In Singapore Now

This is probably the last blog post that I will publish from Singapore for quite a long while, I guess.

It is approaching Saturday midnight here in Singapore, and you can rightfully say that I am training myself to keep awake for the next couple of nights to watch the fascinating world of soccer.

Singapore never looked more disciplined. This comment, you would tend to agree, is fair ; given that, I have returned from India after a 5-week continuous stay. I found that India, not surprisingly, is creative in a chaotic way. One needs to be sharp and alert enough to watch what is happening in a continuous changing fashion in India. And, one needs to observe creativity in full action and bloom, amid the chaos that reign Indian roads and environment. One can never escape these things ofcourse. It started raining with a vehemence on the 3rd July in Mumbai - a delayed monsoon, it has been observed by meteorological pundits. This is the first time I was experiencing such a rain - it was non-stop torrential rains which started early morning of the 3rd and continued for the next couple of days. I left for Singapore on 4th late evening.

It was a funny departure in several ways. The office was virtually empty, with the weather department warning people to stay indoors. The couple of people who were in the office barely managed to get some lunch. I was told to leave for the airport atleast a good 6 hours in advance. I continued at the office, simply because I could not get transport ! No car agency was willing to sink their cars in the rains, given the very bad experience that people went through on 26th July last year.

However, I had the strength and support of Indian resourcefulness on my side, and eventually managed to get the Toyota Qualis SUV kind of vehicle, which stands at a good 2.5 feet above the ground - smaller cars, I was told, were inundated by water that day, and had to be towed to mechanic shops.

I left for airport at 5:40 PM, hoping that the water would have receded from the suburbs. Though what I saw on TV coverage was really bad (Indian TV creates panic, I should say), I found that waters have clearly receded at that point of time, and I could reach the Western Express Highway in about 15 minutes. From then onwards, it was just a 30 minutes ride to the international airport of Mumbai. Surprise, surprise ! People could not believe this !! Not only that, my flight was on time as well, and departed on time at 10:55 PM !!!

Well, this shows that chaos is good sometimes, as it is left clearly to the divine forces to determine how the world should revolve around daily matters. Atleast in India.

I landed in Singapore, and it was exactly the same as it was when I left five weeks ago. But this was not a surprise at all. Singapore has continued its march well during the days I was away. The taxi driver was the same stuff, he talked about the difficulties that taxi drivers have faced in the past, and how things could get better with the impending rise in taxi fares. As the taxi flew through the familiar highways to my apartment, I had memories of my life at Singapore flashing by - it has been a wonderful time. It is difficult to find such an orderly place anywhere in this world - may be Germany will be a competitor.

However, I should say that Singaporeans lack one important thing - a matter which will become very important to Singapore over the next 3 years’ time. And, that is, knowledge of India. I don’t think personally that Singapore got ahead much with their China experiences so far - I am referring to business success stories. It is well known that ROI in Indian business investments is far superior to China’s. It is also well known in the Western world that Indian corporates have become nimble competitors. Given that India is racing fast forward on multiple turbo chargers, I would expect an average Singaporean to be educated reasonably well about a country with which Singapore has signed a FTA (Free Trade Agreement). But this is not to be - I tested the following kinds of people over the last few days in Singapore - an executive, a personal banking officer, a taxi driver, a student, an executive secretary, a hotel manager, an owner of a maid employment agency, couple of car salesmen one of whom came in a BMW X3. Mostly they failed in the India test.

It does not matter what intentions the Singapore Government has in regard to the development of economic and trade relations with India. Ultimately if the media in Singapore does not pay attention to India, the average Singaporean will fail to grasp the importance of rising India. The only impact they will see is that India not only has become a world power, but also has taken away lots of jobs away from South East Asia. It is critical not only to know the country and its culture, but also understand the rich educational system and business practices. Often Singaporeans display their ignorance about what is going on - I shopped at Metro this evening, and the edcuated senior sales lady told us that we are going to miss the impeccable education system of Singapore ! She obviously has not heard about the advanced institutes that India has, neither does she know about the impact that Indians have made in world markets, such as the Silicon Valley, or even in her own Singapore.

Well, I hope corrective measures will be taken to improve the knowledge of poeple here, and India also should do its piece in this effort. Singapore remains an important world city, with strengths in many aspects of commercial arena, which belie the smallness of its physical geography.

Have a good weekend, folks !

Vijay Srinivasan
8th July 2006
Camp - Singapore

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