The Married Men - Buka Puasa Song

Not much of a video, but the song is funny. This was the 07-08 version. There's another one they did last night but the broadcast ain't out yet. WKRZ 913FM, go listen.

Cational Day

Unplanned, I showed with a few friends I was watching a movie with at Jason's apartment in an interesting part of town to celebrate his cat's birthday and watch the National Day Parade on TV. It's a nice cosy apartment done up to reflect Jason's creative designer status. Lots of black. The creepy bit were the windows that slid open, exposing me slightly more than waist up. It was tricky taking some of shots I took (see my Flickr). We had impressive lychee lemongrass cocktail to enjoy.

The cat is Socks and was involved in the cat toys bought for him. Then he started to sniff my armipits quite a bit. I dunno, maybe I have some chemicals I exude that pique a cat's interest. It was quite ticklish and I often had to stifle laughter.

822pm came and about 2/5 of the people there stood in front of the TV with their fist at their hearts. I had my fist there but wasn't saying anything - I can't remember what I was distracted by. Was I trying to take a picture of the loyalists?

The fireworks didn't really impress me this year, and the RSAF didn't make more than one thundering pass over the city. Tough times, costs cut?

And President Nathan didn't sing the anthem, again. Wazzup with that?

India On TV

In particular Zee TV. I have that addition to the my cable TV subscription plan for $8.56 a month. It's a Hindi channel that one new bulletin a day, a guy who does yoga, a guy who does a cooking show, some movies on the weekends, Sikh sermons on Sunday morning and the rest of the precious on air time is chock-a-block with dramas.

There is a variety of dramas to entertain viewers. Most are set in modern times but not many are in cities, lots of suburban and rural locales. There is a tragic one about a girl from a lower caste who's got to survive being married off to odd village headman's family far away. Lots of women in all the shows. There was one about five daughters-in-law. One that ended recently was about a lady who had twins and gave one away to her sister because her sis couldn't have kids and later there was drama about family fortunes and luck linked to the little girl given away. Goodness.

The reason why I am bringing all this up is so that I can make sweeping generalization about life in India and how it has come to be portrayed on TV.

1. Women are at the mercy of men. My mother that's what happens in villages. Most of the Indian women I know are vocal, no chance of getting them to keep those lips pursed when the sun is up. In a lot of these dramas, women accused of a wrongdoing often keep slient and don't stand up for themselves. Kinda dumb. They also make very good 'bad guys' in these dramas. There will be a lead evil lady and her accomplice. They will plot and plan to destroy another woman in the household.

2. Somehow all the characters in Zee TV dramas are Hindu. There was one Sikh family somewhere. There are no Muslims anywhere. I find that disturbing since TV is best form of promoting harmony. Kinds sad.

3. I don't get all the wearing of shoes into the house thing. It happens on TV, not in real life. Not when one could step into the poo of many roaming cows that swarm India.

4. Facts don't matter to a mob, only the opinion of the richest or most powerful man. What the man says, goes. Even if it's not quite right. Or is it that people get conned easily.

5. People are embarassed easily. Whether it's about the amount of food on a plate, the offerings at a temple or the size of one's car/bicycle, size-based comparisons riddle these soap operas. Also, there is great potential for misunderstandings with almost no recourse or chance to explain e.g. a lady talking to a man is accused of adultery very quickly and punished.

6. The caste system is alive and well on TV even though the Indian gahmen banned any practices related to caste in the 70s. Sad that TV perpetuates this crap.

7. When dramatic situations erupt, the TV camera manages to capture the aptly contorted faces of all the actors in a shot. It lasts 1 minute and there used to be a lot of zooming in and out. Drove me nuts. Let's not forget the music.

8. Young Indian people say 'Mom' funny.

I don't really follow these dramas. I come home from work and there they are, my mum's evening routine. Come the weekend, I'm gonna get another India channel to watch - Sony Entertainment Television. A SET for the set. I think that's more current - they have a version of Moment of Truth on that channel. Indians being probed in public, now that's a first. I'll report more.

Today's Reading List

I would go back in time and tell raffles to chope more space for us. +++ @kelhan you should scold him, embarrass him in public, sure he paiseh after tha +++ CIA abuses probed 'Agents threatened to kill a key terror suspect's children & sexually assault another's mom' We see that on TV too, no? +++ Dutch govt want to stop teen sailor from sailing ard the world by taking authority from parents http://is.gd/2xn4E Too young they say +++ The post office now sells vacuum cleaners, induction cookers and irons. Yes the stamps are still available. +++ As the Nokia Booklet 3G comes to the fore, let us pay homage to the simplest device of all, the Nokia 1202 http://is.gd/2xBAn +++ SG Snow Leopard OS available on Apple site for $48 http://is.gd/2xKq4 +++ Positivity! RT @breathofreshair : ...we still have 4 months b4 the year ends, but I can already say that 2009 is my best year so far +++ Goodness, deliverables delayed bec agency pple getting inducted. Hello, prioritize please lah. Now I gotta miss yoga. Sigh. +++ I fondly recall @mrbrown's podcast re Pangsai Ris Park RT @singapore_news: Still can't swim at Pasir Ris http://sn.im/qvfry +++ @shareenwong i'm listening to july 5 podcast abt your buying trips. Suggest you stem the references to shopping by calling it procurement +++ 'I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you.' It's some sort of love song isn't it?

What? This Is The Most Popular Pix I Have?

I don't geddit. This has 752 views on my Flickr. Pix no 2 has 20 views. What's up? Are people actively seeking out Air Asia on Flickr? Some stewardess in red fetish? Some many questions, so little beer.

All That You Can Be

I have commented or lamented many a time about the unique set of circumstances that surround our existence as kids born in the 70s and 80s here in Singapore. A few friends of mine are now revisiting this idea and evaluating their in life where satisfaction and happiness is concerned. These friends, mostly ex-colleagues, are in the late 20s and early 30s, have substantial education and won't quite qualify as financially disadvantaged (at the surface anyway). Most concerns stem from the jobs they have. Are they really happy with what they are doing, or if this is the job for them. What would they be doing in the next few years? Are they settling?

Singaporeans have to settle. It is the nature of our lives here. Boys have to do NS, kids have to study hard or get left behind, our CPF is locked up in our homes or dished out in meagre sums when we are 62 and older.

We get jobs right after school because no one is going to feed you. We keep on working and trying to make more money because in the end, money could make us happier. Our lives are caught up with work. In most cases, people marry and have kids, contributing to an increasing burden for the finances to keep up. That's the 'settling' we face now. We live to work.

Will we work all our lives? Maybe. Already we're seeing old folks cleaning up in hawker centres because they need money to live - no such thing as retirement. Maybe that's why we need kids - for them to take of parents who are penniless in their old age. These kids will be the ones who only see their parents before school and after 7pm because no one afford to be a stay-home mum or dad.

So are we enriching our lives in this existence? I don't think so. I asked some people I met for a movie if they were given a first class ticket to anywhere and a permanent residence in that country with nothing else, would they take it? All three said yes. Getting out seems like a dream come true for the younger set of the working class. Singapore not good enough anymore? Scary thought.

Is competition getting to us? Is the island too small for our ambitions? (One of the three above wanted a farm). Are there too many constraints for a happy life here? Does a happy life in Singapore come with limits? I think yes. It's easier not to ask any questions and placate our sense of claustrophobia with multiple holidays and lottery tickets. Seriously though, it's worth thinking about. You might get depressed but we can always solve that with beer. Or get back to work. Keeping busy prevents one from veering off the 'settled' path.

Recent Snappage - Ipoh

I went up to Ipoh for my aunt's funeral recently, and you wouldn't need to know me well to know I would bring my camera along. You won't find many people in these collection in Flickr given the circumstances. I did however manage to capture a good of number of stills, and some of my young cousins who know can understand some of what I say (I saw them last when they were hyperactive and spewed incessant dribble and noise). I hope you enjoy the pixes.

Status Update

Goodness, it was 3 Aug since I posted last. Not that there hasn't been anything to write about. A number of factors have got in the way:
- the lack of broadband. I'm using this M1 USB modem dongle thingy. Dongle, now that is a funny word. It's not so smooth getting online without the convenience of wirelessness all around you. My neighbours also aren't the free willy, use my broadband sort. So bummer.
- laziness. Male excuse number on. I do not go online each night. I come home, eat dinner, play with the nephew, iron perhaps, sleep. Weekends I plonk myself in front of the TV or have been busy going out. So how like that? At work, I can't be not working can I?
- work has been rather busy of late. I have much content to sift and pluck before it ends up nice and polished for all you to enjoy. Go check out Visa Go Explore if you've got a Visa card. Any Visa card.

Hmm, that's about it where non-blogging-often reasons are concerned. Well, I am on twitter and I forward those updates to FB as well, so everyone things I am hooked on the Internet umbilically.

Wait till I get my iPhone. Update galore then. Well maybe. Apparently, the mighty Singtel gods, the sound logisticians they are, ran out of iPhone. People are getting the slick device because it is the epitome of coolness. Nokians and Samsungites are dumping their noe-red telcos to lay their grubby greedy hands on the beauty that is the iPhone. SIgh. I have put myself on the waitlist. If not for the best thing in telecommunications since the brick, I would be tempted to get the Nokia 6670. It's so flat and pretty. Sigh.

On to topics in the news:
- Seagate lays off 2000 people. Well duh. No one is gonna use hardisks in 10 years time. Already state drives are taking pole position among trendy folk (aka owners of Macbook Air) and when drives get cheaper, they'll be everywhere. No more spinning problems. No more whirring. No more burnt out disks. Maybe no more Seagate. What's worse for Singapore is that there are many peripheral industries that fed Seagate. Expect more retrenchments. After Seagate, what's the new cool industry for the populace? No one knows.
- Condo-mania man. Prices are going up. AMK condo going for $1000spf. Siao. The papers seem inundated with ads that promise tall Sauron Towers surrounded by greenery and fireworks in the background. Siao. The best one was The Peak in Toa Payoh. The artist impression had the 40-storey blocks surrounded by greenery up till the horizon. Toa Payoh lah, should have been other 40-storey blocks around the damn EC.
- My N73 became hypersensitive. Started calling my contacts on its own. It was such trouble even copying all my contacts to my SIM card. I had to use a metal ruler to carefully guide the centre button to obey commands. Took me 1.5 hours. Singtel call me quick!
- Am gonna be moving for a 2nd time to the more permanent location in about 2 weeks. More work to do. Good thing we left most of the boxes as they were, sealed and marked. Haven't smelled them in 2 months.
- After National Day, my boss and I got transferred to an all new department under another bloke. There are 4 of us in total. A good small start to bigger better things. But now who do I get my staples from?
- I'm listening to more radio 91.3 than ever before. They are the funniest jokers in the morning and the evening.
- I saw UP in 3D. It's very nice the way Pixar can make a cartoon emotionally appealing. Good show for anyone of any age. That was National Day in fact when I saw it. Then instead of going home to watch the parade, I ended up at a friend's place to celebrate his cat's birthday. Ended up watching the parade on the TV there and the flypast and fireworks from the window of the 14 storey apartment at Jalan Sultan. It was a half cm gap between Conrad and Suntec Tower 4 that was the point of bright focus.
- Football started yesterday and Liverpool lost. Aiyoh.

That's about it - the general update.

To Ipoh, For The Worst Of Reasons

My aunt Jaswant (we called her Masi Gudi, masi - aunty, Gudi - a cute name every has) passed away some weeks ago. The news came as a minor shock because she wasn't old, only 47 but she in recent months has developed high blood pressure and associated complications. She was in a coma some time in May but got out of it in a few days and went back to work. She was a teacher, a dedicated one at that.

We had been wanting to go back to my mum's hometown for a while now. Things just somehow didn't fall into place. I had even bought bus tickets once. My mum didn't want to go because her grandson was ill that week. Now on a Saturday afternoon after returning from NTUC, we received this news. This was the worst reason to go back.

The dumb thing was that the direct flights to Ipoh would start on the Sunday. The next best thing was to take a flight into KLIA and then a bus to Ipoh. We did just that. Leaving home about 7pm, we reached my grandparents' home at 2am. The cremation was way over by then. So we were there, too late and sorry. My eldest aunt made me Milo - we hadn't eaten since the afternoon.

The next day, I met Gurmeet (yes, another version of my name), my deceased aunt's husband. Behind that brave face was a soul falling apart. His eyes were sunken and red from not sleeping. My aunt and Gurmeet had been married for 5 years and now he was alone again.

The thing about death is that people can't help but recall everything about the deceased. Everything. What they did on a daily basis, what they wore, what they would say, things they did recently and many years ago, things they used. Gurmeet couldn't help it as each turn he made reminded him of his wife. He kept narrating what happened and everything else my aunt did. From the way she told him not to drive fast, pointing out the place they would eat each afternoon after classes, what she listened to each morning on the way to work, to they way she would cook and clean. It was painful for him to talk about but he couldn't really stop. Misery makes you do that sometimes. Other people do the opposite and clam up. I clam up, mostly.

Consoling someone is hard. When I got the chance, I told him it was going to take a long time to get over this. It took him a long time to find someone who understood him. He even said when they met for the first time, it was like they knew each other already. My words were rough and raspy, and I couldn't look him in the eye. Well mostly because we were sitting side by side in a car. Well.

His phone would ring every 10 minutes and he had to retell the story and remind himself of his situation. Perhaps it was numbing him too. I told him to turn it off.

I went to Ipoh as manpower too. I helped move things and get stuff. There were many people to feed in that house. I helped with the cooking and the occupying of my young, unsure cousins.

On my 2nd night, my mum and I followed Gurmeet to his hometown to meet his parents. Interestingly, my youngest aunt's soon-to-be in-laws were there paying their respects. It was a noisy affair with a lot of conversation going on with tea in glasses in a kampung house in Bidor, an hour outside Ipoh. My grasp of Punjabi is limited to listening and understanding and so I kept nodding and looking interested. But I was too interested. Old folks have many things to tell and stories to share. Gurmeet's father came up to me and told me to get married quickly. In many more words that that one sentence.

That night I didn't sleep well in surroundings unfamiliar, weather warm and mosquitoes buzzing and swirling around my bloodfull ears. Sounds like the army.

The next morning we woke at 430am and got ready to head back to Ipoh for the end-of-cremation ceremony. Not easy to get through this one. My aunt's father-in-law, spritely man in his 80s, wept. Loudly and agonisingly. He had not lost a daughter-in-law. He lost a child, one who brought joy to his son.

Sikhs are cremated and the ashes are placed in flowing water - so that one's spirit can be released to all corners of the Earth. The Sikh crematorium in Ipoh is next to the Big Sikh temple (seriously, that's what it transliterates directly from in Punjabi) and is next to a river. Gurmeet got into the water to say goodbye for the last time.

On Monday, my mum and I went back to Singapore the same way we got in. The direct flight was bloody sold out again. We took Jetstar from KLIA. Damn these cheaper flights set off late at night. I slept at 2am. Full circle.

Dealing with loss is tough, always. Don't laugh but I can still remember feeling some measure of pain when my friend in primary 4 broke my ruler. In two pieces it lay, and I didn't know what to do or say. Neither did my friend. I close my eyes and I can still see the situation, frozen in time, in childhood memory. It's probably hardest for my aunts after Gurmeet. Sisters are always close. It's hormonal and biological. Thicker than blood.

I remember Masi Gudi for repeating something I said when I was nine, "deliciously delicious". She would tease me but at the same was impressed that I could string the same words together, adverb and adjective. She taught English. My aunt was quite a fun, feisty character. That got her far, not letting obstacles stand in her way. She travelled a fair bit, last to Egypt in December. These are things I will remember.