1. Woohoo! The week sees three house-guests arriving on two different days, ensuring a full house at The MD House - Singapore, all week long.
Another fellow villager from the city - Pancham, aka 'Panchy', comes a-visiting this week all the way from Africa, so she can spend a couple of days with us and her little 'laddu' as she calls the toddler. And the SIL & BIL arrive on Saturday, which also happens to be the little one's 21st month birthday.
If you've known me long enough and/ or have been reading my updates, you know these are the last few monthly birthday celebrations here at The MD's, until the little one turns 2. So we're doubling up on the last few '13th celebrations' before we reach her actual birthday on July 13th, as we anticipate a lot of house-guests around that date in the next few months. Obviously, the kiddo is pretty thrilled at the prospect of blowing out candles every few days and I would be lying if I didn't admit that it's the sparkle in her eye and gust in her 'blow' of the candles, that I really do this for. I am all about celebrations! Birthdays have always been my big thing. Glad to know the daughter thinks so too!
2. Panchy arrived late Tuesday night and was adamant on defeating her jet lag from having crossed three different continents in the past 24 hours. Since she was here in Singapore for barely two days, we (She & I) decided to make the most of her time here and see the city, in snippets of how she'd like to see it. She arrived armed with a list of 'Must-do's' in Singa-land and we set about trying to check those off, while making sure I slipped in a few 'Must-do's from my list as well.
Having played hosts to quite a few house-guests here, Hubster and I have come up with our own little two/three or five day packages of touring in and around the city-state, of course depending on the type of traveler and their interests. Needless to say, we throw in a handful of must-do restaurants/ cuisines as well in the mix for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
The highlight of Panchy's visit over the couple of days was two-fold - our conversations that transcended from anywhere between global-living to random start-up ideas and her amazing ability to connect to Zoe, whom she was meeting for only the second time ever. In the two days that she spent with us, we spent a lot of time just playing plain old catch-up and making new connections - with friends of friends - shrinking our already shrunk worlds, even more.
3. Hubster and I took Panchy to 1-Altitude for panoramic aerial views of Singapore & even Malaysia in the far background on Wednesday night. Compared to Ku De Ta - the now infamous boat-shaped rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands building, 1-Altitude offers 360 degree views from a higher elevation. The music seemed to be unnecessarily loud. A fainter score in the background might have done wonders to the ambience as the spectacular views added more than enough charisma and character to the place. We discovered, as in the case of most Singapore bars/ clubs - Wednesday nights are usually 'Ladies nights', thus making the otherwise pricey drinks slightly more affordable for the regular gal. And of course the term 'cover charge' in Asia, as I remember it from my days of club-hopping in India, thankfully entails full redemption of the 'charge' towards the purchase of a drink, unlike in the States where it really is just a charge to enter the club.
Singapore being as peanut-sized as it is, an all-encompassing aerial 360 degree view is the best way to see the city-state, especially when visiting here on a limited time frame. A definite recommendation on my things-to-do list for this city!
4. The most intriguing and informative aspect of Panchy's visit came about, when I took her to view my favourite Chinese Temple in Singapore. Hubster and I had chanced upon this temple one of the weekends, when we walked over to it after eating brunch nearby.
The temple is called The Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple and is dedicated to the Chinese goddess of Mercy - Kuan Yin Bodhisattva. We were enlightened that day that the Chinese pantheon like the Greek one, also has several similarities to the Hindu pantheon.
Ever since Hubster and I have chanced upon this temple, it has been my favourite Chinese temple to take any of our visitors to. Unlike the other better maintained and more touristy temples in Chinatown or other areas, this one is visited largely by the locals. (Most come here to pray for good luck or specifically solve certain problems in their respective lives.)
The unique technique of worship here has been my biggest draw to this place. As is the case with Hindu temples, worshippers stand outside the temple where incense sticks (agarbatti's essentially) are provided so that these can be lit and used to worship the temple from the outside and the sun - which is usually prayed to with one's back to the idol (a practice unlike at a Hindu temple, where one does not turn one's back on the deity). Locals enter the temple with their footwear on, making sure to take them off only when stepping over a large square red carpet, centrally located in the temple. Wooden sticks also known as 'Kian' placed in brass containers and two red shell halves are handed out at a counter inside the temple. The worshipper takes one of these and kneels on the red carpet, facing the idol of the Goddess of Mercy. He or she first mentally introduces himself/ herself to the Goddess, telling her their name, address and particular problem they are seeking a solution for. Then the container is shaken until one stick falls out onto the red carpet. The fallen stick has an inscription on it, which may or may not be the solution to the person's problem, as decided by the position of the red shell halves, when thrown over the carpet. In what sounds like a perfect analogy to the 'chaupad' one knows of from having seen or read the Mahabharata, the red carpet in the temple, looks like a large archaic casino of sorts, where one sees hordes of Chinese worshippers gamble away their fortunes. (Considering they make for such great gamblers, the scene looked fit for a direct comparison with a casino). That was naturally the drift my anthropological mind made, on witnessing this rather synchronised worship-phenomenon.
The existence of a 'life-problem' is verified based on how the red shell halves have fallen (the two halves need to fall with their opposite faces on top - for example if these were coins, they would need to fall such - one 'heads' and the other 'tails'). The wooden chopstick then needs to be taken over to the counter, where it's inscription is read by the temple associate who hands out a pre-printed English translation of it, to the believer.
The above understanding of this technique of worship was all thanks to Panchy, who intrigued by the sight of the red-carpet worshippers nudged one nearby to seek a description. A temple associate who explained the process of worship to us, instigated the two of us to pick up two brass containers and give it a shot ourselves, in the process perhaps identifying the 'problem' in our lives at the moment. In a funny conclusion of sorts my life seemed to be 'problem-free' as the red shell halves always fell 'same side up'. How convenient! It looked like the Goddess had seen through my 'act' - where I was doing this just for the kicks of it and she was in no mood whatsoever to encourage my 'non-belief' for sure. Panchy on the other hand was dismayed looking at her 'life problem' and what the Chinese Goddess of Mercy really thought of her and we walked out pooh-poohing the whole episode!
A big part of celestial devotion comes from belief. And as we walked out of the temple that day, we realized that if the belief is in one's own self, then celestial devotion renders itself unnecessary.
5. Thursday evening was spent strolling along Singapore's waterfront, which brings mental glimpses of Newport, Jersey City back into my life. The only difference was - the spectacular sky-line at the other end which stood for much more than just New York City, in the latter's case. Here in Singapore, the waterfront curves and turns non-linearly and offers different vantage points of the city, depending on which turn you're at. It also articulates some brilliant examples of art and architecture along its route, making it slightly more glorious than the Jersey City waterfront. That is the power of Water and Architecture. When they come together, they re-imagine the most banal of settings into becoming powerful non-erasable patches of memory, that linger in the mind long after one has physically left their shore. The Singaporean waterfront definitely makes a mark, perhaps the most profound mark yet, in the picture postcard memory of this city.
6. We wrapped up the evening with some great sangria at Nueva Cuba in the Customs House area of the city (slowly becoming my regular weekend haunt), with an entourage of friends - some new, some old and all young global citizens, having lived and worked across a few continents. That is the quintessential description of almost anyone who we have come across/ met in Singapore. Most people we meet here - through friends or are from our previous lives, have almost always moved here after having lived in at least 2 or 3 other countries before. The stories and the experiences they bring to the table are often as enriching and exotic as the food one finds here, at times. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be in this company, during our time here, another aspect of Singaporean life, that is so typical of this city-state and yet starkly unique from the global traveler that one meets in the West perhaps, on account of third-world exposure and travel.
7. Panchy flew out early Friday morning, much to the surprise of a quizzical Zoe who woke up to find "No Panchy" as she scanned the entire house for her newest play-mate. Panchy's only advance request for the course of her stay with us was that she wanted to celebrate Zoe's monthly birthday while she was visiting, even though it was a day or two earlier than the 13th.
So on the day before she flew out - Panchy and I made Zoe's birthday dessert of the month - an open faced Apple Tart, adding and subtracting ingredients as we felt like it, in the process. A delighted Zoe blew out a candle multiple number of times that evening as we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her out loud. And on that note Panchy flew out, a few hours later, promising to see us again soon, perhaps on her side of the world, this time around.
8. Our next set of guests - the SIL & BIL from Mumbai, arrived early Saturday morning. That night I baked more Apple tarts to celebrate Zoe's 21st month with them. That lucky little one gets to do another double-celebration next month, as two of her Mommy's closest friends are in town in May!
The weekend was spent doing another one of our weekend quick tours with the SIL& BIL around town. The week ahead sees them take off to Sentosa for a couple of days after which they come back to yet another line-up of sight-seeing/ food-spotting around town with us. The little one is naturally thrilled at the idea of a full house this often and new playmates back-to-back, what with the endless pampering, multiple candle-blowing sessions, gifts galore and getting to pull everyone's strings with her little finger.
See you next week, for yet another rendition of what happens when, where and how, in our current neck of the woods!
Stay well!
Love,
Shweyta
Another fellow villager from the city - Pancham, aka 'Panchy', comes a-visiting this week all the way from Africa, so she can spend a couple of days with us and her little 'laddu' as she calls the toddler. And the SIL & BIL arrive on Saturday, which also happens to be the little one's 21st month birthday.
If you've known me long enough and/ or have been reading my updates, you know these are the last few monthly birthday celebrations here at The MD's, until the little one turns 2. So we're doubling up on the last few '13th celebrations' before we reach her actual birthday on July 13th, as we anticipate a lot of house-guests around that date in the next few months. Obviously, the kiddo is pretty thrilled at the prospect of blowing out candles every few days and I would be lying if I didn't admit that it's the sparkle in her eye and gust in her 'blow' of the candles, that I really do this for. I am all about celebrations! Birthdays have always been my big thing. Glad to know the daughter thinks so too!
2. Panchy arrived late Tuesday night and was adamant on defeating her jet lag from having crossed three different continents in the past 24 hours. Since she was here in Singapore for barely two days, we (She & I) decided to make the most of her time here and see the city, in snippets of how she'd like to see it. She arrived armed with a list of 'Must-do's' in Singa-land and we set about trying to check those off, while making sure I slipped in a few 'Must-do's from my list as well.
Having played hosts to quite a few house-guests here, Hubster and I have come up with our own little two/three or five day packages of touring in and around the city-state, of course depending on the type of traveler and their interests. Needless to say, we throw in a handful of must-do restaurants/ cuisines as well in the mix for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
The highlight of Panchy's visit over the couple of days was two-fold - our conversations that transcended from anywhere between global-living to random start-up ideas and her amazing ability to connect to Zoe, whom she was meeting for only the second time ever. In the two days that she spent with us, we spent a lot of time just playing plain old catch-up and making new connections - with friends of friends - shrinking our already shrunk worlds, even more.
3. Hubster and I took Panchy to 1-Altitude for panoramic aerial views of Singapore & even Malaysia in the far background on Wednesday night. Compared to Ku De Ta - the now infamous boat-shaped rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands building, 1-Altitude offers 360 degree views from a higher elevation. The music seemed to be unnecessarily loud. A fainter score in the background might have done wonders to the ambience as the spectacular views added more than enough charisma and character to the place. We discovered, as in the case of most Singapore bars/ clubs - Wednesday nights are usually 'Ladies nights', thus making the otherwise pricey drinks slightly more affordable for the regular gal. And of course the term 'cover charge' in Asia, as I remember it from my days of club-hopping in India, thankfully entails full redemption of the 'charge' towards the purchase of a drink, unlike in the States where it really is just a charge to enter the club.
Singapore being as peanut-sized as it is, an all-encompassing aerial 360 degree view is the best way to see the city-state, especially when visiting here on a limited time frame. A definite recommendation on my things-to-do list for this city!
4. The most intriguing and informative aspect of Panchy's visit came about, when I took her to view my favourite Chinese Temple in Singapore. Hubster and I had chanced upon this temple one of the weekends, when we walked over to it after eating brunch nearby.
The temple is called The Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple and is dedicated to the Chinese goddess of Mercy - Kuan Yin Bodhisattva. We were enlightened that day that the Chinese pantheon like the Greek one, also has several similarities to the Hindu pantheon.
Ever since Hubster and I have chanced upon this temple, it has been my favourite Chinese temple to take any of our visitors to. Unlike the other better maintained and more touristy temples in Chinatown or other areas, this one is visited largely by the locals. (Most come here to pray for good luck or specifically solve certain problems in their respective lives.)
The unique technique of worship here has been my biggest draw to this place. As is the case with Hindu temples, worshippers stand outside the temple where incense sticks (agarbatti's essentially) are provided so that these can be lit and used to worship the temple from the outside and the sun - which is usually prayed to with one's back to the idol (a practice unlike at a Hindu temple, where one does not turn one's back on the deity). Locals enter the temple with their footwear on, making sure to take them off only when stepping over a large square red carpet, centrally located in the temple. Wooden sticks also known as 'Kian' placed in brass containers and two red shell halves are handed out at a counter inside the temple. The worshipper takes one of these and kneels on the red carpet, facing the idol of the Goddess of Mercy. He or she first mentally introduces himself/ herself to the Goddess, telling her their name, address and particular problem they are seeking a solution for. Then the container is shaken until one stick falls out onto the red carpet. The fallen stick has an inscription on it, which may or may not be the solution to the person's problem, as decided by the position of the red shell halves, when thrown over the carpet. In what sounds like a perfect analogy to the 'chaupad' one knows of from having seen or read the Mahabharata, the red carpet in the temple, looks like a large archaic casino of sorts, where one sees hordes of Chinese worshippers gamble away their fortunes. (Considering they make for such great gamblers, the scene looked fit for a direct comparison with a casino). That was naturally the drift my anthropological mind made, on witnessing this rather synchronised worship-phenomenon.
The existence of a 'life-problem' is verified based on how the red shell halves have fallen (the two halves need to fall with their opposite faces on top - for example if these were coins, they would need to fall such - one 'heads' and the other 'tails'). The wooden chopstick then needs to be taken over to the counter, where it's inscription is read by the temple associate who hands out a pre-printed English translation of it, to the believer.
The above understanding of this technique of worship was all thanks to Panchy, who intrigued by the sight of the red-carpet worshippers nudged one nearby to seek a description. A temple associate who explained the process of worship to us, instigated the two of us to pick up two brass containers and give it a shot ourselves, in the process perhaps identifying the 'problem' in our lives at the moment. In a funny conclusion of sorts my life seemed to be 'problem-free' as the red shell halves always fell 'same side up'. How convenient! It looked like the Goddess had seen through my 'act' - where I was doing this just for the kicks of it and she was in no mood whatsoever to encourage my 'non-belief' for sure. Panchy on the other hand was dismayed looking at her 'life problem' and what the Chinese Goddess of Mercy really thought of her and we walked out pooh-poohing the whole episode!
A big part of celestial devotion comes from belief. And as we walked out of the temple that day, we realized that if the belief is in one's own self, then celestial devotion renders itself unnecessary.
5. Thursday evening was spent strolling along Singapore's waterfront, which brings mental glimpses of Newport, Jersey City back into my life. The only difference was - the spectacular sky-line at the other end which stood for much more than just New York City, in the latter's case. Here in Singapore, the waterfront curves and turns non-linearly and offers different vantage points of the city, depending on which turn you're at. It also articulates some brilliant examples of art and architecture along its route, making it slightly more glorious than the Jersey City waterfront. That is the power of Water and Architecture. When they come together, they re-imagine the most banal of settings into becoming powerful non-erasable patches of memory, that linger in the mind long after one has physically left their shore. The Singaporean waterfront definitely makes a mark, perhaps the most profound mark yet, in the picture postcard memory of this city.
6. We wrapped up the evening with some great sangria at Nueva Cuba in the Customs House area of the city (slowly becoming my regular weekend haunt), with an entourage of friends - some new, some old and all young global citizens, having lived and worked across a few continents. That is the quintessential description of almost anyone who we have come across/ met in Singapore. Most people we meet here - through friends or are from our previous lives, have almost always moved here after having lived in at least 2 or 3 other countries before. The stories and the experiences they bring to the table are often as enriching and exotic as the food one finds here, at times. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be in this company, during our time here, another aspect of Singaporean life, that is so typical of this city-state and yet starkly unique from the global traveler that one meets in the West perhaps, on account of third-world exposure and travel.
7. Panchy flew out early Friday morning, much to the surprise of a quizzical Zoe who woke up to find "No Panchy" as she scanned the entire house for her newest play-mate. Panchy's only advance request for the course of her stay with us was that she wanted to celebrate Zoe's monthly birthday while she was visiting, even though it was a day or two earlier than the 13th.
So on the day before she flew out - Panchy and I made Zoe's birthday dessert of the month - an open faced Apple Tart, adding and subtracting ingredients as we felt like it, in the process. A delighted Zoe blew out a candle multiple number of times that evening as we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her out loud. And on that note Panchy flew out, a few hours later, promising to see us again soon, perhaps on her side of the world, this time around.
8. Our next set of guests - the SIL & BIL from Mumbai, arrived early Saturday morning. That night I baked more Apple tarts to celebrate Zoe's 21st month with them. That lucky little one gets to do another double-celebration next month, as two of her Mommy's closest friends are in town in May!
The weekend was spent doing another one of our weekend quick tours with the SIL& BIL around town. The week ahead sees them take off to Sentosa for a couple of days after which they come back to yet another line-up of sight-seeing/ food-spotting around town with us. The little one is naturally thrilled at the idea of a full house this often and new playmates back-to-back, what with the endless pampering, multiple candle-blowing sessions, gifts galore and getting to pull everyone's strings with her little finger.
See you next week, for yet another rendition of what happens when, where and how, in our current neck of the woods!
Stay well!
Love,
Shweyta
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