Thaipusam in Singapore

This year I was fortunate to visit Singapore during Thaipusam and join in the festivities. It was a little different than the famous Batu Caves Thaipusam celebration. We walked from the Perumal Temple near Mustaffa Centre all the way to the Thandayuthabani Temple which was about 15 km (?) and took us 45 minutes.

My garden adventure … Sept 2011

My garden was taking its toll from the hot weather of the past many months. The rain in recent days gave a good boost to withering plants. Thus decided to get on with my “phase 2” of the garden re-shaping. After a few days of hard work, completed the last portion yesterday only to find weed ready to be cleared at “phase 1”!

Cochin (Kochi) in Kerala

Arrived Kochi early this week and started enjoying the food … particularly the appams and fish curry. So far nothing beats the appams here. Had a good dinner at GRT Grand, supposedly famous for its karimeen fish. Someone else told me that their briyani is popular but I do not want to mix my taste with the great briyanis of Rajashtan. For me the Jaipur briyanis were among the best so far, therefore I did not try this one.

Some other popular spots revisited this time included Sarovaram (BTH) – excellent tradiitonal Kerala food on banana leaf and Casino – great seafood brought in a trolley.

Adding cheer to Diwali

Md Din, Azimah and Brigitta (Ashwinee's friend) & family having lunch


HP Tan, Pearl (Ashwinee's friend) and her family having dinner.


Ashwinee's "kolam" (coloured rice art)


Pearl's nephew (sister's son) ... the cute visitor

Diwali 2009

This Diwali was a little different ... I did not go to Kluang (my parents' and Gobu's home) for Diwali celebrations ... instead celebrated in our home with the traditional breakfast of tosai, idli and mutton curry.

Ashwinee had made the "kolam" out of coloured rice and was a hit among visitors.

Arjun was the "king in the making" ... helping me with all the grocery buying, 6.00am trip to the market, mutton/chicken preparations and also being a committed assistant in the menu decisions.

Avinash was wreaking havoc as usual with all kinds of queries and requests including wanting a mobile phone of his own.


















My in laws visited on the second day and had a small gathering for lunch.

Malaysian Indians ... have they changed?

This is purely my personal opinion ... if you find it hard to agree, ignore!

Our next generation needs more positive contribution from us in order to compete and win

Indians came in 1800s when our then "British masters" put most of ancestors on the Rajula or Sithambaram ships. First question - did the British discuss with the host (the malays, orang asli, etc) and agree to bring us? Well all of us know it was only their selfish needs of filling the plantations with an ever divided group of labourers!

Now that we establish the first element - we can completely uninvited by the host.

Second - why us Indians? Best answer is we were always divided on caste, language, gods (?), village and many aspects. We love to fight for supremacy of various things among us. We need a nice toddy shop for finishing the day's earning and a temple to pray for more! So we became a hard working well defined group that the british loved.

And have we changed?

Look at the highly motivated and charged show of unity created by Hindraf. We suddenly became noticed internationally and even India took note of us. But then what happended barely into the "celebrity status" ... we have now divided ourselves completely into oblivion ... we have such many parties now and no one knows who is real.

The very Hindraf that hit the gong of action against the government saying that we have been mistreated is now the catalyst behind a new party that suddenly found the government so loving.

Now we are confused again ... but then we are upholding our status as the ever divided group of people!

Found my long lost friend ... Mukilan

The wonders of internet ... got into facebook and found an old friend from my primary school days called Zamzam Eusof. We had been staying within a 10km radius and never bumped into each other, or probably did not recognise each other as we have grown so much more fat now!!

And guess what? Zamzam found Mukilan another one of our common classmates of 1972-77. Mukilan was my best friend all through primary school and somehow we went apart in secondary days. By 1980s we slowly did not remember the existence of our friendship.

In 1985 I started looking for him, found him through Anand (another friend I am still searching for) and Mukilan wrote to me. But we never met.

After that life was at high speed and there was no room for reminiscing childhood memories until I wrote my biography (www.ravi.com.my) - as I was compiling my old photos again Mukilan shot into memory. Then a new search started ending in finding him to have been in KL as well for a large part of his career. He now runs his own tution center in Kluang Johore.

Now the heart beats each time I think of making a visit to Kluang to meet Mukilan ... and oh yes (!) as usual with KL people ... I and Zamzam have not met yet despite staying so close to each other and having "connected" after some 25 years!! See the laziness that has set into us!!