The Pizzazzy

One thing I like about Singapore is the MRT. For some of the readers who just uttered what the hell is that? It is the Mass Rapid Transit I mean the trains that is widely used to commute in Singapore besides the popular SMRT buses.

The reason behind my liking MRT is that it makes me independent in a sense. I don’t have to rely on others to get some place on time. Or neither have to endure cutting lanes, honking at angry drivers the way it was back in India. So, MRT is one of the things thats cool about Singapore. I can practically time the total travelling time.

It takes 8 minutes to reach the station. Around 10 minutes to get to Tanah Merah interchange. And another 5 minutes to reach Expo station. From there another 7 minutes walk to office. See, total travelling time is 30 minutes. I don’t have to rush for this. I have been told by my colleagues and friends that 30 minutes is a good travel time, and one can stay anywhere in Singapore the travel to work will always be equal to or more than 30 minutes. Okay before this 30 minutes starts sounding like a mantra lets get back to my love for MRT.

I can’t take the cabs here. There is something about it that makes me motion sick. It could be the driving style, abrupt halts, or may be that it is compulsory to wear the seat belts. I can not put my finger on any thing particular but I avoid it.

The MRT is so smooth and convenient that I can use the time to read a book or even write pieces of my posts. Yes, it does not make me giddy to read or write in a moving MRT. Amazing right.

Today I heard some expats at the station. First guy told the second “Singaporeans are aggressive travellers. During rush hours you need to push to get into the train before the doors are closed”. The second guy agreed and said “Yes, back home we are more aggressive drivers”. I silently added that in India we are both aggressive travellers as well as aggressive drivers.

Although it is true and I am also quite aggressive but I am none of the above two categories. The only driving I do is driving people crazy. And only travelling would be being driven around by others.

Anand always says that I am born in the wrong country and I should have been born in Britain as the Queen herself. Because back home I couldn’t do many things like taking public transports, or navigating him on our holidays by reading the map in a moving vehicle.

He was never able to understand how a person can feel nauseated or giddy doing these simple things. In fact I even wikied “motion sickness” for him and told him the scientific reasons behind it and how it is perfectly normal to be suffering from it.

In our recent trip to Phuket the Thai lady at the travel desk of our hotel was very funny. She knew relatively better English but when we were discussing ferry to a near by island I told her that I have motion sickness and she gave me this funny look and said probably you should rest in your room. And I realized that she was stuck on the word motion and thought I was suffering from diarrhoea, dysentery or something l’that. After that I explained her what is motion sickness all the while trying to keep a straight face.

Point is for anyone who thinks motion sickness can be treated by being strong mentally and blah blah is absurd. It can only be treated by habit of motion and compulsive travelling in good quality transports which are smooth and efficient and convenient. If we have something close to MRT in our very own Pune, I would be delighted to travel in them proudly and no more complain of feeling giddy. Till that day I am happy and healthy being driven around by others in India. And while in Singapore, let me enjoy the MRT.

This is really an interesting topic, how to divide the bill. My motto has always been lets go Dutch till I met my husband.

Being in marketing he is so used to taking business associates out for food and drinks that he usually ends up picking the cheque even with social dinners. And he likes to spend on food and drink with friends. And truly speaking he has a big heart of Gold. He has always been of the opinion that this is a small investment in personal relationships and I should not give it a second thought. He thinks that some money spent on friends will not create a big hole in our pockets. So I play and pay along now.

About splitting the bill, take a scenario when a group of people are dining together, everyone enjoyed and made merry, now its time for the bill. How do you divide the bill? Generally the etiquette says that if out of the group of people someone has invited then he picks up the check else usually people should go dutch meaning split the bill equally.

I have also had a few chances of taking out my team for lunches for say a critical deadline met or a good job done. But since those few times are pre-decided ones, I do pick up the bill. In my previous job with my office circle of friends, we usually had around once a month lunch out routine. Usually we would all split the bill but for that moment I would pick up the cheque and pay by card. These were the times when I got to use one of the many credit cards that I carry around in my wallet. But we would all go dutch and everyone would turn out their share immediately. Primary reason to do this was it saved me trips to the ATM for cash. In such a big group (around 12 ladies at one point of time) we never faced a single issue of how to divide the bill although in the group there were only a few non-vegetarians. Now why did i say that. Obviously cos its a common fact that in India the non-veg dishes cost more than the veg dishes.

For me the rule of etiquette says that if you are giving a treat to someone say a farewell treat which is thrown in by a set of friends and is not official, pre-decide that one person pays the bill, so that the person is ready with the estimated amount.

There was a bad scene once when the person who had organised the farewell lunch for another colleague had denied to pay the bill at the last moment saying he does not have cash. Everyone assumed that he would be prepared for this not that we had come for a free lunch, we would have paid later. Anyways the problem was sorted out with a credit card. But it really reflected badly on the organiser. Now, we avoid such situations by deciding beforehand.

The second rule is if its a casual team lunch then the senior most in the team can pick the cheque and later on send the split cost which is simply a division of bill amount by no of people. It would be really ridiculous if someone then comes up saying what they ate was worth much less. If at all there are such people in the group which you would know from any previous experience its better to avoid them. It’s really unthinkable to attribute each individual share based on what they ate and what they didn’t or whether they took drinks or not. Such people should on their own decide not to join any team or group dining. Well there are restaurants which offer separate bills for food and beverages. So it is easy to divide the drinks bill and food bills separately.

Now there are another set of people who are always on the watch out of such events where the bill is equally split, they would have their hearts fill by ordering everything extraordinarily costly which they may not have done otherwise. Steer clear of such people if possible or better still go for a pre-decided menu to avoid any such awkwardness in a larger group.

In a more social setup it would be appropriate for a couple or individual to offer to pay the larger proportion of the bill if evidently they have ordered for some costlier dish. If the difference is not very huge, it is again appropriate on the part of the other individual or couple to deny the offer and go for a fair division.

And more over you can’t hold on to a few rupees or dollars spent on such social events. And believe me finally these things even out in the long run so do not fret over such trivial issues unless you are sure that this has become a habit for some people you are hanging out with.  Afterall it’s completely upto us to chose our friends and dinner companions. 

What a historic day? This day puts India in the world cricket history as the very first Champion of World TwentyTwenty Cricket. Amazing game and good cricket. We won against our archrival Pakistan.

Thanks to TwentyTwenty for rekindling my love for Cricket once again. But it is still limited to matches in which India is playing. And mostly for India Vs Pakistan.

Today’s match was worth a life time of cricket. The whole match was a roller coaster ride. Pakistan bowlers managed to restrict the Indian score to a 157 runs. Although it was a good score for twentytwenty format, anything can happen when India is playing against Pakistan. The match was very unpredictable.

Indian team had the game quite in control with an asking rate of 10.5 and going run rate at 6.5. And towards the end the pressure started building up within the Indian camp when the Pakistani Batsmen started hitting fours and sixes. But some quick wickets taken perfectly by Indian bowlers had the pressure mounting on Pakistan camp as well. And just when Pakistan thought they got the world cup we got our winning catch.

We lived through the pressure of seeing the game proceed towards losing it, and for the whole of the last 3 overs the pressure was too much to take. Heart beats racing and nail biting moments and then we started getting Pakistani wickets while Pakistani team started getting sixes and fours. The final catch.. oh what a moment it was!!! We practically thought Misbah had hit a winning six and realised that it was instead the winning catch by Shreeshanth.

We missed being in India on this day. Everywhere in India there would be fireworks and celebrations. On the screen the excitement of the win could be seen on the faces of the Indian team who kept screaming and hugging and falling… Amazing game. Immediately the phones started ringing and friends and families started calling. Its really is a great win. And everyone is individually a winner today.

Although it is difficult to forgive the disaster that happened in World Cup earlier this year. But every Indian is proud of our Cricket Team today. We did it.

PS: I just couldn’t resist writing a post on this historic event.

A truly proud Indian.