Category Archives: Musing

The world tomorrow

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Somewhere in the world today, we will welcome the seventh billionth person into this world. We’ve added one billion people in the world in just about a decade! According to a United Nations estimate, there are about 2 babies being born every second and we will be adding another 3 billion babies, reaching the world population figure of 10 billion by 2100, that’s just 89 years away!

The world is seeing a huge variance in terms of population growth, first world countries do not have enough and third world countries have too much! This means that in the very near future (if it is not already happening), you will see a lot of movement of population from the less developed countries to the more developed ones. This will lead to other problems like integration, resentment from the established to the newly arriving etc.

So this is a new thing for parents to worry about – as if we have less things to worry about already. With the world’s population reaching stratospheric heights, it is inevitable that the levels of competition for literally everything will increase proportionally.  Everyone will be chasing after the same pie and it’s going to be a free for all, unless you have the resources to beat the competition. One of the best ways to succeed in life is through education and guess what, that’s going to be the one place with the fiercest competition.

Children in Singapore, which is a first world country in a third world region, are already pretty complacent, even though we’ve always had competition, not just from the region, but also from India and China, but the competition facing our children, 10-15 years down the line will mean facing people who are hungry for success not just from the above mentioned countries, but also from Africa and the rest of the world.

What does this mean to us as parents? In my opinion, this means giving our children the best we can – in terms of education, experiences, knowledge and learning and making them the best we can with the strongest values and foundations so that they can make their own way in the world that they are being dealt with as the kind of adults who will make us proud to be called their parents.

My only hope is that 10-15 years down the line, GG & BB grow up to be adults I can be proud of – articulate, helpful, intelligent, loving people who are a success in whatever they choose to do and be in life!

What a Week…..TGIF…Really?

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This week’s kinda been a bit weird! We had a break right in the middle of the week and when I went in to work yesterday, it was with the feeling that it was Monday instead of Thursday. But today’s Friday and the weekend beckons! Not that this weekend’s gonna be anything but relaxing – think exams times two….


Wednesday was Diwali when the whole world has the excuse to hog like pigs! One of my friends said you start chewing in the morning and don’t end till night and he was right. But were all feeling the effects of the excesses and yesterday was a day of eating less and giving tummies a break!

This is me till Tuesday

BB and GG’s written final exams start today. They’ve done with the orals earlier this month and will have the written papers starting today with English, then Maths on Monday and rounding off the year’s examinations with Chinese on Tuesday. Then after another 10 odd days of school, they end the Primary 2 and get ready for Primary 3. Primary 3 is supposed to be a big jump from the ‘easy’ years of Primary 1 & 2. Science gets added to the mix now. I wonder how they they will cope, especially with Hindi! Got to keep the momentum going on even during the holidays.

Once the exams are done, I plan on cleaning the whole house, throwing out accumulated stuff that somehow seem to develop tendencies to give birth to more stuff! I want to do this before my helper leaves for her leave in December. Then it’s planning and shopping time for our trip to visit family in India in mid December. We’re all so looking forward to this. Another thing I hope happens in the next two months is me getting a new job and starting in a new place in the new year!
Got a lot to accomplish in the next two months. Wish me luck folks!

Shall I??

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On Tuesday evening after dinner, we went to visit my in-laws who live a 10-15 minute walk/5 minute drive. My Father In Law (FIL) has just been diagnosed with Lung Cancer and so we wanted to go meet him.

While coming back home, somehow, the topic of discussion went to the question of citizenship. S and the kids are all Singaporeans while I still retain my Indian passport. I really don’t know why I still have not taken the final step to get my red passport (A Singapore passport is red in colour, hence the line). BB & GG had a lot of questions as to why I did not change allegiances. Actually there is no great reason except for the fact when I could first do it, I was not ready mentally, maybe for sentimental reasons and so put it off. Now my re-entry permit expires in 2017 and so have time till then to swing either way. Actually, these days, I identify myself more Singaporean than Indian as the India I grew up in is not really in existence now. I just need to get a few things clarified the next time I go to Mumbai (legal stuff) and then I can take the final step towards renouncing my citizenship.

Like I told BB & GG, I am Singaporean in my heart – I stand up when Majulah Singapura is played (the Singapore national anthem) and recite the pledge with my right hand over my heart like the millions of Singaporeans and so it’s just formalities now.

In fact, here’s a short anecdote to illustrate this. Earlier this week, I was at an international school for an event. The chief guest was an Member of Parliament and while we were waiting, the school’s PA system asked the school to stand for the national anthem. I looked around and found everyone still sitting, so I got up and asked “Shouldn’t we stand” and then everyone stood up!

GG very categorically told me that I should become a Singaporean very soon just like her, BB and Daddy as we’re one family and everyone should be the same! So yeah, in the next two years, that’s a goal to reach!

One benefit of having a Singapore passport is leaving behind all the visa hassles I’ve had to undergo since coming here. Singapore citizens can travel visa free to many countries in the world, while Indians need a visa for practically every country. So this means impromptu trips will be more of a norm, rather than what we are doing now – which is planning and getting my visas everywhere we need to go!

Reminiscences

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Yesterday, I accidently clicked on my old blog which I used to host on Blogger. So I started reading my old entries. I started blogging way back in 2007 and was a very sporadic blogger, blogging a total of 62 blog posts over a two year period. Compare this with this blog now and I’ve sure come a long way.

In March 2007 when BB & GG were about 3.5 years old, I wrote the following post, and when I re-read it yesterday, I realised that 4.5 years later, it still held true..

Girls and Boys

Being the mom to a girl/boy pair of twins has certainly given me loads of food for thought. It’s quite fascinating to see how girls and boys behave under certain situations – given that the external environment is the same for them both. This brings to my mind the “Nature versus Nurture” theory that I learned in Psychology class way back in college. The gist of that theory is that “What determines a human being’s behaviour patterns? Is it his internal genetic make-up or is it the external factors which make a person what he/she is and how they behave?”

With the Pilot and Princess, I have always tried to be fair – I never made any distinctions between the two, especially in terms of gender specific toys and games. But surprisingly the age-old gender distinctions are very clear in our home. The Princess loves playing with her dolls and Barbie collections and the Pilot is vehicle mad. But there are some blurred spaces – the Princess likes to play with blocks and the Pilot with their little laptop (guess that is because it is a Ferrari model and all the games are car based).

But it is in temperaments that I am most surprised about. Contrary to perception that girls are made of ‘sugar and spice and all that is nice’, the Princess is the more assertive and dominating twin. The Pilot on the other hand easily gives in to his sister, but he is learning to be more assertive now. The Princess can shriek, rant and throw tantrums with the best of them and she is not afraid of anyone and anything. If we try to punish her, she probably will come back to me and I am really dreading her teens! The Pilot is more sensitive and a look from me is enough to make him back down.

It was fun to read old posts. I will trawl my old Blogger blog and put in posts that I feel are good to put here. There are some interesting posts about when BB & GG were little as well as other snippets!

My 100th Post

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This is my 100th post! Woohoo! When I started blogging, 100 posts seemed such a daunting task, and it was initially, because I didn’t blog often. Now that I am blogging regularly (aka five days a week), it’s not such a difficult task. Now 200 or even 500 does not seem so distant to me. Like a saying I’ve often heard when I was younger – little drops of a water make a mighty ocean! Now, if I can only translate this to other aspects in my life! Anyway…..

I wanted to actually write a post on how privileged I am to be a twin mom, but I read about something very similar from someone just last week and so I didn’t want to do that. I will, instead do a post on my twins – GG & BB and how amazing they are….

I’ve actually written a post on the twins, so this one is not so much about their individuality, but more about their twinness. 

BB & GG love being twins most of the time. BB has no issues, but at times GG does not like her brother taking away half her limelight. If she had her way, she would have been an only child and loved it.

They are partners in crime – anytime anything happens in the house, it’s always the other person’s fault. So much so, we can mostly never figure out who did it, unless the other twins tells on the perpetrator or the perpetrator confesses his/her crime.

They have built-in playmates, although it does not seem like that as the years go by and their interests and hobbies change. Intially they used to play together, but these days, what with GG playing with her dolls and BB playing with his cars, they don’t play as much as they used to, but they still like to watch youtube videos on my iPhone together – even if it is a barbie video which GG is watching or a car/plane video which BB is watching

No one can bully them in school, especially since GG is the more aggressive one. According to her, she loves pinching her brother, but woe anyone else who does the same thing, they will bear the brunt of her anger and let me tell you, she can get angry!

Mommy can get all the information about school even though each one gives some information. By pooling together all the fragmented pieces of information, I get the complete sense of what we are supposed to be doing. Also if someone gets in trouble at school, I will know it because the other one will be eager to finger the one in trouble. This will only work when they are in the same school, so I may have to revisit this in four years time when they reach secondary school.

They know they are special. Being twins, they are usually the centre of attention when they go to a new place as most people are fascinated by multiple children. So the first time they meet someone, that person is very keen to get to know them. 

They share a connection with each other that only they appreciate. They can’t be without each other for more than a short time. Even though they are not in the same class in school, they need to know the other is fine and safe, periodically checking up on each other. I hope and pray that this connection with each other stays with them for their whole lives.

Having a sibling of the opposite sex who is the same age as them will give them insights which will be invaluable

I read about the this from another site. I am going to copy it in it’s entity and say why I put this here:

Twin Predictions: Twins don’t only share psychic vibes with each other; they seem to put off some sort of sign that alerts others to their coming. Many a mom-to-be of twins has been told that she’ll have twins before she has that first sonogram or even knows she’s pregnant! There’s something about twins…people just KNOW!

When I went to the ob-gyn to confirm my pregnancy, the doctor did an ultrasound. When the doctor was doing the sonogram, I just blurted out, “Don’t tell me, we’re having twins!” and the doctor looked at me, smiled and said “Well, that’s what you’re going to have”. I had no reason to say this and who knows why I said that at that point – maybe the above point is true? Who knows??