Nirvana

After almost four years in Singapore I still come across things that surprise me.  One such featured in yesterday's free sheet, the Today newspaper, over a two page advertising spread.  I consider myself pretty well read, but I have never before come across the term "Columbarium" (from the Latin for a nesting box for doves, for those of you who are interested).  If you don't already know, a columbarium is basically a facility for holding cremated remains and the Nirvana Memorial Garden, which was the subject of yesterday's ad, is a state of the art example.  Described as "Asia’s largest 6-star columbarium", Nirvana is the first privatized memorial park in Singapore and features "full air conditioning, lush carpeting and breathtaking art pieces" as well as lounge sofas scattered throughout the complex, a laser lights and sounds display that you can include as part of the memorial ceremony and a swipe card system to give access to the niches containing the ashes of your loved one.  Perhaps the part of the description that took me most by surprise was the assertion that "Nirvana Memorial Garden is positioned to be a landmark tourist attraction".   

When I think of visiting the last resting place of a loved one, I must confess that I don't think in terms of hotel style lobbies, comfy sofas or tourist attractions, but hey, each to their own.  

I've not written about movies for a while, but one of the two we saw this week has strong links to the mortality theme of this post, and would, in any circumstances, deserve a mention.  The film is Biutiful and stars Javier Bardem as Uxbal, a single father who struggles to reconcile the many conflicts in his life as he lives out his last weeks, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  It was a strange combination of bleak and uplifting and so gripping that when Chris and I talked about it, we could not remember whether it was in Spanish or English.  (It was in Spanish, with subtitles and Bardem received an Oscar nomination for his performance, the first entirely Spanish language performance to be nominated for Best Actor.)  Biutiful is set in Barcelona, but not the Barcelona of Gaudi, smart hotels and long lunches in fancy restaurants.  It takes place in Barcelona's underbelly, a world the tourists never see.  I find myself wanting to tell the whole story in this post, but that would spoil things for those of you who will see it, so I will hold back and leave you with the haiku review contributed by the lovely Chris.

Find intense beauty

not in the city squalour; 

in humanity.