed in his heydays and that is has to undergo a radical change in the current scheme of things. He was of the opinion that his dream of a bilingual population has not bourne fruits and that he has since realized that it is near impossible for expecting people to be bilingual. He said that he himself has struggled at lot with his Mandarin, Malay, Hokkien and Japanese and in recent times has completely lost touch with Hokkien and Japanese.

I personally was surprised by that statement of his since when he spoke of himself, he was not referring to a bilingual problem but his difficulties in mastering not two but five languages including English. The full text can be found at http://www.straitstimes.com.sg/sub/singapore/story/0,5562,287050-1101506340,00.html. In case the link does not work, post a comment with your e-mail ID and I will send you the full text.

The people I know back home in India are mostly bilingual, in fact a reasonably educated person in India is bilingual. Many of them know more than two languages. I myself know about four languages. Another interesting thing to note is that Mr. Lee Hsien Loong son of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew spoke in three languages (English, Mandarin and Malay) fluently during his opening speech when he took over as Prime Minister.

What surprises me is that Mr. Lee who is regarded as the architect of Singapore is giving up on the fact that people of Singapore cannot master two languages and he suggested radical changes in the policy, which lets the parents determine how far their children would go in learning a language, putting the onus on parents. This might seem like a trivial debate when there are more pressing issues that needs the attention of people than to talk about whether children should learn two languages or not.

Why it is important is because language is the window to understanding a culture and tradition of a sect of people. The Chinese, Indians and Malay population live in harmony in Singapore but yet retain their own traditions and practices. The traditions and practices are important because this gives people a sense of identity and belonging and they feel part of a larger whole. If the second language policy is relaxed and option is given to the people to sacrifice subjects that are deemed hard to learn, I am sure people are bound to take the easier route not realizing the larger impact of such actions. Of course the government says that it is the responsibility of the people and they have to bear the results of their actions and it can only be a warning sign bearer.

I am not saying that children should be forced to learn or that the government should take responsibility of the lives of the people. I am of the contention that things that uniquely identifies us and gives us a sense of belonging should not be sacrificed for convenience sake. Of course learning two languages is difficult and it will require a lot of effort on the part of children to learn them. But what is living a life if we are not prepared to even face this challenge. Imagine a Chinese growing up knowing only English and not knowing Mandarin. Some might ask, so what is the big deal. Of course it might seem like it is not a big deal. We are seeing a convergence in many things around us so why not in language. People are definitely ready to accept a common protocol to transfer data between computers all over the world. So it is in telecom. In fact there are even efforts to bring about a common practice of accounting so that it paves way for truly global companies. But are people ready for a convergence in culture? Can we think of one culture, one realigion, one language, one tradition, one practice, one set of values, one set of morals, one set of ethics for the entire planet at this point in time? Definitely not.

There will be a time in future where we might think of a scenario like this. But in the current scheme of things people are not ready. Many are carried away by the sheer pace of life. They don't stop by to think of larger implications of simple actions that they take on a day-to-day basis, like not studying Mandarin or Tamil or Malay and following only the English language, until the reality hits them. But then it is too late.

I think sacrificing the mother tongue for the English language or for that matter studying only the mother tongue is a foolish decision. It will not prepare the children either for facing the challenges in life and career or for giving then a strong sense of identity.

This is something the Singaporeans have to seriously think about.

Friday, November 26, 2004

This week has been quite busy and interesting. First there was the new students orientation. As part of the senior batch we were asked to help the new students settle down in Singapore and get the know the place around the University. The students were split into multiple batches and each batch was assigned to couple of senior students. I had about seven of them from Vietnam, Singapore and India. It was quite an interesting mix, some shy, some extroverted and a few a bit puzzled!! The school had organized a few games to break the ice and my group managed to win the cheer leading competition!! The end result, I got a couple of gifts for the time spent. Well, I did have fun all the way too.

My next block of courses started yesterday and this time I have signed up for an Accounting course and an Information management course. I like both the subjects and hope it will give me an exciting time studying them.

To all the people interested in Sri Vaishnavism, there is an interesting site with mp3 files of slokas rendered by Sri Sunder Kidambi. www.prapatti.com contains the mp3 files that can be freely downloaded and Mr. Kidambi has taken effort to render the slokas with a clear diction which is useful for those learning the slokas and for general listening. The site is updated quite frequently and you can see the latest uploads on the home page. I found this quite interesting and useful. I hope you enjoy them too. For those who do not understand what Sri Vaishnavism means, it is a form of religion and / or philosophy where the manifestation of belief is through total devotion for Lord Vishnu. I shall try to write a bit more on Sri Vaishnavism and its culture at a later date (no promises though :-)). It is quite interesting and involves complex and intriguing cluture, tradition and art. The expression of devotion is mostly through wonderful poems praising Lord Vishnu.

I hope to process more pictures from my hike to the nature reserves and post them soon. So keep looking now and then.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

The last Saturday, Sunday and Monday (20th, 21st and 22nd November 2004) has been really busy for me. And a bit tiring too.

There are a few natural spots in Singapore which has been preserved so that the Singaporeans don't grow up not knowing what a forest or a lake looks like (no offence to the Singaporeans though). The ones that are frequented by the tourists are Sungei Buloh, Macritchie Central Catchment and Nature Reserve, an island called Pulau Ubin and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. I was told by the locals here that the places reserved for the National Armed Forces are even more dense and beautiful. But, of course a tourist cannot visit those places. For those of you looking for more information on these places, visit www.nparks.gov.sg

Well, now to the reason why I was busy and tired. I visited three of the nature reserves on those three days and that's why.

On Saturday I went to Sungei Buloh with my brother and a friend of his and I was completely surprised. I never imagined that Singapore would be housing such a beautiful natural forest. It was close to what you can get in bigger countries. Apparently lot of effort has been taken by the government to maintain its pristine nature. It is a mangrove forest and home to a rich variety of flora and fauna. I shall not bore you with my botony and zoology. If you are interested then visit the site. They have laid a few trails for people to walk around. I was surprised by one thing though. It is a mangrove wet land trail and you don't get an opportunity to wet your feet!!! Me and my brothers like hiking in rough places a lot and this was a bit of a disappointment. They had laid wodden planks for most part of the trail and neatly laid pathways to walk around without getting your feet wet. But all the same we enjoyed it well. We could not cover the complete trail since we reached there late afternoon and the place closes by 7 pm. The sad part was we did not take our camera. I am planning to visit that place again soon and this time I won't miss it.

Then on Sunday we (me and my brother) visited Macritchie Nature park. This was a step above the Sungei Buloh both in its beauty and size. This also happens to be the Central Catchment Area of Singapore. Recently they have constructed a hanging bridge which is called the tree top walk and it is quite interesting to walk across it. To reach that it is quite a long walk. You have to be prepared for a bit of slush and a nice hiking boot would come handy. We hiked for about three hours and as usual we were talking about doing it every week which never happens by the way.

We took some pictures here I shall post them separately. It would have been nicer if pictures could be included as part of the message but for some reason Blogspot does not allow it.

On Monday it was a trip to Pulau Ubin with my friends from school, Arun and Sreevatsava. This place is a rustic island and it depicts a Singapore in the 1960's. Nothing spectacular in this place but it was a change to take a boat ride to this island and look around the place. We rented bicycles and we pretty much covered the entire island. Apparently this is the only inhabited island apart from Sentosa of Singapore. There are a few villages with houses of old Chinese and Malay architecture. The name Pulau Ubin supposed to mean Granite Island (Pulau in Malay means Island). The main business in the 1970's used to be the granite quary and fishing. Now all the quaries are closed and most of the locals have left the island. The existing locals thrive on fishing and tourism. One should try the local coconuts here and if you are lucky you can chance upon some wild fruits.

Well that summarizes my three days of visits to nature reserves. I intented to go to Bukit Timah today but I guess I will be pushing myself too hard. Moreover I was called to help the new students who are arriving for the November batch to settle down and get to know the place.

I shall upload some of the pictures here and the rest I will publish it as an album on the ofoto site. So long, then...

A dilapidated house in one of the villages at Pulau Ubin. You can find many such houses abandoned by the villagers who migrated. You can see Sreevatsava standing on the small garden that belonged to that house. Makes me wonder who would have lived there and what kind of life he would have had!!!

Arun and Sreevatsava showing their skills in cycling. I personally prefer walking. But one may not be able to cover the entire island by walk in a day. We took some food as you don't get much to eat especially if you are a vegetarian.

Three lost boys in the island. Posted by Hello

Picture of the the catchment area

The hanging bridge. This is called the Tree Top Walk and you get a nice view of the forest form about 50m high. This place closes by 5pm sharp.

Nathu trying to shoot some 'natural artifacts' :-) This is the trail that we walked through. Approximately 9 kms and it was quite exciting. Posted by Hello