From India to Singapore | Here To Stay
'How can you be a Singapore citizen if you've not even tried durian?' quipped a friend and Pankaj never looked back. Alongside Alka, they reminisce on the never-ending joy of exploration that has spanned 30 years in Singapore, their love for its culture and people, and what it means to be truly Singaporean.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00This place, geographically, was wonderful.
00:02All sorts of people in the same office.
00:05I mean, we had like 500-600 people and then 31 nationalities.
00:08There were many festivals which were...
00:10I had not even heard of like Thaipusam.
00:12I had never heard of Thaipusam.
00:14Yeah, that was a new thing for us.
00:23Namaste, my name is Alka.
00:25And this is Pankaj.
00:27And we both came to Singapore 30 years ago.
00:30We both are from India and we belong to Delhi.
00:33I am Pankaj, she is my wife Alka.
00:35I am 56 and she is 55.
00:38We came from India, Delhi to Singapore in 1995.
00:42And it's been 30 great years since then.
00:45I was born and brought up in Delhi all my life.
00:48I did my schooling, O levels, A levels
00:51and my engineering degree back in Delhi.
00:55In the mid-90s, there was a lot of construction going on
00:58in the Middle East as well as Singapore's economy was booming.
01:02I think at that time I had an opportunity to move to Middle East.
01:05Quite a few job offers from Dubai, Sharjah and Muscat in Oman.
01:10Also, I had an opportunity to work in Singapore in engineering construction.
01:15And I chose to come to Singapore because I felt this was a more open
01:20and more accepting society than the other offers that I had.
01:24And then I moved to Singapore in 1995.
01:27I really wanted to move with him, but there was some anxiety
01:31that I will be alone and the kid is really, really small
01:35and how I will take care of him because there is no extended family there.
01:39Initially, you don't have help.
01:41There were some questions that I don't know whether I will be able to work
01:45again in Singapore with the kid.
01:47But when I came here, I was very fortunate to manage to get a job.
01:51So I was happy that I'm managing both.
01:53And it has been proven right after 30 years here.
01:57It was the wise move.
02:00When I came to Singapore, my parents and family and brothers back in Delhi
02:04were like kind of very concerned.
02:05Why are you going out?
02:07You have a very good job in India itself.
02:09And I said that, look, there is no harm.
02:11I mean, you know, it's a two year contract.
02:14I'll probably make a little bit of money, see another place and culture.
02:17And I've heard Singapore is a great place to live.
02:20And little did I know that it will not be two years,
02:23but a lifetime of love with Singapore.
02:26I decided to continue after my contract.
02:29I absolutely started liking the ease of living
02:34and the predictability of the work environment
02:37and the social environment in Singapore,
02:40which made life rather easy and comfortable.
02:43So the challenges in Delhi, like those large countries,
02:46can be really unpredictable.
02:47There could be many things happening in other places.
02:50But Singapore still remains like a really peaceful, predictable
02:54and live in a reasonably comfortable environment.
02:58When we shifted here, we don't have much friends.
03:01Challenge was like socialization due to
03:04not a lot of Hindi speaking people in Singapore,
03:07but I was able to communicate well in English
03:09and I picked up local slangs and dialects together with them
03:12very easily and comfortably.
03:14As the time passed, I became much more comfortable
03:16to communicate with the local Chinese and Malay and Tamil.
03:21In fact, I never felt out of place because the culture was almost the same.
03:25There was no fundamental difference in thinking
03:27in terms of the values, the value system, respect for elders.
03:32Actually, I felt very nice.
03:34And the first day, first hour, I decided this will be my home.
03:41In our science textbook in primary two,
03:44and they would say, it is a larva.
03:48Let's find out.
03:50So that exploratory trait stayed with us.
03:53I would drive to a place or go to a food court and say,
03:57hey, what is this?
03:59So this quest of let's find out has kept us busy for almost 30 years.
04:05Initially, when I came, I was not driving,
04:07but on a weekend, all three of us would take double-decker bus,
04:10sit on the top of it, air-conditioned, nice,
04:13and would take right from last stop to last stop.
04:15If we find something really, really nice, then we just get down there.
04:19Yeah.
04:19And take our lunches at lunchtime,
04:21then go back again and then explore some more.
04:24We do it even now.
04:25Even today, it was quite enjoyable.
04:28Then I bought my first car and that was in the year 2001.
04:32So what we started to do is that on the weekend,
04:35get into the car and drive without any agenda.
04:38I mean, there's no map.
04:40Sometimes I will not even know where I'm going,
04:42whether it is Bukit Panjang or Bukit Timah.
04:45I mean, it does not matter.
04:46We are driving to a new place that I found.
04:51If you can find a nice place to go, go there.
04:54No, there is really so much to explore.
04:58Can never be enough.
04:59Sometimes when we don't know where we have to go,
05:02we just make a list of all the temples.
05:04Then we tick-mark it.
05:06Okay, this, all Chinese temple done.
05:08Now, all Indian temples done.
05:09All churches done.
05:13I was 25 when I came, I'm 50, 55, 56 now.
05:17And we have almost explored the whole island.
05:21And now, even other islands also,
05:24nearby islands, we have done that.
05:26You know, at that time, there was no Google.
05:28So asking somebody, what plant is this?
05:30What does it like? What does this food taste like?
05:32So there were, I mean, there were many tropical fruits
05:35which we had not tasted in India.
05:37Things like mangosteen, longan.
05:41Dukku.
05:41Dukku.
05:42Yeah, I had never even heard of dukku back in India.
05:46So people used to scare, you know,
05:47durian is like a very strong smell and don't try,
05:50you know, kind of.
05:51So for the first time,
05:52I think there was a birthday party in the office
05:54and somebody brought a durian cake.
05:57I ate it and it was like not too bad.
06:00Then somebody said that,
06:01okay, would you want to try a durian?
06:03And we had become Singapore citizens by then.
06:05So he says, how can you be a Singapore citizen
06:07if you've not even tried durian?
06:08So I took the challenge
06:11and we went to eat our first durian
06:13somewhere in Geylang area.
06:14And I think ate three or four durians that night.
06:17I mean, two people.
06:18And we absolutely love it.
06:20Absolutely, absolutely.
06:22Now if you ask me, you give me mango,
06:24you give me durian, I will choose durian first.
06:29In last 30 years in Singapore,
06:31we have lived in many locations.
06:33The first time I came, I lived in Wampoa.
06:36Nice, old, very beautiful estate.
06:39And I used to like chicken rice.
06:41I still go there.
06:42Even 30 years after, I still go there.
06:45And then after that, we moved to a rented house
06:47in Ang Mo Kio.
06:49So we would watch the traffic on the city
06:53for hours together.
06:54Yeah, because the cars approaching you
06:56are seeing white light
06:58and the cars which are going away from you
06:59will see the red light.
07:01So you will see the sea of red on one side
07:03and sea of white on the other.
07:04It was so beautiful.
07:08But we really have some good memories.
07:10When we go in a bus,
07:12we used to see old houses
07:15where we have to live before.
07:17Like Ang Mo Kio and Balestier.
07:20Still feel nostalgic about it.
07:22Living in a melting pot of Singapore was wonderful.
07:27It opened your minds to completely new ideas
07:31and areas which I would have never been able to do
07:35if I had lived all my life in India.
07:37Now we have more Chinese or Malay friends than Indian.
07:44Everybody says that Singapore is a small dot
07:46or red tiny dot,
07:48but I totally disagree with this
07:50because the last 30 years,
07:51we are trying to explore the place,
07:53but still we haven't done the full job yet.
07:56And Singapore offered such wonderful opportunities for us
08:01to explore its people, its cultures, places,
08:05its geography, its topography, its food,
08:08fruits that we have been in love since then.
08:12The decision to come to Singapore
08:15probably was the best decision of my life.
08:17The place gave me a close bonding with the family,
08:21multiple friends of various races
08:24and I think it has been a blessing for us.
08:28What I would say to ourselves,
08:30thank God.
08:33Dear Singapore,
08:34Even after 30 years,
08:35it doesn't feel like we have seen the whole of Singapore.
08:39Singapore, you have given us everything.
08:42A good, happy, prosperous life,
08:44a happy family and many friends.
08:48In reality,
08:49we have got everything we have always wanted in life from Singapore.
08:54Our Singapore life exploration has been going on for the last 30 years
08:59and it still feels like there is still a lot left to do.
09:03In Singapore, we got to meet people from various communities
09:08and along with that, our life was enriched with various traditions,
09:11food, culture, and culture.
09:15We made a lot of progress in Singapore
09:18and reached the top positions in our respective fields.
09:21And our son, who came here for 6 months,
09:24is now a successful engineer and a startup entrepreneur.
09:28Singapore, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.