Mesmerising Malacca

---

Malacca is about 3 hours bus ride from Singapore. Our guide was a tall, Chinese guy who sang for us, told us stories and the best is every time we collected to board the bus, he was busy head counting as if we were little children. It is rare to see such warmth and dedication in Singapore at least.

We started off early with a good breakfast of dosa and pudina (mint) chutney and then stopped for lunch. Well, the glasses for lunch were dirty with water marks. We asked the waiter to wash again and he returned with the same marks. Following lunch, we heading for a biscuit factory and then sight- seeing. It was hot day. The town square had fountains and even a stationary Dutch windmill. A church stood elegantly in the square. We walked on the Jonker street, which is poor man’s street with all sorts of things from paintings, wooden carvings, hippie stuff etc being sold.

The shopping malls were such a joy to shop and I grabbed a few formal tops for office. The dresses were really nice but it was too short for me as it is made for Chinese population who are not very tall. During the return journey, we stopped at another restaurant. The guide kindly arranged some tasty veg food including crunchy beans, tofu delicacies and some mixed vegetables. The Chinese people at our round table wanted to know why Jains don’t eat root vegetables. They explained certain dishes to us and even tasted some of the food to confirm if it is vegetarian or not. The other day I was watching the movie ‘Dragon seed’ based on the novel by Pearl Buck and could not help reflecting that the Chinese people have been ravaged by war, poverty and disease and yet survived. Indeed, they deserve a life full of stability and fulfilment of their basic wants so that they can learn to trust again. It is like asking a girl to grow her hair because she can afford to spend some time on herself rather than working in the fields all day long. It was nice to back and learning about the region where I live.

Singapore is getting hot. Last evening, it was a refreshing 20 km cycling by the beach. Yoga helps you build amazing flexibility. It is intriguing to know that I have bones and muscles at certain parts of the body which till today I had never felt! I am reading a book called Bourne Dominion and it is difficult to attend to my daily work when I am reading this thriller. My fishes are simply amazing and it is lovely to see the shadows on the wall in the evenings as the fishes go up and down, here and there - a bit like me J

---