U2 - The Joshua Tree Tour

And it finally happened. I managed to see my most favorite band of all times live in concert. Two hours of absolutely electrifying music with amazing performances by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. They did what they do best!

I was so looking forward to this concert and so afraid that I might not be able to attend that when it actually happened, it was so surreal for me. Getting concert tickets in Singapore for hot bands is not easy. Tickets get sold out within a matter of minutes once they are open for booking online. And since U2 is the highest grossing band of all times, I had my doubts that I would be even able to book the tickets. To err on the side of caution, I actually became a paid member of the U2 fan-club just because they were offering ticket booking a day early for the fan-club members.

So here I am, a day later, reliving the experience of a lifetime! Grew up with U2, so the band has been the biggest influence on my musical taste. It's amazing that they have been around for 40+ years and still have such a massive fan following. I am glad that they finally decided to come to Asia to perform live. I know that they will also perform in India, in Mumbai, on the grounds of my Engineering college, the place where I sort of heard them first and fell in love with.

Handpan Music

My office is a noisy place. We have open sitting, with everyone constantly talking to each other or on the phone almost all the time. This creates a very difficult environment for me to concentrate and do my work (when I myself am not talking or presenting). I tried experimenting with various kind of background music over the years to cut off the noise without causing more distraction. (Like I discovered you can't listen to songs with words in it and work - you end up listening to the words!).

A few months ago while we were in Tokyo, we heard this guy - Takao Minemoto busking at the train station in Shibuya. We were instantly mesmerized and fell in love with the instrument (and purchased his album then and there! (something I rarely have done with buskers). Since then, I have been exploring the wonder world of Handpan music on YouTube.

My current understanding of Handpan (mostly derived from Wikipedia) is - it is a derivative of an instrument called Hang made by a German company. Its sound is a mixture of sounds that some of the following instruments produce -  Trinidadian steelpan, Indian ghatam, Thai gong and Indonesian Gamelan.

Anyway for the musical bumpkin that I am handpan music is extremely soothing and something that I can listen to anytime to calm my nerves and focus on whatever task I am doing then. If you have never experienced, I would highly recommend you to go listen to it on YouTube now.

Mind over matter

Had the chance to volunteer for "Let's take a walk Singapore" yesterday. It's a long distance walking race with participants choosing to walk 20 KM, 50 KM, 100 KM or a grueling 150 KM. I had the privilege of checking in the 100 KM walkers at approximately their 64 KM mark and the 150 KM walkers at their 110 KM+ mark.

This race is not big, and it is a charity event. So neither does it have much media coverage nor does it have a huge prize money. What this means is that most participants are ordinary people (not athletes). The competitors are like you and me, with a day job, participating for fun and testing their endurance.

Most ultra long distance endurance athletes that I have spoken to tell me this - the muscle groups in the leg that we use for walking are slightly different than running. And long distance walking is way more difficult than long distance running because of the added element of time involved.

Being at a checkpoint where most participants had walked for more than 24 hours before reaching there was a surreal experience for me. These were ordinary human beings with extraordinary will-power. Imagine this. They all had walked a full-day or more under the grueling Singapore Sun. Most were walking alone with no company and only their sheer determination pushing them along. Almost every walker had few blisters on their feet and had blood stained socks. While we as volunteers tried our best to cheer them up and provide whatever basic first aid we had, the people pushed on with their own self-determination.

This event will go down my memory lane as an unforgettable evidence of how ordinary people like you and me can achieve extraordinary things in life.

Almighty Guarantee

So I have had an Osprey day-pack. It's awesome. Period. Can't ask more from a backpack. It has been with us everywhere we have ever been solo or together. So since we bought the bag, it has been to more places than we individually have ever been. It's been 5+ years now of owning the bag, and trust me when I tell you it has been through a lot of abuse. Two instances of crazy abuse are:

1. Once I managed to melt an entire bar of a Macadamia nut milk chocolate inside the bag. It was a sticky gooey mess with ants partying, but I washed it and the bag turned out to look brand new
2. We took it into the sulfur fumed crater of the Ijen mountain and covered ourselves and the bag with crazy sulfur fumes. I threw away my clothes and my shoes, but the Osprey survived and after washing a few times it even lost its pungent sulfur smell

Ijen Crater within the Sulfur Fumes

Naturally after using it for so long I was expecting something to give way. A month ago the "zipper holders" broke. I was thinking now it's time for the backpack to retire. However Osprey gives this "almighty guarantee" which sort of says that Osprey would fix any backpack however old it is for a defect. I was skeptical at first, cause zipper holders are made of plastic and these things eventually do wear out even if there is no defect.

So I was pleasantly surprised that Osprey, replaced all 3 of my zip holders for free no questions asked. Now I have a worn-out Osprey with new zip loops ready for my next adventure! Another reason why my next backpack would again be an Osprey.

Corporate Humanity

A few weeks ago I twisted and hurt my ankle quite bad. I had a business trip lined up right after that fateful day, and I had to cancel it. I had non-refundable tickets so I had given hopes of getting any refunds at all.

Just to try my luck, I wrote to the hotel and to the airline indicating that I am unable to fly because of my medical condition and attached my doctor's medical certificate. I am pleasantly surprised that both of them made an exception, and refunded my non-refundable reservations without any penalties. They were pleasant, responsive and did it without any administrative delays/ hassles to me.

I am amazed and my faith in humanity is restored again. I am glad that there are still human beings on the other side making such decisions (and delighting customers). It's not just an AI engine managing everything!

Thank you Hilton and thank you Air China for being nice to me. I am not a special (read gold/elite/platinum etc.) customer of either of them, yet they treated me well. Emails were responded and calls were picked up!

Entertaining F1

Whoever arranges the Singapore F1 is crazy good at business. While not everyone enjoys race cars and F1, almost everyone enjoys "entertainment". And almost everyone likes to go to live concerts. So if you can't get them to see the cars, then get them to see the concerts. What a brilliant way to make money!

Every year Singapore F1 organizers get musicians to perform at the F1 venue on all 3 days of the race weekend. A lot of big names have visited Singapore in the last decade that they have hosted the night race. While, I have almost completely stopped following F1, I still made it to the race this year, mainly because I wanted to see Fatboy Slim and Red Hot Chili Peppers perform live. Imagine seeing 2 concerts in one day just hours apart, jumping, screaming and head banging! (don't imagine the delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) at my age)

Both concerts were very amazing. Here are my summarized thoughts ;):

Fatboyslim looks like Kevin Costner. I had never seen how he actually looks like, so it was a pleasant surprise. He also happens to be the first DJ act that I saw live. I am amazed at how many things a single person can do with whatever heck of a magical device that DJ Turntable is (yeah I know I am underestimating his talent - you give the same table to me, and all I could probably do is generate a lot of cacophony)

RHCP were amazing. So much energy. 2 hours of non-stop music. They didn't even take a 15 second break between their numbers. The stage was alive the entire time. I am amazed by their energy. All these bands are a constant reminder of how old I am getting and how soon! They were young when I heard them growing up, now they too are a bunch of very energetic uncles!

Collapsible hydration

I am on the road a lot. Not every customer/ prospect treats you like a human being and extends basic courtesy like offering drinking water. Also my job involves me talking a lot. This means that many a times I speak for 3-4 hours continuously, parched, desperately looking for drinking water.

While I have written about a water bottle before, I thought I let you guys know about another bottle that I discovered more than a year ago, has saved me a lot of times and is now my go-to bottle on the road.

So let me define my requirement first - I needed a light weight bottle that I could carry with me everywhere I go. It needed to be small and light. I should be able to stash it away in my laptop bag when there is no water inside it. It had to be leak proof and convenient to carry. The Hydrapack Stash happens to be the best bottle that met my requirements. It is collapsible, leak-proof and is just the right size for me to carry around.

And being the forgetful me, I have actually forgotten it in a few meeting rooms (in different countries) and luckily it has still come back to me! So if you are like me (on the road and don't get water offered to you by prospects), I guess this is your perfect companion for water.

The 8 shoe pair minimalist

After I fell in love with the concept of minimalism, I went crazy and minimized my life aggressively. I threw away/ donated a lot of stuff I had, and I reduced my impulsive consumption to unprecedented levels. I felt good, fulfilled and happy!

Over the years, my spontaneous consumption, however seems to have crept up again. While I have had a very strict policy for my clothes and my accessories (e.g. 1 belt, 1 watch, 1 wallet, 1 phone etc.) I realized that I haven't been mindful of my shoe purchases. Slowly and steadily that number has been rising. Last week, I did a count and now I am at a crazy number of - 8 pairs!

This is how the list goes:

• Clarks - Formal shoes for office
• Timberland - Cold weather shoes
• ASICS - Running shoes
• Reebok - Cross-training shoes
• Merrell - Trekking shoes
• Speedo - Kayaking/ Water shoes
• Chappal - Casual Indian footwear for walking around
• Crocs - Hmm the casual pair that I wear everywhere else

I have been trying hard to rationalize and decide on throwing a few of them. The problem really is - shoe marketers have imbibed in my silly brain that I need a different shoe for every activity. Growing up we just had a pair of canvas shoes that could do everything - from climbing, hiking, walking to running and playing all kinds of sports. As a kid I loved playing badminton and table tennis barefoot. I remember in one inter-school tournament I was specifically asked to wear shoes else they would not let me participate. And I distinctly remember how awful I felt playing and losing that match. Not only did shoes make me feel uncomfortable, but also they made me realize that I had no "feel" of the ground! Gone are the days!

With a heavy heart, I have decided to stick to all my pair of shoes, cause well, as of now I can't find a solution to my shoe conundrum.

The K-pop Uncle

If you haven't figured out by now, let me repeat, I do crazy amounts of business trips. This naturally means I live in crazy number of hotel rooms. Now like every other business traveler, I have  a routine that I follow.

For example, the moment I enter the hotel room, I put all menus, notepads, pens, advertisements, letters etc in a drawer and keep them away till I checkout. I hate clutter. The best hotels are minimalists and do not provide any of this crap. Then I empty my bag and hang up all my clothes. I like to have the false sense of getting "settled".

Anyway, this blog post ain't about that. It's about my new found understanding of East Asian Music. Yeah, one of my morning routines in hotel rooms involves searching for a Music channel on the TV and playing it while I am getting ready for work. Typically, it is either MTV or Channel V. I grew up with MTV. It was "the" music channel for my generation to get to hear the latest music. However, these days I find it more of a reality TV channel and less of a music channel. Maybe because whenever I switch it on, some reality show is going on, and lately I hardly ever have heard music on it.

Channel V still seems to play a bit of music. Anyway for some reason the morning hours (07:00 - 08:00) in most time-zones in Asia seems to have East Asian Music playing. For the ignorant me, East Asian Music mainly consists of these 3 types (don't chide me for inaccuracy and/or ignorance)

K-pop (Korean)
J-pop (Japanese)
C-pop/ Mando-pop/ Canto-pop (Chinese mainly Mandarin or Cantonese)

Of course I don't understand any of the languages. If I try hard enough (sometimes) I can just figure out the language based on their accent/ tones. However almost every music video consists of extremely good looking and overly athletic bunch of girls or guys dancing around and crooning about (what I believe) is - heartache or love (depending on if they are smiling or crying). Being an uncle, of-course I think music when I was growing up was much better. But well that's not the point, every generation thinks so.

Naturally, the curious me, read quite extensively about this East-Asian music phenomenon (strictly for education purposes only). It looks like it's a crazy competitive industry (at-least in Korea) and people compete fiercely and sign away their lives to get those coveted K-pop contracts.

Now just to get you ignorant souls introduced to K-pop, let me show-off my knowledge here. As of now, I know (I can't recognize the band members yet) the following bands:

• BTS
• Blackpink
• Twice
• Girls Generation
• Super Junior

Anyway, a blog written by me, about K-pop can't be complete unless I show you guys a video of Conan doing his trademark string dance and pretending to be a K-pop artist. So here it is:

Unfortunately, I can't name any big J-pop or C-pop bands yet. I am working on it. So next time when you meet me, if I happen to be humming a K-pop number, give me an A for trying (to blend in and be cool and young).

Restroom symbols

So I specialize in admiring restrooms. I have blogged about them time and again, and it seems like they can't stop fascinating me. So here I go with another one.

Rectangular top = Male/ Triangular top = Female

Public restrooms are necessary evils. They are not "design elements" of your building or mall, they are the "required elements". So treat them like one. While I am all for futuristic designs and art, if there is one place where I really hate art is in my restrooms. When nature calls, it doesn't appreciate design, it appreciates efficiency and speed.

I am seeing this new trend of having beautiful and artistic symbols to indicate men and women on restroom doors. If it were an art gallery, I would appreciate. But not while I am rushing to relieve myself. Many a times I am stuck outside staring at restroom doors several times, just anticipating which door should I enter. Imagine the precious moments!

Art does not belong to restroom doors

Besides the traditional male and female symbols (the one with a triangle that indicates a woman), these days I find funny looking hats, dresses and all sorts of symbols that I am expected to interpret. Also, what is this obsession with blue doors for men and pink for women with no other indication whatsoever? What if I can't figure out the color, how am I expected to go in? One time in Japan I was stuck outside a restroom door because the only identification was the Japanese character for Male/ Female. How is a foreigner supposed to know?

And you know the worst offender? One time in a hipster looking restaurant they had a rooster on one door and a cat on another. Go figure!

Go figure!

I think the best rest room doors are where it is written in English - Men/ Gentlemen or better still, they have a picture of a man with a mustache and a beard (like this one I found at the Kerala airport). No confusion whatsoever! If I were to give a "best restroom entrance" award, this toilet would get it for sure.

Men go here - no confusions!