What is Religion to Me

Note: This article is a personal thought. Please do not leave comments belittling other faiths as this article is meant to instill respect for all religions as well as atheists. I am not a scholar but just an observer. What I have written below is based on my personal experience. If this article has offended anyone, please accept my humble apologies and I would like to be stood corrected by the actual experts.

From a young age, I had already accepted the fact that god is one and it did/does not matter what faith one practices because what mattered to me is that they do believe in a supreme being. I guess the reason for that was my upbringing.

Having said that, it mattered to me that one has to have a belief in the supreme being or god to put it bluntly, it does not mean I do not have respect for atheist. I mean, that is just a choice and must be respected nevertheless. I guess the only qualm I have is that the fact in the back of my head I feel atheists are arrogant. I am trying to get rid of that thought because it is indeed prejudice (I am just being honest). I love science and most of the scientists that I have read about were atheists so I am sort of in a sticky situation here.

The reason I am able to accept science and believe in god at the same time is because my father always used to explain the science in Hinduism. I do not deny that there is science in other religions from the little that I have read but I cannot comment because I do not know more. This paragraph is just to explain why I can accept god and science and for me religion and science complement each other. The recent discovery of the Higgs Boson has sparked some debate especially to those who do not understand what the particle is about because for those who do not believe in god tend to say, "hah, they have discovered the god particle..." which is far from true because the god particle was initially called the goddamn particle because it was very elusive. They decided to drop the damn and call it the god particle instead.

I accept Hinduism as a way of life as how it is described. It is indeed true as it does not have a creator. It was in a way just a culture to put it short. People lived that way and to outsiders, it may have looked like a religion because they did have a set of protocols to follow. These protocols are what we call rituals. Rituals are merely practices that became a norm; no one questioned it nor tried to find out what they were, for which is why if you ask a Hindu why do we do something in such a way, the common reply is well my parents, grandparents and ancestors did it this way. Today, there are a lot of articles explaining why such rituals are needed and especially explaining the science behind it. Even temples built in a certain way with proper materials serve more as a hospital than a place of worship. I am not making this up but merely quoting the stuff I have read. Why wasn't this knowledge shared by those who introduced it? Well just think 5000 years or more ago, people did not know jack about science. Imagine if you tried to explain science to them, they would think you're a lunatic. Take for example when I was a child, I grew up with cartoons like Popeye and whenever it came to vegetables, my mother used to tell me that if you eat your greens, you will be as strong as Popeye referring to how Popeye eats his spinach and grows muscles. So at that age, I took it at face value; if I eat vegetables, I will have muscles which is far from the truth. So over the years, these practices that mention you have to perform such rituals for god to be happy actually had a more profound meaning. God was used as an excuse to get people to do things that were beneficial for themselves.

God by himself/herself/itself (sorry, I have not met god and I do not know the gender) did not give any instructions. Man used that excuse so that people would do good, do justice and prevent them from committing harm. To me, that is what religion is about. It was a set of moral values, a guideline on how to live. I believe in god for the reason that our existence is not an accident as how some scientists would put it but something that is much deeper than that. I may not be able to find that answer through religion. I would however be able to find that answer through spirituality which is looking into one's self. Anyone from any religion can be spiritual who utilise religious teachings such as meditation, yoga or prayers to obtain the goal of discovering the point of being. Spirituality as well can occur without religion if one is focused enough. Religion is just a set of guidelines. You can do something this way or you can try another method but in the end, it achieves the same goal. Therefore, that is the reason why I respect every other religion. It does not matter to me which religion is superior because I do not put one religion over the other. If the religion serves its purpose of explaining life to someone, then religion has served its purpose.

I would like to write more but it would make this article more complicated as I would have to go into a lot of details. I can write more about Hinduism but maybe I will save it for another day. On the same note, I am only able to speak about Hinduism because I am familiar with it. It does not mean that I only acknowledge Hinduism as the only true religion... if it can even be considered a religion based on the guideline for religions...

Internet Blackout Day, Malaysia - Stop 114a

I am going to briefly speak about this because I took part in the "blackout" by adding a pop up to my blog and also refraining from using any social media sites. Refraining from using social media was just an optional thing I wanted to do to show my solidarity to the cause. The black out was on the 14th of August 2012. There were some who misunderstood that they should stay off the internet which is not exactly the point. The blackout was actually to raise awareness of the amended section 114a which allows a site owner, victims of identity theft or victims of other forms of mischief such as tweet-jacking to be held responsible for slander, defamation, etc.

Briefly, what it means that if someone were to make a slanderous comment on my blog or on my facebook wall, I will be held responsible for that comment and I am considered guilty unless I can prove otherwise which is a blow to the fundamentals of justice which is innocent until proven guilty.

It does not stop there. The article also allows for someone to be tried if their internet has been leached. Say someone is using my wifi with or without my knowledge to post something slanderous/defaming using an anonymous identity and the person who has been defamed lodges a report, then a trace is done to the IP of where the post came from. Once they have identified the source, the subscriber of the internet account will be held responsible. In this case it would be me although I did not commit the crime nor did I know about it, I would have to prove my innocence.

I will leave you with the link to learn more about section 114A here. Know your rights. Support Internet Freedom!

The Vege-Mon is Back

Bird Eye Chili

It has been some time since I have blogged about my vegetables. About a year ago, I started a small patch in my porch to grow vegetables such as brinjal (eggplant/aubergine/whatever you want to call it), tomatoes, chili and lettuce. So today I am going to share the progress of it one year on.

The vegetables that made it:

1. Brinjal - I honestly did not think this guy would make it because the plant looked so frail and the stems were turning brown
2. Chili - I have 3 variations now namely bird eye chili (cili api/cili burung), your normal green chili and also a smaller version of the green chili (I think it is different from the green chili because the plant looks different and the size is slightly smaller)
3. Spinach - this guy is slow and steady. Not enough leaves to harvest yet but looking good

The vegetables that did not make it

1. Cherry tomatoes - It bore fruit for a while then it died because I went on vacation and nobody was around to care for the plant. Also, I never had a taste of it because this god damn tupai (squirrel) kept getting to the fruits before me.
2. Lettuce - technically, it made it but harvested only once and it is the first of my produce that I consumed. I need to go buy new seeds now.

The plants that suddenly appeared

Chili

1. Different variations of chili - these plants grew as a result of me using the leftovers of vegetables used for cooking for compost. The seeds were not separated and they managed to thrive.
2.  Pumpkin - this guy did not make it but looked promising. another result of seed not being removed from the compost. It died about the same time as the cherry tomatoes.
3. Turmeric/cucumin - growing out of the blue because my mother just threw it into the pot and miraculously started to grow. But again, I cannot really say if it is turmeric, ginger or galangal  because they all look the same and this plant just started to sprout. All these plants belong to the same family by the way. Other close relatives include heliconia and banana. They all grow from rhizomes and belong to the order of Zingiberales

The brinjal and chilies

Last weekend I managed to harvest the brinjal and my mom made curry out of it. I did not know when to pick the fruit but a good way to estimate is to see if it shines. If you leave the vegetable too long, it will taste bitter and have too many seeds. I have two variations of brinjal, one is the purple brinjal and the other is green.

To summerise, I now have only the plants from the nightshade family, brinjal and chili. All I need now is tomato to complete the family :). Not all plants belonging to the nightshade family are edible namely belladona or commonly referred to as deadly nightshade. Deadly nightshade does have it's benefits in small quantities such as the extract is used to give clear eyes hence the name Bella Donna which means beautiful woman in Italian. Other plants belonging to this family are tobacco and potato.

Note:  All these vegetable have been grown organically with no pesticide whatsoever and fertilised using only leftovers from vegetables and fruits such as potato shavings, onion skin and garlic skin leftover fruits such as bananas, apples and tomatoes. Once in a while it is also advisable to pour the water in which you cleaned your fish before cooking. But do please avoid including the guts of the fish... not a good idea.

Chili

Green Brinjal

Brinjal again

After a good hike!

Taken at Restoran Sri Paandi

Music These Days

I was driving back from the LRT station last week when for my radio was tuned in to one of the popular radio stations (I usually play CDs because I am too impatient due to the commercials). As I was listening, Flo-Rida decides to show up with his new song called whistle. As I was listening to the lyrics, it not take a genius to figure out that it was referring to fellatio (decent term for blow job, giving head, sucking, okay you get the picture right..) at that point of time I was wondering that music has come to that level.

I would not deny that there have been songs about sex and drugs have surfaced but to push it to the extreme is another thing. The worst part is that it is being played on radio. I mean call me old school or orthodox but come on, in a time when kids learn about sex on the Internet, you come up with a song about fellatio and expect people not to know?

Back in the day, any song with elements of drugs, sex and crime would not be on radio. You're free to make it but it came with parental advisory. I am huge, huge fan of Bone Thugs N Harmony and their songs back then were about street crime and drugs mainly marijuana. I started listening to them during my teens but by that age, I was old enough to tell between what's good and not. I enjoyed the music and their rap style but did not buy into the ideology. But again, their music was hard to get. It was never on the radio.

In the case of this Flo-Rida song, it is on the radio and to me is not right. Yes, I am all for civil rights, Liberalism and all that; so that makes it okay for anyone to say what they like and behave how they want. But common sense tells you that you need to be careful with what you say because not everyone is at the age to distinguish between right and wrong. So write responsibly.

Note: as a parent, I am now getting more sensitive towards the surroundings we are in. My son is almost 2 and operates an iPhone with ease. God knows what is he going to learn from songs and music videos which are being aired.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pangkor (with pictures)

Recently I went to Pangkor for a day trip and honestly, I found it overrated. There is nothing much to see on the island apart from the Dutch Fort and of course the beaches. We completed a tour of the island within 1 1/2 hours. I was disappointed with the attractions but the beaches were awesome.

To be honest if you're going there to sight see, then abandon all plans. If you are going there to relax and chill by the beach with a beer and a good book, then this will be your destination.

I do not want to write too much because there are many pictures to see and I will leave you with them.

Some of the pictures are from Lumut.

A chair... yes, it is...Lumut Valley Resort

Probably a necessity now - Lumut Valley Resort

Kapchai - Lumut Valley Resort

Kapchai from another angle is still a kapchai - Lumut Valley Resort

Bunga - Lumut Valley Resort

Patriotic - Lumut Valley Resort

Being vain - Lumut Valley Resort

Could not resist it - Lumut Valley Resort

Jetty - Lumut

Self explanatory - Lumut

Pangkor Jetty (if you could not read) - Pangkor

An apparatus to make sure you don't walk into a wall - Pangkor

A similar apparatus but on a bigger scale - Pangkor

The Dutch were here - Pangkor

This would have been the view if The Dutch were hiding and peeking at the enemy - Pangkor

a misaligned photo - Fishing Boats, Pangkor

I have no idea what this is - Pangkor

I am slightly religious - Hindu Temple, Pangkor

Finally the beach - Pangkor

Heard that if you trek around this beach, there is a place filled with back-pakers. Normally, we would call it detention centers. Only thing is, these guys have valid travel documents.

A well aligned photo - Jetty, Pangkor

The Ferry - Pangkor

Heads - Pangkor

Another Jetty - Pangkor

A view of the island - Sea

Stilts - Sea

Boat - Sea

More of the island - Pangkor

A man made thing on a god made rock - Sea

Ripples... don't read it wrong...pervs... - Sea

Luckily, there was no use for this - Sea

Lumut ahead... I think - Sea

Not too sure what island is this - Pangkor

The Boat - Sea

Sky vs. Sea - See

As I do not have permission from the parents of this child, I could not reveal his identity - Lumut

Patriotic again - Lumut

Okay, on a serious note, this chopper was doing a search and rescue I believe- Lumut

View from our apartment - Lumut

Another view - Lumut

Rumah Kampong - Setiawan

Dusk - Setiawan

History of Muntri Street, PG

Taken at Lebuh Muntri （南华医院街)