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It was always at the back of my mind to visit Sentosa. But it never happened earlier. Finally I took the courage and the time off my schedule(which was in the week when we did not have any lectures) and headed of to Sentosa. Seeing Sentosa is like seeing gateway of
India in Mumbai. Your visit is never complete until you see it, or I thought so. But unlike Sentosa, gateway of
India doesn’t offer you a wow effect.
We took the usual Bus No. 93 to Harbour Front and then took the Tour 6 package(the only one available at 04:00pm) which included cable car round trip, underwater world, dolphin show & 4D Magix & of course Café Del Maar(which is implied)
The cable car ride is a thing to experience, for the 1st few seconds you do feel a rush of blood as you are plunged from the insides of the 15th floor of Harbour Tower into the open sky and the initial contact with mother earth gets the blood rushing down your spinal cord (just for the record I am not a person afraid of heights)
Anyways after 6 ½ minutes we finally arrived at the one and only Sentosa island. The entrance to Sentosa(a brilliant marketing strategy) is through a convenience store that sells almost everything that a person would demand for a day well spent at a beach picnic. So invariably even if your are carrying stuff it is difficult to pass buy without lightening you wallet a bit. There are 3 lines of busses that run (blue, red & green) that takes you through and fro different places on the island.
Our 1st stopover was the splendid underwater world. You arrive at a place that makes you feel that it was built to house marine life. The surroundings and the ambience give it a perfect blend to the aquatic life that it captures around. As you enter there is a huge pond which is home to some fresh water fishes and gigantic turtles. At the entrance is the touch area where you can touch fishes that are swimming in a small pool of water. I was surprised that amongst many of the fishes was the sting ray(the one that killed Steve Irwin – the crocodile hunter) At the beginning of it there are different types of fossils displayed as well as over fifty species of crabs. Some of the prominent ones being the spider crap that stretches to almost 2 feet(end to end). As you keep moving ahead you come to the real underwater world. This is what Sentosa is all about.
It’s an underneath walkway through a huge pool filled with fishes and marine life. You stand on the travellator and it ferries you through an 83-meter long tunnel which is made up of bullet & sound proof acrylic in a semi-circular form that that keeps away marine animals from the land animals (assuming that man is an animal) There is just one word to describe the experience – “Magnificent” Yes!!! That’s how I felt being there looking around on what was the largest collection of aquatic splendor that I had ever seen. Sentosa lets the ocean come to live in front of your eyes and every moment of it is breath taking. As you move through the oceanic jungle you just can’t help wonder the sheer magnitude of living organisms that reside beneath us. Finally underwater world which houses over 2500 marine species offers immense fun & educational value.
Across different packages that are available from the reception counter perhaps underwater world is the only one which is common across all six of them and for obvious reasons. It is a place that you can’t and shouldn’t miss and any visit to Sentosa is not complete without a detour of this. All rite folks that’s it as far as the 1st part is concerned. In the 2nd part I will cover the dolphin show, 4D magix, sounds of the sea, night life @ sentosa and yes!!! The much talked about Café Del Maar. So keep reading.
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Charles Darwin, the father of genetics, in his ever so famous theory of evolution stated that as a population inherits traits from generation to generation it gradually evolves and mutates into new or altered species, each stronger and more viable than the previous. Thus, was explained the metamorphosis of man from a four legged, unkempt beast to the gadget savvy, biped of today; the evolution of the tree-swinging, ape-man Tarzan into a civilized John Clayton who left the jungles of Africa in search of his true love, Jane. Surely Charles Darwin must have died a happy man, terribly pleased with himself at this groundbreaking theory he arrived upon. Even today I see this evolution at work but in quite the reverse direction, through a concept we popularly call “Birthday Bumps”. Yes, that one celebrated event that calls on all man-“kind” to abandon any inhibitions whatsoever and get down to showcasing the true, raw, animal instinct within them! A means to vent out frustration or to get even with someone or plain and simply put, just for “kicks”, this ritual has been around for donkey years now. Originally an Irish tradition, the birthday child was lifted upside down and “bumped” on the floor for good luck. The number of bumps given signified the age of the child plus one extra for good luck. How the rest of the world adopted this ritual no one will ever know!
As a child I grew up well attuned to this concept. Birthday parties would mean a cake obviously, followed by a truckload of gifts. But the true icing on the cake would be the anxiously awaited birthday bumps! Boy or girl, big or small, scrawny or chubby, every single kid on the block would be there to pitch in his two cents and hurl the birthday child up into the air and then watch with sheer alacrity and joy the laws of gravitation take over as the poor birthday backside bore the brunt of the cold, harsh floor beneath. And my my! The sheer joy one could see on those faces! Those intent and gleaming eyes! That proud look on each child’s face as he returned home joyous of the pain he was capable of inflicting on another human being probably twice his size!
With time however this tradition began to fizz out. We grew older, birthdays became an event of the past and instead a time to get wasted and brood and wail about turning a year older. Bumping the gluteus maximus aimlessly against the floor somehow lost its old charm and the clanking of beer mugs seemed more like music to the ears.
But then just as I was turning oblivious to the existence of such a ritual I stumbled into B-school. The one place people go to in order to unlearn all that those gray cells could have possibly assimilated over the years in a desperate attempt to learn matter that those gray cells just refuse to accept now! But in this one aspect unlearning didn’t seem to work. Learning all over again was the order of the day and reliving those good ole’ childhood days seemed the “bottom” line. And here’s where I witnessed what I could only describe as the most horrendous and yet most innovative concept of birthday bumps! Less of bumps and more a combination of hard blows and kicks, this indeed had to be the most torturous and agonizing start to a new year but equally satiating and invigorating for those doing the honors. Once again I saw the big and small, lean and “healthy”, fully clothed and semi-clad, all come together to “shake a leg” and lend a blow or two here and there while the traumatic screams of the birthday “baby” reverberated in the background. And the precision and panache with which the kicks were afforded would put even Beckham to shame!
One keen observation I have made though is that unlike the old days when we as little girls would be part of the ruffians bumping bottoms or having ours’ mercilessly bumped, as women today we would step back and just watch in wonder as the men got into their element and kicked away to glory. And what if it was a woman’s birthday? Well, then the men would be chivalrous enough to pardon us the pain and trauma and instead pick on the man they all conveniently assumed to be a “close” associate of the woman in question and the shelling would begin.
And thus this concept has caught on like wild fire and every now and then, at the stroke of 12, on a silent hostel night as I burn the midnight oil I hear a sudden uproar of pain and joy combined. “Ouch!” I say to myself and go back to stooping over my books.
– by Kamal Krishnamurthy, Student, SPJCM
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Belligerent are the private equity guys. With every day a deal knocking on the doors of the M&A world, you need to be ready, the next could be yours. It seems like the private equity players are on a shopping spree. Ego, debt and a quest for higher deals is the driving force in this shopping festival. If you think that 2006 was the private equity year with top deal of $37.71bn, where Blackstone acquired Equity office Properties, then how about 2007 where KKR has bought Texas Utility for $44.37bn in the month of Feb and leaving us with little reason to believe that 2007 will not be bigger than 2006. But are we into the enigma of private equity or is it something more than that? With value of US buyouts crossing $410bn in 2006 and banks spreading their arms to bask in the credit that private equity guys want, the debt markets may quiver very soon. The balance sheet of most of the private firms looks over levered. This makes the scene look murkier for the investors of private equity groups vis-à-vis the investors of the company whose stakes are being bought out. The prices paid by these fund mangers have bounded across six times EBITDA in 2001 to eight times EBITDA in 2006. No industry is left virgin by these private equity managers. They have penetrated through all the sectors of this global economy, and then may it be semi-conductor or technology which again was a No-No few years ago due to the business cycles they face. That I would say further mystifies the private equity game. If debt markets remains strong in 2007 then the pressure on the private equity managers to pay for more deals, take on more debt and close more deals will continue to mount. Stronger stock markets across the globe are foisting higher prices on the deals. The attractively priced investments now look inflated.
The growing investment opportunities in the emerging markets are making these money makers sweat out and think about the investment they make. And looking ahead in 2007 and 2008, if debt markets spooked or economies nosedive then it could be a plight for these fund mangers. The heavy balance sheet and Catch-22 situation grappling their neck, could burst the bubble of private equity in coming years. But again the enigma of private equity may work and they may alleviate the impact of such a change and surface as winner again. The enigma of private equity whispers that Private equity could well rewrite the record books yet again for buyouts in the coming years. So keep looking out, you never know, you might just hear the door say Knock Knock!!!
- by Sagar Agarwal, Student, SPJCM
