Life, as it goes.

R had decided to reserve the day for eating and sleeping mainly because there was nothing else to do. The ship was to reach Singapore harbour at five in the evening, we had the entire day to ourselves so he did what he had decided to and I went around exporing once again the gigantic machine.

One thing I forgot to mention was that every evening the cabin service would drop in a pamphlet which would mention the activities of the day. They had separate activities for the childern too. We used to plan our evening based on the pamphlet. That day's activity included a musical called "Beyond Broadway" which was the reproduced excerpts of the various Broadway hits. I coerced R to come with me to watch it that morning.

The ships auditorium was called The Lido and it had a topless show every night which cost money so obviously we didn't watch it but in addition to that they also had free shows like "Beyond Broadway". The auditorium took my breath away, it was decorated entirely in deep red and had gallery seating which gave an excellent view of the stage without the discomfort of the disturbence of people moving in and out.

The show was amazing, the actors were fantastic and though R did not know much about Broadway, even he was captivated by the music, lights and energy of the performers. They showed excerpts from Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Westside story, The King and I, Chicago, Grease etc. After it ended the actors were introduced.

One by one they walked in with their costumes on and bowed to the applauding audience. The anchor announced their names and countries and spoke a bit to each of them. It seemed rehearsed with rattofied punchlines and jokes but was delivered well enough to bring out the laughter. Just after the actors of the King and I were introduced, walked in the subject of our bet in a yellow leotard of the Cats. R tapped my hand,

"Wohi hai na?"
"Yup. listen."

I could see my chocolate sundae melt in front of my eyes when the anchor announced.

"And this is Ruby N. You would have seen Ruby N in the Karoke pub as well crooning the latest hits."
"Dekha, ladki hai." R whispered, "Maine kaha tha."
"But ... I could have sworn ..." I stopped in mid-sentence as the anchor continued.
"Ruby N is our own Ms. Thailand, right everyone." The anchor thrust the mike towards the audience who roared in agreement.
"So nice of you to agree, most don't and for good reason." the same shrill voice of the subject of our bet who we now knew as Ruby N spoke.
"Oops ..." R whispered.
"Now you know what make-up, wigs and padded bras can do." the shrill voice had changed into a deeper tone, the auburn curls were replaced with a short black crop and out came cups from the earstwhile curved chest to reveal my chocolate sundae ... i mean ... a guy.
"Yesssssss..." I pumped the air, "Dekha." I said in the same tone as R had spoken a few seconds ago.

I gloated with my Chocolate Sundae, I guarantee you there is no other high than a well deserved choclate sundae on the high seas. Cheap thrills R called it and sulked. That afternoon after a heavy totally unbalanced lunch with desserts weighing the majority I went off to sleep, I don't know what R did but he woke me up with a call in my cabin. He had found V and S again.

At five sharp the Singapore skyline came in view. By six we were ready to disembark at the Harbour Front. We exchanged Hotel names and phone numbers with V and S and took a metro to City Hall station where our hotel for the next two days was located. We asked the passenger service desk at the station, our hotel according to him was walking distance so R lugged on to the bigger suitcase, I took the smaller one and we walked and walked and walked, over escalators, in subways, on overbridges, through miles and miles of malls it seemed, to finally reach the hotel exhausted and furious.

Singapore has as much construction under ground as it has above it. Malls are interconnected with subways and tunnels, at no point in time can you confidently say as to what level you are, whether it is above ground or two levels under ground or the second floor of a building. Everthing is very well labelled though, there are toilets at every corner and directions every two minutes, people are helpful too but that cannot reduce the distance can it. Inspite of being used to walking a lot in Mumbai, R was getting impatient and at one point just exited out of a building in warm evening air.

"This is a city of escalators and air conditioning. Its so sickening." he remarked.

Finally after walking a few blocks on a silent and empty sidwalk we reached our hotel to be greeted by a smiling and stunningly beautiful woman. She gave us the very good news that we had been upgraded from two single rooms to a suite. R grinned and I gulped, "Oh oh."

"Do you have any other room available." R said inspite of his grin.
"No sir, we have a conference going on and there is nothing else available. Is there a problem? Maybe you can first see the suite and then decide?"
"Shu kahe chhe?" R asked. (What do you say?)
"I want to first rest my feet. We will think of what to do afterwards." I said, truely tired and just a little curious to see the inside of a suite.

It was indeed fantastic. Decorated elegantly in shades of brown, it had two rooms and a huge walk in closet. Complimentary chocolates, fruits and coffee stood on the side table. Both, the main room had an eight seater sofa and a large working desk complete with connections for a laptop, fax machine and printer and a huge plasma TV. The second room had two single beds, a music system, a night table and again a TV.

"Now what do you say?" R asked.
"I want to keep it. There are two rooms, it will do." I said.

After dinner, I sat on the carpeted floor of the main room, zipping through the various channels totally clueless of the language but still watching with amazement the similarity between our saas-bahu serials an theirs soaps. Especially the music effects and zooming in on each character separately technique and the reality shows complete with glycerine induced tears competition. HBO was playing Ladder 49 which I zeroed on and watched.

R was already snoring in the inside room full of beer and chicken which he believed to be the reward for being my coolie. I don't remember when I switched off the TV and went to sleep on the floor, the only thing I remember was thinking, "I am sleeping in a hotel suite which is bigger than my house in Mumbai."