RIFLE RANGE BOY

Thank God I'm in this country, Boy! (Rephrased from John Denver's 1975 hit, Thank God I'm a Country Boy)*     The picture on the left is the picture of a 99 year old man in England who still runs many marathons and is a spokesperson for Adidas (Impossible is Nothing). Sauja Singh was a farmer in Punjab till he retired at 82 and started running as he was bored. He migrated to the UK to live with his son after his wife passed away and there has been no stopping him. He plans to be the fastest in the 100 year old marathon category next year! Today I completed the 2010 Standard Chartered KL Half Marathon (21.1km) in 2h 12m (unofficial time). Thank God I am in this country where I am able to run in this peaceful country. Thank God that the climate is conducive for running and training throughout the year. Thank God that my great grandfather for deciding to volunteer to come to Malaya to work as a bonded labourer, even though he came here thinking that it would a land of...

Life lessons learnt from FIFA World Cup 2010 (under the hypnotizing hum of the vuvuzelas..) A living day is a learning day in the voyage of life. We all sail, somewhere. Some wade along aimlessly, some claim to know the way whilst others follow blindly but there is no Google map to follow.... The destination may be variable but endpoint is the same! Now, what can we learn from the FIFA World Cup 2010. France: if there is no mutual respect between coach (leader) and player (citizens), the team (country) is bound to go nowhere. Just like that, the 1998 world champions fizzled out after the first round with dismal performances. Argentina: do not write off people too easily. Everybody deserves a second chance. In the qualifying stage, Argentina just managed to scrape through as a representative of South America. In the first and second match, they showed the world the  real way to play football, shutting up their critics. Primadonnas never shine: Look at Italy (the last WC winner...

23.6.2010 Plagiarism - acceptable artistic licence? Just listen to above songs, the first one by Rod Stewart (Maggie May) at the 4: 00-minute mark .. and at the beginning of the 80s song by Tamil movies' music maestro Deva in the Movie 'Aasai'. Listen to apparent similarities which are quite obvious even to the tone-deaf or the partially hearing impaired! Of course, the Rod Stewart's song precedes Deva's song, so we know who is copying whom? With the advent of multimedia facilities, the problem of plagiarism is quite rampant, from Ph D. thesis to primary school projects. In India, with so many movies being churning out from their various language studios, it is probably humanly impossible to come out with a freshly brewed new story and fresh new melody with each new movie. Hence, plagiarism is perhaps justified and acceptable as long as it has Indian values and money making (and entertaining). At the end of the day, that is all that matters, is it n...

My humble opinion on the existence of Malaysian Tamil schools is that they should not exist. Period. The presence of these schools in this country is defeating the purpose of disseminating quality education to the masses but gives a false sense of satiety and security to the community. It makes its students 'jaguh kampung' (local champions) with no secure standing in facing the real world. The real world is competing with people of many expertise and background while able to blend and understand each others' whims and fancies. In that aspect, the Tamil schools have failed miserably as it only attracts pupils of a particular community and to top it all, just from particular strata of the society. Let me give you an example. When I was in primary school, I was invariably in the first five top students' of the form without fail without really putting much effort. All these changed when I was placed in PFS, one of the premier schools in Penang. Suddenly, excelling in ...

18.6.2010 High income nation ( வரவு எட்டனா  செலவு பத்தணா ) When I was young, this song used to hit the airwaves quite often on the Red Channel (RTM Tamil radio). Listening to so many voices in the song and the theme on expenditure, I used to visualise members of my father's family (i.e. his siblings) all singing the song! As you know his family comprised 16 children, after give and take! As the song says, times are bad (by the way, I do not remember anybody ever saying that they are in a good time; except James Brown (I feel goooood! That is a song anyway!). It describes inflation and the ever increasing price of daily goods and how different generations blame each other for this fiasco. How is this relevant in today's scenario? Very much so! Now the powers that be say that our country needs to be a high-income nation. All these do not make sense. Everyone knows that in tandem with the pay increase, the price of goods increase as well but unfortunately n...

15.6.10 THE CITY OF GEORGE TOWN, PENANG - (1ST JANUARY 1957) the said Municipality of George Town shall on the First Day of January in the Year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty seven and forever thereafter be a city and shall be called and styled the CITY OF GEORGE TOWN instead of the Municipality of George Town and shall thenceforth have all such rank, liberties, privileges and immunities as are incident to a city." - Queen Elizabeth II I think I will do something different. Why not just put up pictures of old Penang? Anyway, a picture paints a hundred words! On the left is the clock tower, which is situated near the PPC Complex. I think it was erected in 1897 to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria of England. It must be one of the most photographed sites in Penang as those days passenger and naval ships from many parts of the world used to stop and its passengers disembark at this complex. This monument was the first to greet them with per...