Embarrassments of a wannabe banker
I know it’s such a horrible cliché but time just flies. I am already halfway way through my first semester at NUS. I swear i can still remember Form 3 like it was just yesterday, it takes some effort to reconcile with the fact that 4 years have passed since then. I feel so old now, there are some professional footballers who are a full two years younger than me . Just a couple of months ago my mother was waking me up in the morning, taking care of my laundry and preparing my food. Naturally whenever i feel old I tend to ponder about mortality, there was a time not too long back where i was absolutely terrified of dying, both of my beyond death choices looked and still do look rather bleak, hell or eternal oblivion of my consciousness, the eternal oblivion part scared me quite a bit more i would say, but now I am resolved to the fact that it is going to happen and I am not going to know anything about it till I escape life, or to in the words of Pink Floyd " I am not frightened of dying, any time will do, Don’t mind. Why should I be frightened of dying?
There’s no reason for it, you’ve gotta go sometime". My favourite tracks to listen to when pondering over death would have to be Pink Floyds's "The Great Gig in the Sky" and Mayhem's " Funeral Fog", i would love to quote Funeral Fog but i already have enuf people thinking that I am a devil worshipper, so we will just leave that one alone.Well since we are on the topic of mortality, I just wanna say if anyone of you attend my funeral, ( I hope it is not for about another 60 years or so), I fully expect you to make sarcastic snide comments at my grave, I would be extremely offended if none do, sarcastic snide comments has always been and continues to be my main hobby.
Well now that we are done with the rather depressing, or uplifting ( depends on your religious orientation dear, lets move onto another topic, the rather abominable practice of generalizing people. People are generalised with respect to almost anything, sex, religion, age, nationality and of course or particular favourite, race. Before I came to Singapore I was told that several variations of " Singaporeans (especially the Chinese) are the most unfriendliest and unpleasant people in the world". I will be first to admit that my experience is highly limited, i mean 2 months in a particular country with 90% of the time spent in the university hardly make you an expert on its people, but from what i have experienced Singaporeans ( and especially the Chinese) seem to be pretty nice people. Well just a little admission almost all of the Singaporans i know are Chinese, I attend 3 different tutorial groups and out of about 50 singaporeans only one happens to be malay and no indians.
I recently came down with flu and my singaporean tutorial mates sent me bout 10 get well SMSes, and these are people that i have only known about 3-5 weeks. In my eyes that is a pretty good sign of my friendliness, back in K.L only a couple of my closest friends used to send me get well messages if i fell sick. I know all this inconsequential but if i had believed all those generalizations about Singaporeans i would have stuck to myself in tutorials which lets face it would have great loss solely on my part. A human should put in the effort to get to know the other person before passing judgment on his/her character. Malaysian Malays should realize that Malaysian Chinese love Malaysia as much as they. Almost all the Malaysian Chinese I have spoken, and I have spoken to quite a few, seem to be extremely loyal to their country, sometimes even defending the country when I start bitching about it. And gasp some of the Chinese actually sympathized with the Malays, yes they defended the same people who have deprived them of economic and educational opportunities. I just think that it is "slightly" unethical for a government to give preferential treatment to certain populations just because of the color of their skin. I am not writing this to champion one group over another, i got better things to do than better, i just believe that humans are individuals and deserve to be treated as such, laziness is a rather poor reason for a war i would say. This is not to say that Singaporeans are a wonderful people, I have met some that i could kill without feeling no remorse but then i have met such people everywhere, the point i am trying to make ( not doing it very well i ma sure) is that humans are individuals and deservr to be treated as such instead of being lumped into some group.
I read somewhere that Malaysia has warned bloggers that they better be careful or they will feel the full force of the law. I am sure sensitive topics will be off topics, what a bunch of bull, "sensitive topics". Basically anything concerning race, religion or a certain political party ( u know which one) is off limits. God’s sake your former prime minister want to meet ur current one in a boxing ring, when he was in power you were all faithful lapdogs ready to obey his every whim and fancy, now u consider him a deranged elderly lunatic, although he certainly deserves his fate. You justify this by saying that you are loyal to the party and not to the person, don’t lie, you all are just loyal to power, and he who holds power is your master.
Last week i was absolutely embarrassed. I went to the bank to try and set up a Giro payment, the lady at the counter thot i was some sort of idiot. She, with infinite patience, the sort that you use on imbeciles, the one which i use on most people, told me that i didn’t need to come to the bank to set up a Giro payment, all with an eminently disapproving look on her face. I bet she probably thought " There goes one of our Singaporean kids without an university place, because this obviously moronic foreigner has been given one". Damn it was so embarrassing, more so cos it was in a bank and i do so wanna be a wall street banker, not just any banker, and an investment banker. Well I am off to a flying start wouldn’t you say.
Today i thot i had a chemistry test at 10.00 so i really panicked when i woke up at 10.50 ( long night, don’t ask). I really freaked out. And then when i went to the examination room and found it empty i was shocked. When i checked my timetable i found out that the test was on the 23rd and not on the 22nd. Damn i felt like such a moron. U know what I have been feeling like that rather frequently recently.
I have the spent the entire night listening to tamil songs, dont gasp, I dont just listen to " Slaughter and reign in blood under the freezing moon" type of music ok.
That said i havent listened to tamil music in like ages, hell i havent spoken in Tamil for moths, I kinda miss speaking in Tamil, it feels comforting, not surprising, i grew up speaking the language. AR Rahman is a freaking damn good music director and some tamil songs have extremely poetic language. There was this song that I just loved, here’s the link,http://youtube.com/watch?v=dFO6ialsB9I, you should really check it out its awesome, great music and touching lyrics. Anyone who tells me that the synthesized violin riff isnt awesome i am gonna kill you. I liked it so much that I even translated the lyrics, they are much more beautiful in their original. much is lost in translation (what a another cliché). Here's my own translation. its horrible, iam illiterate in Tamil so probably even more so.
Oh lightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
You came and went in a few days
After that my happiness crumbled
Lighting how my sky yearns for thee
Llightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
When I opened my eyed and looked around
Only your smile from my memories remained
Sorrowful weeping left my soul broken
Like shattered glass i have become
Lighting a flame through my tears
I will wait for the sound of your feet
Lightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
The earth does wait for the rain from the heavens to fall
God does wait to greet his followers
The earth does wait for the rain from the heavens to fall
God does wait to greet his followers
The poet does wait for the words to come to him
For your love I will wait
Lighting a flame through my tears
I will wait for thee
I will wait for the sound of your feet
You came and went in a few days
After that my happiness crumbled
Lighting how my sky yearns for thee
Lightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
You came and went in a few days
After that my happiness crumbled
Lighting how my sky yearns for thee
Yes i know its a hopelessly melodramatic piece of crap, but with the music and the guy singing it, it sounds awesome. Like i said the lyrics sound much better in Tamil and anyway there were some words that i didnt know so i had to improvise and fill in the gaps and i will just have u know that my poetic abilities are on par with Britney Spears. Going back home tomorrow. Ah home, where I am not sure i belong.
Do i belong anywhere?
There’s no reason for it, you’ve gotta go sometime". My favourite tracks to listen to when pondering over death would have to be Pink Floyds's "The Great Gig in the Sky" and Mayhem's " Funeral Fog", i would love to quote Funeral Fog but i already have enuf people thinking that I am a devil worshipper, so we will just leave that one alone.Well since we are on the topic of mortality, I just wanna say if anyone of you attend my funeral, ( I hope it is not for about another 60 years or so), I fully expect you to make sarcastic snide comments at my grave, I would be extremely offended if none do, sarcastic snide comments has always been and continues to be my main hobby.
Well now that we are done with the rather depressing, or uplifting ( depends on your religious orientation dear, lets move onto another topic, the rather abominable practice of generalizing people. People are generalised with respect to almost anything, sex, religion, age, nationality and of course or particular favourite, race. Before I came to Singapore I was told that several variations of " Singaporeans (especially the Chinese) are the most unfriendliest and unpleasant people in the world". I will be first to admit that my experience is highly limited, i mean 2 months in a particular country with 90% of the time spent in the university hardly make you an expert on its people, but from what i have experienced Singaporeans ( and especially the Chinese) seem to be pretty nice people. Well just a little admission almost all of the Singaporans i know are Chinese, I attend 3 different tutorial groups and out of about 50 singaporeans only one happens to be malay and no indians.
I recently came down with flu and my singaporean tutorial mates sent me bout 10 get well SMSes, and these are people that i have only known about 3-5 weeks. In my eyes that is a pretty good sign of my friendliness, back in K.L only a couple of my closest friends used to send me get well messages if i fell sick. I know all this inconsequential but if i had believed all those generalizations about Singaporeans i would have stuck to myself in tutorials which lets face it would have great loss solely on my part. A human should put in the effort to get to know the other person before passing judgment on his/her character. Malaysian Malays should realize that Malaysian Chinese love Malaysia as much as they. Almost all the Malaysian Chinese I have spoken, and I have spoken to quite a few, seem to be extremely loyal to their country, sometimes even defending the country when I start bitching about it. And gasp some of the Chinese actually sympathized with the Malays, yes they defended the same people who have deprived them of economic and educational opportunities. I just think that it is "slightly" unethical for a government to give preferential treatment to certain populations just because of the color of their skin. I am not writing this to champion one group over another, i got better things to do than better, i just believe that humans are individuals and deserve to be treated as such, laziness is a rather poor reason for a war i would say. This is not to say that Singaporeans are a wonderful people, I have met some that i could kill without feeling no remorse but then i have met such people everywhere, the point i am trying to make ( not doing it very well i ma sure) is that humans are individuals and deservr to be treated as such instead of being lumped into some group.
I read somewhere that Malaysia has warned bloggers that they better be careful or they will feel the full force of the law. I am sure sensitive topics will be off topics, what a bunch of bull, "sensitive topics". Basically anything concerning race, religion or a certain political party ( u know which one) is off limits. God’s sake your former prime minister want to meet ur current one in a boxing ring, when he was in power you were all faithful lapdogs ready to obey his every whim and fancy, now u consider him a deranged elderly lunatic, although he certainly deserves his fate. You justify this by saying that you are loyal to the party and not to the person, don’t lie, you all are just loyal to power, and he who holds power is your master.
Last week i was absolutely embarrassed. I went to the bank to try and set up a Giro payment, the lady at the counter thot i was some sort of idiot. She, with infinite patience, the sort that you use on imbeciles, the one which i use on most people, told me that i didn’t need to come to the bank to set up a Giro payment, all with an eminently disapproving look on her face. I bet she probably thought " There goes one of our Singaporean kids without an university place, because this obviously moronic foreigner has been given one". Damn it was so embarrassing, more so cos it was in a bank and i do so wanna be a wall street banker, not just any banker, and an investment banker. Well I am off to a flying start wouldn’t you say.
Today i thot i had a chemistry test at 10.00 so i really panicked when i woke up at 10.50 ( long night, don’t ask). I really freaked out. And then when i went to the examination room and found it empty i was shocked. When i checked my timetable i found out that the test was on the 23rd and not on the 22nd. Damn i felt like such a moron. U know what I have been feeling like that rather frequently recently.
I have the spent the entire night listening to tamil songs, dont gasp, I dont just listen to " Slaughter and reign in blood under the freezing moon" type of music ok.
That said i havent listened to tamil music in like ages, hell i havent spoken in Tamil for moths, I kinda miss speaking in Tamil, it feels comforting, not surprising, i grew up speaking the language. AR Rahman is a freaking damn good music director and some tamil songs have extremely poetic language. There was this song that I just loved, here’s the link,http://youtube.com/watch?v=dFO6ialsB9I, you should really check it out its awesome, great music and touching lyrics. Anyone who tells me that the synthesized violin riff isnt awesome i am gonna kill you. I liked it so much that I even translated the lyrics, they are much more beautiful in their original. much is lost in translation (what a another cliché). Here's my own translation. its horrible, iam illiterate in Tamil so probably even more so.
Oh lightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
You came and went in a few days
After that my happiness crumbled
Lighting how my sky yearns for thee
Llightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
When I opened my eyed and looked around
Only your smile from my memories remained
Sorrowful weeping left my soul broken
Like shattered glass i have become
Lighting a flame through my tears
I will wait for the sound of your feet
Lightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
The earth does wait for the rain from the heavens to fall
God does wait to greet his followers
The earth does wait for the rain from the heavens to fall
God does wait to greet his followers
The poet does wait for the words to come to him
For your love I will wait
Lighting a flame through my tears
I will wait for thee
I will wait for the sound of your feet
You came and went in a few days
After that my happiness crumbled
Lighting how my sky yearns for thee
Lightning why did you come here
You seared my eyes with ur radiance
Whats the mystery of your disappearance from my life
You came and went in a few days
After that my happiness crumbled
Lighting how my sky yearns for thee
Yes i know its a hopelessly melodramatic piece of crap, but with the music and the guy singing it, it sounds awesome. Like i said the lyrics sound much better in Tamil and anyway there were some words that i didnt know so i had to improvise and fill in the gaps and i will just have u know that my poetic abilities are on par with Britney Spears. Going back home tomorrow. Ah home, where I am not sure i belong.
Do i belong anywhere?
posted by Husain Zaman at 1:08 PM
12 comments
