The Path of Time

Years back I remembered having a conversation over a cup of teh tarik with some stranger. Although I can't really remember why I was having a conversation with a complete stranger but I think he and I were sharing a table in a jam packed restaurant. Ironically, I remember the conversation albeit not every bit of the conversation but at least the prime parts of the conversation. I was still in school then and it was lunch time before I headed home after school. We both finished our food, subsequently I had a teh tarik while he sipped his tea and had a smoke. He randomly asked me which school I was studying and knowing I was about complete SPM, he asked me what were my plans post SPM. Honestly, at that point in time I wasn't too certain about what I wanted to do after I graduated from primary school. I completed my diploma in cello performance in the same year, at the same time I had a lot of interest in IT and automotive mechanics but many people advised me to go into accounting

My intention was to be open about things and just be honest with myself and with her. But sometimes, even openness has its limitations as I found it out the hard way round. That's when I realised, at some point a thin thread could be the only determining factor between being open and over doing things. At the same time, I need to know when being sensitive isn't being sensitive enough to understand one close to you could be feeling a pinch inside. It's a delicate process I have to admit. It's not something I can learn over night or understand in a flash. After all, I used to ask myself how tough can it be? Now, I am beginning to understand it isn't as simple as just "understanding" someone. Last night I made the mistake of not taking notice something might have been out of place and I blindly made thing worse by accidentally adding salt to the wound when I said things I shouldn't have said. Although, I really had no intention to hurt anyone in the proce

Yesterday I spent 11 hours at the workshop working on my car's heart. A damage to the engine caused by my own recklessness. Simply put it, I blew an engine gasket and the engine started getting filled with water. Its a 22 two year old Daihatsu Charade and for the past 7 to 8 years, I have been running the car pretty hard and simply enjoy driving that car. The day before I blew the gasket, I was speeding at about 160km/h on the highway and I guess after so many years the 998cc heart just couldn't take the punishing anymore no matter how well I took care of it. On the way back, the temperature rose tremendously, I felt a lost in compression and with the engine vibrating in a very unusual rhythm, I knew in my heart I blew it! My car still got him back home albeit it virtually limped home. By the time I got home, I immediately turned off the engine, opened the bonnet and started troubleshooting. It didn't take me long to find out water got into the engine, seeing that I could s

When it comes to friendship and the people close to us, our initial reaction when you see them in trouble is to lend a hand to help. I don't think any of us would give it a second thought if we are capable and have the means to help. Unless you haven't a heart or have a heart of ice, you'd probably say no without even thinking. Helping someone in need may be a good thing but there are times when standing back and observing may be the best assistance one can lend. It's not about sitting back and letting things go wrong but there are times when we need to let other's figure things out themselves. Somewhat like letting nature takes it course. Because humans are different between one another, there will it be unavoidable to face moments when you can't understand one another or even times when misunderstanding can happen. As much as possible, you and I will try our best to avoid such situations but it will simply happen as long as humans continue have differences. I

This evening was a pretty heated evening for my department head. I don't know exactly what happened because I had my earphones on listening to music while cracking my brains trying to figure out how to prepare the slides I was working on. Whatever the reason for him being angry, it must have been something pretty serious considering it was loud enough for me to hear his voice over my earphones although I couldn't hear the words. As I saw my senior walking out from his room, I asked him if he was alright since he did look a bit shaken from the shelling. No point in me asking him what happened since it would probably make him feel worse. There are times when not getting in details does more good than harm - this was one of the moments. I told him to let me know if he needed any help and went back to my work. About 20 minutes later my department head walks out of his room and walks up to my senior and says the most amazing thing I will probably ever hear in my lifetime, "Sorr

It was like every other Saturday morning for me yesterday. Woke up early to get breakfast, get ready for my weekly rock climbing sessions. I felt pretty good yesterday since I managed to sleep the night before so I was feeling very energized and upbeat about my climb session. I might have spoke too soon though because my car decided to pull a fast one on me. I found it surprising because I always went on preventive maintenance for my car so I really wasn't expecting any breakdowns especially I didn't hear any sound symptoms, neither did I saw any signs of an impending breakdown. After all, it is only logical that mechanical parts would give out some form of symptoms to let you know it's about to go. I was actually driving myself to rock climbing, feeling all geared up and gung-ho about it. As I approached an uphill climb and right bend, I realised I was losing compression and the car was starting not respond to my pedal work on the accelerator. To make matters worse because

I am currently taking a few weeks off to regain my thoughts....... simply too busy with work.....................................

I was definitely taken aback. It was a reaction I never saw for such a long time, the entire time I have played squash. Sachin was the fattest amongst all of us in the training team but he still wanted to play squash very badly. I can't blame considering both his elder brothers are very good squash players playing for the state. I was only natural a kid like him at the age of 11 would look up to two elder brothers who were up there in the high rankings. He wanted to be like them, be strong, be fast in the court, to hit hard, to hit accurately, and most importantly to be a winner in the arena of squash! Just like his brothers! If I recalled rightly, it was about 5 weeks before the PJ Open squash tournament in the last year I was planning to play competitively, we had a grueling training session to prep our minds and bodies for the tough tournament ahead. It was one of the biggest local tournaments with players from other countries joining in. We had been training for 6 days in a wee

If it was a dream, he sure would like to have wake up from it. There was an excruciating pain in his left leg. As Mac walked out from the convenient shop after getting a loaf of bread, a car had smashed right into him and clipped him against a lorry parked in front of the convenient shop. The car had clipped his left leg. He couldn't feel anything else except the pain in his left leg, it was the longest 15 minutes of his life as he waited for an ambulance and the fire brigade to untangle the wreckage to free his left leg. By the time he was freed from the wreckage, it was at least another hour's worth of pain. Mac had lost a lot of blood and he had to undergo a 4 hour surgery and a lot of blood transfusion to keep him alive. Having lost both parents to a car accident, there was no one else around him except for his girlfriend, Alice. When he finally regained consciousness, he found Alice beside him and he noticed there wasn't any feeling in his left leg knee down. That'

Having been brought up in the city and living in the city since I was born, the sight of nature has always been fascinating and interesting to me. Nature for a guy like me so used to the city would probably as close as the sight between heaven and earth. Over the holiday weekend, I found it a perfect time to do some hiking in the outskirts of the city, where land is still very untouched and safe from any development. New to hiking, I followed a seasoned hiker friend to check out some of what nature has to offer for a city-slicker like myself. It was a hike up Gunung Tuk Wan. It was about a 3-hour hike up and down. In fact it continues after you reach the peak Broga Hill. The pictures above were taken at the peak of Broga Hill. A couple of quick shots, admiring the beauty of the scenery before we continued to head on to the peak of Gunung Tuk Wan. It was tiring but very interesting - breathing in fresh air, seeing lushes amount of greens around me, the sound of insects creaking, birds w

It was a hot Sunday afternoon, at least for the better first two hours when I was rock climbing. I reckon it was probably hitting close to 33 degrees. It was seriously hot! And there I was harness strapped around my thighs and waist with my two bare hands holding on to the rope. I was belaying a first-time rock climber. Belaying is a pretty interesting task during a rock climbing session especially when the life of the climber literally rests in your hands. This first-timer was different this time around. She didn't make it the first try, she tried the second time, third time and by the fifth time she decided to come down to take a break before going at it one more time. So as she was panting, whilst trying to recover her strength before going at the climb route again, I gave a few pointers as to how to place her feet and hands to get a proper foothold to push herself up. What I saw, was something quite different from other people I notice. She kept insisting on trying the route up

The cello is a wonderful music instrument. To me, at least. I still remember the moment I held the first cello, which eventually became my very first cello. The smell of the wood, the surface of the finger board and the feel of the cello strings. Then there's the bow - a simple piece of wood with horse hair. From that moment on, I knew in my heart it was going to be a start of a very long relationship between man and machine. I am blogging via mobile while on my way for a gigue in Alor Setar. As I am on the road, it becomes a good time to just watch the road go by and have some flashback moments. I still remember clearly trying to play my first few notes. It was definitely tougher than it looked despite the fact that I already have music knowledge from learning the piano. But whe i finally got the basic notes right, the sound of the cello was simply amazing. It was bold yet gentle. It was strong yet refine. Simply amazing! Till this day, many people ask me, "Why the cell

There was an old chap I met at the physiotherapy centre where dad visited quite a fair bit after having undergone a total heap replacement. This old chap was on a wheelchair and doing some physiotherapy workouts. I observed him for a while doing some light weights while on the wheelchair and I saw the look in his eyes. It was not that of rage, anger or despair but that of resolve. A tremendous amount of resolve to strengthen himself despite being bounded to the wheelchair for the rest of his life. As I was leaving, I had to settle the bill and this old chap rolled out with his wheelchair, panting from all the workout he was doing. I guess he had to settle his bill as well. He smiled at me and I smiled back. "Tough workout eh?" "Phew... tell me about it. Being on a wheelchair is a whole new experience for me." "What got you on the wheelchair?" "Motorcycle accident. Was riding my bike home one evening, next thing I new someone rammed me from the back.

It was a simple act of not accepting the cash. A simple answer of, "No, I am not going to accept your cash, keep it." It was when Jo bought a mini generator set for his uncle who suffered from muscular dystrophy. A damaging disease that literally robs you of your muscular abilities. His uncle had to survive on a life support machine to keep him breathing. Every time his housing area had a black out, his wife had to literally rush him to the hospital nearest to his home and there was very little margin for error in timing. That's when Jo decided to get his uncle one of those mini generator sets to power the life support systems if in case of a black out. The ones you see night market stalls using. Jo contacted me because my dad could get slightly cheaper prices for one of those generators. On the day we went to get the generator and took it to Jo's uncle's house to set it up and sort of just let the family members know how to run the little thing. That's when I

It all started when he picked up a nicely shaped stone when he was at the park with his mother when he was 5 years old. He decided he wanted to keep the stone and asked his mother where should he keep it. His mother gave him a little box. It was a colourful box that was used to store a mug. Jimmy boy place his stone in that little box. That little box was like Jimmy's little treasure chest. That little stone was the impetus to Jimmy's habit of collecting items around him that were unique or simply special to him. Although, most people simply thought he was collecting rubbish. Within a span of one month, Jimmy had filled up the little box his mother gave him. In there you could find all sorts of stuff. From stones, marbles, cards, leaves, even patterned tissue! It was Jimmy's little vault of unique items. As the days, months and years passed by, that little box became so full Jimmy had to find a new box if he wanted to continue collecting random items he found interesting. C

It was a Friday night, I was tired and worked up after having pushed to the limit at work. Deadlines coming in like the Niagara falls, irritating clients that think their account is the one-and-only account in your portfolio, bosses chasing you for deliverables and some bosses who want things yesterday. You can imagine how cheesed off I would probably have been on that Friday night after one whole week of all that! Not to mention, knowing I had to come in the weekend to continue only made my Friday all the "brighter" for me. Anyway, I decided to go for a drink. Try to knock out my senses in the bid to forget all work related matters and put the stress as the last thing on the list in my head. That's when things go from bad to worse, to completely out of proportion. Typically I take 6 to 8 mugs of beer before I head home every Friday night. Simply to really enjoy my alone time and really enjoying the beer I am paying for with my hard earned cash (alright... some of you may

It was like every other day for Murugan. He gets up by 4.30 in the morning, has one slice of plain bread for breakfast along with a glass of warm water and he heads off to work. Works starts at 7.30 for him but he needs to leave home by 5.30 to catch the earliest bus to his workplace. It's a good 45 minutes bus ride for him because he rents a room at the outskirts of the city. Not that he wants a place so far but it's the best he can afford at a nice MYR30 a month with bathroom sharing. He reaches work about 6.45, gets to his locker, puts on his uniform and his signature Nike cap of which he bought with one year's saving. It was something he rewarded himself with after all the hard work he had put into his work. On top of that, he needed a cap to keep the sun from frying him whilst working. It was a pretty tiring job, having to wake up so early in the morning and work about 10 hours a day. It was never easy for him, hauling bags over his shoulder and piling them up into a s

Another person decided to leave the firm I work in. After 18 years with the firm, he finally threw in the towel. It was surprising to say the least because he didn't seem the type that would leave especially having spent a good half of his life in the firm. He was nice guy I first met about 3 years back when I first joined the firm. He was a funny guy and always cheerful every time I met him and there's was plenty of jokes when we had small talk in the lift, passing by in the loo or by the water cooler. His resignation did come as surprise even for the top brass. Corridor talk has it that he was never really a performer in the firm, wasn't someone you'd know for being very good at what he does. I guess after 18 years, some people need a change. At least that's what I thought. Not until I had a short conversation with him. I thought he had a better job offer somewhere out there. It was quite the opposite actually. "I heard you decided to leave. When's your

The alarm clock rang when the digital clock hit 6am in the morning. It was a cold, chilly, Saturday morning with a bit of rain when she looked out the window of her apartment. Gets out of bed, brushes her teeth, do a couple stretches and she heads down to the kitchen. Standing at the entrance of the house kitchen, Meg rolls up her sleeve, takes a deep breath and start rummaging the kitchen for all the ingredients she bought a couple of days ago to bake a cheese cake. Meg had been reading up on baking books for the past few weeks for this day. The day she would bake a cake for the guy she secretly had feelings for. Meg was anxious but all excited about it. She wanted to do something different for him this year compared to the typical birthday gifts. She wanted to make this year's birthday gift a memorable one for Ryan. It took Meg a good 5 hours to bake the cake. She really put her heart and soul into it. From her heart, her feelings for Ryan flowed into her soft, tender hands and f

It was a gloomy day, dark clouds forming in the skies, she didn't know how to react to the sms she just read. Reesa's mind went wild with thought trying to reason out why he would send such an sms to her. It has never happened before. She tried calling him, but there was no answer. She went to bed that night thinking it was a bad dream and it will all go away when she wakes up the next day. Morning came, the sms remained the same, there was still no answer when she tried calling him. She didn't know what else to do. The sms read, "Don't call me, don't text me, I don't wish to see you anymore." Everytime she thought about that sms, her eyes would start tearing. A week passed, two weeks passed, on the third week Reesa's mobile phone rang with an unknown number showing on the caller ID. She answered the call only to be surprised to hear his voice. "Ted, Ted, please tell me it's you!" "Yes, it's me," he spoke coldly. "P

I am sitting down in a tight corner in Starbucks, typing this blog post and as I turn to look at my watch, I see the needle in my watch tick the seconds passing by. It dawned to me that things change over time. Nothing really stays the same as time goes by. I look at my laptop, I notice the faded keyboards, I look at my reflection in the laptop screen I see four days worth of moustache and a goatie, some of my schoolmates now married, I see friend's kids now all big and tall only when a few years ago I saw them as toddlers. It's somewhat amazing to see the effects of the passage of time; reminding me of a phrase I hear quite often from someone close to me, "the only thing constant in our lifetime is change". I used to beg to differ with her view but I have come to accept what she said as being true. Change is constantly happening in our lives. Nothing really stays the same once it is stretched. Despite the change constantly taking place in our lives and the lives of t

Little by little she began to open to those around her. It wasn't an easy process to get her to speak up more and be more open in conversations. Min was born with autism. Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behaviour. Growing up with Min wasn't an easy process for her parents. Trying to get Min out of her repetitive behaviour was a painful process. By the time Min was three years of age, she still couldn't speak and she couldn't let go of her bolster wherever she went. There was one thing in particular Min was really good at - puzzles. She instinctively knew what piece went where and in what position. She had this innate ability to simply put the puzzle together. Autistic or not, her parents knew for a fact that Min had a talent - a talent for solving puzzles. It may not be a massive achievement for most parents but to Min's parents, it was something to be proud o

Deep down inside each and every one of us lies an innate power to do things for another person. Some things that can be beyond explanation, sometimes even silly and sometimes just really impossible to imagine. What I am referring to really is the ability of us human beings to care for someone else. Actually if you think about it, all living beings on this planet show the innate ability to care for one another. It's amazing how one person can show so much care to another person without requiring a reason. I definitely admire those who are able to care for another person selflessly. I may not know my ability to care for another person but I know I'd give it a good shot in caring for someone I love - parents, siblings, girlfriend. Personally, I think the will to care for another person will come naturally like the rainbow after a rainy day. I think inside us resides a little vault of emotions that entwines itself to form a chemistry of emotions that manifests itself as a plethora

It was a normal day for Dee. Got off work about 7pm, leaving the office to walk to the nearest bus stop that's about 15 minutes away from her workplace. Like every other day, it's a lonely walk to the bus stop, a lonely bus ride back to the bus stop near her apartment, a lonely 10 minute walk back to her apartment, opening the door to her lonely apartment. Lonely would be a spot-on word to describe Dee. It's not that she wanted to have a lonely hermit-like life but Dee was a shy person, not very good at socializing and simply found it easier to keep to herself. Finding social acceptance was an issue for Dee. It didn't really bother her as she has grown used to the quiet lifestyle of her's. It wasn't a life she dreaded and she read a lot of books to past the time. There was one Monday, it was almost like every other working day for Dee but not until it started to rain. The bus stop was 15 minutes away and walking to the bus stop without and umbrella would have be

Ever wondered if love came with a price tag? Little Mikey did. Little Mikey was a curious little boy. His inquisitiveness has led him to many experiences, although some not so admirable like the time he once ate an earth worm simply Nat Geo said it was edible. Little Mikey was a little different from other 5 year olds. Little Mikey was born an orphan, having been left in front of church one Saturday night without any form of identification. He was less fortunate in that he never really got a chance to feel what it was to have parents or even have siblings around him. So everyday when he walks himself to kindergarten one block away from the orphanage he lives in, he constantly wonders what it's like to have a mother and father. He quietly observes all his peers going to kindergarten with either their mom or dad beside them. Mikey really wanted to know if it ever felt different having a mom and dad, and he really wanted to know if there was anyway to experience it. One evening while

Jo has a really funny habit. At any part of the day, there will be a time when you will definitely catch him taking a look at his palm. Rumour has it that he's been doing it for ages - years apparently. I can't confirm how long has he been having this habit because I have never asked him. It really is a peculiar habit because there are times when you see him taking a glimpse of his palm and you would almost certainly catch a smile drawn on his face. Those who didn't know him well would probably be thinking he has one screw loose too many in his head. But it was a little secret Jo carries. Jo always had something written on his palm - sentences, quotes, words of encouragement, little captions. It was his energizing mantra, apparently. At least that's what he told me. I found his practice very peculiar, to say the very least. There were two things I asked him about his palm practice: 1. Why the palm? 2. Does it really help? His answer to my first question:- "I wanted

When I was in school years ago, each classroom had something called a Red Book. That Red Book was a very special book. It was a dreaded piece of binded paper because of one thing and one thing only - it was a book used by my teachers to record down names of those caught misbehaving in class and at the end of each week that book goes to the disciplinary teacher. Those names recorded in there will then get their weekly share of punishment, either canning or community service (i.e. community service in an all-boy school basically means cleaning the school toilet!). Ya know, this leads me to one conclusion - people are remembered more for the bad they have done rather than good. The Red Book is a very good example of how we are so engrossed in pinning down those who falter. I am not saying the Red Book method of disciplining was wrong, in fact I find it rather effective in reminding us to behave ourselves. I decided to create a little book in my mind. Let's call it the White Book for s