I was greeted with the following analogy between love and truth as a quote on my igoogle yesterday evening and I couldn't help but agree with it.
Love is like the truth,
sometimes it prevails,
and sometimes it hurts."
- Victor M. Garcia Jr
And it has inspired me to come up with the following poem for whose beginning I have used the above lines. Here goes...
Love is like the truth
sometimes it hurts and sometimes it prevails
Love is like the weather
sometimes it blooms and sometimes it hails
Love is like the war
sometimes its victory and sometimes its defeat
Love is like a lie
sometimes its sour and sometimes its sweet
Love is like forgiveness
sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't
Love is like that poem
which from the heart freely flows
----------------
How good or bad was this attempt?
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
To be happy...
I came across this lovely quotation yesterday. It tells a simple trick on how to be happy.
To be happy drop the words 'if only'
and substitute instead the words 'next time'.
To be happy drop the words 'if only'
and substitute instead the words 'next time'.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Uniquely Singapore: Day 2 and 3
DAY TWO: Thank God for the concept of wake up calls otherwise I would not have reached on time to give my talk on day two of the conference.
Its hard for me to describe my state during the session. I would in parts listen to the speakers and in other parts remember the opening lines of my presentation. Finally my turn came at about 11.50 am and I took the stage facing an audience of nearly hundred. Usually I tend to settle down after the first few minutes whenever I make an oral presentation. But somehow it didn't happen this time. The thought that was worrying me was that I was speaking fast as a result of which I might end up finishing too soon. So then I played some tricks by changing the slides slowly or by dwelling more on a particular one. I guess I eventually finished right at the 25th minute with 5 min to spare for the Q&A session.
I was glad to find that there were questions from the audience confirming that they had been listening to me after all. Unlike college days I did not have to plant questions.
I would have gone on sulking to myself thinking that I could have done better but then I got compliments later during lunch and even the next day which obviously delighted me. The best one coming from Prof. P. Jena from Virginia Commonwealth Univeristy, the Plenary Speaker for our symposium. I may be blowing my own trumpet here when I recount that he thought I had spoken very confidently and clearly and that my Boss must be very proud of me (!!).
Highly pleased with the comments I treated myself to a bumboat ride on the Singapore river. The boat from the Merlion went all the way to Clarke Quay and then returned to its starting point. It was a short 20 min ride though very pleasing. We passed under several bridges which were brightly lit. In the night all the sights that I had previously seen the day before looked different. The Clifford Pier, Fullerton Hotel and the Esplanade appeared really grand.
DAY THREE: 6 November was the last day of the conference and it somehow went very quickly. Some of the lectures took longer than the time alloted to them as a consequence of which duration of the poster session was reduced from 45 min to just 30 min. Furthermore the turn out was very thin because a lot of people had left early not wanting to return for the closing session. So I was really glad that I had got the opportunity to make an oral presentation.
The day ended on a very relaxing note. My ex-(senior) labmate Sophy who is now settled in Singapore and had also attended the symposium invited us three Madras Hotelites for dinner at her place. She cooked for us not wanting to order food and did an excellent job of it. I ofcourse had no doubt about her culinary skills having tasted her delicious vegetarian biryani that she had cooked at my place some years back when she was still in Pune. Sophy's husband Shyam regaled us with stories about Singapore and the joke (which I have repeated a few times since returning) on how Singapore is called a Fine City as there is always a fine for breaking one rule or another.
Its hard for me to describe my state during the session. I would in parts listen to the speakers and in other parts remember the opening lines of my presentation. Finally my turn came at about 11.50 am and I took the stage facing an audience of nearly hundred. Usually I tend to settle down after the first few minutes whenever I make an oral presentation. But somehow it didn't happen this time. The thought that was worrying me was that I was speaking fast as a result of which I might end up finishing too soon. So then I played some tricks by changing the slides slowly or by dwelling more on a particular one. I guess I eventually finished right at the 25th minute with 5 min to spare for the Q&A session.
I was glad to find that there were questions from the audience confirming that they had been listening to me after all. Unlike college days I did not have to plant questions.
I would have gone on sulking to myself thinking that I could have done better but then I got compliments later during lunch and even the next day which obviously delighted me. The best one coming from Prof. P. Jena from Virginia Commonwealth Univeristy, the Plenary Speaker for our symposium. I may be blowing my own trumpet here when I recount that he thought I had spoken very confidently and clearly and that my Boss must be very proud of me (!!).
Highly pleased with the comments I treated myself to a bumboat ride on the Singapore river. The boat from the Merlion went all the way to Clarke Quay and then returned to its starting point. It was a short 20 min ride though very pleasing. We passed under several bridges which were brightly lit. In the night all the sights that I had previously seen the day before looked different. The Clifford Pier, Fullerton Hotel and the Esplanade appeared really grand.
DAY THREE: 6 November was the last day of the conference and it somehow went very quickly. Some of the lectures took longer than the time alloted to them as a consequence of which duration of the poster session was reduced from 45 min to just 30 min. Furthermore the turn out was very thin because a lot of people had left early not wanting to return for the closing session. So I was really glad that I had got the opportunity to make an oral presentation.
The day ended on a very relaxing note. My ex-(senior) labmate Sophy who is now settled in Singapore and had also attended the symposium invited us three Madras Hotelites for dinner at her place. She cooked for us not wanting to order food and did an excellent job of it. I ofcourse had no doubt about her culinary skills having tasted her delicious vegetarian biryani that she had cooked at my place some years back when she was still in Pune. Sophy's husband Shyam regaled us with stories about Singapore and the joke (which I have repeated a few times since returning) on how Singapore is called a Fine City as there is always a fine for breaking one rule or another.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Uniquely Singapore: Day 1
They say "it never rains, it pours." I had barely recovered from all the paper work due to my trip to Sydney that I had to begin preparing for my second official tour in a month's time to Singapore. The fact that it would only be a 4 day stay was depressing me since that meant lesser time to do sightseeing. I was wondering if I'll enjoy moving around on my own there. Questions like how my first invited talk will fare and what kind of impression will I form on the scientists, professors and students belonging to my research field were making me anxious.
The journey however started on a good note and set the tone for the next few days to come. Due to some error a few multiple boarding passes allocating same seats to different people had been generated for my flight from Chennai to Singapore. I was one of them and would have complained but because the Economy Class was full, I was upgraded to Business Class! I got good food, nice treatment and a cozy and spacious seat during my journey. I arrived at Singapore on the night of 3 November so all I did after reaching my hotel Madras Hotel Eminence was to go off to sleep.
The following day the symposium of my interest was to start after tea so I decided to spend the time before that by exploring a bit of Singapore. I first went to Suntec City but unfortunately the Fountain of Wealth was not running at the time I reached there. So that was a let down. But I happily spent some 30 min in Toys-r-us at the mall there.
I walked through the Marina Square to come to a walkway from where I caught the first glance of the Esplanade. I could also see from a distance the Singapore Flyer. Had I more time on hand I would have probably taken a ride on it though I must admit I was a bit scared to do it alone and would have liked to have some moral support.
On getting close to the Esplanade I took a number of pictures trying to capture its jack fruit like appearance. In my opinion while it didn't have the Sydney Opera House's beauty, it still had a grandeur about it. I had imagined the Esplanade Drive built over the Singapore river to be humongous (influenced by the picture of Sydney Harbour Bridge still on my mind) and so was disappointed by what I saw. The good thing was I could reach within minutes perhaps what is Singapore's most clicked tourist attraction- The Merlion. I was however more attracted by what was situated behind it: the Fullerton Hotel with the skyline in the background. I decided that this was a site to visit again to see how it looked after the night had descended.
In trying to find my way towards the Raffles Place MRT I went past the Cavenagh Bridge near which I saw the famous First Generation sculpture of young boys joyously jumping into the river. At the MRT station I bought myself a S$ 24 three day Singapore Tourist Pass which proves very useful as it allows unlimited rides on the monorail irrespective of the line (purple, red or green) and buses.
I arrived at our conference venue Biopolis some 10 minutes past three and ended up missing the registration. They however allowed me to make full use of the tea break which offered a good variety of munchies. Our symposium
on Material Issues on Hydrogen Storage began at 4 pm. There were two invited lectures which turned out be quite informative. At the end of the session I introduced myself to the conference organizer Prof Feng of NUS, Singapore. I confessed to him that I was both nervous and excited to speak the next day. He told me that I needn't worry since the audience is very friendly. Indeed that's the way it was. When Dr G P Das of IACS, Kolkata and also a member of the organizing committee introduced me to other senior professors as the replacement speaker for my boss, they all warmly welcomed me saying that "That is good as it is her own work after all." Honestly instead of soothing my nerves this got me more worried. Determined to do well the next day I decided to return to my hotel and practice.
To my great relief that for my way back I had company in the form of my boss's old student Chandra and his senior Dr Ghosh both of whom by a coincidence were also booked in my hotel. On returning after a long day we thought of relaxing for a while and then meet up at 8.30 pm to go and have dinner outside. The latter turned out to be an almost impossible job to achieve with three people wanting three different things: pure vegetarian (Chandra); non-oily, cheese-less, and low cholesterol (Dr Ghosh); and non-Indian, preferably non vegetarian (me).
We walked a fair distance to reach McDonalds only to find French fries as the only veg dish available. We next entered a nearby food center but the strong smell was even too much for me. I don't know how but taking directions from people we ended up reaching from Lavendar to Little India. We went past some Indian restaurants but nothing appealed to all three of us. We had just found a nice vegetarian eatery and sat down when I saw the Mustafa Center right across. We next made the mistake of entering it. It was even more crowded than Delhi's Sarojini Nagar Market or Old Railway Station area. It was terribly jam packed with hardly any walking space and that too at 9.30 pm! After that brush with Mustafa Center and the thousands of Indian faces I could no longer believe that I really was in Singapore.
Almost drained of energy and unable to stay hungry any longer I decided to eat in the Mustafa Cafe. I merrily ate a fish burger with lots of cheese, though not too merrily since my co-walkers couldn't join me. I however finished quickly not surprising famished as I was and reversed roles of being the spectator when their turn came to eat. Chandra and Dr Ghosh finally ate a thali and masala dosa in an Indian restaurant just opposite the cafe.
We were all so tired that we wanted to take a taxi but couldn't fine one in sight that was not on hire. Eventually we ended up taking the gyarah number ki bus (i.e. walk on foot) all the way to the hotel!
It was nearing 11 pm when I finished talking to Daddy on the phone and I hadn't practiced even once. I fought against sleep and kept awake for another 2 hours until I gained a bit of confidence that I will not be messing things up at 11.45 am on 5 November.
The journey however started on a good note and set the tone for the next few days to come. Due to some error a few multiple boarding passes allocating same seats to different people had been generated for my flight from Chennai to Singapore. I was one of them and would have complained but because the Economy Class was full, I was upgraded to Business Class! I got good food, nice treatment and a cozy and spacious seat during my journey. I arrived at Singapore on the night of 3 November so all I did after reaching my hotel Madras Hotel Eminence was to go off to sleep.The following day the symposium of my interest was to start after tea so I decided to spend the time before that by exploring a bit of Singapore. I first went to Suntec City but unfortunately the Fountain of Wealth was not running at the time I reached there. So that was a let down. But I happily spent some 30 min in Toys-r-us at the mall there.
I walked through the Marina Square to come to a walkway from where I caught the first glance of the Esplanade. I could also see from a distance the Singapore Flyer. Had I more time on hand I would have probably taken a ride on it though I must admit I was a bit scared to do it alone and would have liked to have some moral support.On getting close to the Esplanade I took a number of pictures trying to capture its jack fruit like appearance. In my opinion while it didn't have the Sydney Opera House's beauty, it still had a grandeur about it. I had imagined the Esplanade Drive built over the Singapore river to be humongous (influenced by the picture of Sydney Harbour Bridge still on my mind) and so was disappointed by what I saw. The good thing was I could reach within minutes perhaps what is Singapore's most clicked tourist attraction- The Merlion. I was however more attracted by what was situated behind it: the Fullerton Hotel with the skyline in the background. I decided that this was a site to visit again to see how it looked after the night had descended.
In trying to find my way towards the Raffles Place MRT I went past the Cavenagh Bridge near which I saw the famous First Generation sculpture of young boys joyously jumping into the river. At the MRT station I bought myself a S$ 24 three day Singapore Tourist Pass which proves very useful as it allows unlimited rides on the monorail irrespective of the line (purple, red or green) and buses.
I arrived at our conference venue Biopolis some 10 minutes past three and ended up missing the registration. They however allowed me to make full use of the tea break which offered a good variety of munchies. Our symposium
on Material Issues on Hydrogen Storage began at 4 pm. There were two invited lectures which turned out be quite informative. At the end of the session I introduced myself to the conference organizer Prof Feng of NUS, Singapore. I confessed to him that I was both nervous and excited to speak the next day. He told me that I needn't worry since the audience is very friendly. Indeed that's the way it was. When Dr G P Das of IACS, Kolkata and also a member of the organizing committee introduced me to other senior professors as the replacement speaker for my boss, they all warmly welcomed me saying that "That is good as it is her own work after all." Honestly instead of soothing my nerves this got me more worried. Determined to do well the next day I decided to return to my hotel and practice.To my great relief that for my way back I had company in the form of my boss's old student Chandra and his senior Dr Ghosh both of whom by a coincidence were also booked in my hotel. On returning after a long day we thought of relaxing for a while and then meet up at 8.30 pm to go and have dinner outside. The latter turned out to be an almost impossible job to achieve with three people wanting three different things: pure vegetarian (Chandra); non-oily, cheese-less, and low cholesterol (Dr Ghosh); and non-Indian, preferably non vegetarian (me).
We walked a fair distance to reach McDonalds only to find French fries as the only veg dish available. We next entered a nearby food center but the strong smell was even too much for me. I don't know how but taking directions from people we ended up reaching from Lavendar to Little India. We went past some Indian restaurants but nothing appealed to all three of us. We had just found a nice vegetarian eatery and sat down when I saw the Mustafa Center right across. We next made the mistake of entering it. It was even more crowded than Delhi's Sarojini Nagar Market or Old Railway Station area. It was terribly jam packed with hardly any walking space and that too at 9.30 pm! After that brush with Mustafa Center and the thousands of Indian faces I could no longer believe that I really was in Singapore.
Almost drained of energy and unable to stay hungry any longer I decided to eat in the Mustafa Cafe. I merrily ate a fish burger with lots of cheese, though not too merrily since my co-walkers couldn't join me. I however finished quickly not surprising famished as I was and reversed roles of being the spectator when their turn came to eat. Chandra and Dr Ghosh finally ate a thali and masala dosa in an Indian restaurant just opposite the cafe.
We were all so tired that we wanted to take a taxi but couldn't fine one in sight that was not on hire. Eventually we ended up taking the gyarah number ki bus (i.e. walk on foot) all the way to the hotel!
It was nearing 11 pm when I finished talking to Daddy on the phone and I hadn't practiced even once. I fought against sleep and kept awake for another 2 hours until I gained a bit of confidence that I will not be messing things up at 11.45 am on 5 November.
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