Senses and Reflections

Once in a while, you listen to some songs and find that it magically transport you to another realm in which experiences, memories and everything will rush in as a flood of compressed information.

That is exactly what happened to me all the time when I listen to songs. There’re no songs in particular but each song is special in its own sense.

To me, emotions evoked when we listen to songs are just an extension of one of our human senses. I am thankful that I am endowed with healthy senses; all five of them (the sixth sense is still unproven so I will leave it as it is :-P).

Certain smell, taste, sound, touch or sight will evoke a totally different experience.
Thus, we should always try to take our time to inhale deeply, taste slowly, hear carefully, touch tenderly and look closely in most if not all of the things we do.

It is simpler to write and rant than done. I have that kind of dilemma all the time as well :-P. Though, living a fuller life would be up to the individual’s terms and pre-conditions.

Life is too short to live on the fast lane for way too long. Even rats need to rest for awhile during the supposedly hectic “rat-race”.

To all, whoever and wherever you’re from:

Bonne année! Bonne chance pour tout!
Bienvenue dans une nouvelle année 2010!

p/s: Nice, meaningful songs are meant to be repeated and savoured word by word :-)

Zipporah by Marek Halter

I finished reading this book on the dot during the midnight of Christmas Eve right before Christmas Day (2359hrs on 24 Dec 2009). Now on the final hours of Boxing Day (2359hrs on 26 Dec 2009), I decided to pen my thoughts on this book entitled Zipporah by Marek Halter. Truth to be told, I bought this book YEARS AGO… and if I recall correctly, I bought it about 4years ago and I managed to finish it because I am in the mood to finish my books before end of the year :-)

Most of the people would easily associate Moses as the one who lead the Israelites over the Red Sea and away from the whips and tortures of the Egyptian Pharaoh. But, the billion dollar questions are (in literal terms only); how did he do it and who are the people who supported him along the way?

It is in this sense that this book is written. It is written about the person(s) who supported Moses when he is still a runaway; when he has nothing to offer and when he was a lost soul himself.

Zipporah, a Cushite; herself is an adopted daughter of the wise sage of Midian on the slopes of Mount Horeb called Jethro. Wise beyond her years, she trusted and believed earnestly in the meaning of her dreams so much so that when she saw Moses, she knew instinctively that he’s the person who appeared in her dreams.

Along the way, she became the wife of Moses and gave birth to two sons named Gershom and Eliezer (who unfortunately died a horrible death during the stampede of the Israelites). Zipporah herself was treated as an outcast by most of the escaped Israelites despite being Moses’ wife.

Despite all those mistreatment on her, she remains steadfast in her conviction towards Moses’ greater purpose in life. Moses received the well known Ten Commandments whilst Zipporah was murdered by her estranged sister on her way back to Midian.

This is indeed a good book written on people “behind the scenes” on Moses’ ascend towards spiritual awakening and I am surprised it took me so long to finish this book itself.

Personal rating: 7 out of 10

Cons:
1) Great story telling on the background of Moses' life

2) Recommended book for Christmas Day :-)

Pros:
1) None

Countdown to 2010 :-)

It is nearing the end of Dec yet again and as usual, the gaiety of the moment brought along with it a sense of closure of the year we’ve had for this splendid year of 2009. I’m sure many have made and broke their New Year resolution but that is not the reason not to rejoice.

After all, New Year resolutions are not something carved in stone; even if it is; then too bad, we can’t achieve it, so no point pondering and waste the valuable brain juices to conduct post-mortem over what went wrong and etc. We’re “designed” to walk forward and we can’t even turn our head all the way back, which means that somehow or rather, our focus should always be aimed forward.

As of now, I’m listening to some Christmas songs over lunch and it never fails to give me goose bumps so much so that I had slight tear my eyes :-) not a bad thing though cos it is not an everyday event that simple songs can really touched our heart or I daresay, our soul.

I’m not sure about the rest of the population but every time I heard Christmas songs, I tend to imagine myself sitting on a comfortable couch by the window with my loved ones, firewood crackling at the background providing warmth throughout the house; me holding a mug of hot coffee (I prefer coffee more than chocolate :-P) while watching snowflakes falling from the sky. But then, this is Malaysia and we only have dry and rainy seasons. :-P It is not bad to stretch our imagination on things like this once in a while though.

So, the clock is ticking and the end of the year is around the corner. There’s no need to rush things off and work like mad to clear whatever tasks you have in your inbox.
In any case, set simpler resolution for next year (2010) and if we hit it, then its good.. if not, just move on :-)
Life will be less complicated in that way :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all..
Hope you’ll have a pleasant and splendid HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

p/s: I’ve “targeted” so many books I wanna buy for year 2010 :-) can’t wait…

The Star newspaper – Opinion Section - Restore the old buildings

ORIGINAL VERSION

Malaysia is a nice place to be in because she is bestowed with many grand buildings; both old and new ones.

However, when we browse through most of the Malaysian travel brochures, the focus will only be on modern, state of the art buildings and some cultural events.

This brings into mind the state of grand buildings scattered around inner sanctum of Penang Island.

We can see nice architectures built on an entirely different era and thus, it exudes an aura not present on most of the modern structures.

However, most of these old buildings are now under-utilised and left in state of disrepair.
Our government should take cue from countries, which promotes both the old and the new architectures alike.

For example, at Yokohama Prefecture, Japan, they have the Akarenga Sōko and at Otaru, Hokkaidō, Japan, they have the Nishin Goten along the canal waterway.

These buildings are restored, refurbished and converted to serve a totally different purpose than it was originally built for.

As such, there should be more concerted effort to spice up the buildings along the Penang jetty terminal instead of leaving them as it is.

CIPLAK,Georgetown.

Sent on: 11 Dec 2009