Little India – An Indian “City” Within the Garden City

Frenzy traffic flow which seemed to be totally out of control at times, strong fragrance of jasmine flowers, intermingled with that of spices and incense sticks creeping up your nose from the alleys, loud Indian music blasting through the sound systems in audio CD shops, signage in Tamil scripts all over the area, and countless men and women yakking away in the streets in Tamil or other Indian languages. Sounds like a typical town in Tamil Nadu state of India, but it is not; this is Serangoon, also called “Little India” by the local residents and foreigners alike, well known for its very south-Indian atmosphere. This is very unusual for a country whereby the Indian ethnic group only accounts for 8.8% of the total Singapore population, according to Singapore Department of Statistics1, and that the Indian population in Singapore is relatively fragmented culturally2.


Shophouses with signage in Tamil script; Singapore is one of three countries in the world (other two being India and Sri Lanka) that has Tamil recognised as one of its official language.


The interesting fact about “Little India” is that this district was not part of the British colony’s plan to make it an Indian enclave as it is today, but was gradually formed due to various events that has taken place in the course of Singapore’s development. At around 1843, after the opening of the Serangoon River, many Indians started flocking to this area after realising that this area is an ideal place for cattle raising, coinciding with the growing importance of the cattle trade then. Also, the employment of Indians as horse trainers at the newly opened Race Course (present day Farrer Park) was also another big factor attracting the Indians to this new district. By1940s, this area became a predominantly Indian district , and has been as such ever since. Especially so after the establishment of the Mustafa Centre in 1995, Serangoon has become the iconic district of the Indian population here.


A antique and art shop which my friends and I affectionately called it “Indian Art Friend”; not just because it sells many beautiful Indian art works, it shares the same corporate colours with Artfriend.


The district of “Little India” is bounded by Bukit Timah/ Sungei Road, Serangoon Road, Jalan Besar and Lavender Street. Although the main roads of Serangoon Road and Jalan Besar are where the main concentration of activities takes place, the various small streets and alleys that connect these two roads are bustling with life too. Clive Street and Perak Road are the two less-minor roads that I like most in the whole of the “Little India” district3. Other than being able to shun away from the crowds of the main roads, the sights and smell of that area are more appealing to me. Over there, stalls selling various kinds of fruits and vegetable can be found; a spectacular visual treat of colours. Although I’m not particularly a fan of vegetable, I like the refreshing smell and these fresh vegetables and fruits. Other than these stalls, there is a number of restaurants selling delicious Indian food, adding to the aroma that is already floating in the air. My favourite Indian eatery outlet happens to be located in this area, and I used to patronise the shop on regular basis for dinner. Although I do not know much about Indian cuisine, but I can tell that the Indian food sold in this outlet taste authentic, quite unlike the typical roti prata sold at coffeeshops in other parts of Singapore which all tasted the same.


Typical fruits and vegetable stall in Little India: looks and smells nice.


“Little India” is indeed a very unique place in urbanised Singapore, as almost all other places look just like one another, without really much character. “Little India” might be a bit chaotic, especially during the peak periods of the weekends, this district is still an interesting place to visit once a while, to immense oneself into the culture of another ethnic group, to unwind and to relax.

Deepavali - A Singapore holiday

On 8th Nov Singapore celebrated Diwali. This is an Indian holiday, the Festival of Lights, and it’s a holiday marked by the whole country (yes, that means a day away from the office!). They celebrate with food, fireworks (well, sparklers) and by lighting up the area of town called “Little India” where the Indian population (a minority in Singapore, but a healthy one at that) have the largest presence.

To celebrate and learn more about the custom, I’ve been invited to a colleague’s house to have lunch with some of their family and friends. Really looking forward to the look inside — of the house, of the local culture, and of this very holy of Indian celebrations.








What is it? According to Wikipedia, “The festival marks the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness. Symbolically it marks the homecoming of goodwill and faith after an absence… While Deepavali is popularly known as the “festival of lights”, the most significant esoteric meaning is “the awareness of the inner light”… or the underlying reality of all things.”

Life in Singapore

It's been almost a month i moved from India to Singapore and life is completely different here. I am still trying to adjust to the life style of Singaporeans. This country is always on shopping spree and you will see people shopping on sunday midnight. The train stations in Singapore are always crowded and the subway train system is very amateur when you compare with Deutschland or Britain.

There are less trains here and crowded everytime .Sometime i think that how could 6 million inhabitants survive in this small island. There are some lovely beaches around and spending your leisure time in Singapore is far more easier than in Europe. In europe holidays are seasonal but singaporeans enjoy every weekend like a holiday!

In terms of usage of technology, Singapore is obsessed with technology. You could get every new electronic gadgets at a very cheap price and may be it is because most of the goods here are coming from china and taiwan.

Multi ethinicity is onething which you would admire in Singapore and you could see a chinese temple and Hindu temple and a mosque in a street and sometimes it look a bit absured but it adds a flavor to Singapore culture.

Food is onething which i have to talk abt when it comes to singapore. Singapore has food courts everywhere and you will find these multi cuisine food courts arranged in a stylish fashion throughout Singapore. I like to eat there but somehow i am eating only Indian. Have to try the rest soon...

About my work and company, i am working for a swiss bank which is one of the leading banks in the world. My office is situated in One Raffles Link building which is located in the heart of singapore. This place is also called as Raffles Place, it is a city with interconnected buildings and you will find everything on earth here, from offices to hospitals to shopping malls to railway stations.

About my experience at office and my weekend pass time, i will update in my next blog msg. stay tune to the blog untill then good bye!

10 Things that I liked about Singapore

10. A driver giving way with a smile.

9. Everyone standing to the left on an escalator.

8. A walk in the park. And seeing a squirrel scurry across your path.

7. A smile from the cashier.

6. Someone holding the door open for you.

5. Driving to the city anywhere without being charged for ERP.

4. A cool breeze.

3. A street busker who looks like he enjoys what he does.

2. A quiet bus ride home.

1. Free parking.

My Understanding of Singapore

I am writing this blog to actually write something about Singapore which I came to know after my 3 weeks of stay here. Some part of the blog is on my own experiences. Some part of it is after coming to know about singapore from local public and colleagues. Also some of this from my good old friend google.com.

I reach the shores of Singapore, after an urgency created by the employer, at about 6:30 (4 AM IST) in the morning, with about 4 hours of sleep in Singapore Airlines. The Airlines is quite comfortable and I am escorted across without too many security checks, unlike how I had imagined it would be. I step out hesitatingly out of the plane(my confidence is always at a premium in a new environment)and bump into an old acquaintance who clearly knows the place and guides me across to the immigration counter. Mahesh came to pick me up and took me to the room in the office cab. The roads were good. There were some tall buildings on the way to the room. Got down the cab and entered the room. It was a 2 bedroom flat and was fully equipped for a family to stay comfortably.

We have taxi drivers here who actually have visiting cards printed for them, I did not have a visiting card myself, how offending!!!.





There are lot of Hotels for tourists at a place called Little India.



There is a mall kind of place called Mustafa in Little India which has everything under the sun available. I am glad to find that the place is inundated with Indians, especially from the south. There are lot of Indian restaurants here in Singapore and more in Little India. My food is happily taken care of and I hear Tamil words wafting across in the buses, trains, roads, hotels, theaters etc where ever I go. For those who doesn’t know, Tamil is one of the national language of Singapore.

Singapore is full of streets and alleys. Every road/ street I see carries a name -something very important for us to learn; I often why India does not have proper signboards and notices everywhere rather than leaving us to the mercy of the public. Nevertheless, I lose track of my room or office briefly before relocating it after some local help (speaks volumes about my sense of direction, I guess). The people here are very helpful unless you understand what they speak.

The transportation scene is good with trains being the main system in this small country. The local train travel (they it call it MRT here and run from morning 4 to night 11:30) is pretty comfortable and I am at ease on the first day itself. It is similar to Mumbai with three different tracks operating through the city but there ends the similarity.



The train has automatic doors; is well lit and is an indoor travel for most of the journey.



The arrival of the stations is announced and displayed both in English and Tamil. If only Mumbai tried to emulate a few of these things … But Delhites have told me that the MRT there is equally good. I assume it is but I cannot vouch for it...

Taxis are prevalent but difficult to get after about 8 pm (They charge extra in Busy hours), except of course if you call their service and book a taxi.



The taxis are fairly hi-tech in the sense that they accept cards, provide bills and are connected to the local network through an interactive device always. All the taxis have the GPS system installed in the car.

A couple of nights back, I am given a small treatise on the call girls industry in Singapore by a friendly colleague who wonders why India does not legalize this profession as in Singapore or Thailand. I also learn that call girls here carry yellow employment passes and that this industry contributes about 2% of the GDP in Thailand. Wow, maybe they should think about starting a few SEZs- Special Entertainment Zones- then? I do not endorse my colleague’s views but decide not to argue in an alien country and smile approvingly.

I am surprised to see that the offices have no canteen here but look like that’s the norm here.



Everyone eats outside and I wonder if the concept of a cooking housewife is a misnomer here. With lots of hotels and joints spread across, we are spared of this chore as bachelors. I do not come across any animals here except in hotels. Maybe, no one’s ever told them that there are even other creatures on this planet. Thank God, the Holy Cow is still safe in India…

Of course, the work is no great shakes except that we are in a foreign country but then are we not living our dream of working outside India?

But where’s the poverty of Singapore? Are there no poor people here? I do not know but then this world is so different from the world I know and have seen sometimes. Once a while as I enjoy this luxurious life, I ask myself is the world between the haves and the have-notes unbridgeable? Being the pseudo-socialist that I am, whose exposure to poverty is limited, I soon forget this troubled question and become a part of the conformist elite that lives on, ignoring how the other half lives…

The second week starts and my office work increases. I do not perform anything earth shaking except a lot of Control C- Control V job in the last few days, mostly not even aware of what is happening but hey, my targets are achieved by this simple movement of my two hands. That’s all work life has become – a monotonous drole which pays you, to show off to your peers. Stop cribbing I tell myself but then Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin.

We are still planning to go to a places such as



Sentossa Island,
couple of museums in Jurong East,



DHL Balloon ride in Bugis,



The first night safari in the world at Singapore Zoological Gardens



and the Jurong Bird Park. We also have plans tp visit Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Australia.

It’s all child’s play out there and we get bored pretty quickly though I manage to pass time talking to parents, cousins and friends over phone. Also have the internet access to actually watch the movies and cricket matches online.

The railway pass I had bought can be used in the bus (called LRT here) also.



That’s nice; I had heard of plans of a similar integrated multi-transport system in India (useful info available in the Indian Economy Blog) also but wonder what happened to it.

I am not the most active temple goer while in India but I decide to check out a temple in this island city. And so here, I am in front of Sri VeeramaKaliamman Temple, next to Veerasamy Road in Little India.



It’s a busy Saturday evening and lots of people around but it feels reasonably good. I have doubts if I can use my camera inside but I see a few Europeans taking photos, so I enter. Seeing me, a Japanese tourist (he reminds me of the tourist in Munnabhai MBBS) asks me in gestures if I can get his snap taken in front of the temple. I oblige hoping to get the favour returned. He's, however, not too pleased with my photography skills in my first two shots but settles on my third attempt . He’s satisfied and leaves but I forget to get my photo taken.

As I step out of the temple, I hear "Apadi Poddu Poddu" from one of the hotels. I take a walk around and realize that there’s not a single non-Indian store in the place (99% Tamil). You’d think I may as well be in Coimbatore as I see Ananda Bhavan, Komalas, Meenas and many other such hotels. A North Indian could be equally bewildered as a Westerner seeing Tamil sprayed around in such quantity.

I take train and bus rides daily rather than go by the cab. One reason is my nostalgia associated with Mumbai and its train travel, though they are not comparable in the actual sense. Secondly, I feel that one of the best ways to know the people of a place is to travel in the most common mode of transport there. Not that I make a great job at it (which I realize later) as I stand in the train staring at the people while most of them are hooked to ipods and lost in their own world.

Nevertheless, I buy a pass (an EZ-Link Magnetic Card) and load it with 50 Singapore dollars and proceed.



You swipe the ticket at a fare gate while entering a station and swipe out at another at the place you get out and the fare is deducted for the distance covered. The amount of travel inside the stations is much more than the actual journey which is a dampener at times but then since some exercise has also to be factored in, I’m ok with that option.

One first hand observation I have is of the work culture prevalent here. It is something similar to India in terms of people working for long hours. The few Europeans I see here are more inclined to visit the evening pubs or maybe dash home unlike our hardworking Singaporean. I guess it’s not just an Indian mentality; an Asian work style though not as difficult as the Japanese culture of workaholism. With no girlfriends in store and no inclination towards bars, I decide I may as well be a part of this brigade which sits late (not necessarily office work though). I started of thinking about gyms, alternative lifestyles etc.??? Finally joined a gym for which again I have to change 2 trains. Using the gym is very cheap. But asking for a trainer help, gosh its 50 dollars per day.

I am told by one of my colleagues that the Maruti Swift which is modestly priced (ok, not modest for most of us) in India at about Rs 4-5 lakh is available at about Rs 18 lakhs here and that’s the Maruti 800 equivalent gaadi here. I am shocked at this apparently huge price difference but apparently, this is part of Government policy to curb the number of private vehicles on the roads to avoid traffic congestion. Interesting, isn’t it?

It brings to focus the larger question at stake – the role of governments in Free markets. Should governments allow markets to dictate terms by following a policy of laissez faire or be an interventionist keeping the larger picture in mind? Are free markets truly free or do they breed crony capitalism? I’ll not debate that at least in this post but would like to discuss this in detail later in some other post.

Even at the risk of being dismissed as a cliche, I’d like to reiterate that you can take the Mallu out of politics but not the politics out of a Mallu. So, I look around the place scanning for some political banners, forums or any other symbols of politics in Singapore. But I struggle to find any such demonstrative political paraphernalia around unlike in India, where we are all members (active or passive) of a larger political act.

I must confess that I do not ask Singaporeans themselves about it but go by what I see around which is not a very scientific way of drawing conclusions. But then the politics of a place can be felt in the air and the remarkable absence of it is a discerning factor (at least to me). So, I turn to my old faithful Google to find out more and realise that this is a one party democracy (???).Time to revisit my understanding of democracy???

Now for my sisters marriage I am planning to come to India just after 3 weeks of my small stint in Singapore. Now just 2 days left before I am back in India and so my smileometer is beaming high signals in the midst of hazy Singapore skies (an annual haze in this part of the year caused by forest fires in Sumatra). A sign of confused times when you make money but wonder what exactly you want to do in life and is it worth troubling your mind but satisfying your pocket. As I ponder over this question and ask myself how much I can take all this, I decide to tread the conformist path of doing nothing but journeying along till you are forced to take up the less trodden path.

A vegetarian’s life is a difficult one outside India. Wherever I go, I find the meat of some animal or the other ornately decorated and put up for sale but very few restaurants catering to the needs of a herbivore like me (Fellow Indians think it blasphemous for a vegetarian). If I stay in a predominantly Indian environment in Singapore, then its fine but otherwise it can be a tough choice. Vegetables are at a pretty low priority here.

India is quite inclusive when it comes to such eating habits as it serves both the vegetarian and the non-vegetarian palate. I find it both amusing and outright crazy when I see a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Singapore Zoo. How can a zoo which is meant to be a home for animals be a place for serving them hot? Of course, it may be a case of forward integration for the zoo!!!

I am shocked (an understatement) when I am told that it is a govt. policy that birds are not allowed into the city limits. Not allowed??? There are, supposedly, shooting squads to ensure this compliance. I cannot confirm the veracity of such a law/policy in force but honestly, I have never seen a bird here and the closest I have come to, is reading, in The Strait Times, of bird droppings being a menace for poor car owners. This would have been funny if not an example of insensitivity of the state towards anything that does not derive economic value.

We forget very conveniently that buildings and malls cannot substitute the beauty of nature and that co-habitation is the key to a greater and more fulfilling existence. Imagine a day when future generations here do not know what animals are and have to visit museums to see their remnants.

The Government plays an important role in the lives of people through the usage of subsidies. It taxes private transport and subsidizes the public transportation and housing sector. The railway tariffs are capped at a maximum value of about 3 Singapore dollars for a trip to encourage greater usage of the MRT. The surcharge on cars to increase the purchase and ownership costs (as mentioned previously), tolling on high congestion spots at peak hours (using Electronic Road Pricing) and Area Licensing Scheme (restricted zones in business areas) have eased the traffic which is fairly dense at peak hours. It has developed a system which even the Americans have tried to emulate but have not been able to do so far.

Urban development has not been given due importance in India and it is worthwhile for us to consider measures to reduce the movement of cars in cities and boost public transportation, like in London or Curitiba (in Brazil, considered as one of the best examples of urban development). Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities are all aiming to be Shanghai but they are all slowly choking and require urgent measures to get them back on track.

In the housing segment, there are two types of flats here – HDB (Housing Development Board) and Condors. The Govt. constructs and sells/leases out HDBs at lower than market rates and this serves a substantial portion of Singapore’s housing needs. Condors are private flats and are more elitist in nature. This is another example of the Govt.’s presence in a very commercial business which may be scoffed by believers of laissez faire.

A massive urban renewal programme which began in the 1960s resulted in the replacement of all slums with these housing units. The Govt. of that time required that a percentage of everyone’s wages be placed in a forced retirement account or be used to purchase a residence which resulted in everyone owning a property in the country. Slums and displacement is another serious issue that we face in India and there needs to be a further debate on how we address that issue.

Democracy is a virtue that we do not necessarily celebrate because we take it for granted. This is alien to Singapore but they do not mind it – probably a frog in the well syndrome. Singapore’s First Premier and principal architect, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, believes that democracy is a primarily Western concept and not necessarily required for Asia and so they should not be judged on this yardstick. This has found its echo in various Asian countries with China, Malaysia and a few others endorsing this opinion. He had famously stated in a newspaper interview :

I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.

But as an Indian who sees and cherishes the ideals of a free world, I do not subscribe to this thought process. Economic freedom without political freedom is a very superficial freedom, something that has earned Singapore the dubious name of a “nanny state”. Policies like excessive fines, tax reliefs for sterilization, compulsory saving schemes, strong censorship and archaic draconian laws have diminished its position in terms of human rights but it's principle has been Greater Capitalism for Socialism, dubbed by Singapore University scholars as "meritocratic,elitist,Confucianist, bureaucratic state". The principle seems to work fine currently and the people are very much in favour of it but can it sustain in the long run??? Let's wait and watch.....

Tail piece: You would be surprised to know that chewing gum was banned in Singapore until a few years ago (2004) when the US Govt. negotiated, alongside the active lobbying of gum maker Wrigley’s, with the Singapore government for the lifting of the ban. Sticking of the gum in train doors and other public places was leading to a public nuisance, so the ban was imposed. Even now it is available here only in drugstores and that too on prescription!!!