Teacher……….One God, many forms

Last weekend I met a few old extreme friends. You may wonder why the word extreme is used for these friends. These particular friends are the type that won’t lose in any type of argument. After recalling so many “missed” events, I thought of starting the war. It is nothing wrong to start a war between “very well” known friends. This particular group is a matured group and they know their limits and they know how to reconcile back. I have seen arguments going to the centre of the earth and they come out laughing their hearts out.

The point for the argument was simple, “How many teachers are there?”

We didn’t put it to a debate of whether there is “teacher” or “no teacher”, all accepted that “teacher” existed. We turned dice on, “How many teachers are there”.

One was the smallest number (since Zero was not accepted in our argument). Countless was the biggest number. The arguing group was from a vast knowledge based people. I even had a Phd. in the team.

1. There have to be many teachers because we have so many things to learn.
   

In the 1^st round of argument everyone accepted that there are many teachers. One teacher most probably cannot teach a lot of subjects. The most one teacher could teach is around 3 or 4 subjects (there could be more, but let’s keep those teachers in a safe place).

2. If there are many teachers then whom should we choose?
   

Such a simple question was twisted at the beginning of the argument. We should get the maths teacher, no……., we should get the science teacher, no……., we should get history teacher, no…….., and the argument went on with many strong prolific reasons. Then one smart guy asked, who is the student?

You see, there can be many answers, but if you want a right answer then you need to know what is the right question. The question was not complete. The question should have been re-phrased to, “Which teacher should be selected for the student who has interest in science or maths or geography or music or language?” The interest of the student must be taken into consideration.

Looks like we have settled the argument in a simple manner.

Now for the fun of it, try to replace “teacher” with “God”.

Is the one God or many Gods?
Which God should I select?
All depends on what I want?
There are Gods for every aspect of human’s life.

I just relate this writing to Hinduism because it I have some fundamental knowledge in it. There is nothing against any other religion and my respect to all other religion are equal.

Hinduism believes in one God that exist in many forms. True to its core, God is similar to a teacher, there is only one teacher, this teacher takes many type of forms to teach what we want to learn. Every subject has a different approach in conveying its message, therefore the teacher should equip themselves with proper accessories in order to teach. That is the reason different Gods in Hinduism are displayed with many accessories.

OK, how about those who says there is no God? Don’t they have any teacher?

Actually there is nothing wrong to say that there is no teacher, their actual teacher is the nature and that is the one thing that no one can deny.

GOD, religion and nature are a guide to our well being in this lovely world. There is no scale that can evaluate and give you a result on which is better. All has different names and different approaches. In these many differences, one similarity lives on….that is "Do Good and live happily".

Teacher……….One God, many forms

I attach a link “Tribute to a teacher” which describes a teacher and how the teacher has shared. Let your mind ponder on these issues and you will see the connection on this topic.

http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-418.html

Subra

Fairy Tale

I came across a blog with a nice simple and short story, indeed, it was a very short story, maybe it qualifies for the award stated in the name of the title itself "worlds shortest fairy tale".

http://www.dreamwalkersworld.com/2008/11/worlds-shortest-fairy-tale.html

The short story was based on the format used by bestsellers. They have part 1, then part 2 in order to make more money.

In this story, the author says that the girl lived happily after the boy said no to her marriage proposal.

Part 2 in my opinion shall hold the underlying truth where the boy also lived happily after when the girl didn't insist on hime getting married with her.

This reminds me of a Tamil movie which showed 2 lovers who were in deep love and got married, but later due to irreconcilable differences got separated. It was a shock to all on why they wanted to get separated. It was very clear to all their friends that they were an ideal couple. They understand each other very well. Then why did they got separated?

The answer was very simple, they understand each other very well therefore they came to a unanimous agreement that they agree that they connot get along well.

Confusing......no, it is crystal clear.

The understanding between them was very clear and they respected that understanding. Give some thoughts on it and you will see the true view prevailing itself. Many are cheating themselves saying that they understand each other very well and are staying together. Most are just forcing themselves. Hope I didn't stir any "good" & "understanding" couples.

For a successful companionship, the best method is to refer to Stephen R. Covey's 7 habits of effective people - Seek to understand first, then to be understood. You try to understand others first and don't expect others to understand you first.

Anyhow I liked the "shortest fairy tale" very much for the kind of multi angle view on the subject. Thanks to Meleah and Dreamwalker.

Refer to the cartoon on "no confidence" vote described in th attached cartoon. I saw that cartoon in the drybonesblog. Give some thoughts on it and you will see the relevance to the word "understanding".

Subra

http://mommamiameaculpa.com/?p=1439
http://www.dreamwalkersworld.com/2008/11/worlds-shortest-fairy-tale.html
drybonesblog.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

Live with an objective that never ends.

I have a lot of table roses (Japanese Rose) in my house. I grow them not because of passion or love for gardening or interest in the environment, but just because it is the easiest thing to plant and grow.
I have wonderful colours in my collection. The best part of these flowers is, it blossom at around 9:00am and wilt by noon. What a short time to show off its glamour and beauty. It makes me think whether its worth to blossom and live a life as a flower just for a few hours. What glory can it gain in such a short period. Most of us leave the house before 8 and only return in the evening. We can only see the buds early in the morning before its full blossom.
I understand that orchids stay up to 2 to 3 weeks. Naturally its beauty is incomparable in the flower kingdom. To the title of being the most beautiful flower, it stays long to contribute to visual desire of man.
Although both table roses and orchids have one thing in common, which is its unique beauty but both have totally different life cycles. One stays for only few hours and the other for weeks. Yet, something makes both of them feel useful to this world and mankind.
Both knows that as a flowering plant, it should keep on giving new blossoms as the old one withers. Regardless to the life cycle of the blossoms, the plant continues to paint the world with its blossoms add a smile to every human in this world. The objective of the plants are not just to flower once but evertime the old one falls. The cycle never ends.

Live with an objective that never ends.

Subra

* The pictures are not mine

Man and his dollar sense.

It is quite surprising to see how much a man’s life is entangled in the world of “dollars” and “cents” (use your own country currency for the phrases).

I have seen people who has money that can only make them swim through their life on daily basis and I have also seen people who has money that can drown them. Let’s term them as “1” for those who live on daily earning basis and “10” for those who live in a world which fits a king (damn rich).

Most of the people I had known from the category “1” are sincere and lives a faithful life (here I am referring to only those whom I specifically know). I do have a lot of friends that comes from the category “10”. These are the people whom I admire the most.

Please note that I am a true believer of the “Ying Yang” theory. If somebody says that you can learn a lot of good traits from the rich people, I also say that we can learn a lot of bad traits from these people. Simple philosophy, learn the good and practice them, learn the bad and avoid from practicing them.

I just wanted to narrate a story on how a well to do people behaved and what should we learn from them (actually learn what we should not do when we have wealth).

The conversation with this person was rather unique. When I asked them how was the journey. Their answer: We paid RM300.00 for a service that was only worth RM120.00.

How was the food? Answer : The coffee was only worth RM0.70 but we were charged RM2.50, the meal could not be a single cents more than RM3:00 but we had to pay RM7:50. The canned drink was OK but they charged us extra RM0.20 compared to the local grocery store. How did you come to work this morning? I took the RM15.00 taxi. What movie did you see last weekend? I saw RM10.00 movie at the mall. You had a haircut, nice! I had my haircut at the city centre for RM40.00

For these people, everything seems to be translated to “dollar” and “cents”. Everything is referred in relation to dollar and cent. They won’t understand if you don’t include the cost of the product or the service you receive. Money, money, money……………everything had to be said in terms of money.

This person caught me off balance when he asked me why am I writing in the blog. I told him that I get to practice my writing skill, improve my language and it gives me satisfaction.

This person laughed when I said I get satisfaction. He asked me, “Do you get paid for this?” I said, “No”. And he said what the hell you are writing for?

Should we get paid for everything we do? Can’t we do anything if there is no money in it? I was ready to put up my arguments on this issue but I got a lightning strike in my mind saying that it will be like talking to a wall with this person.

Every thing we do (good or bad) will return to us in many ways. Some are returned in the form of money and some are returned in other forms. Many people appreciate all that comes to them regardless of what form it comes back but some will only accept if it comes in the form of money.

I am not saying that money is not important but we should not lose our sense of being a human with feelings. Man should know his dollar sense limits.

Subra

Judgment by judges, beyond politics

Writing openly about ISA (Internal Security Act) detention is something sensitive in Malaysia. It is even worse if you do so about an ISA detainee. It shall be nightmare if you talk about the Minister who signed the detention.

Therefore all are refrained from discussing this matter. If no one is talking, then the whole issue becomes one sided story. The authority talks, the rest listen. No questions can be asked because ISA is a prevention act.

On the 12^th of Sept, a journalist, an opposition MP and Malaysia Today editor were arrested under ISA. The whole country cried foul. But the decision was defended and upheld firmly. Anyhow, the journalist was freed within 24 hours and the opposition party MP was released a week later. Unfortunately the editor was kept much longer.

There were legal tussle between the editor’s legal team and the authority for some time. Surprisingly, on the 7^th of Nov., the editor was released by the court. Surprise is the most appropriate word because, in general, the courts are deemed as an extension of the government and the government shall decide based on political pro and con.

It is my personal believe that, all Malaysian courts’ verdict are weighed against the effect and impact to the ruling government.

Hopefully no judges are reading this. I think that I am not totally wrong when I say, all verdicts tend to lean towards ruling government. Or, at least, the verdict doesn’t create damage to the ruling party.

The verdict on the RPK (the editor – Raja Petra Kamaruddin) was something very surprising because it puts the Minster and the authority in hot soup. The detention order was found to be non compliance with the related act. Rakyat (people) now questions the ability of the Minister and the authority in making such decisions.

Even worse, the Minister and the authority now have to challenge the court’s decision in order to protect their mistakes. They may also find other ways to detain RPK again. Rather than finding the right act and method to detain RPK, I hope the Minister and the authority will spend more time and effort to investigate the facts on why RPK is considered as a threat and justify it.

RPK’s release is a milestone in Malaysia courts (I guess), it was indeed a great surprise and I remember reading that RPK himself was surprised. This incident proves that judgment by the judge was beyond politics.

Subra

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/11957-raja-petra-freed

Man calls this creativity and innovation

As you all know, all human beings want to live an enjoyable life in this wonderful natural world. Whoever designed this world and the life form has designed it in perfect order. The designer, who is called as GOD or an unknown force or an unknown energy is accepted to exist in one way or another. Regardless of what it is, let’s just call it as “the designer”.

The designer made the world and the life form, in a way where both need each other for survival. The designer also fulfilled the “sufficiency and compatibility” aspect by preparing remedies for unforeseen situations. In simple English : designed “natural” medicines” apart from the “natural food”.

Whatever man needs to live a simple and peaceful life, are readily available in natural form. The designer gave the man an efficient brain in order to run the “life form” which it lives in. Addition to that, the brain also has the capability to handle the so called “unforeseen situations”.

Remember, the brain should act and re-act to natural requirement of the life form in accordance to the environment surrounding the life form.

Anyhow, it is difficult to say when and how man started to “abuse” the brain in order to “over drive” the designer’s natural world.

Man started to demand more from his environment. The “brain”, which, normally responds to the natural requirement of the life form and the natural effects of the world, is being triggered to think on pursuing things which are being artificially deemed necessary for life forms in this world.

Since the brain is capable of fulfilling man’s “artificially” created demands, the man, started to push the brain even harder to achieve more, actually, abuse more. Artificial requirements now change to greed and ego. Man wants more and more. Man forgets the equilibrium balance between life form and environment. The general theory of “yin yang” is relentlessly destroyed.

Man is abusing the environment.
Man thought he is in control over environment.
Man sees the environment as his slave to his insatiable desires.
Man feels that, environment cannot fight back.

Man calls this "creativity" and "innovation".

But,

Man forgot that environment doesn’t fight back but obliterate without mercy.

Use the brain to “create” without destroying the nature,
Use the brain to “innovate” without interrupting the nature.

Read below link to get the feel of how development without environment protection damages everything.

Subra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction

Ways of looking at things : Positive and Negative

Last week, we had a small Deepavali party ( a Hindu annual festival held to celebrate the victory of "good" over"evil") in my brother's (Sundar) house in Penang. We invited many friends. I was surprised to meet a few of my very very old colleagues from my company.

An interesting scenario happened when I met these 2 guys. I think the last time I met them was around 2-3 years ago. The 1st responded, "Wow, Subra is it you? You look so different. My God!, you changed a lot."

The 2nd responded, "Subra nice to meet you again, you look the same. you never change a bit".

Totally confused.

2 ways of looking things : Positive and Negative

Positive :

-The 1st guy wanted to make me happy by telling that I changed a lot and look more "matured", more intelligent", "more majestic".......I know you are getting jealous.

-The 2nd guy wanted to make me feel that I am still as young as how I looked few years back.

Negative:

- The 1st guy intended to tell me that I changed from being a good guy earlier days and now I look pretty messed up.
-The 2nd guy intended to tell me that I never changed and still behave clumsy the same way I did a few years back.

Now , for the actual impact of the 2 contrasting comments - all depends on how I want to interpret. I chose to take it positively. I am a changed person - by look and thinking, at the same time, I am a person who did not change - by my good character and jolly good behaviour.

How the other person interpret seems to be lost in my analysis. I was happy for many reasons on that day:-

- it was Deepavali time
- I met long lost friends
- both had opinions on me
- and I see both opinions to be positive about me.

I am happy and I am sure my day will be great throughout.

There are always many ways of looking at things : Positive and Negative, but you can choose only 1, choose wisely.

Subra

He who shouts the loudest is RIGHT & GOOD

I went to a “Bank’s” automated centre in Penang. I saw a”KWSP” (EPF=Employee Profident Fund) statement printing machine there. Since the machine was there, I thought of trying to print my EPF account statement.

The steps were simple. I have to slot my “MYKAD” (Identification Card), wait for the verification, then place my right thumb on the scanner, wait for while, then click (touch the screen) for the statement printing. Like a magician’s wand, the statement came out in a standard A4 size paper. Wow, great technology, great use.

I don’t have to go to the EPF office to get the statements. I love technology.

After printing this year’s statement, I saw an option to print the 2007 statement. Nothing to lose, I clicked (touch the screen) the option to print the 2007 statement. The automated equipment did it’s sound effect, colourful screen changes, beeping sound and I looked at the slot where the printed statement should come out, nothing was there. I waited for a while, nothing happened. Waited a little longer, still nothing happened. Then there came the famous words, “Machine Temporarily Out of Service”.

Now I was in dilemma, did the machine print my 2007 statement? If yes, it would be stuck inside and the person who is going to repair and reset the machine will have full information about my EPF. I wasn’t feeling very comfortable. I asked the security officer to ask the bank officer to help me to get the stuck paper out. The security officer said nobody can help now, the bank will do it later.

It was only around 4:20pm. I was in the midst of deciding whether to make the issue big or not. At that moment another guy came in and straight away went to the EPF machine to get his statement printed. The moment, he saw the screen saying out of order, he cursed the bank and shouted to the security officer.

Guess what happened, the security guard went inside the bank and brought out an officer. That officer went into the bank again and came out with another officer. They opened the machine and removed my statement which was stuck. They handed me my statement, then reset the machine and locked it again.

I thanked the bank officer and the security guard, but neither replied or cared to respond to me.

The guy who came after me created a chaos, didn’t even thank anyone nor appreciated the help rendered by the officer. He cursed them further.

The officers apologized to this guy.

Now,
I asked nicely, no action.
The guy shouted, immediate action was taken.

I thanked the officers, they didn’t acknowledge.
The guy cursed the officers, they apologized to him.

I think the phrase, “He who shouts the loudest is RIGHT and GOOD”, is true to it’s core.

Subra

http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=p2index&pg=bm_p2index_service&ac=3&task=kiosk

If I can reverse the time.......

I am very sure many of us did wish that we could reverse the time in order to amend back some mistakes we made in the past. Just imagine if we really had such a mechanism....wouldn't it be wonderful.

Don't you think everyone in this world would be happy. Every mistake you make, you reverse the time and amend it again. Another mistake another reversal of the time and another amendment, that's it, everything is corrected and all are on the right track.

Surely nothing can be wrong anymore isn't it?

But before you think on the feasibility of this wish coming true, can we define what is right and wrong. Yes, if you can unanimously get a list of right and wrong, then you can ask for the time reversal equipment. What is right to one person can be wrong to another person and what is wrong to one person can be right to another person.

I think we are getting to something now. I make a mistake, reverse the time and amend the mistake. With a great smile of achievement I carry on with my work. Then came a man who is not happy with the amendment I made because it effected him. Therefore he would reverse the time back and amend my changes according to what he wants.

All this will continue and many of us will be engaged in reversing the time and amending what we have done in the past. Neither of us will bothered to think on how to correct the mistakes from happening again.

We will choose to sit on our mistakes and spend time thinking on how we could have avoided the mistake then reverse the time and amend it. All these regrets and time spent to do the reversal act dampens our vision to move forward.

Once you know it was a mistake, analyse what went wrong, think on how to avoid it or prevent it, then move on...don't stay on the mistake for too long, many other things are happening and if you missed it, then you tend to miss more.

Think again.......If I can reverse the time.....it will be a disaster.

Change and excitement - What we wanted and what we got!

We were all eagerly waiting for changes.

Changes that happened:
4 states changed hand.
Many seats in the parliament changed to opposition members.
The perspective of democracy changed.

Changes that did not happen:
Policies and tactics (which are base words for politics) used by ruling government did not change.
Mentality and thoughts of the ruling party did not change.
Information disseminated to the public is still based on "I talk you listen-don't ask, don't think".

Think back on what we (the rakyat) wanted.
We wanted real change in the arena of politics.
We wanted to see the political parties and the politicians change their view and their stand on the race based political system.
We wanted to see some initiatives triggered to realize these changes.
We wanted the opposition party to take over the government from the ruling party in order to give a wake up call to the ruling party.

We thought that the ruling government will understand possibility of the opposition party's intention to take over the government may happen.
We thought ruling party will think for the benefit of all the people in Malaysia and do something to correct the wrongs and re-align the path for betterment.

But what happened was:
Ruling party is just struggling to keep their job by taking care of the few who decide their immediate positions (positions in their party and the governmental positions that come together with the party's position) - "rakyat" is forgotten.

Opposition party made fantastic promises and indeed staged a good performance till they tumbled on their own deadlines.

I am not complaining on the opposition party's "missed" deadlines, but I feel that, the dates were committed by themselves and were not imposed by the rakyat.

If I ask you to dig a 1000 feet hole within 3 days without knowing your capabilities and your equipment, your failure to dig the hole can be shifted to me. But if you yourself committed that you can dig the hole within the specified time frame, your failure is 100% yours - knowing your own capability and your resources, your commitment should be realistic.

We wanted changes, but both parties (ruling and opposition) gave us some excitement, not the real change.

See it for yourself : What we wanted and what we got - Change and Excitement !

In everything you do (in work or life), bring in the change and not just the excitement.

Innovation - an extension from an existing idea

My nephew Yoga Nadaraajan (my elder brother's son) who is studying Form 4 (10th year of studies) in a well known St. John School in KL was featured in a local language monthly Magazine called "FOKUS SPM". (Yoga is the one on the top right).

He and his team of 3 "bubbly" guys (except Yoga) made a protoype system using "LEGO" sets and other materials. The LEGO set is an advance set which consists of motor systems, programming units, sensors, actuators and so on. It is indeed an advance automation system.

It is interesting to see the kind of effort put in by these guys. Although I don't know about the other 2 guys, but whenever I talk to my nephew Yoga, he will be always saying something about his project and his 2 friends. At a time where friendship is just found in SMS, I saw the automation project bound all the 3 and their schoolmates very closely.

The project they were engaged in was (I think) an innovation from the existing SMART tunnel in KL (refer below link). These guys incorporated the traffic problems as well as the environment protection, energy conservation and others in their project.

The article is in the local language (Bahasa Malaysia). Therefore if anyone wants further details, please contact Yoga at yogaanna@gmail.com

Creativity and Innovation are inter related, there could be many definition for innovation, one of it is; Innovation is an extension from an existing idea. The SMART could be great but these guys' SMEPP will be greater.

http://www.smarttunnel.com.my/smart/index.html

Subra

Salute to the Sun - A rise with no end

YOGA, apart from being the names of good people like my son (S.Yoga) and nephews (N.Yoga & S. Yoga), is an ancient form of exercise developed for the human body, mind and soul. One thing, if you try to analayse the concepts developed in India, you will find that, on the surface it may say everything is one but on the underlays, it will say there are many. Not to go very deep, let's just touch a little; God is one but has many forms in order to serve the many needs of all the creatures. Hope I apprehended myself from being pulled into deep soul searching arguments. Similarly, many Yoga postures were developed to serve the many needs of all creatures (actually I mean human only).


I am not going to defend Yoga or promote the benefits of Yoga, I am just going to tell you that, there are many information found in the internet and you can choose to practise on your own will.


One of the most basic (again, this is my guess) Yoga exercise is the "Surya Namaskaram" or in English it is called as "Salute to the Sun". It is a 12 position cycle. Give and take, each position will take about 5 seconds, 60 seconds (1 minute) for every cycle and 12 cycles every morning (12 - 15 minutes) will give you fantastic health and a body of your dream. Other important things are : you should perform these exercises early in the morning (sunrise - morning radiation from the sun is good) and you must also follow the breathing technique.


Anyhow, those with disc slip problem like me, are advised to get doctor's advise prior to performing Yoga...........now I got you, you cannot ask me "You talk so much, do you do Yoga?"......you see, I wanted to do Yoga but I have disc slip problem.


Anyhow please seriously consider on taking up this Yoga exercise, you will be surprised to see how you sweat when you reach 3rd, 4th cycle. You should be able to reach a complete 12 cycles after 1 week. Keep the progress slow and steady. Don't press yourself too much.

Why salute the sun? It is the one thing that will keep on rising every morning and gives us hope of a fantastic day ahead. Salute to the Sun, a rise with no end.


http://www.suryanamaskar.info/suryanamaskar.htm

Subra

To SMS or not to SMS, that is the end of English !

Last week I received a SMS from a friend called Lily.

The SMS reads as follow :-

Evry tear is sign of brokenes,
Evry silence is sign of lonelines,
Evry smile is sign of kindnes,
Evry SMS is sym of rememberance.

I almost killed myself trying to read this SMS, but consoled myself and replied with below SMS :-

Every SMS is a sign which says "Death is not far for English". To which she replied, "This normalah".

Even my daughter laughs at me when I type a SMS with complete spelling.

Lately, I am also receiving emails in SMS format. I have to figure out myself what each word means. I know good English is dying but I never thought it will be killed in this manner.

If Shakespeare lived in this world now, he would have written his famous words as "To SMS or not to SMS, that is the end of English".

Subra

916 - in the eyes of man and woman

Very interestingly Ms. Choo pointed out in her blog http://mommyscchoo.blogspot.com/2008/09/916-gold-or.html that 916 is seen as gold by women and 916 is seen as a political restructure by men.

Indeed, could 916 start the re-structuring of political fundamentals in Malaysia?

Maybe Malaysia is ready to take on the new era of understanding among the multi racial society.

All the while we have been thinking that Malaysians are still living in a strongly knit racial divisions and in general claim that we are multi racial. March 8, 2008 showed all of us that we are no believers of race based politics. We saw people from all races voting for people from all races based on their political principles. (Although I still say that people voted on the basis that they wanted to teach a lesson to the present ruling party, I tend to agree in general that we are about to leave the race base politics).

Today is 916, there is something big going on. What will be next is not a surprise. All Malaysians (almost all) know what are the possible options.

1. Snap Election
2. Mass arrest under ISA
3. Opposition party forms the new government.

Till now I am still unable to make a guess.

In a remote part pf my brain, I see that there could be a change in the leadership within the ruling party and this will make all those from the ruling party who wanted to defect to think twice before crossing over. If such thing happens then, all the 3 options will never take place.

No matter how 916 is seen in the eyes of man and woman, we sincerely hope it will churn out golden opportunity to all of us and to our country.

Subra

Should we speak....I mean can we speak?

The latest ISA arrest (3 people - 1 was released within 24hours) instills fear. Lawfully speaking, ISA is supposed to instill fear in "bad" people and create safe feeling in "good" people.

Without any doubt, the ISA has instilled fear and the safe feeling among the people. The only problem is, we do not know who are the bad people and who are the good people.

If there is a terrorist roaming around the country and pose a threat to the safety of the people and the security of the nation, then the arrest of this terrorist will create safe feeling among the people and instill fear among other terrorists.

What happened in Malaysia on the 13th September 2008, made me wonder who are feeling safe now and who are frightened now?

Freedom of speech and freedom of information are inter related. When someone wish to express himself, it is called as freedom of speech. When someone wants to know what was said, then there comes the freedom of information. The media acts as the conveyor. The claims of misinterpretations are baseless because, if it can be misinterpretated, then the information was not spoken clearly. Simple Murphy's Law - If something can go wrong, it will go wrong.......if something can be wrongly interpreted, then it will be wrongly interpreted.

Same like many others, I too think that we have freedom of speech and freedom of thoughts but.......the question is ............Should we speak....I mean can we speak? I don't even know whether we can ask?
Subra

Sin Chew reporter released
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/13/nation/2022372&sec=nation

The least respected colour in Malaysia

All of us travel a lot on the road everyday. We come across many traffic lights. Traffic lights are a communicating tool. The colour of the light indicates to us on what to do. Simple enough, "RED" means we should come to a complete stop before the line marker or right behind the vehicle which is before the line marker. "GREEN" you can move your vehicle to your desired direction. Sometimes you will see arrowed "RED" and "GREEN", which means the same except it only applies to the direction indicated by the arrow.

Then there is another colour called by so many names.... "AMBER", "ORANGE", "YELLOW" and so on. We name it as "YELLOW". This yellow comes after the green. It means, slow down your vehicle and get ready to stop. In some places, yellow comes after the red too. It means, get ready to move your vehicle.

Anyhow the "YELLOW" that comes out after the green has been abused terribly. Once we see the green vanishing and the yellow emerging, we press the accelerator harder that anything and we usually beat F1 drivers' over-taking speed. Even some of us have "turbo-charged" engine that cannot be stopped once we have pressed the accelerator. In aviation it is called as "V1" signal ; take-off cannot be aborted. Most of the traffic light system doesn't have the yellow coming after after the red (or before the green). Most of us will look for the yellow on the other side's traffic light. Once we see the yellow light for theother lane, we start to move our vehicle (not getting prepared to move the vehicle but move the vhicle itself).

We will come to an understanding that we will be ready to forgive the abuse of the "YELLOW" when we see how the "RED" is disrespected totally.

In today's situation in Malaysia, the "RED" light in the traffic light system means,

• Stop or
• Slow down
• Look for any policeman, if none, proceed to go
• Strictly don't bother about the road user who has the "GREEN" traffic light signal

You can see this happening at almost every traffic lights, regardless of heavy traffic or not. Motorcyclists have never been bothered about the "RED" light at the traffic lights. Nowadays, even car drivers are also following this trend. Just try to count the number of happenings when you are on road today.

The worst which I cannot digest is the one at Jalan Heng Choo Thian & Jalan Bagan Luar junction. The Butterworth Police Station is just adjacent to this junction and yet many motorist beat the "RED" and move on. It seems that none are bothered about the police station nearby.

Anyhow, I think that the police are still respected in some way but the least respected colour in Malaysia is RED light.

Subra

Choose your camera

Every event is great and the only way to capture them and relive them is by registering them in your memory. Unfortunately, all things cannot be registered in the memory. Or, maybe the brain is capable of registering everything but you cannot retrieve it when you want.....in other word you forget.

Then came the technology to help you to remember these great moments. Photographs ! Yes, photographs helps you to remember back that great moment. A simple glance at the photo and your entire life brightens up. Your memory travels back to that moment and you re-live that moment again.

That is the greatness of a photo and all these can happen because there is a device called camera. You want to choose a good camera, you can refer to the great cameraman for their advise, but usually they don't have time to advise you. That leaves you with the next best method - check the kind of camera these professional cameraman use.

Attached herewith is a photo of great cameramen. Currently they are on a critical assignment, They have no time to talk to you but you can see the types of cameras they are using. You can see the type of lens they have and also the colour of the cameras; seldom see white colours on big cameras.

* Note how they use big zooms to take a picture of person standing so near to them.

Please choose your camera.


you can visit the below mentioned site to read about a photographer who is covering the Beijing 2008 Swimming event. Quite interesting.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080817/BLOG26/80817011/1236

Cheers on somebody's failure !

Hungarian Formula 1 race for the 2008 season was held last Sunday 3rd August. My family and few other friends gathered at my brother's house in Penang. It was actually 2 in 1 gathering. My nephew's (S. Yoga) birthday was on the 4th and since it was a Monday we decided to celebrate it on the 3rd August. the race starts at 8:00pm Malaysian time (2:00pm Hungarian time).

I think I need to state it clearly that we are McLaren Mercedes supporters - our favourite drivers are Lewis Hamilton and Heiki Kovailanen.

The pole position was a great advantage for our team. Lewis was on position 1, Heiki on position 2, Felipe (Ferrari) was on 3rd position and Kimi (Ferrari) was on the 6th position.

We were very happy that our team had great advantage and we thought it is going to be a one two win for McLaren. Everything went crushing when Felipe made a great start and managed to squeeze himself to the front by overtaking Heiki and Lewis at the beginning of the race itself.
















We were very disappointed and started the usual cursing tactic on the Ferrari. To add to our outcry, Lewis car had a punture and had to drive half the circuit on slow speed before coming into the pitstop to change the tires. He re-entered the circuit at the 10 position and managed to reach 6th position at his maximum speed. Things looked as if Felipe will win this race, Heiki will be 2nd and Lewis will be in the 6th position, but something we were longing to see happened suddenly. Felipe's Ferrari had an engine failure at the 67th lap (total laps 70).

His car came to a dead stop and he was out of the race.
At that point you should see my brother's house, it was filled with victory shouts.
I wonder why were we very happy at somebody's failure.
















This does not only happen when we are supporting our favourite team (of any sports) but also happens in our life. We tend to pay less attention and put in less effort in our work. We want easy victory, we don't want competition. We rather pray for the other people's failure in order for us to feel happy although we did not win either.

We tend to cheer for other people's failure rather than cheering for our own victory. Anyhow the Hungarian Formula 1 race was great, we had a great time and we were very happy. Just think about it.....if you have time.

Cheers on somebody's failure....is actually jeers to ourself.....................

Subra

http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2008/8/8201.html

* In the 1st picture, you can see how Felipe managed to squeeze himself from the 3rd position to the 1st position and in the 2nd picture you can see Felipe's car breaksdown with smoke coming out at the rear.

Latest information of the current time.....

My family members were discussing about a wrist watch -Tag Heuer - in our family egroup . I made some look-up and indicated few points to signify the wrist watch and its worth. I highlighted it as, "Simple wrist watch with hour, minute and seconds hands". One of my cousin brother (K. Kumar) made a great remark which I cannot erase off from my memory.

He said, "With the hour, minute and seconds hand included – you can actually have the latest information of the current time (which normally changes every second…) – That’s amazing ..!!"

Till then I didn't realise that the current time changes every second.

What a great guy. As usual, something will trigger something and my thoughts went to wonder around on how else watches are being designed. I came across a website/blogspot with an exciting name "adult style watches", although my mind knew it could not be something wrong, my mind was still expecting something else......!

They were showing and reviewing unique watches.

The one which caught my attention is called as "Shinshoku".

I don't know how practical it is but if you are able to count 1-14 correctly, you should be able to use this watch easily.

The Red LED indicates the hour (1 to 12 LED), The Green LED indicates completion of 15 minutes {0 green LED, 0 minutes, 1 green LED, 15 minute, 2 green LED, 3 minutes, 3 green LED, 45 minutes, The Yellow LED indicates 1 to 14 minutes which you are supposed to add together with the green LEDs.}

All these technologies are developed because we need to know the latest information of the current time.... (which normally changes every second)

Subra

http://adult-style-watches.blogspot.com/2008/07/industrially-designed-watches.html

http://adult-style-watches.blogspot.com/

Red, green, yellow and white - my garden

One recent Sunday, I woke up quite early (7am), since I was up early, my wife asked me to send my daughter to her extra class at 8am. (Lesson learnt - do not wake up early on Sunday morning).

After dropping my daughter in her class, I was at home wondering what to do. I saw my camera bag and decided to do some house-keeping like charging the batteries, downloading the pictures, clearing up the memory card and so on. Suddenly it crossed my mind on why not shoot some pictures of the flowers and greenery around my house. There goes the "house-keeping" idea and started a new mess in the house. All the items inside my camera bag were out and scattered around the living hall.

Apart from the mess inside the house, things outside my house started to get messy. You know, we have to believe that we are "professional" photographers in order to get good pictures. This requires changing of the flower pot locations, the direction of the flowers, putting some boxes to raise the height of the plants, chairs to give the so called professional photographer some height to get super pictures and so on. Please remember, my wife was not around the house when this was happening.

The photography fiesta started and my God, it was really great. I really enjoyed the session and admired the greatness of my camera (note this point: admired the camera, not the so called professional photographer).

Although I tried some manual changes in the settings, I still liked the auto mode. I was happy with the pictures and felt good. Like what I said in my earlier writing, the "feel good" that I get from this camera is the return of my investment.

When I looked at the pictures, I noticed that I have a very distinguished colour compilation, and this represents my garden.

Red, green, yellow and white - my garden.

Subra

The pictures can be viewed at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28612905@N03/

Want to believe it or not, it is your choice !

Yesterday’s (15th July 08) debate between Anwar and Shabery on reducing the petrol price made me recall a word I heard long time ago, “SCOTOMA”. Meaning extracted from dictionaries sounds like this :-

“Scotoma”
A scotoma (Greek: darkness; plural: "scotomas" or "scotomata") is an area or island of loss or impairment of visual acuity surrounded by a field of normal or relatively well-preserved vision.Every normal mammalian eye has a scotoma in its field of vision, usually termed its blind spot. The presence of this normal scotoma does not intrude into consciousness because it is very small, but it can be demonstrated to oneself by the simplest of clinical methods (such as the one in the blind spot article).

Apart from this one word, the debate also helped me to recall a phrase,

“The mind sees what it wants to see”.

Who was the winner of this debate?

I think the question should be whom do you want to be the winner?
Anwar or Shabery?

Relating this to the phrase “The mind sees what it wants to see”, made me ask myself what I wanted from this debate.

The 41%hike in petrol price really took a damaging hit on my family’s daily life. The chain effect of the price hike throughout the supply chain made me dig into my pocket much more deeper. Therefore when I was watching the debate, my mind already tuned it’s radar to look for something good that will soothe my mind and hopefully in real life later.

Automatically, the debate itself has put me on the biased side where, one guy is saying that the price increase is unavoidable and another guy is saying that the price can be reduced. At this juncture I need not to justify my “wants”. It is clear that I am looking for price reduction. My mind started to look for good things that are coming from Anwar’s mouth. On the other hand, whatever Shabery is saying seems to be excuses. Again, remember the prejudice of the mind which has already set it’s mind to be biased. We are human and when the situation is related to our daily life we tend to look for what we want.

This term can be further understood if you look at the scenario of being a jury in a court hearing. If you are one of the victims or related to the victim, you indirectly have compromised your judgment. Therefore you will be looking for statements, points, arguments, evidences, circumstances to substantiate in finding the accused guilty. But if you are totally independent, whereas you are neither related nor linked to the victim or the accused, you will weigh the court proceedings neutrally.

This is the scenario of the people watching Anwar Shabery debate yesterday. I believe all of us were looking for something good. I am very sure that we were never open to the point where the price hike is justified. We were a group of biased people (I don’t mean to offend, that is the reality).

On the word “scotoma”, which I would like to term it in simple as “blind spot”, comes on both debaters. If you really watched closely, you will see some true colours of the debaters prevailing. The blind spot is not visible to us until someone tells us that these things were missing. Anwar termed effected people as “petani”, “nelayan”, ”bumiputera Melayu”, “bumiputera Sabah Sarawak”, “segelintir Cina miskin”, “kaum India di estate”. This point should be looked deeper. What is his actual perception or principal in “serving equally” to all the people. When he defined poverty based on their livelihood activities and race, what does it reflect? Need a lot of thinking on this matter.

As for Shabbery, how can he fail to see that the price hike is not effecting all the people. All the people means: people from the ruling party too. The way he avoided this fact makes me uncomfortable. Or could it be that the people from the ruling party is not effected by the price hike……I don’t know.

Since the mind wants some good feeling, I think the debate has given a little “feel good” to many. Why many feel good? Because if Anwar forms the government, the petrol price will be down by RM0.50 and can even go further down in the future. Want to believe it or not, it is your choice !

Subra

I surfed some website and saw some interesting comments on the Anwar Shabbery debate, browse through on your interest.

http://limadang.com/2008/07/15/dato-anwar-vs-dato-shabery-debate-on-how-to-decrease-fuel-price/
http://kadazanpower.blogspot.com/2008/07/anwar-wins-debate-on-oil.html
http://thedriller.blogspot.com/2008/07/fuel-debate-anwar-vs-shabery.html


“petani” – farmers
“nelayan” – fishermen
”bumiputera Melayu” – son of the soil status local Malays
“bumiputera Sabah Sarawak” – son of the soil of Sabah Sarawak
“segelintir Cina miskin” – A small group of poor Chinese
“kaum India di estate” – Indian ethnic in estates

Will small vibrations turn into earthquake?

What a start? As the week started to unfold, I saw many political maneuvers going on. Rather than saying it is interesting, I would say it is frightening.

1. The Perak state ADUN made a racial remark when she wanted to know whether the speaker agrees to disagree on the statement of beating a snake or a person from a certain race first. - BN the saviour of all races........!

2. It seems to be OK when MCA President Ong Ka Ting said he is not going contest for the Presidents post. Some of his down lines too announced that they will not contest for the posts available in the party. Making way for new blood or withdrawing from internal fights are deemed as mutual benefit for all.

3. When people were in the midst of evaluating whether these "not to contest" moves are good or not, there came a bomb saying that someone lodged a police report saying that Anwar Ibrahim "sodomised" him.

I have heard the great phrase, "History repeats itself", but in this situation there are 2 histories repeating itself.
a) "sodomy accusations" and
b) "political conspiracy accusation"

Regardless of which is true, at the end, it seems like we have a "lose lose" situation.

Let it be the sodomy charges are true, then that's the end of new era for Pakatan Rakyat.
Let it be the conspiracy charges are true, then where is the present government's true spirit of serving people with honesty.

The government may outrightly say that they have nothing to do with this matter, but unfortunately, people would not accept the government's statement. It is because the direct beneficiary of this accusation is the ruling government, not any individual.

4. Malaysia seems not safe anymore when you speak from your heart.

a) Waythamoorthy of Hindraf is in Britain
b) Anwar Ibrahim in Turkish Embassy in Malaysia

Buddha said that, when you are in trouble or unable to decide, go back to the beginning.
Nature's teaching also says the same.
But, most of the time people refuse to go back to the beginning. They are so stubborn, therefore, mother nature forces the people by creating disasters in many forms (fire, flood, wind, earthquake and so on). By these natural disasters, things are forced to go back at least few steps. Then people repent and starts to move on with more cautious mindset. All natural disasters start with minor movements or activities. Later it turns huge and creates unrecoverable damages.

Similarly, the political situation in Malaysia is having many small vibrations.

Will all these small vibrations sums up to a political earthquake?

Subra

Can you try?

I attended a training on "Enhancing Managerial Skills" few months ago.

The trainer was an interesting guy. He highlighted one point which I think forces you to see from another angle.

He said, "Don't try." It is either you do it or not at all.

I was wondering, isn't it that we have been trained to give our best and try our best. Never give up without trying. And what is this guy talking about "Don't try."

The class was in chaos, some whispered, some were loud, some just giggled.

The trainer asked, "What is wrong?". One of us answered, "Trying is actually the highest action a human can do. Why are you asking us not to try?"

He asked, "Can you try to sit?", "Can you try to stand?", "Can you try to eat?", "Can you try to kick a ball?"

At that point, we saw light at the end of the tunnel. When someone ask you to try to sit and you actually sat, this is conflicting with the request. The requester didn't ask you to sit but he just ask you to try to sit.

Therefore his point was, change your mindset to be a person who accomplishes things and not a person who would be happy that he has given his best effort and left the end result (which could be success or failure) to other forces/factors. Have control in all your activities. Decide the result that you want. Don't just try, achieve it.

Now, can you try doing that.

Subra

I miss you, I miss you not !

As you would have known, I am now baby sitting my 2 children (aged 12 and 9). I have been playing the role of mother for the past 3 weeks. My wife went to her native place and is coming back tomorrow. It means that today will be my last day of holding full responsibilities of the children.

Last night, I sat down together with my children and asked whether they missed their mom. My daughter paused for a moment. My son straight away asked, "What does 'missed your mom' means?".

That question threw me into a new world.

I explained to my son that, if he feels like want to see his mom or need to talk to her or ask her or hug her, then that is what we call as "missing you" feeling.

My son shook his head and said "No". My daughter was a little more elaborate. She said that, we talked to mom very frequently (we even called her to check where did she keep her dress), all our needs were somehow fulfilled and we were engaged on some kind of activities throughout.

I didn't want to continue this topic with my children any more because, I thought that they will be pressuring themself to have the feeling of "miss someone". Based on their statement, I believe that as long as they are engaged on some kind of activities, they will have no time to have the feeling of missing someone. Apart from that telephones kept all of together all the time.

Hugging and patting are normal act in our family, therefore the children always get some hugging and patting from someone all the time. So, my children did not even miss that part in order to invoke the "miss" feeling.

My question is, must wehave the "miss you feeling" when someone has to be away from someone for a certain period of time?

If you don't "miss" that person, does it mean you don't value them in your life?
If you "miss" that person, does it mean you have high value for them?

Can I say, my children did not have any "miss you" feeling because thay never thought that their mother was away from them.

Anyhow this conclusion is just for my children.

As for me (the husband of this person who is away for 3 weeks) I miss her, I miss her I miss and I regret that the 3 weeks is coming to and end.!

Is it a must that we should have an answer for : I miss you, I miss you not! question?

Interest, Investment and Result

The title may be confusing. Before we let the imagination go wild, let me narrow it a little. The topic is about my interest in photography, the investment I put in and what is the result I am suppose to get.

Simple enough.

Again, don't let you imagination off the hook. When I say that I have a lot of interest in photography and I invested in it, it actually means, that I like seeing nice photos, admire the kind of technologies it uses in today's world to produce such a result; that is the "interest" part. On the "investment" part, I have a Nikon DSLR D40X with 18-55 and 55-200mm lenses with SB400 flash. Total investment is around around RM3,500 (USD1,100), nothing great. So, by now you should know where I stand as a person with interest in photography and the affordability to invest.

Photography in the "Digital" world is totally different. You really don't have to worry about how the shot will come out. You get to see the result immediately. You make necessary changes on the setting according to the result. Not like the times when we use films; you have to set using your indepth knowledge and vast experiences from the past results. Also, the process of making small notes (regarding the settings used) at the back of the photographs are gone.

DSLR comes with all information at the click of a button. Even when you upload to a shared website like Picasa or Flickr, all the information about the picture settings are loaded together.

OK. Now, we understand what is interest and investment. Let's see how we should read the "result".

In business world, we term the word "result" as "ROI" - return of investment. Another word that relates to ROI is the "pay back" period. Let's see whether these 2 words can be related to the "photography".

Put it in a direct translation, I must sell the pictures I take using the camera in order to make my investment make a return. The profit I get from the sales, I can derive the payback period and classify the investment as profitable or loss.

In reality, since I am not a professional photographer, I can't really make money out of it. There could be 1 or 2 shots which can claim a million dollar but let's not dream. Therefore how can my interest and investment give me a return?

A person is productive and effective when he is either "dedicated" or "pleased". Let's omit the "dedication" part in this topic. "Pleased" is a very interesting part. A man (I mean man and woman) can be pleased in many ways (don't get into wrong aspects). When a man's mind is at ease (also carries the meaning "pleased"), he moves a mountain, stops a river and touches the sky.

Hope you are getting what I am trying to tell.

Look at the 2 pictures I have attached here.

It is a picture of Butterworth Amman Temple's Silver Chariot. The pictures were taken during the local festival. One is taken with the flash fired and the other without the flash. Both taken at almost the same moment.

I liked the pictures and I do admire them.....not for my ability to take pictures but to the technology that made this possible. Due to my interest and my willingness to invest, I got these pictures and seeing them makes me feel good. And when I feel good, I do really achieve something, which indrectly benefits me (monetary and emotionally - tangible and intangible).

Relate this to all your interests and investments. Everything will bring a result and that result is from yourself. The interest and investments acts as catalyst to enhance a bigger firework.

Make sure all your interest and investment brings results.

What's so great about taking care of 2 children-1 child?

As everyone (in Malaysia) knows that the 2 weeks school holidays began last week.

As for me, I was very excited because, my wife is going to her native place for 2 weeks and I will be taking care of my 2 beautiful, lovely, great kids. The 1st is a girl-12 years old and the 2nd is a boy-9 years old.

We sent off my wife at the Butterworth Bus Station at around 3:30pm on Friday. The next day (Saturday), at around 7:00am, my mum left to KL to attend my nephew's award presentation ceremony for his PMR 7A achievement. At 10:00am, my son and myself dropped my daughter at her school. She will be attending a 2 day 1 night camping trip organized by her school.

All this leave me and my great son to enjoy the sweetness of a moment without "mother and sister" disturbance.

Both of us went to a restaurant for a good lunch. We came back and watched a movie. In the evening, I made him a cup of chocolate drink. 1st he said "not enough sugar". I added sugar. Then he said "no chocolate taste". I added chocolate. He said, " mom used to give me full cup, you only gave me 3/4 cup. I added more hot water. Then he said, "it's too hot". I aerated the hot drink and gave him back the cup.

He drank completely and said, " Not nice."

No comments from me.

Then we went for dinner in the most luxurious restaurant in my area.....McDonalds. Bought 'Fish Fillet' set and ate without a single complaint. In this Mcdonald outlet, they had a big screen shwoing live telecast of Monaco F1 qualifying rounds.

We watched and gave many comments, people around us were very impressed with our live comments. We went home at around 10:30 and slept peacefully without any noise from the grandmother, mother and the sister. It was great.........we forgot to brush our teeth....so what...nobody knows.

On Sunday morning, my son woke up at 7:00am, tried to wake me up but failed, hanged around, watching TV, played computer games and so on. After some time, he could not stand anymore, he forced me to wake up at around 10:00am.

The first sentence from him, "Daddy are you trying to kill me by not giving me any food?".

It is only 1 mealtime (breakfast) slightly overshot (instead of 8am) and he is accusing me of starving him to death.

Now you tell me, "What's so great about taking care of 2 children-1 child?"