Deepavali, Diwali or The Festival Of Lights

One of the biggest festivals celebrate by all Hindus worldwide is Deepavali or Diwali in India. This festival is celebrated with lots of enthusiasm and happiness for five continuous days, with the third day being celebrated as the main Diwali or as Deepavali 'Festival of Lights'. One important practice that the Hindus follow during the festival is to light diyas, candles or oil lamps all around their house. By lighting their house the Hindus are thanking the gods for the happiness, knowledge, peace and wealth that they have received.

The auspicious day of Deepavali or Diwali is decided by the moon position & according to the Hindu calendar, Amavasya or the "no moon day" is considered the perfect day for the Festival. The dark night comes after every fortnight & in the Hindu month of Kartik (October/November), it marks the festive occasion.

There are various alleged origins attributed to this festival. Some hold that they celebrate the marriage of Lakshmi with Lord Vishnu. In Bengal the festival is dedicated to the worship of Kali. It also commemorates that blessed day on which the triumphant Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana. On this day also Sri Krishna killed the demon Narakasura. People celebrated this occasion by lighting diyas, candles or oil lamps to drive away the darkness of amavasya.

Preparation for Deepavali or Diwali usually starts at least two to three weeks before the festival. Most families will be busy cleaning and decorating their houses, some would even renovate their home for the festival. Usually families will shop for new clothes and accessories for their home, forexample, in Singapore most Hindus will go to Little India to do their shopping.

The Hindus will be awake as early as 3am for the first ritual to take an oil bath in the morning and wear new clothes, the oil is regarded as purifying as a bath in the holy Ganges. One of the important practices for the Hindus is to pay their respects to the elderly and most families would go to the temple after having breakfast. The reason why they would be going to the temples is to pray to get happiness and prosperity on Deepavali or Diwali. On the first day usually the Hindus would not go visiting but would stay at home to welcome the guests who visit them. Everyone forgets and forgives the wrongs done by others. There is an air of freedom, festivity and friendliness everywhere. This festival brings about unity and it instils charity in the hearts of people.

Visiting Hindus during Deepavali will be an interesting activity in most countries, as you will get to taste a wide variety of delicious food. Every home that you visit you will be served with a tempting spread of sweets. Some of the popular sweets are halwa, burfi and laddu. Hindus love eating spicy food and for non-vegetarians they indulge in favorites like prawn sambal, chicken tandoori, korma and fish head curry. As for vegetarian Hindus you would find vegetarians popular dishes like thosais, idlis and naans.

Hari Raya Puasa

Hari Raya Puasa is celebrated by Muslims all over the World. It is a joyous occasion for Muslims, as it signifies a personal triumph, a victory of self-restraint and abstinence, symbolising purification and renewal. Most people mistake Hari Raya Puasa for the Muslim New Year, it is actually known as the festival that Marks the end of one month of fasting. ‘Hari Raya’ means day of celebration and ‘Puasa’ means fasting.

Ramadan

Ramadan is one of the names from the Muslim calendar, it’s when all Muslims start fasting for the whole month from dawn till sunset daily. During this period of fasting, apart from eating and drinking Muslims are also prohibited from smoking and any intimate relations during daylight. Muslims are encouraged to avoid cheating, hypocricy and other wrong doing behaviour during the whole month of Ramadan. Only sick Muslims and woman who have their menstruation are excused from fasting during this month, even the young children are taught to fast from the age of 7.

Preparations

The joy of Hari Raya Puasa actually begins before the first day. A week or so before the big day, excitement mounts as the house is readied for the celebration with new furnishing and decorations. Some families also do renovation for the house so that the house would look better when the guests visit it during the festival. Most family would shop for new clothes, curtains and other accessories for their home, an example in Singapore most Muslim would go to the popular muslim area such as Malay Heritage Centre or Geylang Serai to do their shopping. After fulfilling their one-month of fasting, the Muslims would be joyful to celebrate Hari Raya Puasa.

A time to forgive and forget

On the morning of the festival, the Muslims would wear their new clothes and go to the mosque to pray. They offer their thanks to God and after that they would ask for forgiveness from their elders. This is an important custom followed by the Muslims.
They feel that the young ones asking forgiveness from their elders is very essential. On the day, they also visit their relatives and friends to celebrate the happy occasion. If you visit Muslim homes on Hari Raya Puasa you can expect to taste a wide variety of delicious spicy dishes. Some favorite dishes that can be found in Muslims homes on this special occasion, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, are ketupat, lontong, nasi padang, beef rendang, sweets and cookies. The Muslims also have the habit of giving packets of money to kids when they go visiting. The packets are usually in green color and children often look forward to get these money tokens on Hari Raya Puasa. Overall, Hari Raya Puasa is a delightful festival for the Muslims.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my family and friends in Singapore Maaf Zahir Batin.

Smokers getting paid to stop smoking

Smokers are offered £12,50 per week to stop smoking in deprived parts of the big cities in Scotland.
The organizers hope that around 900 smokers will be helped with the £500,000 pilot scheme.
Participating smokers will be offered £12.50 per week with which they can buy food in their local supermarket.
The participants will also be provided with nicotine replacement therapy through their local pharmacy.
Smokers can take part in the project for 12 weeks.
This new incentive scheme is a partnership between NHS Tayside, Dundee City Council and the Scottish Government and is launching in the autumn.

I been planning to stop smoking for while and I just wonder if money will do the trick.
And how will the participants be tested, what stops them from smoking during the project?
And what after those 12 weeks?
Smoking is a habit that is hard to break and it takes a lot of self discipline to quite.
Stating that they want to help the deprived by giving them some money for a few weeks will not do the trick I'm afraid.
Instead they should try to get jobs for those people as boredom is the biggest problem for people who want to stop smoking.
Good luck to all of you who want to stop!

The Earth completed another Orbit around the Sun

Yesterday I celebrated my 35th Birthday.
So, I celebrated the Earths 35th orbit around the Sun in my life.
365 days for one orbit, 35 years, that makes me 12775 days old.
24 Hours in one day, that makes me 306600 hours old.
60 minutes in one hour, that makes me 18.396.000 minutes old.
60 seconds in one minute, that makes me ...... the number is to big to mention.
Some hairs already gave up on me and left my skull, others are turning gray ten years to early.
The ones that are leaving will not celebrate the next completion of another orbit of the earth around the Sun, with me.
I'm glad that my wife told me that she will still love me, even if I'm bold.
So hairs, leave me if you want but I will be celebrating another orbit of the Earth around the Sun next year!

Animal Rights

Today they showed this new artificial arm or leg on the news. Apparently it's very revolutionary.
I'm sure a lot of people will benefit from it.
But it was tested on this monkey. The animal was pinned down in this machine and could not move its head. The monkey didn't really seem to enjoy it!
I guess, I wouldn't either.
Is it ethical to use animals for testing products?
Is it ok if we benefit from it, is it not ok if it is just to test a new product that will be mass produced for consumption?
It's a thin line to walk on and I guess most people don't really care as long they don't have to look at it.
It's hard to be a Monkey now a days!

Symbol of Singapore

Singapore comes from the word "Singapura".

In the 13th century, a Sumatran prince caught in a storm,was shipwrecked and washed ashore to an island.
On the Island he spotted a beast that looked like a Lion, so he named the Island Singa Pura, which is Malay for Lion City.
In the year 1819, Singapore was founded as a British trading colony by Sir Stamford Raffles.
The lion head symbol was introduced in 1986 as an alternative national symbol of Singapore.
The lion head symbolises strength and excellence, courage, as well as resilience in the face of challenges.
Singapore is one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links.

A Rainy Day

We went only for a short while on a sunny day. But once again I learned that the weather in Asia can change within a matter of minutes.
Within a short while after me and my wife left the house it started pouring down.
It's always wise to bring an umbrella wherever you go but then it should be one that has no holes in it.
And ours had a few holes.
We got back home completely wet but refreshed after the intense heat of the last few days.
Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!!!!

Communists furious with Indiana Jones

Yesterday Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released in the Russian Movie theaters . It's the first time that an American movie gets so much exposure in Russia.
In the movie, Indy fights against a bad KGB agent.
The Russian Communists find the movie very Anti Communist. They say that the movie gives the communists a bad image. They fear that the younger generation will get a idea about the communists in the fifties.
A member of the communist Party said: What counts is that we defeated Hitler together with the USA.
Movies are movies and reality is reality!
Let people just enjoy the movie and let politics out of it!

Female Streaker wanted

Eindhoven(Holland) is organizing the Tennis Classic from 2 till 5 October.
They want to replay the Wimbledon final of 1996, when Richard Krajicek played against Washington.
Just before that final a woman streaker ran on the court.
The organization is now looking for female streakers in their attempt to reenact that final.
Anybody interested can put in their application and afterwards there will be a final selection by a jury.
Are these candidates supposed to strip in front of a jury or streak somewhere in public?
In the past people who did streaks would get big fines, now they are looking for people like that.
We live in a fast changing world where people have no boundaries anymore when it comes to promote their product!

Immigration Day

It was one of those days you don't like.
It was immigration day, my social visit pass was almost expired.
Couldn't eat in the morning, my stomach doesn't like these kind of days either.
But it turned out ok.
My wife accompanied me and I think we had the lucky queuing number, a shame I can't remember the number or I would have used it in the 4D tomorrow.
We had a very helpful Malay Female Officer.
Got my extension!
So my wife and I where very happy and had Tulang for lunch.
I like happy endings.
Oeps, just remembered the number: 9867!!!!

Working class 'has lower IQ'!!!????

Bruce Charlton, reader in evolutionary psychiatry at Newcastle University,states that the working classes have lower IQs than those from wealthier backgrounds and should not be expected to win places at top universities. He suggested that's why there is a the lower number of working-class students at elite universities.
Bruce Charlton says higher social classes have a significantly higher average IQ than lower social classes.
Now, I don't know what the social background is of this Bruce Charlton but I'm quite sure that his IQ can't be that high by stating something stupid like that.
It is Prejudice!!!!
He probably made it into the university because his family had money and not because of his high IQ!
Wise People are not always educated and educated people aren't always wise!
It's a simple fact that the reason why there are so little students from the working class at universities, because the working class can not afford to send their children to university.
And by keeping the admission fees so high it wont change very soon.
A working class hero is something to be!!!

Polar Bears

I had no Idea what to write today until I watched Dr. Dolitle.
Eddy Murphy stars in this movie as a veterinarian who can talk with the animals.
By working together with the animals they save the forest.
So I started browsing a little bit on the internet. I just typed in " endangered animals". Well, I got quite a long list of websites. And I started to get the feeling that there might be more endangered animals than not endangered animals.
I found a very good website about polar bears.
The Polar Bear is the world's largest land carnivore and is threatened by global warming and the destruction of it's natural habitat.The Polar Bear could be extinct within 30 years.
Polarbears International is probably the most complete resource of information on the Polar Bears.
Their slogan is : Conservation through Research and Education!
You find all the Polar Bear facts, Status Reports and even a Bear Tracker where you can track the movement of satellite collared bears on the Beaufort Sea.

When Rich People get bored

What do rich people do when they get bored?
There were a lot of examples in the last few years.
They are bored , they have a lot of money, so they get a very expensive hobby.
And some actually make money out of it, well I guess that's what they're good at anyway.
Donald Trump was getting bored so he started this show; The apprentice.
It's a good time to start reading a book or get out of the house when this show is on. They call it reality TV; Whatever! It doesn't mean because good old Donald is bored we have to look at his face every week!
Same thing with Paris Hilton. She gets bored so daddy spends some money so she can get her own show on TV. Thanks daddy for putting that crap on TV, another good moment to go out!
Offcourse not all of them want to get into the TV business.
A lot of the "richies" want to get into the sports.
The most famous one in the last few years is probably Abramovich,who bought the Chelsea football club.
The money he spends in one year on Chelsea is enough to feed a small nation for a year! And not with the best results so far.
Thaksin had so much money to launder that he decided to buy Manchester City football club. Most of the money he probably made on the back of the poor. Half of Thailand should own a piece of that club.
There are some more "Richies" like Al Fayed and Hicks who bought some Football clubs. I'm sure they got rid of the boredom but probably got some headaches instead.
Maybe it's just a good way for them to launder their money, I just leave it in my pocket when I wash my jeans and then it's not even bills but a few coins. Well, you have to start somewhere!
Richard Branson had a lot of money to spend but wasn't interested in Football or TV.
The man is a bit of an adventurous one. So he spends most of his money on balloons!
Not the kind of balloons you buy for a party, no, the bigger ones. The ones that can fly all the way up into the stratosphere so they can fly around the world or at least die trying!
I don't have all that money to spend so I spend my time writing utter nonsense like this when I'm bored. It doesn't cost me anything but time and maybe someday I make some money out of it( just dreaming OK!).
Well I'm not bored anymore and I'm starting to get a headache from writing this nonsense.
If you have been reading this useless piece of information, you must have been bored to. I hope it helped a little bit to keep you busy and it didn't cost you any money!
And now it's time to launder my money!!!!

Lazy Sunday

Spend most of my time today chilling in bed. The cause: Hangover day!
We went to a Chinese wedding last night and the wine came at a regular pace.
Like always I was the quite type and as always I started to loosen up after a few glasses of alcohol.
I guess thats what alcohol does to me, It makes me relax, not like with other people who get aggressive from it.
Same story with my wife,quite at first but after a few glasses she loosens up as well.
So it more or less ended up with two funny people on a table and today two people with a hangover in bed.
Life is more than fair isn't it!!!

Do People Care?

In the past few days more than 20.000 people died in Myanmar after a Cyclone rolled through the country.
Over 20.000 of the poorest people in the world died. Surviving might have been a matter of having a brick house instead of a wooden house.
Rice fields where littered with corpses, yes, this might have been a good reason why the price of rice went up( and not because of some greediness).
The news on tv5 spend about two minutes on the tragedy that took place in their neighboring country and then they went on about the big news! Something in the fashion world!
It reminded me of a Jack Johnson song where he sings: why can't the News reader be descent enough to put just a tear in his eye.
And then people go to work the next day and talk about what happened in Myanmar for 5 minutes and then the rest of the day the hot topic will be about the latest fashion news and the latest news about this or that actor or actrice.
We can at least be descent enough to say a quite prayer for all those unfortunate people and praise ourselves lucky with whatever we have. After all, that little bit of luxury we have is probably much more than a lot of people have in this world.

My Mother in Law's towel

When I did our laundry this morning I had to take my Mother in Law's laundry out first and while I was hanging out the laundry to dry I found a towel in there that gave me a shock.
The towel was covered in something I identified as fungus and it had two wholes in it the size of my head.
Could it really be?
Was my Mother in Law one of those silent protesters against the throw away society we live in, A society that produces products that can be used maybe ten times and you have to buy a new product. Not like it was in the old days when they made products that could last half your life.
It lit a spark in me. Yes, the long gone Idealist in me woke up. Lets stand on the barricades to fight against this throw away society.
Lets protest against Mc Donald's for serving us burgers that probably only half exist of meat!
Lets protest against all those brand name clothing lines that over charge for their clothes while they are probably manufactured by children somewhere in China!
Lets protest against the razor blade companies that produce razorblades at expensive prizes and you can only use them once or twice!
But pretty soon all those ideas started to tire my out and the thought occurred me that maybe my Mother in Law isn't really a silent protester.
Maybe she just loved the towel and couldn't find the hart to throw it away or maybe she just keeps it for other things than drying herself(although I don't think there is much you can do with this one).
So slowly the Idealist in me faded away again and another idea rose from out my gray braincells: Maybe I should just buy my Mother in Law a new towel!

Smoking in Singapore: Not for the Poor

The number of buyers of duty-unpaid cigarettes caught jumped a staggering 165% to 6,012 in year 2007. This was up from 2,268 in year 2006. And for this year these figures will be even higher as daily a few people get caught smuggling in cigarettes from Indonesia or Malaysia.
A pack of Marlboro cost around 11 Singapore dollars in Singapore while that same pack costs only around 5 Singapore Dollar in Malaysia and even less in Indonesia.
Off course this makes it a big business for smugglers and the opportunists as they can earn up to 3 dollar per pack of cigarettes smuggled into Singapore.
And of course there are the buyers of these smuggled items,the common man on the street,middle class people like you and me and the poor. Like always it's us middle class people who get hit the worse and it is not for health reasons why the government punishes people who buy these cigarettes. They just do it to protect their market and the profits made on taxes!!!!!!!!!!
Make sure, when You come for a visit to Singapore from Malaysia and you have a pack of cigarettes U with for own use, to open it before you pass Singapore Immigration.
For each pack of cigarettes that is brought into Singapore and that is not been declared there is a fine of up to 500 Singapore Dollar!
So be ware because smoking in Singapore is not only bad for your health but can also be very bad for your wallet!!!

And just when I planned to stop smoking!

Earth may get respite from global warming!
That's what I read in the newspaper yesterday.
According to a study done by some German scientists, global warming in the next decade because of a natural shift in ocean circulations but they say that Earths temperature will keep rising as expected over a longer period.
The scientists believe that an impending change in the Gulf Stream, that is the conveyor belt that transports warm surface water from the tropical Atlantic to the northern Atlantic and returns cold water southwards at depth( does anybody understands all this?).
Apparently all this will lead to cooler temperatures in North Atlantic and in North America and Europe and helps the temperatures in the tropical pacific to remain stable.

I hope no one will be angry with me now when I decide to wait a few more weeks before I stop smoking as part of my contribution to stop Global warming!!!!!!!!!!!!