Project “Then, Now & Forever”

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Western classical music is perspective – look at the number of people involved in a symphony! Our traditional music is lonely – Ilaiyaraja

Ilayaraja-Wallpaper

(My collection cover image – the image of Maestro Ilaiyaraja. Image source: http://www.tamilkey.com)

As long I could remember, I have been listening to Ilaiyaraja music since I was still young and started to have an appreciation of his style of music – all the way from the 1970s (you are aware that Annakili was not his first movie and that he had to impress the producer Panchu Arunachalam by singing a song that his mother sang and using the table as an music instrument?) to his latest flick in “Neethane En Ponvasantham” – thanks to my Dad who was big fan of Ilaiyaraja (Ilaiyaraja means the “younger” Raja – that is because the Tamil music industry already had another music director named Raja – the famed A.M. Raja).

Back in the 1980s-1990s, I still remember following my Dad to the music store to get Ilaiyaraja latest songs (still remember Alai Osai brand back then?) and the number of cassettes at home started to pile up. Sometimes when he comes back home late and tired, he would ask us to check his pocket and we would find a cassette size package neatly wrapped and immediately we know it would be an Ilaiyaraja cassette. Me and my brother would be key testers – we would play the cassette as my Dad goes off to take his shower (he usually buys it without hearing the content of the soundtrack). After dinner, he would then sit down and listen to the songs without any disturbance and we would be hearing it again for the 2nd round. Now my son is picking up his interest on Ilaiyaraja music as well (as a baby, he often need his Ilaiyaraja music to go to sleep) and he can sing some of the songs really well.

And over the years, Ilaiyaraja has made a good impression on me with his music (especially when I had my Walk-man on and I was doing my revisions) and I have my personal favorites. But out of the many, I went rather crazy on the soundtrack of “Keladi Kanmani” and in particular on SP Bala’s “Mannil Intha”. And I was rather stuck to the same track over and over again for days when I went down with chicken pox and had to be confined to the bedroom. Somehow I felt my recovery was improved by the good music from the great Maestro. At the turn of the new millennium, Ilaiyaraja somehow took a back seat as most of us (including me) started to listen to the emerging new style music coming from South of India – in the form of AR Rahman (but not my Dad – he could not understand AR Rahman to this day). Ilaiyaraja’s style of putting a “break” before the chorus was somewhat tolerable until AR Rahman showed that the music was even better without the break in the middle. The use of CDs instead of cassettes and quality of music recording favored AR Rahman style of composing and thus it becomes the obvious choice when we are at the music store. But in the end Ilaiyaraja had the last laugh when he hit back with a bang in 2012 with Neethane En Ponvasantham and some people could not believe that it is from the same man.

But even with other new music directors (Deva, AR Rahman, Vidyasagar, Vijay Anthony, Harris Jayaraj, Ilaiyaraja’s Yuvan Shankar Raja, etc) dominating the Tamil music scene in the new millennium, we still had space for Ilaiyaraja music (he was humbled enough to join forces with the great MSV to compose for two movies) . Somehow there are situations in a day when an old school tabla sounds better than a loud modern drum. It sounds peaceful too. And of course, some of the older hits are gems – no matter when and where you hear then, it is still a good music to listen especially if you are on a long journey somewhere (it still do even now).

When I started to work after finishing school and had some money to spare, I often head to music store at Lebuh Ampang (which was on the way from work place to the bus station) on the weekends and my target would be old Ilaiyaraja collections – preferably his great works from the 1970s and 1980s. But unfortunately the music store has a dirty trick up their sleeve – they put a couple of good songs at the front but leaving the balance filled up with not-so-good songs (the cassette jacket lists the songs but unless you have heard of it and well aware of the quality, the list would not make any much difference). The idea was to sell more cassettes. As one would say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I will pick one and ask the shop assistant to “test” the cassette. In other words, I wanted him to play the cassette before I buy it, just to be sure. So when one is “testing” the cassette, you will only hear the good ones and you will think the rest would as good as the first song. You will know that it is not the case after you have paid for the cassette and listen to the complete cassette at home. What to do, I was young and easily trusted people. Number of cassettes mounted at home (some years later, I threw away 2 boxes of cassettes). There was a blessing in disguise though – I managed to consolidate a proper list (from all these cassettes) and got them recorded on a high quality TDK cassette (at the same music store).

(SP Bala in the movie Keladi Kanmani singing off lyrics “found on his food wrapper” without pausing to breath during the chorus – a feat he said he did not do in the actual recording at the studio but managed to do when singing the same song in front of a large crowd during one of Ilaiyaraja ’s concert. The man is simply great!)

At the advent of songs being played on MP3s (and I have a MP3 player in the car and I no longer use CDs), it was time to relook into my collections of songs and in particular one from Ilaiyaraja. I had several collections of Ilaiyaraja – some with overlapping songs and taking up valuable storage space in my HDD (some converted from audio CD into mp3 format for ease of storage). And sometimes I get to listen on the radio some of his better hits but one which is not in my collection. So, I started project “Ilaiyaraja” with 2 objectives.

One: To consolidate all the various collections in my HDD and my old dusty CDs into one proper collection titled “Ilaiyaraja – Then, Now & Forever” (inspired by MSV’s TV show title) with the complete movie name, the song title and the year of movie (couple that with a proper track cover image). For this, I used the mp3 tag editor, mp3tag (freeware) which does the trick rather beautifully. It took some time to do the “research” to get some of the movie names for some of the songs in my collection (some was previously titled as 00001.mp3 which does not give any clue on the details). Obviously there were plenty of duplicates – those had to be taken care, so it was time to delete those and keep only the better sounded ones in the main collection.

Two: To add new and missed songs into the collection. Ilaiyaraja composed almost 4,500 songs and I am sure that I have not heard whole of them especially from those movies that we have not heard of (one was this – Magudam where I found one of the best 1990s song – Chinna Kanna Punnagai Manna). Whenever I head to the music stores to check if they have come up with a proper Ilaiyaraja ‘evergreen’ collection, I was quite disappointed. Most “re-use” the usual famous songs (like Mouna Ragam’s Nilave Vaa). I already had them in my collections years ago. Some of the music store had the next best thing – CDs packed with hundreds MP3 files. This made searching more comprehensive without the need burn a big hole in the pocket. But at the end of the day, it was the Internet that made things easier to do “research” (especially at the various forums) on Ilaiyaraja ’s best songs and the background story behind the said song and then watch the songs on Youtube or listen & download the songs at the various Tamil entertainment websites. This would be an on-going process as I discover more songs that should be in everyone’s collection but one that does not get the right air-time on the radio or TV.

As I am updating my main collection and take the opportunity to listen all of the songs in my old collections (some I have not heard in years) and selecting them to be in the main collection, I realized one thing – Ilaiyaraja’s best songs did not come from the 1970s or 1980s. His best songs actually came in the 1990s and it was not because the older composition itself was bad. It was not – the problem was more on the quality of studio recording. 1970s & 1980s was the age of the analogs – cassettes and vinyl records and it was the same at the recording studios where it was done using magnetic tapes.

The sound quality degenerates even lower as the recording is done and then copied for the masses. One good example was the song Janani Janani from the movie Thai Mookaambigai in 1982. If you listen to the original track, it was bad (you can hardly hear the tabla & venna in the background) and you would discard it after a few seconds listening to them. But the same song was sung by the Maestro at the start of his comeback concerts in 2012, the song simply “melted” me away. It was a beautiful and with the clear sound of venna in the middle (I even thought it was an electric venna), it worth listening to it over and over again. His 2012 concert was also the event that made me to stop and take note that even his 1970s compositions once replayed with the latest instruments sounded better.

But fast forward to the 1990s when most things are done digitally – the quality of recording and to the masses did not see the same level of degeneration. Sounds of the tablas were clearer, vennas were crispier, the playback singers’ voice was soother and you can even hear the “silent” violins in the back. And that has been the focus of my collection of Ilaiyaraja’s songs – well composed songs and one that has been recorded digitally to be my permanent choice for my car on long journeys. His compositions on Neethane En Ponvasantham in 2012 (all done with help from a full orchestra from Budapest) were simply technically brilliant but here’s what I think the Maestro should do as his next big thing. Ilaiyaraja, whilst he still have the energy and the drive (he is 70 years now), should go back to the studio, pick a load-ful of his older 1970s and 1980s songs (all short-listed by his fans, of course) and re-record them in digital with special care given on the individual instruments (as how it was done on Neethane En Ponvasantham and perhaps roping in his famed music director son Yuvan Shankar Raja as his technical consultant). Once done, he should release them as his best works spanning over almost 4 decades. After all, there is no shortage of Ilaiyaraja die-hard fans out there.

Happy holidays and take some time off to enjoy the music during the long break…

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Prepping in Malaysia Part 4

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Now that the GE13 has ended and Pakatan had settled the issue of the Menteri Besar in Selangor rather peacefully (thank God!), probably it is a best time to go back to our daily routine and one of it would be on prepping.

Read these first:-

canned food

(The canned food in the storeroom. Having enough food and clean drinking water for the family draws the highest priority on my prepping list but of course looking for storage place without it is left on the open is fast becoming an issue – I blame this on housing developers not having basement as a standard house designs in this country. It’s time to be highly creative with storage)

The world did not end last year but it was not the end of prepping as we moved over to 2013. We still had sporadic water disruptions although it was not that bad at my residential area – the water supply resumes the same day although some of my colleagues still had water disruption for days. We have yet to hit the big one on natural disasters including solar storms and global wide pandemic. On the other side of the coin, the recent general elections went rather peaceful and things soon got into a routine just a few days after it had ended although politicians are keeping the fire up the wrong issues for their own political reasons (appointment of the “once banned, once running fugitive” Hindraf’s Waytha as a Deputy Minister and uninspiring Cabinet Ministers however could be good reason to be concerned). So the panic purchase of essential goods before the elections did not happen although I did see more people with extra rice bags in their shopping carts this time around.

There have not been that many changes to my own level of prepping at home other than rearranging some of the storage and cleaning out some of drawers to keep more things.

We now have at least two 10 kg bags of rice on “standby” – when we use one up and pour the load into a separate rice container (which holds about 15 kg of rice), this bag is quickly replaced with a new bag. We had stocked up more on salt, sugar & cooking oil (even since the local store ran out of sugar one day) – all that we use in our daily cooking and always in demand. Storage of the canned food now includes bottles of sauce for spaghetti (my wife nowadays cook them for dinner). I have also added couple bottles of honey – which will come handy if we run out of sugar and of course does not have any expiry date. Air-tight containers (recycled from long titbits containers) are a good way to store spices and other small items – containers are easily stacked up. Instant noodles remains one of the more essential items in the store-room and have a drawer on its own and we now 00include dry noodle packets – it’s cheaper and flexible enough when it comes to cooking them. We stick to the principle of “storing what we eat and eat what we store” – this is to ensure stored food does not expire and we always the “latest” food stored.

One key thing that has improved greatly compared to last year is the understanding among family members on the need for prepping – so they all help out whenever they can when it comes to prepping. Prepping is no longer “sounds Greek”. No more weird looks when I talk about prepping. Family members do their own sundry shopping and whenever possible, now adds to the number of items in the “prepping” storeroom. This of course puts more strain on the available space so we had to be more creative in storing. Despite the rearranging things in the storeroom, squeezing every little bit of space, it is clear that we are running out of storage fast – the renovation of my kitchen (we hoped to get plenty of storage space once done) had to be kept on hold as we have not finalised the contractor, design & the budget.

And when it comes to storage, we also have non-food items to content with – spare batteries, candles, water filters, toiletries, garbage bags and washing items. My son’s room had the space and with a large cabinet in one corner with some old clothes and non essential items taking up precious space, it was time for another round of house-keeping. We threw away 1-2 bags of old DVDs from my collection and at least 3 large bags of old clothes (this one will go into the neighbourhood recycle bin) – we had cleared enough space to store our bathroom essentials – packages of soap bars, tooth pastes, tooth brushes, shaving blades, etc. At another corner, washing essentials – floor cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, tiles cleaners – all kept in place with proper ventilation and far from reach of children. And just like anyone running a storeroom anywhere in the world, inventory checking is a must and we often do that before month end and before we prepare the next month’s shopping list. It also gives us the chance to check on the expiry dates, condition of the items in the storeroom, rotate or use them accordingly and work out the quantity in the storeroom.

Next on the item is drinking water. There is still no rainwater harvesting system in place but this year (thanks to the water leaking into the bedroom), we managed to fix the leaks up at the roof and the water tanks. We can now be assured that we will always have at least full water tank in place should the water supply disrupted without notice. The two 15 litres containers for drinking water remains unchanged – I thought of adding another container but space in the kitchen is at a premium. So I decided to maintain the large raw water drum in the storeroom with a planned replenish cycle of 6 months. There are no plans to add any new water drums / containers until perhaps after my kitchen have gone through the overdue renovation (I already can imagine one corner to stack up with water containers – actively used for drinking and cooking).

When it comes to prepping, one cannot run away from the concept of bug-out-bag or as some would call – “mobile prepping”. I thought I have a reasonable bug-out-bag which I bring along when I go out to work or on long distant journey. My version of the bug-out-bug is not extensive although I want it to be – most of the items are stored in the house instead of the bag. But the more I think about it and as more prepping is done at home, it is clear that my bug-out-bag still has a long way to go before it is considered a bug-out-bag is sufficient enough to sustain for the next 72 hours. So I decided to re-designate it as more of a “get-home” bag (with key things – food, water, utility knife and clothes) than a proper 72 hours bug-out-bag. Work on a proper bug-out-bag have to take a back seat for the time being although I have the right bag for it (tucked away somewhere).

There is still outstanding work to be done namely on improvement of safety and trying to grow own vegetables in our small garden to minimise costs. We tried it before with chillies and tomatoes but the vegetables that we grew did not do well after attacked by pests. We still have 7 months to go before end of the year, so there’s still time to get things done. Perhaps with a mini greenhouse for the plants. For those who have not think about prepping, there is always time and opportunity to start this. We should have “always be ready” mindset so that when the tough gets going, we should always have Plan B lying around somewhere.

To be continued and happy prepping…

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GE13: What Chinese Tsunami?

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fnutusan07e

(“Chinese Tsunami” – would it be Najib’s new “unity” motto for the next 5 years? Why call for national reconciliation when at the same whack one community for your failures at the polls? What else the Chinese want, you ask? How about an all out fight against corruption, fair treatment for all Malaysians and wastage of public funds & resources? Image source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com)

GE13 polling has officially ended but not the subsequent implications. It will take probably weeks and even months before things get settled down. Anwar have indicated that Pakatan will not accept the outcome of the elections until EC explains on some of the glaring irregularities – they just had a large public rally on this which in turned caused a massive traffic jam (Raja Petra however raised concern of something more sinister) and surely there will be legal suits flying around. And there are quite number of states and seats won on slim margin – so one needs to wonder if there will be another round of frogs jumping ships as what we saw back in 2008? And trouble is brewing in Selangor as to who will get the Menteri Besar seat – I just hope the PKR fellows do not screw things up big time – pro-BN bloggers already having a field day on this.

The Results

All in all, it is a good election for Pakatan Rakyat. Racial bigots of Ibrahim Ali and Zulkfli Noordin were promptly shown the exit by multi racial voters but rest assured they will be around to cause the usual trouble. Nurul Izzah won the closely contested Lembah Pantai seat and a big thanks to the extra vigilant supporters, had managed to ensure the fight was fair and square and won it accordingly. Dr M got a good slap when Lim Kit Siang won the Gelang Patah seat with a good majority of 14,000 plus votes – still remember this old-man asking people to bury Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah and then recklessly said that there will be racial confrontation if Lim wins? Thankfully the voters thought otherwise and handed Uncle Lim a good margin to win.

On a bigger scale, despite failing to capture Putrajaya (which many of us were hoping for), Pakatan improved their number of seats in both parliamentary and state level. They kept Penang and Selangor with a higher majority and came close to regaining Perak and Terengganu. The popular votes also went to Pakatan – with 51% of the votes going to them (BN got 47% of the votes). The Kedah was a different story altogether – the votes in Kedah shifted to BN in a big way not because BN was better than Pakatan but rather it was because PAS screwed things up after they won it in 2008. Still remember them going over the board with their extreme Islamic way of governance even on non Muslims? We would have been dumb to still think that PAS would be able to keep Kedah. Its fall was predicted from day 1 and it did. Terengganu was a 50-50 thing.

However the biggest disappointment that Perak did not go to Pakatan – especially after they were robbed of the state by 3 frogs that jumped to BN last time around. Was it because Perakians had forgotten about this incident? Or it was rigged in a way that BN were meant to win – after all it was a very close fight with BN’s 31 seats against Pakatan’s 28 seats. Some of the stories reported do raise some red flags:-

“At that point the results for the Perak state seats were 29 for BN and 28 for Pakatan. I insisted on the recount because the results from these two seats would be the deciding factor in the formation of the next Perak government. “When I insisted that these documents be produced before the announcement of the results, the returning officer instructed the police to push my polling agents and me out of the hall.”

At this juncture, Vasantha Kumar said, “Saravanan threw a chair at me while I was being pushed out.” “I was shocked when the police manhandled me, pushing me 50m out of the centre, while Saravanan and his assistant tried to attack me. However, the police stopped them.” Vasantha Kumar claimed that he and his counting agents were pushed out by the police all the way to the main road outside the hall.

(Source)

It was also disappointing to note that a number of spilt votes screwed up some of the seats for Pakatan. Independents (all whom been wiped out for good reasons) screwed up the chance for Pakatan in Cameron Highlands big time – MIC’s G Palanivel got more votes against him and yet he won with slim margin, no thanks to almost 1,200 votes going to independents. The Pakatan’s screw up in Kota Damansara and Semenyih however is not excusable. Two good state seats were lost because of the stupid in-fighting within Pakatan for the same seats. Thankfully Pakatan had garnered enough seats to form the State Government otherwise Pakatan fellows would have kicked themselves for the major screw-up.

Hopefully this would be the last time Pakatan make a fool of themselves and have overlapping claim for the same seat. Every win counts (especially in situation like in Perak now) and the last thing they need to give away the seat on a platter with split votes. That would be really dumb.

najib_sweets

(Still remember the various promises before the election? Come on lah, Malaysians are not stupid – if the Government had wanted to, as a responsible government, they could have carried up the various promises way before the election. Instead it was back to the usual “you help me, I help you” nonsense from Najib’s administration. A clear breach of election laws but one that EC did nothing to curtail or punish the offenders. Image source: theSun)

Interestingly despite the claims of the success of NKRA especially in area of crime fighting, BRIM 1.0 & 2.0 give-outs, lavish dinners & live concerts (including one by Psy) and over the board “be grateful” propagandas, “you help me, I help you” rallies and advertisements in the media, Najib still fared worst than the sleepy Pak Lah by winning less parliamentary (and state) seats compared to 2008. Although some of these pre-election money, gifts and promises had influenced some of the voters to vote for BN especially in the rural areas and helped them to starve off the Pakatan onslaught for Putrajaya, a majority of them (especially in Penang and Selangor) did not buy them in exchange for their votes:-

No one asked you to give free dinners, RM500, lucky draw, etc. You syok sendiri. The Chinese did not cheat you. But I must congratulate the Penangites. They had two weeks of free food (no need to cook), a lot of free entertainment, money, and 2 weeks later, they get a good government in place! You have got the best of both world!

(Source)

He also failed to wrestle back Selangor despite leading the BN’s well oiled election machinery and with defeat of some of the BN Chairman in other states which included Malacca, Penang and Johore, the Fat Momma’s expensive overseas trip in coming months may be short lived. And the consequences would have been worse for him in the coming months if the allegations of phantom voters and other irregularities are proven to be true.

The Chinese Tsunami?

Najib after been declared as the winner as far as BN and the federal government is concerned started on the wrong footing by blaming the defeat wholly on the Chinese and then half sincerely turns around and calls for national reconciliation (it seems nothing changed for BN and nothing will in the future). It did not take long for UMNO-run Utusan Malaysia and Dr M to rub it in and provide the fuel to the fire:-

Mahathir repeated his stance that the DAP’s campaign was to make the Chinese community hate the Malay community. “I have said this several times in my campaign, even in Johor. Lim Kit Siang brought about the concept of Malaysian Malaysia, with the intention of making the Chinese hate the Malays,” he said. “As a result, many Chinese rejected the Malay hand of friendship.”

(Source)

At the end of the day, it has nothing to do with the Chinese, Malay or even the Indian tsunami. Yes the number of Chinese turning up and voting for Pakatan was higher than before. Are you going to blame them for that? Where it says that the Chinese (or any Malaysians for argument sake) have to vote for BN only? What a bunch of sore losers! It’s a fact that Pakatan could not have gained more votes using Chinese votes alone.

Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng lambasted the move to turn the Chinese as “scapegoats” and shape the election results as a “Chinese-versus-Malay” vote. “Many analysts have disputed this as a gross distortion of data, as this was more a urban-rural divide between Pakatan Rakyat and BN,” Lim said in a statement today. “How can this be a Chinese tsunami in states like Terengganu when PAS won 15 state seats as compared to Umno’s 17, when more than 95 percent of Terengganu voters are Malays?”

And the same was reflected by PAS:-

PAS has expressed gratitude to Chinese voters who backed Malay Pakatan Rakyat candidates in the recently concluded general election, even if it meant having to vote against a fellow Chinese. PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the action of these voters proved the claim by Umno that the Chinese had rejected the Malays to be slander.

“There are tens of Parliament and state assembly seats that were contested by Malay candidates against candidates from the Tiong Hua (Chinese), in mixed constituencies, which were won by the Malays, proving that Chinese voters were willing to reject candidates of their own race,” Tuan Ibrahim said in a statement today.

(Source)

GE13numbers

(Pakatan had won the popular votes but was it due to an overwhelming swing by the Chinese Malaysians or was it due to Malaysians from all races in the country who just fed up on the blatant corruption, wastage and unfair treatment? Image source: Malaysiakini)

Well, to those who keeping harping on the Chinese tsunami and how the Malays will be left out in the country, it is not about the race, and here’s why.  It’s a fact that Najib did miserably when it comes to fighting corruption and national unity.

He did nothing on instances of sheer corruption just because those implicated were from his own political party and he needed them for his own political survival. It took two independent journalists to break the story on PKFZ, a young politician from Pakatan to prove the abuse of taxpayers money dubbed “The Cowgate” (Najib even did not have the balls to sack the Minister) and some foreigners going undercover to show that there indeed a shadow state in the country. Despite the urgency and the need for an independent and robust corruption busting agency, Najib did nothing to strengthen the MACC – it remained lame duck. He promised to do something about it but that promise came with a condition that BN must win the election. Now he had won, will Najib keep up his promise?

On the national unity, it seemed a joke for Najib to call for national reconciliation. By blaming the Chinese for his own losses, he had started his administration by pitting the Chinese against the Malays. The king-makers Indians who were the darling of politicians before the election are now nowhere to be seen. Tough luck for Hindraf and their MOU with Najib – let’s see how sincere Najib will be now that he blaming it on the Chinese. He started the notion of 1Malaysia which seemed to be a good thing as we head towards the year 2020 but did nothing to curtail racial statements from his own party controlled mainstream medias and the UMNO friendly Perkasa extremists who even at one point threatened to burn Bibles. Where was the tough action back then? Najib justify the remarks in Utusan by saying that the Chinese media does the same. Once again, where the tough action against the Chinese papers if they been doing the same?

Is this how a Prime Minister of a multi-racial country speaks when it comes to curtailing racial incitements?

So What’s Next?

At end of the day, there must be a proper closure – both to the acceptance on the outcome of the GE13 and incorrect blame of the losses on the fellow Malaysian Chinese.

Yes we must protest against unfair election process and bring forward any irregularities to be rectified but then again, we should go on with our life – after all, there is a government to be run here. It is almost sure every political party (in addition to the various blogs, political analyst, media, etc) out there would be making their own assessment on the outcome of the elections, see where they have made mistakes and how they can improve on it for the greater benefit of the people and country (not for themselves and the political party).

Pakatan must improve their standing in the next general elections if we want to see a real change at federal level and hence improvement in competency, accountability and transparency. Unlike some politicians from the other side, Pakatan politicians need to ensure that their service centre are still operating and still providing the best service especially in areas where they had lost. Losing does not mean doing nothing and blaming others. Losing means an opportunity to improve on their standard of service and engage the people on the real issues facing them. The sooner the politicians do this, the sooner the country can get back on its feet.

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GE13: GE Videos & EC Boo-Boos

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Johor-ceramah-crowds

(No doubt the number of crowd attending the ceramahs may not translate into confirmed votes but the sheer number of people attending the recent ceramahs In Johore should have given the BN fellows something to ponder on. Image source: Anilnetto)

Just 2 days to go before we will know whether we will see another 5 years of corruption, race based policies, double standards on enforcement & deployment, wastage of tax-payers money, “we are still better than Zimbabwe” nonsense, culture of fear & disunity, cronyism, MACC (still) have no power to catch the big fish and insult to fellow Malaysians OR dawn of a new era for Malaysia.

And already there are allegations of vote rigging and movements of phantom voters (mainly foreigners). If BN had denied outright and laughed at it, we could have labelled Anwar’s allegations as a serious spin and a desperate move. But instead they actually admitted that such flights are taking place but they claim that it is for the Malaysian voters and it is financed by a mysterious  “friends of BN”. Who are they really, this friends of BN? Perhaps they are the same jokers who took the expensive advertisement for the so-called First Lady of Malaysia. Anyway, since it seems Pakatan fellows are “doing the same” (unfortunately they can only afford buses instead of planes), let’s put this aside – on who is right or wrong will depend on whether you end up seeing strings of nervous Banglas & Indons at polling station on Sunday.

But probably the biggest news when it comes to EC and their blunders would be on the indelible ink which some have alleged can be cleaned off immediately. The blunder is not on the fact that the indelible ink were washable without trace – as EC had mentioned, the ink is an indelible ink and not permanent ink. Depending on washing agents used, it will remove the ink to some extent; I am pretty sure of it although the latest EC’s demo shows otherwise.

The blunder however is on the failure of the processes in dealing with the said indelible ink. Why it was not shaken as the process requires it to be? EC claims that their officers were “nervous” and thus failed to follow the right procedures. Such excuse is not acceptable especially when it is for the first time the indelible ink is being used, there are certain expectations on the deployment of the ink and the EC officers have been trained before and are professionals. Didn’t they do a dry run before this? Because of this blunder, now hangs a question of whether in the coming polling day, there will be more officers getting “nervous” and failed to shake the bottles right. If this happens, EC would have a serious issue of integrity and accountability.

In the meantime, enjoy these interesting videos that touch on the upcoming election and the need to pick the right Government (p.s. MIC’s one is in for the joke – now that Hindraf is the sleeping partner of BN and leads the “fight for the Indians”, MIC indeed had become one big joke):-

Undilah

PKFZ Scandal

MIC Song Parody

Hindraf & Nambekei

3 Questions for BN

Please also read also Rafizi Ramli’s Open Letter as well.

Have a good day on Sunday and vote wisely. Vote for the Government that plans for the future and politicians who see Malaysians as their boss and not the other way around. Don’t vote on what you have seen, paid and experienced in the last few months – judge the politicians on what they have done and said in the last 5 years. Reward them or punish them accordingly and don’t fall for the (overwhelming) overdose of “feel good” propagandas and vote-buying “gifts” – it does not guarantee a bright future.

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GE13: You Know, BN Talks Cock Too

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Read these first:-

zul

(A kiss on the cheek and all religion bad-mouth nonsense is quickly forgiven? Never mind it looks more like Zul is being strangled than being kissed but it’s irrelevant. Najib seems to think that all can be forgotten with a simple peek on the cheek. So can Salman Rushdie do the same? Image source: Malaysiakini)

Over the last few days as we get nearer to 5th May, the focus has shifted to Najib and how he has been the “best” PM to date and how the country will be better if “Najib led” BN continues to rule it. I am not sure about you but Najib is definitely better than the sleepy Pak Lah but is he the best PM to date? If you ask me, that honor should go to the first PM – Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

Anyway, in between the subtle messages in the media to remind Malaysians to be more “grateful” and how the oppositions have been (and will be) “screwing up” things up, some of the BN politicians have been putting their foot in the mouth. Are they talking cock or the truth or they are simply too dumb to run for office?

Let’s start with the obvious:-

BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak today attempted to douse the anger over Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin‘s disparaging remarks about Hindus, claiming that Indians have now warmed up to him.

“There are Indians who have even kissed him already,” Najib said, adding that he endorsed Zulkifli’s (right) candidacy for the Shah Alam parliamentary seat.

“Forget about the remarks he has made. He has apologised. Let it be,” the caretaker prime minister said in Shah Alam as he stressed that the statements were made when Zulkifli was part of a “backward” party.

(Source)

Somehow after lacing the Indians with water cannon, tear-gas and imprisonment without trial under draconian ISA, it was a big surprise when Hindraf turned around, wipes the dried stain from their back and then worships the same old BN as their one and only savior. It does not take rocket science to know why Najib had become extra polite to the Indians this time around. Hindraf may have opened their champagne on the day Najib signed the MOU with them but seriously how they expect to enforce a MOU if it is not carried out. And speaking about the Indian votes, I am sure that would have been last on his mind when Najib set Zul loose to run in Shah Alam against the tolerant, well-liked Khalid Samad from PAS.

Yes, the Indians were not happy. MIC has been silent and so do the new ally of BN – Hindraf. Najib may have his own strategy with Zul in Shah Alam but I think he should not rub it in with the Indians by saying that the Indians are warming up to him and some of them (must have been highly paid morons) had even kissed him. Make no mistake about it – Zulkifli Noordin is not an angel. He lied about making the racial and insensitive statement about the Indians 10 years ago. He made fresh one last March. And we all know that his half forced apology is nothing but a ruse to gain some votes from the Indians. And of course, he took the opportunity that blame on his one sided view of the various races and religions in this country on PAS. You have to be a very dumb person to believe that. If it is indeed that it is due to PAS, then what about Khalid Samad – his opponent in Shah Alam who even gave a talk in a church and very moderate in his views on race and religion. What about the other PAS politicians who highly respect other Malaysians irrespective of race or religion? Even there is some sense of truth on his claims, doesn’t he has a brain and self-conviction to sense something is not right and resign from the political party?

Then we had this:

A newcomer representing BN in the Pasir Gudang parliamentary constituency has urged Indian voters to be patient with the government in solving the longstanding issue of stateless Indians as the government does not want to create another Sabah.

Linking the stateless Indian issue with the influx of illegal immigrants into Sabah, Normala Abdul Samad explained that the government should learn from the lesson in Sabah and be cautious in handing out citizenship to Indians.

(Source)

I don’t know who Normala Abdul Samad character is but it is clear that this “newcomer” is certainly walking on the wrong side of the plank. The issue of citizenship in Sabah is a whole different than the issue of citizenship to Malaysian Indians in the country. The one who got the citizenship in Sabah were foreigners and some are newcomers. And if we follow the serious allegations in Dr M’s Project IC, it even borders on sense of treason. Stateless Indians on the other hand were born to parents who are Malaysians and had failed to get their national identity card due to missing documentary evidence, plain ignorance and procedural red-tape. If you trust the figures on the net, it is frightening too:-

The plight of some 300,000 stateless Indians is more than enough a reason for you to change the federal government. This problem should have been resolved long ago and therefore the Indian community in Malaysia cannot continue to trust the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government.

These stateless Indians have either lived here for decades or were born in this country. They can also communicate fluently in Bahasa Malaysia. Why must their application for citizenship be rejected or their files left in the cupboard to collect dust?

In contrast, why were 600,000 Muslims from Indonesia and the Philippines in Sabah given citizenship and bumiputra status to vote in Malaysia? The majority of the Filipinos cannot even speak Bahasa Malaysia.

(Source)

Thus to say that it is one and the same with the issue in Sabah itself and then asking the same Indians to be patience (when they have been very patience for some bloody years) is derogatory and insulting to Malaysian Indians. And the issue of Sabah although has been an issue for sometime now, hardly made any dent on the federal government list of critical issues until lately when the Government is somehow forced to set a RCI on the issue. One cannot use it as an excuse to hold back the granting of citizenship to the Malaysian Indians who should have gotten them a long time ago. So is Hindraf still comfortable with the BN being the one and only saviour for the community when simple things like stateless Indians are kept on hold with dumb excuses?

And finally here is the evidence why the Pakatan led state government are having hard time to get the necessary funding and assistance from the Federal Government:-

The Barisan Nasional (BN) wants to wrest Selangor in the May 5 general election to pursue the coalition’s transformation programme for the people in the state, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said today. He said the support from Selangor voters was needed to return BN to power in the state.

“We want the state leadership in Selangor to return to BN’s fold. We’re tired of the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government (in Selangor). “If the state government is different from the federal government, it’s difficult,” he said when speaking to BN supporters at Taman Melawati in Hulu Kelang.

(Source)

Najib may have forgotten that it was the people of Selangor back in 2008 voted for Pakatan Rakyat. It was not like they woke up one fine morning and found that the government had magically changed hands to Pakatan. And if the only excuse that Najib is making his case for the state to be returned to BN is that it will be “difficult” if the state government is different from the federal government, then it is high time we go for a complete change of the federal government. What BN is expecting in a free democratic country? Are they expecting to have BN to be ruling every nook and cranny of Malaysia forever? It’s time they wake up and accept reality.

It is obvious that in the last 5 years, the one who have been making things “difficult” for the people in the state is not the State Government.

Think about it – when Pakatan took power, instead of channelling the necessary funding to the new State Government entitled to, the Federal Government went on and appointed BN friendly “representatives” at village level, duplicating the work of the official appointed headmen, usurping powers illegally and end up making things hard for the State to do its work. And the State failed to carry on with its project due to a lack of funding and necessary approvals from the federal government, it did not take long for BN fellows to jump in and accuse the State as not keeping their promises. That was back in 2008 when unexpected happened and BN lost the states of Selangor, Penang, Perak and Kedah to Pakatan.

Moving forward, what does Najib implies when he says “if the state government is different from the federal government, its difficult”? It is a warning to the voters not to vote for opposition? The federal government can make it difficult for the state government if only if they want to. The last general election in 2008 already showed that things are changing and its high time they change their stand too.

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GE13: Manifestos, Fantasies & Imaginations

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najib_sweets

(Santa Claus of a different nature – he seems to be promising a lot of things to many sector of the community but does that promise comes with a catch? Where the millions of ringgit is coming from and from who’s pockets?)

Malaysians will go to the polls on May 5 and it does not matter whether you will vote for BN or PR. What is important is that on May 5, you wake up on time and go to the polling station and vote someone. Remember it is your duty as the citizen of this country and it only comes once in 5 years.

Election Santa Claus

As we move closer to this date, the level of insanity seems to be increasing as well – more sex videos exposures (which seems to be more important than corruption by millions of ringgit for some morons) and Najib continuing his Santa giveaways – plucking millions from thin air and promising to deliver them only if people are “grateful” when it comes to casting their votes.

Some even get some last minute “miracle” granted by BN politicians:-

After 20 years of struggle, prayers were finally answered when an 85-year-old Chinese temple in Minyak Beku was granted ownership for the piece of land it sits on. The land title for the 0.696ha plot, including a 280m access road to Persatuan Penganut-Penganut Agama Buddha Ching Boo Tian in Jalan Segenting here, was approved by the Johor Government recently. “We could not have done it without MCA and the Mentri Besar,” he said at the thanksgiving dinner organised by the temple, which was attended by more than a thousand people here on Sunday.

(Source)

Should temple be “grateful” (Najib’s buzz word of the day) for the recent approval of ownership or more rightfully be angry that it took the Government over 20 bloody years to approve the ownership and it only happened because of the upcoming general elections and not for other matters?

And speaking about being grateful, did you read about Hindraf’s 180’ degree turn on their relationship with BN? P Waythamoorthy now insists that the community’s welfare will only be cared for by the ruling coalition BN and not Pakatan Rakyat. This is same man who just before 2008 blamed UMNO and BN led Government for the dire state of the Indian community and caused many to take to the streets to protest. This is the same man when things got more tricky (when the rest of the key leaders were caught under ISA), fled to overseas. Now he turns around and says only BN can take care of the community? That’s interesting. I surely hope that he has forgotten the fact that Najib have been longing for the lost Indian votes and will be willing to promise the sky as long he gets the crucial votes in the coming election – nothing more, nothing less. After all, if BN had been serious in dealing with the community’s issues, it would have acted on it a long time ago – after the Hindraf rally and not at the eve of a general election. Why it have come to a point where Hindraf have to come out with a blueprint for the community and asks both BN & PR for endorsement? As the famed comedian Goundami would say – “arasiyalila ithellam saatharanam pa” (it is all normal in politics), uh Waytha?

And looking at the bigger picture, doesn’t the very promise of goodies in return for votes contravene the law?

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) today chided the federal and state governments for enticing voters with cash handouts and other freebies in what the corruption watchdog said is a blatant breach of electoral laws. The local branch of Transparency International also criticised the election regulator and Malaysia’s graftbusters for failing to clamp down on politicians in Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) who have been giving cash and vouchers and promising perpetual aid such as bonuses, cheap homes and free water with their eye on the bottomline in the May 5 polls. “Caretaker governments and candidates are breaking the Election Offences Act 1954 Section 10 which states all these gifts, loans, offers, promises, pronouncements are to procure votes,” Josie Fernandez, TI-M secretary-general, said in a statement.

(Source)

Is someone sleeping on the job then? Or it is just business as usual in the Bolehland?

The Invisible Bogeyman

But in the midst of intensive campaigning, vote buying election promises and stiff fight for seats, it was not a surprise that we have this kind stupidity cropping up:-

A Lim Kit Siang win in Gelang Patah will result in racial confrontation, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today, arguing that Chinese-Malay economic partnership will be ruined. With weeks left to Election 2013, the former prime minister continued his doomsday prediction by hammering on the opposition leader with his warning that Lim’s victory in the southern state would trigger racial clashes that would replace the existing cooperation between the Malay majority and Chinese community. “Kit Siang is going to bring about conflict and antagonism between the races, to wage the Chinese to dislike and hate the Malays,” Dr Mahathir wrote in his chedet.cc blog.

(Source)

As usual, Dr M is not far from talking nonsense and jumping on his dumb cheap antics of blaming the invisible Chinese bogeyman and culture of fear. When we will ever come to a stage that a vote for Chinese Malaysian (or a Malay or a Indian for argument sake) at end of the day is a vote for a Malaysian? Hasn’t the ghost of May 13 and culture of fear put to rest a long time ago? Why there will be racial confrontation when Lim Kit Siang is just one man and it is not like he has not run for Parliament and won many times before?

So, why need an invisible bogeyman to burn down the country when you can have the same with this kind of politicians going around promoting culture of fear and disunity? Najib has only kept mum on this which will not reflect well on his overused slogan “1Malaysia”. One thing is for sure – we will never achieve a developed nation status by 2020 – not when we still have this kind of people asking us to distrust fellow Malaysians. We must reject anyone who are willing to do anything just to win the elections and to remain in powers (even it means causing racial confrontations when there is none in the first). Dr M should look back into his dictionary and understand what the word retirement really means.

Election Manifesto

And of course, you have political manifestos flying around with some claiming each other as unachievable. Fine, manifestos may not be contract cast in stone and to some, it is nothing but a convenient way to let the voters to know on what the party intends to do – ideal intentions that may change over time due to political pressures, financial constraints and of course, dirty politics. So, it was not a big surprise when Najib claims BN’s recently launched manifesto as a serious matter but turns around and say that Pakatan’s manifesto as a mere fantasy and imagination:-

Najib said as the manifesto or pledge was an important document, it must be launched at a gathering and broadcast live so that the people throughout the country could appreciate the content of the manifesto. “They can study what is the commitment of the BN to the people,” he said. “Let the opposition say that the manifesto is not a pledge, if it’s not a pledge, why present a new manifesto, what’s the point of presenting a new manifesto. “To the BN, the manifesto is a serious matter,” he said. On the other hand, Najib criticised the opposition and described their manifesto as a ‘fantasy and imagination’ by making all kinds of promises as they liked.

(Source)

Before we precede even further, bear in mind that manifestos – whether it is from BN or Pakatan, is nothing but a mere intention of the various political parties on what they may do if they are voted into power. It is not formal contracts that one can sue when it is not carried out – otherwise BN would have been riddled with lawsuits for all these years they have been power. Strip away the icing, sugar-laced thumbs up and “wow” statements (especially from pro-BNs sites & BN politicians) in the media and re-read BN’s manifesto in a bigger picture and you may find BN’s manifesto itself suffering from the same problem of mere fantasy and imagination.

Let’s take some for analysis:-

  • Increasing BR1M up to RM1,200 for households and RM600 for singles while maintaining it on an annual basis

(BR1M – is it a sincere safety net for the poor or a sweetener for the people to vote for BN? You tell me. The main contention of BR1M is a. where does all the money is coming from? The final damage is not small – the first BR1M cost the taxpayers about RM1.92 billion, while BR1M2.0 cost around RM3 billion and now Najib is talking about an annual BR1M of RM1,200 per person which will cost the taxpayers almost RM5 billion annually. and b. it is clear that RM500 is not much for a family to use in the long run. So what is the long term solution for the lower income citizens? Simply throwing money without any long term plan is wasteful and is bad governance.)

  • Expanding the Rapid Bus System to every state capital, complete with facilities for the aged and disabled

(Well BN has been at this problem for x amount of years now, laying down the same old solutions for same old problems but nothing has been so simple and nothing has been so straight forward. Deployment of RAPID buses is nothing new but will the control of the route and some part of management be allowed to be delegated to the individual state governments for greater efficiency? Will there be a decentralization of the public transport management in the country which also includes the grant of license and permits?)

  • Solving the treated water supply problem in Selangor, the Federal Territory and Kelantan. Extending the supply of clean water to another 320,000 homes throughout the country

(Then there is always of dangling the issue of water and electricity – the basic needs of any voters and is an issue where one could not afford to take it so lightly. But the question that needs to be answered is this – do we really have an issue to contend with or it is an issue played out for political reasons? What about investing on alternate source for electricity and backup plans for potential blackout?)

And lastly, probably the dumbest of all (worth to be classified as the mother of all fantasy & imagination)…

  • Empowering MACC through the establishment of a Service Commission whereby the power of recruitment and service matters will lie entirely with the commission. Giving equal emphasis on investigations into, and action against, bribe givers and receivers

(Why the “wayang kulit” on MACC? After Taib’s show of the middle finger to MACC and no action whatsoever on the highly corrupt even after Global Witness’s video revelation, it would have been more proper and acceptable if Najib had instead proposed to shut down MACC permanently. MACC simply lacks the independence and prosecution powers to be effective against corruption. And to maintain MACC toothless is simply means an endorsement on the corruption and abuse of powers. If Najib wants to salvage his past promise of fighting corruption in this country should instead granted MACC wider powers which includes prosecution powers)

Winnable Candidates

It’s too bad that Samy Vellu was not named as a candidate for up-coming election despite naming himself as a winnable candidate (something that theSun columnist labelled as a Bollywood comedy) – it would have been interesting to see what would have been the outcome – whether MIC have indeed regained Indians’ support to the party. And speaking about winnable candidates, as you may be aware, Najib have dropped some from the list – the one we are happy to see to go would be Shahrizat Jalil and Ng Yen Yen but I won’t be so cheerful if I were you. Najib still carrying a substantial baggage of candidate with tainted history and as we have seen in the past, there is a good chance of those dropped from the list coming into the limelight through the “back-door”.

And one that Najib promoted for this election is Zulkifli Noordin who will be running for Shah Alam. Yes the same fellow who insulted the fellow Malaysians who are Hindus. The same fellow who stormed the Bar Council inter religion discussion back in 2008. Is Najib truly serious about getting the Indians to vote for BN? If he can’t get a better character than Zulkifli Noordin for his winnable candidate list, then that says a lot of the quality of people running loose in BN. If this is the best he can do to show that BN have changed, it is clear that it does not deserves our votes. At end of the day, nothing but a complete change of the government is what this country needs to stop the high wastage, blatant corruption and more importantly to promote a greater unity and fair-play in this country. Make your vote count for the right reasons.

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Damn, I Got Screwed!!

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I got “screwed” twice over, couple weeks ago and I almost got “screwed” for the third time around.

Screw on tire2

(Not the photo of the screw that “screwed” my tires weeks ago but it’s close to what I experienced. Good thing was it did not lead to more serious consequences like my car flying off the highway and causing a bloody mess along the way but still it was a major annoyance . Image source: http://www.the370z.com/)

Let’s start on a fine Monday morning where I got before the alarm which is a rare these days. The baby had slept early the night before and rarely woke up in between, leaving us to take a good sleep. So I woke up feeling rather fresh. The morning was great too – the air seemed fresher than usual. My spidey sense should have tingled by now but it did not. The time on my watch showed it was still 6 in the morning. I got into the car and as I started to drive, I felt the steering to be a bit sluggish. Then I heard the loud scrapping sound from the front – I immediately knew that my tire was flat even before I got down from the car. I usually do a “pre-drive” inspection (just like how a pilot checks before he flies a plane) but somehow this morning, I failed to do it. The tire was flat and the front body kit had scrapped the road (but it was not obvious). It was too early in the morning for me to drive to the nearest tire shop.

With a mixed feeling (I was both furious and shocked), I parked the car back into the porch (another scrap of the front body kit, ouch!) and decided to change to the spare tire first. But first thing first – I need to change my clothes first – I know it is going to be hot, sweaty and dirty. It was a good exercise in the morning if you asked me – I was profusely sweating and legs & arms aching by the time I got the car jacked up. The opening of the wheel nuts was a big challenge – it was tighten using a powerful air-powered wrench, so I knew it will not be easily opened using a hand-held wrench. The wheel nuts simply refused to budge even after I used all my strength to press down the wrench. I then decided to stand on the wrench and do several small jumps. With a loud “thud”, the nut finally started to get loose and I did the same for the other 3 nuts. Nuts taken out and the car well jacked up and you will be thinking that it will be easy from there onwards. It was not the case. I could not move the tire – I then decided to kick the flat tire from the wheel hub and only then it started to move and I managed to get the wheel off the hub. Then I found the culprit for the flat tire – a small screw right in the centre. How it got there was a mystery since the tire seemed fine as I drove in to the porch the night before. We suspected that the bloody f**cking screw must have dropped on the porch when we did house cleaning a day before.

The flat tire taken out and the spare tire were fixed without much hassle but then I had nothing else to do until the tire shop opens late at 9.30 am. As my shirt was rather wet with my sweat and the dirt from the tire and a couple of hours to kill, it was time to take the shower and go back to sleep. So much so for waking up earlier before the alarm goes off.

(The right way to change the flat tire – I missed some of the steps mentioned here though)

I thought that was the end of my troubles. After the first flat, the drive did not feel as smooth as it used to be before the flat. It could just be my perception but still, I decided to check the tires and alignments at the tire shop – it has been sometime since I did that so I would be “killing two birds with one stone” – get alignment done and also to check on any damage to the rim. The current tire had plenty of tread left (thanks to the low mileage and having 2 cars in the house) but I was prepared to change the whole tire if need to. The place I usually go was packed so I decided to drive around until I saw a large tire shop with fewer cars at the bay and some of mechanics sitting down, waiting for the next customer. I drove in and asked them to do the wheel balancing and alignment which was done rather half-heartedly especially on part of wheel balancing (the guy claimed that is the best that they can do, which I know was untrue).

They did not do a good job there and I regretted coming to this run-down shop. And what the mechanic said to me after taking my car to test confirmed my impression of the shop. Seeing that my car had low mileage (compared to make year), he probably mistook me for a newbie and said that I need to change my front shock absorbers as it has been ‘damaged’ due to the rain & sunshine (come on lah brother, this is Malaysia). Yes, it was clear that he was pulling a fast one on me – if he had simply said that shock had damaged and was leaking, I would have believed him and would have been ready to throw hundreds of ringgits on the spot for a new set. But no, his reason to persuade me to change the shock absorbers was rather dumb. I knew I need stop on my tracks and get second opinion elsewhere (unfortunately I got an equally dumb answer from the authorised service centre). I know that firstly a good shock absorbers can last for at least 50,000 to 80,000 kilometres (it lasted almost 83,000 on my old car) and secondly a quick bounce test (not necessarily accurate) shows that the shock is still in good working condition. The mechanics were urging me to change the stock shock absorbers (with even dumber excuses) but with an equally dumb face, I said no – even if I had decided to change, certainly this would not be the shop I would go to. This is one kind of “screw” I do not want to be whacked with at the moment.

Despite the wheel balancing and alignment, something was still not right – at a distance of my mind, I started to wonder if the mechanics at the tire shop had told me the truth but as I drive more, the drive was not that bad. And after the periodic service, it got much better but I know I need to deal with tires and shock absorbers when the time comes.

Then I ran into another disaster on the weekend when we went over to Putrajaya where they had the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. We have been planning to go there for sometime now (the Big Boss have been bugging me day and night on this) but could not find the right time to go. My son had swimming classes in the morning and it was too early for my wife and the baby to wake up (I too dread the thought of waking up so early on a weekend – who wouldn’t right?). We decided to go in the evening when it is cooler and when they will fly the hot air balloons again. But sensing that it will be a bit too much trouble if we bring along the baby, we decided to leave her with my mother this time around. We barely drove out from our residential guard house when we seemed to have driven over something. As we continue to drive, there was a loud “thud, thud, thud” sound so we quickly stopped by the road side and checked the tires. Although it was not so visible when I first checked but another close inspection revealed a large screw firmly entrenched on the tire.

Kicking myself (in my mind), I checked and suspected that the tire was loosing air, so there was no time to lose – as the tire shops are closed on Sundays, I had to drive back to the house before the tire goes completely flat and we are “stranded” by the roadside. It will not be easy (and safe) to change tire by the road side. It was a blessing in disguise that we did not drive far from our housing area and we had decided to leave the baby at home. With the loud “thud, thud, thud” sound, I slowly drove back to the house and parked the car on the porch and checked on the tire again – it has yet to go flat but there was no time to change the tire. We quickly hopped into my wife’s car and went to the hot air balloon fiesta. When we came back almost at 8 pm, I had expected my car’s tire to be completely flat but it was not (the air in the tire to be holding well despite the large screw stuck to the tire). My wife and my sister commented that it may be possible for me to drive to the tire shop the next day but before I agreed to that, there was one more test to be done. I took a bit of the soap water and ran it on the place the screw was stuck – the tire was indeed loosing air (bubbles was forming) and I knew that another 7 – 8 hours later, the tire would be indeed flat. So it was time again to change my clothes and take out the spare tire. I rather do it in the evening than in the morning.

Flat tires was nothing new – since I started driving a car, I probably had about 7-8 of them but it was the first time I got screwed twice within a week and thanks to my past experience with car workshops & dubious spare parts, I managed to avoid getting screwed for the 3rd time. It is still a phobia to drive out – sharp end of screws and nails and any sharp objects that can puncture the tires are damn hard to see. The good side of the story was that it happened near to my house and I must thank my good karma for that. It would have been bad if I had to change my tires by the road side or worse, driving fast without me knowing about the puncture.

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