A Day in Northern India

It was a hot afternoon but surprisingly blustery. The two groups reached the destination at different times. Scents of burning charcoal and firewood greeted us besides the trays of food and pots of curry lined up inside the restaurant.

We've exhausted our ideas on the venues for lunch and gotten bored with the usual haunts when Mimi came up with the idea of eating flatbread and chicken cooked out from a tandoor, hence our location on Friday.

Poring over the menu, we're really spoilt for choice and by the time orders were taken and food served, behold, each was essentially different but one thing's for sure, they all looked red and with a generous helping of raw onions and carrots.

Everyone chowed down intently with occasional giggles when the fellas, seated opposite of each other, eyed their counterparts and perhaps they way they eat. I was using my hands; yes, two hands. I just can't break up my food into small morsels with one hand without having to risk deforming them. Imagine, with the gravy around, it'd be like pouring water on a slice of bread and then mash them up. I looked in awe how Mimi, Syura and Firdaus separating flesh from bones (literally) skillfully.

The said fingers. Notice the flower motive in the background. I wonder why so many laughed at the batik.

Kak Mimi looked up, smiled, and said, "Ni-lah yang dipanggil expert".

"Yeah," I said. " Takpe, I guna kedua-dua belah tangan. Lagipun tangan kiri I tak digunakan."
She nodded knowingly with a smile. The three fingers on my right hand are lightly stained with a beautiful hues of orange and red as I'm typing although the scent of chicken tikka and garlic is gone now.

This is the umpteenth time we from the same lab had our meals together. Of course, we don't do that everyday. Sometimes, we'd get food and snacks for one another. Someone remarked to me about how warm this lab seems to be when she started work in here.

Syura, Yours truly, Kak Mimi

This lab is warm... I've never been close with Malay before, hugging them, having lunch or dinner together...

- One-zero, through an e-mail correspondence

Surely, a display of affection and love takes place at the most insignificant of places. In the market. At the bus station. In our case, the lab. And even in restrooms. I don't know what to call this thing but it is popularly known unity or perpaduan as it is called in the national language.

Like I said, what we see in the media isn't unity in all its essence. It's somewhat staged. Orchestrated. Scripted. Call it what you want but I still think it's superficial. There isn't a single criterion which will scream out "It's unity!" but rather a relationship between human beings established and held by love, concern, and respect for one another. Does the story above becomes meaningful only because it involves individuals having the names Firdaus or Syura? And emphatic no. It doesn't have to do with race or creed. Often, we're given the picture and idea of colours when it comes to preaching about unity. Why? To put it simply, everyone should be taught love and respect. And that's about all to it.

There's nothing in the English (or any other language) lexicon that could sum up the warmth, and the mirthful moments we have with others. That, like all kinds of relationships can only be tagged rather frivolously but only by experience could one comprehend it.

The Square Root of Three

A creative way of using numbers, math and the like in the scripts of Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. No praises or abuses but I find it better than Scary Movie. Square root of three... I'd never have thought of it up to this point. No thanks, in part, to my dislike for numbers. But I love The Oxford Murders to bits! Some say it's credited to David Feinberg but whoever composed that, it's clever. Here goes, behold the Theodorus' constant:

I fear that I will always be
A lonely number like root three
A three is all that's good and right
Why must my three keep out of sight

Beneath a vicious square-root sign?
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick
With just some quick arithmetic

I know I'll never see the sun as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When, hark, just what is this I see?
Another square root of a three

Has quietly come waltzing by
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
And with a wave of magic wands

Our square-root signs become unglued
And love for me has been renewed

The Decisive Flip

Darkness descends upon civilization at about 10pm.

After what seems like eternity, the guys in the know arrived in two 4WDs and in less than a minute after they don their colourful jackets, the light came back.

Its warm and the air is still. I stood a good 100 meters away but near enough to hear a loud snap from within the room.

Thankful? Perhaps. At least I'm strolling back from where I came from 40 minutes ago. Slow and heavy steps.

Thanks guys. You could've come a bit earlier though.

Blogging on the phone: enjoyable

Avaricious Academics

I read a letter in the newspaper today written by a former graduate of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM); on how proud S. Param (the writer) is of UPM's ranking. I was also made to understand how people, read researchers, work over there - the cohesiveness and the way people work over there. If I were to write anything about USM, where I'm at now, I'd have nothing except for castigation. I'm utterly ashamed to be in the same division with some of these "Dr's" who profess to be an expert in a certain field yet showing to everyone how low they'd slither on their bellies to gain accolades and mentions. On the outside, they'd don a crisply pressed shirt complete with a tie and then swagger along the corridor emanating the "worship me" aura.

What a snob! Before I press ahead further, let it be known that I'm one pathetic fool who live life guided by naivete and prefers to give everyone he meets the so-called benefit of the doubt. Yes, although I may be stereotyping a large population of academics I still treat everyone as people to be trusted, hearsay notwithstanding. Until and unless such lowlives prove to be really lacking in integrity. For the past 5 months or so, I've met, heard, seen, and lately experience for myself the scheming, the underhanded tactics and the lack of integrity thereof. All courtesy of learned men and women. They've somewhat succeeded in turning lexicographers into liars. I can't see the distinctions between a "white collar" or "blue collar" here. And I was a liar, too, when I was trying to impress upon my A-Levels students how the great minds in Science gave us what we have today. Perhaps I ought to add that such philanthropy only occur in some place, some people.

Oh yeah, I've been harping on this issue of the [perceived] divide between two social classes and one might get the notion that I'm just envious of them. Well, no. I've been fortunate to rub shoulders with some of the distinguished people in society yet amazed by their meekness and simplicity.

Back to USM, which for your information, is being transformed into the very first university in Malaysia to have a fresh coat of paint on every building in the campus perimeter. And I haven't even touched on some ridiculous implementations made recently. It's work I'm talking about here. About how I could to lose my postgraduate candidature (if they've had their way) no thanks to the selfishness and paranoia of men and women called scientists/lecturers/researchers. And it's a joke and a waste of fund to see them go abroad and smile saying, "Hey, look here. This is what we've been doing and we're dying to share it with you guys". I said it's a waste since the only reason they're at international conferences and exhibitions is to bask in the limelight pretending to be a scientist so committed to disseminating knowledge. Such narcissistic souls. And here I am thinking I'd further my studies in peace and not get embroiled in all these antics. Three years as an undergraduate and I realized I'm half full compared to counterparts from another country; hence the decision to study.

Call me foolish or emo (seemingly the cool word nowadays) but I think every person with sight needs to behold the rot in, foremost, the education system in the country and then the research world governed by pseudo-researchers cum bureaucrats. I dare not call myself a scientist. This is what education here does to you. You are what they say you are. You have no voice. No mind. No convictions. You are stringed to their hands and then dance to their tune. I've said this before in a post somewhere and I'm saying it again: To the academics, if you feel you've been swiped, then know that the prefix to your name carry no other meaning besides the word "pariah". Yes. You play God. You play the puppet master. You expect your subordinates and those occupying the lower stratum than you to grovel at you and behave obsequiously all the time.

Know that different people have different reasons for continuing what they're doing and that it takes a lot just to come up proposals guided by genuine interests and desire - unlike you, who think day and night of high praises and acknowledgment. It is stupid people like this that hand up their proposals only to be torn apart and extracted to complement your selfish desires. A suggestion: Clean up your act and learn to lecture well. Don't show off with your publications and lament how lame university students are when in the first place your reading from 5-year old slides. Now, to aid you on the road to rehabilitation visit the MIT website and look up the video lectures. I don't even know what we're doing in varsity and there you are showing how much breakthrough you've gained.

Let us digress and appreciate the following:

The people—could you patent the sun?

Attributed to Jonas E. Salk (1914 - 1995)
U.S. physician and virologist.

On being asked who owned the patent on his anti-polio vaccine.

I'm not that naive after all since I know full well how cursed we all are. The best example would be the elucidation of the double helix and the work that leads to it. Clues for you: Linus Pauling, James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin. Yeah, just let me be and don't barge in. Come viva voce, just come at me with your pathetic guns blazing. After all, a person perceived to be naive by you all wouldn't be able to defend the barraging since my I'm only guided by sheer interest and genuine desire to learn and share. I'm just different from you all, eh?

I know you're quietly saying, "This is the world, son. Welcome and live with it".

Then, before bow out let me say this again, "The world is such due to people such as you. So, don't be a coward and reason that way. Two wrongs don't make a right, idiot!"

There you go. The sights and sound of the first university to be granted the APEX (Accelerated Programme for Excellence) status and together with it, truckloads of paints in different colours. University par excellence? Not for the foreseeable 10 years. Not with such mentality. With the current trend and status quo with a body having many heads, it may well implode and kill the university. And you say I'm impertinent?

May Day 1

Building on what I posted on the 28 March thanking the faceless and nameless people who - however insignificant - complete our daily life, let May 1 bring a few minutes' pause to recollect how many times we've walked past a person with a self-made balaclava and soiled trouser only to size him/her up and rolled our eyes? I've seen...

A visitor once said:

The sad reality that society only places far too much importance on people who wears a tie, dress in a coat; where underneath it all he/she might be a loathsome human without any life value.

What to do? Everyone is taught to mind their fortunes and well-being; everything else is secondary. If I could just add to what I've written, I want to say thank you to the rank and file. The drones. The supporting crew. Having just said how selfish society is, it'd be clearer if I were to juxtapose the drones and the head honchos. I don't think there are any other days accepted the world over where the labour and the toiling of these "cari makan" and "makan gaji" people are, sort of, appreciated.

If the painters and cleaners are to be respected, then the same ought to be given towards junior, small time workers. Some work under the usual pressure, and some under fear. Others with heads held low and dignity stripped away, berated daily by educated fools holding the managerial positions. Others are called "stupid", "dumb", "slow", "incompetent" and almost always with a threat leveled at them.

So, to such insolent men and women, know that you're once in the gutter. You may don designer clothing, fanciful wigs, and wear the sweetest smelling perfume but deep down, you may be just another loathsome human being. It's uncalled for when one puts him or herself above another person through disrespectful words and actions.

It's not easy to be nice and humble just to eke out a bare existence. That's life. This is society you say? Think and say it again. Life's like this because of people like you.