Voila, finally after a years wait, on 29th June, 2012 landed in Singapore. The first city i found to be really convenient in every way. In terms of vegetarian food, safety, night life, personal space (nobody here ever bothers you not even the cops unless you plan to break any rules) and the best of all the public transport, very well connected. Being a small city, nothing seems to be really far off. Travelling in the MRT's was an experience by itself and the best part i found was observing people..
A cosmopolitan crowd..a mix of clans and cultures from various parts of the world, divided by looks united by a single thing - GADGETS!!! yes it seemed that gadgets of all kinds ruled their lives, except for a few couples who seemed to be lost in love and who thought of Public Transport as a romantic honeymoon destination. Anyways, nine in ten people were stuck onto the screens, even children as young as 10. Gadget freaks,i must say, few grooving to the music, some trying to win a games as though losing it would make or break them, a handful of them reading e-books... and being the Facebook era, most of them socializing virtually. I thought to myself, times have changed, today most of us like to connect to each other but its more on a virtual level rather than the real world. What an irony !!!
The childhood memories i have are far far away from any of these things, where we connected to each other in real life, where our only mode of entertainment while travelling was either reading books, the never ending talks with the fellow traveller or peeping out of the window to look at the wonders of the nature. When the only gadget we were really fond of and grew up with was the idiot box. The wait for every weekend was something worth it. Waking up early, excited faces looking at the clock and desperately waiting for the Sunday morning cartoons to begin, for that matter i didn't even mind watching the mythological epics with family before heading out to have some fun time with friends.
Those were the REAL times, times when we had nothing else playing at the back of our minds...when we were with someone, we were with them, unlike today where every second minute the eyes are hovering and the mind is wandering somewhere on another plane altogether. Friends were there in person and socializing meant playing hiking catching up at each others home... nostalgic!!! Today everyone has built his/her virtual world, a comfort zone where interacting with someone seems easier than that in the real world, where with just a click of a button we are there and not there... and how good is that.. ??
The childhood memories i have are far far away from any of these things, where we connected to each other in real life, where our only mode of entertainment while travelling was either reading books, the never ending talks with the fellow traveller or peeping out of the window to look at the wonders of the nature. When the only gadget we were really fond of and grew up with was the idiot box. The wait for every weekend was something worth it. Waking up early, excited faces looking at the clock and desperately waiting for the Sunday morning cartoons to begin, for that matter i didn't even mind watching the mythological epics with family before heading out to have some fun time with friends.
Those were the REAL times, times when we had nothing else playing at the back of our minds...when we were with someone, we were with them, unlike today where every second minute the eyes are hovering and the mind is wandering somewhere on another plane altogether. Friends were there in person and socializing meant playing hiking catching up at each others home... nostalgic!!! Today everyone has built his/her virtual world, a comfort zone where interacting with someone seems easier than that in the real world, where with just a click of a button we are there and not there... and how good is that.. ??
Anyways i got hooked onto one, listening to desi music on the phoren metro, enjoying landscapes that change with every blink of my eye, i must say i thoroughly enjoyed the experience...Well, when in Rome do as the Romans do... not always though ;)
