And all those emotions really were more exciting to me than the actual travel itself
And you could see grandparents flying all the way from Canada to India to visit just the newborn child or some, some other story. Or maybe sometimes somebody has passed away and a friend is flying from a really normal part of the world to see just bid farewell to the friend.
I look forward to interacting with people, that was probably the main highlight for me really – so I, I was with Singapore Airlines for seven years and I became a trainer at some point. And later on, I, I really was intrigued by Singapore’s development in contrast to developing A Isiha because Asia, Asia being a melting pot of different cultures and economies, it’s a place where you see a huge disparity in economic status and how the economic development process has really played out. And coming back to India, where I was from, I rea — I really felt that this the Singapore is doing something right. And I really wanted to figure that out what that is, what’s the secret sauce for Singapore’s remarkable economic prosperity. And I thought if I want to learn about public policy, Singapore is really, it’s, it’s an example to many countries in the world, and that would be the best place to learn that.
And that was the motivation to go, to go back to school and study. Once I was there, it was, it was clear to me that this public policy requires navigating a very delicate space because creating policies is happening in the midst of a lot of stakeholders and how you’re going to do that. How are you going to manage that is a very tricky process. The jury and the practical aspect of it can be really different. And that aspect came out very clearly when I interacted with the civil servants who were present, were there in the cohort with me, so that I learned about not just public policy aspects of how public policy is done, or what’s the best standard practices in public policy, but also the fact that there are so many limitations when a civil servant is working under a minister and how they, you learn certain things in school. And when you have to put them in practice, it can be a completely different ball game.
And the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy is one of the well-known institutions around the world
There are many favorite moments, but the one that really stands out is, is the time when we were invited to, to dinner at, at the, at the homes of different American families. So I went to this, this person’s house and her husband was — her name is Mary and her husband was just recovering from cancer.
And that was their public policy, which is, which is the foundation of the Singapore system
And despite that she invited us and a group for us to a home. And she had a couple of her friends over to help her cook dinner. And that was, that was very touching for me that despite the fact that she has her own complexities to navigate, she was willing to share her home, her time, with somebody else and show them the American way of living.
We made some food together and we, we had conversations about everything that we could possibly think of. And it was, it was a very memorable evening.
While she didn’t originally envision herself becoming an entrepreneur, Nidhi saw a piece in the educational system that was missing – self-confidence.