When I went to Singapore last week, it was to attend and speak at a women's conference at Singapore Management University. The conference was the second of what are projected to be five annual conferences in honor of Shirin Fozdar, an important south Asian feminist.

This turned out to be a terrific conference with a terrific group of speakers. The conference organizers and attendees weren't so bad, either. Here's a bunch of us:



The gent in the turban in front is Kirpal Singh, of SMU. He's the fellow who invited me to come, to keynote, and to teach a four-hour class. Thanks!

The conference kicked off with a fund-raiser banquet. This was a fancy affair -- the one that was supposed to be black tie and ball gowns, though my silk jacket and velvet trou carried me through just fine. Seven courses, all served in tiny portions so you could eat and appreciate. The star of that meal was a salted chicken dish with toasted slivered almonds. The cold sweet fruit-based dessert soup was delish, also. I sat next to KP Ho, the Chairman of SMU, who sat next to SR Nathan, President of the Republic of Singapore. On my other side, the son of Shirin Fozadar. Nervous? Me? Yes!! But we talked about politics, New York, and the music that was the entertainment between courses. I did not splash my dumplings back into my soup. In the end, everything was lovely, including my ability to manuever on my high heeled shoes.