Singapore Night Festival 2016

This was such a dramatic show! Quite enjoyed it!

Speechless

A big crowd congregates opposite the Asia Square building. I wonder if there's been a fire breakout or an accident of some sort. When I realize what's going on, I have my palm on my face.

A wise man once said, "If you feel stupid, remind yourself that there are people out there looking for Pokemon." 

Wild forest fires & the wind that brings haze

It's the time of the year when wild forest fires break out (not without human intervention of the most stupid & unscrupulous kind), in Indonesia, and the nonchalant south-western winds carry the resultant fumes all the way to Singapore & Malaysia. Happens over & over again. The elites in this country buy air purifiers and make Facebook posts calling for boycott of palm oil; but nothing really changes. Some clever marketeers distribute free haze kits, images on one's news feed of orangutans burnt alive makes one sick in the stomach, kids begin wheezing, the poor continue labouring through the terrible air conditions, and a state of emergency gets declared in an already impoverished Sumatra. There's only one conclusion to be made here: the world is perverse in all sorts of ways.

Love this pic of the Indian Olympians

These women look fierce, determined and focussed; and it's such a different kind of attractiveness! So much grittier, prettier (and at the same time, more primal) than women posing with duck-lipped pouts. Delightfully earthy. Love it.

Jo Schooling & Singapore's Olympic Gold

What an incredibly inspiring story... A young boy of 13 meets his hero Michael Phelps, then 8 years later finds himself competing against that same hero and wins in the most crucial swim of his life, on the world stage, in the most intimidating sporting event in the world and creates a new record! 

We've read a lot about it in the Singapore newspapers. The government bestowed a million dollar prize on Schooling. And a smart reporter did some number crunching and estimated that Schooling's  parents probably spent about 1.2 million dollars on his training already - all self sponsored at an American university under the best coaches in the world. While Schooling deserves every bit of awe that he has generated, isn't it sad how elitist sports have become? What chances does a poor boy from any of the poor Asian countries stand in the world of sports if those are the financials involved?

Alternate ending with a twist

Remember little K's Star Wars phase which we thought was never going to end? I think it might just have ended. But before I could jump with joy and thrust my fist into the sky.... a new phase has started. He's obsessed with Harry Potter now. He has devoured the first 4 books (followed by the movie), and can only talk about Harry Potter characters and their back stories. As a parent, the good news here is that there's way less branded merchandise for Harry Potter than there was for Star Wars. 

So here's something that came up during dinner a few weeks back: if Voldermort had 'summoned' some nuclear bombs maybe he could've killed Harry in the first book itself?