If you have an opportunity to be nice, CASH it!

Today I learnt another lesson.

Last year, I was approached by a Mexican guy who knew me through a close Mexican friend of mine and he was visiting SG. And he hoped that I could help him and show him around. But unfortunately, I had no time and I didnt even meet up with him - even once over a course of 6 months.

And now, I live in USA and I am planning to visit Mexico. The person who was most helpful to me while I did my research on 'visiting Mexico' was - him. I feel so guilty and self-centred.

"What goes around, comes around" and well, I was just lucky here as this guy was a real sweet fella.

Bottomline - Be nice whenever, where ever and to who ever you can!

Seattle~

So finally I am in Seattle... and it’s sorta exciting… Exciting because its new and totally different from all the places I have been to so far.
Thing’s been weird enough – left hand driving, strange plug points, stalkers and add to that the cold/windy/rainy weather.
But there are things I totally appreciate – dishwashers (not that common in Singapore/India where maids are cheap), multi cuisine food from ‘this’ side of the world, fall colors and fat people (my friends will know what I mean here *wink*).
Verdict – so far, so good!

Yummy Singapore!

Most of my close buddies know that I am a foodie or well ‘Epicurean’. Personally, I agree that singapore is a real food paradise. Agree that none of these cuisines are actually ‘singaporean’. But its amazing how they have this entire range of cruisines originating from china, malaysia, indonesia, thailand, indian, japanese, korean – all under the same food-court-roof!

Here is a list of local food items (in no particular order) that I am gonna miss like crazy:

1. black pepper crab
2. chilly crab
3. sting ray in sambal sauce
4. kaya toast
5. kopi c/o/peng
6. milo dinosaur
7. roti prata
8. roti john
9. murtabak
10. chicken with dried red chilly
11. oyster omelette
12. satayyyy with peanut sauce
13. carrot cake
14. tau suan
15. chicken rice
16. fish head curry
17. steam boat
18. vegetables or mushrooms in oyster sauce
19. mooncakes :P
20. …

I am sure I will keep on adding to this list … *yumm*!!

Yet another rationalisation =)

So I finally made the mistake a fresh analyst like me is bound to make at least once in his/her career. Not a big deal but this is what happened – I completely ignored (and may even have give my ‘roll-eyes’ look) to the biggest boss in my client’s SE Asia office.
It would have been okay if he did not know me, but unfortunately he had been introduced to me (or rather I had been introduced to him) the very same morning. So when I saw him in the lift lobby in my hotel, I did think he looked familiar with his huge tummy and un-tanned ("never-been-outta-aircon-offices”) skin. He definitely expected me to recognise him, infact make a conversation with him. That’s why he did stare at me for long. It had the opposite effect on me - when I saw him staring at me, I probably gave him a cold look and when he persisted, I may have rolled my eyes and similar works~
But like I said, every analyst is bound to do it at least once. Well, we learn from our mistakes (Example - I have not missed any of my flights after I missed my last one).

Apologies anyone?

Here is something taken from "The Man Upstairs" by P. G. Wodehouse.

It is a good rule in life never to apologise. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.

Well, I totally live by it. I despise apologies if they are not followed up with corrective actions and I would rather make things better than apologising. But well, thats just me. I would really like to know what others think of this statement.

Cambodia - Day 1 and 2

Finally I have some time to write about my Cambodia trip. Wouldn’t say that it was the best trip ever, (I was very sick when I left Singapore and it showed bad at Malaysian checkpoint) but its sure was awe-inspiring and an eyeopener. We went to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh (the capital) over the 5 days. Here is a brief account of my experiences.

Our first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap a small town where everything is within walking distance. It is the primary access point to the Angkor Archelogical Park which is about 6 Km from Siem Reap city centre. Angkor Archelogical Park is home to 1000 tear old Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom temples.

I was actually impressed by the airport which looked like a mini holiday resort. It was surprisingly clean and efficient (after bad experience at Phuket airport earlier this year, I had really low expectations from this one). What was more surprising was the man wth my name on a placard. I had booked a hotel in advance but I didn’t imagine then actually giving us a free pickup from the airport. But the mystery unfolded when he told us about his taxi service for taking us around Siem Reap for the next 2 days and booked us in for USD 60!!!

Anyways, we embarked on our tour to the Angkot Thom and Angkor Wat temples. The driver took us through the Angkor Thom gates to our first temple – Bayon Temple. Known for being the most grand among all the Angkor Thom temples, Bayon has 200 giant faces carved across 54 tower. These uniqutous monsterous faces have a subtle almost ironic smile which intrigues the viewer.

Nest destination was Baphoun temple much of which has collapsed. It is a Siva temple which I found very weird as Angkor Thom is supposed to be dedicated to Buddha. I would love to read about this connection. Thereafter we wandered in the Terrace of Elephants and King Leper.

Thereafter the driver brought us to Angkor Wat temple – grand and majestic and beautiful and awe-inspiringAnd we were to return to this on Day 2. I will describe more later …

We did not enter the enter the temple as it was dark already and we decided to return next morning. We went back to the hotel room and freshed up after all the dust/heat in Siem Reap. We went around the old market with all the tuk-tuk guys pestering us all around. And I just happened to ask one of the for a day trip to the rest of the temples – offered me a price of USD 15 and we said goodbye to our current 60-dollar-driver.

Day 2 – The day started at 5:00 am when we left for view of sunrise at Angkor Wat.. Arrived there within 15 minutes. We watched the sun rising and ornating the Angkor Wat temple as it stands with brilliance and glory. Angkor Wat - an architectural masterpiece - epitome of culture and ancient civilization at its peak. As the sun rises, we walked through the entrance towards the main edifice.

It is all surreal. It takes me some place. I can only imagine the monks walking with me at the break of dawn to offer their early morning prayers. I can almost hear their chants and see the glow on their faces that illuminates the temple walls. Its all dream-like. The main temple structure, unfazed by the passage of time – 1000 years – still perfect in its composition, balance, proportion, symmetry and art. One has to see it to feel it.

To be continued …

Of art, artisitic concept and its expression

As I glanced through the Art-Works at Esplanade today, a thought struck me. As most would agree, the essence of an art-work lies in its two aspects - the concept aka idea and the technique aka execution. Have you ever wondered which one, if at all, is more significant that the other? I believe without either, an art-work would not be as valuable and worse - it would not exist at all.
An idea in a thinker’s mind is intangible and shapeless. An idea that is not communicated is almost as if it did not exist at all. It’s like a soul without body. It needs to be conveyed to be appreciated as an artistic expression. On the other hand, a technique without an idea is direction-less. One cannot demonstrate a technique without an idea or at least an imitation of an idea. In my opinion, it is the fusion of concept and technique that defines an artistic expression.
Further to this discussion, how easy it is to for an artist to be equally adept at both conceptualisation and actualisation? Consider the case where the artist is both the idea-man and the delivery-man. In order to be fair to the art-work, the artist must be proficient in both of these skills. To conceive an idea as novel as it could be and to execute it with an equal precision may be difficult. In that case, will it be a better idea to separate these two task and let them be performed by a pair of specialist as opposed to a single generalist?
Specialisation of task may solve the problem when an artist is not equally talented at both idea and delivery. For the purpose of an example, let us examine the case of a theatre production. While the director who conceptualises the act, it is the actor who executes it. While the director decides what emotions must be incited in the audience, it is the actor who invokes them through his acting. Both specialise in their own domain. In this case, the channel between the idea and the delivery becomes critical. It is important for the actor to be at the same page with regards to the understanding of the concept. Similarly its important that the director is successful in communicating the exact concept to the actor. If not, they will not be doing justice to the art-form.