A Glimpse into My Journey

Though am a confident writer by choice and profession, who is driven by passion, I'm not comfortable facing an audience! Recently, I have joined Toastmasters International (corporate member). Now, I have the motivation to challenge myself and outgrow my limitation. As a baby step, I had to prepare for my first speech called CC1 - Icebreaker(Competent and Communication). Since I prepared a script, I thought why not document it down as a blog too! Herez the script:

Born in a traditionally conventional Sourashtra family on 5th March...during raghu kaalam, whatever the implication might be. Well, I was brought up in an energetic environment and encouraged to do stuff my way. Dad is a business man and mom is an unusual home maker. Unusual, in the sense by the time she was just 18, she had me & my brother who is younger than me by 2 years! But, that didn't stop her from chasing her dream of higher studies. By the time I graduated with a BA in English Lit, my mom had completed a degree in Commerce (BCom), a degree in Sanskrit and Hindi Grammar too! All through my life I have seen that passion was the only driving force her. Speaking about my husband, he is a Metals doctor and because of him I have had the opportunity to travel and live outside India too, which has given me wonderful opportunities. We have a teenage daughter who is in AS levels in an international school, because it his her first time getting education in India.

I grew up with my cousins, and most of them were boys...I enjoyed typical boys activities like climbing walls & trees flying kites and basically I was a ‘tom boy’. 

Applied soft-focus - but you get an idea!

Besides that, I was named as ‘chatterbox’, because I always had a lot to talk, if I was asked to do something, I had to know why and if I was told NOT to do, then I had even more things to ask, why can’t I do and what if I do that! At home, I was banned from using razor blades to sharpen the pencils, so once at school, I think I was in year 3, one of my friends was using blade and he kept teasing me that I don't know how to use it, so I was trying to snatch from him and ended up with hurting myself...well, that gave me an identification mark for life!

Throughout my schooling I was a mediocre student, who loves chatting and being a back bencher, but the trouble was, I was never allowed to sit in the back bench because my teachers knew how naughty I could be. Any noise or distraction, first I would be singled out. This continued throughout my college life as well, so I will just say that I had a gala time for 3 years. 

Well, I have inherited my passion and interest from my mom. Whatever I do, I try to do it wholeheartedly and not just for the sake of doing it. My reading habit too has evolved from comics to philosophy and fiction to factual books. When I was a kid, I was attracted to pictures, so started off with comics like Muthu comics, Mayavi series and from school library I used to get Tin Tin, later moved on to Secret Seven, Famous Five, Treasure Island kind of books and during adolescent, I was more towards Mills & Boon & Silhouette series. During college days, I graduated to reading Ayn Rand, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robbins, Jeffery archer and Robert Ludlum and I was introduced to Chandilyan and kalki too and till date I have a strong attachment to Cholas & Pallavas. Because of this passion, just at the drop of the hat, I drive to Mahabalipuruam just to see the caves & take photos. 

Shore Temple - Mahabalipuram - Our World

 When you do anything, do it with passion, that will be the driving force. From my experience be it my naughty tricks from childhood or preparing for this CC1, I do it with passion. Passion helps you to look forward to things in life and give you the confidence to pursue relentlessly. 

Nayaka and Maratha Art in Thanjai Periya Koil (Brihadisvara Temple)

Though the Thanjai Priya Koil (Brihadisvara Temple) was built by the Cholas in the 10th Century CE, artistic additions were made by the Nayaka and Maratha rulers in the 16th and 17th Century CEs.
Nandhi (bull), the vahana of Brihadisvara (Lord Siva) in front of the sanctum sanctorum was built by the Nayaka rulers in the early 16th century CE.

Nandhi - the vahana (transport) of Lord Shiva - SOOC

The sheer size of the Nandhi itself is impressive. Again, the mandapam (hall) is filled with artistic sculptures, including the Nayaka king himself!

Nayaka ruler, who built the Nadhi Mandapam - Shadow Shot Sunday 2 and Sky Watch

Story telling sculptures in different colored granite stones! These sculptures either reflect day-to-day life in those days or scenes from Hindu puranaas (epic).

Here is the story of the above sculptures
1 - Hanumaan carrying Sanjeevi hills as per Hindu Epic Ramayana
2 - Siva devotee
3 - Night watchman - note the stone carved cloak covered from his head and the stick
4 - Dancing girl - holding a creeper
Maratha rulers invaded Thanjai during 17th/18th Century CE. They further adorned the temple with bright paintings, including the ceiling of Nandhi mandapam!

Maratha painting

More art work in the pragaaras (buildings/halls around sanctum sanctorum)...

Gaja Lakshmi

Goddess Gaja Lakshmi is one of the 8 forms of Lakshmi, and represents prosperity and good luck. You can see that this deity sits in Padmasana, one of the best yoga postures!

Kaali

Goddess Kaali is an incarnation of Parvathi or Sakthi, Consort of Lord Shiva. Kaali is associated with destroying evil and She is believed to be the redeemer of life.
It is amazing to see these time tested art and architecture. Every time I visit this temple, I guess I will have more pictures and stories to tell!

Vinayaka @ Meenakshi Amman Temple Madurai

Prime God of Hindus, Vinayaka or Ganapathy is worshiped before the beginning of anything like a wedding or business. And today is His birthday. He has an elephant's face and stout with a pot belly. Here are some of His avtars @ Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple.

Vibuthy Vinayakar

He sits near the entrance of South Tower, and people shower him with vibuthy or holy ash and pray.  

Mukkuruni Vinayakar

He is the largest Ganapathy within this temple and today, special pooja or prayers will be performed. Extra large modhagam (rice based cake) will be offered to Him and later distributed to the public.

Narthana Vinayakar

Narthana means dancing, this dancing Vinayaka is near the Mottai gopuram and people pray to Him on special occasions like Sasthiaptha poorthi (60th birthday).

Couples who are not blessed with a child are advised to do milk absheka (bathing the deity with milk) for this Narthana Vinayaka. Though many beliefs sound superstitious, at times, out of desperation and yearning I tend to believe in age old customs. Belief is everything, I too have done milk abeshikam here, as I had my kid only after a long time.

Replica of a Ship - Malacca Maritime Museum

Playing tourist in the town where I live (Malacca, Malaysia) is one of our favorite activities during my daughter's school holidays. This time we went to the Melaka Maritime Museum.

Malacca Maritime Museum

The museum is housed in a replica of an old Portuguese Ship, known as Nau. Nau is a 16th/17th century ship that was used for trading and warfare. This museum showcases paintings and other artifacts that represents maritime history of Melaka from 14th to 20th century.

King welcoming overseas Islamic Missionaries

Traders selling spices - Era of the Melaka Sultanate

Trade Route - taken by Magellan

Pulau Besar - Wu Shu Island near Malacca - Chinese travelers used this island for filling water and food

Foreign traders at Melaka Port

Fight with the Siamese army

Portuguese Ships

Foreign Invasion

Model of a British Ship

Confinement or Prison in a Nau

Melaka Port during 19th Century - Sumatran and local ships

Besides scanty descriptions along each painting, not much information was available. It has been my long time dream to work as a volunteer in a museum, be it in documenting or guiding the visitor. So, I wanted to meet the curator or any other responsible person to get info regarding this. Unfortunately, there was no one, except for the security guards! Tried to find info online without any success. Planning to visit the other museums and try to get info, hopefully.

Ghost Festival

You can see this giant sized incense sticks all over Malaysia, during the month of Chinese Ghost Festival.

However, until now I haven't bothered to stop by and find out more. This time, I made it a point to drop in one of these tents and chat up. Heat waves hit me the moment I opened my car door. The aroma was so strong that I sneezed.

A volunteer was kind enough to patiently explain and answer my questions:) This festival falls in the seventh month of the lunar calendar (usually around July/August) and is celebrated thorough out the month. Each community/family selects a convenient day to celebrate it.

Yellow - dead people list, Red - live persons seeking prosperity and peace!

On that day, the monks visit this type of prayer tents and pray for the dead souls in general and specifically for those listed on the yellow posters! They also pray for the peace and prosperity of the living, and special prayers for those listed in red posters!!

Colorful idols are placed at the alter. The center one was very large.

God of Heaven

"This is the Heaven God. He guides the dead people, so we pray to him" said the volunteer.

Demigods

"These small Gods are like angles and they help us during natural disasters like earthquake...and see these are the gold and silver mountains that will be there in the Heaven"...

Golden Mountain

It was very fascinating to learn about their beliefs. And the most surprising article was this cute model.

Toilet for the DEAD!!!

The loo model was placed outside the tent and was meant for the visiting souls! It seems that the right toilet is for men and it was marked by 'red tail' like character that represents spade, which is used in farming. Whereas, the left was for ladies, which is marked by red dot, that depicts hand!

One of the Buddhist Goddess Kuan Yin - capable of taking 32 'avatars' to help the believers!

The offerings kept in front of Kuan Yin would be distributed at the end of the prayers, after midnight 12 am! I was proudly shown that the candy, dates and cereals towers were hand crafted by community members!

Vegetarian food

As it was a Buddhist community, all the offerings were vegetarian food, which had mock chicken and other soya/flour based meat. Along with a gift hamper, this food too would be distributed to the donors.

Finally, I was told that all the paper idols and articles would be burnt at the end of the prayer at midnight. Though I strongly respect the tradition and culture, I am concerned about the environmental pollution that occurs due to these burning. And I have a doubt if this could be the cause of the haze at nights during this season!

Who Cares?

Crying Calf - hungry?

Blissful Kittens -satiated!

How to Describe this?

This time of the year when we came to Kuala Lumpur 8 years ago, I was surprised to see national flags hoisted in the vehicles and in front of the houses. Later, I learned that during August, here the citizens were encouraged to display the flags to celebrate 'Merdaka' (Independence), which falls on 30th August.

Now, I saw this motorcycle..

As I was driving, my kid took the above shot on my mobile phone. When I overtook the biker, we noticed that he had flags hoisted on his helmet as well!

Temple - Dwajasthambam (Flagpole)

The tall flagpoles in the Hindu temples have always fascinated me, that too it is a sight to see during holy festivals, as they are adorned with flowers and other religious things.

@ Sri Astha Thasa Buja Kali Temple, Durian Tunggal, Melaka

As per Hindu agama shastra (religious rules), the temples are built to reflect the human body and Dwajasthambam (Flagpole) forms the backbone! Well, am not too sure of the explanations (and I can't find trusted resources online), so let me not elaborate on it.

At Sri Astha Thasa Buja Kali Temple, I saw another, very tall flagpole, which was devoid of adornments. The rotating flash light gave a beautiful touch to that pole!

Now, am not sure why this pole was placed in front of the Dwajasthembam!

Bulgogi - Meat on Fire

It was totally a new lunch experience with expat friends. Well, our Korean friends suggested that we go for lunch at Korean House Restaurant, in Bukit Baru Malacca.

Menu

As we didn't know what to choose, our friends (Korean) Sara, Catherine and Yong Mei decided on the menu and ordered for all of us. First, we were served with rice tea...

Rice Tea

It tasted like Chinese tea. After that a stove was placed on each table, so I was assuming that something like Steamboat is going to be served...

Bulgogi

Well, it didn't look like a steamboat and when Sara said the name of the dish, I heard it as wolgoki and was unable to pronounce it properly, so she wrote on paper as 'Bulgogi', where Bul = Fire and gogi = meat in Korean! So, it was meat (beef) on fire!!!

Bulgogi comes with an assortment of vegetables and meat, so our table was filled with lot of mini-plates:) Though am a die-hard vegetarian, I must admit that the meat dishes were aesthetically presented.

Bulgogi Set

Bulgogi has Beef as the 'king', followed by sides - fried anchovies, pickled shells, fish balls, omelet and steamed egg. Then few veg dishes - pickled cucumber and radish, fresh lettuce with thin slices of garlic, lotus root fry and salad with thousand island sauce. On top of it, a small plate of bean sauce was placed for everyone and it was reddish and resembled Malaysian Sambal or Indian kara chutney!

All of us were given a small box of rice. But, by then another plate of what looked like glass noodles was placed in our table and Sara and Yong Mei told that it was vegetarian. When I said 'I dun want rice, I'll just have this noodles', Sara insisted 'no no, this is a special dish we make only on occasions and you should eat it with rice'.

1st time eating noodles as a side dish for rice!

As the owner of that place was Sara's friend, he gave us two complimentary dishes...

Pancakes

They were Kimchi pancake with crab meat (the one on top) and Veg & egg pancake (the one @ bottom). I didn't try it, because they were not vegetarian.

Overall, I was surprised to see that I had quite a choice of veg-dishes! Especially I liked the way the Koreans eat the rice. Yong Mei gave a demo on how to eat rice...take a fresh lettuce, add a spoon of rice, followed by bean sauce and meat or any side. Now, fold it and eat! It was yummy:)

A Tale of Mount Kinabalu - Crocker Range

If I just say Mount Kinabalu is the tallest peak in Crocker Ranger in the Borneo Island, it sounds like a mundane primary school Geography lesson. To make it interesting, let me tell the local story that we heard from Hatta, our cabbie (similar version is available in Wikipedia as well).

After few KMs down the road from Kota Kinabalu, Hatta pointed at the distant mist covered Mount Kinabalu and I wanted to take a picture, so he pulled over. From then, he started telling about the legendary folklore vividly:)

Kinabalu sneaking out of mist

Eons ago A Chinese Prince was marooned in this part of the Borneo. He fell in love with a local Kadazan tribal girl and married her.

View from Bundhu Tuhan - a kampung (Village in Malay)on the way to Kinabalu

They lived happily and had children!

The Prince started missing his parents, and wanted to visit them. He told his wife that he would go home, meet and get permission from his dad (the Chinese Emperor), and take his wife and the children to China.

Pic taken from the moving cab - using sports mode

Though the girl was apprehensive at first, she believed in the prince's promise that he would come back for her and bid him farewell.

From the moving cab - Village where the Kadazan girl lived!?

Entrance to National Park - UNESCO site

The Kadazan girl was eagerly waiting for the prince. However, the sea shore was far from her village. So, she climbed the tallest mountain near her village to gaze at the South China Sea, hoping to see the prince' ship.

Guest houses for the climbers

As months passed to years, there was no sign of the prince.

Timpohon Point view - Kinabalu

Forced by the Emperor, the prince married another princess for the benefit of the kingdom, and kept away from the Kadazan girl with a heavy heart. Sounds like a typical bollywood movie plot, or any mythological, mystical, historical story, right?

Timpohon Point view - valley

Well, the poor girl was not aware of the prince' betrayal, so she went up the mountain everyday at dawn and came back to the village only at night, to tend to their children.

Entrance to the trekking path leading to Mount Kinabalu

Only climbers with permit are allowed and guide are allowed

We heard only seasoned climbers could make it!

As you go higher, the weather is cold. Imagine how the Kadazan girl would have suffered the harsh weather! By, now the villagers had started calling her the widow of the Chinese prince, as they assumed that the prince might have died on the sea!

Mount Kinabalu - from the viewing deck above the trekking entrance

Finally, the dedicated wife died on the hill top, still longing for the prince. The villagers started believing that her ghost was up in the mountain, waiting for the prince' return and they honored her by naming the mount as Kinabalu meaning Chinese Widow in Kadazan language!

We were touched by the story:)
You might also like to read/see pics of my other Borneo experiences...

Poring - Canopy Walkway Bridge
Aerial Views - Borneo
Water ways of Brunei - Air Kampung, Venice of the East
The Giant Flower - Rafflesia
Jesselton - Kota Kinabalu