Singapore was never this much expected. Not from me atleast. Singapore is quite a decent and crowdless societal country where in there are loads of parks, gardens and footpaths to walk, but no pedestrians to see at all. Also people are so much busy in hurrying to their work that they never get time to live !
These might be just a glimpse of the developed worlds. Heard from my peers that this situation exists in every rich country that is economically developed. You would never find people around, just the beautifully scad trees brushed with tall buildings in the background with eyes and necks difficult to focus to the top floors. The clean roads and lights which the traffic never tries to skip over. It is also ruled by money, with hefty fines all around, be it for a trivial rule offence like chewing gum ! But the point here lies with the people that fill this country.
Sometimes I wonder why there are 40 storey housing apartments all over this country, a size less than half of the present Bangalore yet generating billions of dollars of income and revenues from varied aspects of the economy. Are they actually filled with people who rush to their work, for the betterment of Singapore ? Why are there lush surroundings and greenery filled with trees, parks and what not for the same people for enjoyment or relaxation ? Why there is no other life than work and home for these people ? Do you see any other person out here other than yourself in the mirror sometimes ?
But until it proved wrong today for the mega event of the year that most of Singaporeans wait for. It was the annual IT fair, 2011 that I am referring to similar to Bangalore's legendary IT shows. This was held at Suntec City, close to Marina Bay, Singapore. By far, I have never ever seen such a huge crowd of people, ever! People of all sorts, old, young, fat, lean, tall, short, kids and parents. It looked like an old market place back home where we used to visit often in a week to buy some cheaper items. Seeing this, I have to admit, that market place is nowhere compared to what I was seeing today. Tons and tons of electronic gadgets waiting for these hungry, gadget-freaky Singaporeans to snatch and fight to take them back home. There was not a single global company to miss out for booking their profits in whatever they were placing on their shelves in their stores. The last day of the event it was, for had to be bigger and better, so it was arranged in this mall, a size three time to that of our Bangalore malls and storeys mounting in 6-7 levels of goods !
Not withstanding the craziness, a friend took a laptop at a price not worth mentioning here. But one thing I saw was that at least there is life in Singapore or you get to see one when you tempt them with an electronic gadget ! ;-)