How much is Panipuri at Dharisha store on Chowpatty? Who stole constable Varmy's bicycle?

Assalamulaikum.

Jamal couldn't answer a simple question of "what is written underneath the national emblem of India?" where it is thought that every Indian should know.

Police Inspector 1 : My five-year old daughter can answer that question, but you couldn't.

Jamal: How much is Panipuri at Dharisha store on Chowpatty?

Police Inspector 1: What?

Jamal : Panipuri. One plate. How much?

Police Inspector 2: -10 Rupees.
Jamal: -Wrong

Jamal : 15 since Diwali

Jamal: Who stole Constable Varmy's bicycle?

Police Inspector 1: You know who that was?

Jamal: Everyone in Juhu knows that.

Jamal: Even five year olds

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

When we don't know, we ask. Sometime when we ask a simple question, that from the perspective of the listener(s) is something that everyone should know, they would look down on us, feel annoyed and would probably make fun of us.

Well, do you know "how much is Panipuri at Dharisha store on Chowpatty?" "Do you know who stole constable Varmy's bicycle?"

I'm sorry if I don't know the answer to that simple question. At least I have the courage to ask and have the need to know.

Colourism

Assalamualaikum....

Colourism is a term that is used to show prejudice in terms of the person's skin colour. The term is quite new and it has not been define by anyone yet (I believe so). If we were to search in the open based Encyclopedia (Wikipedia), the term Colorism is still under discussion and most of the articles were not correctly cited (not to mention it falls under "extremely poor article").

Discrimination among human beings in accordance with their skin colour can be seen in America when they are on their way to accept the African as American. During that period the Americans who are fair/pale skinned (Anglo) stands as the majority and the ruling power of America. The Africans who are dark skinned were of course treated differently for being a different race, classes, etc.



In addition to the discrimination of race, dark-skinned people were discriminated with the tone colour of their skin. Meaning to say that the darker you are the more discrimination you will get. They point this as the "Brown Paper Bag Test", where they will use the colour of the brown paper bag as an indication of your skin colour complexion. Those who are darker than the paper bag will not able to attend the party or any other social events that uses this kind of test during that period. Previously in Wikipedia, it also mentions about the test being done to enter the Harvard University, but that part of the article have been removed.

Even in other countries, as a result of the colonization of the Anglo white-skinned people, fair/pale/white-skinned people are being look upon and were seen as more beautiful than those who are darker. This can be seen in my own country Malaysia, India, etc. As a result, beauty product that will make your skin fairer were created and sold to make our skin fairer and "beautiful".



(my opinion) I think Colourism does not only applies to dark-skinned people because of the Black Albino cases in Africa. Albinos in Africa were hunted and killed as they said that their body parts are very valuable in witchcraft. They were also seen as bringers of bad luck in their community.



I hope that the there will be more research in the study of Colourism. I am looking into the possibility about the view of the "colour" itself in relation with the colour of the skin; does the view that light/fair/white imagery is positive and dark/black imagery is negative (for example we have a hero that dresses in white and a villain in black) can reflect to the colour of the skin.



I will also try to look upon this matter in the Islamic point of view. Findings will be posted in the next post.

Mackinac (MAK-in-aw) Island and horses is a better place.

Peace be upon awak~!

Mackinac Island

This is my ideal place to live. Mackinac (pronounced as Mackinaw) Island situated in the islands of Michigan U.S.A is a popular tourist attraction.



The best thing about this island is that it bans all kinds of motor vehicles except for the ones that are really needed (snowmobiles during winter, service vehicles and emergency vehicles). The island's occupants uses horses and bicycles as the main form of transportation.



I have discussed with my dad about making the world a better place by replacing cars and other motors vehicles with horses, but my dad said that it's not possible because the cost of having a horse is much more expensive than a car. Buying a horse is costly enough, maintaining, caring, etc bills is another thing.



I still believe that having horses are better than cars. Yes it is costly to have (buy) a horse nowadays. It's just because the production of horses are less than cars which makes horses more rare. When it's rare, the things to maintain it will also be rare, so does the production of it. When things are rare they'll become expensive, so does things like the spare-parts of a Ford car in Malaysia or the spare-parts of other mega expensive cars.



Somehow we just need to start to use horses again. We just have to start using it step by step. It will be very costly at the beginning, but when horses are produced in a large number (I'm not stating that horses are produce like machinery huhu) it will be affordable to us in the future.



I'm not against motor vehicles in all as some of it are really in need of use such as the ambulance, heavyweights lorries, etc. But having to cut most of the normal motor vehicles will indeed save the earth.

Go green.

Taxi-ani (two Taxis)

Here's a story about two different taxi drivers that I've encounter with. I'll try to write it as a play.

------------

Boy, Man, Malay Taxi Driver (M.T.D), Chinese Taxi Driver (C.T.D)

A teenage boy, standing and waiting for a taxi to town. Came one; a Malay driver in his 30s. The boy enters.

Boy : Bandar ya

M.T.D : Okay.

The trip is not far. Silence accompanies them as they went on the road to reach the destination. The fee is RM1.

Boy: (opens up his wallet, hands the driver a RM5 note) Nah ...

M.T.D : (looks for change) Isshh ... takde duit pecah la (looks again)

Boy : (looks again in his wallet, trying to find coins as substitute) Takde gak ni ... camane ya?

M.T.D : (still looking for change while putting on a thinking face) Kire halal la ek? takde duit pecah ni (smiles)

Boy : (blurs) Ah ... Okay ... (exits the taxi)

M.T.D : (drives away)

(Time move slowly)

Boy (monologue) : Celaka betol ... kena rembat duit aku ... senang betul aku kne tipu ... baik sangat ke aku ni? macam sial rembat duit orang macam tu ... celaka.

Lights off
Lights on

A man walking towards a long queue of taxi. He stops at the one in front of a Chinese driver ones looking in his 50s. He opens the door passenger's seat door. It won't open.

C.T.D : (points towards the backseat)

Man : (opens up the backseat) Wangsa Walk?

C.T.D : Siffllas sd (slurs)
Man : (enters taxi) Mende tadi?

C.T.D : Sila masuk (pushes the meter button on)

Man : Wangsa Walk ya ... Brape ringgit ah?

C.T.D : Tak jauh pun ... lima ringgit pun tak makan.

Destination reached. The meter indicates that it's RM3.80. Two Malay boy is looking towards the taxi outside of it.

Man : (opens his wallet, he only have two RM1 notes and a RM50 note) Takde pecah la ... (hands the driver a Rm50 note)

C.TD : Aiyooh ... takde pecah la (check in his pocket and counts his money for change) tak cukup laa ... (checks again)

Man : (checks his wallet and bag for any possible changes that can be use) ... takde duit kecik la ... camane ya?

C.T.D : takpela (smiles) bagi je dua ringgit ...

Man : isshh ... mana boleh camtu (looks around if there's any shops for change, there ain't any)

C.T.D : takpe, takpe ... saya drive jauh boleh dapat passenger lagi ...

Man : Betol ke ni? Minta maaf sangat-sangat (shakes hands with the driver)
C.T.D : betol ... takpe-takpe ...

The two boys standing outside comes closer to the taxi and signalling the taxi driver for a ride.

C.T.D : haa tengok suda ade passenger ... tak rugi pun ... (smiles)

Man : Terima kasih banyak-banyak ya ... minta maaf skali lagi ... (exits the taxi smiling)

Lights off

-----------

That's the story of my experience taxi riding with two different kind of driver that I'd value the memories. To be honest, I'm quite ashame with the Malay driver as a Malay myself. I always thought that Chinese would be stingy on money (I know it's prejudice). because of this I will never again view people in stereotypes.

For the Chinese Taxi Driver, I really thank you for your hospitality and generosity. Even though it's just 10 minutes ride, I will remember it for the rest of my life.

As for the Malay Taxi Driver, I don't like the way you treat me, but I do thank you for the experience you gave me because it has made me a different person. Thank you.

May God bless you both.

p/s: I would love to take a ride in Robert de Niro's taxi. (Taxi Driver 1976)

Kampung Life Part 2 (raya + explicit)

Assalamualaikum ...

This Raya I want to show pictures of rendang making at my home in Kuantan (how to make rendang our style).

It starts with selecting the right knife (to slaughter the chickens of course). The knife must be extra sharp as to make the slaughtering process easier and less suffering for the chickens.

As we get our hands on the chickens (8 of them) we will start slaughtering them one by one.



Slaughtering a chicken is not an easy thing as we must grab/hold/pinch the right ... thing and slaughter/slice/potong the right part of the neck. The process must be done in haste as slowing it may cause more sufferings to the animal.

After doing that, we will let the animal to die at peace before we pick them to pluck the feathers.

The following image may be disturbing.

Note that we must ensure that it is really dead before we pick it up. Here's one which took so long to die. I had to chop of the head later because my father said that it'll only cause it more suffering if it remains alive like that.


When you are sure that it is really dead then you can dip/rendam in boiling hot water to pluck the feathers easier. This is the part that I hated the most in making rendang.


We have to ensure that all the feathers are plucked because ... how would you feel if there's still feathers on a KFC Dinner Plate?


After that we'll remove the intestines.

While removing the intestines we can find eggs which were not layed yet (the white one) and even eggs which are not yet to become eggs -erk?- (the orange ones) This one you cannot find it in stores/pasar malam.

The you'll cut it to pieces and wash it.

Next we have to get some coconut milk . This the tool used to rip open the cocunut.

Just poke the thing in and rip it open. After ripping off the outer layer, we'll smash/cut the cocunut into half and ... get it processed to get the coconut milk/santan.

After done cutting/slicing/blending the onions,spices, etc we'll set up the place to cook the rendang.

Here's the ingredient from afar . The coconut milk is poured in when the other ingredients are well mixed.

Half way there after pouring the santan/coconut milk. Sorry I forgot to capture the picture of the finished ones.

Here's a picture taken from the net of how the chicken rendang would look like.


Selamat Hari Raya ...

A unique ketupat brought by my aunt. A Ketupat made using (tq teyhah) Pitcher Plant/Periuk Kera.


My dad says that this banana is called Pisang Tanduk/Horn Banana. I never knew that it can get until this big.

Danger of Lying

I fell off(tq xLANx) a motorcycle at Greenwood once, riding with my friend. Me and my friend have some minor injuries and were treated at the IIUM clinic. I didn't tell my parents about this because they have warned(tq xLANx) me not to ride on a motorcycle whatever the case is (they're motorcycle-phobic).

Somehow the news got to my parents, but in a different version. I don't know how the news spread but what reached my parents is that I've been in an accident and I'm in the hospital with my arm broken.

See how things turn out when someone lied.

This might sound totally absurd but think about it : You know that Charles Darwin told us that humans are the descendants of apes. One day if someone tells(tq xLANx) (lying as a joke) that we actually evolve from frogs, as the frog prince fairy tale were not just created without a cause, people might just believe it and discuss about it (we have the whole theorist and philosopher convention on this), thus create another theory of evolution concerning frogs.

I know the example given sounds silly but look wider on how a simple lie can change the whole story ad how a lie that is intended as a joke can change the world.

The Butterfly Effect.

The Prophet (PBUH) "forbade Muslims from lying even if they do so only as a joke, in order to make others laugh."

It's a kampung life ... ( especially for Willisena and Syaiful)

Assalamualaikum...

I know I haven't updated my blog for quite a while. I'm so sorry because I just want to inform my friends about my missing hand phone.

Here's a post about my kampung life. This post is especially for my dear friend sister Willisena and her dear husband Syaiful.

I went back home last Tuesday and I had to borrow my dad's digital camera to take the pictures because I lost my camera phone.

It's the fruit season, at home we have lots of seasonal fruits. Here's the Rambutan.
Here's another Rambutan tree.

Here's a picture of the Durian tree from below. I don't eat Durian but I do love Tempoyak (processed Durian like how they make Cheese from milk, I think)

Here's some Ciku. Kak Lis said that in English it's called Chiku. I hope she's referring to the same fruit. It's called Sapodilla (thank you al-Azhar Tengku al-Walid)

Here's the equipment we use to pluck those fruits. Just imagine how it works because I don't know how to explain it to you.

Here's a view of one of the fruit's tree. Guess what kind tree it is?

Yes it is a Manggosteen tree.

I have to climb the tree to get the fruit. It's fun to climb the tree because the branches are strong and it goes like a ladder.

To make it easier I have to hang the bag (I'm using a plastic bag) on one of its branches so that it's easier for me to climb the tree and pluck the fruits.

I can see the fruit now...

Got it...

A picture taken on the tree.

Moving on to the chicken barn(Jali's Palace).

A view from inside of the barn.

I think you guys have been expecting him. Yup, this is Jali. He's busy at the back part of our house now.

Jali. No he is not snobbish(Thank You Alia for the translation of 'sombong') . He does come to our kitchen but rarely now because he's busy being the King at the backyard. He's no 'Kacang Lupakan Kulit'.


This is my home. We're trying to grow grass but it's the season where it rarely rains, so it's a bit hard for that.At the back there there's three trees. Those are the manggosteen trees.


And finally a picture taken by my brother. I love this.

Thank You.