Believe, Balance, Beauty and BM

Let's start with BM. BM for Bukit Mertajam, a place where I started my schooling in kindergarten and BM for Bahasa Malaysia, a language of my country.

A long time ago, when I was 11 months old, my family moved from Penang island, 6, Che Em Lane, off of Penang Street to 6, Gandhi Terrace, Ghatkopar, Mumbai.

After a few years there, when I was 3, my family moved back to Penang, but in the mainland in a small town called Bukit Mertajam and lived in a corner terrace house numbered 6 in Taman Jaya. I went to a Chinese kindergarten and learned English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin. My best friend in kindergarten was named John. My teacher whose name I cannot remember was also a left-hander like me.

I remained in Bukit Mertajam until I was 6 and then my family moved to 49, Kelawei Road, Pulau Tikus back on Penang Island. I remained on the island until I was 17 and did miserably in my SPM.

After a few years in KL, I went to USA and stayed there until the completion of my degree. When I moved back to Malaysia in 1991, my family was back living in Bukit Mertajam and that is where my parents lived until as recently as 5 years ago. Bukit Mertajam has grown in years but still a little town that I spent a considerable amount of time in.

My Bahasa Malaysia is horrendous. I scored a P8 in SPM, which is just barely a pass and just a few marks above failure. However, in my first jobs in my career, as a journalist as well as a manufacturing supervisor, I had to use BM quite a lot.

Now can you imagine someone who speaks street Malay dealing with politicians as well as manufacturing operators?

Yes, I have interviewed Mahathir, Anwar, Badawi, Najib, Samy Vellu, Ling Liong Sik and the rest who were in power then. I witnessed the frog hopping election in Sabah in 1992 that was won by opposition PBS and then bought over by the ruling coalition.

One day I was trying to motivate my manufacturing operators and they started laughing at me because the word I translated for "This is such a big embarrassment." ended up being "This is such a big ass" because I used "kemaluan" which in my P8 BM translated to an embarrassment.

Of course we all had a good laugh about it and that is what life is about. Laughing at our own mistakes and not making them again.

Beauty is a person I once saw a long time ago. This person did not like me in the beginning like I mentioned in my blog previously but 1 wonderful date changed it all.

Balance is always having a balance in life, you need to balance between your work and the money you earn with your time and what you do with it.

We have 24 hours in a day that we will never get back. On average, nowadays, most people spend 10-12 hours working and being in between work in a car, train etc. 8 hours we sleep on average. That just leaves 4-6 hours to do something with your life.

And what do most of us do with these 6 hours? We watch the idiot box, we eat, we blog, we read but rarely we really spend quality time with loved ones and nowadays people rarely talk. I have not spoken to some people in years and months.

So, my goal is to thrive for more balance. Work the 8 hours and every now and then put in the 10 or 12 hours. And spend more time with loved ones, meditate and seek guidance from the Universe or God or Guardian Angel.

Believe in yourself, believe that there a good things planned for you and for sure you will get balance in your life.

And what more can I ask but to have believe, have some balance and beauty beside me? Well, I guess I could improve my BM if I want to be and be less of a "kemaluan".

Take care and be well.