The Cornell NTU Singapore Campus

I've never been to a more organised and efficient place in all these years.. It's true I've never lived out of India either, but you can tell. From public transport, be it buses, the mass transit sytem, general traffic, the Banking System or Changi Airport its all a model of super clean super green efficiency. And for an Ayn Rand die hard this is heaven. The tiny Island Republic of Singapore!

Ok so basic information - I'm in Singapore - pursuing a dual campus MMH Degree (Masters in Hospitality Management) from The Cornell Hotel School and the Nanyang Business School. We get to spend six months in each campus so which is what I'm doing here till end June. We get to come back here next year for the final four months.

The campus is just fantastic... it's spread out but very systematic. I'm living in an apartment complex on campus called Nanyang Heights which I'm sharing with four other colleagues from Taj. We're all on some form of scholarship from the Company or Institute.

It feels strange to be away after clawing my way back home after almost five years. But its also an experience I couldn't pass up. Hopefully we'll manage and thee costs won't be that high that we regret anything.

At the end of the day I still believe home is a feeling, this could be Bombay or Chennai - it doesn't matter. Yes there is time difference and skyrocketing phone costs but besides that it's just as bad, not worse.

I can see why so many people flock to this cosmopolitan hub. It really is something special, and I've only been here three nights. It's so easy to live in so comfortable. And for all those doubting pseudo-intellectuals who claim that only drones are produced here, I say to them may be. But I'm no drone and I'm loving it.

Course its bloody expensive when you think of a 50c cup of coffee or a 7$ mop. But you also get a full beef steak with coleslaw and fries and rice for 3.5$ !! so you decide... Oh and after so many years of Fillet of Fish, I finally had a decent double cheeseburger for and that too for 2$! nice nice.. I think I'm going to enjoy it here.

But I do miss you guys, and you my hobbit. But at least for now I'm revelling in the glory of efficiency and have so much stuff to do that I can hardly stop and take a deep breath. Eventually it'll catch up but hopefully it'll be June end and I'll be home for a bit.

It's eleven am and I'm just back from a mandatory medical checkup for my student's pass. So I'll be taking a nap now!