"Biodata"

Dhinesh is currently an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is pursuing his degree in Life Sciences majoring in Bio-medical Science. He will be graduating in July this year and plans to work for a while before pursuing his Master's degree.

Biology is a subject Dhinesh has had a passion for since secondary school and has been good at since junior college. This is a major reason why he chose to pursue a degree in Life Sciences when he was offered a place at NUS. Becoming a Biology teacher is also a career prospect which he is looking at.

Dhinesh considers himself to be a 'well-balanced' individual in the sense that he has managed to incorporate both the Sciences and the Arts into his life. While his academic life has largely been Science based, his love for the Arts has led him to pursue mainly Arts based extra-curricular activities.

Dhinesh has been singing since the age of 7. He has participated in many talentimes and sung in many stage shows. He has represented his secondary school, junior college and even his university in not only inter-school but National level competitions. He is also formally trained in Indian classical music and is at an advanced level of his vocal music training.

Besides singing, Dhinesh is also interested and passionate about other art forms such as drama. He was the vice-president of the Drama & Debate Society in his secondary school and played the baritone as a member of the band. He has also professionally directed a play and co-produced a musical for the NUS Tamil Language Society (TLS). Dhinesh is also an artiste with Mediacorp's TV 12 and is under Mediacorp's Artiste Management Unit (AMU).

Finally, Dhinesh firmly believes that academic qualifications and certificates mean nothing if one does not learn from one's own everyday life experiences.

"The 'Art' of Communication"

Finally... An open topic! A chance to share my experiences and to voice out my opinions about whatever topic I choose. Of course, within the broad scope of the topic of 'communication'.

Communication in itself is an art. I am sure many of us have been through scenarios in which miscommunication has led to some pretty ugly consequences or at the least, left us in an awkward situation. Be it with parents, with friends or even with people whom we could have just met! In fact, I personally remember quite a few incidents in which miscommunication among my friends has led to arguments which eventually get blown out of proportion. When dragged into such sticky situations, I make it a point to remain neutral and take a politically correct stand. It is, however, easier said than done when one is directly involved in such a situation and the person at the other end of the miscommunication is one's own boss!

This particular incident took place about six months ago. In order for one to fully appreciate the gravity of this account, I guess it would only be appropriate for me to give a little background information about myself, the victim of miscommunication. I participated in an Indian talentime a couple of years ago. This was a national singing competition on TV and as such, taking part in it was quite a big deal. It was a hectic period of time in which I had to manage both my curriculum as well as preparations for the competition and I was at the brink of a nervous breakdown. Somehow, I came out of it sane and emerged as the first runner-up. After the contest, there were many opportunities where I was called to sing, act and host on TV shows.

One such opportunity came along when a prominent local producer called me up to sing in his show. Now, it so happened that this was the producer whom I had worked for part-time as an assistant producer before I pursued my degree at the university. He was also one of the judges in the talentime I had taken part in. So, I was thrilled to get a chance to sing in his show. It turned out to be a really interesting experience and I had a lot of fun doing it. A few months down the road, in October last year, I went to visit my ex-boss and my ex-colleagues at my old office and I immediately realized a change in the atmosphere. Everyone seemed a little hostile, especially my ex-boss. He brought me into his office and I immediately got bombarded with questions and accusations.

Apparently, another artiste whom I was not on good terms with, had told him that I had bad-mouthed his working style and his shows. Furthermore, I was accused of speaking ill of his company and his credibility as a judge. This shocked me beyond words as I had never in my wildest dreams even contemplated any of that which I was being accused of. I tried to explain about what had happened from my perspective but he refused to listen. I was told to leave the office and never come back. Presumably, after that incident, I was not called up for any of his shows either. This incident left a real sore spot in me and I became increasingly weary of my co-artistes and what was spoken in their presence. I guess the real question is, was there anything I could have done to avoid this situation?

"Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour"

This topic reminds me of an incident which took place when I was about 10 years old. It was a perfect case scenario in which I was able to evaluate intercultural behaviour in a playground setting.

One of the aspects of childhood which I thoroughly miss would be the innocence. As students of our primary 4 class of 4A, we were an intelligent but wild bunch. We were pretty close-knit and had all our after school play sessions together. As such, it was a usual weekday afternoon and about ten of us were playing in the playground after school. We decided to play 'catch' which happened to be our favourite game. Initially everything went fine as I happened to be pretty good at the game. After a few rounds of successfully maneuvering around the playground, fate finally caught up with me and it was my turn to catch. Things were normal at first as I tried to catch someone or anyone for that matter. Finally, I spotted this Malay girl who also happened to be the prettiest one in class. I remember having had a slight crush on her myself just for her long, flowing hair. Anyway, she had her hair in plaits that day and I took the opportunity to grab hold of a plait of hair as I just missed her shoulder.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Before I knew it, she was screaming and wailing and I had no idea what was wrong. None of us knew what was happening. A few of the Malay boys from our group asked her what was wrong and she whispered something to them. In a few minutes the group of boys came up to me in quite an intimidating manner and asked, or rather barked at me asking why I had touched her hair. The other Indian and Chinese kids exchanged puzzled looks with each other. I was just as puzzled myself. I told them that it was an accident and that I had intended to grab her shoulder. That was when one of the more rational guys in the group stepped forward and told me calmly that apparently guys outside of a Malay girl's family were not supposed to touch her hair. That was when I realized my mistake and I apologized profusely to the girl. She finally relented and after a while we all went home. It was that day that I realized how strongly each of our individual ethnic values are inculcated in each of our lives and how important it is for each of us to comprehend and treat each other's values with respect.