A Perfect Substitute for a Husband

Posted by Lakshmi
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Tuesday 22 November 2011


The holidays have begun and I'm having a hard time trying to keep myself sane with the full time presence of my 16 year old son.  He's at that terrible stage and age  when

i ) he ( all boys ?) thinks he knows everything  about anything but who doesn't know how to put his wet towel in the towel rack... he drops it on the bed

ii)  who thinks that when Dad is not around the house, the TV remote is his for day and his sister has to plead with him


iii)  who reasons to me that exams are over and its  legally right  for him to watch  TV endlessly  and keep up with his Facebook/Internet games..or play basketball under the harsh Malaysian sun every evening, rain or shine....


iv) whose idea of cleaning/tidying  which is part of their  weekly  house-cleaning duty  is to chuck everything he sees into the wardrobe and jam the door or if  there are too many clothes littered  in his room, to  dump them conveniently  into the laundy basket, both used and unused .....

v)  who sweeps the room without a dustpan and walks up and down the stairs umpteen times absentmindedly to get it and then finally  pushes all the rubbish under the bed and  sweeps all the dust under the carpet ! Really !

The list doesn't end here but you get the picture.  I wonder if this is the norm with all boys or am I the only mum  who is facing such a smucsch.  Of course, being the 'smart and modern mum' that I am, I consciously consciously make it a point to sit down with him every other day to explain to him the triple load that I have to do to rectify these stupidities of his ( have even given him the ' Mummy is SO  tired but I've no choice but to do your chores too'  routine; the     " Mummy can't bend down, my knees are paining but since you can't do, Mummy has to do chores for you ' guilt act  routine and other methods I can think of but nothing seems to work after the first week....

On the other hand, I am a hindsight expert and so I can't really blame him if he's a chip of the old  (Dad ) block.. can I ?

And so, I would like to share with my readers this perfect substitute


Ps:  It's a pity I got to know of this substitute 20 years after my wedding ... (sigh ! )



Happy reading and painting


Lakshmi


A Perfect Substitute to Husbandly Problems











arm your feet and whom you can push off if he snores





This Is What I Call Education

Posted by Lakshmi
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Tuesday 15 November 2011


With all the nonsense in our education system where getting grade A is a dime a dozen and not worthy of the certificate  paper it is printed on, we should all ( especially our mumbled and jumbled  Minister/Ministry of Education et al )  take a leaf from this great man  and ask Bunker Roy to come to Malaysia on the first plane available and help set up a college. Seriously. 






Listen readers and I mean really   really listen to what Bunker Roy has to say .  It makes perfect sense to me and if our Minister of Education implements  such a policy, I will personally queue in line to shake his hands !


By the way, ever wonder    why Malaysia doesn't seem to have  and attract people like Bunker Roy in our society  or for that matter any true blue hero / thinkers like him  who strive to make a difference  and do  something for the benefit of others ?   Incidently,he was selected as one of Time 100, the 100 most influential personalities in the world by TIME Magazine in 2010.[2]

The Barefoot College that Sanjit  Bunker Roy started in Tilonia, Rajasthan, India was also one of  the 9 recipients   of the prestigious    Aga Khan Award  and he  returned the Award on a matter of principle .  It was also the first time in the history of  the Aga Khan Foundation that anyone had returned the  award.  That speaks volumes on Bunker Roy's character,  doesn't it ? 

And here,  we have ministers and VIPs robbing the  hard pressed  Malaysian public in broad daylight !  Gosh, I get so angry when I think and read about  the injustice of the system,  the stupidity of the people and the shenanigans of the political elite in a country as blessed as Malaysia. 

The God Almighty had indeed blessed this country and its people greatly like no other country in the world and yet we have blundered big time ....................................and it looks like we are still in a stupor .



Happy reading and painting


Lakshmi

Elton John Is Coming To Town ?

Posted by Lakshmi
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3 November 2011

The news of Elton John's  upcoming show  in November 22 at the Gentings Resort, has, as usual, brought out the  voice and thoughts of the  Conservative  Malaysian Islamic Party ( PAS ) represented by their Youth leader, whose stance and  views have since  gone viral all over the world, except maybe Zimbabwe and Tonga, I guess. And what was the reason of their objection ? " The gay singer promotes hedonism  and so the concert would corrupt young Muslims because of his homosexuality ".  Really ?  My, my ! What a great and erudite man, this PAS Youth Leader, Shahril Azman is  .  Hello Mr Shahril Azman Abdul Halim Al-Hafiz,  I've  got an urgent  message for you ,  the Talibhans are actively looking for such great thinkers like you in their midst.  Would you like to go over and  join them pronto?


Now, I'm trying to be sober and reasonable here instead of  shrieking and shooting my mouth off......... Is this the best argument he and the party he represents  can put forth to object to  a concert ? 


And in case my Muslim friends think that as a non-Muslim, I have no jurisdiction to question him, let me gently remind that I'm not questioning his faith, I'm questioning his arrogance for speaking for all Malaysians of all faith in Malaysia.    Just as he has the right to speak out for what he thinks, so have I and the rest of right thinking sane Malaysians who can differentiate the wood for the trees.

My argument is simple - I want to be able to attend the Elton John or  any Tom,  Dick and Harry  concert,  if I so wish, for its entertainment value, for the singer's  voice and his/her  songs . It doesn't matter really, it could be a myriad variety of reasons for which I may or may not want to attend the concert .  The point is this - who is Sharil to speak on  my behalf and take objection ?  If he's only informing  his party members ( preferably through sms ! ), he should only tell them   inside the  four walls of  his party's office and not seek cheap publicity and open his  mouth to all and sundry and in the process usurp my right to watch the Elton John/ Tom, Dick and Harry Show or whatever .  It says so in the Malaysian Constitution, Mister, and I suggest that you read all of it before you  open your mouth and remove all doubt of your  lack of grey matter ! Oh and by the way, if   you  do so strongly believe that just by attending Elton's concert, everyone will become like Elton, then you  should seriously put your  money where your  mouth is and buy me and all Eltons' fans,  two way flight tickets to US , including the concert tickets, of course. 

In a country as diversified as ours, there are bound to be different views, perceptions and values  acccording to their beliefs and faith.  The maxim " one man's meat is another man's poison" hold so true and I'm surprised that a Youth President of a political party is so shallow in thinking and is not aware of it.  It's really mind boggling the kind of people elected to party/political posts in this country.  Are the citizens so bereft of good and right thinking leaders to elect or are the members of political parties such nitwits and simpletons from the boondocks that they vote for the first one who makes the most noise, like in empty cans?    This is directed to not only PAS but to all the 'itsty bitsy', " kuching kurap"  and major parties in Malaysia, the Government of the day included .

We have Prime Ministers who blatantly buy voters in elections,  Deputy Ministers who flaunt their race first rather than be Malaysian first, a string of imbeciles appointed as Education Ministers who have messed up the education system of this country big time  and still doing it with great gusto, the Sports Ministry which bought 23 horses for RM5.66million without approval and the Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek has the cheek to say that he goofed when he explained " we are  not a horse-breeding nation and don't have the expertise.  We followed the recommendation of foreign breeders enthusiastically " .

That's not all.  We have the Ministry of Tourism  which  paid millions for a facebook feature ( even my good friend ,Tengku Norashikin , a relative  newcomer to emails, is facebook savvy in a matter of days ! ) ministries which exceeded their budget by RM3.73 billion ( did  you  know that our national debt has exceeded 50%  (53.1% ) of our GDP at RM 407 billion  ), the Ministry of Agriculture disbursed RM8O million to one single feedlot company (  linked to the Minister of Women &  Welfare ) which was to produce 60,000 heads of cattle annually  for local consumption  but which only produced 3,289 heads - meaning the company spent an average of RM25,000 for each cattle which also means about RM 170.00 for a kilo of meat !  ( Now  I cannot stop myself )

The list doesn't stop here, of course ,and  all these and more  were in the Auditor General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang's 2010 report . Go read it, people  and decide for your self what our beloved country has come to - the laughing stock of the world  and it happens every year ( Now I'm really angry ) The downright stupidest ( if I can call it that ) one of all was the error in placing a decimal point  which  resulted in a pensioner receiving RM21433.00 a month instead of RM214.33 ( the Sun Nov 1, 2011 )


Also extracted from  the Sun,( dated 2 Nov 2011) is  a letter written by one Mohd Yusoff which I have copied here

Matter of faithPosted on 2 November 2011 - 05:04am
IT appears that this is a hostile world for Muslims. Every individual, group or organisation appears to be conspiring to erode the faith of Muslims in their religion. Hence about four to five thousand Muslims (out of the expected one million) were crying out to the government for help to protect their faith at the Shah Alam stadium.I find this episode to be sad and pathetic. I would have thought that one’s religious faith, or the onus of guarding one’s faith is on the individual. It is incredulous that a Muslim requires government intervention to help protect his faith. It’s the height of naivety. Muslims everywhere, do grow up.Mohd YusoffShah Alam


Write on, Mr Yusoff, write on for the likes of Sharil and his types

Finally, I received this email going viral and thought that I'd share with my readers. Came at the most opportune moment, it did !



I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve Perkatak related stress. Do you discriminate against people who practice Yoga?

Just thinking deeply about the next sponsor for my wife’s handbags and her shopcoholic daughter.

Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem……my monorail.





I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the EPG and envisioning a new paradigm for CHOGM….minus the irritating irritaTUN!

Ah, the unique and unpredictable circadian rhythms of the sleepy heads!


This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in the BTN boot camp.

I love sleep. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?

"I'm not asleep... but that doesn't mean I'm awake."

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one.

Pardon me, while I take my power nap. My wives just completed their COW (club of obedient wives) modules last night.

A power nap is when you sleep on someone who's weaker than you.

"Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals.

"Some people talk in their sleep. Speakers talk while other people sleep.
I'm actually doing a Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan (SLEEP).




Happy reading and painting


Lakshmi