Human beings are basically very selfish creature. When I was driving to work or home, there are so many bad drivers who could overtake on my left or my right without indicators or coming from behind. I called them " bulls".
There are so many occasions that I was almost knocked by these bulls or I almost knocked them down. The traffic in Penang is getting so hapzard especially on long weekends. So, this coming weekend is another long weekend and many foreign cars will be coming into the island. Not only their driving styles are annoying but also they will be packing everywhere or if any space allowed them.
Why are these bulls driving so recklessly ? Why are they in a hurry ? Are they so conscious of time or are they rushing for the sake of rushing? A wrong move and it will spell disaster to the innocent by-stander.
Lately, I have seen so many accidents on the bridge or on the main roads leading to my home. Once, I could see a car hitting a tree after office hours or a few cars involved in a chain accident on the bridge. Luckily, the second bridge is almost near completion and it was reported that with the new bridge, it will shift about 40% of the traffic from the first bridge. Hopefully, this is true.
This morning, there was a massive jam on the Penang bridge and this is getting frequent due accidents or breakdown of vehicles. Another selfish attitude is that people do not maintain their vehicles properly and lead to breakdowns and jam the streets and the lanes.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Opera GODs in play
These stage shows was once very common during my parent's era and there were plentiful in Penang and also near the place I was born and breed especially on the birthdays of the deities. The Deities are Taoist Gods and the actors and actress dressed up like them and they will act out an episode from an ancient script.
These stage shows used to come in different packages ie Teochew, Hokkien , Cantonese ,etc and it used to be very costly to stage such shows because of the skill in martial art, singing and acting. In the movies, the actors and actress can repeat their acts if they are NG ( rejected) but for these opera singers, they are a live act. Just like the boardway live shows. If the actors or actress are not skillful , they could disrupt the act or caused the whole play to be in a mes. The precision in the music, singing and acting is very much needed to make the live shows reached a professional stage and meaningful.
The skill and the art is a dying breed and it is alot of hard work to preserve the strength and skill to do these live shows. Because of its high standard needed, the actors and actress have opted for easier jobs and higher pay elsewhere.
For me, it was a walk back into the past where these musics are so familar to my ears and these live shows is part of my life. But, time have move on but it is wonderful to see that these acts are still on the streets. Bravo to all these guys and gals who still make these acts relevant to keep local Chinese cultures.
Keep it up and long live the live shows.
Namaste.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Back in Penang from Bangladesh
My return from Bangladesh to Penang is like the " back to the future" movie. From a less developed country to a developing country shows a big difference between the two countries.. Back to my curry mee, hokkien me , char keow teow, etc. What a pleasant feeling.
The leap from the two different cultures have caused my body and thinking to re-act in a different way. In Bangladesh, the traffic was haphazard, environment was dusty and muddy and the smell was pungent while I have a bout of fresh air in Penang despite the haze. The time is Bangladesh was behind two hours from Malaysia and this time difference only caused minimum damage to my jet lag problem. It is like more tiring due to the long distance travel rather than the time change.
It is so good to be home and from yesterday morning when I was on my way home, I could feel a good feeling as if that something good is going to happen. My usual routine , environment and food. I wonder whether this could be the same feeling if I am coming back from Japan , US or China.
Basically, it is the same feeling as our body and thinking is complacent. Even if we are coming back from a more advance country but our body and thinking needs time to accept. There is a Chinese saying " A dog's pen is better than an Emperor's bag". Yes, it is the familarity of the place which is more important than anything else.
Strange place may give us the excitements but when the excitement is over, we long for our familar bed , food and smell. Now for me, Penang is the best.
Namaste.
The leap from the two different cultures have caused my body and thinking to re-act in a different way. In Bangladesh, the traffic was haphazard, environment was dusty and muddy and the smell was pungent while I have a bout of fresh air in Penang despite the haze. The time is Bangladesh was behind two hours from Malaysia and this time difference only caused minimum damage to my jet lag problem. It is like more tiring due to the long distance travel rather than the time change.
It is so good to be home and from yesterday morning when I was on my way home, I could feel a good feeling as if that something good is going to happen. My usual routine , environment and food. I wonder whether this could be the same feeling if I am coming back from Japan , US or China.
Basically, it is the same feeling as our body and thinking is complacent. Even if we are coming back from a more advance country but our body and thinking needs time to accept. There is a Chinese saying " A dog's pen is better than an Emperor's bag". Yes, it is the familarity of the place which is more important than anything else.
Strange place may give us the excitements but when the excitement is over, we long for our familar bed , food and smell. Now for me, Penang is the best.
Namaste.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
My 25th trip to Bangladesh
I have written a few articles on my trip and experience to Bangladesh and my peers have joked that it had become my 2nd home. Even my boss, called me a " Bangla man". Yeah, I have promote and nourish the Company's project for about 7 years and from nothing to a factory which have been operating for the past 12 months.
Do I love this Country ? Well, it is not a matter of love but rather it is a place good for business. I have came to know a few good man in Bangladesh who is passionate about their Country. Frnakly, it has been a good few years since knowing the Country.
This trip I bring along my staff K, who is a first timer and I told him to prepare for a culture shock. The population have grown to 160 million people and in Dhaka alone, it has a official population of 12 million people but unofficially, it had more than 16 million in the city. So, what can see is people , people and people everywhere. When there is people , you will find alot of cars and various kind of transports like trishaws , bullock carts, bicycle, buses and lorries. Full of traffic and you can experience massive jams in the city.
You also can see groups of people walking on the five foot ways, standing in dark corners and even at 10 pm , the city is still vibrant and active. So much activities going around.
Life is so cheap here and people can earned as less as US$1 per day and they are surviving happily and going on doing their daily routine with jest and passion.
Last nite, I saw a beggar without one arm and one leg and he was on a clutch. Without his hand and limps , he could move faster than a normal man with all their body parts intact. It was amazing and incredible to see him moving around so fast and begging for money or food among the cars , lorries and buses at a traffic light stop. I have seen less and less beggars in Chittagong nowadays and shows that the Country have progresss much.
Bangladesh is just like this crippled young man, filled with corruptions, mismanagement and other handicaps but progressing in its own ways at great speed. I have great hope and respect for this islamic country , thought it is poor but liberal in many ways and have its own brand of democracy.
Cheers , Bangladesh !
Namaste.
Do I love this Country ? Well, it is not a matter of love but rather it is a place good for business. I have came to know a few good man in Bangladesh who is passionate about their Country. Frnakly, it has been a good few years since knowing the Country.
This trip I bring along my staff K, who is a first timer and I told him to prepare for a culture shock. The population have grown to 160 million people and in Dhaka alone, it has a official population of 12 million people but unofficially, it had more than 16 million in the city. So, what can see is people , people and people everywhere. When there is people , you will find alot of cars and various kind of transports like trishaws , bullock carts, bicycle, buses and lorries. Full of traffic and you can experience massive jams in the city.
You also can see groups of people walking on the five foot ways, standing in dark corners and even at 10 pm , the city is still vibrant and active. So much activities going around.
Life is so cheap here and people can earned as less as US$1 per day and they are surviving happily and going on doing their daily routine with jest and passion.
Last nite, I saw a beggar without one arm and one leg and he was on a clutch. Without his hand and limps , he could move faster than a normal man with all their body parts intact. It was amazing and incredible to see him moving around so fast and begging for money or food among the cars , lorries and buses at a traffic light stop. I have seen less and less beggars in Chittagong nowadays and shows that the Country have progresss much.
Bangladesh is just like this crippled young man, filled with corruptions, mismanagement and other handicaps but progressing in its own ways at great speed. I have great hope and respect for this islamic country , thought it is poor but liberal in many ways and have its own brand of democracy.
Cheers , Bangladesh !
Namaste.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
My heart fell out from my mouth.
At the yoga session this morning, my teacher asked us to practice repeatedly the handstand post. It was a very tiring pose having to bend over with our hands touching the floor and to lift our legs and balance it on our shoulder. Sorry, this is not a freak show but it is just a simple handstand.
The trick of the pose is to balance my lower body and lift it up to a handstand. I was not able to lift the legs but I was trying to perfect the balancing on the floor. My teacher keep on reminding me to melt my heart . She repeatedly press the spot between my two shoulder bones and ask me to sink my heart.
I try and try but my heart did not melt as much as she wants me to and finally, I told her my heart have feel out from my mouth. What ? She asked and the rest of the class was giggling away. She keep asking me how I feel and was it true that I felt my heart have fell out from my mouth. I told her I was joking but she was worried. So, I told her I am fine.
My teacher's style is to perfect our pose and we have repeat the stance many times and she will correct it . She is a perfectionist and she actually perform the pose and show us how to do it. She is in her thirties and I am in my fifties. What say you ? Haiyooo..
The class can be quite exhausting if she is serious but sometimes, we asked for a more relax session especially when we are drained and tired. She is quite understanding but she can be a bitch on her off days.
Based on my experience , Yoga practice is a very good exercise. Alot of stretching and power building but the basics can be pretty boring especially the warm up exercise. I have suggested to her to use a fast music to accompany her warm up exercise , just like the aerobics but instead she put on a bird singing tune to give us the nature feelings. Something is better than nothing , so the birds' tweeting may help a little.
It is fun , start moving , stretching and you will be more flexible and mobile.
Namaste.
The trick of the pose is to balance my lower body and lift it up to a handstand. I was not able to lift the legs but I was trying to perfect the balancing on the floor. My teacher keep on reminding me to melt my heart . She repeatedly press the spot between my two shoulder bones and ask me to sink my heart.
I try and try but my heart did not melt as much as she wants me to and finally, I told her my heart have feel out from my mouth. What ? She asked and the rest of the class was giggling away. She keep asking me how I feel and was it true that I felt my heart have fell out from my mouth. I told her I was joking but she was worried. So, I told her I am fine.
My teacher's style is to perfect our pose and we have repeat the stance many times and she will correct it . She is a perfectionist and she actually perform the pose and show us how to do it. She is in her thirties and I am in my fifties. What say you ? Haiyooo..
The class can be quite exhausting if she is serious but sometimes, we asked for a more relax session especially when we are drained and tired. She is quite understanding but she can be a bitch on her off days.
Based on my experience , Yoga practice is a very good exercise. Alot of stretching and power building but the basics can be pretty boring especially the warm up exercise. I have suggested to her to use a fast music to accompany her warm up exercise , just like the aerobics but instead she put on a bird singing tune to give us the nature feelings. Something is better than nothing , so the birds' tweeting may help a little.
It is fun , start moving , stretching and you will be more flexible and mobile.
Namaste.
Lost in love
Quote:
If you meditate, sooner or later you will come upon love.
If you meditate deeply, sooner or later you will start
feeling a tremendous love arising in you that you have never
known before"
If you meditate deeply, sooner or later you will start
feeling a tremendous love arising in you that you have never
known before"
Osho
Unquote.
Today, someone sent this message to me and after reading it, the message seems to make alot of sense. The meaning of love in the message is not the physical love for another person but the compassionalte love for all human beings.
Everyone of us is inter-connected but somehow,the connection have been severed for some people and it remained strong in others. Some people can get into the meditation mood very easily but some people could not focus and sit still. In the study of meditation, lazy and layback people are the ones who can go deep into meditation readily.
For others, it took a lot of patience and pain to go through the process and sometimes, they failed miserably and for some, they can only touch superficially.
When we reach deep in meditation, we are at peace and in total relaxation. The feeling of " we are here but we are not here" feeling. A total absorption into the space and environment around us.
Buddhism have been argued to be a passive religion as the believers leave everything to the Sutra and the Dharma and do not involved in the worldly and materialistic things,leaving it to the non-believers to improve and control the evolution of the world.
Now, there is a more pro-active style of Buddhism which in the Engaged Buddhism where the believers became enaged with society and using the Buddhism teach and way of life to improve society and the world.
For those lost in love ie the physical love. Your love and marriage is arranged in Heavan and when it come, it will come at the right time but if it do not come, it is not mend to be. Look at it with an open heart and never forced things to happen. We can only nourish, cherish and appreciate love at a distance and hope and wish it will come to us.
Namaste.
My love : a pet bird
Once, I had a friend who was very upset after breaking up with his girlfriend of many years. He came to talk to me and I told him that love cannot be stored in a glass or plastic container and if you hold on love to tight , it will just suffocate and die. The only thing we can do is to nourished and cherish it and let it determine whether it will grow or stay around with you. If we hold it by force, it will only bring us unhappiness.
To illustrate this advise, I told him a story.
Once, I had a bird as a pet . I lock it up in the cage and talk to it everyday. I feed, nourished and express my love for it. I also try singing to it. Initially, she love to play with me by singing back to me.
As time goes by, we get very close and could hardly live without each other. The singing to and flow was passionate and wonderfully.
After a longer while, the love matures and my pet bird start to knock on the cage doors as if wanting to come out to see the world. I ignored its pleading and turn a blind eye to it.
She gets more and more restless and keep knocking on the cage door stronger and stronger. She is starting to hurt herself. I know I have to make a decision either I let her out or she will die by hurting herself.
One fine day, I open the door and let her out. She was flying around the cage and around me and was very happy with her new found freedom. Later, she starts to fly further and further away but she will return on the same day.
After a few attempts, she starts to come back the next day . I am tolerating her wild freedom but hope that she will exhaust herself and will return to her cage. My wish was futile. The bird starts to fly further and comes back only after one week and later one month and later once a year. I know she have changed. She may have found a new love somewhere or she is seeking the truth herself.
I can no more own the love but only keep the hope that she will realized one day , how I love her. Love is a miracle , it happens when it is the time and it also ends when the time comes. Everyday, we live with the hope and love and wish that our pet bird will appreciated our love and think of us some day.
Since , the last she flew off, I am still waiting for her to return.
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