And like the world’s worst well-travelled traveller, I had no plan and no itinerary. I didn’t even know the exchange rate from Dong to Dollar. I spent the morning doing some research and decided on a food tour in an open-air jeep from the Soviet Era. What kind of crazy traveller decides to go on a food tour in a jeep when it’s raining and cold outside? Yes. It’s yours truly.
Sometimes it takes a serious blast from the past to make you realise how far you’ve come from where you first started. Two nights ago, I unexpectedly found myself in Singapore’s Holland Village. I hadn’t been there in years – not since I was an accounting student. It was a popular date spot and I had many flashbacks of my life in my late teens.
The modern day skyscrapers were nowhere in sight. Instead, the streets are lined with old shophouses – some lay abandoned as they decay with the annals of time, whilst others have been preserved and readapted for modern use. The Baba and Nonya Heritage Museum is one of these places. As I walked through the old house that is now a museum, I was reminded of my childhood. I grew up in a shophouse. There is something of an older version of me that I see nestled in the history pages of modern Malacca.
Astrology had been a part of our life since time immemorial. While some tend to put their entire faith upon it, leaving everything to their fate and hoping destiny to drive their chariot of life; some deny it completely and set upon building their own path through determination, hard work and perseverance. But there are very few rare souls like author Dipa Sanatani who can combine the two paths into a single entity: Astrology with Allegory, Fate with Freewill, Destiny with Hard Work.
Astrology has always been a mystery to mankind and while some try to explain (and sometimes deny) it with the concept of science, some use it to read their characters to predict the future, and some even try to fool people with its unethical use. And then there are many others like author Dipa Sanatani who tries to explore the vast subject of astrology through the realm of human experience.
Mithbooks.com still a seedling. But I have full faith it’ll grow into a glorious tree in the future. I have a different vision for the business blog than I do for this blog. I’ll be writing about mythology from all over the world as well as sharing my business philosophy. I’ll be discussing my great-grandfather and grandfather’s entrepreneurial journey as well my own.
Beginnings and endings are two sides of the same coin. As Shradh ends, Navratri begins. As the ancestors return to Pitru Loka, Hindus begin their worship of the Goddess Durga. During Navratri (nine nights), devotees venerate the divine femininity which gives birth to all creation. She is ‘Ma’, the Universal Mother. The festival is celebrated in the bright half of the Hindu calendar month Ashvin.
