Tag Archives: Musing

Happy Birthday to you….

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Today GG & BB turn 8. Happy birthday sweeties!! The last eight years have been a fun-filled roller-coaster ride for all of us. We’ve had our share of sweetness and some sadness, but overall, it’s been delightful and I am glad that nature thought us worthy of the twins!

They’ve taken some sweets – Smarties to share with their friends in school. Tonight their school celebrates the Mid Autumn Festival and Family Day and we’re sure to have a blast there also. Enjoy your day darlings and we’ll continue our studies and work tomorrow…

Here are a couple of videos for your enjoyment!

 

This and That…A Khichadi Post

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This post is a khichdi of different things. First things first though – a khichdi is an Indian lentil and rice dish which is essentially a one pot meal. You just chuck in rice, lentils, vegetables with some spices and create a fulfilling meal! The image is courtesy of Wikipedia.

Yesterday I went for my annual PAP smear test. My ob-gyn has recently shifted his clinic and somehow even though I kept saying the correct name, I landed in the wrong place! I had taken BB & GG with me since I wanted them to see the man who brought them into this world! BB & GG were very excited about this! The test was a routine one, but the Fibroid that I have in my uterus has apparently grown by around 20% over the last one year. It is still small enough to leave it for now, but over the last four years it has grown by almost 250%! Hopefully it stops growing any more and I am saved from surgery…

I also realised that I am seriously overweight! My scale at home is broken and I have not yet bothered to replace it. I weight 92 freaking kgs! I really, really need to do something. I also realised that this weight is very close my weight when I was nine months pregnant with twins! No wonder in the last few weeks, more than one person have offered me a seat in the bus – they thought I was pregnant!!

While coming back home from the clinic, we were talking about the fact that in my side of the family BB is the only boy in his generation – my sister has two girls and other married cousins with children also have only girls till now – and I said, “Because BB is the only boy in this generation, the grandparents tend to pamper him a lot”. For some reason, this set off GG in a fit of giggles and she wouldn’t tell me the reason. Then later when the giggling subsided, we realised that she associated the word ‘pamper’ to diapers or Pampers! Cue to continue giggling whenever the word was used, and believe me she used the word in many ways during the 10 minute drive home!

I also heard some other piece of sad news yesterday – an ex-colleague of mine JS who was just about my age (give or take a few years) expired on Sunday. I am not sure of the cause, but I heard the words Heart Attack. Even though he and me were not close and in fact I disliked him a lot, here’s a prayer for him and his family and may his soul rest in peace. I know he is the only son and has aged parents with medical conditions. May God give them the courage to go through this tragedy. It can never be easy for a parent to see his/her child go before them, this goes against all the laws of nature!

The Day the World Changed Forever

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Today is the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center in New York. The attacks by the Al Queda which saw two high-jacked planes forced to crash into it changed the world as we see it today. It was a day of the loss of innocence and faith in man. I think this was one of those days where for the rest of your life, you remember what you were doing when you heard the news. I was at home watching TV – the local comedy Phua Chu Kang in fact – when the news scrolled across my TV. I was riveted by it but didnt realise the magnitude until I read the newspapers the next day.

Post 9-11, the world as we know it has changed. We all have changed. Travel has become difficult and most importantly, the level of distrust has dramatically increased. We fear foreigners and unknown people now. The world has in fact become a worse place to live in.

Hindu Mythology has something called Kalyug. This age of vice is the last of the four stages the world goes through. People say when it is time for this Kalyug, the world becomes bad and evil and hence many people that the world is currently undergoing this. In the epic Mahabharata, a discourse by Markandeya identifies some of the attributes of the Kalyug. These attributes are:

In relation to Rulers – Rulers will become unreasonable: they will levy taxes unfairly. Rulers will no longer see it as their duty to promote spirituality, or to protect their subjects: they will become a danger to the world. People will start migrating, seeking countries where wheat and barley form the staple food source.

In Relation to Human Relationships – Avarice and wrath will be common. Humans will openly display animosity towards each other. Ignorance of dharma will occur. People will have thoughts of murder with no justification and will see nothing wrong in that. Lust will be viewed as socially acceptable and sexual intercourse will be seen as the central requirement of life. Sin will increase exponentially, whilst virtue will fade and cease to flourish. People will take vows and break them soon after. People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks and drugs. Gurus will no longer be respected and their students will attempt to injure them. Their teachings will be insulted, and followers of Kama will wrest control of the mind from all human beings. Brahmins will not be learned or honoured, Kshatriyas will not be brave, Vaishyas will not be just in their dealings.

If you see the above as a guide, we are well into the age of darkness. So what do you think? Also where were you and what were you doing when you heard the news about the 9-11 attacks?

Singapore in second spot in WEF Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012

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So Singapore has jumped one spot up and is now second in the recently released World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012. Switzerland has retained it’s top spot while Sweden has moved one spot down and the USA has also fallen one place to come in at number five this year. Finland is at number four and Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and the United Kingdom round up the next five places. Japan has fallen three places since last year, but other than Singapore it’s the only Asian economy on the top ten which has been dominated by mostly European economies. China stands at number 26 while India is halfway down the list at number 56.

Well what this means to us will probably be the justification of the PAP’s foreign talent scheme and no end to our respite! This also means that more foreign talents will enter Singapore and the country and it’s resources will get more and more crowded! I am quite ambivalent about this whole thing – on one hand as someone who has majored in Economics and Finance, I know the importance of getting in foreigners who can do the tasks who can’t or won’t do, but on the other hand, I worry constantly if the country would not become so filled with Foreign Talent or FTs for short that we become a foreigner in our own land. I also worry for my children – 10-12 years down the line, when they are ready for university, will there be space for them here or do they have to become FT in another country?

Singapore has always been shaped by foreigners, most Singaporeans today are the descendents of someone who came into the fledgling country. The original inhabitants of this land – probably the Malays no longer count as the majority of the population. Hopefully the situation is not as dire as I see it – but then I have always been a worrier.

Facebook

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I came into Facebook quite late – sometime in early 2009 if I remember correctly. I was pretty much against it and was dragged into it kicking and screaming! As you may know, I am an intensely private person, so the idea of having my entire life played put for the world to see seems to be very ugh to me!

Don’t take this as an anti-Facebook rant – far from it. Once I discovered Facebook and what it can do, I was hooked! I reconnected with classmates and friends whom I had probably seen  on the day we collected our class X results, around 20 years back and it was great to be a part of their lives, albeit through Facebook. Unlike some people, I am very discerning about whom I ‘friend’. I need to know who this person is and also check for mutual friends before I ‘accept’ their friends request. Sometimes without a photo, I have rejected requests only to find out later that I do know them after all – and then go and give them a friend request!

But seriously how many friends are you really in touch on Facebook? I would say there are about less than 10 that I regularly send messages or write on walls. There would be another 20 odd with whom I have sporadic conversations. The rest are either work related friends (and I use the term very loosely here) with whom there would be interactions perhaps a couple of times a year or school/college/previous workplace friends who’ve friended me and whom I’ve accepted as a friend just because I know them. Other than an initial chat when we first reconnected, there’s nothing to talk!

So how many ‘friends’ do you have on Facebook and to how many so you regularly and really talk to?

Here’s a real funny video about what would happen if Facebook happened in real life!