Live To Be Free

Say no to iPad's, say yes to colouring books...

I go to shopping malls, really only to pass the time. I have absolutely nothing to do there. The only reason I like going is to look at people. Call me a pervert, a voyeur or simple observant of the human nature, call me whatever the hell you want. I don't give a rats fart. See, when you look at people we tend to see the general characteristics of each person shows you their interaction, are they loners or lover's, mothers and fathers, mom and child, father and daughter or grandpa and Tom? You see the family dynamic and the family characteristic. What this all does is it gives you a wider perception of the human nature. We have been in this world for the last 200,000 years believe it or not and we seem to have come far from caves and loin cloths to skyscrapers and... well, looking at the way some people dress, still loincloths.

But one thing really get's on my nerves. It's a growing trend in the recent years that I can only blame on the new generation of parents. The generation Y or something, ask my dad, he seems to know. Anyway, the kids from these people, they don't live like the way we used to. All of them, out to dinner will be lined up in a restaurant with bloody iPad's or and iPhone or a Playstation Vita or something of the kind. They never talk, interact, play with each other the way that I used to with my cousins or my parent's when we went out to dinner. I mean, if I had had a chance to get my rather small fingers at the time on my dad's handphone to play something, he'd take it away from me and tell me to talk to others. Even now, I never use my phone at a dinner table when I'm with family. It's just bad manners. Like thats not bad enough, the parent's themselves are on the same device themselves. Family time seems to be no time at all?

The real point I'm trying to drive at is why the hell do these Godforsaken, idiotic, stupid and brainless parents buy these thing's for their kids in the first place. I notice that when a child cries in public, basically making a tantrum, he get's what he wants. No questions asked. If I tried that with my parent's they'd tell me to shut up and give me a smack. Nowadays, I don't roll on the floor asking for something. If I ask and the answer is no, the I don't get it. Kids aren't getting smarter, its parent's who are getting dumber. Look, we have had the chance to get our act together for the last 50,000 years when humans started to exhibit full behavioural modernity. Parenting had well begun before that, but literally the 'book' on parenting had started its first pages in those early days. Surely we would have made a few rules that we can live by at the very least. Like not giving into your child whenever they make a fuss.

We used to have a perception that every rich kid was a spoilt brat that only went to exclusive schools and have the best clothes and toys and books to read and play with. That perception, due to the fact that the living standards since the 60's has changed and now almost any child from any class of life is as spoilt as the other. Isn't that a happiness inducing thought.

Parent's. Get a grip. Just because you never had an iPad when you were young doesn't make it allright to make sure your child needs to have one. Let him play outside. Make him toys from twigs and teach him how to climb a bloody tree. Is there are any left. Think, before you buy a thing like that whether it really makes your child happy in the long term or just for the moment. Buy him books, instead, at least that makes the world a smarter and well read place. You will get rid of racism and social judgement. The world will be a better place, trust me.

Change is imminent... and overdue...

I look back at my school life and realise I really want to do it all again, minus the crap education system which incidetally is about as preparing as getting a snowmobile to speed along the beaches of Bora Bora. Not in anyway helpful. See schools are great at socially opening up a person. Say you are the equivalent of a scarecrow. I draw this distinction because I associate scarecrows with having mouths sewn on them. I dont really know where this came about but anyway. Where was I going with this? Oh yes, socially opening. Really, it is impossible to write something properly when your mind gets trailed off very easily. Like a ship that has a bad navigator. Or a bird riding a moped. See what I mean?

So yeah. Um,scarecrows and socialites. See, when you are in school and at the age that we enter it, there are groups of people that will slowly evolve into a classroom community. If a person who is shy and quiet starts in a classroom of say 30 people at the age of 6 or 7 then there is bound to be someone there that will walk up to him and start a conversation. Childlike innocence prevents people from segregating others based on class or race and friendships that will last will be forged at that moment. That is what I want to do again. Get friends that last a lifetime. Not the education system. Thats just murder. All the pressure they put us through to do the blasted UPSR, PMR and SPM and then to tell us when we are done with school that "Sorry kids, we just wasted 11 years of your life preparing you for exams that really aren't any good to you. We're not sorry to have wasted your time."

I think people have misunderstood the meaning of education in this country. In school, we are trained to learn by heart. That's it no question's asked. For eleven bloody years, we have been encouraged to learn by heart because thing's don't change. That is a perception that we carry forward to the real world. Life is simple and straight forward and everything always remains the same. WRONG! Malaysians are people that never really learn to utilize their brains properly until the day we reach college and it's like jerking a rug from under our feet. Most of us can't cope, and the ones that do, take a long time to actually get to that stage. It's sad. A brain is mans greatest asset.

I think we don't singularly promote the strengths in a student. Let me make an example. Say one person is better than the other in Maths, while the other is better in Engineering stuff and you know. My point is, save the language classes, why is it we don't segregate the students based on what they WANT to learn rather that piling them all in the same classroom and teaching them the same things. Obviously some will fail in some subjects and vice versa. It's natural that people will fail in something they have no interest in. You might notice that this is the education system that is used in the USA. So what? Copy it if its effective. I don't think the US government has put a patent on their education system. It'll be better for Malaysians. Currently, our system's like putting a lion, tiger and an elephant in the same enclosure and tossing vegetarian pizzas at them. Not one of them is going to eat it. Come back in a week and you'll find the tiger and elephant having a drink together while the lion, well, he's a bit standoffish.

I really think that we need to change the whole education system, and while its been announced that it had, just how effective will it be? Only time will tell.

Unbalanced

Says who pregnant women are subjected to odd mood swings that drive men mad. That's bloody stereotyping that is. Look for example at the classic case of my writing timeline. I find that in order for me to be satisfied with what I put down in virtual paper, I need to be in a humourous mood to write something that make's me laugh. Possibly this might strike you as slightly self absorbed. It is. I don't intend to please people out there with the way I write. Why? because there are too many of them. Each person is as fickle as the other and in the end I might just be better off sitting in a corner and smashing my head against a wall screaming about why elephants cant jump. Which incidentally is a unanswered question. Maybe they are too heavy.

A persons mood very well dictates what he/ she is inclined to do next. An angry person may stab you, a sad person will cry, and then will stab you and a happy person will tell you a great joke about muesli and then stab you. Only the way those stabs are stabbed are miles apart in distinction. The angry man will stab you and you will die. The crying man will stab you with his sorrow and you will cry too and the happy man will stab you with his finger in the gut and go "aha, got cha!"

Let me take a moment to think why I pursued this topic in the first place.... Ah yes. Sherlock Holmes. Ah, didn't think I would go there will you? Why this man you ask? Well, why not? Its a common fact for all Holmes readers to realise that he is a man of terrible mood swings. He can be comatose at one point and then full of energy the next. I've taken a fascination to this man. His methods of deduction are to the common man a power. But it isn't. As he (or rather Conan Dolye puts it) states, the most complicated deductions are formed from noticing the most simplest details.

What is the conclusion? Look. Think. Act. I've been watching too much of Holmes lately. It has reached a  point where Jeremy Brett who played him in the Granada series, has his voice stuck in my head. That is true acting on his part. The only person capable of playing Holmes that well is certainly Benedict Cumberbatch from the new BBC program.

Oh yes. Just to point out. Holmes never said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."
What he did say was this.


When you have eliminated all the impossible, the remaining, however improbable must be the truth...

Of beards and BMI

It's been sometime now. I mean for a lot of things. The end of A-Levels. The results have been announced. I have a beard. I'm now 19 officially. I'm bored (nothing new there). I finished playing Splinter Cell Conviction, progress there.It's the other end of August and it couldn't get any better. Well, I suppose it could. Which brings me to a point,  the phrase 'this couldn't get any better' is sort of redundant when something better really does happen and in comparison to the earlier event, this is much better. So never use the phrase if you are a realist and/or and optimist. If you are neither, you wouldn't be using the phrase at all, so you don't apply.

I have established a few things over the couple of months of contemplative thinking and soul searching. I'll put it up in bullet points and make it easier for you reading this.

1. I've lost some weight.
2. I am not too fond of beards.

I dare not venture too far on the first point. I'm still working on it. It's quite a weighty matter. Pun not intended.

The second point is rather sad. I've always been a great admirer of beards and all that is facial hair, on men of course. If a woman were to have a beard it would be utterly tragic, for God intended people to be unique and men got to facial hair first, I suppose. It is an itch in the face, beards are. Literally. You know what, I may have just coined a new phrase. 'An itch in the face.' "Ah, Joseph, you seem to have cut your arm off!!" "Truly, Jebbediah, but I'll wager that it is no more than an itch in the face". Quite good that.

Another one week zilch.

"The weekend cometh, and it goeth" said a person with a speaking problem. Again we find ourselves on a busy Monday morning. The birds are singing, the bee's are being bee's, somewhere, the dog is napping, but then, he does that all  day, everyday. He's a very calm dog, Trigger is. I think being a German Shepherd help's. I noticed that these types of dog's are not the usual "I'm jumping up and down, happy, happy" type's. He's more "Oh, hello. Tea? Coffee?" type, you know, relaxed. Except when it comes to motorcycles. Then he lets the dog out. Pun intended.

So, eventful week, this was. No. It wasn't. It was boring and uneventful. But then, I should get used to that, being on holiday for what, a month now? Funny as it may seem, I don't really pass of as the active type. I am content to sit at home and laze, but now it is unbearable. Either there is a psychological part of my brain that is at work, like when you sleep in during weekends and you're like, I'm going to sleep all day, and promptly wake up at half past seven. During the week, you can't seem to get out of bed. Or it could be that I am a passively active person. What that means I have no idea. What I am trying to say is that I like to sit around, but only for a limited time. Afterwards I need something to do.

Which is why blogging helps. Yes. Thank you Google for making my life that much worth living for. Not that it isn't or anything. It's just some thing's are worth living for, like jam. Some thing's aren't , like politicians. And some thing's help you get by, like marmalade. It's not that good in my opinion, but it make's bread taste better when raspberry isn't around. Blogging does have its good's and bad's. It help's you be creative and test the limit of your written linguistic borders that may consequently help you in achieving a better platform of communication with a person you have developed attachment's that are normally associated with affection of the heart. Plainly, it means you're trying to chat someone up. Writing helps. Bad traits in blogging include, I dunno, wasting electricity I suppose.

I have decided to retake playing the violin. I am so enthusiastic about it that I am going to get it restrung this very day. I even got a book. Violin for dummies. No snide comments please. My dad took care of that. It's something to pass the time. If you have a passion for something, do it they say. I really don't think what I am feeling towards the violin is classified as passion but hey, I like music so what the hell. I was contemplating getting the dummy series on guitars, another instrument that I haven't played in like forever. But I changed my mind last minute. Violin is sexier. The piano is slightly hard to get restrung. Wont fit in my car.

Basically, I have attained musical enlightenment. I want to make music. It's fun. It's relaxing and which woman doesn't like a man that isn't in touch with his musical side, eh? Yeaahhh... You see what I mean. They'll be lining up they will. So long as it's not to claim for their broken windows.

It's dusty and not a blade of grass in sight....

Righto. I've put this off for an extra day, God knows why. Where was I? Oh yes, traffic. Simply murder. I mean that quite literally actually, if you don't see the auto rickshaw that is coming in the direction that it shouldn't be coming in, it will most definitely kill you and no one will care less. I was watching Top Gear the other day and they mentioned that there is a highway that stretches from Pune to Bombay where at least 1000 or so people die. I don't remember the exact figure's but when I heard it, it was staggering.

The food. That is the interesting bit. Indian's are not completely meat eaters. We are more subdued in that sort of meat eating aspect. We don't eat beef for religious reasons and that is an irony in itself the way I see it but I'll let that pass. We observe vegetarianism for certain months of the calender or when someone die's or there is a religious thing going on. The reason being that God is a vegetarian. Another irony in my opinion, but again, I'll let that pass.

If you are Malaysian and a non-Indian, you would think that our food is mainly based on curries and rice with lots of veggies in it. And you would be right. You would think that the local 'anne' in the curry house serving you mutton varuval and chicken chettinad shows the true form of Indian food. And you would be dead wrong. That doesn't even scratch the surface of what real Indian food is. We don't need to use curry powder if we could avoid it. Real Indian food is so rich and so totally different from whatever nonsense you get from shops like Maalas Curry House or Shammini's Chettinad King Cuisine or whatever be it in the trendiest part of Bangsar or Bukit Bintang. 

The kind of food that makes you think of five star service and what not in Malaysia is actually what you can get from a road side stall in India. It puts you off it does. I go there almost every other year and I can never get used to the food. Always something or the other will go wrong and my stomach will not be on best terms with me for the duration of the trip, which is a big dimmer in the whole experience. So much so that every time I do go there I am bound to lose weight. Which is a plus point.

I would recommend going to India though. It's different. If you think we Malaysian's have it tough with work and education and family and all, you are all wusses compared to what they have to go through. There are people there surrounded by poverty and no chance of seeing the outside world but they persevere and I suppose they have the "If I don't get there, my son/daughter will" sort of attitude. Its amazing. I was watching the news there the other day (In English) and there was this huge accident where two trains had crashed into each other. I dunno how many had died, but within hours, normal service had resumed. Tell me that isn't impressive.

Not long before that, the attack on the Taj and the Oberoi. I was there. I was in Bombay at the time. Just getting into the city in the morning after being in Calcutta for the whole week for my cousin (another one) was getting married. People were killed and the city was in lock down. Soldiers carrying machine guns were staring at us  with suspicious looks and armored vehicles were everywhere. The next day, everything is back to normal.

Its a great country if you enjoy different culture's. India is diverse too. Only while here we have differences that are noticeable, I mean, you can differentiate an Indian to a Malay to a Chinese, and we are all free to choose our own religion, there everyone is an Indian but religion is up to what you believe in. So you have a bit of everything and maybe more.  A lot of festivities and the gap between people was broken a long long time ago. Now, they dont need a politician going around telling us that only through 1 Malaysia can Ali and Cheong and Raman be good friends. They were there long ago.

I will keep going there again and again and again. I hope if you can, you do the same. Because it is India, and in my opinion, where it all started.