I stepped into the new year watching a recording of Saddam's hanging. That pretty much summed up my last year - being frustrated and depressed about the state of affairs everywhere. Frustrated that there's little  nothing I could do about it, ..depressed that very few cared about anything anymore. The sucky year sorta spilled over to the new one along with the work stress and relationship hiccups and everything felt crappy all over again.

So, I'm giving myself a fresh start today onwards, some sort of a reboot. I'll do my part and hope everything works out for the best. 

Meera, thanks for joining in my mini New Year celebrations. Hugsssss!! Fireworks next year! 

Happy New Year to ALL!

Vultures, that's what they are, fucking heartless scavengers that prey the dying and gorge on the grief of the mourning.

Cancer stricken widow M.Lourdes Mary, 65, says: "I have to perform the last rites, as his lawful wife and not let some strangers snatch away his body." While she is losing sleep and mourning the death of her husband, Rayappan Anthony, 71, the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (JAIS) is obtaining a Syariah Court order to claim the body at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) mortuary. - http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=16274

This is troubling - http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/22/focus/16080454&sec=focus

Anyone hear about these Sekolah Rancangan Khas? I can't seem to find much material on this, but based on the opinion posted, selected Sekolah Kebangsaans are being converted into Sekolah Rancangan Khas.

Ratio for Intake: 90% Bumiputera, 10% THE OTHERS

If this is for real, each class in a Sekolah Rancangan Khas will get a specimen of THE OTHERS.

No wonder the Chinese are converting their Ringgit currencies and looking for Profitable Plots elsewhere. How long before we become LOST in our own land?

Edit #1:
Conversation in malaysians here - http://community.livejournal.com/malaysians/553581.html

Edit #2:
Opposition leader Kit Siang raised it up in parliament today, based on a post he made in his blog an hour ago. Some details from that post:

• Letter dated 31st October 2006 to all primary schools in Negri Sembilan by the Negri Sembilan State Education Director, Haji A. Hamid bin Abu Hassan under the heading “Penempatan Pelajar Tahun 6 Ke Sekolah Rancangan Khas (SRK) Negeri (SMK King George V, Seremban, SMK Tuanku Muhammad, Kuala Pilah dan SMK Tunku Besar, Tampin) Bagi Tahun 2007” specifying the conditions for student intake into the three SRKs, including 5As in the 2006 UPSR, except for students from the Chinese and Tamil primary schools who are required to have 7As; and

• Minutes of the Parent-Teachers Association of SMK Tunku Besar Tampin on 9th November 2006 which states: “Kelas Rancangan Khas Tahun 2007 – Mulai tahun 2007, semua kelas tingkatan 1 akan dijadikan kelas rancangan khas dimana pengambilan murid adalah terdiri daripada 90% bumiputra dan 10% bukan bumiputra”.

15th November 06, I drove Darshu to Basil Leaf, a Thai Indochinese restaurant just off Jalan Ampang. Had recently learnt about the place through a post by Smita and it felt fitting for our anniversary dinner. Now, whenever I hear Basil, what comes to mind is a guy with an eye patch, ..there was this guy in the Brenda Starr comic strip that the Star runs who had an eye patch, and his name was Basil (or Basel). Or he had something to do with a Basil plant. I can't remember which now.

Basil Leaf, hidden from the traffic clogged main roads and the KL crowd, is one of the many cuisine places converted out of one those bungalow with enough land around that you wished you owned instead. They did a really good job with this place, the red lanterns, carpet grass and white pebbles. The entrance has this wooden pathway with streams on both sides filled with lotus plants and carps/koi swimming underneath. The Thai-Indochina theme really sync-ed well with everything, the sound of water gushing, it feels like you're dining on water. The service and food was great, the waitress who tended to us treated us like home guests!

To top it all, Darshu saw a (believe it or not) falling star while we were waiting for our food! I had my back turned to it and well of course, dare not doubt it (hehehe). Ah, a year into this relationship and I'm already wisening up ~ strokes my imaginary white beard. Some pictures from the evening :)

From Yasmin Ahmad's review of THE GIFT by Hafiz e-Shirazi. 

I have learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me
Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.

And another:

Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe
Me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole
Sky

My baby girl just asked if I could come over to her house tonight and kidnap her. I can't believe that I actually entertained the idea for awhile. She said she'd turn off the security system in her house so that I can walk right in. And I don't have to, like, actually kidnap her..she'd just disappear into the night with me (despite me wanting to bundle her up in a sack with a straw for good measure just in case she runs short of breath). Destination: Kota Tinggi jungle, home to Big Foot :D

She's supposed to leave this Sunday, flight to Bangalore sometime around midnight. Still hoping something works out and she doesn't have to go back,..I don't wanna be anti-climaxed! :P

It's been awhile since I posted here, finding it even harder to start posting again.

June 7. I picked her up from the airport exactly a month ago. In love, thrilled to have her around. After many months of waiting and planning, she was finally here. My munchkins. I love you. There was the hope that you'd never have to go back to Mangalore. Hope that we learnt today would never come to be. We'll pull through sayang. And I'll be waiting to see you again. To kiss your nose. And see you blush. To feel you reach up for a kiss. I love you. 

Somewhere in between shopping for office wear and catching Yasmin Ahmad's Gubra with Meera, I stopped by MPH to check if I would finally pick up the next installment of the Ramayana series - Bridge of Rama. Desire got in the way, I read one page of it and then I was walking towards the counter, pulling out my wallet as I read more and more of it. the ALCHEMY of DESIRE by Tarun J Tejpal is the latest purchase, the writing sharp and witty. And quite a few endorsements on the jacket claims it to be lyrical and erotic. My kind of book.

The first line on the first page went:
"Love is not the glue between two people, sex is"

And this clinched the purchase:
"The ravings of the puritans and the moralists are the anguished cries of those whose bodies have failed to find the road to bliss. When I see clergy - Hindu, Muslim, Christian - rail against the instincts of the body, I see men who are lost and angry and frustrated. Unable to locate the glories of the body, unable to locate the path to surpassing joy, they are resolved to confuse all other journeymen. Those who fail to find their sexual synapse set our mind and body at war against each other."

Erotic. Probably the first book purchase which I kept away from Amma, not wanting to know what she would think. That's one bridge I have not crossed yet, apart from Bridge of Rama, poor Sita still stuck in Lanka, awaiting rescue. If there's one thing about working at the old place that I sorely miss, its the one hour of reading time in the LRT. 

Gubra was a good watch, I can't decide which was better. We enjoyed it thoroughly, the best part of the movie for me being its quiet moments and all the Singapore banging how Yasmin confronts and dares our socio-religious issues. But mostly, its a Malaysia I have yet to discover, perhaps its all up there in Ipoh.

Today being a holiday (Prophet's Birthday) made it feel more like a Saturday than a Tuesday. Having to go back to work tomorrow makes the Wednesday feel like a Monday all over again. I just had Monday yesterday! :P Plenty of sleep and had dreams of swimming at some lagoon all night yesterday. And I watched 'A Walk To Remember' at last. It got me thinking of her more and more. Must have been that Christian connection and everything that I had always imagined about her. I need to forgive and move on, forgiving not being a matter of saying she was wrong, but to simply put the differences aside and not carry anymore resentment. For real. Yeah, I'd like that.

No other complains really, work's been a bitch but life's good overall. Managing a team is tough, but its no rocket science. Just people I keep reminding myself. Life's good, in knowing that as bitchy as it gets, there's always something not too far away to look forward to.

Why do we hurt the most, the ones we love the most?
Lovely. How much things have changed
from the first episode. And now
you and me end up hurting
the ones we love the most
 - each other.

From a friendster bulletin post:

Skinny little white guy goes into an elevator, looks up and sees this HUGE black guy standing next to him. The big guy sees the little guy
staring at him, looks down and says: "7 feet tall, 350 pounds, 20-inch private, 3-pound left testicle, 3-pound right testicle, Turner Brown."

The white man faints and falls to the floor. The big guy kneels down and brings him to, shaking him. The big guy says, "What's wrong with
you?" In a weak voice, the little guy says, "What
EXACTLY did you say to me?"

The big dude says, "I saw your curious look and figured I'd just give you the answers to the questions everyone always asks me. I'm 7 feet
tall, I weigh 350 pounds, I have a 20-inch private, my left testicle weighs 3 pounds, my right testicle weighs 3 pounds, and my name is
Turner Brown."

The small guy says, "Turner Brown?! !... Sweet Jesus, I thought you said, 
'Turn Around'."