On Day 14 of my Singapore trip (Jan 04, 2008), it was time to head
back home. It was a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I felt so liberated
experiencing a vacation which seemed overdue. On the other hand, I was
rearing to get back to my realities (well, not really, but I didn’t
want to delude myself any further).
This trip was interesting from many perspectives. For one, I had
simply no agenda. I landed in a new country with 13 days and no plan
whatsoever. I started off by reading some magazine cutouts on the
plane. Later, I figured out that the info was all
online.
I ended up going up in a hot air balloon to take in the awesome sight
of a lit-up Singapore at night, seeing more than a thousand
toys at
a toys museum, cycling in an
island, sleeping in
a library, deep in
philosophical conversations by the beach, trekking alone for 20 km in
a water reservoir area, watching a 12-year old kid strum ‘Hotel
California’, have
my roots shaken,
admire ancient
societies, saw
an Indian National Army monument, visited the world’s largest
fountain, had mouth-watering Indian food at Bombay Express Cafe,
grooved to Felix Da Housecat’s mixing skills at the Zouk Club, prayed
at the Krishna Temple on the first day of the new year, saw animals
like mousedeer, bat-eared fox, sugar glider and east african bongos at
the Night Safari, saw remote-controlled kites being flown, and so on.
There were two big things for me in this trip.
One was spending time with my friends Abishek Nair and Ashish Dantu.
Thanks a ton guys for being such great hosts, for the conversations,
for making me watch Russell Peters at 2 am, for all the fun we had,
and for teaching me so many things without ever having to say
anything.
The second thing was coming away inspired. Inspired by the pulse of
the city, inspired by their belief that “it’s possible.” ‘It’ just
needs a vision, a decision and a team to execute. On the other hand,
I’m terrified that people are progressing so fast and working towards
their dreams and I’m getting left behind.
I had a lot of time to think, inside out. Putting life into
perspective. As Einstein once said “The significant problems we face
cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we
created them.” So, it’s good to step back once in a while and think
about the big picture of your life. The challenge is to avoid getting
lost again in the daily grind, which is so hard.
In fact, it’s interesting how many people actually go through these
step-back-and-breathe phases, it’s just that it is completely
hush-hush, and understandably so, it’s a very personal thing.
On the other hand, there’s so much happening out there from things
like man-made islands to
the King Abdullah Economic
City, an
entire city being built on the sea!
This trip made me see how the world is changing and how I should
change, rather than me just being a ‘frog in the well’ and not knowing
what’s really going on ‘out there’.
Travelling is a necessity for me, not a luxury. It’s my way of
overcoming implosion. Our ancestors understood this. As an old Kannada
saying goes: “desha noDu, kosha vodu” (roughly translates to “Travel
the world, Read books”).
