The Pizzazzy

It was my last weekend and I had lots of shopping to do. I have been having a difficult time in deciding what to get for everyone back home. I thought may be looking around in malls I can get some nice ideas, so we set out to Plaza Singapura.

Since mum is having a good time looking at the vegetable section of spacious malls I gave her a round of Carrefour. In India the newly coming up departmental stores like pulse, reliance retail are actually quite cramped compared to huge players here.

Once inside the mall, a typical rotten smell hit us. Excuse my use of adjective for the king of fruits Durian. And I told mum this is the fruit which is banned in the MRT and buses here. Durian with it’s typical smell is a fruit that you either love or hate. A week back when my team gave me a farewell party I was forced to try this fruit. Even before registering the taste the smell was so awful that my brain outrightly rejected the taste. I simply cannot understand how anyone can stand this fruit. I asked mum if she wanted to try it. And she made such a face which read how could you even dare to suggest it.

After we crossed the durian section, I got a look at another fruit which I had lost all hopes of ever trying before I left Singapore. Mangosteen, the queen of fruits were nicely lying in heaps. My happiness was sky high at that moment and I started picking up some in a bag. My mum couldn’t comprehend what all the excitement was about so I explained her how I have read about mangosteen and wanted to try them. But because they were out of season I was very disappointed. Durian is also out of season but the good people at Carrefour could still stock both the king and the queen of fruits.

After reaching home when I cracked open the mangosteen to reveal the white mushy fruit, mum was equally excited and said “ohh this is cow” and she was transported back to her childhood. Well, cow is what it is called in Manipuri and both of us finished the great tasting fruit. The fruit is aptly called Queen of fruits although why Durian the smelly one is called the king I don’t understand.

The mangosteen is a truly tropical fruit, once opened has a white fruit inside which is plum like in texture and sweet with a faint hint of acidity. This fruit is perfect when it comes to the taste with seeds which may or may not be present. You can read all about mangosteen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangosteen.

Now when I want to compile a list of my favourite fruits definitely mangosteen steals the second place right below Mangoes and on top of yet another personal favorite, custard apple. And if you are anywhere in world where you can grab a mangosteen, I would personally recommend you to taste this exquisite fruit. And that’s not all, this sweetheart of a fruit comes with a lot of health benefits also.

especially in Singapore. The increasingly materialistic country is known for it’s C’s. Cash, Car, Cards, Condominium and Contracts. I only missed experiencing the second C. And I was in or with all the fours every single day of my stay in Singapore.

The Contracts can become very annoying as you start making yourself feel at home in Singapore. Rent a house, get a cable connection, get internet or simply get a mobile connection. So, here I was in Singapore with a prepaid card bought at the airport as soon as I landed. Ofcourse one should be reachable in today’s networking world.

After I joined my client’s office I foolishly got a colleague’s contract transferred on my name. Why foolish, cos I really didn’t need one at that point of time and it turned out to be a two years contract. Now, I have to pay for it’s early termination.

Then after a good house hunt I entered another contract of 12 months for the condo. Then followed internet, cable and one more mobile contract when Anand joined me here. Very convenient if one plans to stay longer here, but our plans changed and now that we are returning to India, what followed was a nagging concern to get rid of the contracts or pay an early termination fees.

I promptly drafted a notice and fired three copies and strategically placed them on office notice board in the break out area where it could grab some attention. I didn’t want to act like my office colleague and force it on people, so I had already debited my bank account with 750 SGD in case I did not find anyone in need. That was the total amount I needed to shell out in case of an early termination for all the four contracts excluding our condo.

The condo was taken care of as it was well beyond the 6 months binding period and I could get away with one month notice without having to part with my deposit.

The ads on the notice board was an idea of another colleague who found them to be quite effective. But no response from that end. Luckily for me another colleague who planned to stay back a few months longer was looking for short term contracts and someone happened to mention me. And it was as simple as that, I got all my three contracts transferred to his name and that too for a future date. How convenient can it get Thank God. Truly it is very convenient when you transfer the ownership. I went to the counter and didn’t know what to say so I said ”ahh.. I need to transfer my mobile connection to my friend here”. The lady smiled and said “Are both the parties present?”. This reminded me straight away of Company Law, Contract, Consent, Parties

By the way another friend enquired about the internet connection just yesterday. I told him he was late but anyways I still have one mobile connection if he was interested :-).  One cannot get away being greedy so now I guess it’s a good sum of 250 SGD out of my pocket. I am still keeping my hopes up and I have some time.
 
But on the positive side I am a happy girl now and let me tell you about the 500 bucks that I have saved. I’m planning to get an Apple iTouch for that sum. Howzzat. No, this post will not continue into features of iTouch. I will let it be till I own it.

We have been having quite a good time here. Mum and Dad arrived in Singapore on Sunday. There flight was delayed due to bad weather and it landed an hour late. We were excited about their visit and went to the airport ahead of the scheduled arrival time, impatiently waiting for them at the airport. Mum who is travelling international for the first time was also in good physical condition to our surprise. Like me she suffers from motion sickness and we were worried about her. And I was also thinking that she may not get to enjoy the inflight service of Singapore Airlines which I love so much. And after much waiting we see Mum and Dad nicely walking towards the belt and we were happy to see Mum perfectly fine.

To avoid her sickness and mine we took the MRT back home. And both were liking Singapore as they got to see it from the MRT and around MRT. Infact they felt more at home than in Pune because everywhere they turned they could see similar faced people. Back home in Pune we do stand out from the crowd because of our Manipuri looks.

Here when we travelled and were sitting across them in the train they realized how perfectly we merged with the crowd. They also liked our condo, especially the master bedroom which has a raised up wooden flooring creating two beautiful layers of waves.

And the nest part that they liked about Singapore is that we get everything Manipuri here, varities of herbs, greens, vegetables and fruits. I could recognize most of the things in the vegetables and fruits section in the super markets here, but I wasn’t sure of their usage or names. A faint smell of some leaves, or look of a vegetable would bring back memories of Manipur and Manipuri food. Mouth watering yeah. So, I was looking forward to mum exploring them and giving them names and turning out interesting authentic Meitei recipes.

And you know what mom found in the super market ahhhmmm it might not mean anything to many of you but for the Manipuri readers let me put it down Pulai, Loklai, Tengnav, Yongchak, Yenam, Dasakusa, Phakpai, Laphutharo, laphu, haijom, nobab and many more. Right I can’t even remember all the names. But believe me, right now this mouth watering smell of food coming out of the kitchen is forcing me to say adios. More on the sight seeing part later. Food calling and it would be a crime to keep it waiting. Chao!