Reading, a passion...

I love to read. It has been my hobby since I left school in the late fifties. The first book I read was those detective books by Perry Mason. I soon got hook to reading and has never stop reading. At present I read novel by various authors and book on socio political subject. At time I may be reading two to three books.  Now with the availability of e book I also read on my Kindle. Well folks reading increases our knowledge as well the understanding of the culture of living of various people and countries. 

Have a nice day.

Rambling again...

I am tired, the reason been many. One, age is catching up but been me whose mind is always active and can never keep quiet, I am always into doing something to fill up my times. Last few weeks have been full of activities. One of which was that our youngest daughter is moving out to live in a new home that she just bought. With that I offer to help in some small way in doing handiwork at the new place. I am happy to help for I love DIY and enjoy spending my time doing the little works like fixing curtain rails, fixing new lamps for the house lighting and doing a new garden at her place. I love to get all the works done like a professional. So I do it slowly the way I like best. At time simple works like fixing the railing for the curtain takes me two days but I do enjoy doing it. She had ask me to create a garden for her at the balcony and yesterday I spend the whole afternoon doing it and I am happy with the result. Image above shows the mini-garden at the balcony.

Last Sunday we went to our Malacca condo to take most of the furniture and electric appliance that are hardly used there and transfer it to our daughter new home. That take much works like disassembling the items, packing it and got a lorry to transport it to KL. When all those items arrived in KL it has to be sorted out. Some I give to relative since our daughter does not need it.  We were happy to give it way since we already got such items and it would be a waste to left it in storage.  

Then I decided to redo my own rooms to give it a new look. The books had to be taken out since I am replacing the bookcase with a new one which I had bought sometimes ago and been use to put our daughter books. Now that she is moving out and taking all her books, the wooden bookcase is empty and now I could put some of my books there. Anyone who has books knows pretty well that it is not that easy to rearrange all those books again but it had to be done. I am taking my time to organize the books now, would do it slowly at my own pace. 

I have already decided to give away all the old books especially novels that I had read. I had call a friends and she say that she is willing to help to take the books and send it to some charity NGO for fund-raising events. I told her that once I have sort out all the books I would call her to come and collect it. 

At our youngest daughter new place there is a huge Swimming pool. Image above shows part of the Swimming Pool. Since I love to swim I am now making it my regular place of swimming. It is one of the best ways of keeping my faculty healthy at this age. Besides it is a relaxing way of doing exercise and enjoying it. I have always love swimming for I grew up near the sea where I would go on the weekend to swim. Now with this Swimming Pool which is close to our home I would make it my regular swimming place. Yesterday afternoon after getting the minigarden done at the balcony I went to have a swim and felt really good. 

Have a nice day.

The Gift of Rain - the book...

I have just finished reading this book 'The Gift of Rain' by Tan Twan Eng. Once a while a great book about Malaya came along and this one is superb in that it relived my memories of that dark period of the country history, the Japanese Occupation of Malaya from 1941 to 1945. The story revolved around a family in Penang at that period of time. Reading through this novel brings back memories of my past during that period. Although I was just a child at that time I seem to remember many events that happen during that period of my life. As I read the story unfolded by the creative writing of the author I began to remember of the similarity of the incidents that I saw around me or hears from the elders at that time. 1941 to 1945 was considered as the darkest period of our history when atrocities of war was at its worst. This book although set in Penang depict the same happening in the other parts of the country. In Kuantan, my hometown the happening was just like as described by the author. I believe the author has done a thorough research before embarking of this novel of historical importance to the country. While the novel is a works of fiction, the episodes depict in the novel to me are facts and remain to be a true happening all over the country during the occupation.

I was then just five years old and yet I could remember the war crystal clear. It must be the trauma that made me to remember, the dog fight between the Japanese and the British planes, the charred remain of the of tanks scattered on the plain near Jalan Gambut, the rack of a Japanese plane with a skeleton of the pilot still in the cockpit near the present Kuantan Airport, the many Japanese flags, the White with the Red circle in the middle flattering all over the town, the many arches of Japanese architecture stand everywhere. And of course the phrase 'potong kepala' decapitated, is a part that no one who live during the period could ever forget.

This book not only tell about the horror of war but more importantly it tell about the humanity of us all, our values, our traditions, our love for one another, our responsibility and duty to our country, the true meaning of patriotism, the need to understand ourselves and of how to deal with the time of crisis and of our belief and the spirituality of us all.

In a way this book not only relived history but taught us many important aspects of living and humanity.

To me this is a good book and should be read by all Malaysian especially so the present generation who now live in a peaceful and prosperous country; of how difficult the country was, when there was suffering and the many lost of lives during that dark period of our history.

I laud the author for a job well done. Indeed such a fine work of literature. Thank you.

Have a nice day.

The healing power of water...

Inspired by this book ' The Hidden Messages of Water by Masaru emoto ' and reflecting on my long journey of life, I am writing this so as to open up our hearts and minds to the power of water on our lives. It all start with a conversation I had with Steven some months ago. We, that is my spouse, me and Steven were enjoying Teh Tarik and Roti Canai at a Mamak store and the subject of this book was brought up by Steven. He say that I must read it and that he would send a copy to me when he gets back to the UK. When he return to the UK he send me the book and I start reading. As usual with me I analyse the content and after some soul searching I found that what the good doctor [Dr.Masaru Emoto] say in this book is actually nothing new. The only different is that this good doctor did many experiments with water to proved to the scientific world that there is more to the water than its looks. By itself it is indeed a simple cure for all illness as well give us the quality of life that we have always wanted. He has proven with scientific evidence that water is alive and that it reacts to command the we give and by that could react to heal or cure sickness. You would understand more if you take the trouble to read this wonderful book. I am in no way promoting this book. I am doing this just to satisfied my curiosity as to the why water works in our body and its healing process. Now I am no longer sceptical but believe for a fact that waters do have the power to heal.

Let me give some of my experiences when I was growing up in the forties. At that time modern medicine was just beginning to take root in the society. There was very few doctors in the government hospital and one of two GP clinic in the town of Kuantan and I believe it was the same in other towns. In the rural area there was none at all. For thousand of years we as a society had survived without modern medicine and relied only on our Shaman, Dukun, Pawang, Bomoh or for the Chinese their Sen Sai. Every time someone get sick in our house we do not rush him/her to the hospital which is some kilometres away but we treat it on our own. In the case of our family there is the Dukun who live opposite our house. A respected man, a simple man who works with the local council for a living but at the same time he often act as our Medicine man. I was just a small boy then and only know this man as Tok Yek. So every time someone get sick I would be ask to call Tok Yek. I would ran across the road and get to his house and told him to come over and tell him that someone is sick and need his help and then I ran back to the house. In the mean time at the house my mother had already got ready the peripheral for the use of the Dukun. Which consist of a bowl of fresh water, some lime fruits, some pop rice [bertih] and incense burner and of course the Tepak Sireh. After a while Tok Yek would arrive and after checking the patient, would take the bowl of water and did the ritual of cutting the lime into two and placed it on the water with the pop rice. He then ask for a glass of water, crystal clear water that come from the well near our house. He recites some words softly into the water and then ask the patient to drink. After that he would take leave with some words of advice. He did this voluntarily and no payment is made. Mostly of the time I notice that the patient got cured.

So coming back to water, what the Dukun give is just to drink the water and usually is the only treatment given to heal the sick or for the cure. Only after reading professor Masaru Emoto book that I realised and understood that the water indeed has the power to cure if treated with love. They say Love cure all and in this case it is love that had been transmitted into the water that provided the cure or heal the sick person.

Even in religion water is used in so many ways to purify, to heal, to cure or just for ablution before a prayer. In Islam whenever a Yassin session [the recitation of chapter 36 of the Koran] is held, jugs of water are placed at the centre of the doa session and later the water would be used for healing the sick or other uses for the goodwill of the family.

Folks non of us would have survived before the coming of modern medicine had it not been for the wonderful service of these Shamans or Sage. Surely they had some means to cure or heal that we do not really know. When modern medicine arrives from the west some of these Dukun, Bomoh were ridicule and eventually it fade away form the need of the society and Modern Medicine and the Doctor took their place. Of course there are the Dukun, Bomoh who still practice. I believe the failure of most modern day Shaman, Healer and Sage is because they have added a monetary value to it service, whereas in the past it was just a service toward humanity. In a way they do not made a living on it but use their gifted knowledge of healing/curing the sick as a sincere contribution to the society. It was not a mean but an end by itself. In the case of modern day Shaman or Sage most of them do it as a mean to an end which is to made a living. This is why these folks who call themselves Dukun, Bomoh or Pawang in most case was unsuccessful in their treatment and some folks get cheated.

I am a strong believer in science. I am sceptical about myth and the supernatural but I know as a Homo sapient that I am a spiritual being as well. There are so many things that we have yet to know and understand. Maybe this book would open our mind to more possibilities that would give a better quality of life to us all. I am indeed in depth to Steven for the gift of this book, that has is some ways open my mind to the new science of water and its power of healing. Some scientists are still sceptical about this finding so let us have an open mind on this as well. Now that science has proven that water does have in some ways a healing power we should use Water with love and give more respect to it.

Have a nice day.

Strangers no more...

A blogger who reside in the UK posted in a comment column of one of my posting that he is back in Malaysia for a short holiday. From time to time he had visited my blog and posted comments, thus we began to communicate. So in a way we are really not strangers. Blogsphere has in a way brought blogger close together as though we are one kind of a species that made friends easily. It this case we are indeed friends but not in the real world. Anyway it is a start of a friendship which began in cyberspere. In his latest comment, he suggested that if we meet for coffee. With that I replied that I would love to and then send him my cell phone number via his email address. A day later he calls me and we made arrangement to meet.

Eventually we met for the first time at the Loaf in the Pavilion, a new shopping mall at Jalan Bukit Bintang. It was a meeting of strangers who knows each other only in cyberspere and from that moment in time we are no longer strangers. We sat over cups of hot steamy coffee at the Loaf, a cozy cafe crowded with people enjoying their days. As usual with blogger we chat as thought we had know each other for a long time already. He then presented me with a pictorial book entitled 'Malaysians' as seen in the image above. He is the author of this book, his second book. His earlier book 'Outside Looking in Kuala Lumpur' which he gave me later contains photography of people and events in black and white. I thank him for those wonderful gifts. And since he had to leave early we parted and promise to meet again. He is Steven v-l lee and this is his blog.

Last Sunday together with my spouse I took him to the NZ Restaurant at Melawati where we all had a late breakfast of Roti Canai, Tosei and of course the Malaysian famous Teh Tarik. The place as usual is throng with people especially so on this Sunday morning. We chat on various subjects that come to our mind and enjoyed that brunch. After a while we decided to leave the place and on the way back before sending him to the Keramat LRT station, we stop at our home in Ampang Jaya for a while and he was glad that we brought him to our home for he had seen some of the images in my blog and delighted with that short visit to our home. In his words which he emails me later he says "Dear Pak Idrus, Many many thanks for taking me to NZ for roti yesterday, and also to meet your wife. It is so refreshing to meet new friends through blogging especially when we share some things in common. You have a lovely and cozy abode also. Will definitely catch up the next time I am in KL."

Friends, blogsphere actually create a new dimension in making friends all over the world. Just last month a blogger who read one of my posting made contact via email to me saying that he would like to meet me. So as usual I call him and eventually on the afternoon of March 8, 2008 he and his spouse [image on the left] came over and had tea at our home and enjoy the chat at the patio. He is Allen and he wrote about this meeting in his blog SISUAHLAI. So as you can see blogsphere is a wonderful place to be, to makes friends and in a way enjoy the color of living. Have a nice day.

The Book... We're All Journalists Now....

That day when I went to Kinokuniya while trying to kill time and browsing the rows and rows of books, I was not sure of what book to buy. I just had to buy a book since I have just finished reading a book and had non to read after that. So I thought that I might as well browse along and have a look of what new books are around or just look at the noticeboard which shows the bestseller of the week. While doing just that I notice this book which is so relevant to what I am doing now, Blogging as well trying to get more Malaysian to understand what blogging is all about. As a Blogger I have written many articles on Why Malaysian must Blog, Appeared on TV, Featured on a mainstream newspaper The Star and interviewed by a few students. All these efforts are to pass the messages that Blogging is good for Democracy as well it is good for the bloggers.

What a coincidence that I found this book ' We're All Journalists Now' by Scott Gant' and reading through it found that my thoughts on this subject are in tune with what this author wrote. I have just gone through the book on my first reading and have to do a second reading before I could digest all the thoughts and ideas that have been put so brilliantly by this author. For now let me summarise that it is a godsend book for our time especially so for Malaysian where blogging is beginning to made its impact on the socio political scene. Although the contents of this book are of the American socio political/cultural scene, I found that there are so much in common with our ideal. The need to have a free flows of information and ideas especially from the ordinary folks. In the past it is not possible to do that but blogging has made the flows of information and ideas now possible. To quote the author "a Marketplace of Ideas, which provides the best chance for uncovering truth". And the New Media [Blogger] would be playing that part well. The new Media, Blogging or Citizen Journalism is a term use by the author Scott Gant in this book.

Another aspect that I found to be in agreement with the author is that Journalism should be part and parcel of a good governance. The author address this issue at length and I find this part is very important...In the past government has always been referred as the sharing of power between the Executive,the Legislative and the Judiciary only. The author pointed that the role of Journalism especially Citizen Journalism could made government more accountable and transparent. So a good government in a democracy should be the sharing of power that includes Journalism/Press, first dubbed as the Fourth Branch by another author Douglass Cater in 1959. Thus the four branches should now be The Executive, The Legislative, the Judiciary, and the Journalism/Press. With the element of Journalism in it, it would made information and ideas flows both ways which surely would create good governance for any country and in turn would be good for its citizen too. To me this is a tall order indeed but if it is good for the country, why not!. After all what the people want is good governance and with that provide for a better quality of life for its citizen.

That the old media would still there and continue to play its parts in the dissemination of information and ideas. And as usual with things it would evolved in its own ways. Citizen Journalism would play its role and evolve as it goes. Changing the ways we get news. Quote from the book " The days of the mainstream media as the "voice of God" are over, declared Dean Wright, a vice president at Reuters". The author also highlight one very important aspect of journalism, much debated in the US and already implemented in some States. That is what he call as the 'Shield Law'. He also pointed out that Journalism should be an endeavor and not just a job title. And that Journalism should be look at as an activity rather then a profession. As for the future of Journalism, the author wrote "Journalism is essential" and that it is a vital part of sharing information needed for the functioning of the socio political systems.

In most countries including Malaysia before Blogging news has always been a one sided affairs. What the Publishers want us to know and that's is. And because in Malaysia you need a licence to start a Newspaper, only a few got it. Thus the limited numbers of Newspapers in the country. The author stated that in the US no licence is needed to start a newspaper. So in Malaysia with Blogging, the citizen journalists has open up the Pandora box on the flows of news. Now the information and ideas comes from the people as well. The status quo has changed. The flood gates of news has been open by bloggers and there are no ways of stopping, except with the truth. It is a fair game now, the playing field is getting even day by day. Those who refused to accept these facts would surely be swept by the new waves.

Friends, this is a good book for us Bloggers. It is about us and our involvement as the pioneer of this new media. The understanding of the power of Blogging [citizen journalism] in our [Malaysia] young democracy. I believe we the Malaysian Bloggers could made the differences in the coming years in making democracy works as democracy should. Have a nice day..