Primary school days...

I've been through kindergarden, primary school, secondary school and junior college. Now i am in university. If asked when i had the best time, it will be a tie between primary school and university.
So now you'll want to ask me why these two? I'll touch upon university in a later post. For this one i'll just tell about my primary school days.

It has been 8 long years since i completed my PSLE but i still remember my primary school days very well. I used to study in Xinghua primary school. It was a neighbourhood school a stone's throw away from my house. I joined it only in primary 2 when my family shifted house. Of course joining in primary 2 meant I had missed out one year to make friends. I can clearly remember the first day of school. I had gone through the lessons before recess. One of those lessons was mother tongue. Now I didn't take any mother tongue offered in school. I was a non- Tamil Indian language student doing Hindi. But I was required by school to sit in the Tamil class during the mother tongue lesson. So back to recess. I was sitting alone in the canteen, eating my packed food. A girl from the Tamil class, Sivarangani, came up to me and started talking. I think that was the first and last time I was ever alone in school. Rangani soon introduced me to all the Indian kids in her "gang". There were quite a few of them. All took Tamil, and I used to sit in their lesson. So very soon I joined their gang which meant eating together during recess, playing hopscotch together (a very popular sport in my school), talking in class and basically being friends. Of the gang, 2 guys were in my primary 2 class, Vinod and Kalai.

When i went to primary 3, another NTIL student was in my class. She was a quiet girl with bambi eyes. Her name was Preeti. So she joined the gang too. With her we had the original 4; Vinod, Kalai, Preeti and me. We used to chit chat, fight (those trivial fights u laugh about now) and of course play hopscotch together. In the meantime Preeti and my friendship began to grow stronger. It was no time before she was at my house every other day, or i at her. We did every project together. We sat together in class. We did our prefect duties together. We even bunked school together. Basically we were "ask for one, get the other free".

The cool thing was the original 4 stayed in the same class in primary 4, 5 and 6. We went through hilarious childish moments together; we went for our excursions together. The gang was still there. But the 4 of us were in one class and the others spread out or not so close. All this while Preeti and I still sat in the Tamil class during mother tongue. We used to sit in the back and talk and laugh, occasionally doing some Hindi work.

Primary school was fun and each day was great. But little were we to know that in primary 4 this fun was going to be increased!!! In primary 4 we got a new Tamil teacher, Miss Parames (now Mrs Parames). Man she is the best teacher i have ever had (of course technically she never taught me...)!! She was full of fun. She was a friend to us. She was an aunt agony to us. We used to visit her in the staff room when we were bored, free or had a problem. She used to give the best children's day gifts to us. She even took us bowling and for lunch (her treat) in primary 6. She knew us, she knew our parents and she even knew our siblings. Haha she was one crazy teacher. In fact she is one of the few teachers i am still in touch with. I even went for her wedding.

So yea I had a great time in primary school!! Such a great time that i cannot forget those friends or teachers. Actually I haven't. I'm still in touch with most of the gang and Mrs Parames. On Saturday we had a gang reunion for the first time in the last 8 years. Unfortunately a few of the gang couldn't meet up. So eventually it was the original 4 and Mrs Parames.

But oh my god what a fun time we had!!!!!!!!!!!!! We laughed so much, our stomachs hurt.. And as usual Mrs Parames insisted on treating us. But seriously I have not had such a good time for quite some time. I had a blast. And Mrs Parames is as crazy as ever. Infact i think she has become crazier!! (if that is even possible...) I am certainly going to try to get the full gang together now. I even with just the 5 of us, we had such a great time. With the whole gang it'll be wild!

thank you girls..

Friends are siblings you choose for yourself..

I truely believe in the above quote. Although Friendship Day is only in August, I want to say a big THANK YOU to my gal friends now. Especially since they have been my pillar of strength and my listening ear for the past few weeks.

To all my darlings,

Thank You for being there for me and listening to me moan and also shout for joy!! Thank you for simply being there as my friend.

Param, Me and Zahabia in SMU after Arts Festival (2005)

Me, Li Yee and Reeja at the smiley slope in AC (2004)

Me and Aarti at the airport when she was flying off (2004)

Me and Sham at the void deck in AC on Fun O Rama (2004)

Preeti and me at clark quay, going for valentine's day and my birthday dinner (2005)

Param, Preeti and me at Nee Ann City after our gals night out (2006)

in a bitching mood..

as the tile of the post says this post is being written in an extremely bitched mood. and no its not going to abt some shallow topic. i am seriously pissed off abtan issue and want to bitch about that.

so what has gotten me so riled up you ask? well i got the results of my summer term and to my utter horror my grade was horrendous!! and i had every reason to be offended by the damm grade. see the summer course of Quntitative Methods, QM, was one i understood and grasped very very well. now i'm not being boastful here. i mean i can openly say that other modules where i have not done well, i deserved the grade. but not for qm!!! i mean for god's sake it was an mathematical based course. and maths, along with english has always been my niche. so yup the grade for qm came as a slap in the face. more so when i gave the module my 200%. together with 2 other of my qm group mates, i used to practise the questions from the textbook and discuss doubts with them. and i understood all concepts. if given a qm question now, i'm sure i can solve it. and as mentioned in my previous post, we spent a LOT of time working on the projects we had. even those didn't get good grades. when we asked the prof abt our project grades he said the 1st project wasn't done well (fair enough) and the 2nd one was brilliant and very well done. so we asked what grade did we get for the projects? u won't believe what he said, we got a B+ for our "brilliant and well done project"..... who is he kidding??

i feel so cheated by the grade. i mean i did everything in my power for this module. and i know i deserve better. i feel cheated and very disappointed. i almost think i'm jinxed.. my hardwork is worth nothing...

i want work to do!!

ok i think i am one of the few people who is actually contemplating asking the boss for work....

weird you think? i don't. see my boss is a buay man at times and a "busy" man at times. i have only been working for 3 days now. and i can safely say that i have only worked for 9 hours in total (out of the 27 hours spent in office). the only reason i am so damm free is becaue my boss is talking to the big boss (everyday they chit chat for at least 1 hours), having his lunch (when i come from lunch, he's leaving. then comes back 2 hours before end of office) or simply being too busy with his work (at least thats what i can make out from outside his cabin).

with the huge lack of work it gets very very hard to keep my eyes open. my sleepy state is inversely proportional to the amount of work i have to do. thank god for the internet!!! one day i was actually keeping my eyes open with my fingers... my father saw me and started laughing. initially i was hesitant to play games or chat, but the next day itself i got so bloodly bored and was on the verge of falling asleep. so i gave up on being good and started playing online games and chatting. i cannot describe the satisfaction i got from that. haha...

so anyways today seems to be the limit of my boss. its 10.25am (office is running from 8am) and he is not in the office!! i'm praying that he comes because i cannot survice a whole day without work... i mean i've checked my mails, read the online magazine (indiafm.com) and even written this post. i can see myself soon heading towards yahoo games.

to preserve any amount of sanity i have remaining, i need work... so will my boss please turn up?

from one point to another....

wow time really really flies... i can't believe i completed a whole summer course. i mean i am officially done with QM!! it feels like such an accomplishment i have to say. and it was indeed a challenge, squeezing 2 projects (tt made no sense) and 3 tests (which seemed so so simple and innocent, when they were not) into a 1 mth period. so ya having survied all of that feel great!!!! now i can just hope that the grade is decent too..

so now that summer term is done for me, its time to enjoy the hols...or issit???? unfortunately it issn't.. i am starting work tomorrow morning. so yup so much for enjoying after summer term. but truth be told i am not upset about not being able to enjoy the hols. i am looking forward to work. but then again it might just be my thinking now (before i actually start work).. haha actually frankly this job is going to be more than just a job. see i'm going to be working in my father's office. woking alongside him. i think its going to be an experience that could make us closer or make us stop talking at home. (i am crossing my fingers that it'll be ther former). see my father and i have always been at the opposite of the coin on many and any matter. for as long as i can remember, we have been arguing and arguging. but that does not mean we're not close. i love my papa very very much. its just that we both are very stubbon and very opinionated. its actually very good. made me a very vocal person and a good debator (my mother will prefer a fighter). so my dad and i bond while fighting over politics, exercising, my sleeping time, his reluctance to take vitamins and everything else under the sun.
so having the opportunity to work in the same officie with him will be interesting. and of course it would also mean no spending on lunch. cause if there is one way my dad spoils me is by refusing me to be monetarilly (is there such a word?) independent. i'll always be his baby girl when it comes to money matters. but hey i'm not complaining.. hehe

3 full public holidays spent in SMU....

Labour Day, election polling day and Vesak day- 3 public holidays and 3 days I spent in university with 2 other friends. And i mean the whole day, 10- 12hours each time. Each day i was working on something concerned with the summer module i am doing. One day i was studying for an upcoming test. The other two days I was working on projects. I have to tell you it is very depressing spending the whole day in university on a public holiday. Other than the 3 of us, no one else, the shops all closed, people walking around (going for movies, having fun)...

After going through all the 3 days, I've been thinking what good are public holidays? i mean some people are still working (hawkers, cleaners, shop owners, corporate workers), universities are still open (students like us go back), the bus and taxi drivers are still working i mean is it really a public holiday? When do these people get their holidays? i mean they also deserve to enjoy the holidays especially Labour day!!

But the sad fact is that this is just an unrealistic dream. The city cannot function without these people. Imagine having no public transport or restaurants open on public holidays? Won’t that be very sad? It certainly will. However it is also true that they deserve a day off when the rest of us are enjoying a day off too.

So what can we do to appreciate them? I really have no idea if something is being done as of now. But I think they should be paid a special bonus for working on public holidays or given gifts. Moreover even we as enjoy their service, we can say thank you and be nice to them. I’m sure this small gesture will make a difference.

Anyways till then i am looking forward to enjoying the next public holiday anywhere but working in university.

My Mummy

Since the coming Sunday is mother's day, I want to write a tribute to my mother.

My mother is a wonderful human being and great women. She is the rock in my life who has stood by me since day 1. She inspires me to be like her, to be as strong as her. Since my father is in the merchant navy and used to sail for 6 months at stretch, my mother brought my sister and me effectively alone. The 3 of us used to be by ourselves in a new country with no friends or family. My mother had the strength and confidence to handle this and any other situation.

She instilled very strong values in both of us. She also made us confident and self-dependent. She made sure we had the best education as well as enough play. I can still remember playing at the playground below our block for 1 hour after school daily. She would bring her tea down and watch us play.

My mother is a strict mother. She used to punish when needed but always loved us unconditionally after that. She made sure we were well behaved and mannered. No foul language, proper table manners, properly and smartly dressed. She never spoilt us. If we asked for something she made sure we understood our responsibility for the thing. I used to have a huge Barbie collection and kept each and every doll and all the nick-knacks in proper boxes. I knew my dolls were my responsibility. She used to encourage my sister and me for everything we wanted to do.

In fact she is the one who got me hooked on dancing. he used to dance with me when we used to sail with my father. I practically grew up dancing with her. She is a great dancer and my true dance guru. I first performed publically at 8years of age in the Victoria Concert hall in Singapore. I was very nervous and actually forgot my steps during the performance. I was so terrified that I simply stood frozen on stage. My mother got me going from offstage from where she was watching me. She was cheering me on from the stage side and was in fact crying watching her daughter dancing solo for the first time.

She has touched so many lives, not just mine and my sister's. There is an endless list of people who respect my mother so much. I feel so proud when they say what a great women she is. She is a selfless giver and teacher.

She has always been a proud mother. She has been a friend when I needed her and has always been there whenever I have broken down. She has made many sacrifices to give my sister and me the best upbringing. I have the deepest respect for my mother. My day is never complete until I get my mother's hug.

People say i look like her and for me that is the biggest compliment. No words or gifts can express what I feel for her.

I love you mummy

The VISA ad set in India

I’m sure by now all of us have seen the VISA ad set in India at least once. I like that ad. Its very colourful, the music is melodious, there is Richard Gere, and of course it is set in India. I have to confess I am a sucker for all things Indian, yes even the guys.

Anyways like I was saying i really liked that ad. The simplicity and innocence of the girl is so believable. Of course Richard Gere purchasing 101 birds for the girl is a little far-fetched but still I’ll take it. Now what makes this ad even more special is that i just visited the very place where the ad was shot when i was in India in December holidays. It made it all so much cooler!

The two photos below were taken at the mentioned place, the place of Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan, India. This was the last parting shot in the ad. I feel proud whenever I watch that ad (and I watch it very often while waiting for the MRT). It is just cool to have been to a place that has been acknowledged as mention worthy by the media. Guess it is all human psychology.