Home Alone

Being alone at home for an extended period of time is something I always dreaded. I managed to avoid it for 24 years and then bham! It hit me like a truck on my face. My room-mate went abroad for three weeks and I had to face the monsters under the bed all on my own. I expected the three weeks to be terrible. I put up a count down of days. Andddd..... The three weeks weren't too bad.

The days were jam packed with work and fortunately I had to spend only half the day alone. Here's what I did for approximately 18 days (nights actually).

1. Visit Friends : After having been in Singapore for three years, I had made quite a number of friends. Yet I kept meeting the same group as it was just more convenient. Not having my roomie and friends around made me get up and go out to visit some of my other friends.

2. Play Host: My friends from college and my relatives happened to be visiting Singapore and I took the opportunity to host them and play tourist guide. I got to invite them home and cooked for them. That way, I got to play host and also got some company.

3. Paint Away : I bought a few jars of acrylic paint and a few t-shirts from the thrift store. I painted them to my hearts content. Time seemed to blissfully fly when I was painting t-shirts.

4. Scrub and Shine : The lines between the tiles were filed with grime and I just wanted to see them go away. A brush, a bottle of floor cleaner, a mop and a bucket of water and a whole night was all that I needed to clean the kitchen floor.

5. Educational Trip to Sheng Siong : Sheng Siong is one of Singapore's most popular departmental stores. It stocks a lot of stuff starting from vegetables to household electronics. Until the last week, I had no clue about the variety of things Sheng Siong had. Instead of running in and grabbing some groceries, I spent a little time looking at the racks, searching the ingredients and picking the best choice.

6. Cook : I am someone who loves to cook for people and abhor cooking something elaborate for myself. Playing host to my friends nudged me to search Sheng Siong and Google and whip up some recipes.

LESSONS I LEARNT:

1. People will come and go and it is up to each person to make their life worthwhile.

2. Never hang around with a single group of people. Make friends everywhere. It will help you and you can help them with your networks when the need arises.

3. Always have time for your passions. They will give you a sense of achievement.

4. Keep your family and a few friends close. They are the ones you can annoy without the fear of losing them.

5. Learn to embrace loneliness. It is perhaps the only companion you will have for life.

The legacy left by Mr.Newman - The Secret to Happiness!

Our home had eight occupants, six human and two canine. However, on many occasions there would be eight to ten people living in the house. My grandfather, who had lived in England over six decades ago, would play host to his friends who would visit Chennai for their vacations. We would learn about their culture and gain knowledge from their vast experience.

Among our guests, the Newmans', from a town named Redditch visited us every alternate year and each time they came, they spent two months with us. Eileen Aunty and Derek Uncle were almost family to us. They used to tell us stories, eat with us and took us to a fantasy world in England, a world we had never seen, yet seemed so familiar. While Eileen Aunty was a kind grand motherly person, Derek Uncle was a youthful person who could regale anyone be it a little kid or someone his age with his humor. Derek Uncles speech was accented and only a half of what he said could usually be understood, yet he would laugh at his own jokes and make the other person laugh in the process. We loved the Newmans' and every time they left, we felt a lacuna in the house and eagerly awaited their next trip.

The best thing about them, and Derek Uncle in particular was his love for life. He loved people and loved life. He always did things that made him and the other people around him happy. He was a plump man who was excessively overweight. He emphasized the fact that he would rather be overweight and happy rather than live a sad and thin life. Once when he walking on the street a fitness trainer approached him and told him "Want to be thin? Ask me how! " and he replied "Want to be happy? I will tell you how!". The fitness trainer was taken aback and walked away.

In another instance he walked into the marriage hall across the road. He wanted to see an Indian wedding and felt that as long as his presence did not cause any disruption, it would be alright. The wedding party were more than happy to have him and offered him a meal. He returned a few hours later after having had a full filling meal.

He had a mug of beer before dinner, one during dinner and a couple of mugs after dinner and had the perfect beer belly. He never cared for what others thought of him and enjoyed himself to the maximum. He had fun and ensured that it never compromised or affected others life. 

Obviously he suffered from hypertension issues and other conditions associated with obesity, but he lived to the ripe old age of eighty two. He never let hypertension and stress rule over his Eutopia of happiness. When he left this mortal world to become a part of eternity, he did not leave it as a sick and stressed man but a happy man drinking beer, with a pot belly doing the things he loved most.

He did not leave behind a huge estate or a millions of dollars stashed in the bank.

He left us with hundreds if not thousands of good memories.

He left the world with a legacy - The Secret to Happiness!

Foot Prints on the Sands of time

The alarm would scream 'Wake Up Wake up' and I would open my eyes to face a pastel pink wall. The day would progress slowly and at the end of the day I would go to sleep facing the same plain wall. To spruce up the wall and add some color to it, my buddy and I went to an art store, picked up a roll of satin ribbon, a few miniature clothes hanger clips and hooks.

Being a person who loves company, I wanted to do something that would remind me of all the wonderful people I have in my life, who are geographically distant, but close at heart. We decided that it would be best to put up photos of family, and friends whom we do not meet on an everyday basis. As we selected the photos we recalled the memory behind the photo. The time I first met a friend on a bus ; The reason why someone is missing from the group etc were discussed and what started as an hour long project to spruce up a wall, ended up being an evening long project full of memories.

We are an average of the people around us, those who make our lives. They may not be near and it might be almost impossible to talk to them on a daily or even monthly basis. Yet when we look at our lives, we will see that they have left their impressions on the sands that we have trudged. There are some whose foot steps may coincide with ours again, some we may never see again, some are yet to tread these sands with us.

When we feel forlorn we can see and derive inspiration from the footprints of those who tread with us. When we look ahead and see a vast expanse of sand and no foot prints on it, we should remind ourselves to hold strong and walk the path and realize that there are others traversing the sands whose paths will coincide with us.

Lives of great men all remind us 

        We can make our lives sublime, 

    And, departing, leave behind us 

        Footprints on the sands of time ;

    Footprints, that perhaps another, 

        Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 

    A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

        Seeing, shall take heart again.

    Let us, then, be up and doing, 

        With a heart for any fate ; 

    Still achieving, still pursuing, 

        Learn to labor and to wait.

 - Henry Longfellow

Good Things Thing That Happen When your Roomie is a Life Science Major

I have had the honour of being the room mate of not one but two Biotechnologists at different points of time, Both amazing people. After having lived with them, I know for certain that they make good ( best actually) roomies. Here are some of the up's of having a Bio-girl as your roomie.

1. Cockroaches and Lizards don't freak them out. They have seen stuff that is grosser. If they see a dead insect they will merely pick it up and throw it out. If it is alive, it will receive a blow from the broom before it is thrown out.

2. They help you improve your vocabulary. While a layman will call a swollen tongue "A Swollen Tongue", they will call it Glossitis. Terms like tumefaction will no longer sound like latin. A simple sentence like "An insect bit my cheek" will sound more sophisticated and romantic when euphemized.

3. They know what is wrong and will tell you when you need to overcome a habit. Have a stomach ache and your roomie will explain the complex mechanism behind why the stale potato chips you had two days ago caused the ache.

4. Compared to an average human, Biologists are more patient and forgiving. Drop their plate and break it or use their expensive shampoo, they will not flinch. They are empathetic and have seen it all. They have seen the fruit of hard work go ripe and rotten. They have repeated experiments hundreds of times. Simple mistakes and follies no longer matter to them.

5. Disciple is synonymous with them. They are used to working long hours in the laboratory. The awareness that they need to work everyday since that particular day might be their EUREKA day is ingrained in them.

6. They have a childlike curiosity and passion that never dies. Be it baking or cooking or reading a book they put their 100% into it.

7. Observance Skills and Biology go hand in hand. Observing minute details and spotting false positives is easy for them. If you try to hide your happiness by putting up a fake smile they will see you through it and ask you what is wrong.

8. You might see them only for a few hours each week, but the time you spend with them will be good. They will offer you insights into several things that you overlook. Their thinking box has no boundaries. 

9. They are ever willing to teach and learn. The process of learning and giving is familiar to them. They know that exchanging a good thought with someone gives each person an extra good thought. They share lab tips and tricks with their colleagues and life tips with their roomies.

10. At the outset they look like geeks, but beneath the log books and experimental data, is a person who is as human as we non-biology folks are. You can not help thinking of them as your family away from home.

A Clean Slate

Over two years ago, I landed in a city where I knew just one person - My Mother's Cousin (my aunt). I started my sojourn in this Little Red Dot called 'Singapore' with a practically clean slate. The first people I met were my new room-mates. I had seen their pictures but had never met them. Then came my classmates. Over time I also became well acquainted with my aunt's family - Their two adorable little sons and my uncle.

Things went smoothly and I settled in well. Just as I became very comfortable, I got an admit into another university in the same city and had to move to another locality. I was initially apprehensive, but knew that my folks in Singapore were there for me even if I moved to another locality.

Fortunately, I had lovely room-mates and good friends in the new University and locality. A few friends introduced me to their friends and the chain of friends grew. Just as I began to get well set into the routine of having many friends around, my folks in Singapore began to leave one by one.

My Former roomie and mentor was the first to leave. She returned to my hometown after her course. My Aunt and her family left Singapore too. Just as I got acclimatized to them leaving Singapore, two of my friends informed me that they were leaving Singapore in search of greener pastures.

I was back to a partially clean slate.

When I was in primary school, the teacher would write notes on the blackboard as we copied it into our notebook. We needed to write fast as the teacher would begin to erase the blackboard as soon as she finished writing on it. In case we could not catch up, we would leave a blank space as trying to catch up would result in us missing the next set of notes being written on the board.

Regretting the lost moments that I could have cherished with the people who left Singapore will only result in me losing out on time that I can spend with others and result in a chain of regrets. Keep taking notes and keep pace with life. If you can not keep pace, just try hard to. When our creator erases the blackboard, just leave an empty space and continue with the new set of notes. 

We never know what the next person we meet may teach us. Keep pace with life. People will come and ago. Situations will change. 

I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,

I bubble into eddying bays,

I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret

By many a field and fallow,

And many a fairy foreland set

With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow

To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,

But I go on for ever.

-Alfred Lord Tennyson