Homeland

Happy National Day of Singapore!

I just got back from a classic Singaporean experience - went down to my gym for a pilates class. A fully packed gym on a Saturday + public holiday morning, mind you.  You’ll barely see a dust cloud outside after the flag hoisting ceremonies on August 15th in India. The pilates class had mostly women, placing their decorated Crocs in the shoe stand, stretching in their Lululemons, with their Apple Watch set to “workout” and impeccable core strength ready to go.  Had I - also in my decorated Crocs, Lululemons, Apple Watch but with negligible core strength, assimilated fully already? I don’t think so, I’m sure I was the only person in that gym who walked in with a Rekha Bharadwaj song playing on my AirPods. It was still so heartwarming to walk around town yesterday and today, watching all the folks in red and white.  I admit a small part of me missed the tricolour, and chorusing to a patriotic song on some school / college stage.  Yet, most of me was just happy to witness the hardworking and proud locals. 

The last few weeks were some of the most unplanned weeks I had this entire year. I missed music classes, went on a trip I had not touched the itinerary of, my health took a couple of hits when I needed to be on my work desk the most - I could go on. Silver lining - I was forced to take a lot of rest, which is always a good thing. The trip was to a small island, Bintan, a ferry ride away from Singapore. My best take-away was the fireflies boat ride. Going down a river surrounded by mangroves, with a night sky so clear that I could see every single star and the moon. I could make out constellations that I had only read about, like Orion and Big Dipper. In that moment, I felt almost immaterial, just like the fireflies we spotted. Shining so bright between the shadows of the trees, their light coming from within, but as our guide said “firefly’s life is just few weeks”.  I don’t think the fireflies had the liberty to feel bad that their plans got cancelled. Moving on, while the beach was just okay, watching a bunch of baby sea turtles waddle towards the waves was endearing. The entire crowd cheered for the last one, which kept wading in the opposite direction, not ready for the big boy life in the ocean. Same bro, same. 

In the spirit of National Day, I went to my usual Toast Box for the peanut butter toast set. I sat next to a couple of Indian (origin) girls in the middle of an intense discussion. I swear I didn’t want to overhear, I had brought my book and was all set to delve into how land reform helped Korea and Taiwan get ahead of their Southeast Asian peers in the early 20th century, over a cup of Horlicks. But man, the debate was on whether one should live in America, Singapore or India. As someone who also has to think about this dilemma, I couldn’t help but listen. Girl 1 (in a t-shirt, American accent, supposedly studying in Singapore) was adamant America is the best of them all - due to freedom, community and ability to have boundaries. Girl 2 (in a kurta, kind-of American accent, visiting Singapore from somewhere but not America/India) very expertly shut down all those arguments as superficial, which I agreed with. In the end, they both settled on the ultimate MBA answer, it depends, on each person. Now, I know for a fact if this was two years ago - I would have chimed in, introduced myself, made a couple of friends, gotten their socials etc. Today, I quietly kept my book back in my bag (it didn’t stand a chance anyway) and walked away. Maybe some Singaporean assimilation has happened after all.