ExpertDabbler

Songs of the sea, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Let this be a peaceful, colorful and spectacular year to mankind.

What is it like coming home after ten days? Well I am back home after a long (by my standards) vacation trip to Singapore and an unplanned trip to KL (visithra mannichuko for not calling you). The special thing was that my mom was in foreign soil for the first time.

From the likes of Jurong National Park to Sentosa, everything that is normally found in a package tourist visit was also in my list. Ditto for KL, the usual suspects like Battu caves, Petronas towers, and Genting highlands were duly visited and checked. Frankly, I saw Singapore like the way Ramarajan saw in that song ‘Sorgame endralum’. My mom ordered ‘Coffee’ in Singapore airport and I suppose that would be the last time she would ever drink coffee in any foreign soil. She survived ten days because she was seeing everything foreign while eating everything South Indian – Idly, vada, idiappam, Dosa, Puli Sadham etc thanks to my friends’ wife. I tried plain Chee Chong Fun and the famous butter sugar toast with Kaya. One encounter with vegetarian food in a food court near Tampines interchange was interesting too.

To me, Singapore oozes design. A simple HDB flat in the tenth floor in Singapore is miles ahead of an apartment in any upmarket area in Chennai. Every sign board in Singapore is just perfect. The only chaotic place in the whole of Singapore should be ‘Little India’. Mustafa center is literally worshipped by all our makkals though I find it’s a glorified Saravana stores with perhaps no compromise on the quality of products being the only difference.

My friend, an ardent Lee Kuan Yew admirer, wanted me to read his autobiography. Singapore is perhaps the best city in Asia or even the whole world for clean, safe, middle class living. The next question that logically comes to mind is, When will some Indian city be like Singapore? I am not sure any of the Indian city can ever scale up to that level in the next 50 years and to a lesser extent I am not even sure if such model of development is even needed for India. Singapore is like an Apple product, I like Apple Macs but a working pirated Windows or a Linux is a more realistic option for a first time computer user I guess.

In contrast, there are shades of India in KL, especially in Puduraya, Jalan Lou Ampang etc, maybe they are the ‘Little India’ of KL. But, Malaysia is world class in at least one thing, road infrastructure.

While returning home, my mom commented,’Singapore road ellam pathuttu namba road ellam road a illai nu thonudhu da’. I had no answer. I had more realistic expectations. I was genuinely happy that my home was not broken into when I was out of town.

Having appropriate expectations is the key to happiness.

Useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew
http://www.time.com/time/asia/asia/magazine/1999/990823/lee1.html
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/090801189X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

On Malaysia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumiputra

Apparently 24 hours is a lot of time for our corporate czars.
Satyam computers announced a deal which was ridiculous to say the least, only to do an about turn in 12 hours.

Late yesterday evening, Satyam announced that they are acquiring stakes in Maytas Infra (51% stake, listed entity) and Maytas Properties (100% stake, private company) for a whopping Rs.8000 crore. And that is almost the entire current cash reserves of Satyam. And just in case if we wondering about the connection between an IT services company and construction company, Maytas Infra and Maytas properties are promoted by Ramalingam Raju’s sons!

The market spoke in the only language our Corporate czars will understand. Bloodbath ensued. Satyam’s ADR was hammered by 50 odd %.

No prizes for guessing that they called off the deal in a span of 12 hours!

This one is a classic case of lack of scruples by the supposedly ‘clean’ IT biggies. What was even more ridiculous was the explanations offered by Mr. Raju backing this decision.

Its a sad reflection of the state of affairs that politicans wear white dhotis and speak in regional languages while our ‘ethically driven’ business tycoons wear Raymond suits and talk english, apart from that, they are all the same.

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Apparently the rest of the world imports something more than just oil.