Regret....

OKAY, here i am cutting queue on my other posts long over due.
Just read my friends post on Daughtry's concert in One U, and i must say, im regretting i didnt get a ticket for it... well my brother almost got one from his friend, but as he was busy he turned it down. if i knew earlier, i'd have asked my bro for it....but it was too late. sigh. Its a Invite only concert, where you get ticks with every purchase of a sony ericsson phone. sadly, i already own one, neither do i need to buy a new one anytime now...sigh. wish i had to buy one now!
All in all, my friend claims Daughtry was awesome... he went for BSB with me too, and he was like comparing them, and concluded both are almost the same, just that it depends which kinda songs/music you prefer. (for me, its ofcourse Daughtry!!!! BSB, was good too...respect to them)
sigh...

PS: Eu Jhin, im soo jealous of You! and to those who got tickets for Daughtry too! haha.
cheers!

Nagarathar Community- My Pride

Hi Guys!
ok next on my list was to blog about a cultural night i attended and also volunteered to help in. The event was titled Nagarathar Nite 08'. I get it, Loads of are confused with the term "Nagarathar", right? So if i was to blog on the event, most of you'd be a little lost. Therefore, i thought I'd give a short intro to this term and my immediate community of people.

Intro, The Nagarathars are a Chettiar community that originated in Kaveripoompatinum under the Chola kingdom of India. They are a prominent mercantile "caste" in Tamil Nadu, South India. I say "caste" because, these days this caste system is not really looked at anymore. In Malaysia and other countries we still follow this system, no not for ruling purposes nor to look down on other people (Used to happen decades ago!) but instead,now, we use it to an advantage, as a platform for success by working together and helping each other. That's about it this caste system goes. Oh, and not to forget, for Marriages too! i shall get back to this later in my post- Keep Reading...

A little more on history class yeah, bare with me, please. Nagarathars are Hindus whom originate from the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu. They have been trading with Southeast Asia since the heyday of the Chola empire, but in the 19th century they migrated to countries throughout Southeast Asia. Nagarathars, also known as Nattukotai Chettiars, were an important trading class of 19th and 20th century South East Asia. Chettiars were traditionally involved in occupations like money lending and wholesale trading. At this moment we have a population of 1 million worldwide!! (not too big, but still its a large number of people..)

To the Dressing, Chettiars those days were Very well dressed and loaded with jewelery. They were always well dressed, even at home. As they were very well respected people in the local communities in India. Even in Malaysia, Chettiar traders from India got special good attention from the Brits during their rule here. Advantages were there when you said you were a Chettiar. Houses were Mansions or a smaller scale of castles with magnificent carvings and expensive building materials. Such pride did they carry in portraying wealth...

Religious activities? Nagarathars spread Hinduism in Asian countries as well as business. Even today, one can find temples dedicated to the Hindu deity, Murugan, spread throughout Asia.
Want Stats?
Malaysia- 15 Temples
Singapore - 2 Temples
Myanmar- 50 Temples (yes! thats alot!!)
Ho Chi Minh City- 2 temples
well, these are a few of the countries outside India who have built and are maintaining Temples of their own.
Proud to say, The Famous Thaipusam Festival in Malaysia, is also celebrated at a grand scale in Penang! (besides Batu Caves). Nattukotai Waterfall Temple in Penang is the Temple which organises this event in Penang. (pals, now you know why i go All the way to Penang waaay before Thaipusam, and that by skipping class too!)

This community has over the time flourished in agriculture and trade. The community is famous for its trade in spices and hotel industry. Now it also has a large number of banks in India which was founded by Chettiars. There are Universities also in India founded by Chettiar ancestors, famous Indian poets too. Sides them, there are alot of Chettiars in the Film Industry in India and media channels. Indian Minsters also do we have, and many Indrustiallists too both in India and Malaysia. In Malaysia we have Dato' P.Kasi, one of Malaysia's richest man i must highlight.

Now to the delicious food, chettinad chicken and fish curries are extremely famous throughout south India! Well, those are the real famous dishes, sides that there are Loads! Chettinad Cuisine is very famous among local indians too. Now, there are even cookbooks on em'! (There is also a book on our heritage...)

Now to the Interesting thing for my friends now, Marriages. yeap, in this community its a complicated thing to explain! Let me try, but first a little history first, The king of Pandiya gave the Nagarathar community nine villages. They built a temple in each of them and created the "9 temple" division of the community. Initially, the Nagarathars lived in 96 villages surrounding the temple. Members of each temple society treat each other as brothers and sisters or "pangalis" and thus marriage is not allowed amongst members of the same temple. Men and women of different temples marry, and the bride automatically becomes a member of the groom's temple. get it? pretty simple come to think of it. i'll skip the temple names, it will be hard to pronounce, most of them.
In todays community, the thing which has still maintained is the must of a person to get married within the Chettiar community, and we Chettiars still strongly follow it and also of course the not-from-the-same-temple rule above as these both are a matter of pride and honour for parents and relatives.

Hope this answers the tonnes of questions I have gotten in the past few years from my mates whenever i use the term "my community", "Chettiar" and on, Marriages. ;)
I am proud to be a member of- Nagarathar / Chettiar Community. Very.
(Especially with the Youth Wing kicking into gear!)
Cheers!

Next Up: Nagarathar Nite 08' :)

A Tribute to My College mates.

As i'm getting used to things here, i thought i'd talk on something short here (don't want to go into Langkawi...Long story that would be!). Need time adjusting my language and style for blogging you see, so yeah, for a start, short posts should do fine.
lets see, where do i start...or Wait, What do i start on?...something short....hmmm, lets see. Ah HA!

got one! tribute to my mates, College mates...if i was to go into All my friends, then it'd be longer than the Langkawi Story.

So ya guys, Referring to HELP University College when i meant college ya. I Successfully completed my A Levels there-I'm Soo Proud of myself! haha. it wasn't easy, really really hard i must say. A Very tough period of my life. But thank god,i had my friends, who all lent a hand or a shoulder depending on the situation. And this post, is going to be on them, A Tribute to them. I've added unique pictures of em', mostly candid shots...;)

Lets see, now Who do i start on? One and a half year spent together...well i have to admit, the first half year i barely got to know anyone well. Lets start with the very first person i met.

Timothy- The man who eventually became my best friend. My partner in crime, smart dude, with a laid back attitude, never really works That hard on studying, but pulls it off when it matters. Homework ain't exactly his thing (nor mine), except for bio and chemistry. Loves answering questions from teachers especially Ms. Foong (bio), but i have to thank him for that, because he saved our asses soo many times by volunteering his answers. We have had loads of fun time together and i mean Serious fun. Hes artistic too, and a good actor! spends his boring bio classes drawing. haha. Still, He scores Freaking high marks in exams and tests. Helped me out in studies too, explained things when i totally didn't understand a topic. loads of patience. i can write essays on him, but i'll keep it short for now. My true bro.

moving on,
wait, lets rewind a lil'. the First person i met in college was Frederick. I met him in this orientation. and guess what, we coincidentally met each other Very often; during external exams he sits behind or infront of me, in practical lab exams and mocks, we were in the same LAN group too. Friendly dude, Very.


Before stepping foot into HELP, i met Kon, well i got to know him better la, i already knew him from st.john days. we sat down and planned on travelling together to college alot (hes from Kajang too, stays very near to my hse-never knew until prior to joining A Levels). The plan was never executed, cos we had different timings as we had different subjects, he was more on arts, i was science-med. A very friendly pal.


Next, Carmen, a very cheerful, happy go lucky kinda girl. A very cute girl too! Her actions are just unique (-ly nice). She lent me quite a number of notes, and she thinks really in detailed manner- Which is good!! A very good friend too, always was concerned when something was wrong with me...;)
a girl who sets very high standards to achieve for herself, and works extremely hard to achieve that.


Shu Jiun, my maths tutor. lol, yeah, borrowed her exercises to check, and the girl whos smart but acts as an average student (in order to learn more??). Down to earth, always concerned. First person to offer help when you need it. A reliable person too, can keep secrets pretty well. Discussed alot on things we didn't understand before exams, for hours, late at night (or should i say Early Morning).


Claudia, A True Friend, she'd always call and help you resolve things or give her opinion. calms you down when you're mad, and lifts your spirit up when you're sad. Able to share loads with her. Been there when i needed someone...thanks!


Eu Jhin, Had loads of fun together. Hes the one who Always lends his hands/ brains for ideas to plan surprises and outings. Had a great time working with him. A smart lad too! genius i should say. Someone whos always willing to give a ride too. cheers!



Xin Wen, For teaching me alot of things i didn't know, bout myself and as a whole. thanks! never really did we get along, but yeah, when we did, she was an awesome friend. A very cute girl, and i must say, really smart too.






Meera, She should be up there in this post actually, lol. A very fun friend to be with, had loads of friendly arguments, if there is one thing i miss from college, it would be that! She also was there when i needed to share my problems with. thanks! As Sarcastic as me too i must say, the one and only person who can beat me at my comments! (congrats!)...
PS: Sorry for grabbing This pic from your profile, couldnt find any on my com. and this is afterall the t-shirt you love. so why not. lol. cheers

Jon, A quiet boy with dirty imaginations. lol. but he seriously made all of us laugh. well at times we laughed at him, but he took it all cool and played along. Now, that is not easy to do. Respect.
Our class utility man/ maintainance man, always with the latest updates on class venue changes.



And the rest of the class, boy oh boy, did we laugh alot... love ya guys! Nice birthday surprises, fun outings. to my classmates, my sincere apologies if i had said anything wrong in our time spent together, for any hurtful sarcastic comments or what not. It was all meant to be for humor. never meant anything personal ya. ;)


Well, i thought of making it a short post, but as you can see, its an extremely long one! haha. sorry mates. just i couldn't resist when i was to write on my best college mates. It aint easy to talk so little on em'.

im hungry...its 1.30 am...gonna grab a bite, and maybe blog on another long post. :)
Thanks for baring with me with this long post, most of you wont know who the ppl above ar, but i say they're all awesome ppl. My adopted family should i say- Bros ans Sistas.

A First...

Hi Guys!
ok, i finally made one of my 'dreams' come through- To Start a Blog!! (Its a lame dream alright..) but Its a dream because i have always wanted to blog, but i just did not have the time. A Dream which doesn't require money nor intense hardwork nor luck but just time..Finally, now, after 1 month of completing my A Levels, here i am, writing my very first post. Which also means, that im finally free, have time to spare, i'm dying of boredom, and not too sure with what to do with my life at the moment and where its heading (at least for the next 2 months).
so yeap, here i am, all up for blogging bout life and events that take place around me.
so, i shall leave this for a start, and come back with more things very soon...

A First...post.


coming up: Langkawi trip, Prom, Cultural Night, Med school Interviews, A Levels, My Future, Influential Ppl around me-Friends...and a few more things...stay tuned. :)
cheers!