Aummm…Shri…Sound…Music!

21.5.2010

Aum…Shri…Sound…Music!

In most cultures, music is synonymous with joy, celebration, victory and worship. In Indian folklore, I have heard of divine music healing the moribund and maybe raising the dead. Probably, only in the Indian (particularly South) subcontinent do you have songs sung to denote melancholy, tragedy and helplessness!

No wedding, birthday celebration, church service, temple prayers, funfair, circus, street celebration or even sports event is complete without music accompaniment. Hence, one can say that the story of music is the story of the evolution of mankind itself. Now, have you heard of the Dark Forces using their subtle ways to pull us over to the Dark Side?

From the turn of the 20th century, people have associated certain music with Satan's dark forces. Islamic fundamentalists like the Taliban also link music to evil, as it is addictive and hinders mankind from fulfilling their obligations to God. Hence, radio transmissions in Taliban Afghanistan can only comprise Quranic recitals. When 'Rock and Roll' started rolling into our radio transmissions, purists started preaching on moral decadents, Armageddon, and so forth. Elvis Presley (The Pelvis) was condemned for his socially unacceptable gyrating pelvic movements. Publications of negative news on singers' behaviour further flared up the hell-like flame of despair, e.g. with the spread of tabloid information like Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his 13-year-old first cousin and John Lennon announcing, in 1966, that at the time, the Beatles was more famous than Jesus Christ!

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity." - said John Lennon in a 1966 interview.

In that era, the news was rife with certain Beatles songs (if played backwards) that would glorify drugs and the devil. Their association with the mystical cultures of the East gave the Believers a field day at their assault. (e.g. Lucy in the Sky of Diamond and LSD, Let it Be refer to the carefree attitude after indulging in drugs –Mother Mary denoting a colloquial term for heroin etc.) Soon after the flower power days and its sexual liberation came the lack of inhibition days of punk rock and the decadent behaviour of the heavy metal bands.

The phenomenal successes of certain songs were attributed to the fact that their performers have sold their souls (pun not intended) to the devil! In this category are songs like Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin), Heaven is a Place on Earth (Belinda Carlyle) and The Ballad of Yoko (Beatles)- where the lyrics mention 'They are going to crucify me'.

In 1978, a country-rock band named 'Eagle' led by Don Henley, came up with a massive hit song called Hotel California. This song has stood the test of time and has remained evergreen and a classic to date. Its melodious catchy song and equally skilful guitar work make it one of the most popular songs of the 20th century. Well, and okay. Do not ask the naysayers…. They will have a different story to tell you!
Here is the story now…

Apparently, the whole song and album cover are about Satan worship! The band members are allegedly members of the Church of Satan, situated in the Navajo desert in California, commonly referred to as Hotel California by its members. The album cover supposedly depicted a picture of a hotel lobby with the image of the founder of the Church of Satan (Anton LaVey). In the song, they sing of decadent lifestyles, drugs and human sacrifice (? cannibalism). Let us peruse the piece…

"Hotel California"

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy, and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
'This could be Heaven, or this could be Hell'
Then she lit up a candle, and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

It is alleged that they are talking about a confluence of its congregation at their church in the Navajo desert, coming from all over the country.

Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here
Her mind is Tiffany twisted; she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

Is this about cross-gender dressing, decadent lifestyles and drug addiction?

So I called up the Captain,
'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since 1969'
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Wine refers to the Holy Spirit. 1969 is the year of the establishment of the church of Satan. The voices refer to sacrificial souls?

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis

Alibis – new intakes?

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said, 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device.'
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Are they talking about drugs, amphetamines? Killing the body, not the soul, the Holy Spirit?

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax,' said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave!'

The Eagles have categorically denied all of the above. It is supposed to be telling about the changing materialistic American lifestyle. To quote…
Members of the Eagles have described the album as a metaphor for the perceived decline of America into materialism and decadence. In an interview shortly before the album's release, Don Henley said:

This is a concept album, there's no way to hide it, but it's not set in the old West, the cowboy thing, you know. It's more urban this time (. . . ) It's our bicentennial year, you know, the country is 200 years old, so we figured since we are the Eagles and the Eagle is our national symbol, that we were obliged to make some kind of a little bicentennial statement using California as a microcosm of the whole United States, or the entire world if you will, and to try to wake people up and say 'We've been okay so far, for 200 years, but we're gonna have to change if we're gonna continue to be around.'

In the meantime, let the conspiracy theories come and go while we sit down and enjoy the music without a care in the world while the world outside cracks its head about nothing. Let there be eternal peace …Aum……………. Om, Shanti, Shanthi, Shanthihi….

Going somewhere?

19.5.2010
Going somewhere? Anywhere but India!

Warning: Readers’ discretion and common sense should prevail. This description is of personal nature and is not a travel advisory and should be used as a guide under any circumstances! And Indian Tourism Board should not be offended by this article as it not directed at them and I am sure it must be administered by level headed officials .
After 47 years of living on planet Earth, I have not stepped on Indian soil and do not plan to do it in any near future. Why not, you may ask. Why should I, I ask.
I am Malaysian, born, bred and hope to die here in my motherland (tanah tumpah darah ku). I will go there when I want to go there, i.e. when there is a calling. From young, all the teasings and name calling must have left its effect on my psyche. Even in the mid twenties after burning the midnight oil and burning the candle at both (or if possible at three) ends and toiling day and night to successfully complete medical studies in USM, when people see an Indian doctor they would invariably ask, “So, you studied in Manipal, ah?” Maybe it is because I do not look intelligent or the charisma that I lack or the X factor that is sorely missing! Still it is a sore point.
Why visit India? The temples? Well, sages say God is everywhere, even in the tiniest of the crack and our heart. So, why go so far to worship God. Mother Theresa once said that God lives amongst the poor, so why go to a temple where the priest do a 8-hour shift counting money and donations received by the temple. Furthermore, this particular temple has a branch in Malaysia.
Why visit India? The people? We have of Indian expatriates for us to see if you want to. They also look like us. The poverty? Do you really want to spend so much money to see poverty? We have it in our own backyard. Or do you want to see it to show gratitude to your ancestors who through their foresightedness had immigrated to Malaya?
Why visit India? The food? Really? Have you not seen enough people walking around with two important things close to their body? Their passports for fear of being duped or pick pocketed and their mineral water bottle for fear of tropical sprue. That too, the seal on the mineral water bottle cap had to be checked to eliminate possibility of tap water contamination or recycling of bottles.
Anyway, scenes from Makkal TV are real turn offs to visit India. If you insist, there is always Discovery Channel to view the edited views of India. As for me, I am still waiting for the calling. No, thanks, no need to pay for a visa either! And I do not think India is missing me.

What's My Line? (Alfred Hitchcock)

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearances

To Sir & Teacher with love…

18.5.2010
To Sir & Teacher with love…
Teachers’ Day Special (Primary)

The Chinese proverb says, “If you give someone a fish; he will eat for a day but if you teach him to fish, he will not stay hungry a lifetime!” FG says, “You cannot teach anybody anything, you can help him learn.” My friend Regu in PPSP USM used to say that any student can learn something from even the most uninspiring tutor because of their (the tutor) superior experience in life. With that background let me indulge in a little of retrograde recollection of my school teachers, starting from Hutchings Primary School. This is about the time when the screen is supposed to be hazy and the plucking the harp strings is supposed to reverberate in the background and kaleidoscope of colours is supposed to twirl round and round…

In Standard 1, Cik Aishah Abdul Rahman was my class teacher. Her fine curly hair used to be tied up into a bun at the back of her head, donning colourful fine floral baju kurung, smelling fresh with liberal splashing of strong non alcoholic perfume and her grinning toothy smile exposing her gold filling at her incisor tooth. I met her after 15 years later at a post office looking not a day older than how she appeared in 1970.

In Standard 2, the smashing teacher with the 70s Chinese matinee actor’s look, Mr Khoo Cheow Hin was the class teacher. We looked forward to his fortnightly stories, spiced up with his good story telling techniques. I remember once he told us the story of ‘Si Tanggang’ – the prodigal son. As he had forewarned us before the story, that students who do not show any emotion after the story ends do not love their mothers, many of us were seen wetting our eyes with saliva just to show that we care for mothers. Of course, many of my colleagues actually cried! He must have been quite a story teller because many young pretty lasses actually used to come to the classroom, some crying to and some quarreling with him. With his looks and story-telling technique, I wonder how his ending was. Towards the end of Std 2, a trainee teacher, Ms Tan Gaik Lee and another gentleman took over the reign. The male temporary teacher had taller tales to tell – he told us that he was almost decapitated when he was about to see just how deep his father had dug when he was still at it! Ms Tan was hardly able to control the class.

In Standard 3, Mr Beh Seong Leng, our class master drove a 1300cc golden metallic Volkswagon. He had a reputation of being a disciplinarian and a terror at that. His secret weapon was pulling the side burns and pinching the inner aspect of the thigh. His ultimate torture device was public stripping. I remember once Liakat Ali failed to memorise his timetables when he was subjected to this form of torture. Lucky for him, the school bell rang just as he was stripped to his undergarments. Lucky for him too because it was not customary for most of his contemporaries to be clad with undergarments!

The pretty Ms Yeoh with her impeccable spoken English was our class teacher in Std 4. She once told us a racist joke about a Indian headmaster and his way of sing song way of pronouncing ‘Good morrning laydees and yentlemen’. The petite curvaceous Ms Olive de Mello with her body hugging gown was our teacher for a while whilst Mrs Indrani took us a few lessons in Civics. Mrs Indrani was also in 70s straight cut body hugging gown but with the XXL type.

The ever smiling bespectacled Mr Cheah Yong Chee was my class teacher in Std 5. He was a dedicated teacher who hardly loses his temper even when I once turned up at his classroom after recess!

Mr Chan Leong Huat (Std 6) was a lean mean master who did not mince his words. He would sneak behind the classroom as he entered just to find out who the class noise makers were. We have a good time seeing his favourite Deputy (aka Class Monitor), Ang Jit Eng, hated by us – we called him Anjing which sounded like his name anyway!- got into trouble this way. Mr Chan disliked people who tried to prove their point by swearing (sumpah). Mohd Yassin once got punished for a crime he did not commit all because he swore he did not do it. At the same time, Mr Chan would talk to us in a friendly manner sometimes. Of all the animals in the world, he hated cats to the bone. He would tell how he poured hot water from his bedroom window at night over noisy cats in heat during mating season! (ouch!)

Somewhere along the way came Mr Khay with his piano playing skills and his music class. He taught us to play the recorder and mouth organ and prepared us to play at the school’s parents’ day. Mr Phuah was the senior assistant who claimed to have eyes at the back of his head and rotan up his sleeve, drove around in a Morris Minor station wagon. Mr G.S. Reuten, the headmaster took us a few classes too. One interesting character came in our life in the form of Mr Tan Ah Bah. He was a temporary teacher (probably retired) who forever asked us to sleep! He had a fierce appearance, podgy like a boxer, slighty curly haired with multiple moles over his face and neck. He walked around with a cane in his hand telling us, “Kun… ah bah, pak lu si ah bah!” – Boy, sleep! If not, I will whack you dead! (Hockkein dialect) I remember going to Mr Paul Ng’s class for relief lessons and beat the daylight of the boys in the back classes for misbehaving. He was a man of few words. His cane did most of his talking! Even though I was in direct contact with Ustaz Sheikh Abdul Rahman, I heard a lot of good things mentioned by the Muslim. He was apparently a strict disciplinarian but at the same time loved by his students.

All these people are instrumental in where we are today. To all these teachers, Thank you very much… you are the true meaning of 1-Malaysia.

Run the race

16.5.2010
Run the race

16.5.10. Four significant events happened today – the New Balance 15km run in Padang Merbok, Teachers’ Day, Sibu by-election and the passing of Pastor Indra Shan.
The day started with New Balance 15km run. This time around I had a fellow running bug-hit comrade (maybe midlife crisis at 44 years), who join this run too. We ran our race and completed it good times.

Category	Gender	Overall	Name	BIB No.	SPLIT	TOTAL TIME
80	300	338	SURESH KUMAR SHANMUGAM	3160	41:12.59	1:30:25.65
104	426	491	ASOKAN SHAMUGANATHAN	3027	45:32.00	1:36:46.53

The run took place from Padang Merbuk all the over the hilly terrain of Bukit Tunku (Kenny Hills). It was a good exercise on a Sunday morning. Of course we not were telling that while we were running. We were asking why we were not like normal KLites who enjoyed getting up late on a Sunday morning after a late Saturday night outing! Like the hard core runners will tell you, the joy in running is after the run when all your endorphins are at its peak. So, we ran the race. Period.

16th May is marked to honour our teachers who through their tiresome efforts have managed to mould us from a white plain piece of cloth to a colourful floral designed piece of fabric paraded in the fashion shows of Milan to New York! They prepared us to compete in the rat race of life. They helped us to run the race.

DAP won in the Sibu by-election today. After intense campaigning by both sides (ruling and opposition parties) hitting each other below their belt, shooting from the hip and ungentlemanly conduct, democracy ran its course. The DAP candidate ran the race and won with a paper thin majority.

Finally, 16th May 2010 saw the demise of my aunt, Pastor Indra Shan (nee Indra Devi S. M. Muthu) after a very valiant struggle with breast cancer. At the wake prayers held at The Mercy Home in Taman Wahyu, it became apparent to us all the good things she had done and the changes she has helped to make in peoples’ lives! It is amazing how a puny lady with just gift of the gab and belief in God could touch so many lives. Unless, of course if it is all mass hypnotism –like in the Wacko incident in the US where there was mass suicide! If only eulogy were read for the living, more people would be appreciative of each other! In the obituary announcement in the Star newspaper, there was a mention of a verse from the Bible (from the book of Timothy?) about running and completing it. It looks to me that Indra Shan not only ran the race but came out with flying colours! May her soul rest in peace in Heaven, Amen!
N.B. The amorphous head of coincidence strikes again! Sibu by-election and Mercy Home is situated in No. 47, Jalan Sibu 6, Taman Wahyu!

May 13

13.5.2010

May 13. A bad word (or a good tool) for some Malaysian politicians. The date of birth for my friend, Mike Kumar as well as an uncle who is a good 9 years younger than me, named Muthukumar and the launching date of his unity book by another friend of mine, Anas Zubedy.

Mariska Hargitay 

Talking about scary strange coincidences that I had mentioned in my previous rumblings and their occurrence in pairs, give a little thought to the below. Early this morning, I had just published my blog on the biography of Major (R) Samantha Murthi. Guess what was staring on the morning Star international headlines – Picture of David Cameron (new premier of UK) and his very pregnant wife, Samantha Cameron! 

David & Samantha Cameron @ 10, Downing St, London  

And over the weekend after writing about my encounter with a religious guru and Marishka Hargitay, Marishka Hargitay was in the Star papers again on Sunday posing on the red carpet!
Ooooooooo….. Who are you going to call? The Ghostbusters!!!*
* A sensational 80s Hollywood comedy with soundtrack by Ray Parker Jr.