I am not ashamed to say this. As I was growing up, I used to ask myself why I was born an Indian. In Malaysia, the stereotypical casting of an Indian was that of a poor, unkempt, poorly educated, loud, smelly, hot-tempered and drunk. They are assumed to be dark-skinned and occupy low-ranking menial jobs. They were often the butt of jokes in social circles and even on the national TV.
Our perspective and values are formed by the association we keep with, so thought Amma. Coming from a Tamil school background but cutting short her studies after primary school for being born into the wrong gender, she had a very negative opinion of vernacular education. In her mind, the way forward is mastering the lingua franca of the most expansive Empire of her time, English.
My sisters and I could only speak English when we stepped outside our flat. We were not to show others that we knew Tamil, as that would, in her own words, draw unsavoury characters. These people would skew our minds away from our one purpose in life: to secure excellent academic results. She did not want us to know about the latest Tamil movie star antics or the latest fashion in India. By mixing with non-Indian peers, she thought positive values on education and self-improvement could be inculcated.
On the other hand, within the confines of our home, as if having a split personality, she would insist that we converse in Tamil, practise Indic practices, and be well-versed in Hindu culture. She was quick to condemn others of other ethnicities and races as being lost. In her mind, our ancestors had it all right, and we should follow without asking too many questions.
As curious minds, my sisters and I would not consider all her nonsensical practices gospel truths. Once, we were told that it was a time of lunar eclipse. Amma told us to finish dinner and go to sleep early. We should not be outdoors or engage in strenuous activities. Questioned why, she told us that the Goddess who had been holding the planet for so long had become tired. She wanted to take a breather, hence the temporary darkness. So, we should refrain from mocking the Goddess by doing work when she is exhausted.
Rubbish, I told her, as my teacher had taught me the day before about planetary positioning and eclipses. It was one of her relaxed days. She did not get upset but told me and my sister that we were all too smart for our pants. Our ancestors were not stupid.
Of course, we grew up imbibing the best of both worlds—learning the sciences and trying to scientifically explain the seemingly unscientific ancient Hindu traditions.
EV Ramasamy, at a time when his social reform lectures pushed the South Indians to earn self-respect, made a working trip to Malaya. In his address to the migrant Indian workers, he told them to leave all their traditional beliefs behind and learn from the locals and progress. He said, after all, their motherland had failed them. She could not sustain them and pushed them away to new shores. Rather than be sentimental about the whole thing, he advised them to emulate the other ethnicities from Malaya in earning self-respect, women empowerment and wealth.
It even makes sense in the 21st century, specifically in 2024.
The world has not changed much since the last time terrifying sirens were heard over Europe, followed by bombarding warplanes. It is still not a peaceful place. Economic migrants are still floating as they have been throughout the years. Wars, famine, and persecution push people from their borders. After settling down amidst many difficulties in host countries as guests, one would expect them to be eternally grateful to their host nations. Heck, no, at least the current wave of immigrants.
Like Amma, who thought her newfound country and its inhabitants were a notch lower in the civilisational hierarchy, these 21st-century immigrants run down their host. Instead of appreciating their kindness for helping set home in a new place after creating a cesspool of their country of origin, they sing praises of their motherland and their own civilisation, creating unrest in their host countries. Essentially, they want to bite the hand that feeds them. Like vultures scraping every sinew and cartilage off the carcass, they want to leave their host nation a barren wasteland as they did theirs.
There I was, minding myself performing my daytime duties, when someone approached me.
"Excuse me, where can I meet Mr Rajeev?"
I scratched my head thinking, "Rajeev, Rajeev…?"
"Sorry buddy, can't help you there. Don't know any Rajeev."
Then it hit me. Of course, Majid. Before Majid was Majid, in another life, he was known as Rajeev.
"Oh yes. I remember now. Ranjeev is on the 1st floor. He is now Majid." I told him.
Then I left the place thinking…
A name is for the convenience of others to pick us out of the 8 million people on Earth. If Majid is comfortable with his new name, so be it. We should respect it. It, in no way, changes who Rajeev or, for that matter, Majid is. In the imagery of Avicenna's flying man, he is who he is.
A new name does not exclude the follies of the previous past, just as Pakistan came to discover. Wanting to carve itself out of the perceived vagaries of its motherland, it realised it could not disentangle itself from the shared history with ex, no matter how much it detects.
During the Great Game era, Imperialists sliced much of Africa for personal consumption. Imagine, Cecil Rhodes even named a vast piece of land after himself, which years later became a country. Of course, descendants of the initial inhabitants of Rhodesia renamed their country Zimbabwe, after the stone enclosure they used to live, after Independence. After years of being inadvertently referenced to the poultry industry and the colloquial term of a moron, Turkey applied to have its name, or its spelling, altered. Türkiye, as it was written in its Latin script, has become the official name. As we know, Türkiye, in its zest to modernise after the fall of the sick man of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, chose a Latin script over Arabic. That explains the umlaut over its 'u'.
Konark Sun Temple
Nobody chose to raise the alarm when Czhechia (Czech Republic,1993), Myanmar (Burma, nee Brahmadesh, 1989), Eswatini (Swaziland, 2018) and even Netherlands (Holland, 2020) changed their names.
The World suddenly looked up when a dinner invitation card to G20 delegates read letterheaded from the President of Bharat, not India as commonly known. To the rest of the World, the name Bharat reminds them of the nationalistic RSS's desire to reinstate India to its ancient name, as mentioned in the old scriptures. To the nationalists, this exercise of renaming old names is a branding exercise to spur its citizens' sense of patriotism. The leftists, who missed the nostalgic days of Fabian Society card-carrying Pandit Nehru, decry the majority's dominance over the minority and the oppressed. In their minds, this move reaffirms their belief that the ruling party is ultra-nationalist, Islamophobic and Hindutva in ideology in wanting to create a Hindu Rajthra.
A bit of context here. In Indonesian and Malay languages, the word for west is Barat. Since Bharat was a civilisational icon in those days and was situated west of the Malay archipelago, the term 'Barat' was assumed west. Article 1 of the Indian Constitution starts with 'India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states.' It denotes that both names are interchangeable. A name is for others to use. What others decide to call us sticks with us. Back in the day, the people on the West of the Sindhu River, i.e. Persians, had a problem with the letter 'S'. It simply did not exist in their language. They would refer to the people on the other side as Hindus. This is further exemplified by how they address their God, Ahura Mazda. The people in Bharat also have Asura and Deva. Both their belief systems were not much different - fire temples in Zoroastrianism and Agni pooja in Hinduism. Asura became Ahura.
A rose, by any other name, smells as fragrant. A lotus, irrelevant to where it grows, appears as pristine. India, or Bharat, will stay as chaotic, colourful, and opinionated as ever, with much culture and wisdom to impart to the World. With its newfound zest, it is going places, including the Moon and the Sun. The name change is merely a branding exercise to remind the World that it catching up after missing the bus that brought the World's first two Industrial Revolutions involving steam and coal, respectively.
P/S. Thanks to Aman for instigating me to write up this piece.
Rose Island (L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose, Italian;2015)
Director: Sydney Sibilia
The idea of a nation is something relatively new. Before the advent of 'print capitalism', no law prevented one person from sojourning another part of this God's wide world. People of a shared ideology or values would congregate to live according to their pre-set societal norms. These 'imagined communities' as described by Benedict Anderson, are created when a sufficient number of people share the same language, live in the same geographic space, adhere to the same religious faith or cultural tradition, decide to live together. A nation is born when enough people identify with it. The printing press legitimises the birth of nations.
It is interesting to note that language was instrumental in developing nationalism at the infancy of the printing press. In the 21st century, however, political Islam seems to have transcended all borders. Brothers of Islam quiver when their blood brothers in a land half a globe away are wronged. However, they would not bat an eyelid for their fellow citizens in the same predicament just because of their differing faiths. It seems Islam transcends all nations.
Tourist hub
With nations came the power to control their citizens. Rules are set. In return, the government promises to defend its subjects from outside interferences. The nation-state is permitted to collect funds to ensure the smooth running of the people's life. Citizens are expected to conform, and their way of thinking is moulded, but what can be printed and broadcasted.
Rose Island
'Rose Island' is based on a true story of an eccentric Italian engineer, Giorgio Rosa, who built his own island in 1968 because he would not conform to ridiculous rules and regulations of the land. In a frenzy, after seeing a billboard advertising for workers on an oil rig, he jumped on the idea to erect a concrete platform off the international water territory off the coast of Rimini in the Adriatic Sea.
With a ragtag team of a war deserter, a pregnant teenager and a bored club promoter, the platform became a hot tourist spot drawing international travellers. The problem arose when they applied for nation status via the United Nations. Everything came to a grinding halt when the Italian government brought it down with dynamites. It is said that Rose Island remains the only nation to be attacked by the Republic of Italy.
The idea of creating a separate nation reminds me of the antics of Swami Nityananda, a fugitive godman who has built a new country of Kailasa, off the coast of Ecuador, with its own flag, currency and passport.
The only remaining remnant of existence of Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj
The idea of freedom brings us to the 1960s when it mattered to the powers-that-be transmitted over the airways. At a time when governments were churning out propaganda news to go one up against their opponents across the Iron Curtain, there was a pressing need to transmit away from government control. Radio Caroline, one of the most popular radio broadcasts of the 1960s, was broadcast from international waters using different ships. When small record companies with spanking new brand avantgarde music hardly got airtime, this independent station is Godsent for the younger minds to explore more unexplored frontiers in music.
May 4th Movement Tiananmen Gathering 1919; a turning point in Chinese history.
It seems biological warfare does not just mean sending anthrax spores or releasing serine gas at a railway station. It had evolved to something quite specific to the intended victim.
Like in the latest James Bond offering, like how Spectre had perfected the art of individualising weapons against its enemies, some conspiracy theorists believe that the emergence of the Wuhan virus is one step closer towards this end. The constant mutation of this RNA virus at such neck-breaking speed all through alpha to zeta variants in a matter of years further cements their arguments.
When the western world decided that facial recognition software does not work well, in came the Chinese with a technologically functional system so advanced that it puts shame on the Western stereotype that 'all Chinese faces look alike'!
The condescending look of the world (read West) probably reached its zenith after the 1919 Versailles Treaty. After dismantling the Chinese dynasty and fighting an uphill battle with opium addiction, the Treaty sealed the last nail on the coffin at a time of turmoil. Even though China was aligned with the Allied Forces, she got a raw deal. She had the area around the Shandong peninsula, German holdings before WW1, assigned to their mortal enemy, Japan.
The time after that was of great upheaval; the age-old Confucius styled civil service entrance examinations were revamped, the May Fourth Movement, political and cultural revolution and finally Communist China came to being to restore China's past glory. At every turn, the world viewed China hawkishly as a despotic, third-world godless country that does not respect human dignity.
So when the world foolishly thought that China could be cajoled to perform the Western world's menial and laborious chores, China jumped at the opportunity. Slowly, on the sly, it improved its human capital.
Zheng Ho, the 1400s
After a century of slumber, the dragon has awoken. The ugly duckling has turned into a swan. Suddenly their brilliance shines the world over. If the club of space-venturing countries thought going to the moon was unproductive, China shocked everyone by approaching the moon from the dark side.
The fear of 'Yellow Peril' is ignited once again by people who tend to be negatively affected by the rise of the sleeping dragon. Will they repeat their previous feat in the early 15th century when their fleets explored the four corners of the world, including the New World, almost a good 90-over years before the European looters?
At a time when tranquillity is a distant memory and race politics is rearing its ugly head, it is only appropriate that we re-evaluate our stand on what it is to be a Malaysian. Does it encompass only the majority of people of a particular ethnicity who dominate most fields, as determined by the country's social engineering policies? Does it refer to the earliest occupants of the country? Does being a Malaysian mean being a Muslim only? What happened to all the people who sacrificed their hearts and minds for the nation all this while? Their “blood, toil, tears and sweat” mean nothing?
To the pea-brained who insists that Malaysia is only for Malay-Muslims and the rest are most temporary occupants of the land who should be thankful for their temporary occupation, read this.
The Dass legacy: Soldering on
By Adrian David
June 14, 2021, New Straits Times.
Flying Officer (Rtd) David Samuel Dass in his Royal Air Force uniform during War War I. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
KUALA LUMPUR: "No one is a man, until he has been a soldier."
This is one adage the Dass family firmly believes in - for four of them have collectively clocked an impressive 110 years of service for the nation.
Their foray with the armed forces began with their patriarch - Flying Officer (Rtd) David Samuel Dass who had served with Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War I .
Then, David's son Warrant Officer II (Rtd) William David Dass continued the family's tradition with the Malaysian Army.
In later years, William's sons Maritime First-Admiral (Rtd) Christopher Ravindran Dass and Brigadier-General Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass donned the uniform.
Dr Alexander, who is due to retire on May 4 next year upon reaching 60, was promoted to a 'one-star' general recently and is serving as the maxillofacial surgeon and department head at the 94th Armed Forces Hospital at Terendak Camp in Malacca.
Warrant Officer II (Rtd) William David Dass flanked by his sons Capt Christopher Ravindran Dass (right) and Colonel Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass after laying a wreath on Warrior’s Day at the cenotaph in Penang in 2011. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
He is just among a handful of medical specialists in the discipline with the Armed Forces.
Dr Alexander told The New Straits Times that it was the wishes of his grandfather David to have at least one 'son' in each generation of their family, to serve with the armed forces.
"There was no force and we took it upon ourselves to put our foot forward, when the nation really needed able-bodied youths during the difficult and trying years," said Dr Alexander, who hopes his nephews or grandchildren would continue with the tradition.
Recalling David's service, Dr Alexander said his grandfather had served with the RAF's 63rd Squadron as an officer from 1916 to 1920.
"He saw action in the Mediterranean and against the Turkish Army in Mesopotamia (Iraq).
"His foray earned him the British WW I 'Victory Medal' and a 'British War Medal'.
"David opted out of service after his stint with the RAF and went into business, before moving to Malaya in 1930," said Dr Alexander, who is married to Khasturi Bhai Muniswaran, a former CIMB banking executive.
William had joined the Police Volunteer Reserve as a 16-year-old.
In 1954, he became a Junior Civil Liaison Officer (JCLO) and was posted with the First battalion Royal Malay Regiment based at the Lintang Camp in Sungai Siput, Perak.
"He was tasked with gathering information on the movement of the Communist Party of Malaya's (CPM) movement in the area.
"Dad often related to me his encounters with the CPM terrorists deep in the jungles of Malaya.
"Among his tales were how he had to sleep with the bodies of his dead comrades, until they were safely retrieved to be given a burial with honours," said Dr Alexander.
In 1955, William was among those from the Royal Armour Regiment who were deployed during the 'Baling Talks' in Kedah, between the Malayan government and CPM leader Chin Peng.
During the First Emergency period of 1948-1960, William was tasked with tracking down and monitoring the movements of another CPM leader, C.T. Perumal.
In 1962, William was chosen to serve under the United Nations peace-keeping mission in Bukavu, Congo.
In 1970, William also served as the chief staff assistant to the Malaysian defence adviser at the high commission in London, Britain.
He retired as a Warrant Officer II, after 29 years of service in 1980.
Dr Alexander said his elder brother Christopher had initially joined the Royal Malaysian Navy in 1980 and rose to become a commander.
Warrant Officer II (Rtd) William David Dass (second from left) with his fellow comrades and British expatriate children in Congo in 1962. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
"In 2005, he was among the pioneer batch of officers and men in the newly established Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), starting off as a captain.
"He went on to serve as commandant of the MMEA Academy in Kuantan, Pahang before retiring in 2019 after almost 40 years of service," said Dr Alexander, who had completed Form Five at the Penang Free School in 1979.
A few years later, he earned a Public Service Department scholarship to pursue a bachelor of dental surgery degree at the University of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan.
He was cited on the Dean's list and was the first Malaysian to win a gold medal there, for his excellent results upon graduation in 1991.
Upon his return, Dr Alexander was seconded to the Ministry of Health and served at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for about two years.
"In 1993, I chanced upon the opportunity to serve with the Armed Forces Royal Medical Corps as a dental officer.
"I accepted a commission as a captain and was duly posted to the 2nd Battalion Royal Ranger Regiment at the Tambun Camp in Ipoh, Perak," he said.
Five years later, he attended a staff officer's course in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan and won the commandant's prize for his thesis on total quality management.
"In 2000, I was offered to purse a four-year post-graduate degree in oral maxillofacial surgery at University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
"In late 2005, I was the facial trauma surgeon with the Armed Forces team despatched on a humanitarian mission to the earthquake mission in Battagram, Pakistan," he said.
In 2009, he was the Malaysian Medical Commander (MMU-7) with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso), tasked with assisting and treating military observers and land mine victims.
"Part of my job entailed me to undergo an airborne course to complete the compulsory eight static-fall parachute jumps off an aeroplane.
"With Terendak Camp as the home of the Army's 10th Para Brigade, my 14 years there helped me to better understand the stress and strain of the soldiers," said Dr Alexander, who earned the unique maroon beret worn by elite commandos who are a key element of the Armed Forces' Rapid Deployment Force.
Brigadier-General Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass with his wife Khasturi Bhai Muniswaran. - Pic courtesy of Brig-Gen Dr Alexander Amaradran Dass
He added that to earn the maroon beret, he had to undergo a myriad of strenuous exercises and trainings for about two solid months.
"These included the 'Pegasus' survival exercises which were tough ordeals both in the jungles and at sea.
"My first airborne jump over 2,000 feet in 2007 was truly an exhilarating experience, as I managed to avoid hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes," he said.
Dr Alexander was also exposed to joint military exercises with Indonesia, Australia and the United States' armed forces, apart from the regular combat exercises with the 10th Para Brigade.
"Having the opportunity to train with foreign armies was always a unique experience as it allowed me to share and exchange knowledge with them.
"It also certainly strengthened our camaraderie," said Dr Alexander, who has special interests in dental implantology, laser and facial trauma.
Owing to his vast experience, Dr Alexander was roped in to initiate diploma courses for dental staff assistants at the Armed Forces Medical Institute in Malacca, as well as ensuring that the 94th Terendak Hospital was of an international-class medical facility to adequately for soldiers.
He paid tribute to the gallant officers and men of the Armed Forces who toiled to safeguard the sovereignty of the nation.
To improve his communication and leadership skills, Dr Alexander is actively involved in Toastmasters International.
"I owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the Armed Forces leadership for their confidence and trust in me to fulfil my responsibilities as a doctor and an officer.
"I am privileged and fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to further my studies and career. I have no regrets donning the uniform as it had provided abundant opportunities and possibilities to advance myself. I realise that this country of ours is a land of prosperity and generosity, of strength and unity, of opportunity and work," he said.
As curious minds, my sisters and I would not consider all her nonsensical practices gospel truths. Once, we were told that it was a time of lunar eclipse. Amma told us to finish dinner and go to sleep early. We should not be outdoors or engage in strenuous activities. Questioned why, she told us that the Goddess who had been holding the planet for so long had become tired. She wanted to take a breather, hence the temporary darkness. So, we should refrain from mocking the Goddess by doing work when she is exhausted. 
