8.

What I like best about the place I work, is that it doesn't have a Faculty of Arts. Science through and through. Now, judge me not, I would appreciate very much intense discussions on the post-colonial influences on attitudes to the global recession in third-world nations. I definitely miss the great language lessons and studying political theory. What I don't miss are the side effects that come with these. Namely, Fashion.

Now, I have nothing against fashion as long it’s something being discussed on highheelconfidential or splashed across the Bombay Times. I don’t even mind it being discussed by friends while I snatch some well-deserved (ahem) moments of blissful zoning out. I do, however, have a tiny problem if It is your visa into a place, and yes, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at NUS, I’m talking about you!

If someone blindfolded you and placed you anywhere in NUS, you could make out where you were by the average Fashion Sense of people around you. Engineering got a 1, Science a 2, Arts an 8 (those Economics majors bring down the average after all) and Business a 10. So you walked to your Chinese class in jeans, ratty t-shirts, floaters and lugging your school bag with you while designer bags and shoes and dresses float around you. Matching nail polish was a given. In other words, the Faculty screamed, “Welcome Stranger” to you. Well, if cigarette smoke is any welcome (I never figured why the Arts guys smoked more).

No such problems at TIFR! Everyone’s in shades of ratty, with Biology at the “Best Dressed” end of the spectrum (I finally know what those Arts students felt like!), and pretty much everyone else clumped together at the other extreme.

After a couple of months, though, the thing I rejoiced over is now with its own side-effects. Bathing at TIFR is apparently strictly optional. Here’s to my latest fashion accessory. Perfume. Lots of it.