So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night....

We pack tomorrow........... and then its Sayonara Singapore! Atleast for now....

Of late, just discussing how much I am going to miss this city makes me well up. I am not a sentimental person. I don't shed tears at the drop of a hat! Infact people who shed tears at the drop of a hat, annoy me immensely because of the unfair advantage they enjoy over emotionally and lachrymally challenged people like me! And yes, before you even suggest, it is not that time of the month either!

So why the sudden over performance of the lachrymal glands? In fact the other day, at the theatre, when I saw this PBS video "This is home", I realised I had tears in my eyes. That was the first time it hit my denial ridden self, that my time here in this city that I love so much, is now drawing to a close.

I am an Indian and hold an Indian passport. 

But after a lifetime of living in hostels and then moving from one city and country to another as a corporate nomad, the definition of "Home" tends to be nebulous at best. So if you ask me, where is Home, it takes me a while to come up with an answer. 

Where is Home really? In Bhubaneswar, a sleepy little city I have not lived in for the past 15years and am a complete stranger to? Or is it Bangalore, where we first set up house together after we just got married and where we now have our own apartment? It is definitely not Bombay, the last city we lived in. Somehow Bombay and I are just not made for each other. Its harshness exhausts me, the chaos defining the city, makes me feel lost rather than alive and its blanket of apathy is too depressing for me to come to terms with. It is definitely not New Delhi even though its the city where I came to meet Vj and where I stayed the longest - 5 whole yrs! I may be dragged over the coals for this by the Delhi lovers, but I would rather die than call Delhi home!

So there has been no Home really. Every city has been just a pit stop till we moved to the next location.

Or at least so was the scene, till I came here to Singapore. 

This is the place where we became parents. Where two of us, who lived in the manner of two carefree flat-mates who just happened to be married to each other, suddenly found their lives turned upside down. Where we laughed and shed more tears in these last 2 years than we have in our entire lifetime and have loved every minute of it! Where instead of bonding over sipping alcohol while lying on some beautiful beach or driving through the breathtaking beauty of Scotland, we bonded over watching 2 tiny little babies sleep and over sleepless nights, formula, changing diapers and wiping drool and vomit off ourselves! So it is but natural to have more than a soft spot for the city which was the genesis of it all!

But even if we keep aside this wholly emotional reason, I could still find a hundred and one reasons why I love this city!

This is just the right amount of 'foreign' without being alien. I enjoy the comforts and luxuries of the First World without having to sacrifice the desires of my desi self; my cravings for Bollywood movies, for chilli chicken dry and momos & or for a veggie Tuesday treat of piping hot idlis and gunpowder at Murugan Idli!

Here, traffic cops don't hide behind road bends and over bridges with the sole intent of making your wallet lighter. Govt. officials don't behave like they are doing you a huge favour by acknowledging your existence. Instead, they give you appointments, stick to the appointed time and at the end, with a smile give you a form to rate their performance! And immigration authorities, instead of looking at you like scum with some highly contagious form of rabies, actually smile at you at the airport and say "welcome back home" when you hand over your passport!

This is where my OCD spirit finds kindred souls, instead of feeling out of place like it did in Bombay! Can you imagine any other city where the policy makers had the foresight to make chewing gum in public an offence? Till date, I thought I was the only one who hated to see people chew gum like human versions of cattle chewing cud and then spitting it out in public unmindful of whose clothes/ shoes that sticky horrible thing latches on to next!

And where else would I find a taxi driver apologise to me for taking a wrong turn and then offer to deduct the extra fare of his own volition? Or where else would I get three different mails from three different Govt. bodies informing me what steps are being taken to address the complaint I made about a speeding bus that jumped a traffic signal?

But Singapore has been more than that. It has been my refuge after an especially trying stint in Bombay where my life seemed to just fall apart! I hated my job and it hated me back. With my complete lack of social skills and my "call a spade a spade" approach to life, I was an utter and total misfit in the shallow & superficial world of advertising, where one paid lip service to people while simultaneously stabbing them in the back! And I hated the fact that each single day, I wasted 5 & half hours precious hours of my life in commuting to work and back! 

And then came Dad's illness.....the pressure of dealing with one mysterious ailment after another that he kept getting, his numerous doctor visits and the countless hospitalisations, the stress that came along with it was just killing. In short, almost everything that could go wrong with my life, seemed to go wrong in those 3 years! 

And then I left it all behind and came here. Things took a turn for the better..... 

This is where I finally found peace. Where, if I can give into the temptation of being the drama queen that I truly am, I picked up the pieces of my broken self and rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Where the cynic in me came to terms with the fact that sometimes in life, miracles do happen. And where I learnt that when the time is right, everything falls into its rightful place like the pieces of some giant cosmic puzzle. 

So as a farewell tribute to the one city I really love with my whole heart and soul, here are some images of Singapore that have been shot by me.

London you definitely have some really big shoes to fill!!

The Esplanade theatre and a boat passing by

The Merlion looks really mysterious at night!

The Flyer through my lens

Lights that almost come alive at night... Esplanade again... 

Ents or Huorns? Actually its neither!
These are replicas of a giant extinct tree called Lepidodendron or Scale Tree at the Evolution garden

One of my favourite refuges in Singapore - the Buddha Temple at Chinatown

Inside the Buddha Temple in Chinatown

The smile that lit up my mom's face each time she went to the Botanic garden

And here's my favourite shot of them all - the Vs and I feeding the fish and the turtles at the Botanic garden