poobalan.com

SwarnaBumiputran of Malaysia

Archive for the ‘Indian’ category

Ironman Bala stunt success due to yoga

December 28th, 2009

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

Not once, not twice, but 16 times. This guy had a car run over him while he lay on a bed of nails, for a total of 16 times!

Yoga practitioner P. Balakrishnan repeated his death-defying feat of lying on a bed of 108 nails while having a car run over him.

The 60-year-old drew gasps of awe from the audience during a family day event organised by the Taman Universiti branch of Malaysia Hindu Dharma Mamandram group yesterday.

Balakrishnan, who is a yoga guru and nicknamed “Ironman”, started yoga at 17. He completed similar feats twice when he was 47 and 50.

“I am doing it now at 60 to prove that age is no barrier to achieving anything. It is possible to achieve this feat with discipline and proper yoga exercises,” he said after the event at the MBJBT Hutan Bandar near here.

“To accomplish this feat, I stayed away from red meat, eggs, garlic and red onion. Proper breathing techniques are a must to strengthen the body while the car wheels moved over me.”

Balakrishnan appeared calm as a Proton Iswara Aeroback drove over his abdomen as he laid on a bed of nails. A wooden plank was placed on top of his abdomen.

He said he felt no pain and disclosed that he has practised this mind-boggling feat 16 times since his first attempt in 1993.

Kedah-born Balakrishnan has written four books, including two entitled Yoga Path — an Introduction and Yoga Food.

For the past 15 years, he has embarked on a mission to teach yoga to youth as a means to eradicate social ills.

He is also writing the first- ever English translation of the 12 Thirumurai — the biography and works of 63 prominent poet-saints of Tamilnadu, India.

One of Balakrishnan’s young yoga pupils, Keyshore Kumar, 12, said yoga has boosted his health.

“It was difficult to master yoga at first but I worked hard to overcome the pain. Now I enjoy it as it keeps me healthy,” said the SK Taman Kangkar Pulai pupil.

Comments Off on Ironman Bala stunt success due to yoga »

Posted in Indian, Religion

Tags: Religion Role Model

You want to be Indian or Muslim?

December 28th, 2009

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

Hey, don’t look at me! That’s what ex-PM Mahathir said to the Indian Muslims at their function (dinner organised by the association of Muslim Kadayanallur in Penang). Yup, he was their invited guest, and I think they are regretting that now! 🙂

To a claim that the Indian Muslims in the country have been neglected, Mahathir said they should choose to either become a Muslim or an Indian.

“The country is very liberal and I think they (Indian Muslims) will be accepted by all if they can pick either to become a Muslim or Indian,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Mahathir said there was no difference between the various races as everyone is a Malaysian.

“The federal constitution also defines a Muslim very clearly. If they want to become a Muslim then just follow the constitution,” he added.

The former premier said if Indian Muslims in the country still call themselves as such, others might think that they still have links to their country of origin.

“The problem of Indian Muslims will be resolved if they can decide and choose to become either a Muslim or an Indian,” he added.

Maybe he’s confused (well, he is 84 after all) between race and religion. Obviously these folks are Muslims (and maybe even better ones than some of the majority race Muslims), so people would be confused with his call. Would JAKIM or the police investigate him for maybe trying to mislead the ummah or something? I don’t know much but I think that a crime has been committed here under some law for saying Indian Muslims are not Muslims. The federal constitution (Article 160, I think) defines a Malay, not a Muslim.

Maybe he just saying drop either Indian or Muslim from their association so that things are clearer for this community. So, the option is to assimilate, rather than integrate. The rational (and beneficial) choice would be to opt for Muslim (and also Malay).

He also asked Chinese and Indians to call themselves Malaysians instead of Chinese or Indians. Says that the Indonesians and Thais do the same. Yup, but they still end up killing each other at the slightest problems, so its just rhetoric.

So, the Indian Muslims need to choose now. What would be? Indian, Muslim or some choice words for our ex-PM?

5 comments »

Posted in BornInMalaysia, Indian

Tags: discrimination intolerance Politicians

What color are you?

December 28th, 2009

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

MIC has color coded us! There’s green, yellow, red and white. So, pick your choice folks!

He also said that the Indian voters would be classified under four colours, namely green (which would group the BN’s “fixed deposit” Indian voters), yellow (for those who would likely abandon the BN if poorly managed), red (for party members and people whom the MIC has lost and has to win back) and white (which would group potential members and voters).

“Through this classification, we will be able to plan our strategies and focus on each group in a bid to win them over for the BN,” he added.

He (Samy) was speaking at a function on the list of “re”s to do. He did admit something this time – that the party had taken for granted that the community would support them.

MIC president S Samy Vellu has urged party leaders to “reconnect” with the Indian masses who had been the “vote bank” of the Barisan Nasional since the party’s formation in 1946.

He said this was because in the March 2008 general election, they had taken for granted the support from the Indian masses who had been traditionally voting for the BN and ensuring a huge victory for the ruling coalition.

“Our task has been to win them back. This has been our priority. We have made a lot of progress over the last 18 months or so, and we must keep moving and not look back,” he said when opening a workshop on ‘Reinventing and Reconnecting’ for MIC leaders.

He stressed that it was the duty of every party leader, “right from the president to the branch chairmen”, to maintain a close and cordial relationship with the Indian masses without compromising on their effectiveness to deliver.

“The Indian community has placed their hope on us to deliver and we must work hard to regain their trust,” he said.

Samy Vellu said the party could not afford to have “complacent leaders” who did not take seriously their role and responsibilities to the party and community.

“I have noticed that there is now a political reawakening among many party (MIC) leaders. They feel the need to reshape their mind and responsibilities to better serve the community,” he said.

Samy Vellu attributed this to the series of workshops and rejuvenation efforts undertaken by the party and the “hard stance” taken on many issues involving the Indian community.

I would like to see a refined KPI for MIC. They presented a general one, with another added by PM Najib. The party is putting up KPI for branch leaders, but what about the party as a whole? It would be interesting to see how that turns out.

Comments Off on What color are you? »

Posted in Indian

Tags: MIC Politicians

KL to twin with city of noisy people?

December 24th, 2009

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

I wonder what the useless paper’s writer would say to this news. After all, he is the one that said Indians are “noisy people“. So, would he want to have our capital to be associated with a city full of 8 million noisy people? Perhaps should make him an honorary consul and send him there! 🙂

Senior Malaysian officials are floating the idea to twin Chennai and Kuala Lumpur as sister cities to bolster the existing deep-rooted bilateral ties between Malaysia and India.

Officials in KL are believed to have proposed the idea and are likely to get the Cabinet’s approval to move the plan to twin both the fast-growing cities.

“It will augur well for both nations because we have very long-standing relations, especially with South India, where many of the Indian population have originated from Tamil Nadu.

“It will give a different political dimension to our relationship and boost the two-way trade and cultural linkages,” a high-level Malaysian official familiar with the proposal said.

However, the political arrangement would need the endorsement of India’s External Affairs Ministry in Delhi before the idea could be taken to a different level.

Chennai city in Tamil Nadu has established sister relationships with five other cities around the globe — Cairo, Egypt, Denver, United States (US), Frankfurt, Germany, San Antonio, US and Volgograd in Russia.

Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, has a population of over eight million while Chennai city itself has about 4.5 million people.

At least 14 major Indian cities have sister relationships with foreign cities worldwide. – Bernama

Comments Off on KL to twin with city of noisy people? »

Posted in BornInMalaysia, Indian

Tags: Media

lifeline for SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam

December 24th, 2009

|

Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email

Many people would have not heard about JKT Ladang Bukit Bertam till two days ago. This small estate school is quite low-profile (and under-enrolled). But surprisingly this school gave birth to one of our country’s first Harvard graduates – the late Datuk K.Pathmanaban, a former MIC vice-president and deputy minister. That his alma mater suffers this fate tells a lot about the status of Tamil schools and Indian community in the country.

The school which started in 1920s have been having low enrolment for last few years, which begets the question: what steps have been taken to alleviate the situation. The school is located in the large Bukit Bertam Estate in Linggi. As with many other Indian enclaves in the past, the estate sees more foreign workers while the Indians move out to cities and towns. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t follow them too. So, what would you except other than dwindling enrolment? So, questions arise: what have been the Education Ministry and its agencies been doing all this while?

Up till yesterday, the school faced a possible closure. Now, would anyone be blamed if they thought that the inaction of the ministry and agencies is tantamount to aiming to close vernacular education? You don’t give enough money, you don’t take enough effort to convert them to fully-aided status, you don’t allow new schools to be built, and you are not bothered about relocation. So what does that mean? What would the public, especially the Indian community think? The action doesn’t reflect the words.

There are many schools with similar situation and its just a matter of time before a school closes down.

Oh ya, can blame the school right? Why never take action? Well, what action should the school take? Picket? HM to issue public statement and risk losing job?

What about MIC – what steps have they taken in last few years to solve this particular problem? We have to ask them since they are part of ruling state government for last 50 years. It seems that state MIC deputy leader V.S. Mogan will meet the state authorities.

Maybe its time for an Indian deputy education minister or minister to ensure some sort of balance is in place.

This is what the school parent-teacher association chairman D. Elangovan says, among others:

He said one pupil was supposed to join for the new term but her parents decided to enrol her in another school in Malacca.

Elangovan said that with foreigners making up most of the workers at the estate, it was pointless to maintain a Tamil school there.

“We hope the authorities will help us relocate to another place where the community needs a Tamil school. The school has teachers, textbooks and satellite TV and all these are being wasted,’’ he told The Star.

Elangovan said the school was located about 3km inside the sprawling oil palm plantation and this made it difficult for teachers.

The school moved to its present location from another site in the estate in 1978 with one class for each standard. But since then, the number of classes were reduced to only two as enrolment suffered.

Last year, there were only five pupils enrolled. This year, there were only three.

To make matters worse, Elangovan said the school had no canteen and its half-wooden structure was also unsafe due to termite infestation.

“Save SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam School” ad hoc committee chairman Ramesh Patel suggested that it would be best if the school was relocated to nearby Kota, which had about 200 Indian families.

Luckily, 13 students registered yesterday, probably effort of teachers, PTA, parents, local MIC folks etc. to ensure the school can continue running for next year. Now, just to maintain the school, someone has to fork out extra cash to pay for transportation. Students have to study in a school with termite infestation and no canteen.

Can you see something here: a poor community needs to part with funds to ensure the survival of a school for another year. Students have to be moved from another location and sacrificed to study in this school. This situation could have been averted if there was proper planning and action by the relevant authorities much earlier.

“Save SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam” ad hoc committee chairman Ramesh Patel said 12 of the students would be ferried to the school from Rembau some 25km away every morning while another one was from the estate.

“We have no choice. It may be a temporary measure but it is the only way we can think of to keep the school going,” he said, adding that several parents contacted him after the school’s plight was highlighted in The Star yesterday.

… With the latest enrolment, the school will now have students in Year One up to Year Five.

Eight of the students are from the Vivekananda Home in Rembau while another four are from Batu Hampar.

State MIC deputy chief V. S. Mogan said the school’s sudden increase in enrolment was good news as it meant the school could continue to function as normal until its relocation was finalised.

“We are hoping to increase enrolment and are looking into getting students from Kota, Rembau to attend the school,” Mogan said.

“We have already identified some 30 students who are currently attending school in Tampin. This school is about the same distance away for these students and with free transportation it would be a better choice for them,” he said.