Traditions…

I have witnessed a few debates about globalization: the pro’s and con’s. One of the biggest issues people seem to have with it is the eradication of tradition that follows globalization. While the opposite of globalization is not tradition; it seems to be constantly be identified as so.

I consider myself to be fairly globally minded, but I also have a quiet reverence towards tradition. It’s not something most people would expect from me, but there are things in the household that must be done a certain way, or things that need to be done during a certain time of year. It’s tradition – (within reason).

Every Diwali/Deepavali (the Hindu festival equivalent to that of Eid or Christmas or Chinese New Year) , there are certain things that need to be done: clean the altar and pictures of family members who have since passed, clean the house, put up oil lamps on the eve of Diwali and on the day, have dinner with the family, perform an oil head bath on Diwali morning, wear new clothes on the day, and, ask and receive blessing from parents. We also usually do a simple prayer in the morning, followed by lunch on banana leaves (it actually enhances the flavor, and is said to have medicinal properties).

There are reasons for doing some of these traditions- for example, an oil head bath removes heat from the body, and some are just traditions that have religious roots – cleaning and performing a simple prayer for those who have passed as a sign of remembrance and respect.

And despite the fact that Indians tend to be the butt of all jokes (see: Russell Peters, Indian Accents), I do think that being raised in Malaysia, with its immersion of Malay and Chinese cultures and my own, has allowed me a great understanding of diversity at a very young age. And for that, I am proud of my heritage and traditions, even if I don’t generally like to broadcast to the world – to me, these things, just like religion, are personal. The joy they bring from their existence is a pleasure meant to be enjoyed on a spiritual level, only to be shared when asked or needed.

And with that very wordy take on traditions, I would like to tack on a very warm wish of Diwali greetings to all celebrating, for it is a time that is meant to be remembered of when good triumphed evil. The world today is battling many evils, the largest of all being human apathy and indifferences, and I hope it will triumph once again.

Happy Diwali, 2012.

 

 

 

The Perks of being a Wallflower…

Have you ever just… stopped? Stopped breathing, stopped thinking, stop dreaming, stopped – and just observed? A completely insane moment where you don’t want to shine, you don’t want to live – you just want to exist. These moments should be far and few in between, but they exist for us all.

The weekend has been very introspective for me, due to the hectic events going on in my life which was further amplified by reading the book mentioned above. I was thinking of both achievements and failures, and how that affected me as a person. I was thinking about the people around me, and what they thought, and their stories, and their feelings. It made me wonder, wonder, wonder.

The main character in the book, Charlie, says,

• And all the books you’ve read have been read by other people. And all the songs you’ve loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that’s pretty to you is pretty to other people. And you know that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing “unity”.
  It’s like when you are excited about a girl and you see a couple holding hands, and you feel so happy for them. And other times you see the same couple, and they make you so mad. And all you want is to always feel happy for them because you know that if you do, then it means you’re happy, too.“

which really made me think. It’s true, in a sense, that no one experience of ours is unique – what makes us unique are many experiences combined coupled with their reactions. A song that means a lot to me may just be another song to you. Or how sometimes things make you angry and then sometimes it just makes you sad or happy, all based on how you feel at a given moment.

It also made me think about those moments when you drop into a chasm of depression for no apparent reason, and how suddenly it disappears – sometimes helped by a text, smile, memory, or just time. It made me wonder if human beings are born happy with life trying to beat it out of them, or if we’re all just really sad trying to be happy. Because it’s always ‘the little things‘ isn’t it? It’s not the grades, but the times sneaking out and doing silly things that we often remember. Or the impromptu road trips rather than the long nights of assignments.

Its times when I think of all these things that I wished I could stop thinking all together, because really, why do human beings keep trying to fix that which is not broken? We break things by trying to fix them, people mostly.We fall in love with people who don’t love us back; we ignore those that do. I remembered that quote after reading this passage:

“I remember going to sleep last night, and I realized something. Something that I think is important. I realized that throughout the course of the evening, I wasn’t happy about Craig and Sam breaking up. Not at all. I never once thought that it would mean Sam might start liking me. All I cared about was the fact that Sam got really hurt. And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her. Because there was nothing to gain, and that didn’t matter.“

It made me remember that feeling – not being able to choose who your heart gave itself too – but also knowing that it is expandable and that there is always room for more opportunities (and healing) if you’re willing to take them. It made me remember that people change in hours, that emotions are fickle and somewhat treacherous half the time, people don’t even know what they feel, what they want.

It also made me remember feelings of freedom. Sometimes you do something so decidedly stupid to feel alive, like drive really fast, a hold a blade to your skin just to feel the danger, or things like bungee jumping or roller coasters – I mean, think about it. Why do people pay tons of money to scare the shit out of themselves? Why do people do anything at all?

“There’s something about that tunnel that leads to downtown. It’s glorious at night. Just glorious. You start on one side of the mountain, and it’s dark, and the radio is loud. As you enter the tunnel, the wind gets sucked away, and you squint from the lights overhead. When you adjust to the lights, you can see the other side in the distance just as the sound of the radio fades because the waves just can’t reach. Then, you’re in the middle of the tunnel, and everything becomes a calm dream. As you see the opening get closer, you just can’t get there fast enough. And finally, just when you think you’ll never get there, you see the opening right in front of you. And the radio comes back even louder than you remember it. And the wind is waiting. And you fly out of the tunnel onto the bridge. And there it is. The city. A million lights and buildings and everything seems as exciting as the first time you saw it. It really is a grand entrance.”

And then when I find myself thinking about all this and analyzing behavior, I’m becoming more and more certain that I am severely going to enjoy neuroscience and psychology. I leave you with one more quote, because I saw it on 9gag.com (stay away from this black hole of productivity) and I thought it was poignant:

Book mentioned: The Perks of Being A Wallflower

Author: Stephen Chbosky

Rating: A-

Edit: A quick Google search showed that Emma Watson will be staring in a film adaptation to be out sometime next year! How very quaint, I imagine she’d make a great Sam.

Submitting to The Wolf…

I’m a bit of bibliophile. I love books; I love reading and so it was a no-brainer that when the Big Bad Wolf sale was announced, with books going for 75 to 90% discounts, that I was going to be there, thank you very much. With a promise of 1.5 million books, I was a bit apprehensive of going there to find like 4 x 375000 Twilight books or something equally horrifying… but the true purpose of this isn’t to talk about the books – of which they were plenty in variety and category – nor my haul of 90 books for only RM 719 (230 USD).

Instead, on both my visits, I observed something; first in the customers, second in the providers.

The hall that houses the sale is huge, but so is the space needed to house the books. Thus, the aisles are wide enough to allow people to pass through comfortably, but not wide enough that you wouldn’t bump into someone’s box (those that didn’t bring their own bags were given boxes) or into some body part. However, the majority of the people were apologetic and considerate, and whenever someone was blocking another, an ‘excuse me’ was said, followed by a sorry and thank you. Despite the competitiveness of getting ‘all the best books ever’, people tended to give each other way, and were generally nice. And thus, I came to a premature and perhaps somewhat bias conclusion that people who read have amassed a certain amount of understanding of the world, or at least, can appreciate basic etiquette.

The second part comes directly from today. After shopping for several hours, I came out to a very cloudy sky. Just was my mum, sister and I were about to walk to the car, it started raining cats & dogs. It became very quickly apparent that the floor structure of the site was not built well… water was collecting and flooding the area where everyone was queueing – both to go into the hall and to board the trams back to the car parks – and everything was quickly becoming a mess. Thank goodness the organizers had put tents outside at the queue area, but there was a gap from that area to the actual entrance. That was Problem 1.

Problem 2 arose because the roads were slippery for the trams to go up and down, plus the fact that a lot of people did not have an umbrella with them and thus were stranded between the drop off point and their car as it was an open carpark. As a result, a lot of people were waiting to go back but unable to lest they took a bath in the rain. The good bit was that people were patient and understanding and did not cause unnecessary drama while waiting for the rain to subside. The second bit was the excellent customer service provided, in which staff sourced umbrellas to build a chain-line to enable people to remain dry while they made their way into the building – ignoring the fact that the staffs got drenched themselves. They ferried people whenever someone needed help, remained calm and professional, and gave patient explanations to all who asked the repeated question of “what is going on?”. I was duly impressed, given that this was in all technicalities, a warehouse sale.

And lastly, I was so incredibly happy to see the amount of people that attended (despite that slightly selfish feeling of “oh my goodness, I’m going to have to battle so many people away to get my treasures!”) that included all races and ages. Children running around excitedly going “Mummy, mummy, I found it, I found it!” while brandishing a story book, or teenagers poring excitedly through the stacks of Twilight books (okay, a regrettable choice of literature but they will learn…) or the adults all searching determinedly for that one business book that would make them rich. It made me feel hopeful again, considering there was a study that stated that Malaysians read an average of ONE book a YEAR (while the data is probably true given the population and the different socio-economic status, etc, seeing people that broke that was heartening).

And so what was supposed to be a simple book sale has turned into an experience of humanity and a balm of hope to the soul. It is, after all, the little things in life that make it whole.

With that said, I sign out with pictures of my haul. Happy reading!

P/S – If you’re interested, it is in MAEPS, Mardi, Serdang. A 20 minute drive from Subang Jaya, and tomorrow, 10 am to 9 pm, 16th of October 2011, is the last day. If that doesn’t interest you, come down to Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus to participate in the packing of food for World Food Day, from 10 am to 3 pm. The objective is to pack 1,000,000 meals that will be distributed to hunger-stricken areas around the world. Will post more about that tomorrow, after the event. Cheers!

Haul number 1, 62 books for RM 518.

Haul 2, 28 books for RM 201.

Website: http://bigbadwolfbooks.com/

Facebook: /bbwbooks

*Disclaimer: This post is not an advertisement, just the excited ramblings of a happy bibliophile.

No rhyme nor reason. Just life.

Last night, I was writing a post about lessons I remembered from a book long read. The book is called ‘The Last Lecture’ by Randy Pausch, which is a non-fiction biography of life experiences. I fell asleep writing it and woke up this morning to the passing of Steve Jobs.

I do have an affinity for Apple, but I’ve never really put much thought into its founder – besides the fact that he’s brilliant, persistent and an incredible entrepreneur. Nevertheless, it was like a punch in the gut to hear it, especially as  BFM (a Malaysian business radio network) played his speech to the Stanford class of 2005.

I had never heard it before, and so the 3 simple points (1. Connect the Dots, 2. Love & Loss, 3.Death) struck me deeply enough that I stayed back in the car to listen to the whole speech despite the fact that it would make me late to class. I regret nothing (and my lecturer barely blinked an eye as I walked late into the lecture theater).

I realized that I waste too much time – thinking, worrying, fearing. I realized that often times you’re going to fall short of people’s expectations anyway, so the best bet is to just count your own. I realized that no one can make you feel unpretty or unconfident unless you let them. I realized that it is important to go after what you want – and if you can’t get it, then redirect your focus or keep trying.

As I was musing the words of Jobs and Pausch, I saw this graphic text on Tumblr, and felt like it consolidated my thoughts. The source is unknown, but the content is pure.

This post has no rhyme or reason – kind of like my thought process – but few things I know for sure: Rejection is better than not knowing (and you never hurt as bad as you think you will). Talking about something is better than repressing it (surround yourself with the right kind of people and trust them). You’ll be absolutely fine if you let yourself be (happiness is a habit and choice). Part of loving someone is letting them go (cherish friendships, and move on). Whether you’re doing something right or wrong, someone is going to love you and someone is going to hate you – do it anyway.

I’ll sign off with these few quotes:

“‎”Sometimes a wrong turn will bring you to exactly the right place.” Ooi Jie Joe (Joey)

“Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.” Randy Pausch

*Full text for Steve Jobs’ speech.