When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside – but he’s not alone. It seems the entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe, ostensibly to care for their matriarch but truly to stake claim on the massive fortune that Su Yi controls.
With each family member secretly fantasizing about getting the keys to Tyersall Park – a trophy estate on 64 prime acres in the heart of Singapore–the place becomes a hotbed of intrigue and Nicholas finds himself blocked from entering the premises.
As relatives claw over heirlooms, Astrid Leong is at the centre of her own storm, desperately in love with her old sweetheart Charlie Wu, but tormented by his ex-wife – a woman hell-bent on destroying Astrid’s reputation and relationship. Meanwhile, Kitty Pong, married to billionaire Jack Bing, finds a formidable opponent in his fashionista daughter, Colette.
The Indian festive season has started and today is my favourite festival – the birthday of my ishtadev Lord Ganesh. Its during this time I really miss being in Mumbai and I hope that next year I manage to go there at least for a couple of days during the 11-day Ganesh festival and also make a side trip to Pune to see the famous Ganesh mandals there.
We had a good week because of BB and GG’s early admission offers, which means that a slight easure of the pressure that is on the children because of the O level exams.
Our stress levels are hitting the roof what with the O levels less than 50 days away. I am literally counting the days down. Another date I am counting down to is our holiday at the end of the year. I can’t wait for the exams to get over so we can finally relax!
We spent the weekend and the morning of Monday on tenterhooks because Monday was the day the results of the Early Admission Exercise was supposed to be released. I was literally on tenterhooks and when 2 pm rolled out (the time the results were to be declared), I kept refeshing all the forums I was following to see if people were successful.
I knew that BB would be at tuition around the time of the results, but didn’t want to disturb him. So I texted him if he had received any email from the system. Then after about 10 minutes, BB called me. Before even saying “Hello”, I asked him if he heard something. I knew that it was either good news or horrible news. BB was so overcome with emotion that he took a full 10 seconds before he could make his voice work. He was estatic that he had received an offer for his first choice of course. This is his dream course, a dream he has had since he was around 4-5 years old. He will be studying Aeronatutical engineering and this will eventually lead to a degree in the same field. If you see my about post, which is around 10 years old, I have mentioned that BB wanted to become a pilot. While his dream of becoming a pilot has changed to becoming an aeronatical engineer, the field which he still has a passion for remains unchanged. He spent the rest of the week in smiles, he would randomly start smiling and I know it is because he was so happy!
GG was still in school and when she was done, she called me and I told her BB’s good news. I asked her to check her email and when she couldn’t connect to the site, I asked her for the password to the EAE portal. She was very worried that if BB has gotten the offer, its quite likely that she may not get one. After all what are the odds that both twins get an offer to a course of their choice. When I logged in, I could see her offer! When I told her over the phone, she could not believe it. The offer she got was for hrer third choice of school/course, but her first choice of course. She will be studying Accountancy, which she loved after taking it for the first time in Secondary 3 and doing very well in the subject.
BB’s best friends in school (they are called the three musketeers) also received offers, but not in the same polytechnic as BB, but that’s ok. A couple of other friends in BB’s school also received offers, so that is another piece of good news for us.
All in all, this week was dominated by the EAE offers which they both have now accepted. If all goes well and they meet the minimum entry requirements for the course (which I assume they will, since it’s only a pass for all subjects), they will get the confirmation when they get their O level results and will also not be able to take part in the joint admission exercise.
Anyway, have a great Sunday folks! GG still has her prelims while BB just finished his. We will start seeing his papers from tomorrow. Hope he has done well in the exams.
A Geisha’s Journey: My Life as a Kyoto Apprentice – Komomo
This is the story of a contemporary Japanese teenager who, in a search for an identity, became fascinated with the world of geisha, and discovered in herself the will and the commitment to embark on the many years of apprenticeship necessary to become one.
It is also the story of a young Japanese photographer who grew up overseas, and who also was captivated by the traditional lives of these women who choose to dedicate themselves to their art. He began following and documenting the life of teenager Komomo as she studied and grew into her role.
Naoyuki Oginos photographs follow Komomos entire journey, from her first tentative visits after finding the geisha house on the internet through her commitment to the hard schedule of an apprentice, learning arts that go back centuries, all the way to the ceremony where she officially became a geiko, as Kyotos geisha are known and beyond. From the cobbled streets where she walks in her elaborate dress to the inner sanctums of her dressing room, these pages offer a rare look at a unique, living art.
The photographs are accompanied by autobiographical text and captions by Komomo, as she shares her thoughts and emotions, and describes the day-to-day existence of a Kyoto apprentice. It is an illuminating view of seven years in the life of a very special young woman.
A couple of months back, I came across this Japanese term, ‘Ikigai’ which essentially means finding your passion in life and leading your life according to that, in other words, your ‘raison d’être’ and the term really intrigued me. In other words, Ikigai is what makes you get up each morning and jeep going even when the going gets tough.
When I read more about this term, I thought that perhaps this was the missing link in our lives. If we lived a life worth living, if we did something which makes us jump out of bed each morning and looked forward to each new day, then wouldn’t that be the best thing ever? We would never have to work a day in our lives and life will be so much smoother without the usual angst work generates within us.
Ikigai which is pronounced as it is spelt, is a Japanese concept which means, “a reason for being”. The word “Ikigai” is usually used to indicate the source of value in one’s life or the things that make one’s life worthwhile. The word translated to English roughly means “thing that you live for” or “the reason for which you wake up in the morning.”
Each individual’s Ikigai is personal to them and specific to their lives, values and beliefs. It reflects the inner self of an individual and expresses that faithfully, while simultaneously creating a mental state in which the individual feels at ease. Activities that allow one to feel Ikigai are never forced on an individual; they are often spontaneous, and always undertaken willingly, giving the individual satisfaction and a sense of meaning to life.
According to best seller author Dan Buettner, Ikigai lies at the cross section between your values, what you like to do and what you are good at. When you are able to figure that out, you have found your personal Ikigai.
So how do you find out your own personal Ikigai? Make four lists – the first one being your passion in life or what you love doing, the second being your mission in this world or what you feel this world needs, the third list being the able to figure what you are good at or your vocation in life and the last list being what you can get paid for doing your vocation which is essentially your profession. The intersection of these four lists will allow you to figure your personal and unique Ikigai.
In their book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles break down the ten rules that can help anyone find their own Ikigai:
Stay active and don’t retire
Leave urgency behind and adopt a slower pace of life
Only eat until you are 80 per cent full
Surround yourself with good friends
Get in shape through daily, gentle exercise
Smile and acknowledge people around you
Reconnect with nature
Give thanks to anything that brightens our day and makes us feel alive.
Live in the moment
Follow your Ikigai
While the concept has been around for centuries now (it originated in the Heian period, sometime during the period 794 to 1185 AD), the majority of us, including the Japanese people haven’t quite figured it out yet.
There have been studies which say that Ikigai promotes a sense of wellbeing which is probably why the Japanese and particularly Okinawians where this concept is said to have originated live the longest. It was statistically proven that presence of Ikigai is correlated with a lower level of stress and an overall feeling of being healthy. The feeling of Ikigai balances out the secretion of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin and β-endorphin. Some studies demonstrate that a sense of purpose or goal in life or Ikigai is negatively correlated with a need for approval from others and anxiety and studies also found that Ikigai is associated with longevity among Japanese people.
Human beings are born curious. Our insatiable drive to learn, invent, explore, and study deserves to have the same status as every other drive in our lives. So go and channel that curiosity and maybe you will be able to find that sweet spot in your life which is your Ikigai. Once you do, use it every day. Find things to do, simple or complex in your day to day lives which would be an expression of your Ikigai and once you have found and pursued it, you will realise that anything else is just compromise.
I am going to leave you with a Youtube video where Dan Buettner speaks in a Ted-Ed video on how to live to more than a 100 where he also speaks about Ikigai.
Memories and Such 