At NOX - Celebrating eight years of trust!

After the amazing experience last year on our anniversary dinner, I had secretly concluded that nothing could beat that spectacular experience for a long time to come. Well, I was clearly very wrong as I am blown away by our anniversary dinner experience this year!

I could sense that Satya has something up his sleeve but I couldn't put my finger on it. We had a great anniversay morning and the day was pretty calm with just phone calls from family and friends. Satya had booked a table for us for dinner but refused to tell me where or which cuisine. I had been passing subtle hints for the past week or so before our anniversay, that mexican food is so delicious :) so all my hopes were in that direction.

So that evening we got ready, donning our special looks to kill, and we left home to go on our 8th anniversary dinner date like two love-struck teenagers! Yoyo was fed and safely asleep at home. We hung around at Arab street at one of our favourite places called 'Beirut Grill' where we had a drink each and watch the belly dancer and her incredible moves along with other shish smoking folks. All was going smooth until Satya suddenly called for the bill and said we've got to go somewhere else for our dinner.

We got up and walked round the corner of the same building, less than 50 metres, and came to a restaurant called "Nox". There was a waiting lobby on the ground floor with several people sitting around with members of the restaurant staff in some deep discussions under dimmed white/blue lights. There was a long bar cum reception out in front and to the right was a locker space like the ones we have in a gym which I felt was pretty wierd thing in the decor of a restaurant and there was no food in sight. That is when it stuck me that he has booked us in at a 'dine in the dark' restaurant!!

I feel pretty handicapped without my glasses and hate dim lights in general. I also appreciate looking at my food, so I was not sure what I was getting into! I had recurring thoughts of dashing out the door or trying to persuade Satya out of his madness but I played along just trusting him completely. A part of me was willing to try something new and crazy!

We hung around at the lobby with our drinks while they prepped us on the process. We handed over our watches and phones (things that can produce light) which we then stored in one of those lockers I had seen earlier. And with bated breath we entered the door to the staircase that took us to the restaurant in the dark, upstairs. Our guide came to receive us and I was even more shocked to know that all the staff on the other side of that door whom we would meet, including the ushers and the waiters, would be blind!

We were guided along the way and shown our seats with the clockwise orientation of things on the table. It felt so strange. It was absolutely pitch dark. I had never experienced this kind of darkness before where I couldn’t even see my own hand! The food was served in 4 bowls in each course and it was a three course modern French cuisine menu with nuances of other cuisines. The experience of eating without being able to see is really indescribable! Of course we didn’t select our food so we had no clue what it would be and had to rely totally on our sense of smell and feel of textures and shapes to know what we were eating. It was no mean feat as the chefs had some pretty clever techniques going on there to create the suspense in each dish. Later on they showed us pictures of what we ate and I must say we missed the mark, on many dishes, by miles! But we did manage to guess some perfectly too. J

It was such an enriching experience to be really in touch with our senses, our food and ourselves like never before. We had no distractions. None! No other people (especially good looking ones), no phones, no lights, no décor disasters to comment on,  no attractive  or terrible designer clothes to look at, no food photography maniacs, and not even each other’s faces or expressions! It was a pure feeling of listening to your inner mind and blocking all external forces out.

We spent over 2 hours in darkness, hand in hand, and we communicated more than what we had done in the last two months! We guessed the various food bowls while enjoying the experience. Helped each other along the way and waited for each other to finish the dish before going on to the next. Our past years flashed in front of our eyes from our teenage days to parenthood. We realised how grateful we are to be together, to achieve what we have achieved together and extremely grateful for all the future plans we have to go back and work on. We were grateful for the senses we possess and became acutely aware of how others without those sense survive. We were truly humbled!

Satya succeeded once again in making this date as memorable as the last and we look forward to many more to come. Happy anniversary hubby!

Living in the present!

I spent most of my days in 2013 brooding over a variety of things. Life, age, existence, time, money, stability, love, relations and never ending responsibilities to name a few. If I had nothing else to occupy my mind, I always had Yohaan; do I spend enough time with him? do I teach him the right the right things? Am I being a good parent? Bottom line was, that I always felt worried due to our changed circumstances.

However, looking back, the year 2013 was one of the most amazing years of my life!

Satya was finally with me in Singapore and happily employed! Yohaan started liking going to school. The year was packed with fantastic events. We visited Bangkok and spent a couple of days exploring that amazing history and culture and tasting delicious Thai food. We holidayed at Bintan (Indonesia) at a resort with my colleagues. Visited India for my cousin's wedding which was a super fun time with family. I went to Bangalore to meet my friends and we had an amazing time together reliving our college days. We visited Bali which was the best beach location I have ever been to in the world and we vowed to go there again. We watched live Formula 1 racing in Singapore, where the event also had performances of Rihana and Dhol foundation. We visited Phuket in Thailand with my parents, which was a fairly fun adventure trip. To top all this, my hubby treated me to a fancy anniversary dinner at ‘Jaan’ and all this fun had started right on the first day of 2013 with an unforgettable new year’s eve at an awesome beach party!

To add to it, 2013 saw us surrounded with visitors at our home. We spent time with Aai-baba, Shekhar dada, Monita and Jinky, Tracy and Oliver who visited our home. My parents and sister and family also visited us and we had an awesome time in December. We were invited to and we hosted some interesting festival-time lunches and dinners, including those where Yohaan was the main invitee J and we were the baggage that went with him!

On the work front, I received praise, an amazing number of hires, and overall satisfaction at work and met great colleagues! My office arranged some amazing activities like movie night, dragon boating session, game of lazer tag, session of wine tasting, company dinners, farewell lunches, MM 40th anniversary celebration, and TRULY every day could count as “an event” in this action packed year!

Today when I look back, I think, wow! what an amazing year it was! But last year, I had the time and urge to brood at the drop of a hat! Why? Something deep inside me was sending distress signals. And although he may not voice it out loud, I believe hubby dear was also sailing the same troughs and crests with me. What goes on in our brains can be very difficult to decipher at the time when things are happening...

Everything suddenly appeared crystal clear in Feb 2014 after I came back from my visit to the UAE. I became a changed person! This refreshing visit to the desert and reliving the memories of superb times spent with our friends helped me come to terms with myself and my life. I understood that it was the longing of my life in the UAE buried deep in my heart that was causing this unhappiness and I had to let go! Thankfully, today I feel at peace with myself and my surroundings! This peace has come to me by accepting my present and wanting to make it better and I give the credit of this revelation entirely to our trip to the UAE in Feb 2014.

Today, I no longer live in the past! Only brooding does!

Super Seven!

Yes, our 7th wedding anniversary! It depends how we count, and the number of years we have been together vary. We just count as it suits us from time to time and this time the lucky number is 7. (and a grand 15 in total)  :)

It was also our 1st anniversary of being in Singapore! Last year (2012) we celebrated this day with fluttering hearts, about twenty thousand feet up in the sky, clinking our wine glasses, aboard the SQ flight bound to Singapore with Yoyo sprawled across our legs between three seats. A memorable day to mark our entry into realising our new dreams. Hence, this year we had more than just our anniversary to celebrate! We celebrated our resilience and success!

Amazingly enough, leaving no stones unturned at planning the event and keeping the element of surprise, Satya had booked us a window table on the 70th floor at 'Jaan' - a modern french cuisine restaurant at the Swissotel at Stamford in Singapore, overlooking the Singapore skyline. A perfectly bright blue sky with beautiful misty clouds in the distance reflecting the rays of the setting sun, welcomed us into the restaurant. As the evening progressed, we toasted to our successes with bubbly Champagne and a canape of amazing 'palate pleasers' by the Chef Julien Royer.

The dinner was 5 course French menu with a modern touch to it! I cannot describe the flavours we ate as they were truly sublime and we've never experienced such delicate yet strong flavours ever! Each flavour, so cleverly combined with the other that it left an impression not on our palates but etched it into our minds.

This has been the most romantic and memorable time ever with Satyajit! He absolutely nailed it and I felt I was on top of the world! (literally was too!)

Cheers to our journey so far and cheers to many more...

 

Superman - Man of steel

Our social committee had organised a movie night for all staff at Cine-Leisure mall today. A whole screen was booked for our staff only and a mini-buffet was set before the screening. Teresa has come to drop Yohaan to my office.  And as all things must have some extra element of excitement, she got off at the wrong bus stop! After a few phone calls and a bit of coordination and pacing up and down the streets by me, she finally reached the spot! Yohaan was super excited and was eager to watch superman.

 

The movie started and since it revolved around how Superman was born and sent to earth etc., the superman, as we know him (in his suit), didn't appear until almost the mid of the movie. However, in the meanwhile, Yohaan' s impatience kept growing and in a fairly quiet movie hall we often heard "where is superman?" "is he superman?" "why is the boy crying?" "is he baby superman? "is he boy superman?" much to our embarrassment he spoke loudly and frequently! Thankfully my colleagues didn't seem to mind his occasional murmuring or at least were courteous enough not to say anything to us.

Overall, I liked the movie, I liked the new superman and his old father played by Russell Crow! They looked super amazing and like real supermen! Yohaan' s interest in the movie grew after the arrival of superman in his superman attire. But the comments didn't stop! They just changed to "Super", "awesome!" "that's so cool, mama". It is an amazing feeling to hear these comments from a boy who has just turned 4!

 

Towards the end,  when superman's power weakens and he zooms past trying to rescue someone he let's out a loud groan. Yohaan wasn't too pleased with his super hero becoming weak and our taxi ride home was filled with questions about how could Superman have become weak?!

 
And then came the kiss! It was an unexpected and an unnecessary kiss even in my eyes, but Yohaan's expression summed it up entirely. The moment they kissed, he looked at me and said "ahuh!!??" in his own sweet and innocent accent! His Baba laughed at his expression and then promptly got a good smack on his hand for laughing at him! Hahaha...

Thanks to Superman for the wonderful time we spent with our, little superman!

20 June 2013

 

Dragon Boat

Mott MacDonald Sports and Recreation club (MM SRC) a group within MM Singapore, is run by a bunch of active and creative staff members who are sponsored by the company to bring the staff together on several sporty, social and team building activities. These include bowling challenges, badminton and soccer practice and matches, barbecue at the beach, birthdays of the month and new year dinner and dance and several others. One activity recently organised by the social club was that of 'Dragon boat' training lesson.

Jumping at this opportunity at exploring something new, I signed up and showed up on time at the Kallang Gaelic Dragon boating venue on the 14th of April 2013. Filled with nervous excitement and accompanied by my colleague and partner in crime, LeeKhiang, who is an Environmental Engineer, I geared up with the life vest (not a jacket just a thinner version of it) and my light weight wooden paddle. At the venue, there were other people gathering around who looked really professional and were wearing similar clothes to represent various teams. They were preparing for a challenge for which they would be travelling to Borocay for the dragon boating race and were there that evening to practice their opening group dance! Needless to say, we looked and felt like complete amateurs (at dancing and paddling!) and were praying that we'd blend into the crowd or become invisible for a while! Much to our relief, the Gaelic Dragon's didn't have any opening dance before the training!

It was an exceptionally good day in Singapore when we set out towards the boat. It was slightly windy with a light cloud cover, enough to hide the harsh sunrays but keeping it bright enough to enjoy the outdoors and cool enough to enjoy sweating. Best of all, it wasn't raining. It's unlike me to say that, 'not raining' was a good thing, as I associate rain with fun! But in this case, rain would mean the probability of thunder and of course, lightening! On the days when rain is accompanied by lightening, all boats are called back and that would mean there would be no training lesson. For that day, I was happy with no rain as the fun thing. :) So, with the weather in our favour we stood in front of our boat and the trainer 'Lee' gave us a good 10 mins induction on how to hold the paddle, how to sit and how to paddle (practicing in the air) using the back muscles rather then the strength of the arms and other safety tips. Hmmm, momentarily going back to Lee, the name must have brought a very dashing Chinese looking young trainer with a muscular lean body and bulging biceps in your minds! Right? Well you wish! Sorry to disappoint you, but, our trainer Mr. Lee was a be-spectacled, senior Irish gentleman with a very polite demeanor and whose cheeks kept turning a hint of darker pink with every minute in the heat. Yes! I surely caught you stereotyping there! Guilty as charged!

Now, going back to the training. To the say the least, it was tough! Not recommended for the weak-hearted. Trust me, when I signed up for paddling, secretly, I was hoping that I could stop if I were tired and let the rest continue and no one would notice. However, in reality, stopping for a break was out of the question! The boat is narrow and if you are not paddling then you are bound to be hit in the face or back by the movements of your teammates around you. Well, no reason to panic, I did ok and didn't take any secret breaks or punches. The training was divided into three main points; Technique(style), timing(teamwork) and power. We practiced with varying combinations of these three points until we were sore. The training was well spaced out and we paddled for a fixed number of counts (starting with 5 and progressing upto 60 over 1.5 hours) with 30-60-120 seconds breaks in between and some additional training tips every now and then for better coordination and speed.

One part of the correct style is to look at your partner while paddling so that the body posture is right and you also know if your timing is in sync with the others. So, in other words, you are not looking at the water or at the scenery around you! This was another surprise that I had to deal with. I had imagined I would be paddling away and looking at the birds and the skyline of Singapore along in the Kallang river...hmm not really. We went all the way up to the 'sands by the bay' area and finally stopped for while to take in the view. Suddenly, it felt very peaceful and serene to be sitting in a quiet boat in the middle of the river. Taking deep breaths we absorbed the modern beauty around us.

Our captain turned the boat around and we continued our journey tracing our steps back to the starting point when I dropped my paddle into the river! Hmmm, the boat had to go back to fetch my paddle and as a punishment for dropping it, I was asked to paddle the whole boat back alone for a count of 30 paddles!!! (thankfully two experienced people joined along to save my life and we made it ashore! Phew!) What an exhilarating end to an exhilarating evening! I'll surely be going back for more...

Paddles up!

 (the picture of the boat is an illustration, we looked almost like that though our boat was less fancy)

(Sana and LeeKhiang posing with our paddles)

Monkey morning!

Today started off as a regular school day morning. My hubby left home and I got my boy ready for school and off we went to the bus stop. An interesting duo we were, "a groggy-eyed mama and a grumpy baby". Well, so far it was a fairly boring and regular morning but not until long.

When I reach the stop, all of a sudden, I heard some commotion in the corridor near the bus stop. The bus stop I am talking about, is really just the front lobby of our condo apartment, where the school buses pick -up and drop kids. A couple of people ran out of the corridor and much to my amazement, emerged a full grown monkey after them. He sat on a bench, just about 10 meters away from us and looked deep at us with unflinching eyes. It was about half the height of my son with a 'dude, what's up?', sort of friendly gait.

He stared at me perhaps, trying to gauge what our next move will be and I stared back with pretty much the same thoughts racing in my mind. Finally, after a long minute of staring, screaming, oh-ing and ah-ing in awe and astonishment, I decided it was time to attempt a move towards the bus. I darted towards the nearest open spot. To my horror, the monkey got off the bench and followed us. I quickly reached the bus and handed over my son and his water bottle to the aunty in the bus and asked her to shut the door. I stood by the bus while my sister-in-law called for the security guard. Then, cooly, just like he is one of us, with a regular groggy morning feel, the monkey went past me and climbed up the compound wall.

He came, he saw and he left! Guess if he was out on a 'human-study' tour, he would have learnt that 'human mornings' were not very different to 'monkey mornings'! Inspite of these brief moments of commotion, the kids in the bus seemed calm and disinterested and surely, it appeared that neither the kids nor the monkey could understand what the fuss and panic I was making was all about!

Oh well, at least his visit made my morning a special one!

Familiar

Few long months ago I left the familiar behind.
The streets and the people,
everything that I belonged to
and that belonged to me...

These months taught me that real joys in life aren't those which
we race after but those which we miss en route!
A shared cup of tea, a game of scrabble, an evening walk
and those familiar smiles...

Ordeals made my mind tougher and then began the consolation.
Weaving a new spirit into the gloom
and joy into the new spirit.
To carry me on...

Newness faded away, excitement died down and ennui crept in.
The new suddenly felt familiar again and the old,
archived to a distance memory,
to flip thru on a lazy Sunday afternoon...

The Road Not Taken - by Robert Frost

This is one of my all time favourite poems that always inspires me in trying times. Life is about the choices we make. Those choices, will change what lies ahead of us. An overtly simple thought but one that leaves a lasting impact on my mind. It's simple words, unique rhyme scheme and soulful underlying meaning make it a wonderfully endearing poem.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.


Our move to Singapore has made me associate more closely to this poem and I know, we too, one day ages and ages hence will look back and say, "and that has made all the difference."

Images

*Stoic gazes
Of *droning regularity
Mirror images
Like peas in a pod

Doing the daily trek
Immersed in
Lush fields of a
*Technological wonderland

Impeccably
Dressed to die for
Real sight for sore eyes
Yet! Indistinguishable!

Evading eyes looking
Through fading,
Merging and receding
Images...of me


*Stoic- unemotional, showing patience and endurance
*Droning- monotonous, routine
*Technological wonderland- their land of Iphones

Boredom - by Satyajit Mone (August 2012)

I proudly present, the first ever poem composed by Satyajit. The poem echoes and resonates our mutual feelings of longing and resultant boredom that has crawled in during our time away from each other. Indeed, separation from your lover does make a poet of you... ;) Well done my love!


Boring Days Boring Nights

Nothing to do but need to stay tight

I tell my wandering mind to stay calm
Destiny will soon fulfill what's written on my palm

Life has suddenly become void
Guess it’s time to listen to floyd

Empty mind is a devil's workshop, they say
It’s time to remain focused right away

Missing family is a dreadful thing
It’s as bad as a Scorpio’s sting

Hope this journey ends soon
So that I can see the Singapore monsoon

"Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind."- Marcel Proust