Stereotype

The Chinese especially cleverly divide one's life into several phases and it seems quite realistic: 1.The first stage from birth till 20 years. These are the formative years and in a way the most carefree time of our lives.This is the period when we learn and acquire values which are imprinted on us either in the home or in school. What we become later in life to a large extent depends on the exposure we get during this period.That is why education and home counselling are so important.We become what we are largely through the teaching of our parents and peers. There is no doubt that the early education process is so crucial and looking at the education process which our kids go through today makes me wonder what we are subjecting them to and why we allow this to happen.At six years old the poor child has to learn 3 languages , do maths, learn spelling and etc.Do the adults realize for a minute what they are subjecting the child to? Children at this age are naturally curious and they should learn by discovering things for themselves and it is this method which enables children to learn without feeling that they are pressured.We should ask ourselves if we are being fair to our kids and are we doing this following educational pedagogy or are we doing this for ourselves? 2. After this first phase is the " working for money " stage when the young man goes out onto the world to seek fame and fortune.This is the time of our lives when we struggle to make a living and build a nest for our family.This part of the journey is tough and we have to go through all kinds of obstacles .Some make it in life , some do not. During this period we tend to become robots governed by job requirements and we allow time to control us .We seem no longer able to control the time we sleep, wake up, eat and work.But at the end of the day if we manage to build a little nest and successfully bring up our children we survive this stage and move on to the final stage in life. 3. Retirement and completion of life's cycles.This is the time of our lives when we should enjoy the fruits of our labour .Time to relax and do what we have always wanted to do but by this time the ravages of time and effort takes its toil and Health becomes a major cause of concern If we are lucky we end our lives peacefully, if not we have to go through all kinds of medical treatment and physical suffering. At the end of the day what is this life after all ?

Ipoh's lost culinary delights !

When I was a teen in Ipoh we had access to some of the finest hawker foods sold in the most unique way.There was no hawker centre that time and these vendors sold their food in a very special way ...they came right to your doorstep. 1.My favorite those days was the char koy teow stall aka Spider because the man fried the noodles with two ladles, very fast and plate by plate.His specialty was the concave wok which was testimonial to its heavy usage.The other was his chillies which went into the frying.He used to scold me whenever I asked for more spoons of chillies to be thrown into the frying saying that I eat more chillies than his koay teow. The noodles were fried with taugeh ( Very fat and crispy ) and you have a choice of with or without eggs.The eggs used were duck eggs and also the chicken eggs. You can use your own eggs , something which we often did. Spider came by our house twice a day , once in the afternoon and once at night.He was quite punctual and it was an interesting sight to see us waiting for him to come with plates and eggs in hand.He was very fast and had a regular frying routine, first ,the oil and garlic, followed by the taugeh and soya sauce and after that the chillies and then the cockles and finally the noodles and viola... the best char koay teow in the world. Sad to say today there is no koay teow dish any where near to this.Even the famous Penang char koay teow is nowhere near this. A famous Ipoh dish gone because there was no handing over of the trade. 2.The tok tok mee. A stall selling wan tan mee would come by at night and the appearance of the stall would be signalled by the vendor making the 'tok tok ' sound with two small pieces of bamboo which he knocked together to make the tok tok sound. 3. The nyonya kueh man. This guy would carry two baskets balanced on a long pole over his shoulders and mind you , he walks.He had a fantastic choice of nyonya kueh from pulot udang,layered kueh,ang koo,tapioca kueh and on top of all this you can also get a steaming bowl of Penang laksa.This vendor was a mamak and we often asked him how come he sold nyonya kueh ?He never answered our question. 4.The ice cream man .He would come round on his bicycle ringing the bell to signal his arrival and for 5 cents you get a chance to spin a wheel which would determine how many ice cream you got and it was pretty novel and we kids love to have a chance to spin the wheel of ice cream hoping to get more than one ice cream cone . 5.There was this ice kachang stall in Cowan Street which served the best ABC as we now call it. For 20 or 30 cents a bowl you get the best ice kachang with or without ice cream and lots of condensed milk and gula melaka or sarsi flavoured sugar . 6. Of course there was also the famous Capital theatre hor hee which you cannot get to even taste nowadays. 7. The Ipoh clock tower nasi kandar was the first of its kind in Ipoh at that time .For less than RM1 you get a big plate of curry rice with chicken , beef and fish plus a bit of vegetables.Today you can still find some of these stalls but they do not serve the food like they used to. 8.Along Theatre Street there were two sisters who served the best beef noodles.Surprisingly they are still in business and believe it or not the beef noodles sold today are still the same.They have a stall opposite the former Odeon Cinema which has a bustling hawker center at night.This is perhaps the only one of the old stalls left and the two sisters are still selling the noodles. 9.For mamak mee lovers there nothing like the one located at the Cathay restaurant along Jalan Yang Kalsom.Sad to say the present operator does not fry the noodles like before. 10. For Indian rojak there was this stall beside the Coronation Park. The sauce and the sotong makes the dish so special .You cannot find another of this kind of stall today. Looking back , we were fortunate to enjoy some of the best Ipoh food during our time.What is unique was that all these food were individually prepared and there was a kind of special rapport between the seller and us.Spider for example , would know exactly the way I liked my koay teow fried and he would jokingly ask me " Is your stomach still there ?"Today hawker food is all located in hawker centers and this perhaps in a way takes out some of the fun in enjoying hawker food !We had it, we loved it and we enjoyed the best of Ipoh hawker food .

Grandma's wish !

Yesterday as we were travelling in the car to buy some home stuff mum said "You know I have made a deal with God " .I replied " Huh ?'What kind of pact did you get yourself into ? And she said " I made a very simple request and that is to ask God to allow me to bring up my grandchildren and see them grow up ! As usual she will not ask anything for herself .Her whole life is devoted to the family and we know how much effort she makes to create ,(yes create because these things do not come about automatically) a happy family.To her there is nothing she would not do for her children ,sil, and grandchildren .As long as they are in good health, comfortable and come home she is happy.The household chores are many and varied, cooking, cleaning,washing and ironing clothes , marketing, planning the daily menu.These are chores which no normal person would want to do but she does it without a complain and asks for nothing in return.She always says " As long as I can do anything to make their lives less difficult , I do not mind the hard work."I must say this kind of selflessness is difficult to come by and I must say in her own way she is special, really special. Her indomitable spirit and acceptance of the challenges which come with home building are really amazing. I, more than anyone know how she feels about things and everybody in the family.What irks her most is stubborn people and those who do not listen to good advice.Sometimes she says its good to be appreciated but if that is not coming she would still carry on doing what she is doing.Many a family crisis has been made lighter because of her being there. The children and grandchildren know that she will always be there for them when they need her .

A matter of being organized .

It is not uncommon today to see people get into arguments and quarrels over of all things "Time".We have so many hours in a day and its not difficult to sit down and organize this fixed variable.Yes the number of hours in a day is fixed and we are the variable for its up to us to decide what we are going to do within this paradigm. Teachers are guided by time ,we start school at a fixed time , have so many minutes to complete a lesson and are dismissed at a fixed time.Teachers know that for example 730 in the morning till around 145pm in the afternoon their time is in the school and during this time they allocate their time to this.There is no excuse for a teacher to be late and neither is there reason for him to leave before school is dismissed.That is why being a teacher we are governed by punctuality and its difficult for us to understand why some people never can manage their time. In this respect my late mother in law is a perfect of example of someone who keeps time. If we tell her that we are going out at 7pm for example she would be all dressed up and waiting way before time and when I ask her why get ready so early her answer would be " Better to wait for others than let others wait for you ".Wise attitude from a simple lady and something so simple and yet not realized by many people. Time should never be a thing for a source for discontent.Going to work for example is a daily routine and is governed by time .It is something which you do everyday and that being a routine we should know what time we should leave in order to be on time.To be ready , there are chores you must do in order to be able to leave on time. Its a simple matter of knowing how long you take to do these chores without being stressed out rushing.A bit of organization goes along way and makes your life and that of others more acceptable. You know that in the morning you need to get all your stuff ready so is it so difficult to spend a few minutes before you retire for the night getting everything in order ? Keys , briefcase content, clothes etc all should be set and when you wake up imagine the time you save and the stress that you need not have to face searching for these things. A matter of organisation really and this culture will save you time and you end up less stressed. We should follow the way of the westerners when it comes to work. A daily plan for the day's work, taking into consideration the number of working hours you have will be of great help.To the westerners time for work is fixed and that's it. I Remember in the US once a group of us walked to a shopping mall which closed at 9.00pm. We were there at 840 and the staff told us that " Sorry we are about to close " and we argued " But its not time yet " and they said if we entertain you we would have to go beyond 9.00 pm and we close at that time. To them time for work is fixed and this is something which we have to learn.There is only so much you can do in a day and a planned work schedule will enable you to cover this and do your day's work.We are talking of normal circumstances here and have to give due consideration to unforseen circumstances which will disrupt our work plan, but such circumstances do not happen everyday.The simple fact is that within a working day we can only do so much and if we are in a situation when we daily cannot complete our work then we need to sit down and ask " Am I too slow" or is the workload too much that its beyond our means. Knowing the reason will then enable you to take appropriate action and hence you are doing something positive to solve your problem.Working overtime does not mean you are more productive .Working smart makes you more productive.Its not how long you work but how much work you do that affects your productivity and your KPIs. Life is about managing oneself for if we can manage ourselves how can we manage anything else ?.Plan your day , take into consideration all factors ,like what about others , how much time do I need to carry out the daily chores etc. You have only so many hours in a day and it makes sense to make full use of it. Time is fixed and if we are smart enough we will never be a slave to time.

Then and now

Watching the children mature and the grandchildren growing up one cant help but see the difference between now and our time.To see the children work its apparent that they go through a lot of stress and are expected to deliver all the time. Probably part of the reason is that they live and work in KL with its perennial traffic jams and hectic lifestyle.We were fortunate to start working life in the sleepy hollow of Teluk Intan which might have made us a little laid back but we were happy and had time on our hands for the children and ourselves. This leads to the tale of the grizzly old man lying on his death bed and as his life ebbed away he started to mumble alot and one of the things he said"I have one regret in life .I spent so much time trying to make it in life and then when its too late I realize I forgot to live "Food for thought indeed .You will never imagine how fast time flies and before you know it your children and grandchildren are grown up and when that happens they have little time for you.In the meantime as they grow up you become older and perhaps this is the time you need them but sad to say the time allocated for you and them has lapsed and you can only regret. Today looking at the young people work and live their lives I cant help but think that in our time we had a better life and more time and less stress .Inevitably comes the question " In the chase for materialism is it worth it that in the process we lose ourselves ? You may make a lot of money but at the end of the day may find that all this money goes back to trying to repurchase your health .Young people today go through so much stress that you feel that they have become zombies, sleeping without resting, eating without tasting and going through the motions of life without hitting the " Pause " button.They have actually become slaves of their work and there is practically no life. Rushing , grumbling , nagging , tantrums have become the unfortunate side effects .Sometimes we need to strike a balance in the way we live our lives.Life is about choices and we should really take a step back all look at the choices we have in order to live a better life. There are of course certain things that we cannot change like the conditions of our work, the place we work but surely if we look hard enough we can find some variables which are changeable and we must be able to make such changes so that at the end of the day we can live a better life. Living life is never easy and living a happy life is even more difficult but we have to really look at everything in its proper perspective so that somehow we can learn how to live.