For those who born in the 70s and 80s in Singapore.

I read this in an e-mail and decided to post it with some of my experience.
for readers who are non Singaporean, it i hope its interesting and you could recall yo your experience..
i was born in 1983 so i am the 80's guy!

1. You grew up watching He-man, MASK, Transformers, Silver Hawk and
Mickey Mouse. Not to forget Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony and Smurfs too...

2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during
recess time. You will squat by a drain with all your classmates beside
you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug. The teachers said you must
brush each side 10 times too.
( there was a dental nurse in my school and my appointments came during my music class , which is awesome. i would rather have my teeth pulled then asked to play the recorder!)

3. You know what SBC stands for.
(Singapore Broadcasting Corporation)

4. You pay 40 cents for Chocolate or Strawberry MILK every week in
class.
(The brand of the milk was magnolia, and we had to drink it in class!)

5. You watch a very popular Malay dubbed Japanese drama on RTM1 about
schoolgirls who possess powerful skills in volleyball called Meoro
Attack.

6. You find your friends with pagers and hand phone cool in Secondary
school.
(The IN thing was to have the pager clip at the side of the pocket to show off)

7. SBS buses used to be non-air-conditioned. The bus seats are made of
wood and the cushion is red. The big red bell gives a loud BEEP! When
pressed. There are colourful tickets forTIBS buses. The conductor will check for
tickets by using a machine which punches a hole in the ticket.

(We used to fold hearts with the ticket pass it to girls we have crush on.)

8. Envelopes given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's
Day.
(I donated $2 every year)

9. You've probably read Young Generation magazine. You know who's Vinny
the little vampire and Acai the constable.

(that was the only magazine for kids)

10. You were there when they first introduced MRT here. You went for
the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat , facing the window to see the scenery.

11. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.

12. Gals are fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.

13. You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street .

14. You longed to buy tibits called Kaka (20 cents per pack), and Ding
Dang (50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every
week. Not forgetting the 15 cents animal crackers and the ring pop, where the
lollipop is the diamond on the ring.

15. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel
5 never had enough cartoons for you.

16. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and
Secret Seven are probably the thickest story books you ever thought you
have read. Even Sweet Valley High and Malory Towers.

17. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that serve food in plates
and let you use metal forks and knives.

18. The most vulgar thing you said was asshole and idiot and THE MOST
EXTREME WAS 'super white'... you just couldn't bring yourself to say
the hokkien relative.

19. Catching was the IN thing and twist as the magic word. (in-case you don’t understand, it is a game of police and thief and twist was immunity)

20. Your English workbooks was made of some damn poor quality paper
that was smooth and yellow.

21. CDIS were your bestfriend.
( It is TV shows that are telecasted in national TV for school purposes, teachers have to record it and then use it in class)

22. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellised
characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you maths.

23. Waterbottles were slinged around your neck and a must everywhere
you go.
(The common drink was ribena!)

24. Boys loved to play soccer with small plastic balls in the
basketball court.
(we even had a league, if we didn’t have a ball we would use the pong-pong fruit to play. )

25. Five stones, chapteh, hentam bola and zero point were
all the rage with the girls and boys too...

26. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most
important plants of our lives, guppies and swordtail being the most
important fish.

27. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, eternalized in our
minds from the textbooks. Even Mr Wally & Mr. Yakki. What abt Miss Lala???
And Zaki and Tini in Malay Textbooks?

28. We carry out experiments of our own to get ourself badges for being
a Young Zoologist/Botanist etc.
( I had a young environmentalist badge!)

29. Every Children's day and National day you either get pins or pens
with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or dumb files with 'Happy National Day
1994'.
(Children’s day was all about what gifts the teachers had for us)

30. In Primary six you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big
sister and brother.
( so that the primary one kids can adapt better in school)

31. We wear BM2000, BATA, or Pallas shoes.
(They were all white canvas shoes that we had to polish)

32. Your form teacher taught you Maths, Science and English.

33. The worksheets were made of brown rough paper of poor quality.

34. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and
you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your
dry and warm socks and shoes.

35. School dismissal time was normally around 1 pm.
(we would all play till 3Pm then think about going home then, that too was to catch CDIS and cartoons on TV)

36. There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost
every day.

37. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you
$3 or more for pocket money every day.
( i used to get extra money from my grandfather on top of what my parents gave me)

38. You see Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.
(Our president then)

39. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to
height and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.
(I didn’t really freak out, i still remember my partner, her name was “pei shan ,Christina”) she is married now. I know this thanks to friend ster.

40. Boys like to catch fighting spiders.
( Not forgetting grasshoppers, we would break one of its legs to prevent it from jumping off)

41. Collecting and battling erasers was a pastime for boys.
(Erasers with country flags on them, winner gets to keep the other’s eraser, we even modified its shape for “ better performance!”)

42. Autograph books were loaded with 'Best Wishes', 'Forget Me Not',
and small poems like 'Bird fly high, hard catch. Friend like you, hard to
forget'.

43. Class monitors and prefects loved to say 'You talk some more, I
write your name ah!'
(I was a perfect and the 2 names on my book are Siva- for climbing the school fence and Arul for singing in class)

44. There were at least 40 people in one class.
( Now kids this days are lucky to have just 20!)

45. Large, colourful schoolbags were carried.
(I got a new bag for every academic year!)

50. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one
thing called the timetable.
(I admit I was the worst! I was simply lazy to pack my bag, kids now get lockers to keep their books in school!)

Completed PADI Open water diving licence!

I have made a New Year resolution on getting a proper driving licence. My resolution for 2007 was to get a Australian driving licence. Since that was impossible, I decided to get a dirving licence instead. I signed up for the course on Monday 10^th December and finished the course on the 16^th. Just before 2007 is up.

My housemate Andrew was the first to sign up and he tempted me to join as well. But due to unforeseen circumstances Andrew could not continue with the course. I had to do it myself.

The whole licence course was in 4 phases.

Phase 1 – Theory

Phase 2 – Familiarization in the swimming pool

Phase 3 – Shore dive (Stradbroke Island)

Phase 4 – Mid sea boat dive. (Stradbroke Island)

The dive at Stradbroke was simply mesmerising. Fished was everywhere. Catching them was so easy. Those who fish with a rod I suggest get a diving licence and start sphere fishing instead. You will have better luck that way. I am a bad swimmer. But diving does not involve goo swimming skills, just confidence. Unlike my initial thoughts you don’t have to control your breathing. Just breath like you would, out of the water.

If you are interested in diving, search for the nearest PADI diving school from “www.padi.com”. You can also travel to the country that offers it and take the lesson and get certified within a week! And the licence is internationally recognised!

I have been tagged by Shalini - My New Year resolutions

My New Year resolutions

I have not made New Year resolutions for a long period now. I think I stopped making then because I can’t remember them, let alone achieve them.

Any way this time I am going to post it here and then try my very best to achieve them as soon as I can in 2008

1. Get my six packs in my abdominals. I have been working hard in the gym but I still can’t get my abdominals toned. It is still a continent; I need to split them to 6 islands.
2. Go to India and make a significant difference in a orphan child’s life. Maybe volunteer in a orphanage. Not monetary contributions but to do something else. I am a sinner I need lots a good karma!
3. Spend more time with my family. I have spent 10 months out of 2007 away from my family in Australia. Although I might spent much of 2008 in India I plan to spend some quality time with them first.
4. Get my driving license. Although I have a military driving license, it does not allow me to drive civilian cars. I will have to get it soon. (May be I could take it first in India.)
5. Save money (copied this from Shalini), it’s a good habit and the money could help me someday.

This is all that I could think off, at the moment. More will be added, hopefully none deleted.

Brisbane now . Where next? Chennai ? Hyderbad?

Can a Singaporean guy life in chennai?

I am studying in Queensland Australia, Queensland University of Technology. I just finish my last semester and , by god's grace is have passed and Going to graduate soon!

i am thinking of going to India to study CCNP ( Cisco certified network Professional) i have 2 options Hyderabad and Chennai. my parents and relatives encourage Hyderabad for the better standard of living and the cleanliness. I don't really care , i just want to make friends and enjoy my little time i spend in India.

i have a slight preference towards Chennai, that was due to the friends i made from blogging. could you guys suggest which is the more fun play to stay? if chennai can you guys suggest the exact place? i belief chennai is a huge city.

EGO

I belief the downfall of a man is in his Ego. I grew up in a family in which my father and his father (my grandfather) stopped talking to each other because of some argument. Few years later my grandfather passed on but the problem between my grandfather and father didn’t get solved at all. The point is not the argument, but it’s the Ego of 2 men that prevented them from talking to each other. When the old man died my father was around to do his last rites, as respect but the fact remained that they never spoke.

That was an example I saw in my family, among friends I do see ego problems. It is because of ego that men would sever 10 year friendship, brotherhood and other significant relationships. The argument could be over reasons that someone owes another an apology and the other refuses to apologise. Whatever the reason is it that difficult to apologise?

Sorry seems to be the hardest word for many to say. It doesn’t matter who is right and who is wrong. My understanding is if you are in a problem, just apologise even if it is not you who is supposed to apologise. Rather lose face than lose the friend or brother, for that matter.

“Mandarin speaking preferred”

If you flip through the classified ads for jobs in the Straits times, or any other publications. You can easily see that many jobs in Singapore would require the employee to able to speak mandarin. I am not sure if the job scope would require mandarin or the preferred language used in the working environment was mandarin. Either way, the non mandarin speaking community is disadvantaged.

Many Indian or Malay job searchers would sometimes brand it as biasness towards the Chinese community. English is the working language in Singapore, So why mandarin is preferred? I would say this is every employers own preference.

This issue has been around for a long time. But from the people’s front nothing has been done. When i was in polytechnic [Ngee Ann polytechnic], which was during 2001 to 2004. The polytechnic had a program called inter-disciplinary studies. The idea of this project was to diversify the study scope of the students so that they are better skilled in all trades. One of the elements of this program was “live skills”. Under “live skills” a students were taught various languages such as French, Japanese and Spanish.

Now i begin to wonder why, was not “mandarin” taught. If i look at it from jobs prospective mandarin would be the most useful language that the student can learn. In fact its in the papers, that mandarin is preferred.

Politically incorrect ?

If the polytechnic would have mandarin taught then, the public might get the wrong idea that the polytechnic was promoting mandarin to be the working language, or sending the wrong message. To solve that ,why not also include Malay and Tamil in the language program in the live skills portion.

this is not to please the other races, but with a cause.

I think it would promote racial harmony in one aspect. Knowing basic language of the other race would be good for cultural bonding in Singapore.
I don’t think there would be shortage of Tamil or Malay teachers.

This would be my plan for a more unified Singapore.

National service for Singapore women

Any Singaporean guy that read this title would have understood what I meant. Every Singaporean male has to go through 2 years of national service in the Singapore armed forces as a soldier. Judging from his leadership skills and fitness they are placed in different units. Some of these guy would have enjoyed their NS life. But for many it is 2 years of their time wasted.

I have heard many prospective about NS, but today’s topic is not about weather national service was a waste of time or not. It is why Singaporean males FEEL that their time was wasted.

Firstly is a matter of comparison, when they finally finish their National service and look into going to university their female counterparts would have already finished their degree. They would already be in the workforce by then.

To add things worst there are many foreigners who would be fighting for their position to the university. If they are lucky they would have got a place in the local University, if their grades aren’t that top notch they would have to settle for a University overseas, like me. For some of my buddies in NS that 2 years totally took away the study intention they had.

To me education comes in a feat. It is not easy to pause it and resume it later like a DVD. Once the flow is gone it is hard to get back to studying. Because of that some of the guys who go to university after NS fell behind, because they have lost touch with their study method.

What is my solution?

If our girls also have to do national service it would even us out. I am not expecting them to join the army. There are other ways that they can offer their help. One way is in the nursing industry in Singapore or in the community service industry.

We read the news about Singaporean hospitals lacking nurses and nurses have to come from Philippines and Indonesia. Why don’t we put our women to the job? One year to train them and one year of service. They would be paid allowances of like $500 per month, approximately the pay of national service men.

Due to the low pay for the nurses the medical expanse would decrease. This national service nurses can work in our poly clinics. Instead of making out citizens pay the small amount for medical help. We can make it totally free!

This will reduce the medical expense for Singaporeans

This is just a suggestion. Hitting 2 birds with one stone

Airtel Super singer junior

Hi you might be wondering how i, being in australia was able to watch this show. i first heard about this show from a friend of mine who went back to singapore duirng the holidays.he has vijay tv at home so he watching it and he told me how the kids performed. I didn’t think much of it till i watched this boy Krishnamurthy Airtel sing “sangeetha jathi mullai”. I was memorised and impressed with his singing that i knew then that is a sign of the winner. i don know how the rest of the finalist sang due to unavailability of their videos in YouTube. My friend had recordings of the blooper episodes which i watched. Based on that videos i could tell Roshan has very good child voice which is very nice to hear. Aprana showed great maturity in the singing.

One of the more significant reason for me to watch the show was that i have been frequently visiting my favourite singer’s blog and to my surprise she was the anchor for the show! how i have more reason to watch the show. If Vijay TV were to make the show DVD available for purchase i will buy it.

But most of all I would like to thank Vijay TV for giving this opportunity to the kids to sing. This show would have inspired many other kids, that they too may one day become a super singer if they tried their best. This show gave them hope.

In the blooper show i could see some of the audition clips. I must say i was a little disappointed with the way the judges rejected the kids with the red or green light method. I am not saying everything was bad but the one when they pressed the red button and waited to see shocked reaction on the kid’s face didn’t think that was funny and should not be shown as a funny clip. We might laugh at her for her shocked reaction. But when she sees it on TV, it’s going to affect her psychologically she might lose interest in singing. Except for that segment I think the judges did a good job by telling the kids nicely that they didn’t make it to the next round.

May I make a suggestion?

In the next super singer junior show could the producers please change the audition room’s lighting and concept? I feel the dark room makes the kids nervous and seeing the light only at the judges was not helping.

PS i know this post has nothing to do with the concept of my blog but i could not help it. Krishnamurthy’s singing inspired me to write this.

Watch his singing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNEZINUnays

Is there racial discrimination against Indians in Singapore?

This is a very sensitive topic, but for many Indians it has been a very common topic.

My first taste of racism was when I was in primary one. My classes were to perform a song during the school assembly on stage. The music teacher asked everyone in the class to sing, while she would select the better few to go on stage. I was selected. It was the talk of the class, we very happy to go on stage then. Then the form teacher would make another round of selection, this was the end of my stage aspirations. She looked the list and looked at me and said “no powder” and she included another student who was not selected and struck my name out. I was not happy about it but as a small boy I didn’t take it seriously. Then the day of performance came. To my dismay, every kid on stage was Chinese, then a Malay girl seated next to me whispered into my ear “see they only choose the Chinese!” Only then I realized the discrimination. Or maybe my teacher had an idea that the skin tone affects the pitching in singing nursery rhymes.

That is just one example, I cannot brand every Chinese to be racist based on just one example. Before I entered the army for my national service, I heard many comments about Indians not being treated equally in the army. One taxi driver told me, when I was in the army, the Indians would have to eat food that was soiled in mud, and the Chinese would get cleaner food. Then another relative of mind told me his vocation selection was based on his skin tone.

ALL THAT WAS CRAP.

I faced nothing of that sort in the army, we were all equal. There was no discrimination at all. Not based on any aspect. Every soldier were given his rank based on his academic qualification, his race was no barrier for him to get into any rank.

I can safely say that as the new generation is born the barrier of racism is constantly vanishing. Things are getting better.

My quote: Racism is like a very big wound on the minority (Indians); it is healing, sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. Unless we poke on it and make the wound bigger and hinder it from healing, it will heal.

Racism will only be gone only be gone when Indians stop blaming racism for them not achieving their goals. For example, if you go for an interview, and you are just met the qualification and could not get the job, don’t blame the employer for being racist.

The president, MR SR Nathan was interviewed on a local television show before he became the president of Singapore. This question was asked and his answer:

“Blame yourself for not being impressive enough. The next time you go for that kind of interview go with a higher qualification. You might say that a person of another race might just require 50% mark to get the job. Well you have to go in with 75%, and then it would be hard for the employer, not to employ you!”

Evolution of Indian women...

There has always been a trend that Indian wives will be housewives when they get married. Generally man in the family becomes the sole bread winner in the family. If the man has a good job that pays well, there is no reason for his wife to work. But in Singaporean context, the women are well educated and are career minded. In these conditions would they want to cook at home? I mean after a hard day’s work how are they going to find time to buy groceries and cook? This is when the maid comes in. The maid will do the cooking and the grocery shopping.

20 years ago if I were to make a rough gauge only 3 out of 10 Indian women were working. This is mainly because of their upbringing. Their parents taught that women do not need education has they are only going to be housewives. The future prospects of women were very narrow. Then the economy slumped this resulted in many families to have lower income. The solution to this problem was, both husband and wife have to work to support the family. With lack of prior education the women were limited to manual labor, factory jobs. With the pressure to support the family Indian women worked long shifts of work. Some were even working overnight.

What do these parents tell their children? “See with no education mother and father has to work so hard to make ends meet”. Driven by the parent’s advice the children excel in school, and so putting them through University education.

Now 20 years later the children are now the parents. Now they are not driven by their financial burden but their aspirations. Now the reading is 7 out of 10 Indian women are working. Women have evolved .They are not the ones in the kitchen, they are the ones on par with men in the working world.

And in the kitchen our foreign talent has taken over. Indonesian, Filipino or Sri Lankan cuisine? You decide!

*note: The readings I used in this blog were just based on my observation. Don’t “swan” me over it!

India born Indians and the local Indians is there a barrier?

I have seen in many cases that highly educated Indian nationals don tend to mix around with the main stream Indians in Singapore.

I have an uncle who rents out one of the room in his house to Indian nationals. Once he had a couple with a daughter who was just 4 years old. They did stay in Singapore for about a year, after which they migrated to the US. But during the time the little girl went to the local nursery which had other local Indian children studying as well. And the local Indian kids were also from the neighborhood. During my younger days when I was in kindergarten, when my grandparents brought me to the playground I would see my school friends in the play ground and I would be playing with them. But surprisingly this didn’t happen for that little girl. She was not allowed to mix around with the local kids. The mother of the girl would not speak to the local Indian parents.

It was like the family was having a barrier between the locals. If you want to maintain a distance why make the effort to come to Singapore? I am sure u can maintain better distance from India.Oh and I forgot, Singapore was the launching pad for them to go to the US.

Then again, is it the local’s fault by stereotyping that Indian nationals are snobbish people? When the local Indians have this opinion then it is harder for them to try to establish a friendly relationship with the Indian nationals.

I belief there are 2 faces to this story. But let’s not play the blame game. We both came from the same heritage but we are split by our egos. We should break the barrier and try to know each other better instead of avoiding association with each other.That’s my verdict.

Drinking Problem

As many Singaporeans might know there is a common stigma surrounding Indians as they are heavy drinkers. When I look at my father’s generation, men who are now in the 40’s and 50’s they were the only ones drinking in the family. This was happening in the last 20 years. Almost all Singaporean Indian man had a drinking problem. That easily led to family problems. Getting drunk and hitting the wife and getting into trouble when in drunk.

That was then, but now we have a new problem, we have quite a number of Indian women drinking. Please note that 20 years ago, to see women drinking is quite unlikely. I know you might say that women from other races also drink, but my idea of this blog is only to discuss problems surrounding Indians. Whether or not other races drink or not does not change anything. Generally Indian girls aging 16 and above, once they have left secondary school they are now developing a new culture of clubbing. The dance and the boos are more attractive to them. It is now a hobby now.

I told you that 20 years ago generally it was just the Indian men who have the drinking problem. Now we have couples who drink. It all starts with trying it out, then drinking to relief stress, and then it becomes a weekly thing. Then viola it becomes part of the Indian life.

With the men of the family drinking, it caused broken families, children going astray. In the next generation, it’s going to be 2 adults in the family with the drinking problem. What will be the outcome? We can only wait and see.

About my blog

Hi to all I am a Singaporean Indian guy currently staying Brisbane, Australia studying. My idea of this blog is to discuss common problems surrounding Indians in Singapore, occasionally i will deviate and discuss some general problems . Everything I discuss in this blog is based on my point of view. You do not agree with what I said please leave comments. I welcome all criticism and good comments.