The view from my window is really lovely amidst lots of green lawns, stand lovely tall trees….. very very tall magnificent pine trees….. lots of them. In the beginning I was quite confused because I always associated pine trees with cold places and places which had snow….. not tropical places but then my knowledge of geography was always very bad. In school I managed to sleep through most of the classes occasionally pinching myself back to reality to avoid being thrown out of class. Coming back to pine trees….. it was amazing to learn later, that these trees have been planted rather painstakingly by the authorities. The pine trees cover the whole landscape and it is difficult to imagine the area without these monstrous giant trees.

The forest area is restricted to places like Jurong which have been converted to zoos. The rest there are lots of trees that are transplanted from one place to the other. A lot of this stuff is done in India as well. This involves uprooting the fully grown, deep rooted trees and replanting them in other places usually in case of building of new roads. No trees are ever cut and thrown off.

Usually they are given a lot of support with timber all round to prevent uprooting due to strong winds and soil erosion due to heavy rains both of which are pretty common occurrences usually done under the supervision of a horticulturist who over sees the whole operation until the tree is able to breathe and live on its own. It is easy to plant a seed and then wait for it to grow. A sapling is also not difficult given the right water, temperature it grows to its fullest or at-least to the desired level but trees which are not native to a certain region require a lot of precision and only a horticulturist specializing in the field would have the necessary knowledge. I am told that a whole team is on regular rolls just for this purpose.

I wonder what it would take for people uprooting themselves from other places in the world and then adjusting to a place so different from theirs. Like the pine trees it is difficult to imagine the place without them. But how do these people adjust to an alien land so different from theirs and make it their own……… and most importantly how do they withstand the storms and lightning……….. guess it would require more than a horticulturist to answer this question. Just one thing……… amazing life skills……. which I don’t possess and have yet to master !!!!

Just finished reading JP……… what a crappy book!!!! The beginning of the book is actually the end of the story. The book starts from the middle and the end…….. well it is just the end. The book is actually written like random pages from the diaries of ten characters of around five to ten incidents of their lives and their perception of the situation. The book is a jig saw puzzle that you have to piece together and form a story. Is this some kind of revolutionary writing??? I have never read anything like this before and I wasted 4 days on this crap!!!! Maybe she should restrict herself to writing non fiction on perceptive analysis on situations.

After reading stories of horrors of tortures on humans in Afghanistan (JM) and then in Pakistan (TD). I am off any kind of books other than MILLS AND BOONS. Now these books are predictable……. boy meets girl…… fall in love and then happy ending………. always happy ending unlike the crap i read these days. You ALWAYS close the book with a smile on your face. So when we went back to the book rental and hubby honed into Anne frank’s diary……. I put my foot down…….. I am not reading holocaust now !!!! What is it with reading torture tales from different countries……… Why trouble an already troubled soul??? I have had enough of anti human right books. It is just mbs for me……. forever…………. at-least till I am done with honing my LIFE SKILLS.