Another two bites the dust*

16th April 2010
Another two bites the dust*…The green green grass of home**…

We cannot be living in the past all the time, can we? Every once in a while we must shake ourselves from our slumber, laurels and the shadow of the past and live in the present tense so that the future will so bright that we will have wear shades!
Another two bit the dust today, one to greener pastures and another to the after world. The former refers to our family friend who got admitted to Harvard for undergraduate studies while the latter refers to my dear friend’s father in law who succumbed to after a long lonely struggle with cancer. 

Dr Goh (third from left) congratulates Ryan

while Avinaash, Michael (second from right),

Dr Coffman and Tan look on

Avinaash Subramaniam is every Indian mother’s dream son except that he does not speak any Indian languages! (Bad words do not count). He excelled academically (13As in 2008 SPM) and had represented his school at national level inter-school debate and international level Science competition among others. He failed to secure a PSD scholarship, so he did his A-level studies in a private college and sat for SAT examinations at his own accord. He performed extremely well in both these his examinations and called to join Harvard (all expenses paid, thanks to US). And there goes another Malaysian heading to the beeline to green pastures, contributing to an additional number to the list of Malaysia losing its citizens to brain drain. Another one bites the dust… Incidentally his sister, three years previously, had earned a scholarship from Bank Negara (she scored 14A’s and was one of the top students in the country) to read Economics in MIT! Malaysia’s loss is US’s gain. Most probably Malaysia has loss its two bright children forever. The final product of an individual is sum product of nature and nurture. In Avinaash’s case he is endowed with good genetic contributions of a Brahmin University Professor in Anatomy, a Ph. D. mother and a famous Deputy Public Prosecutor of the 70s in Malaysia. Nurturing had obviously been beyond compare considering the correct exposure, environment and vibes they drew in the thick of things in Petaling Jaya. Ironic*** that our country failed miserably to identify him as Harvard material! Probably they were more interested in grooming Adi Putras (child prodigy who is now doing direct sales) and Nor Amalina (who obtained 15A’s and failed her English entrance examinations in Cambridge).

Mr Choong Choon Nam (Sasi’s father in law) passed away peacefully after 3 over years' battle with cancer. His last three years had taken a lot of toll on himself and his family, especially his wife. Ever since he was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the gall bladder and given less than 6 months to live, he chose to shut himself off from everybody due to depression. He stayed with his wife in a condominium refusing to meet many of his relatives or go anywhere (even church) till his dying days when he was admitted for internal bleeding. The irony of the diagnosis is that he was given less than 6 months to live in mid 2007. Mr Choong was so disappointed that he would be missing his 2008 China Olympics. Not only he savoured watching his China Olympics, he lived just 2 days short of his 79th birthday 3 years later!
Every dead man has a tale to tell. At the “wake” prayers before the cremation, I learnt about his life and times till adulthood. He grew up in KL, was bought a ticket to Perth. He managed to enroll himself into an Australian school and went all the way to study Engineering in University of Western Australia! Having a degree in Engineering was a formidable achievement in the 60s and was given a post to work in the Penang Ports. He met his future wife (Annie, a Kirby trained teacher) and started working to develop Port Klang as the leading port in Malaysia and the rest as they say is history. His 3 children all did their tertiary educations in Australia keeping up with the family tradition. Equipped with this asset, his 2 sons decide to relocate to Hong Kong and Australia respectively – again brain drain. His 4 grandchildren would also probably land up in a university in Ozland to keep up with the family tradition. 
In these two instances, the common denominator seems to be the story of immigrants coming to Malaya, working hard building and improving its economy, upgrading themselves economically and intellectually; but their offspring heading away from this country to greener pastures and continue to do what their parents did a generation before in their newly found motherland. What we see now is another wave of immigrants to fill this vacuum and the cycle will continue. Malaysia appears to be a favourite stopping point for immigrants and refugees, from Indians to Chinese to Vietnamese to Indonesians to Rohinyas to the so called students from Nigeria. When is Malaysia going to prosper and be a force to be reckoned with if it continually run by immigrants who have one leg in Malaysia and the other in the parent country?

*Another one bites the dust – Queen (1980)
80s hit by the great band Queen, led by Fred Mercury (a.k.a. Farrokh Bulsara). Did you know that he is of Parsi origin (of Zoroastrian belief), born in Zanzibar grew in Mumbai and then settled in the UK at the age of 17? And during the administration of chest compressions during CPR, to maintain the recommended rate of 100 compressions per minute, it is advised to think or hum this song as the bass line of this song is at such a rate! What a morbid song to hum when you are trying to save somebody!
**The green green grass of home – Tom Jones (1956)
***Ironic – Alanis Marisette (1996)
One of the lines in the song says, “isn’t it ironic that it rains on your wedding day?” Of course it may be suitable for southern California but not in Malaysia as it rains almost everyday here. It is a good omen if it rains on your wedding day. On my big day, however, it not only rained but it poured cats, dogs, elephants and everything in between. The musicians and well wishers were all stuck in traffic and the bride was almost whisked to the wrong wedding hall. Miraculously everything cleared soon and the ceremony went on to finish on time. All's well ends well. But it is ironic that one hand we are talking about brain drain but on the other hand we let our sons and daughters born and bred here just keeps slip sliding away… That’s another song by Simon & Garfunkel. The bottom line is we are not part of the country's social engineering. I get the feeling that I am a rash that does not want to go away!