From Penang to Edinburgh and back!

Enough have been said about how great a leader he has been and how the nation is losing a pragmatic leader who led a state after a turmoil (May 13 racial riots and losing free port status) and help to put Penang on the semi-conductor map of the world . For heaven's sake this guy has been out of the limelight of politics for the past 20 years. I guess the citizens of the state of Penang, at least, are not sorely losing him. As usual people will say niceties, pay last respects, carry on with life and past leaders where they deserve to be - in the History books and let the future generation be judge on the past leaders' good and bad!

The Man in the middle

At least I can boldly say that I share two things in common with Dr Lim Chong Eu, i.e. Penang Free School is our alma mater and we spent some time in Edinburgh (of course at different times). Chong Eu studied in PFS in the late 1930s. He must have been an exemplary student who must have excelled both academically as well as extra curricular activities and the extra charisma to have obtained the much coveted Queen's scholarship offered by the British Empire to study medicine in Edinburgh University, the same place his father had studied.
Besides these brilliant traits, we must also respect his quality of standing on what he believes is the right way to go. Leading the biggest Chinese party in Malaya, he left the party after some disagreement on certain policies of the ruling Government at that time to form a splinter party which eventually rocked the boat of the Alliance party and its own way contributed to the racial riots.
He acquired Penang in a dismal condition after losing its free port status and high unemployment rate. Having the foresight to develop Penang, he brought FDI in droves.
After losing the elections in 1990, as a gentleman who knows when he is not welcome any more, he bowed gracefully from the lime light and let a private life. (Another quality current leaders can learn!) Hence, reading the press statements by various leader never failed to tickle a few funny bones. Most of them mentioned that Chong Eu's passing is a great loss to the politics to the country. How can it be a loss when he had refused comments or interviews on current events (unlike some past leaders that we know)? The only coaxing and diplomacy in his life the days before he was incapacitated by stroke was in horse breeding.

Public declaration of private intent!

In conjunction with my 20th wedding anniversary recently, it is only appropriate to blog on wedding!
Most of the time wedding reception dinner speeches are boring. Nobody, except maybe the bride and the groom actually pay attention to what the speaker has to say. I suppose that is why I distinctly remember what my brother-in-law spoke on the occasion, the beginning at least! He started his speech by saying that a wise man once said that a wedding is actually a public declaration of private intentions. Though deemed unpalatable to be spoken in public, this 'tongue-in-cheek' kind of dictum may not hold water anymore.

Most young couples of the 21st century, have private intent on their mind first when casually meeting someone and like to get away as soon as it is over . Making a declaration, what more a public one, is the last thing on their minds! Wedding celebrations as it stays now remain a public declaration of private intentions by legitimizing private activities behind closed doors.

Diana-Charles union

I remember hearing a joke many years ago of how a sociology student was conducting a study in a small town. Part of his task was to fill up a questionnaire about number of children and marital status of ladies in that town. He approached the first lady to ask, "Are you married?" She replied, "Not yet." And the next question was, "How many children?" BAM!!! He got a slap on his face! Obviously shaken by the encounter, he changed his strategy when he interviewed his next subject. He asked, "Any children?" The interviewee replied, "Yeah, 3 children!" And then he asked, "Are you married?" BAM!!! Came another slap on the other cheek! The student dropped his papers and abandoned the research altogether.
Apparently, in that conservative society, it seem blasphemous to mention about having kids out of wedlock. In most societies, within a single generation, how things have changed!
Now, the British tabloids and citizens alike, have gone agape over the recent announcement of the imminent royal wedding between Prince William and a commoner with just as many limbs and appendages by the name of Kate Middleton, as if they have nothing else better to look forward to in life. Just like their parents went 'ga-ga' in 1981 during the Charles-Diana union which eventually came to zilch with mentions of adultery, infidelity and fornication. But it was alright since it was done by the blue blooded.

People of my generation would have a sense of deja vu looking looking at the recent turn of events. Almost 30 years ago, every teenage girls dream was have a wedding like Diana's, long pristine white dress with long bevy of toddlers following faithfully behind, horse carriage, roses and all. It looks like history is going to repeat itself, that is, if you believe what soothsayers of many beliefs have to say. In unison, they all see gloom and doom of the marriage which would not last more than 7 years. Hey, life is not that easy. We have to work hard to make it happen. That will be a wee bit difficult for the royal family - They do not work for a living!!!
Anyway, some private things are better left private to the privacy of consenting adult and their private lives behind closed doors or closets...

The Last Historian

Tues, 30th Nov 1999.

By Stephanie Sta Maria

FMT INTERVIEW PETALING JAYA: Tucked in a corner of the Arts Faculty in Universiti Malaya (UM) is a tiny office overrun by history books. Hardcovers, coffee table editions and paperbacks are either squeezed into bursting bookshelves or piled into tall towers around the room. Sheaves of papers lay in messy heaps, some in danger of toppling off a table that is already littered with stationery and a coffee cup.

Professor Emeritus Dr Khoo Kay Kim sat behind this table, almost dwarfed by the surrounding disarray which he affectionately calls “organised chaos”.

“I created this chaos... so I know where everything is,” he laughed as he swept an amused glance around the room. But even if he doesn't, there is always another place where he's guaranteed to find the information he seeks – in his mind.

The 73-year-old Khoo knows Malaysian history like he lived each and every moment of it. A query on just about any historical event has him reeling off facts, figures and untold stories, deftly resurrecting the past in his audience's minds.

One would imagine Khoo's retirement therefore to be laden with guest talks, mentoring sessions and research projects. Instead he has been rudely relegated to a relic himself.

Students trawl through the hallways beneath him in blissful ignorance of his presence. One student sheepishly confessed to not being aware of a History Department on the campus or the location of the Arts Faculty.

These days, Khoo conducts his own research in solitude for the most part in UM, interrupted only by the occasional visitor wanting either a donation or the answer to a painfully basic history question.

“Very few students and faculty members come to seek my counsel,” he said matter of factly. “And I'm not asked to give any guest lectures. All my title has earned me is this room.”

Steady decline

UM, Malaysia's oldest university, is the only institution left in the country housing a History Department. But that status has done nothing for the department which has suffered a steady decline in both student and staff numbers.

Where it once enjoyed an annual enrolment of 1,300 students in the 60s, only 400 have straggled through its doors over the last few years. Its faculty members are fewer than half of the 28 it used to have. To Khoo, the reason is starkly simple – Malaysians feel that history isn't important.

“I did have a research project which I began two years ago though,” he recalled. “It was a study of Malaysia's cultural diversity. A year later it was terminated. The 'top people' had determined that such a study is – and I quote – not of fundamental importance.”

He raised his eyebrows and nodded slowly as if underlining the absurdity of his statement. When asked whether he challenged this decision, he spread his hands resignedly.

“Of course I did but what can you do?” he said. “My friends and I always talk about the tyranny of the majority. There are so few of us old people so really, what can I do except continue working on the project in a private capacity. But that won't be easy because my research won't be funded.”

The careless dismissal of this commitment towards preserving Malaysian history elicits a deep sigh from Khoo, but what makes him really wince is listening to “utter nonsense” being said about the past. His voice tightened as he spoke of those who trotted out a history based on personal interpretations instead of proper research.

“I can never understand that,” he said in bewilderment. “What has happened to today's generation? In my day, we were always told that any statements we made had to be logical and based on empirical evidence. These criteria apparently aren't necessary today.”

“Bloggers especially talk absolute rubbish! They think they are very clever and that they have the right to say anything they want. We're getting more people like this who don't talk sense anymore. It isn't possible to debate with them.”

“Don't talk about history unless you have done meticulous research. Otherwise, fact and fiction will merge like it is happening now.”

Be truly passionate

Khoo holds the current crop of history teachers responsible for this sacrilege. Their fixation on exam preparations, he said, rendered them unfit to teach a subject like history where understanding takes precedence over the automatic regurgitation of facts.

He also underlined the urgent need for history teachers to be specially trained to understand history beyond the realm of school textbooks.

“Hold special courses for them and rope in experienced teachers to run these courses,” he said. “And strive to get history teachers who are truly passionate about history. Those who teach for the sole purpose of exams are of no use.”

At this point, Khoo leaned forward, his eyes bright. The proposal by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to make history a compulsory pass subject in the SPM by 2014 has greatly heartened him.

“You don't know how I felt when he said that,” he said earnestly, pressing one hand to his chest. “For years I've been telling the government not to let history die. This move is so important.”

“I get very frightened when I hear young people talk today. They are so ignorant of the past. And this leads them to blame the innocent. Like politicians who insist that the British brought the Chinese into Malaysia and caused trouble.”

“But it was the Chinese tauke who brought in the Chinese. They don't even know that! And the non-Chinese have no idea that most Chinese in fact supported the national party and were anti-communists. This ignorance is what caused the racial riots of 1945.”

Nationality and ethnicity

Khoo, who has lived through two racial riots, spoke of his fear for the country's future if it stayed on this path. He predicted that the next generation would wrestle with an identity crisis brought on by their growing inability to differentiate between nationality and ethnicity.

He categorically stated that when a person becomes a citizen of a particular country, his full loyalty should be directed towards that country. But Malaysians, he said, pledged their loyalty to their ethnicity instead.

“In 1949, the British had already set up what was known as the Communities Liaison Committee in an effort to resolve ethnic problems,” he explained. “Then in 1950, they set up a Barnes Committee to study the education system to see how young people from different ethnicities could be brought together.”

“After so many years we have still failed to do that. Why? Some people conveniently blamed the British for the practice of divide and rule. But I can prove to you that there was no such practice.”

“The first English school in this country was the Penang Free School. Many assumed it was called that because the students didn't have to pay school fees but actually it was because any child from any ethnicity was free to enrol there.”

Khoo observed that one fault of the British was the kindness they extended to the people of Malaya in granting them free rein to establish their position as citizens. This freedom eventually led to a strong Chinese influence which the British were unable to control.

It was just before the war, Khoo said, when the High Commissioner wrote to the colonial office suggesting that the time had come to anglicise the Chinese. But then the war erupted and the idea was abandoned.

Real career

Khoo's fierce passion for history is a startling contrast to his childhood dream of being a professional footballer.

“I really did harbour that dream!” he laughed. “Fortunately for me, there was no professional football team in the country and my friends persuaded me to pursue a 'real' career.”

In his real career, Khoo himself made history by being the first lecturer of his department to use Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of instruction in 1965. At the time, this was considered a historic achievement by a non-Malay academician.

He inadvertently made the History Department one of the pioneering departments in the university which only made Bahasa Malaysia the medium of instruction in 1983.

But despite carving history and living through major historical events, many things still surprise him today. One of it is the younger generation's continuous obsession with change.

“In those days we said yes to change if it was for the better and not just for the sake of doing things differently,” he said. “But the younger generation believes that if something has worked well for a long time, then it can't be used any longer and needs to be changed. And we have no idea where we are headed.”

“People think history means appreciating the past for its own sake. But we study history in order to understand the present. History becomes meaningful when we observe society and its problems today, ask how we have become this way and search for answers in the past.”

But that search may come to an end with Khoo for there is no successor waiting in the wings to step into his shoes. Even his previous post as Chair of Malaysian History remained vacant for years before being scrapped completely. This knowledge brings him a stab of anguish.

“I am the last historian in the country,” he uttered. “And I couldn't influence anyone to be my successor. I have a very sad life.
”

Still running against the wind!*

Running against the wind

In the world of the uninitiated and non-runners, a run is a run. They are all the same- the same mile after mile of sweaty muscle power! There is a Malay proverb which says, 'Hanya jauhari yang mengenal manikam" (loosely translated to mean only the jeweler can appreciate the rubies). The Penang Bridge run this weekend was testimony to the fact. The run, in my opinion, had a few 'firsts' of its kind.
The marathon started at 2am, the half marathon at 3am and the 10km at 6am. This is the first time I had to run at a such unearthly hour - it is neither late night nor early morning. In fact, a precocious juvenile delinquent once told my now deceased uncle, when he was working as a counselor in a juvenile reform school, that the delinquent used to conduct his house breaking activities at 3 am because that is the time most people are in their deepest sleep. His bad luck, he was caught when a policeman was returning from a late assignment. This fact is also well known by most cat-burglars! Unfortunately the organizers (PBIM) had the Hobson's choice of arranging it at such times as the bridge is perpetually packed in the day time. Even then, in the newspapers today, we hear of 200 over passengers missing their flights as they were stranded by the packed ferries!
Another first for me was that it was my first participation outside the Klang Valley. Being an international event, the run was flagged off right on the dot of the stipulated time (another first)! 23,000 over runners in all registered for this event (another first). All in all, albeit certain deficiencies, kudos to the organizers for somehow managing the whole show (with more than 23,000 participants) in one piece seamlessly.
This time around I ran with 6,000 over runners in the half marathon category and my son, the chip of the old block, decided to give a go at the 10km category.
At 3am, without much fanfare, off we went flagged by the Hon. Chief Minister of Penang, Sdr. Lim Guan Eng from a podium erected outside Queensbay Mall, which is actually situated on a reclaimed land. It was not in existence when I grew up in Penang till 1985.
At the start, most runners were trying to get a head start. Yours truly went at a pace of 5'51"/km. The course soon took us past a highway leading to the legendary Penang Bridge.
The run on the bridge was a nostalgic one for a hopeless romantic fool like me.Back in 1984 when the bridge was just complete before it was commissioned safe for usage, we Penangites had the privilege of taking long walks on it, under the cover of the star-filled moonlit nights. Of course, they were some unfortunate lost souls who took the avenue as a spot to end their lives after RRF and other flats became less favoured!
And again, on 21st November 2010, under the full moonlit skies without any hassle and bustle of automobiles, I was there again. Only this time, it was 3 o'clock in the wee morning.

Penang Bridge

At 9.4km mark, (0:56:51), we made a U-turn past the mid-span of the bridge. That is when the Gods, for reasons best known to Him, unleashed their fury. The curses came in the form of thunder and lightning and catarrh in form of downpour of the dogs and cat kind! In a way, the cool rain did help to cool down the weary bodies. However, back past the mid-span of the bridge, the winds started howling and resisting our paths. It reminded me of the chilly winds of Edinburgh, minus the 'cold-to-the-bone' feeling. In spite of adverse conditions, running in water filled road and squelchy rain water filled soggy shoes, we persevered.
Feeling pity on us, mere mortals, the Gods mellowed after some time. He relented (16.5km, 1:42:48). He showered our paths with just a slight drizzle only afterwards. With His blessings, the rest of journey appeared shorter and less strenuous. Overall, the terrain was flat except for a few gradual inclination on the bridge and the highway leading to the bridge.The early morning madness proved no attempt at futility - I clocked my personal best of 2:10:31!
Wow! Who says all the runs are the same and runs are boring? Eat your words!
The narration on the events of the day will not be complete without mentioning the following two incidences...
Firstly, at about 9km mark, I started a twitch over at the area of the left Archilles' tendon. "Oh, oh!" I thought to myself. Trying certain self thought (certainly not weather beaten techniques) techniques, like landing more weight on the contra-lateral foot, landing more on the forefeet, tightening the abdominal muscles whilst running hoping that the core muscles will relieve stress on the calf muscles! Forget about double blind controlled studies that people often talked about, this worked. That is all that mattered here.

Is there a bridge in the
background? (circa 1966)

And the second event worth a mention is the drama that unfolded after the run. I decided to wait for Keshav (my son) to finish his 10km run which started at 6.30am so as to ease the burden on our designated chauffeur (my brother-in-law). He finished his run in 1h 10mins. However, due to the mammoth crowd, he missed both of us at the finishing line. After wandering about and failing to locate us after some time, he decided to walk all the way back to my parents' house which was a good 5 km away! Unable to locate him, as he did not carry a mobile phone, we were literally finding for a needle in the haystack. Just like losing a child at a fun-fare, we made an announcement on the PA system with no avail. A search at the St. John's Ambulance tent thankfully proved futile. Finally, a check of the timing chip at the Secretariat allayed our deepest fears and at about that we received news from home of Keshav's arrival there! Enough drama for a day!
By the way, since I am at it, my as well write about it! An interesting occurrence happened during this trip to Penang. It appeared like the leaders in Penang seem to be all over the place! Not only did the Chief Minister appeared twice at the run (flagging at 3am and awards ceremony at 9am), he also passed by in his entourage in a car bearing number plate PP1, 2 hours later together with the Governor of Penang who was in his Rolls Royce limousine. If that was not enough of V.I.P.s for a day, the former Chief Minister and the present minister in the PM's office, Dato Koh Tsu Koon was in the same flight as us. I suppose he was trying to win some sympathy from the public by flying budget no-frill airline like Firefly to emulate Lim Guan Eng who travels in Air Asia!

Bob Seger

That just reminded me of a friend of mine who did an elective posting in Maldives 20 over years ago. Maldives was then a laid back tropical paradise with a population of a few hundred thousand where everybody was nice to each other and knew each other as well. When my friend was visiting one of the country clubs there, the Minister of Finance actually came to him, started a conversation and played pool with him! That's another story for another day....

A wonderful life?

At 65, still looking good in spite
of the stresses in her life.

I am sure, the best Christmas movie of all time would be none other than the 1946 production of  'It's a wonderful life' starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. It is a touching poignant film on how things that may seem trivial and irritant to us may actually alter the course of other peoples' life! A movie worth watching a few times! [See youtube snippet below of the beginning of the movie- Spoiler warning!]
By now, the dust would have settled on the euphoric news of Suu Kyi's release from house arrest. I suppose it is never too late to write about the Myanmarese icon whose family (father - Founder of Modern Burma, mother was leader for some time and herself) has been the pillar in the political landscape of Myanmar.
Again, I ask myself...
What drives this petite multiple award winning Oxford graduate survive 20 years of house arrest without going insane or just giving up the struggle for justice for her people, knowing well that the world is her oyster and she is perfectly capable of leading 'normal' life with the rest of her family who are scattered all over! This is not the only hardship that she had endured in her life. Having lost her father, Aung San, the founder of modern Burma, to assassination when she was 2, she grew up without a father figure in her childhood.
Returning home to visit her ailing mother, she was placed under house arrest by the ruling regime of Ne Win. In spite of being the legitimate winner of the general elections and repeated international condemnation, her status remained status quo. Of top of that all, her husband, who was in UK all this while, was diagnosed with terminal prostatic cancer to which he finally succumbed to. And she could not be with him during his final days and his funeral as well. To be fair, the regime did allow her to leave the country but Suu Kyi was afraid she could not return.
During her incarceration, she was diagnosed to have ovarian cyst (or maybe ovarian cancer, some melodramatic reports say) for which she was allegedly denied adequate treatment. She had not seen her children in many years. The roof of her house was blown off by Typhoon Nargis which made her stay in her dark house for days as electricity supply was disrupted. but her struggle continues...
In  the same light, what made Nelson Mandela give up 27 years of his valuable life counting bars in exchange for abolition of apartheid in South Africa? And Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated when he was voicing vehemently his intention to materialize his dream of seeing his nation turn into an oasis of unity where sons of slaves and slave-owners walk hand in hand as brothers! And why MK Gandhi gave up his Western suit and decided to wash latrines is his ashram (which was at time the work of the untouchables)? Was it purely to liberate his country from the British tyranny? And Ab Lincoln? And Mother Theresa?
Not to forget our local grown politicians like Lim Guan Eng who was behind bars defending an under-aged rape victim. If you think, the end of the rainbow was him capturing the helm of Chief Minister of Penang, think again! His every move is watched hawkishly by the Government-controlled media and is dissected ruthlessly in the negative light.
So, are these people all leading a wonderful life? Well, one thing is for sure. These people (minus Mother Theresa) are all politicians. They parade shamelessly and brand and re-brand themselves again and again in their own well conceived ways to achieve their own pre-planned agendas!
A leopard never changes its spots. A politician, like a chameleon, changes his hue, texture and tone to suit his surroundings!

On Christmas Eve 1946, George Bailey (James Stewart) is deeply depressed, even suicidal. Prayers for George are heard by the angels. Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), an Angel Second Class, is sent to Earth to save him—and thereby earn his wings. Joseph, the head angel, reviews George's life with Clarence. As a 12-year-old boy in 1919, George (Bobby Anderson) saved the life of his younger brother Harry (Todd Karns) after he fell through the ice on a pond, though George got an ear infection that impaired his hearing in one ear. Later, as an errand boy in a pharmacy, George stopped his boss, local druggist Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner), from mistakenly filling a child's prescription with poison while grief-stricken over the death of his son from influenza. From childhood, George's greatest ambition has been to see the world and design bridges and skyscrapers. However, he repeatedly has to sacrifice his dreams for the well-being of others. He puts off going to college to help in the family business until Harry graduates from high school and can replace him at the Bailey Building and Loan Association, vital to many of the disadvantaged in town. On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George discusses his future with Mary Hatch (Donna Reed), who has had a crush on him since she was a little girl. Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) and Harry then break the news to George that his father has had a stroke. Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a heartless slumlord, seizes the opportunity to try to convince the board of directors to end the "sentimental hogwash" of providing home loans for the working poor. George persuades them to reject Potter's proposal, but they agree only on condition that George himself run the Building and Loan. He reluctantly stays in Bedford Falls and gives his school money to his brother.  (Ref: lionking94)

What if.?... Nah! Let sleeping dogs lie

Just the other day, one of followers (on the blog, of course - I am not a leader of some sort of ala-Waco kind of a cult!) sent me a link to a site where some people of Tamil ethnicity in Kuala Lumpur, were creating a scene trying to give a memorandum to the organizers at the launch of Little India in Brickfields. These people claim that Indians in Malaysia were ill-treated and the Indian Prime Minister should intervene. In the same vein, they were unhappy with the way their fellow Tamilians from Jaffna peninsular (in Sri Lanka) were treated by the Singalese government and that the Indian government did not intervene to right the wrong. On top of all these, they felt that Mr Manmohan Singh was not the most appropriate person to officiate the function and that 'Little India' should have been called 'Tamil City' instead this area was mainly developed by Tamils who migrated to Malaya.
At the end of the day, the memorandum was just a uneventful storm in the tea cup. Obladi oblada, life went on... Little India was officially open by Mr Manmohan, Little India remained Little India, Najib contracted chicken pox and recovered and the trouble makers started looking at other things to create an issue. It has been like that throughout the history of mankind.

Righting the wrong? 

The most iconic image of MGR is from the film Enga Veetu Pillai, when MGR’s character threatens to whip 

the Landlord with the very whip that the Landlord used to discipline his workers and servants.

The link also had a write-up on how the sea-faring Tamilians helped to develop the area from Kra isthmus all the way to the present Phillipines on the north and Indonesia in the south. Basically, the article was whining about the long lost glory of the race and whining about the present state of affairs.
What if everyone in the world starting in that manner and try to alter the course of present day events based on historic events. Of course, history (His Story) is written by victors but then there will eternal chaos on Mother Earth if everyone wants to change the natural course of events os 'History'and eventually there will be no civilization for us to write about. Like the old Red Indian saying goes; when you plan to kill someone for revenge, make sure you dig two graves!
Imagine a world in the following examples if everybody finds a justification to reclaim their stake in something:

• (This is already happening)! The legal wrangle and occasional riots on sovereign right to build their place of worship in a site in Ayodhya, India. The Hindus claim the area as birth place of Lord Rama whilst the Moslems refuse to budge from the Babri mosque which was allegedly built by the invading Moghul warriors in 1528.
• What if suddenly someone from Macedonia one day says they have to continue the struggle and unaccomplished wish of one of the sons of their soil named many years previously, named Alexander, managed to convince the rest of the Macedonians to declare war on India to continue Alexander's conquest of the world?
• What if the remnants of the Austria-Hungarian empire which hailed at the turn of the 20th century is given a new lease of life by a renegade supremacy group? Scary, right?
• And like a scene from the blockbuster 'Mummy Returns', if someone or something  either in delusion or  in mystic, decides to reclaim the bygone glory era of the Sphinx? The result would definitely be catastrophic to the human race. 
• And like that the Romans, Greeks, Persians and Native Americans have a lot of things to proud about that they have contributed to mankind. So let it be.

  

  Roman soldier

  
  

The Communists ruled Budapest in 1919,
the destruction of all Hungarian historical
monuments statues and national symbols.
The Heroes Square of Budapest was    
completely demolished and rebuilt into a
Marx-Engels memorial by the communists.

May be we should all emulate the Chinese. No matter where they live, that is their kingdom. They would work hard as if there was no tomorrow (Kal Ho Nah Ho) and be able to play a crucial if if not the 'unseen hand' role in the progress of the nation without much fuss. Evidence of this apparent in countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. In spite of not being the majority race, the economy of these countries are controlled by their activities. Probably, like what this show below shows, in 2030 history would have made a complete circle, Civilization of mankind as we know it that probably started around the Yellow River circa BC 3500 will be at the helm of the Chinese again!
The take home message is that everything in this world will find its steady state. Glorious emperors and empires have come and gone. All victory and glory will one day fall into disarray. The sun will eventually set on all glory days. We should cherish them and reminisce them in our memory and enjoy our laurels in the twilight years. Bearing in mind that history has the bad habit of repeating itself, we should safe-guard ourselves against incidences like how Shah Jahan, the mighty builder of Taj Mahal, was imprisoned by his Aurangzeb, his slightly lunatic offspring!

Whatchamacallit? Call it whatever you want!

Call it writer's block, call it 'Busy, busy, busy', call it that the 'gripe whine' is getting smaller, call it 'LG- life is good', call it just plain lazy, whatever it is, the reality is that I have not been writing recently!
As in previous years,  the crescendo of Deepavali celebrations will eventually wane down after watching Indian movies. This time the family watched 'Action Replayy' (Hindi) and 'Enthiran-The Robot'. So, I thought of writing a review of these two new releases.
'Action Replayy' is spelt correctly. Releasing a new movie is a big gamble. Many foreseen and unforeseen circumstances may interplay to decide its eventual fate at the box office. Sprouting of disgruntled junior writer accusing screenwriters of plagiarism (in the case of 'Enthiran'), publicity yearning politicians making inappropriate statements about movie (like about Sharukh Khan's 'My name is Khan') or even a freak monsoon storm may all potentially jeopardize the collection at the end of the day. Hence, that is where our friendly enterprising numerologists and priests spring into action and stunts like addition of certain letters to the title (like Singh is KKing') manifest! Director and producer, Rakesh Roshan, have been naming his movies with the letter 'K' from 1987 till date [Khudgarz, Khoon Bhari Maang, Kala Bazaar, Kishan Kanhaiya, Khel,King Uncle, Karan Arjun, Koyla, Karobaar, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, Koi Mil Gaya, Krrish, Kaamchor, Krazzy 4, Kites].
And South Indian producers will appease the divine powers by performing prayers in mammoth proportions on the master reel of films. Rajnikanth, once, got a helicopter to sprinkle flowers onto the temple koppuram for blessings.
Talking about 'Action Replay', its storyline was a rip-off from the 'Back to the Future' trilogy. Minus, the believability component and the excitement of the latter. Boy (young adult) goes to past' matter-of-fact'ly to correct his often squabbling parents and his nerdy father without enough emotion, does his cupid work and propels back to the future seamlessly with the broken down time machine which was repaired by the Professor whom he located easily (and the Professor obliged willingly) whilst he was gone! And the set dances and masala in between! Minus the excitement of finding the adequate energy finding mission by Christopher Lloyd, the heart wrenching cliff hanging adrenaline rushing excitement of wiring of energy from the lighting-struck clock tower at a specified time and the phone call conversation of Chuck Berry's cousin about his finding of a tune for his next song, Johnny B. Goode! I remember all these because 'Back to the Future' remains one of my all time favourite movie.

Rajnikanth without make-up

Rajnikanth -after makeup

'Enthiran' was a bore to me as well. A Rajnikanth movie minus his punch dialogues? No good! Somehow, I went in with too high of an expectation, comparing it to movies like 'Muthu', 'Ejamaan', 'Padaiappa' and 'Badsha'. It was a wee bit too long and editing is much to be desired. Many scenes could have been deleted. And the songs all sound alike and way too many! (Sorry A.R. Rahman). For best selection of songs in a single movie, one should listen to the soundtracks of movies 'Athey Kangal' (1967) with songs ranging from a-go-go (">Ho ho ethanai alagu) to traditional matalam beat (Boom boom matthukaran) and 'Punnagai Mannan' (1986) which boasts of Maestro Illayara's award winning composition which incorporated ">fusion of Indian and neo-classical modern rythms . I actually was yawning, glancing at my watch way too often and even managed a short snooze at the tale end of the movie!
And, hence ended Deepavali 2010! Soi!