Con

They can get you too.

I was walking back from lunch for the problem-solving test that was part of my McKinsey interview. I was feeling pretty good about how the earlier interview went, and was deep in thought about a work situation that we were trying to resolve. As I was striding purposefully towards Centennial Tower, a sardar sidles up to me from nowhere.

He reckons I seem to be deep in thought. Assures me that everything I wish for will happen, and that great news awaits me on Sep 10. Convinces me that I have never wished evil for anybody else and have never wished for money, so only good things can happen to me. Predicts that a person whose name has an S will make great things happen for me. Insists that my future consists of me running a business. Scribbles something on a scrap of paper and thrusts it into my hand. Asks me to pick a number between 3 and 7 and the name of a flower. As statistical probability would have it, I pick 5 and Rose (as Navneet says, I should have picked champa or chameli instead). Lo and behold, I unwrap the scrap and 5 and rose, it is. He points that out as the strongest sign that only good news awaits me.

I panic. I also sense myself consciously sinking into a con, but don't see a way out. The special circumstances of being on my way to an interview make me even more nervous.

He asks for money. I don't want a curse. I give him $10 and dash.

Vikram and Eruku confirm later that this is the well-known conman of Lau Pa Sat (now of Centennial Tower, I suppose).

I am not sure what will come out of the McKinsey interaction, but it sure has cost me $10.

Lottery

They say you need impossible luck to win the lottery.

I would say I have won three near-lotteries in my life.
- My birth, to parents who, given the context, would turn out to be marginally more open-minded than could have been expected, with a desire to give me as good a start as they could visualise.
- The opportunity to move to Singapore at a crucial stage in my adolescent life. That experience has played a considerable role in shaping my character, and in bringing about my current quality of life.
- Julie.

All that adds up to a nice state of bliss. Touchwood.

Sobriety

Even as my brother described his latest drinking episode to me, I realized that I have never really been drunk in my life.

And, trends indicate that is probably not going to change anytime soon.

Tether

Alain de Botton says that boys carry psychological baggage from their fathers and girls from their mothers.

Sometimes, I wonder why I have a nagging sense of insecurity about my career - why I don't see myself taking a six-month self-discovery break from work and at the end of it, backing myself to find any job that I want with not too much difficulty, when the record suggests that I would probably have a better than even chance of managing that.

Does it have to do with my father? And how his career blew up midway? Especially after the family had bet everything on it, in spite of largely unpromising signs? Perhaps.

Drive

I really do not enjoy golf.

I have to reluctantly drag myself to my weekly lessons.

Yet, I guess what keeps me going is the realisation that it is actually an incredibly difficult activity (I refuse to call it a sport). Hence, the nagging desire to get better at it. My specialty?

Gripe

Talking about riding, I am beginning to develop a gripe about a certain type of free-rider.

At the risk of stereotyping and generalising, I have this much to say about first world expatriates in Singapore.

In today's environment, where the West's entitlement culture built on untenable borrowing from the future is facing strong headwinds, I am starting to take issue with the growing number of Western expatriates in Singapore, who seem to be closeting themselves in a new kind of comfort bubble.

I am not sure that the average quality of life and renumeration they enjoy in Singapore is anywhere proportionate to the average contribution they make to their employers or to society. Singapore is not a faraway swampy badland, but a most modern and convenient first world city state, so nothing warrants the hardship benefits they enjoy. Most of these expatriates would kill to have the kind of life they enjoy here.

And that is what is killing me. Sour grapes?

Cycle

Nearly twenty years ago, I taught my little brother how to ride a bicycle.

For my thirtieth birthday, he gave me a bicycle. This weekend, I took it out for my first decent ride in a long, long time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Riding through the roads of Singapore as part of a cycling club in the pre-dawn hours of a Saturday is the latest new thing I have enjoyed doing.

Industry

I worked hard today. It has been some time since I have felt that.

Granted, quite a bit of it was emailing and setting up customer meetings and conference plans, while sitting at my computer. Well, that is the nature of my work.

Curiously, for once, the momentum built itself up. I had to force myself to take that short afternoon nap, given the tonsillitis medication.

Rare are such days, but they bring a good feeling.

Humble

Today, I discovered yet again, the humbling power of a stumble.

As I stepped off an unstable boat onto a makeshift pier stairway, I lost my balance on the slippery clay and fell flat on my back. Fortunately, I was not hurt, and did not get into any serious trouble.

But, it was a close shave. I could have fallen overboard into the mangrove swamp. I could have landed on a rusty nail protruding from the wooden stairs. I could have dropped my bag into the water - passport and mobile phones included.

I was lucky enough to have been able to just stand up, assess the damage (amounting to a brown clay streak across the back of my trousers and a slightly damaged shoe) and walk off slightly dazed. To my credit, I did not lose my composure and completed the field trip in relatively good spirits.

I will be more careful next time. And, I will also remember that sometimes, stuff just happens.

Why?

Again, why am I going to this McKinsey interview?