About Me

I have done a lot of things in my life and have also worked in many different jobs to make a living and to experience life. This blog is just some of my musings, sometimes funny, sometimes inspirational, sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes simple but all the time, it's just me.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

My plan for public holidays

Each state in Malaysia has between 15 to 17 public holidays a year. It is quite a large number compared to many countries around the world but I am not complaining. Nevertheless, I had an early lunch with a colleague of mine and I come up with a suggestion on Malaysian public holidays which he too got excited and interested about.

My idea is, let's keep 15 public holidays a year. However, the only fixed public holidays should be Malaysia Day, Labour Day, New Year's Day, Kings Birthday and the state rulers birthday. So, 5 out of 15 as fixed days.

Then 10 days should be considered as public holidays but up to individuals when they want to take it. This will not be part of annual leave but put in as flexible public holidays.

If you want to take 2 days or 5 days out of the 10 for Hari Raya, so be it. If you want to take 3 or 4 days for Dewali, why not, it's entirely up to you.

I reckon that by doing this, there will be less jams on the roads during major holidays, there would be less congestion meaning less accidents meaning more lives saved.

Less congestion would also mean that the police do not have to be extra vigilant during these times as it would be just another day.

Cities will not become dead as many people may continue to work. Economy will go on.

Airports, bus terminals and trains will not be overly congested and there would be no need for additional bus services with untrained bus drivers for the rush back home.

Overall it will safe the country a lot of money but it will not kill the economy, but improve it.

With people taking their public holiday when they want will also improve overall morale and productivity.

Oh well, is it wishful thinking? My two cents worth. What do you say?


Take care and be well.

Monday, April 28, 2008

On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

This is among the main theme of Antoine de Saint Exupéry book Le Petit Prince or as we know it The Little Prince.

Two other main points of the book are "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." and "It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important."

A good friend of mine, a former colleague, uses a version of the main theme on a daily basis, which is "Use your heart to see."

Such simple lessons from a children's book written in 1943 but yet what a profound message.

Our heart will tell us from right and wrong and many decisions in our life are made with our heart cause while our eye can visualize, only our heart can see.

Sometimes, we make wrong decisions and when we do make this wrong decisions, it is not our eyes that hurt but our heart that aches.

A lot of times, we forget to see with our hearts, we forget to open our hearts or listen to our hearts. We try to make things scientific and logical.

I have most of the times in recent years used my heart to see. This has brought a lot of pain but it has also brought a lot of joy, happiness and honesty in my life.

Another principle of the book is spending the time with the rose. I have to admit that in the last year or so, I have not spent enough time with people that I care about the most and that may make them seem unimportant.

I am doing my best right now to ensure that I spend some time with my roses, my family, my loved ones and my friends and the time I spent is filled with love, cherished every moment, using my heart to see and I hope that this will make my roses feel important.

I am truly sorry for the lack of time that I have been spending, but I promise to spend more time with my roses.

As for you become responsible for what you have tamed. I used to be a very angry person and was nicknamed as such by even my grandparents. I am not sure when a transformation happened but it was definitely sometime when I left home for my studies, most likely when I was in USA.

I tamed my anger and I am responsible for every time that I get angry at something or someone. There are now very few occasions that someone would make me angry, it is usually some things that make me angry.

Both my grandparents have long passed by at least my mother was still alive to see this transformation take place.

Osho said that life does not listen to your logic; it goes on its very own way, undisturbed. You have to listen to your life; life will not listen to your logic, it does not bother about your logic.

We can be anything that we want, first, we must allow out heart to see.

"Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your finest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you remain true to them, your world will at last be built." - James Allen

On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.



Take care and be well.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

We are all made of stars

All of us are stars, some big, some small, some near, some far, some bright, some dim, some blue giants, some red dwarfs.... but we are all stars.

Moby sang,
"Growing in numbers
Growing in speed
Can't fight the future
Can't fight what I see

People they come together
People they fall apart
No one can stop us now'
Cause we are all made of stars."

There are billions of stars in the universe as there a roughly 6 billion stars in on this planet earth.
As stars, it becomes our innate ability to shine, to shine bright or dim, to shine red or blue, but nevertheless, shine.

My opinion is that all humans are born free of burdens, we are born positive, we wear no masks, and we are carefree. When we are born, we are color blind - we do not see the differences in people, in color of people, in religion of people - everyone is and equal.

However, somehow through life, we have opinions and masks thrown to us and we are basically thought to be somewhat dishonest - as in wear masks, not show our true selves etc etc.

I truly hope that one day, all humans can become childlike and achieve Martin Luther King's I have a Dream. I highly recommend listening to the speech or at least reading it and therefore I attach the web link here. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

I hope in my lifetime we can achieve this dream that King spoke of.

"Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

In 1955, there was a gathering of 29 African and Asian nations in Bandung, Indonesia. This has become to be known as the Bandung Conference, also known as Asian African Conference or Afro Asian Conference.

A 10-point "declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation," incorporating the principles of the UN Charter and Jawaharlal Nehru's principles, were adopted unanimously. Among these 10-points included Respect for fundamental human rights and recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations large and small.

We are all made of stars, we may all look different and may be different in size, color, volume, distance - at the end of the day we are all the same, we are stars.

I am beginning to accept this in my life - that all humans are created equal - irrespective of race, religion or the color of our skins. I have friends of all sizes, personalities, color, beliefs - and I love them all.

I am starting to see more of it nowadays, although, overall we may still have a long way to go. When we open up and accept each and every unique individual with open arms and open mind; only then can we be "free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last."



Take care and be well.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Stranger in the night

I have had a rather interesting night and a very fun day where very little work was done. There was some work done, but not much.

Now the night was interesting. It was one of those days when my Astro was not working so I did not spend the time in front of the tele.

Well, I had various tabs open on my Internet and I was on Facebook, was on Malaysiakini, was on Malaysia Today, was on Yahoo, Yahoo Sports, and I don't even remember. I was poking, superpoking, my fairy was stealing gold, I send some roses, my vampire, slayer, zombie and werewolf beat up some chumps. Oh well, had a busy night doing some mundane stuff as you can see.

Well, somehow I literally fell asleep on my sofa with a hand on my computer, might have been after 11pm.

However, around 2am, I was awakened by the door bell ringing. I just ignored the door bell for a moment but it rang again, one of those electronic ding dong sounds. So, it woke me up. In my sleepiness, I realized that I don't have a door bell in my house here.

Hmm, I thought, could it have been just a dream... but I heard it again, ding dooooong. My first reaction was that it was some computer sound or phone alarm sound, so I duly turned off my computer and checked both my phones if any alarms had been set on for 2am or thereabouts.

While doing all this, I heard another ding dong bell sound.

Having a little fear but not too afraid or fearful, I went to my kitchen window and tried to look through the window to see if there was anyone at the front door.

Well, I did not see anything and that is when I started to pray as well as tell whatever or whomever was out there to go away and look for another place as they have got the wrong house. At the same time I went to my room, turned on the air-condition, locked the door and turned on the motion sensor alarm in my house.

I surprisingly had a decent sleep thereafter and there was no ding dong sound after my prayer verses.

So, whoever or whatever was out there in the night looking for shelter likely just went to another place or maybe it was all just a dream.

Frank sang it "Strangers in the night, Two lonely people, we were strangers in the night."


Take care and be well.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Serendipity

Sometimes in our life we meet;
We become friends
And sometimes we become lovers.
We laugh
And sometimes we cry.
We speak
And sometimes we listen.
We trust
And sometimes we lie.
We stay on forever
And sometimes we walk away

Such a pity when we walk away
Though its serendipity for it to be that way

(unfinished)


Take care and be well.

Crowing Cock and other thoughts

Crowing Cock
It is 4:30am and I have been up since 12:30am. And I hear a cock crowing for the last 45 minutes, must have his biological clock screwed up. When I was living in Bukit Mertajam, my neighbour used to have a rooster in his yard that was always kept covered up. This was what I called the psycho rooster and who could blame it. It would start crowing at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am .... it was like a cuckoo clock. I pitied the rooster and now I wonder if this rooster I am hearing in this wonderful island of Borneo is stuck in a similar predicament. 4:45 am and another cock has started to crow. I know the sun comes up early here but not this early.

Migraine
I am having a bloody migraine, part of the reason I cannot sleep. Another is that I feel nauseated. I don't know why and Bu Bu and Bear's Favorite Things song is just not getting my migraine away. Boy, migraine stinks alright. What I'll do is go take a shower, meditate and maybe go to work early, really early. But then again, there are some others using the computers in the office at night... now that's another story.

Thoughts
Robin Sharma in his book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari writes that every person has an average of 60,000 thoughts a day. That's a staggering figure. Somehow, I feel like I have 100,000 thoughts a day. He also says that you control your thoughts, each and every one of them. Try an experiment, what are you thinking right now? Stop thinking that and change to thinking something else. And you can. So, we control our thoughts and he encourages to train the mind to think positive thoughts all the time. No easy feat I tell you, I am still doing my best to control my thoughts and emotions and feelings to remain positive, and generally succeeding, but just a few thoughts of sadness, hurt, confusion and anger creep in every now and then.

Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but words will never hurt me
What a bunch of crap. It is sometimes words or lack of them even that hurt the most. Enough said.

Unconditional love
I wish in my life, sooner than later, that I can seriously and without any doubts whatsoever show unconditional love for my family and my friends. It is not too difficult to show this with my wife, despite everything that we have gone through and will go through, I can unconditionally love her. It has become extremely difficult with other family members and friends. I hope that I will be able to achieve this. Unconditional love is to love someone without any conditions and regardless of his or her actions or beliefs. It is though to love someone irregardless of their actions, because their actions hurt. But I am going to achieve this in my life.

Superpokes and such
Facebook is a great tool, slightly over-rated but nevertheless a great tool. The nice part of it is finding friends, especially some that you have lost contacts with. Some of the applications are also nice. What is funny part about it is that a person that you can physically see and talk to you will sometimes behave very oddly, rudely or just ignore you physically. But then, this same person will go to Facebook and superpoke you, send you a gift, hug you etc etc among all the thousands of actions and things that you can send on Facebook. Mind you, I get plenty of hugs and kisses from my wife when she is here and it is nice when she is not that we are in touch all the time. But to the folks I mention, I just wish sometime I actually get a real hug, a thank you, a smile even. We are all persons and sometimes technology has made us all less personable.

Masks
We all wear masks. The older we get, the more masks we create. We claim to wear masks because we say that we don't want to get hurt. It seems like being honest and open all the time will only lead to us being hurt, that's what I was told. I wear some masks and I am trying to shed them, be honest and open. I think that I will be happier by shedding my masks rather than be hurt. And if somebody attempts to hurt me because of my honesty, then it is their loss cause it should not matter and it should not hurt me. Again not something easy to do, but have you ever seen a child wear a mask. Most children do not wear masks when they are below 5, maybe even below 7. And they are the happiest people I see in my life. So, theory that wearing a mask is protecting me just does not hold any water any more. Time to shed my masks.



It is now 5am. Take care and be well.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

I am 39 or is it 40


I have just turned 39 or 40 in Eastern calendars. The thing about the age and calendars is interesting.

In Western calendars, when you are born, you are on year 0, which doesn't really make sense. Someone may ask, "How old is your baby?" What would you answer if the baby was just a few months old; you don't say the baby is 0 years old do you.

In Eastern calendars, the baby is in the 1st year of his or her life, and therefore, on the 1st birthday, the baby has completed the 1st year of life and is then on the 2nd year of their life.

As such, I have completed 39 years of my life and am now well into the 40th year of my life. My birthday was some 2 weeks back.

What is a birthday? What did I do on my birthday?

In my 40 years of my life, this year, for the first time in my life, I actually had a birthday party. Oh well, I did not inform people it was my birthday party though some people did know or find out. You see, I've never had a party before for my birthday, and therefore, apart from some close loved ones, I have never really got many presents for my birthday. As such, I did not feel comfortable for people to feel obliged to bring me stuff.

Nevertheless, their presence was a present. The party was a surprising success and for the first time in my life, I actually felt really great on my birthday to spend it with people.

In the past few years, my birthdays have been great affairs with my wife, and sometimes with family. But this year, it was with more than 40 people, some good friends, some friends, some colleagues, some even people I met for the first time. And surprisingly, even the people I did not know enjoyed themselves and warmed up to the party.

Oh, well, for those few who do bother to check out my blog, I had a great time and I would like to thank everyone for making it memorable.

(Unrelated note: I have been trying to bloody load a picture of me taken on my actual birthday but dang it just would not load, oh well, check it out in Facebook under Nilesh Timbadia or www.flickr.com/photos/niltimbadia)

Take care and be well.






Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The Riddle

Song by Five for Fighting - my favorite song for now

There was a man back in '95
Whose heart ran out of summers
But before he died, I asked him

Wait, what's the sense in life
Come over me, Come over me

He said,

Son why you got to sing that tune
Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon
Let an angel swing and make you swoon
Then you will see... You will see

Then he said,
Here's a riddle for you
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I...

Picked up my kid from school today
Did you learn anything cause in the world today
You can't live in a castle far away
Now talk to me, come talk to me

He said,

Dad I'm big but we're smaller than small
In the scheme of things, well we're nothing at all
Still every mother's child sings a lonely song
So play with me, come play with me

And Hey Dad
Here's a riddle for you
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I...

I said,
Son for all I've told you
When you get right down to the
Reason for the world...
Who am I?

There are secrets that we still have left to find
There have been mysteries from the beginning of time
There are answers we're not wise enough to see

He said...
You looking for a clue
I Love You free...

The batter swings and the summer flies
As I look into my angel's eyes
A song plays on while the moon is hiding over me
Something comes over me

I guess we're big and I guess we're small
If you think about it man you know we got it all
Cause we're all we got on this bouncing ball
And I love you free
I love you freely

Here's a riddle for you
Find the Answer
There's a reason for the world
You and I...




Take care and be well.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Bu Bu and Bear’s Favorite Things

Bu Bu and Bear’s Favorite Things
(sung in the tune of My Favorite Things from Sound of Music)


Songs in the cubicle by Yogi and Bu Bu
Karipap from Post Man and Sweet Jambu Batu
Looking at sunsets and moon and star gazing
These are a few of my favorite things

Achmed the terrorist plus Walter and Russel
Angie and Yani plus Poh Yee and SB (can replace with any names to make it rhyme, especially among our many friends i.e. Ah Mei and Yazmi and Ah Boon and SB)
Coffee and muffins and Johnny and Jack
These are a few of my favorite things

Tango and Salsa and dancing and prancing
Wishing and hoping, joking and laughing
(Bear) Dreaming of Sarah and watching her paintings
(Bu Bu) Drive my white Myvi, so clean after washing
These are a few of my favorite things

When the boss shouts
When migraine stinks
When I am feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad.




Take care and be well.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

I wish therefore I am

My wish is to be an established writer who is financially independent, have sufficient amount of money to be able to live a life of luxury and make this world a better place for everyone and to be grateful for what I have.

My wish is to have a fantastic relationship with my wife, my father, my family members and my friends where there is unconditional love, we live in harmony with each other and are always happy with each others presence in our lives.


Take care and be well.

Blogging Conundrum

I am having a little blogging conundrum. I would like to write in a blog and put up my poems as well as writing in a blog, however, I am uncertain of the copyright laws. After all, anything that is on the world wide web can be copied and used by others as their own words and that is where my conundrum lies.

I after all want to become a established writer and have many poems written and in the midst of writing some short stories.

Oh well, for now, I'll keep on blogging privately and hopefully only a few responsible people will read my blog and not make it their own.


Take care and be well.