India, a land of milk and honey?

2.7.2010

I received this email many months ago from one of my friends about this fascinating discovery he got on-line. Now, everyone, even a 10 year old will know that things found on-line must be taken with a pinch of salt. Anyway it is a nice read and to ponder upon. Every truth is altered when it moves from ear to mouth or mouth to ear or an individual to another! I suppose that can be said of the Indian mythological stories of Ramayana, Mahabrata and the stories of Kannagi, Madhavi, Sivaji, Pandian etc. What about the holy scripture? I think I shall not thread those waters. It is human nature for us to over glorify things and people that appeal to us and the masses. On the hand, when we do not see eye to eye on certain things, we either tend to keep mum or fight over it and the winner's viewpoint will prevail and be written as HIS-story, the story of the victor!  

So, coming back to our point of blabbering. The English in the 1830s sent a representative to assess the scenario in India so as to devise ingenious ways to 'trade' with the natives. This is what a certain Lord MacCaulay had to report to the British Parliament....

India in 1835- A Proposal from LORD MACAULAY to British Parliament

AN EXCERPT FROM LORD MACAULAY'S ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, 

2 FEBRUARY, 1835

"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and , therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their selfesteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."

Snitched from: http://burningconscience.blogspot.com/2008/01/india-in-1835-proposal-from-lord.html
reference: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html

DISCLAIMER:
I do not claim the authenticity of this piece. It was printed behind the cover page of the April edition(vol.6, no.2) of the magazine "SEVAMED" (courtesy- Dignity Dialogue, February2007).

The authenticity of the existence of such a speech being uttered in the Parliament is disputed by many historians. Some have managed to determine this Lord's date of birth and argue that it was no possible for him to give a speech at the specified year. I wonder if there exist a written documentation of parliamentary proceedings at that time. (e.g. Hansaard in Malaysian Parliament). Many Indian nationalists and politicians rejoice to this fact and like to bask in the glory of the long gone yesteryears.

Newspaper cutting of the same quotation 

Going down south...

We are going on a summer holiday, no more work for a week or two... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jmj5Yz0PvY

That must have how we felt when we were decided to go down south from Penang to Seremban to visit Mama. Probably not the adults, i.e. Appa and Amma, who were more worried about the dollars (it was still known as Malaysian dollars, not Ringgit Malaysia) and cents (not sen).

My most vivid recollection of my trips down south with my family are the first trip (circa 1973-74) to Seremban and Malacca and the family trip to Kuala Lumpur in 1977.Each trip had its own talking points and adventures to boast about. Thankfully, there were no misadventures. The second trip was essentially a mission to locate a Mrs Booram Shariff (a.k.a. Saroja Devi s/o. S.M.Muthu)!
The unique thing about the 73-74 trip that makes it memorable and different from travels usually done is that the whole family actually travelled in a lorry from Penang to Kuala Lumpur! As it costs the family (2 adults and 3 children) more than $50 one way train ticket to KL, my family decided to jump on a New Strait Times lorry that travelled empty to KL after transporting newspapers to Penang. This was before the printing plant at Perai was operational. Anyway, the driver only took $15 for his kind deed. Of course, it was illegal as the lorries were only meant for transportation of own goods, not passengers! (RTD 'C' type licence).
 If you think that sitting in a KTM mail train is torture, with its constant wobbling and bone shaking, you have not seen anything yet. Travelling in one of these lorries is a million times worse. No thanks to the poor maintenance and cheap shock absorbers!
We were all ashamed to have travelled in such transportation that we made a solemn pledge amongst the family members (especially the younger ones) not to let the cat out of the bag and inadvertently blurt it out to our relatives down south!
We finally reached our destination in one piece. On our way back, Mama was sending us back to KL in his Volvo 121. As luck had it, we happened to be trailing a NST lorry and Sheila excitedly blurted, "Hey, there is the paper lorry!" All of us were caught with our pants down. After a few hard stares, the topic was quashed immediately, The trip back by train as the NST lorries from KL were stacked to the brim with newspapers.
The second trip was a fact finding mercy mission, much like the unmanned robotic space mission to Venus! From Amma's correspondence with Mama, it came to her knowledge that her long lost sister Saroja Devi - no, not the Saroja Devi, MGR's constant companion in his 1960s feel good politically motivated movies - was well and running around the kampung roads of Kampong Baru in Kuala Lumpur!
In 1976, the Shams were affluent enough to purchase a second hand 1966 Austin Mini 850. Naturally, a trip down south was inevitable after persistent and consistent insistence of Amma. Armed with road maps, automatic camera that Amma purchased on her trip to Singapore with her friends and home cooked nasi lemak (to ease on the budget to relieve unnecessary wastage on buying meals), we set out on our mission during the school holidays of December 1977. Reminiscing the journey which involved threading through the wavy road of the old North South federal road, listening to reruns of songs from the cartridge playing car radio, it is indeed a nostalgic trip into my adolescence. I remember the songs 'Renge Enge Sheela' (Hindi) which Sheila hated, KJ Jesudas' songs,TMS' songs [esp. Manithan maari vitaan, maraatil erivitaan (not marathil erivitaan)] and Moonram Mudichi songs.

    

After what seemed like eternity, the faithful BP6162 finally took us to Kepong. Our contact in Kepong was Mr Narasimman, our old tenant in Brown Garden. Wow! This is sounding like a war-espionage novel. Using Kepong as our base, we ventured into the concrete jungle of KL in search of Booram Shariff of in the squatter area of Kampong Baru. After many dead ends and run-arounds, we finally located her after almost throwing in the towel.
After the emotional tearing and hugging and chit-chatting of the old times, Mr Booram Shariff finally arrived late that night after fulfilling a long day job of a bread vendor. He was a nice guy after all but a bit hard of hearing. He asked me what my name was to which I replied that it was ‘Asokan’. He excitedly blurted, “Hah? Hassan Gani?” It was a talking point among our family members for quite a while. Amma reiterated the importance of speaking clearly and succinctly.
He single handedly cooked us a mouth-watering meal of chicken curry after slaughtering his chicken cooped just below his Malay-styled stilted house. Whilst engaged in a conversation with my parents, he de-feathered and sliced the meat right in front of us using a single bowl of water! You will appreciate the value of water when you depend on wells for water.

All good things must come to an end. The trip ended the following day. As we bid our farewells and was about to leave, good old BP6162 refused to start. Everybody in the kampong was there to witness the ‘event’ and give their two cents worth of opinion on automobile maintenance, however, contributing little to our desperate situation. Alas, out of the blues appeared a young gentleman who started fiddling a few knobs and managed to start the engine in no time, much our relief. We all had a good exposure to kampong brand of hospitality. We thanked him incessantly in Malay and gave him a small token to which he politely refused and wished us a safe journey home in fluent Tamil! And all the while we thought that he was a Malay chap. Now, that is the new Malaysia to you. He was a Chindian (of Sino-Indo parentage). The return was marred by heavy thunderstorm and extremely poor visibility on the roads. This was worsened by our late start, as it was night by the time we passed Ipoh. We had a near miss situation somewhere before Taiping when the car swerved uncontrollably due to poor road conditions and just missed plunging into a ravine! Our prayers were finally answered when we all reached the safe arms of RRF way past midnight, shaken, stirred and exhausted but thankfully in one piece.

Another trip worth mentioning, even though it is not a family trip, is my trip with Sheila (I was 13 years) on the then (1976) newly launched ‘Ekspres Rakyat’ trains that travelled from Butterworth to Singapore in 12 hours. We were left to travel on our own as part of training on being independent. The train left promptly at 8.30am as per schedule and was supposed to reach Seremban at 4.15pm. The seats were numbered and my classmate Tan Hock Hin (now a dentist in JB) was in the same coach. His father was amazed at seeing us travel alone.
The journey proceeded smoothly till Ipoh. After that the whole plan went into disarray. We had to disembark, travel via bus to Kampar and continue the rest of the journey to KL on a local train all on own with me leading my sister by hand. After another train change in KL, we finally reached Seremban station at about 8.15pm – 4 hours late – much to the relief of Mama and Atteh.
KTM, with its lethargic, lacksadical staff with their pre-colonial mentality has not changed much since those days. Even though they have had many cosmetic changes with the introduction of Komuter services and double tracking system, it is just the same old clowns donning a new outfit doing the same outdated tricks to which we can laugh at, not laugh with! Shobha has also a bone to pick with KTM. During one of her night mail train trip when she was in varsity, her train was derailed and she and the other victims had to walk aimlessly in the pitch darkness of Malaysian wilderness along the railway track till they saw an illuminating light from a passing car on a road near the track.

Thank God I'm in this Country, 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 honey and nectar here then. I am a third generation Malaysian, more Malaysian than some of the nation's leaders, i.e. one ex-Mentri Besar who is descendent of an ?illegal immigrant. Thank God my parents did not run away from this country after the May 13 riots. Thank God for Amma to have the foresight to know that education is of paramount importance for the future in spite of all the turmoils that we were through. Thank God that I found good productive friends. Thank God that I have the peace of mind, good health and the luxury of being able to train for these runs without being worried about the next meal.


Thank God. Alhamdilullah!


*A little bit of trivia on John Denver. It is ironic that he sang the song 'Leaving on the Jet Plane' and succumbed to a flying accident! Also ironic that such beautiful songs about his wife Annie whom he later divorced! Talking about writing songs about their other half, the world thought that Lionel Ritchie has a romantic husband that the girls used to go ga-ga when he proclaimed that he wrote all those lovely love songs thinking of his wife. Only much later did the world realise that all the while he was having an affair when the divorce proceedings come to light! There went his image and his record sales! Bottom line, the more you hear about these things, the more you do not know whom or what to believe. Not knowing certain things seems better - Ignorance is bliss....


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/4631111.stm

"I am very happy that I have been able to do this and it's God's gift that people like me are able to do it for others who come later on, I feel the good work that I am doing is more important than getting the fame."

Fauja Singh, near centurion marathoner. 

Addentum: Results are out, Yahoo...(Out of 2,878 male runners in Half Marathon)

Rank	BIB No	Name	Nationality	Race Category	Gun Time	Net Time
664	8156	ASOKAN SHAMUGANATHAN	Malaysia	Individuals - Half Marathon	02:13:23	02:12:19

Rank	BIB No	Name	Nationality	Race Category	Gun Time	Net Time
216	8156	ASOKAN SHAMUGANATHAN	Malaysia	Half Marathon (Men - Veterans) - Half Marathon	02:13:23	02:12:19

Life lessons learnt from FIFA World Cup 2010

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 winners) and their humbling 2-3 defeat to Slovakia, all at once eliminating them at the first rounds! The arms that hoisted the world cup in 2006 is now supporting their fellow sobbing team mates!
• Mind the minnows! Knowing that the Japanese are inferior in physique and stature, they excelled in speed and 'never-say-die' samurai spirit. South Koreans, out to prove that their last outing was no fluke and a flash in the pan, are giving their opponents a run for their money in this dogfight! (could not resist the pun). Do not forget the Fernleaf country with more sheep than human, New Zealand! Even though they have part time footballers and no big guns to shout about, they exited the 1st round without losing a single game!
• Team spirit is important. Just like the previous WC, the African teams are not doing so well. No, thanks to their internal squabbling.

The football pundits say, "Life's a pitch". If that is true, we can learn a thing or two of lessons in life from the football pitch (field). Well, it is not over yet. The world cup action is just heating up and the best is yet to come!

Plagiarism - acceptable artistic licence?

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 not?

Tamil school, anyone?

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 studies was no more a stroll in the park but a Herculean task needing much effort and willpower. The drive to compete and other external factors have placed me where I am today. Language is an essential tool helped me in this endeavour. Pupils from Tamil school, far in between, are handicapped in this aspect, no matter when the educators may say and justify their positions by statistics and number.

There is no continuity in Tamil school education. Learning mostly in their mother tongue, venturing into a different language in the secondary school is not easy. This scenario is, however not the case in Chinese medium schools. Chinese school students can continue their seamless education to right to tertiary levels!

I am saying we should bundle the Tamil language into our museums and forget about it. On the contrary, we should strive to bring the language to a higher level by making it a lesson in the mainstream schooling system and offer it as the compulsory third language to the students (besides English and Bahasa Malaysia).

In the meantime, let Tamil medium schools thrive only in Tamil Nadu, India.

High Income Nation: Varavu Ettana Selavu Paththanaa

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 not in tandem but by leaps and bounds, defeating the purpose of the exercise in the first place. Does not make sense at all, does it?