Singapore Diary - 2nd weekend

The reason for the unexpected hiatus was a brief illness followed by the first week of paid-work of my life. The latter experience was substantially better than the former. It seems I had overestimated the virtues of tap water supply in a developed country. That, and the long walks under the sun that I am not used to, proved a potent combo. Which also put a stop to my experimentation with food and have been on a strictly Indian diet for a week. I had to come back to the oil and spices anyway.

Coming to the work week, it passed off in a daze. Though the work is fine and the people are very nice, I am not sure I'll get used to the pointlessness of it all. The money is not worth the feeling that I am wasting my talents (or whatever I think I have). But, as I said to a friend in a letter ripe with frustration, it's not that I am not happy. Learning about credit derivatives is more fun that I would have credited it with, and the idea that if I use my internship properly it will give me skills that can earn me loads more of money is not all that bad. Really.

So after a week of early-to-bed-early-to-rise, we went to the famed night safari of Singapore right after office Friday evening. It was the longest we have travelled at one go after coming here. And the place is fantastic. It began with a Creatures of the Night show, followed by a 3-km tram ride through the park, and a short interlude of a walk. Everything's very well-managed, which is more a routine than exception for this city, and sort of goes without saying now. But if you are pained by the apathy and ineptitude of the authorities in India'a zoos, the enclosures and living conditions of the animals here would delight you fairly. A caged animal is a caged animal, but a clean, well-supplied cage is infinitely better than a dirty, uncared-for one. Eagerly looking forward to the zoo trip that'll come on one of the future weekends.