Almost everyone from all ages was there. There were school students, his students (from NAFA, LaSalle), poets, writers, friends and my kids. Felix had a tough time reaching out to everyone and he wasn't quite helped with what my twosome had to say. Aneesha had to win a prize at the quiz (she's like that) so even before the question was asked her hand would go up and she'd turn around and go "Mamma what's the answer, quick." Dhruv didn't want to be left behind so he'd raise his arm as well and go "I know, I know."
At one point, when the mike was getting disastrously close to my twosome, Dhruv took off: "You know my sister, she never let me......" At which point Aneesha effectively gagged him and said "Shut Up." So much for creating a first impression.
After the launch, which much to the merriment of my kids provided Coca-Cola, we decided to do the Singapore River walk. Turned out to be a bad idea. At 4:30pm the place was hot enough for a sizzler. Took a couple of shots from the other side of the river, where you the old and the new thrive together in perfect harmony. Dhruv was drawn to the bumboats and looked in vain for some crabs. Aneesha, on the other hand, was drawn to Sir Stamford Raffles. We re-read the plaque several times to make sense of the year he arrived in Singapore. There was a lot of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of numbers. I, who have a tough time, going beyond 2 plus 2 without the help of a calculator so wanted to give up. Helping us was Dhruv who gave up without the joy of crab-spotting.
Since Bala is not around and we have no access to the car, we ended up walking around. Well, the walking almost saw my curious dude walk into The Supreme Court. He's constantly amused by the sight of the automatic opening and closing doors. Before he could do too much of it, I spotted the security folks and that was enough to get him to move on. We thought we could do a longer stretch but a KFC waylaid our plans.
Then we ambled into a Bata at Peninsula Plaza after Aneesha complained "have you seen my school shoes?" This one turned out to be a real discovery. It is the biggest Bata store in Singapore and on that day had the most amazing deals. The kids were happy coz there was a play area complete with those balls that Dhruv decided were perfect for jumping, a TV as well and some not so scary dinosaurs. If you want to get there, here are the details: Ground Floor, 111 North Bridge Road, Peninsula Plaza, Singapore 179098. Ph: +65 6339 7000 Email: bata.singapore@bata.com
Apart from the shoes, I also picked up a note-pad for Aneesha and she's been busy writing away, though I'm not supposed to look into her secret diary.
I know Sir Stamford Raffles has an entry in there somewhere as does Felix. There's a lot of love for God, mother, father and family. I know it coz the better part of my Saturday night and Sunday was spent spelling these words and more.
