Mind your language

I do not know whether it is just me, being the fussy, good at finding others' fault type of a person or is it universal to get annoyed when you are the third person and the only other two persons in the room start talking to each other in an incomprehensible language.
Being the sensitive person that I am (blame it on horoscope -Cancer) and one with inferiority complex (blame it on strict upbringing and humble beginnings in early life), and maybe grandiose feel of being the centre of attraction, I sometimes think that they are secretly having a laugh at my expense, cursing or ridiculing me in sly! (Something like: "Hey, see that short ugly guy. His fly is undone and he is wearing red polka dot undies!" Not that I have one.
Maybe my body may be enjoying the benefits of capitalism but my soul is socialistic deep inside. Empathy and considering the plight of another is the crux of difference between these two ideologies. Capitalism is the pinnacle of selfishness and oneness where the rest of the world does not matter. Forget all this; it is only courteous when you are in the company of others.
More than 15 years ago, a Caucasian lady and her family from Belgium were ushered into the family by way of matrimony. I have to be specific here. Globalization has changed the landscape of many countries. Hence, you do not expect someone looking like Thierry Henry, William Gallas or Zinedine Zidane to qualify as a Frenchman some 50 years ago but now it is politically incorrect to expect a European to be of pure Aryan stock that the Third Reich dreamt of.

Leuven, Belgium

So a Belgium girl from the farm got hitched to a dhal eating Malaysian of Indian descent who speaks neither speaks Flemish, Dutch, French or German. The first thought that went through the bride's family mind was the communication hurdle that they had to overcome. In fact, there are still some of the older relatives shy away from visiting their now Malaysian PR status-ed young Belgian meisje in Maleisië because of the language barrier. The rest of them have them actually enrolled in English classes and are now able rattle away and laugh to jokes in English! One apparent observation that can be noted is that, in our presence they speak English amongst themselves! Now, that is cultured behaviour!
Here, in Malaysia, with increasing globalisation and increasing spectrum of people with variable level of intelligence and culture, we are all used to people (even own citizens) talking with whatever dialect they choose to at any time they wish. But life goes on ....

And another bites the dust, and another...

Finally my children managed to speak with their cousin in Canberra via Skype. Wow! Star Trek technology has materialized within our lifetime! Maybe asking for Scotty to beam us up (i.e. teleporting) is asking for too much!
So there he was, my nephew, proudly showing to his cousins, with the web cam a guided tour around his one room studio apartment. His parents do not mind paying a bomb for his education. They feel that it is their god-sent duty to ensure the best for their eldest son. They also know that they have 2 other kids to educate.

Beam us up, Scotty!

Now, coming back to our hero in the limelight, as any other affluent non-bumiputera Malaysian student, the last thing on the mind of these 18 year olds is to do STPM (A levels) at the public school. After reaping the benefits of an almost free Malaysian education with its highly competitive surroundings (depends what you want to achieve, really), the children, whose path is tailor-made by the equally combative parents and the fueled adequately by constant spoon-feeding and sometimes Ryle's tube feeding, get disillusioned by the discriminatory and sometimes nonsensical country's policies. With the opportunities available at their disposal (pre-university education albeit costing the price of C4), with their qualifications they fly the nest, get exposed to freedom of expression, human rights, ability to decide they want in life (maybe as they mature into adulthood) and return home to their motherland unlike what they teach you in Sunday School about the prodigal son - unless, of course, there is political unrest or fear of nuclear reactor meltdown.
As I wrote some posts ago, the true number of Government sponsored students frightened off by the radioactive scare seems to be increasing by the day and they want to come back. Hey, more than four thousand sponsored students are there at the latest count. Are we such an intelligent nation that even a non-English non-Malay speaking nation harbours so many of our students - and Government sponsored?Probably, in the latest turn of events they are just joining the bandwagon to get a free ride back home!

Of expectations, acceptances, disappointments and contentment!

So, it has come this. Two girls who obtained 10As and 8As-2B respectively in the recent SPM (O-levels) examinations sobbing away because they did not manage to squander 10A+ in it. And the guy at the tail end of the form, is screaming in rapturous delight with his Cs and Ds! Looks a scene from Lat's (Malaysian legendary cartoonist) Kampong Boy comic! For those who are in the dark about Lat, (where were you?), Lat is our favourite cartoonist who draws caricatures of our leaders, pokes fun at them and draws flak at our style of doing things and gets away with it. In fact, he is held in high esteem and had been honoured with various medals. There is even a musical extravaganza in the pipeline of his 'Kampong Boy'. In one of his books, he was reminiscing his school days. A school teacher had challenged one of his boisterous students that the student would surely fail in his LCE examinations, promising to eat his shoes if the results showed otherwise. By twist of fate and sheer luck (the student depended on his dice to guess the answer!), he actually passed! In the next scene, the student was seen asking the teacher if he would like chilly sauce to go with his shoe!

Lat's favourite depiction of a teacher

The fight at the top is always combative. If earlier, students were fighting to pass with flying colours in as many subjects as they possibly can, now they are dying to be the creme ala creme by obtaining not only As but A+s! It is a good attitude as life in real world is not easy. You ought to be tough to face the eventualities. Anyway these two girls are fairly well rounded academically, extra-curricular activity wise and leadership qualities. In other words, both the right and the left brain have been put to work. If educational development is a gestation, they are now about to enter the third and final trimester. Hopefully at the end of this tumultuous  journey, they would be happily sauntering home with their bundle of joy with smile gleaming on their faces! All the best....

P.S. As predicted, the Minister of Education announced on radio that there were more passes than previous years whilst patting himself and his department on the back for this success as they had put their foot down on limiting the number of subjects that can be taken by students which they allege had been the reason for this improvement. Yeah, right!

Just to ruffle a few pretty feathers!

FG, after having worked with many female colleagues, superiors and subordinates have come to the unshakable belief that increasing the female workforce in the country to 55% by 2015 spells trouble. It would definitely be trouble for him at home and would probably have to sleep in the kennel for the rest of his life. And definitely would not be in favourite lists of feminists who are still in the euphoria of celebrating 100 years of being deemed intelligent enough to vote for their own leaders. And they are still going on listing trying to list down their 100 best female heroes of all time.

International Women's Day was celebrated the world over on 8th March 2011. I do not know when the original idea came on celebrating the success of the women from their non-existent status in the Middle Ages or whether they meant to include transsexuals and cross-dressers in the regatta but BFM radio had interviewed many of these trapped souls and they seem to be rejoicing too!

As FG easily succumbed to their feminine persuasions, he had been taken for a ride many times by the weaker sex. You cannot really blame him for his weakness as even God's first prophet, Adam, felt weak in the knees and fell flat for the charms and lure of Eve. Little did he realise that it was actually the eve of his fall of grace from the Garden of Eden to lowly Earth and the rest is history as we know it.

Coming back to ladies in the workforce, they have come a long way by leaps and bounds from the time of WW2 when the housewives start shedding their kitchen apron, headed to the factories to send supplies to the battlefield. They have led the biggest democracy of the world and led one of the newer post-WW2 nations situated in midst of pouncing ferocious neighbours. But still...

Golda Meir (1898-1978)

Through his limited experience in the working life, he has discovered the many challenges that these PYTs (pretty young things) have to face in the workforce. Besides battling with their monthly swings of hormones, they have to combat other social obligations in keeping with their marital status and age.

Their seemingly seamless work will take a dent when they are somehow shaken and stirred when they are newly and deeply in love. [Like P. Ramlee would say, "Gila Bayang, makan tak kenyang, tidur tak nyenyak, mandi tak basah!"] Again, if God forbid, if she does not find love when her younger colleagues are jumping in matrimony and moving in pairs, her work may suffer. Of course, lovers' quarrels have their toll as well. If wedding bells are heard, then it is time for the pre and post-wedding blues as well as honeymoon cystitis. Pregnancy will follow and may bring with it some anxious moments - morning sickness, lethargy, bleeding in early-stage, antenatal check-ups, complications of late pregnancy, confinement, time-off for lactation and the list goes on. Without proper contraceptives, the above will repeat itself pretty soon. Time away from work will be required when the new addition falls ill. With the expansion of the family and commitments, the zest to excel in work will take a back-burner.

Of course, these are all exaggerations. There are many hardworking and dedicated ladies in the workforce the entire world over. Happy International Women's Day. I thought it was Malaysian Political Tsunami Day - 8th March!

Sins of my father, what's in a name?

So there was this nurse trying to call out a child's name to enter a doctor's surgery but she was rather confused. The name she was about to call out (Chezhian) sounds Chinese but the only child waiting was Indian. She rectifies the crisis only to be enlightened that it is indeed a Tamil name!

I wonder how many times this child will have to undergo this kind of embarrassing moments before he steps into adulthood immune to this type of queries.

Then there was another boy named Arhoaran (named after the victorious call of success in the name of Lord Muruga) - Looks pretty mind boggling for a non-Tamil to decipher. What about my sister's class mate name, Mangayakarasi, which her teachers found a torture to pronounce. They would drag the words trying to spell out the name in a sing-song fashion.
There was a boy I knew in childhood whose parents decided to name their child after the legendary Tamil king whose name was synonymous with fair, competent and just rule, King Pandyan. His classmates did not, however, appreciate the greatness of the boy's name. All they knew was that it rhymed with the Tamil word for pig and they had a field day ridiculing him!

Actor S.A. Asokan

Yours truly was also the brunt of joke when school kids ran out games to play.I was named after the great sorcerer of a king who embraced Buddhism after seeing much misery after his victory in Kalingga. Some old learned men used to say the word Asokan actually referred to Krishna (Yaso - Yasodha, Lord Krishna's mother, and Kan meaning eyes, essentially the eyes of the mother -something like apple of the eye!) In the late 60s and 70s, one of most prolific villain actors in the Tamil cinema was Asokan. As the fight sequences were very poorly choreographed in those days that the punch fell a mile from the face, the joke that use to go around was "What did M.G.R. say to Asokan?" The answer was "Dishyum, Dishyum!" In previous post long ago, you read what those darn kids use to call me!
In Kota Bharu, one of my colleague had a friend whose name was Mudah-Mudah. In the 60s, literacy level was quite low especially in rural Kelantan. Registration of home births were usually made in police stations and the names were spelt out and written out by the friendly country policeman. People familiar with the Kelantanese dialect would know that 'Mudah-Mudah' means simple. And that was his father had told the policeman - Give my boy a simple name - not name him 'Mudah-Mudah'!
The same thing happened to a nurse I once knew. She used to walk around proudly displaying her name tag with the name 'Permaisuri' - Queen! Her name was meant to be Parameswari!
Anyway, a few years ago, the Malaysian National Registration Department had banned many names, including names like Karuppan (blackie, male) and Karupayi (blackie, female).

King Asoka the Great

Nowadays, besides giving a nice sounding name with a twist of modernity in it, parents also ensure other subtle requirements are met, i.e. horoscope as determined by time and date of birth and numerology. That leaves the child with extra consonants and vowels to seemingly simple names to please the believers of numerology. (Raju will be written as Raajooh, Ravi is Raaveei).
I think that the name is for others to call us out when they want to communicate with us or warn us on impending doom. Hence, living in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual society, we must ensure that our names are not so tongue twisting and mind boggling that people would just decide to call us "Dei!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDHdrFVUKDw

'Flying doctor' flies to dizzying heights

http://www.sify.com/news/indian-origin-malaysian-athlete-now-varsity-don-news-international-ldupOgefcdb.html

Indian-origin Malaysian athlete now varsity don
2011-03-20 15:50:00

(from sify.com)
Kuala Lumpur, March 20 (IANS) M. Jegathesan, an Indian-Malaysian known as the 'flying doctor' for winning this country's first gold at the Asian Games, is the new pro-chancellor of a prestigious university.
An appointment scroll to the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was presented to the ethnic Indian by university chancellor Raja Perlis Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail at the university's 43rd convocation.
USM vice chancellor Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said Jegathesan's appointment would give a boost to sports development, as well as the university, the New Straits Times reported Sunday.
Jegathesan responded by saying: 'I aim to do my best to help bring USM to greater heights through holistic development of its staff and students.'
Jegathesan, 67, who is also deputy president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia, earned the 'flying doctor' nickname after he became the first Malaysian to win an Asian Games gold in the 100-metres sprint in 10.3 seconds at the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games.
He also won the 200-metres gold besides helping Malaysia win the 4x100-metres men's relay.
He is also the chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Medical Commission, chairman of the Anti-Doping Agency of Malaysia and was appointed honorary medical adviser for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

1966: with young fans

http://forzameyya.blogspot.com/2010/09/know-this-person-tan-sri-dr-m.html

Tan Sri Dr M Jegathesan (from a blog)



When people said education and sports won't get along, he proved it wrong. It's rare for a professional athelete to become another professional i.e doctor, accountant. lawyer or engineer.
While burning up the track, he also graduated as a medical doctor – earning him the famous nickname of “the Flying Doc”.
With his courage and dream, Jegathesan has become a successful Malaysian personality in sports and in medicine – he has won both the National Sportsman award and the National Scientist award.
His quote;“You do not win races with money in your pocket but you win it with courage in your heart and a dream in your head.”
He held the national record for the 100m event in 10.3s and made the most fastest runner in Asia during the Asia Games in 1966 (now held by Nazmizan Mohamad at 10.29s).
His achievement made him to the semi finals for the Olympics 1964 (Tokyo) and 1968 (Mexico) in the 200m event. His 200M is yet to be broken till to date.
He achieve gold in the 400m, 200m and 4X400m in the SEAP Games 1961, 1962 and 1966.
A lot of questions appearing in my mind. There will be another Dr Jega appear in national athletic arena in future? Can anyone as Malaysian talented to equivalent the achievement of him? Why after few decades Malaysia still unable to produce the athletes that capable as him?

King of their own trades!

Everybody has something they are good at. They can kings at whatever trade they chose to do. Just watch this one!