Flabbergasted by podcasts!

An old friend once (GVGL) -a precocious individual who enjoyed intellectual discourse and appreciates songs by Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman- told me that I will soon be like a hermit on mountain - keeping all to myself and finding joy in recluse. My son thinks I am on the way there. With very few friends to go by, hardly receiving courtesy non-work related calls on my phone, indulging in a non team sport like running, working long hours alone and lately with the listening to myriads of podcast downloadable free from my iPhone, I will reach there in no time! Hey, but I am enjoying it!
The iTunes has indeed opened a new can of worms that a omnivore like me find hard to resist. The more you indulge, like a bull in a china shop, you can go berserk!
If never in this life time can you step foot in the lecture halls of Yale, Stanford or Oxford, the least you can do listen to podcasts of their distinguished lecturers. I am sure we all can go to these varsity as tourists as 'now everyone can fly'! I find great ecstasy in lectures on history, religions of the world and various civilizations. You can listen to anything at any time at the touch or slide of the tip of your finger (not even at a click) and a functional wifi connexion. BFM's programmes are available as well. Joy to the world!

N.B. Beware of the danger of being engulfed into a world of the unknown that may induce the unknown. Just heard of a twenty something son of a friend who went into the unknown world of the occult religion and voyeurism to which the young man subsequently succumbed to by self induced hypoxia! How unfortunate! 

Angry birds!

I should be king, you old man!

We came here first, you pendatang!

I am the fairer sex, despite my hue!

And I am left with this miserable fish!

I told you to keep the feet off my territory, as the First Amendment says!

I will get you if that is the last thing I do!

Who is the idiot who stepped my petite toe?

I told you that chick is mine!

I am home alone again while my guy goes gallivanting!

Huh, caught you red handed (footed)!

And you told me it is over between you and the tramp!

Ugh! Tasteless! I told you not to fly.

Cis, bedebah, berani kau?

Nah, ambillah habuan kau!

What miserable life? Feeding these bottomless pits! (Saapaatu Raman -சாப்பாட்டு ராமன் )

Religious Renaissance?

At one time in my early life (RRF, early teens), I was drawn into the Bhajan group (Hindu religious group) which introduced us to the likes of Sai Baba, Swami Sivanada and Swami Shantanand and the basic teachings of Hinduism. At a time when achieving academic excellence was the only agenda in our lives to uproot ourselves from the perpetual sorrows of our household, he were hoping for divine guidance and assistance to peel open our third Eye of Wisdom. In our simpleton minds,  we assumed that education which would lead us to easy wealth accumulation which in turn would be the panacea of all our worries in life. If only life was that simple!
In a world filled with deceit and forgery, one sometimes wonders why when it comes to matters pertaining to God, humans always transform to exhibit the best of their inborn excellent primitive virtues. This was evident from photos from Banda Acheh after the tsunami - only the mosque standing up tall midst ruins of homes and other infrastructure. Probably, the contractors did not short change the mosque when it came to using the correct ratio of mix of cement to soil during construction!
Quite a number of times during my not so frequent to my place of worship, I find the same group of people frequently returning there with full of bliss savouring the moment they are there, doing the things they do there. I wonder why?
Is it that the parties involved have ulterior motives or they have found people of same frequency and mind set to do the same things i.e. serve humanity? Have they done some much sins that no amount of divine forgiveness can rectify? Or is it a place to find solace for the wounded souls? Or birds of the same feather flock together, hoping that well thinking people will only augur pleasant thoughts and healthy activities?
My recent observations revealed a few reveling discoveries. It is by no means exhaustive or double blind controlled. It is only to satisfy myself and bloat my own ego.
I noticed a guy who found sheer joy in cleaning the soiled plates after the worshipers had eaten their temple food. He was there faithfully, without fail, on Sundays doing his thing humming his hymns. I later discovered that he was a physician and a vegetarian who had a bitter experience at matrimony - the bride did not turn up at the wedding - sounds more dramatic but actually the bride-to-be decided to call of the wedding a few days before the big day. The grieving groom never tried to give another hand at it but decided finding solace in the Way of the Lord.
Then there is a family who commemorates all functions in the temple. Can you imagine a 21year old young chap announcing to the world his freedom key by having a sombre bash in the temple? Of course you do not clap and you do not blow the fire on the candle (Agni), you chant when the fire is lit (Jyothi). You are supposed to rejoice when there is light (hope), not when the flame is blown away! Mmmm.... But then cutting cake is not Indian, you should cut kesari or halwa!
And you also have obviously oversized grandiosely wealthy grouchy grandmas with their accompanying helpers (maids) trotting along... If religion advocates moderation in all your activities, how did you get so fat? - could not control the temptations of the taste buds, despite being a vegan, eh?
And there are people like me who hope to cleanse his soul and mind by being in the house of God but keep thinking with devilish recurring ill deviant thoughts of people and things around him just for the kick of it. What's the point? I am back to square one!

Serumpun lalang!

Before the era of globalization and the seamless, borderless world of the 21st century reared its ugly head, as far as Malaysia and Indonesia were concerned, there were, and there are, no borders between these two countries. In the pre-Independence years, people's movement between nations had no boundaries. Some people had 2 lives and 2 families. This was instrumental in many Malay screen and music legends like Maria Menado, Aziz Sataar, Asiah and even P.Ramlee's father! Fast forward to the future, you still see many Indonesians in Malaysia with 2 lives, 2 families and many passports (just in case one is blacklisted). Even our earlier race-based Malayan politicians (and present ones) had plans up their sleeves to naturalize Indonesians to the Malayan Malay headcount to show dominance!

When the Cobbold Commission went on their mission to carve off a slice of the Malay archipelago to form a new country, General Sukarno and his countrymen went up in arms. They believe that the Malaya-Indonesia entity should be one as Nusantara. It went on for 3 years until Sukarno's ouster.

The Malaysians, on the other hand, have a soft spot for their neighbour. Maybe, because without them, the many mega-buildings around towns would not have materialized, and their children would not be attended to. So many times, amnesty had been given to their illegal intruders. It even paid for their trip, only for them to return with another spanking new passport, courtesy of the Indonesian Government and their inefficiencies. When either team play in either country (Malaysia or Indonesia), they (Indonesia) land in full force to haunt the Malaysians. This is obvious even when Malaysia plays Indonesia in Thomas Cup in KL. The visitors are louder than the host. In Jakarta, recently, during the football finals, our victorious team had not only to survive food poisoning and substandard accommodation, but they also had to survive a hostile barrage of heckling and intimidation.

Now, are we still serumpun (of the same stock), engaging in sibling rivalry, are different because of changing times, or do we choose to sway like a clump of weeds (serumpun lalang) to the direction of the wind when it suits us?

Curse of family royale!

November 22, 1963 –
U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.


In the mid 70s MGR in his endeavour to win mileage in his political career, unashamedly used a line from John F Kennedy's inauguration speech (Ask what your country has done for you but what you have done for your country!) a verse in a song in one of his propaganda movies, "Naan En Piranthen'('நான் ஏன் பிறந்தேன்').

The History Channel recently screened episodes on the ever famous unofficial royal family of America - the Kennedys. Such an honour does not come cheap, as seen in the series. It had a curse associated with it.

The first episode started with a scene on the eve of the 1960 American elections, and the story is told in series of flashback interposed with 'present' (i.e. 1960) unfolding of events. It is an enjoyable 7 part series on the events pre-dating and tribulations following the appointment of JFK's presidential throne till Robert's (his confidante) assassination.
Joseph Kennedy Sr. (Tom Wilkinson), a not so religious Catholic (apparently Catholics were despised by rest of America) immigrant son who made his millions in business through whiskey licencing had sky-high political ambitions. Due to a foot in the mouth moment as an Ambassador in England during the high tension days of the pre-WW2 era, his political came crushing. He pinned his hopes high on his eye of his apple, the flamboyant first son Joseph Jr.who, unfortunately, died in combat in WW2. His father's political ambition to the White House fell squarely on the reluctant shoulders of JFK (Greg Kinnear) who had been overshadowed by his elder brother.
In this series, we are shown the day to day living behind the regalia and princely lives of the Kennedys through the lens of the director and the writer (must be with the approval of the Kennedys, of course). Joe Sr. is portrayed as a hard-driving demanding, domineering patriarchal father who gets his way for anything through emotional blackmail. He is determined to make a Kennedy a President at all cost even it means making empty promises of immunity from prosecution to the Chicago mobs to win votes. This betrayal seems to be implicated as one of the reasons for the assassinations of JFK (1963) and his brother Robert (1968) (Barry Pepper) who was the AG and later Presidential candidate.

In the part of the show, I was confused - too many Jacks! How come John was called Jack and Jackie (Katie Holmes) was JFK's wife? JFK was nicknamed Jack, talk about a match made in heaven! On top of that Robert is Bobby. In the earlier episode, we come to know that JFK's sister, Rosemary, appears to be schizophrenic and undergoes a lobotomy.
The reluctant politician matures after an indecisive swayed by Generals Bay of Pigs fiasco, he soon takes control of the driver's seat accompanied by a confidante, The AG Robert Kennedy to rule America. Putting a stop to his control-freak father's meddling, he takes control, making decisions from the heart to the chagrin of the big shot gung-ho trigger-happy generals around him. Through diplomacy, he averts an almost WW3 and improves race relations in the race-conscious South.

Save for Robert (who appears faithful to his wife with his 11 children), the Ks seem to have a weakness for the weaker sex from Sr down to JFK. The appetite just becomes more ferocious for JFK that FBI boss Hoover (the sore loser to the post of AG) had many files and footages on his clandestine activities. One of the not so gracefully out of love victim is Marilyn Monroe. It is even suggested here that his rejection drove her to gulp potent fatal concoction of mega-doses of barbiturates and alcohol.

America's darling -MM

In the bedroom front, JFK's infidelity sets a strain on his family life. JFK also has to battle with Addison's Disease, hypothyroidism, war-induced chronic nagging back pain and both husband and wife's dependency on alternative pain relief treatment from an unorthodox AMA-unapproved Eastern European doctor.

In my opinion, Barry Pepper stole the show with his stellar performance of depiction of the straight-shooting Robert K. Katie Holmes is looking pretty as the photo-friendly oft-copied (dressing and hairstyle) Jacqueline Kennedy.

Scrolling through the cyberspace, there are campaigns against the miniseries' incorrect depiction of the revered American family, citing historical inaccuracies and depiction of the world leader, a national treasure, in a very negative light. They did not want people remembering JFK as depicted in the initial script where there was a lot of sex and romping. Obviously, the final release must have been rewritten to satisfy many quarters as it looks well sanitised. I think that was the same fate when our national icon, P.Ramlee's life was attempted to be immortalised on celluloid. The last time I heard, the feat had many oppositions as the truth of his life was not so pleasant nor pleasing to the religious folks. Hence, it did not conform to the strict guidelines set by FINAS and therefore dead end!

P.S. The Kennedy curse continued on 16th July 1999 with the death of JFK's son who was born 16 days into his Presidential appointment in a plane crash due to spatial disorientation. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_d5bAbO0fM

Running is like childbirth!

So it is that time of the year again! It is time for me to exhibit my filial piety by visiting my old folks in Penang. Hey, wait a minute! There is a run there too. Yeah, my as well run the run while I do the do - 2 birds; one stone for the killing.
Getting a good night's rest was already a challenge before the real challenge started. We had all passed the stage of going to bed at 9pm but had to, as the race started from 2am. One guy actually suggested doing a MJ-Murray Conrad combo cocktail of propofol! Luckily, common sense prevailed - as if propofol was lying around at our disposal. So, the next best thing to do was counting sheep. Unfortunately being the meticulous shepherd that I am, I just could not complete stabling the sheep as they were just too many. Before I knew it, it was time to get up and I did not even need the alarm. No thanks to the location of the hotel. Despite being housed on the 11th floor, I could still hear crystal clear announcements on the PA system from Ground Zero, downstairs from stroke of midnight.. That is the drawback of getting a venue so near to the starting point. Well, we all get wiser with experience.
Talking about sanity and sense, there was nothing sane about showering at 2am and gearing up for a near midnight run but I should have thought of it before registering. The only people I know who indulge in midnight showers (or rather scented baths- mandi bunga) were people with devilish intent or liaison with pontianak!
Starting promptly at 3am, this time around it is no more the cool ambience and the drizzle that accompanied the run last year. The humongous crowd was a damper at the starting point as the runners kept running into each other's shoes.
Somebody once asked me what goes through my mind when I was running. Besides having morbid thoughts of wondering when my knee would buckle to give up on me and people-antics' watching, there is always time to think what to write in the next blog. During one of these runs, I got a revelation. Running is like childbirth - when you are in it, you curse yourself for getting into the mess you are in but once you see the end product, you soon forget about the torturous unrelenting agony of labour pains and pretty soon you are in the labour room all again in no time. In the case of running it must be the post-run endorphin induced highs and awe received from well wishers! (some call it narcissism)
The 'boom boom pak' beat accompanying Queen's 'We will rock you' set the tempo (on my I-phone) as I ascended the midspam of the Penang Bridge. I guess I was more caught up with the music rather than running as this time around as I completed the run at 2hours 19mins, a good 9 minutes slower than last year. But hey, as a non competitive loser would say, "it was an enjoyable run". To complement the fruit cake, was Amma's excellent preparation of fish curry, chicken peratal, crab sambal with coconut gratings and thosai. My younger son and I flew back home happy, smiling ear to ear.

Patriots & Pretenders

The Malayan People's Independence Struggle
by Kua Kia Soong.

Yet another small nonfiction book from this prolific political scientist who did time in Kamunting. This time around an analysis of a possible alternative pathway our history would have taken if not for the governing circumstances and world ideology then.

It is a very factual book with lots of recommendations for the country, which seem to suggest all the things that KKS has been fighting for most of his post DAP life.

The gist that I digested after I read this book can be summarised as follows....
Malayans have already been unified before Merdeka, thanks to their fellow Asiatic aggressors in World War 2. First and second generation immigrants were already fighting for the country either as British stooge via the legalised Communist Party of Malaya or MPAJA. The Chinese in Malaya had a score to settle with the Japanese for the Nanjing massacre. When the Japs finally retreated, the Britishers returned denying Malayans of self-administration. The escalating tension on the world stage did not want to see communism to hold root in South East Asia. Furthermore, the British's agenda of maximising profits from their colonies was frequently hindered by the growing loud demands of the ever increasing louder voices of the various Workers' Unions as evident by a country-wide strike, Hartal on 20.10.1947. So, the idea of eventually handing self-rule to a unified Malayans with dangerous liaison with the devils that they knew did not make sense. On the contrary, to maintain their hegemony on the country's raw material and safe guard their interests, it was imperative that they have to look for alternatives to the multi-ethnic AMCJA-Putera. It came in the form of elitists of the Malay Royal Family (UMNO) whom they had had dealings since the Pangkor Agreement in 1874 and the capitalistic Chinese businessmen. The British, the masters of divide and rule, saw this communal politics ideal at satisfying the royalty, the Malays with their special status and the Chinese with Malayan citizenship. Communism and workers union were mostly squashed to pulp through Emergency plans and banning unions. After that, it is more than half a decade of communal politics in Malaysia with MCA, MIC and others joining the morass.

Onn Jaafar is portrayed here in the IMP and Partai Negara as an ultra racist colonial slave just out to stir racial sentiments to garner political mileage just like what UMNO Youth used to do in the 80s and PERKASA is doing now. I always thought Onn Jaafar was the good far sighted guy in Malayan politics (at least our textbooks said so) who wanted to open UMNO to non-Malays! He allegedly proposed flooding the country with Indonesian immigrants for racial dominance. Hey, see history repeats itself and perpetrators (today) learn devious techniques from history!
The 'Patriots' referred to in this book are the people who fought and fell for the country in WWII and Emergency. The 'Pretenders' are the members of Alliance Party who were groomed by the British and were handed to rule the country on a silver platter to safeguard their own interests.

**Hurdles in life are like a game of Angry Birds. You think you just managed to cross one level by tooth and nail - and there you have an even higher bar to pass. It only gets more challenging! Anon.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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