What I have been doing

I arrived from Brisbane on 31 January. From then till April 31 is has been 3 months. To look at these 3 months productively, I have done nothing. I did was to meet up and catch up with all the friends that I missed. But still I haven met all of them. A lot of appointments were made but little were kept.
Repairing computer for friends and relatives has been my hobby , and upon my arrival a lot of computer repair projects came up. All my relatives who have a computer at their homes were build by my. Thus I am the life-time warranty. I don treat it as a chore but something I enjoy. And of course I do it for free. Many of my friends in the IT field would tell me, to earn some buck from this service. I just can’t take money from my friends and family, its just not me.
Mid-way I had a job interview to attend. I had plans to goto India but this job offer was just too good to refuse. I did well in the interview and had high hopes that I would get in, but the boss who was supposed to call me in a week didn't call. I took it as a rejection and confirmed on my India trip. Days later the company called me asking me for a second interview. With the tickets confirmed I had to refuse.
Then came another surprise, my ex colleague called me , and offered me another job. All paid trip and a 1 month project in Qatar. Again I had to refuse, all for the CCNA and CCNP course in Chennai.
This is one of the biggest decision I have made, that is to standby one decision no matter what. Now all I hope and pray for is that this was a right decision.
I recall a military advice given in my SISPEC [School of infantry Specialist] – a leader is one that makes quick and solid decision and sticks to it till the end. It is better to have a decision made than to have many ideas.( I know it is a little hard to understand)

Less than a week to Chennai…. No hesitation! Just Determination.

A Good story

I read a similar story in Shalini's Monday Morning inspirations and got inspired to post this here. i would also like to give full credits to the author of this book , " Parents and children Key to sucess". The author is a buddist monk from Srilanka, Ven Weragoda Sarada Maha Thero

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

Graduation!

This week is a memorable week for me. Because I officially graduated and collected my certificate form the chief chancellor. Although I finished my degree last year, I had opted for my graduation ceremony to be held in Singapore where many of my relatives can attend.

Some of my friends did their ceremony in Australia, but to me it is more meaningful as my parents, grandmother and uncles and aunties can attend it in Singapore.

My educational path was not a smooth one. I was not the brightest boy in class. During my primary school days I was not staying with my parents, I was under my grandmother’s care and my uncles and aunts were the ones who supervised. I went to school just to meet my friends and play. I knew what was happening in class and I understood everything but didn’t apply. Somehow I would scrape through everything. When I was in primary four my parents took over, but still no improvement. I never tasted failure cos I would do just enough to clear.

I ran out of luck and I didn’t do well in my O’ levels, not enough to proceed to any course in polytechnic. That was the wake up call. My aunt called me up and gave me a good lecture so did my, but my parents didn’t scold me at all; all they said was “learn from your mistake and bounce back!”

I didn’t’ give up I went back to school and I repeated my O’levels with my juniors. Embarrassing….But I channeled my embarrassment into motivation to do well. My relatives have been the best support. I did well in my O’Levels and easily entered my dream course “ diploma in Information Technology”, then with the results I got accepted into Queensland university of technology to pursue my bachelor of IT.

Now I am a graduate. It would not have been possible if not for these guys.

With dedication nothing is impossible!

More pictures here! and more to be added

Chennai , here i come !!!

To my friends in India, my trip to Chennai has been finalized! If everything goes smoothly I would smell Chennai on the 1^st of May. I cannot describe how excited I am to see Chennai.

This is my plan; I will spend the first week of May in Pondicherry or Sirkazhi where my uncles are. After which I will be in Chennai staying in a hotel for a week while I search for a suitable accommodation. I don’t have a awful lot of money to spent thus, I have to select the cheapest and best that suits my budget.

After which my CCNA course starts on 15^th of May followed by CCNP. The institution is in mount road. I hope there is plenty to see and experience.

Special thanks to my blog friend Shalini for making this planning smoother by giving me lots of advice.

Since many of you bloggers from Chennai would have a frequent internet service. Could you guys suggest the best service?

Currently I am considering the Airtel unlimited surf plan, the one that uses the data-card and EDGE and EGPRS for internet connectivity. Do they have the plan in prepaid?

So far:

Flight to Chennai -Check

Indian visa – Check

Bank account – Check

Course enrollment – more or less done deal

Internet – Pending

Accom in Chennai – Pending

(I have helped many of my student friends get accommodation in Brisbane; I hope karma works well for me)

National Service - Pleasure Serving you Singapore!

Just few years back, a distant aunt gave birth to a baby boy in Singapore. My aunt is Singaporean but her husband is an Indian national. But they have refused Singapore citizenship for their son. Their reason was that they did not want their son to serve national service.

[For the readers who do not know what national service: in Singapore Men at the age of 18 have to serve in the Singapore Armed forces (navy/army/air-force), Civil defense force (firemen) or the Police force. The Bulk of us would be sent to the army. ]

I guess their reason for them to refuse the citizenship for their son was probably because of the deaths of some servicemen during their service. Don’t get me wrong, death in national service is extremely rare. I unfortunately have seen a once platoon mate die. His death had nothing to do with the training; he just had a cardiac arrest and died. But since it was in camp premises he was given a military funeral.
Having gone through national service and seen death itself. I would still encourage my fellow Singaporean brothers that national service is not bad as some people have thought to be.
I have seen boys turn to men. We are force to behave like a gentleman, and taught how to make decisions under both physical and mental stress. We are taught how to lead and taught how to take punishments and pain head-on. I am sure many who have served National service would agree with me.
I am going to convince my aunt that national service is not too bad. My brother is currently serving his national service as an Officer Cadet. He is soon to be an Artillery officer.
I have truly benefited from national service, I urge my readers to explain the true experience of National service to the few ignorant Singaporeans.
“What we lack in size, we make up for in numbers.” ,Lee Kwan Yew (minister mentor) and whom I call “Father of Singapore”.

This post is dedicated to 3rd sergeant Perry, a true hero. Although we knew each other too little, enough to earn a permanent place in my heart.
To those who say National service is a waste of time, i tell you. Stop saying that cos, his death was not a waste.

Relationships and trust issues

It happened when I was in the army and it was one of those exercises which would require us to be in some hilltop in a forest. The exercise was planed for 5 days but then got extended indefinitely. We were supposed to go back home on Friday, but it was Saturday we were still on some hill on a rainy thunder storm night trying to establish radio communication. We have had to move about with our radio set with a huge antenna. We need radio communication before first light. It would be too rush to do it in the morning so I and my buddy had to do right there and then. We were on a hill top with an antenna which was like a lightning probe. We knew it was a hazard but we had to take the risk.

My buddy and I were specialist who had 2 other men under us. This job required just 2 people and here was no requirement for the rest to get wet. We made our men take shelter in our vehicle, while we establish radio communication. My buddy and I were totally drenched to make things worst, I slipped and fell into a mud pond. That’s when tragedy struck. (Don’t worry… Nothing serious)

My buddy’s girlfriend called! She was mad at him because he had not come to visit her that week end nor call her. His excuse to her was that there was no phone reception and we had very little of battery power on our phones that we had to conserve for emergency.

My buddy was going to cut the call and carry on with the communication with me, but I signaled to him to carry on with the call and I would carry on with the mission myself. Why I did that was because

Her argument was, “how can you pick up this call then? Why are you lying to me? You promised to see me this weekend and you didn’t inform me!” Basically she was shooting her machine gun at my defenseless buddy. The bombardment lasted for 2 hours, with my friend returning fire with “sorry…sorry…sorry”.

By then radio communications was established. That night my buddy told me with sincere heart. “Vas, don’t get a girlfriend man. Don’t suffer like me. I can't break off with her cos i am afraid she might do something silly. I still love her man.. but i am suffering”

Not all Girlfriends are like this. Maybe not all the time.But why do women sometimes behave like this?

(You guys might be wondering why we were looking for communication when we could use our hand phones. That’s because military communications cannot me made using the GSM network. Security is first priority.)

What should i do?

I hate making decisions in my life. How I wish everything would have been laid out for me?

As many of my readers would have known, I have just graduated from my bachelor degree from Australia and I am back in Singapore. It has been about 2 weeks, my fellow classmates and housemates are in full force job hunting. For me I just haven got the grove yet.

I used to work for a networking firm before I went to peruse my degree; I know for sure I can join back there for a higher position. But work there is hectic but challenging. I still have friends there who are tempting me to join with all their new projects.
I also have offers from my working friends to join their company and be part of their team, 2 in total.
I now have 3 job offers.
But the problem is not about where to work. It is weather or not I would like to start working right now.
I had planed to go to India (Chennai/ Hyderabad / Bangalore) to peruse my CCNP (Cisco certified network professional) certification. I could also do it in Singapore, but I want something different, like a challenge. Reading a lot from my bogging friends, the temptations are high.

So do I go to India or shall I stay and start working?

Ps god: can I take a peek at my fate please?