A Week In India

Emperor Akbar's Tomb in Sikandra

Just arrived back in Malaysia this morning..... you know what? I felt a strong urge to kiss the ground at KLIA and offer a thank you prayer to God. The trip to India made me realise that we are indeed fortunate to be born here in Malaysia! And yet we still gripe on about small stuff. Man, what a thankless lot we are! Shame on us!

Imagine this.....
1. 80% of India's population live below the poverty line
2. Whole families live by the roadside inside huts made of nothing but old discarded boxes as walls and cloth as roof (and this I witness myself in Delhi, the capital city of India)
3. Cows, goats, pigs, dogs roams freely in the city, mingling with traffic
4. Dungs (from humans, cows, goats, pigs, dogs) + spits + garbage can be found anywhere, especially on the road and by the streetside (better watch out where you step, man!)
5. Electricity is not reliable at all (during our meeting, the power cuts can be as frequent as 10 times a day in Delhi!)
6. Water? Don't even think of drinking the tap water (boiled or not) - you'll get diarrhea for days!
7. Children begs for money on the streets - problem is, if you give a kid some money, herds of them come and surrounds you.....

Despite all this, I actually enjoyed my brief spell in India. With the right leadership, they can be on par with other countries. They have natural resources and people (but they need to be trained first) to achieve this.

One thing that I really respect though is that they are polite. Eventhough most of them are poor, they did not stoop down to steal from others. For example, I went for Friday prayers and left my leather shoes at the mosque entrance. After prayers ended, I am relieved (and quite surprised too!) that nobody even touches the shoes. If this were KL National Mosque, I'll end up walking barefooted after prayers!

Taj Mahal - in person

Taj Mahal - was there on 23rd July 2006

The New 7 Wonders of the World

I came across an initiative by a group called the New OpenWorld Foundation recently, which calls for a worldwide vote to name the New 7 Wonders of the World, choosing from a list of 21 finalists (see www.new7wonders.com for more details).

Personally, I would choose the following (not in any particular rank, mind you):
1. Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
2. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
3. Great Wall of China, China
4. Taj Mahal, Agra, India
5. Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England
6. Colosseum, Rome, Italy
7. Ayasofya Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey

Do check out the website and vote. They will announce the official result on 7th July 2007, i.e. 07.07.07.....

I've only been to two of the places above so far, the Eiffel Tower (twice) and Stonehenge. Hopefully, I would have the time to visit Taj Mahal soon, as I'm flying off to India today (on a business trip, of course).

Even my dearest late grandma has walked on the Great Wall of China, when she was well into her seventies!

Hmmm..... that's only 3 out of 7 for me..... 4 more to go!

A Month of Enforced Silence

My sincerest apologies for not adding any entries to this blog for the past month; it has been a roller-coaster kind of month for me.

For starters, ever since I was moved to my new workplace, my workload increased by threefold almost overnight! On top of that, suddenly I was notified to prepare and undergo my professional assessment in less than a months' time. AARRGHHH!!!! (the age-old adage of "when it rains, it really, really pours" came to mind)

So there I was, shuttling between KL, Kuantan, Kerteh, Miri and Brunei non-stop, juggling between work and study (for my assessment) day and night, squeezing some quality time with the family in between. It was so hectic, up to the point where I had to borrow my wife's PDA and download some study materials into it, for me to revise during the Sultan's 60th birthday do at Istana Nurul Iman on the 15th of July. (BTW, Dirgahayu Kebawah Duli Tuan Patek, Semoga Allah Lanjutkan Usia Duli Tuanku, Kekal Qarar Memerintah Negara!)

Alhamdulillah, I managed to go through my assessment fairly well (from my standpoint & based on the unofficial result). It was scheduled for 3 hours; but on the day itself, it went on for 4 straight hours. IMHO, it was the most gruelling interview session that I've ever had in my whole life! Finger-crossed, let's hope that the official result will come through in my favour. Manalah tahu, kalau ada rezeki, kan Ayrah? Tuah anak siapa tahu.....

Ayrah @ 5 months