It was compulsory for us to do a 1 year project to complete MTech. So, I had to do something..
After about 6 months from the start, I had finally come up with something which I could code on to say 'hello world'. Prof says well and good!! lets publish a paper on this!! .. that's where it started.
I was surprised that a research paper can be published on my work and amazed that a person like me, who had no particular ambition of getting a publication got such an opportunity. As expected, first 2 attempts were heart breaks and I cursed the guide for raising my hopes. Still he asked for a third one and I did it with no particular enthusiasm by re-arranging the crap, changing the font and coming up with bold conclusions.. hell, it worked!!
Acceptance mail came in august'09 and I immediately started preparations for my first trip abroad. Dear Ashish C educated me on this stuff and Ms (hopefully) Reshma from Girikand Travels who has a lovely voice did all my document processing .. (I hear visa agents are pain in the ass.. but girikand seemed good, you can try it). Coming up with a travel itinerary is actually difficult task and I finally realized why every other paper on service composition (which happens to be my thesis topic) says that it is addressing this problem (no wonder I didn't touch it in my paper). So, after about 4 months, I was good to go on December the 6th.
I know, as always, I am talking irrelevant and things said above have nothing to do with the title, but still I felt like taking some run up first...
On 5th December, I woke up at 4 in the morning. Surprised at myself to have opened eyes so early, I did my morning rituals and double checked the list of contents. My mama came at around 7.15 and my bags earned ISI certification when he double checked the doubled checked bags. Pune-Mumbai Volvo service is 'actually' good and I reached IIT for lunch without any trouble. Nishant's room was reminiscent of good old H12 days when I used to watch episodes after episodes of english serials for God knows how much time. This year's happy placement season at IIT made me jealous and I tried to ignore it by watching 3 more Heroes' episodes. We had a typical Friday dinner in H12 mess after which ashish and nishant accompanied me to the airport.
Mumbai airport is, well, a crowded place. The gates were exactly as I had seen a couple of times before..loaded with families crying and smiling for their child going to US of America. I had no particular trouble in completing the screening procedure at the airport as I was programmed, considering all the possibilities, to execute it correctly by my mama and ashish c (Although, I applied some artificial intelligence and went on to currency conversion at mumbai airport which I was programmed to do at Singapore airport). When I reached Gate 4, I felt like I have come to madurai bus stand (worst travel experience in my life..anyways). I became upset since this crowd had, like, stolen the glamor out of Singapore. But thank God all those people were waiting for a flight to muscat and were soon replaced by crowd similar to what I had imagined would be on a flight to Singapore. The flight was on time and I was on board at 00.10 on 6th December. Let me tell you one thing, 'Hawai Sundari' is completely wrong translation for 'Air Hostess' at least in the context of Air India. The interior of the plane too, did not impress me..may be because we have good infrastructure in software companies today. But it was not bad. Pilot did their routine announcement and plane started to run. For those who love speed, it feels really really good when it attains maximum speed just before the take off. The vibrations reminded me of the day I first drove a borrowed splender on university road in pune with maximum attainable speed and bike was literally shaking!! Take off was smooth and top view of lit mumbai and queen's necklace was an eye candy. Nothing special happened on plane for next 5 hours, although they supplied meal at about 1.30 which was strange. The plane reached singapore airport at scheduled time of 8am Singapore time. Singapore's Changi airport is, I think, at least double the size of Mumbai Airport, it is clean, it has travelators (moving walkways) all across the place, it has toilets everywhere, it has help desks everywhere, it is completely air cooled, it has free internet booths etcetera. In all it is gooood.
I stayed at a friend's place in Singapore. The apartment had an electronically controlled Gate which could be easily jumped across.. huh.. weird. Anyways, Goli's help made my trip a lot lot easier, comfortable and enjoyable. Singapore has 2 must visit tourists destinations - Singapore Zoo and Sentosa Island. I selected Sentosa for day 1. Since I had come alone, it was all lonely planet for me.. neither kesari nor sotc. One big advantage of traveling alone is 'the Freedom'. I traveled by GPS tracked buses (yes, you can find exact time when a bus is coming to your bus stop!!) and AC local trains (still, they is no match for Mumbai Locals!!!!), I stopped whenever I wanted and I clicked wherever I felt that its photogenic. Sentosa is an island which is converted into an amusement park. The first thing I saw on this island was the replica of what they call 'The Merlion'. It is half lion and half fish which Singaporeans believe (i guess) has emerged from sea to save them from some disaster (please read wikipedia article for correct information). Next I came across an Indian looking man who had a large sedated snake with him. When I looked curious, he inquired about me and said to his wife 'apne hi gaon se hai'.. i think he said the same to a shrilankan couple who were there just before me. Anyways, I was willing to spend 5 dollars to take a photo with the snake on me in order get pleasing comments on picasa and orkut. After doing the dare devil act, I arrived at the 4D theater which had a vibrating seat to add 4th dimension to a 3D movie. Sun had started to go down and I didn't want to miss the underwater world hence I immediately hopped onto to the bus to take me there. One thing I would really appreciate about Singaporeans is that they have a huge collection and variety of all kinds of living beings both at sentosa and at Zoo. I saw sharks, starfish, dolphins, octopus (which I also saw in a Japanese guy's plate at lunch at the conference) and many more whom I can't even name at the underwater world. I also got one of my 2 best photos of singapore here. I was completely exhausted at this point (Remember yesterday's 4 in the morning, I was awake from that time since). So, I went to a take a quick nap and sat in front of a swimming pool. When I opened my eyes, the place was completely crowded and seals were performing in the pool. I was glad that I was tired, otherwise I would have missed the show! I heard others were expecting dolphins but for me anything was better than nothing. I had covered almost all the points which I wanted to visit by the time it started getting dark and I took the train back.
Day 2 was the Zoo day. I slept till late due to fatigue and left home around 11.30. Train from eunos to choa chu kang took about 45 minutes and another half hour went to reach the Zoo entrance by bus after that. This was the first time i saw the city of Singapore. Extremely clean roads, greenery all around, tall buildings, busy people with virtually everyone with earphones on and pretty girls :-). I hadn't heard wrong that Singaporeans are hard working people, everyone minding their on business occupied in their own thoughts. Rain had me worried when I was buying tickets but it spared me of the frustration and stopped in few minutes. I powered myself with pizza from pizzaria (which was only available option for me) and went in.. As I said, they have an extremely good variety of animals and I got to see orangutans, giraffes, polar bear, kangaroos, white tiger, one extremely photogenic bird which is show stopper of my orkut album but I can't name and many more. Complete day was 100% enjoyment and I thanked myself for deciding to fly. I also went for the night safari after completing the zoo which had a ride around the jungle where I got to see still more animals. It was good but I had became animal-numb and just went with the ride. When I got down, an announcement was being played saying there is an animal show in 10 minutes and entry is 'first come first serve'. When I reached the amphitheater it was full of ....Indians. Germans and French were just not good enough at running and pushing others. I am also an Indian and hence got a front row seat for myself!! The instructor had mugged up to give instructions in Chinese, Hindi and English. She made a mistake of asking whether anyone wants the instructions in any other language and a huge group shouted 'Gujarati Gujarati' and she had to apologize!! Show was nice with trained animals coming and showing tricks. That was the conclusion of day 2. I was again very tired and crashed into bed immediately.
Next day morning I was lazily brushing my teeth when I recalled that I have come to Singapore for attending the conference. That thought took away the lingering sleep and I rushed to check conference schedule. I arrived at the venue at 9.20am. Registration desk already had my kit ready and registration process took around 5 minutes (something that rarely happens in India). I went to one lecture room (something that I rarely do!!). The speaker who had 9-9.30 slot was concluding. The conference was well organized, well managed and precisely timed. Talks were interesting and knowledge-full (although I hardly grasped anything after introduction part of most of them). At lunch, I ate almost everything that wasn't tagged as non-veg and had worst tea in my life. Nothing much at the conference. I bunked last few sessions and went to do some shopping. China town a good place to shop since you will find many Chinese things which aren't available in India (I am not lying!!) plus many giftables to make fairer sex happy!! I myself bought quite a few of them considering a number of people but unfortunately those things are not allowed to leave the home now.
I bet I would have got Dhirubhai Ambani Scholarship had I written this much in 12th board English paper. So I am going to wrap up quickly now. I was at the conference for most of my 2nd last day. I took few snaps of giant buildings in the evening and quickly came back to prepare for my own presentation. Next day, I went to the conference at the right time for the first time. Prof. Bellur had arrived which boosted my confidence. Frankly, I had given this presentation many times at IIT and it was not nervous. I presented my paper with confidence and I would like to think that it went good. People listened for the complete time, asked questions, met me after the presentation and appreciated it. The mission was accomplished!! I had a friendly talk with few guys and then I said tata. I went to little India which should be renamed as little south India and had familiar idli-wada sambar and tea. I also went to popular 'mustafa centre' which is huge mall spread across 2-3 buildings i guess. But it is at least as costly as India. So, I would suggest don't plan big shopping if you are going to Singapore. Finally, I went to Singapore river and original merlion statue. Luckily I went there at night and scenery was just amazing. They have many bridges across the river which are lit with colorful lights. Sitting besides the river has a calming effect and you will want to sit there for hours. Indeed a must visit place!!
yup, that was the conclusion of the trip. Next day, I packed my bags and reached Changi airport with a Mercedes taxi at 7 o'clock in the morning. Return journey was also peaceful and I came out of Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport smiling and ready to face the traffic jammed mumbai roads ahead...
