Pune, Delhi and Agra, India
Feb. 26 - Mar 7, 2014

Confusion and chaos were the buzzwords for my third trip to India from February 26 - March 7, 2014. It started with the poor organizations from the folks at the private institution called Symbiosis Institute of Design in the historic and cultural capital of Maharashtra, Pune in India that hosted the Typography Day 2014. In hindsight, there is always room for improvements but with a checklist of things to prepare, 6 months of preparations before the conference, they still gave even the most enduring optimists a chance to say there were always rooms for improvement. From delayed email replies to inhospitable treatment leaving foreign speakers at the airport to figure out their ways to the own accommodation, technical glitches as well as other logistical issues, the organizer had a lot to learn from last year's conference at IIT Guwahati who had shallower pockets. I was gravely disappointed with them that despite my insistence of projecting my slides readied with animated sequences had seemingly fallen to deaf ears. As a result, my presentation titled, "Hawking Gawking in Singapore" wasn't as sleek as it had been planned. The domino's effect continued as they barely could start on a fashionably late, organic time structure which caused an hour's delay throughout the 3 days. On the first day, we weren't even sure where to register.

The highlight of the presentation was when 23-year old student from Sri Lanka, Pathum Egodawatta, received a standing ovation from his lecture, Other-Letter: A hybrid of Sinhala and Tamil Scripts. It was his final year project where he created a hybrid script combined from Tamil and Sinhalese. His gumption in tackling a thorny issue of racial disharmony by using typographic design was worthy of praises. Despite these abysmal difficulties, it was always an event that I look forward to reconnect with old friends such as Dr. Udaya Kumar, Dr. Girish Dalvi and Mr Santosh Shrisagar. In addition, two of my students' posters were accepted for the conference. Hannah Lee Hui Ni, a Singaporean student, in addition to Anna Kjaedegaard, an exchange student from Denmark were two of my students from the CS2032 Graphic Communication course, whose works were selected amongst 372 entries by the Typography Day 2014 jury members as winners in their poster design competition organized in conjunction with Typography Day 2014.

Be the seasoned buyers or casual window shoppers, it was hard not to be intrigued or not to be drawn towards the various activities generated by people in the streets. However, at least 80% of the Indians I interacted with Pune where the conference was held, to New Delhi and Agra, had addressed me as "ma'am." And that included the annoying and persistent street sellers at Tulsi Baug in Pune to Dilli Bhaat and Chandni Chowk (square), and Connought Place where Corus Hotel my accommodation in Delhi to the security guards at the Metro and airports. It was both an amusing and embarrassing experience. It was not all shopping as I walked along the often chaotic and crowded streets, the whole place looked like a show, an opportunity for me take some memorable pictures. It was expected that the rickshaw as the local would call it, the "tuk tuk" or "auto" plough through narrow streets competing for space amongst motorbikes, other rickshaws, food vendors, pedestrians and live stocks. I felt that with the incessant honking, these rickshaw guys are better than any NY cab drivers, swerving and dodging shooting live and inanimate objects. They are not just capable drivers but are also entrepreneurial in their spirits, turning off meters and refusing to use them in their efforts to charge foreigners more. The Raja Dinkar Kelkar museum in Pune which houses 21,000 priceless housed in an old world Maharastrian home with a central courtyard was a wonderful must-see. The carved objects in wood, metal, stone, and ivory are arranged thematically which took me back to bygone era. Similarly, the Red Fort near the Chandni Chowk in Delhi was an impressive fort from the 17th century. The Lotus Temple built in the shape of a half opened lotus flower for the Bahais is an architecturally simple but memorably tranquil place for meditation.

Understandably, India can be a tough place to live and looks could be deceiving. The cab driver from TaxiforSure.com was seemingly a docile and friendly driver but he had arranged for a friend of his to be my tour guide without my knowledge despite Suman, a helpful friend's reiteration of my desire not to have one. The trip to the Taj Mahal was 3.5 hours from Delhi and when I arrived the guide was waiting for me at a street corner. When an average coolie are only paid 500 Rupees for their hard labor, the so-called tour guide who did a deplorable job managed to get the same pay within an hour. With the exorbitant fee charged to a foreigner of 750 Rupees, the free bottled water which was supposed to be mine became his possession. I'm not being cheap but I hate to be cheated. I figured that with a tour guide who really didn't do much other than walking speedily and harassing other Japanese tourists who knew better not to engage one, his role was nothing more than a tripod for me.


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Originally posted: March 8, 2014

San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
May 14 - Aug. 6, 2014

What initially was intended as a leisure getaway to San Francisco, California on May 14 turned into a business trip. Scouring for as many academic jobs before the beginning of a new semester at Nanyang Technological University became the mission of my trip which lasted for almost 3 months. The search started late in April of 2014 but by early July, over 30 applications were emailed and snail mailed, mostly for teaching positions and eventually US government jobs in graphics related jobs at various agencies. The desire to leave was spurred by a soured relationship caused by a top-down, autocratic, and repressive academic system in which the lack of transparency, misguided communications and tight control are the norm in a city state known the world over for its cleanliness and ban on chewing gums. Hatred, anger, pessimism ensued and I needed to de-stress.

Traveling has always been a favorite pass-time. Not only did I discovered and rediscovered new and old places and people; I got to partake in another favorite activity: photography which captured valuable ideas and memorable moments for me in my smart phone, tablet and DSLR. I escaped to Californian cities such as Berkeley, Carmel, Capitola, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, Palm Springs, Larkspur, San Anselmo, Corte Madero, Mill Valley and Tamalpais. Another leisure trip to Portland, Oregon on July 17 to 21, changed the way I viewed what could possibly be my next endeavor, should I am bold enough to leave the ivory tower. Unlike San Francisco, Portland does not need a gay city to proclaim to the world that it is progressive. Gay couples were freely holding hands strolling down the streets in the Pearl District and different suburbs throughout. The slogan "Keep Portland Weird" was part of the murals of car park walls, alongside with individuals who were not ashamed to be themselves. People were friendly and the environment was of one that was relaxing and casual. As Oregon maintains a sales tax free status quo, Oregonians, in turn, pay highly for their income taxes. My all-time favorite city San Francisco, over the years, has become the playground for the rich, especially with the lure of many dot-com companies to the downtown area. As a result, many dot-com millionaires flocked to the city to shop for luxury condos, forcing the housing market to explode.

According to an ex-colleague in the US, since 2008, teaching has become highly competitive in the USA with shrinking tenured positions due to budgetary cuts which resulted in over reliance on adjuncts. Lucky for me, with 50 states to choose from, USA is a big country with many possibilities. Should I abandon academia which has been part of my professional life for past 15 years? The hints were in the forms of courteous phone call rejections, to cold email rejections, and the worst, silent rejections which made me wondered endlessly what ever happened. You would think that in this day and age of mass emailing, these institutions could not even bother to be professional about it. It could have been that they were overwhelmed by the number of applications. Regardless, these experiences were debilitating and unpleasant for anyone to go through. California State University at Stanislaus in Turlock (which I drove to for a face to face interview) had the luxury to be the first, followed by Skype interviews with City Tech in Brooklyn, New York (which disappeared without any answer), Curtin University in Perth (which wanted me to teach 6 classes per semester, which was unheard of) and finally the University of Georgia in Athens. While I was hopeful that I could land a job somewhere in the future, especially when chair of the mass comm program from the renowned Peabody-awarding University of Georgia had advised me to reapply for another opening next year, I would be up against another new pool of contenders for the one job.

The world over, academia has become a less ideal place to work: disregarding administrators, apathetic colleagues and disrespectful students. The pragmatic choice was to return to Singapore to fulfill the contract for a year until June 2015, save up as much money as possible, and apply to as many jobs as possible. During the time until the end of my contact, I could "buy" more time to gear myself up for my next chapter in life. I reluctantly left on August 6th to head back to Singapore. What will my next endeavor be? Only time will tell...

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Originally posted: August 18, 2014

Bogota, Colombia
Oct. 3 - 11, 2014

Traveling to a foreign country for the 1st time has always been a lure and when my academic paper was accepted by the organizing committee of Design and Emotion, the incentive to test a premise put forth by Nathan Shedroff was even more alluring. However, the "arduous" trip to attend the 9th International Conference on Design & Emotion in Bogota, Colombia from October 6 - 10th at the Universidad de Los Andes required flying for some 50 hours of flight and layover combined. Celebrating my birthday in October in a city once known as the drug-war battlefield admittedly did make me quiver and thrilled at the same time. Sitting at an altitude of about 2600 meter, I couldn't tell if it was a mixture of height altitude sickness or jet-lag had taken place.

Since language was a communication, I did not take the public transportation although the TransMilenio running between the bus terminal and the city center. The city has a strong fleet of Korean-made yellow cabs with meters and drivers who usually use them but language proved to be a strong barrier. Trust is another as I read that some drivers could drop their passengers to shops or hotels that pay the drivers commissions or worse, these drivers also moonlight as robbers. On the other hand, friendly locals who speak almost only Spanish warned me about keeping my camera hidden; at least that was what I thought in my deciphering of their sign and body languages. Obviously it always pays to keep your wits about you. With every motorcycle coming my way, I clutched my backpack or camera a little tighter and pay attention, especially after taking the funicular up to the top of the Monserrate and wandering where the Gold Museum (Museo de Oro) was located. Without letting my guards down, I let myself wander to discover the little surprises hidden on foot with my DSLR and when no possible, the camera on my tablet and smart phone and I noticed that there were many guards, police or what looked like military police officers which strangely, made me feel safer than usual. I felt transported back in time where the narrow streets are easy to navigate and there were many graffiti art. From terrorism to tourism, the energy of the city was fueled and filled by whites, mestizos and native Indians within the many eclectic and authentic dining spots in a Pan-American mixture of colonial buildings and century old cathedrals. The city feels like a first, second and third worlds co-existing side by side. As Bogota's oldest neighborhood, La Candelaria where the apartment I rented, is sort of a living historical monument with balconies painted in contrasting colors of crimson, dark green, deep blue, orange, turquoise, ochre and yellow to contrast the cobbled streets cluttered with bohemian shops, craft stalls, galleries and cafes lined upwards a hazy mountain.

Arriving 3 days ahead of time on October 5, I had enough rest and when the big day came on October 8, 2014 to present my paper, "To learn is to experience: How our daily interactions with objects, events, the environment and people can be a classroom," I was more than ready. The paper was based on the "Creative Visual Experience and Design" course at my school in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. This year, there were submissions from 24 different countries and all submissions were double-blind reviewed by at least two experts and was carefully assessed by the program committee. The trip ended on October 11 and Bogota, made known by two people--Fernando Botero for painting fat people and drug lord Pablo Escobar has definitely left its mark as it has cleaned up its act and emerged as a trendy capitol. I would recommend the place to any adventurous traveler. Unable to sleep the night before, the flight back to Singapore was 36 hours. Staying for almost 52 hours, the first thing I did when I got home was to shower before crashing. And slept the insomniac person that I am did ...

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Originally posted: December 2, 2014

Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Nov 13 - 20, 2014 to visit mom who broke her arm

Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Sep. 26 - Oct 2, 2014 to visit family before the Design and Emotion 2014 conference

Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia & Hatyai, Thailand
Apr. 16 - 21, 2014

Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Mar. 27 - 30, 2014 for ancestral Tomb's Cleaning Day

Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia
Jan 24 - Feb. 3, 2014 for Chinese New Year

Read about things that interest me, matters that I care about, pictures and observations from my trips and stuff that I bother to share with the world.