A Travelogue

The previous day the clouds were lingering all around the city of Singapore threatening to play spoilsport quite similar to portraying my mindset about the next day. As usual, I was not much keyed up to going to Sentosa the next day.

I knew I was a little slapdash with things I own. I was not keen on taking VJ’s camera for the next day. I am a little meticulous on taking other’s gadgets for that would make me more conscious, cautious rather than being myself i.e. happy-go-lucky, carefree.
I knew the next day would be full of fun for my mates as garrulous as what I am.

My partners for the fun-filled day – 1. A senior most person who I was looking up to during my days in ACES – Mr. Bonny Rodriguez – a gentleman, as cool as a boss can be (though you can never see him bossing around for he is the most warm, light hearted and respected by one and all who knew him)

2. A lucky lad to have worked under the gentleman – Prakas – Man you will realize the meaning later on…he certainly is a man of guts!!!! Is not he the most garrulous guy I have met??? I have to list and weigh up all my options before I can rank him. He is a pal to be with. He will make the laughter muscle expand to the fullest (if there is one).

3. Mrs. Vidhya Prakas - A bubbly, caring junior from my school and mother of a cute little 1.5 year old babe – Dhwani. I can call her my sister.


The day started with a “Sreeman Narayana” alarm ring tone waking me up from the dreams. Immediately, I look at my unfolded right hand and chant mantras to delight the god and request him to grant me an excellent day ahead. I think he did grant me that wish. After all the cleaning up activities I set off for my first outing in Singapore after just over six months stay in Singapore. I thought of waking up VJ, but I had to refrain as I felt poor guy deserved some sleep for the frenzied and horrible week he had had. The break would do him a world of good.

I felt I missed my Olympus SLR way too much that day (but the thought it remained in better hands threw rest to my brains and I didn’t bother to think about it after that). I had my Polaroid with me. The thought that I can click more photos with the sunglasses on began to die down in me. My brother bought these sunglasses for me. I was a bit emotionally attached to it for that reason. I did a fast early morning jog to catch the bus to the Metro station. I hated doing anything fast in the morning (except for cricket where I would run all the day be it while batting or bowling). Thank god I was not sweating like a pig when I got into the bus. The driver ably took the bus to the MRT in just over two minutes.

I met all the three and half people in the train. My Girlfriend (the cute little babe) was looking as cute as she was always does.

The babe did not recognize me for sometime as one she knew. The little brain would have named me an ‘ALIEN’. By the time we reached the destination to catch another train, I was no alien to her, she recognized me. After reaching the final destination – Harbor Front, I did chance my image with the goggles on. To my surprise I was presentable as a bachelor. Kudos to the Polaroid.

We booked for all the shows on display in the little Island of Sentosa. Bonny purchased the tickets using his credit card which none of us except Bonny were happy with. But that’s how he is and that’s how wonderful the man is. We took the cable car which although was not touching the clouds but was fit to throw some Acrophobia in me.

The sky was as clear as the middle of the ocean without any waves. The sun shone at its elegant best which is what we had wished. Had it been a rainy day the cable cars would have been abandoned in favor of the mono-train. Even though the mono-train was as unique a train could be it garnered no attention when the cable car was its extensive best roping in people to Mount X the name which I did not care to read or remember. The clear day made it more plausible for us to view the city of Singapore from around a height of 500 meters from the ground. Even though, I was acrophobic, it did not deter me from enjoying the bird’s eye view of the city Singapore with Skyscrapers on one side, sea and on the other side the reflection of the sun light glittering on the sea and a few cruiser ships heavily anchored and banked on the shores made it scenery worth remembering. No camera can purchase the beauty displayed by the city. It was picture perfect to me that no cameras can captivate because the camera can only cover only side as the capacity of its grasp is much lower than the eyes.

The venerable gentleman clad in a jean and collared T-shirt, the smart and kind couple adorning the attire that suited the trekking, and the man with the Polaroid sunglasses (yours truly) had some breakfast – home made dosas with some onion chutney…yummy…had stomach full. Meanwhile, the Barbie made friends with elderly couple.

The man with Polaroid (yours truly) by then had acquired an Englishman hat. Though the price was not exorbitant, it did make me look good. At least I believed so!!

The places to visit and which can be deferred were all well-thought out by Vidhya as she had visited the place more often than anyone in the group of four.


We entered the world of butterflies, beetles and all types of insects and reptiles. The colours worn by the butterflies were really unique with each one having its own pattern. The beautiful colour combination enlivened the faith in me that god can create creatures more beautiful than the human beings. Unfortunately human beings can boast of six senses but cannot definitely stand looking good with six colours on their body. Indeed, god created these beautiful beings for us to dwindle down from being called as the superior race and to make us aware of our limitations.

Then the photo session began with captivating the multiple colours of the butterfly on to a small lens which only can capture when clicked on and not like the eyes that can capture an image instantly though cannot display it as good as the camera does. The images my eyes captured still rest in my brains which have been rusted through out my stay in Singapore.


The next place to visit was the 4-D animation movie theatre. Fifteen minutes to go before the movie started, yet another photo session, that’s when I last saw the Polaroid both on the camera and also in reality. The venerable gentleman, vidhya and I entered the cine hall. Prakas was parenting the Barbie as she was asleep and as such kids were not allowed inside. I thought that the goggles were inseparable from me. The thrill of watching the 4-D movie made me to forget the world around me. With the movie coming to and end, I did not realize my stint with the Polaroid also over. I had lost it somewhere in the Cinema hall. I could not take it. I ran a frenzied search for the Polaroid. Then, realized no two things can be bonded for long time. I had the mental aberration just for the initial 5 minutes from the time I realized I had lost it but then life had to move on and I did not want to play a spoilsport to the fun scheme of things. I wished I could see the images of the world through the Polaroid once more but then the damage was done. No glasses to cool down my eyes from the heat waves belted down to the ground by the biggest star in the universe.

I hate to say it – should I not admit I would definitely be a hypocrite, hence I admit I fear snakes and I am good at a distance of say a kilometer from where these reptiles are. I know people can go gaga over their courage, I would admit I was not courageous enough to capture them even on the camera - Prakas the man had two pythons (only snake species I knew to be huge) probably of 6 meters shouldered on him. I was scared to irritation and was very amused with the courage shown by the father of the Barbie. Meanwhile, Barbie was like the Alice in Alice in Wonderland. She was in her own world in the pram. Nothing can wake her up from the sleep.


We entered the underwater world, found varieties of fishes from 5 pounds to 1000 pounds habituated to the water. Some lazy bums resting on the glasses to the fiercest sharks with teeth I think that can crush any bone to crumbs. Camera was useless I thought, indeed they were, and they could not capture the beauty rendered by the species of fishes habituating the blue tinted water in one photo. God reigns supreme in the art of creation.


After witnessing the pleasing sights I had had in my life ever, the masculine gender went for racing on the luge bicycles while the feminine was feeding farex to the Barbie. The way we rode the luge were captured by the camera ready to snapshot the driver halfway through the drive but not my sulking of losing the Polaroid. I thought the cap made me look good with the sunglasses on. If people did not feel it, I felt it that way.

Time for Lunch – Our stomachs had started the music and we had to energize ourselves to keep us moving. We gobbled up a half-foot long sandwich each matching our taste.

We are yet to witness dolphin show. That was on the cards post lunch. The free shuttle service took us to the lagoon where a huge board dangling at the entrance says “dolphins meet humans”. Who ever thought only superior humans can mock other human beings, animals - take this, Dolphins imitated the sharks. Would you believe it? It is something I would cheer and even OZ and Symonds would like this. What took me by amusement was that the dolphins can understand human commands like a single whistle meant something and a double whistle meant something else and so on and so forth.
The energy that the Dolphin requires to come from the water to the balloon dangled 4 meters above water made me think it was superhuman for energy. Several bikini babes shot at least a photo with the dolphins. One such bikini clad lass was named “Bo Derek” by one of masculine genders amongst us. Take a guess.

There was a hoarding – “MOVE’N’PICK”. Wow!! I thought. It was prime-time for some Ice creams. I was terribly bored by the usual Banana Split I had in Chennai or Delhi. So I thought I would order 2 scoops of Maple Walnut and Stracciltella. Ice cream did not cool me and I was still remembering the loss of Polaroid. The combination I chose was the worst while others were licking their interest. I vowed not to have a straccitella anytime in my life.

The next item on the itinerary was the Merlion – a huge Lion faced, fish bodied structure which symbolizes the name Singapura accorded by the King who found this beautiful city. There was an animated movie to justify the fact that a king named this city after the Lion which looked after the island until the king laid his foot on it. It was a huge statue, but we did not like to spend too much time there.

We still had 2 hours to spend before the start of the show “Songs of the sea”. VJ who was here 2 times did not get a chance to see the show as tickets were sold out. I somehow had the impression that this would be like any other laser beam show. I was not going to be impressed to any degree.

We stood in the queue for just over half-an hour. I was game for another round of Ice –creams but was the only one game for it. Barbie doll impressed all the people in the queue and the employees of Sentosa. She shook hands with just over dozen employees from Sentosa. Then, the queue started to move and we found place for ourselves to watch the show.

The show would start after it becomes dark. Meanwhile there were small hut-like constructions on the banks of the sea. They were watered continuously by some water sprayers which were not visible to the naked eye.

It was time to witness the spectacle which I never thought would be like what it was. A laser beam show and there was no screen for the lights to get reflected and design themselves into an image. Instead, it was water springing up from the bottom of the hut sized constructions when required to match the beam hitting the water to display an image.

Half a dozen artistes explored the vacant land between the seating area and the hut-like construction. To conquer the attention of people from different countries assembled there, the artistes sang songs in different languages. Honestly, I could not make out until Vidhya told me that a Tamil song is being sung. That was fine. It was adding to the excitement. Boom, then came the first image of “Princess AMY” and I was spellbound to see the laser beams reflecting an image on the sprayed water screen. It took my attention and I was not going to miss a single second of the show from now on. Different comic characters including g the OSCAR were displayed on the show. A beautiful story line – Charmed by Lee’s sweet voice the image of “Princess AMY” appears and disappears in a split-second. Lee falls in love with her only to be told by OSCAR that only his song can wake up the Princess from the penance like sleep. He sings for the second time and that empowers the fire god. There is display of a fire like water colored by the laser beam exploding from the ground just ahead of us. It really looked like the fire but it was not to be. Then, came the turn of the sea god who gets herself empowered by the charm of Lee’s song. There is a brilliant display of lights. I was speechless and spellbound by then. At last the Princess wakes up to song of Lee. Accompanied by breathtaking music, it was an enchanting experience in itself. You have to live it to believe it.

It was time and legs started aching but it was a wonderful day not to forget but for the Polaroid. I feel like my eyes are naked to the 72% UV coming to the earth’s surface and 72 % Infrared rays emitted by the earths’ surface.

Inspiration behind the blog – if a motorcycle can be a hero for a film, why can’t Sunglasses be a hero for my blog.