The fish stinks from the head…

3.3.2010

The fish stinks from the head…

RTD was recently reported to have been appalled by the way Malaysians drive. This, he discovered during one of his ‘balik kampong’ sessions the last CNY holidays. He took snapshots of traffic offenders from his car and plans to issue summons over their offences. This he discovered after 19 years at the helm of the RTD!

That is the problem, is it not? Day in day out, you can see benign-looking (including young housewives fetching their kids from schools) Malaysians blatantly disregarding traffic rules in broad daylight.

Credit: whiskymoods.com

Does the RTD head not drive to work? Does he go with blinkers? Does he sleep when he is driving around? Come on, wake up! Whatever happens on the roads are your bread and butter. You get paid with a fat cheque of a salary at the end of the month for it (sometimes earlier during the festive season).

Are you like an average “uncivil” Malaysian civil servant whose sole purpose of life revolves around clocking-in and clocking-out, collecting your paycheck at the end of the month and find solace in chit-chatting in the workplace comparing dinner menu and their nocturnal activities! Instead, you should be looking out for ways to improve your department and what it works for, even outside regular working hours.

I suppose I (and my colleagues) were idiots when we were employed as Government servants for 12 years! I thought I would serve others because we were classified servants, just like how my mother was a servant to the colonial masters back in the ’60s! All those missed lunch breaks, missed mandatory midday civil servant tea break, working way past office hours, all those postoperative rounds in the night, the never-ending outpatient clinics and the list go on and on.

I suppose we will live and hope that we will be remunerated accordingly in our afterlife or better karma, definitely not with 40 virgins!!!

simple gesture

13.2.2010

A simple gesture…

Dinner at Govind’s in Klang with Mama and family was the usual stuff with the usual pleasantries, eating and talking. Suddenly, there was a tap on the shoulder. You know that feeling when you are the last to know something. That is the exact feeling I felt that day. People in front of me, facing towards me, were smiling and greeting. Only when I turned around did I realize, to my amazement, that it was my old buddy Samy!

Our friendship had blossomed when we were working together as part of the ‘Hari’s Boys’ in the Surgical department of Seremban Hospital under Mr. Hari Rajah (The Smiling Surgeon). I did surgical elective for a year (Feb91 –Feb92) there. I used to stay the night at his place during my passive call days. I left to do Registrar’s posting in Malacca in April 1992 and we met up again in 1998 when I was in Klang GH as a Consultant O&G and he was an Orthopod. We applied for Sri Kota Hospital together. He got in but I got the boot. That is when I introduced him to Lal to design his stationery for his clinic as well as for his wife, Susan’s practice. Things were initially all lovey-dovey and hunky-dory but took a plunge later. I was roped in to be a mediator, being Susan’s obstetrician. I failed miserably in handing the olive branch, as usual in matters related to arbitrations and that was it. No more phone calls and no more being Obstetrician…

And five years later…

A simple gesture of walking to the table opened the floodgates of hope. We were chatting and later Mama, Shobha and I went over to their table to meet the rest of the family. Everything was cordial and hopefully things will start all over again. Like Timon and Pumba said in “Lion King”, put your past in the behind! A lot of problems in the world would be eradicated by single gestures and burying the hatchet, or am I being naively simplistic?

simone groove...

18.2.2010
Simone Groove… We are all one!
To put in bluntly, posterior excretions of someone as pretty as Aishwarya Rai or Cameron Diaz still stink! Go figure…
makuna hatata!!
(photos snitched from teochewkia blog, thanks!)

Flip, flop, flip, flop…

30.1.2010

Flip, flop, flip, flop…

Recently, the Education Ministry came out with a list of 20 best schools in Malaysia. No surprise for those who guessed that PFS was not it. It is all part of the flip flop policy. Perhaps it is part of the master social engineering strategy.

Before the 1980’s, each major town in Malaysia used their prestigious grammar school. I guess we have to thank the British for this. After watching Avatar, I am not so sure. Again, this is part of British’s greater agenda. In Penang, we had PFS, SXI, and BM High; in Taiping they had St Edwards; in Ipoh, it was Anderson; KL had VI and St. John’s; Seremban had St. Paul and KGV; Malacca had SFI; JB had EC and so forth. These schools had their own proud age old tradition and used to excel in academic as well as extracurricular activities. Entry into these primier schools was reserved only for the outstanding students. Students had pride donning their school colours. After the New Education Policy was set into motion, the power that be decided that the grammar school concept was outdated and was a legacy left behind by the British which was not suitable for a growing nation like Malaysia. Perhaps it was rather not in tandem with their social restricting. So they started on an integration exercise bringing in students from the rural areas to these grammar schools, reorganizing their funds and reallocating their school teachers. Special attention and loads of funds were given to the newly built residential schools which were primarily built to house bumiputra students, all in the name of NEP.

Fast forward 40 years later, now you have the same concept churned by the same jokers, albeit with different name. Special funds and attention will be given to these schools. Just that this time around, none of the original grammar schools are in the list but are replaced by mostly residential schools. (Surprise, surprise)

Flip flop No.2 is the name of the common language of most Malaysians – Bahasa Melayu à Bahasa Kebangsaan à Bahasa Malaysia à Bahasa Melayu. Before independence in the pre-Malayan Union the Malay language was written in Jawi. It was later romanized and for education purposes, there was the Bahasa Melayu for Malay medium students and Bahasa Kebangsaan for the others in schools. After 1970, there was only Bahasa Malaysia to prosper national integration. After the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1978 and the emergence of Anwar Ibrahim in Umno and the self proclaimers of defenders of the race, they decided to reclaim their stake and authority in the language. Hence, it was renamed Bahasa Melayu again till now. Like headless chickens, our education system is running around in circles aimlessly.

N.B. A few days after I wrote this piece, there was an article in the Star on this subject. Guess what, most of the points stated above were stated. Of course in a more refined manner unlike the sarcastic article of mine!

Contradiction of man

3.2.2010

Man, an animal, created by God, is full of contradictions. He will claim to be a vegetarian because he cannot stomach the cruelty of killing animals for meat but has no qualms about abusing the small men, maids, pets or other animals. He will go to great lengths to fulfil his religious obligations but bear the sight or see eye to eye with his siblings or offspring. He will insist that his food must be ‘pure’ (free of any animal contaminants of any kind – be it of trace elements or seasoning) but has no problem throwing food, over-indulging, hurting and traumatising the feelings of the servant who, through his ignorance or feeble-mindedness may have added oyster sauce or shrimp paste to his master’s stirred fried vegetables to earn extra points! He does not realise that his original reason for being vegetarian is to control his innate inner animal desire to be carnivorous. Still, he craves vegetarian chicken, vegetarian mutton or vegetarian prawns. Anyway, all of the above were vegetarian before their demise!

It is like Anwar Ibrahim, who in the 1980s used to be so vocal about Islamization and its implementation but now faces multiple court cases for sodomy. It is like a famous soothsayer in the Klang Valley who is regularly featured on TV predicting the fortune for the country on the birth of a new year and advising people on their horoscope but unfortunately has a miserable family life – married twice, with the second wife being slightly hypochondriac with a histrionic personality. Ironically, he could not predict his own life!

It is like restricting the cholesterol-laden sweet food for an 80-year-old diabetic just to serve these same foods in the prayer of his death anniversary. It is like Moslems proclaiming the greatness of Allah but in the same breath expressing fears of being charmed by djinn, talisman and black magic. It is like in George Orwell’s 1984, where all men are born equal, but some are more equal than others! It is like Malaysia trying to bring back its brains from abroad but has no brains to keep its applications user-friendly. Contradictions…contradictions…

putrajaya night half marathon

8.2.2010

Today is Tunku Abdul Rahman’s birthday – the whisky drinking, horse racing lawyer who took role of Bapa Malaysia and finally founder of Perkim!

Two days ago (6.2.2010), I took part in the inaugural first Putrajaya Night Marathon. I registered for the half marathon whilst Keshav and Tania joined the 7.7km run. All preparations were going on well as planned. I retired for the night Friday by 11pm. Right at stroke of midnight, I had to rush to the hospital after receiving a call after my patient with a 36 weeks’ pregnancy was admitted in labour. After reviewing her, I had to go back to deliver her at 0300h. I came back home at 0330h and only managed to have a short snooze at 0400h.

At 0615h, I was jolted from sleep by a shrieking earth shattering scream from Divya at her mum. There went my sleep – essentially the whole night’s sleep was screwed up!

Then came an exhaustive Saturday morning clinic at KPWC. By 2pm, I was exhausted, forced myself to catch an afternoon siesta but no avail.

Fast forward… 1930h, all three of us were in Putrajaya after taking an arranged bus from Petaling Jaya. The Minister for Federal Territories, Raja Nong Chik flagged the half marathon at 2030h.

So far so good, I thought, everything was going according to plan. The terrain seems flat. 10km went on just fine – I had clocked 1h1m. May be I can pace it up a bit to clock under 2h! By 16km, it seemed quite a bit torturous. I had my first cramp over both Achilles tendons as I was crossing a road at 17km, slowed down a bit. By 18km, it was pure torture. I had the Hobson’s choice of continuing the journey by walking. At 20km, my lower limbs were playing tricks on me. They were going haywire and I was walking like Si-Bongkok in P.Ramlee’s movie. Half a kilometer before the finish line, I managed to continue my run at a decent pace and managed to complete the the half marathon in 2h27m – a total disaster!

To quote Mr. Saber, my rugby teacher, the mark of a true athlete is do well again not just the first time but also the second time around.

N.B. official result: (the last column is time taken to cross the 10km mark)

150 H7009 THAM YEE HONG 02:26:42 2:26:26 0:58:31

151 H7133 ASOKAN 02:27:04 2:26:42 0:53:54

152 H7081 ONE CHEE WAH 02:27:32 2:27:23 0:56:39

153 H7070 YAP SOON MENG 02:27:41 2:26:10 1:03:42

New Balance Pacesetters Malaysia 20km 2010

18.1.2010

The day after that all dreaded 2okm run- which I surprisingly completed and in under 2 hours! 1h 56m to be exact. Never in my wildest dream did I expect to complete the race in that time. Furthermore, after that last disappointing 12km run at Bukit Kiara run where I finished in 1h15m and my car was broken into.

So as usual, strictly under the cloak of secrecy, I registered for the New Balance Pacesetters Run 20km category and trained at my own pace. I did not publicise it to anyone. Only two people knew it – myself and I.

Jitters set in days before the event. Fear of not able to complete the course set in. I invested in Sloan’s liniment, Salonpas and Fastum Gel to prevent joint pains before the onset of run. I cancelled dinner with Mama and Atteh so as to be fully rested before the run.

I got up three or four times on the night before the run. Finally, got up at 4.45am and after a hot shower and application of Fastum Gel over the knees, thighs and feet along with 2 pieces of Marie biscuits and 100plus, I set off on my tour of duty.

The 20km run commenced at 0628h on 17^th Jan 2010 from Padang Merbuk. It was pre-dawn and almost pitch dark except for the street lights here and there. I was thinking to myself, only fools and lunatics like myself will be running around in the dark on a Sunday morning when most sane people in KL and Malaysia would either in slumber land or in a daze after a Saturday late night stupor. But seeing so many other fools like running, I did not feel such a fool. In fact, it rejuvenated me.

I never knew so many roads existed behind Padang Merbuk. The run took me around so many unseen buildings like Istana Selangor, Bank Negara Museum, Army House etcetera. After a few zigzags here and there, I landed on the other side of Lebuhraya Mahameru and a few turns later landed us near Jalan Duta and finally Hartamas. Before I knew it, half of the course had been completed and it was time to head back. That was not too bad, I thought. Heading back was faster than I thought it would.

Ah…it is here…reaching Tugu Negara again. The end must be here soon. Finally with renewed zest I raced to the finishing line. That is when I saw my mobile phone – the time was 0824h. Wow! 1h 56m. A personal feat for a 47 year old man, under 2 hrs, Rifle Range Boy did it again!

N.B. The official time was published as 1h 55m 52s.,position 88/568 overall, 79^th in Jr Vet category.

G7235 Asokan Shamuganathan 01:55:52 79 88