I have no issue with people practising whatever faith it is that they believe in. Just because I don’t see religion the way that they do doesn’t mean I think they’re following something that’s wrong or that I would want to try to convince them to see things my way. But if you want to open up a discussion and extol the virtues of your religion, please be prepared to accept the fact that your recipient may disagree with your views and at the end of the day, both parties may need to agree to disagree, without you imposing your views on the other person.

If one were to ask me if I believed in God, I would say yes, I believe in a Higher Being. But that’s where I stop. I strongly believe that one’s faith, whatever it may be, is entirely personal and is between the person and his/her Maker, and really, why does it matter to you whether or not I believe in God?

Recently, this person (let’s call him Kenny) asked me if I believed in God. I say I believe in a Higher Being but I don’t subscribe to any religion because religion, as I see it today, is highly manipulated by man for his own selfish purposes. I don’t deny at all that religion in its true and original form is good and I believe that in essence, all religions preach about the same thing but no, I don’t wish to subscribe to any organized religion because I don’t like what I see, how religion is used to control people, and how it is used to manipulate people and situations. I also went on to express that all religious books have been written by man and the learned people who interpret them for mass folk are also, well, man.

This Kenny person rebutted by saying that religious manuscripts have been proven to be the same from thousands of years back until now so how can I dispute the authenticity of religious text. Thing is, yes, the religious text may be in the same state that they were, but people will choose to interpret the text based on how it would benefit them. Not everyone maybe, but I’ve observed quite a bit of it. For example, I attended a wedding service and the leader was preaching that God made man to be stronger than the strongest animal, gave man the ability to dive deeper than any sea animal… and I’m sitting there thinking, “What kind of bullcrap is this?!” and people were actually listening intently! Ok, sure, God may have given man the brains to build something to make him stronger and dive deeper but that’s it. I was thoroughly disgusted, and I couldn’t wait for the service to end when I could leave.

But Kenny continued to argue that there are certain things in religious text where it leaves little or no room for misinterpretation but I said, the mind is very strong. When it wants to “see” certain things a certain way, it will.

For me, as long as I try my best not to knowingly harm others, I think I’m doing good. Kenny went on to question me how I defined “good” and remarked that how I define good may not be good for others. He gave me an example of how me sitting there (this was in the office) might be harming others. I really didn’t follow his reasoning.

It’s not rocket science to know what is good and what is not. Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t have ill intentions towards others, amongst others… common sense, no? Of course, we’re not perfect and we slip up here and there, but as long as we try our utmost best to follow these common sense rules and learn from our mistakes, I think it works.

And who are you to question me on what/how I define good? Earlier in the day, Kenny was relating his past work experience where he shared that he’s usually the one who would rebel against any compliance measures within his organization and there was a non-compliance incident that was serious enough where his US-based company had sent in an FBI agent to investigate. He and his managers plotted and cooked up some story and they got off with it. They left the company shortly thereafter and someone new came in to take their roles. However, the incident cropped up some time later and this person was made a scapegoat to take the rap and eventually made to leave the company. All the while relating this story, nothing about Kenny’s manner told me that he was repentant about it. In fact, he sounded proud of it.

Seriously Kenny, not only did you lie to save your sorry @$$, your lies got someone else in trouble, resulting in the person losing her job, and you don’t sound at all remorseful about what you did, and you dare preach to me what’s good and what’s not?! Whatever respect I had for him vanished right then.

See, that’s the problem I have with people who make such a big show of piety and being God-fearing. They make such a big show of it but at the end of the day, a lot of them are hypocrites walking down the street or driving on the roads. You would think that because they are so religiously aware and spiritually awakened, they would behave “better” than us mere mortals. But in all honesty, I have seen that some of these people are even worse than atheists. And the more they try to preach to me the virtues of their religion, the more disgusted, repulsed, and turned off I feel. I am not singling out any specific religion; I have observed the same pattern/trend across different religions. (On another note, why do people fear God? I was told many times that God is loving and all, so why fear Him? Why fear someone who loves you? Why do something just because you fear God’s wrath? Why not do something from the kindness and goodness of your heart instead of doing it because you fear being punished by God or something like that? Wouldn’t He prefer that you do it sincerely from the goodness of your heart rather than just because you fear Him?)

Another account of people who open up the discussion on religion but cannot handle opposing views. Over the New Year, my parents got together with the hubs’ extended family to celebrate the occasion. One of the uncles decided to start a conversation with my dad on his religion. My dad started giving his opposing views and I could see the uncle’s face visibly change, he looked offended even. I was thinking silently, “Yay Dad!” Like I said at the beginning of this post, if you choose to discuss about religion, be prepared to accept opposing views. Getting offended or upset just shows how self-absorbed you are, as if others cannot have a differing view. Having a differing view on religion is vastly different from, say, having an opinion about clean, free and fair elections in a country. For example, currently there’s the Bersih movement here (made up of civil society) calling for reforms to ensure clean, free and fair elections because facts and figures have surfaced on how ‘dirty’ the current electoral role is and how biased the mainstream media is, to name a few of the glaring irregularities. So naturally, I would like to think that every sane person would support this movement because why would anyone NOT want to support clean, free and fair elections? However, there are some people who still choose not to register as voters (citing a million and one excuses) and there are some people who give a blanket statement that “I will make my voice heard at the ballot box”. Seriously, when you think about it, if the current electoral process is unfair and unclean, do you think your vote is going to be of value? It’s not rocket science, mainly just common sense. Comparatively, religion is more subjective and perhaps not as direct and straightforward, hence the differing views.

Let me put it another way. Does my belief (or lack of) in God have an effect in your life? Does it harm you if I do or don’t believe in God? Do you feel like that world will come to an end if I don’t believe in God? However, if you choose not to support clean, free and fair elections, will it affect anyone? Yes, it WILL affect a lot of lives because it means one less voice towards effecting a change to correct our severely flawed system, which will lead to the same corrupted people getting into office and implementing policies that will benefit only a select group of individuals, sidelining the rest of the people. THIS will impact a lot of lives; hence the need for people to collectively stand together to push for reforms.

Mich was suggesting to me that the next time someone talks religion to me, I should just say I believe in God but I do not wish to discuss the topic. But that’s not true. I’m quite open to discuss about religion because that’s one way of learning. I just cannot stomach it when people try to impose their religious beliefs on me and expect me to swallow every single word they say and get offended/upset when I say while I respect their views, I disagree with them. Another thing that irks me is that once they figure out that I’m not buying what they’re saying, they will switch to a condescending mode where their faces will say “Poor lost soul”. Please, spare me your pity. You may think I’m a hopeless cause doomed for hell but at the end of the day, I know that each good deed that I do, I do from the goodness and pureness of my heart, and not because I’m getting merit points or because I fear something bad will come my way. Most of all, I cannot stand some of them who make such a big show of their piety but do not practice what they preach. THAT is the ultimate sin, in my opinion.

That said, again, I have no issue with people practising their respective religions. It really is none of my business what religious views you hold, as long as they don’t bring harm to others. I respect your religious beliefs and I sincerely hope that you respect my beliefs (whatever they may be) as well and not try to impose your views on me.

I can’t act to save my life.

This year’s Sutra Odissi production consists of 2 abhinaya or expression works for my group. Technically, it’s not as challenging as some other works I’ve done but it’s 100 times more challenging for me because it involves portraying different expressions (read : love, flirtatiousness, fear, longing) in scenes around the Hindu God Krishna. Portraying expressions, to me, is a form of acting.

Give me a technically challenging piece of work anytime over an abhinaya piece! I know I’m supposed to challenge myself and do something in which I’m weakest but honestly, I think I totally suck And it’s not doing too well for my confidence because I think I’m not up to par and not doing my best.

Another event involving acting occurred this morning, when I “happily” volunteered to shoot a short segment for an internal production at work. I thought I was going to answer a few questions and I’d be done. But my overachiever colleague decided to create 4 scenarios for us to “act” out, just so that we’d be different from the other people. I adamantly refused to act and in the end, we were thrown questions which we answered like in a conversation. I didn’t completely get away with the acting bit because my dear colleague badgered the production guy to shoot 1 of the 4 scenes she created.

Damn. If there ever was a day I’d need to act to save a life, I don’t know how I’d pull it off

…Busy as a bee…
…Ants in your pants…
…Bee in your bonnet…
…Bird’s eye view…
…Scaredy cat…

Honestly, who sat down and thought these up??

Anyway, life is so busy these days, time just flies by like “whooooossssh”!
It’s already mid October, 2.5 more months till 2012!!! Like, hellooooo??? Time, where did you go??? Come back!!!

Anyway, am still trying to keep up with time… and trying not to get to sucked up in everything around me.

I was thinking this evening, why do people take such good care of their material goods, say, like cars, by taking their cars for regular services diligently but fail at getting their annual health checkups done? Why do people lovingly clean their designer handbags after each usage but don’t make a similar effort in getting themselves checked up?

On the same note, I fail to understand why some people don’t make the effort to eat healthily and exercise regularly for the sake of their health. I’m not talking about eating organic or counting calories at each meal, but eating in moderation and avoiding/minimizing food which can cause lifestyle diseases like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, clogged arteries, such as greasy fried and fatty food. And by exercising, I’m not saying that everyone should join a gym and get a personal trainer to drill them on routines but simple but vigorous exercise like brisk walking or running, or even getting an exercise DVD and doing their own exercises at home.

Personally, I believe it’s MY own responsibility to keep myself healthy, firstly for myself and secondly, for the people who care for and love me. For myself, because I don’t like getting sick (who likes getting sick and having to take drugs??). And for the people who care for and love me, so that they don’t have to worry about me and I don’t become a burden to them should I ever fall sick.

Of course, eating healthily and exercising regularly is not a 100% guarantee that you’ll never ever get sick but I subscribe to the policy where prevention is better than cure. If I can do something to minimize the risk of my being unhealthy, then it’s my responsibility to take the necessary steps to do so.

And I make sure that I get my annual health checkups done. No one needs to remind me or nag me to do it; I will remember when my checkups are due and get them done willingly on my own.

We make up so many excuses to get out of exercising and getting our health checks done… I’m too busy, my muscles are aching, I’ve got other things to do, yada yada yada… I know because I’ve been guilty of this before.

Now, if you can schedule your car service appointments regularly and on the dot, why can’t you do the same for yourself? Why can’t you make a bit of effort to put in some exercise time during the week? Is your car worth more than yourself?

Traditional Lion Dance, just done "eating"

This is the best part of the Chinese New Year for me  Chasing lions!

Arrived at work and got a sneezing fit, and the nose has not stopped running since then.

We went for lunch at a new place, a residential house cum coffee shop, which served Malay food and as we sat down, this furry fellow was enjoying his/her afternoon snooze on one of the chairs, oblivious to the heat and noise.

I need to learn from cats how to relax and smell the roses

Note : Yes I know I’m not perfect and I don’t expect others to be perfect either. But there are some things that you  just know should be done or shouldn’t be done.

So here’s another.

There is one reason why I don’t like to depend on anyone for anything.
Because by having too much expectations on someone else, in the event that they don’t deliver even the simplest thing, the disappointment in others’ lack of initiative is just too draining. And I don’t like to keep repeating myself over and over again, sounding like a broken record.

So when I want to get things done, I resolve to getting them done myself. Waiting around for people to make an effort to lift a finger to do something is expecting too much of them apparently.

We use a front-loading machine back at my parents’ and I’ve never had to iron my t-shirts. Until now. Now, I have to resort to ironing my t-shirts! So not only does it use more water, it makes my clothes come out so crumpled that I have to use additional energy (i.e. electricity) to iron even my t-shirts. I can’t even shake out the crumples like how I can with clothes I wash in my old front-loader.

And I find that my clothes seem to get worn out faster with the top-loader. So I guess this means in the long-rum, I’d have to spend more to buy new clothes.

The most recent finding I made was that my clothes don’t come out as clean! Isn’t that ridiculous, my clothes don’t come out clean after being washed. Hmm…

Aside from being cheaper than a front-loader, I don’t know why we even use top-loaders, when in the long-run, I don’t find it cost effective because :

• It uses more water, which translates into a higher water bill and ultimately, doesn’t help in conserving one of our few natural resources.
• It makes laundry come out really crumpled, which translates into higher electricity bill because now we have to iron clothes which we’ve never had to iron before plus more time spent on laundry doing to ironing when it could be used to do something else.
• It wears clothes out faster, which translates into more frequent upgrading of wardrobe, resulting in more money being spent.
• It doesn’t clean clothes as effectively as front-loaders (I encountered a problem which I didn’t encounter using front-loaders).

The only downside to front-loaders is that they’re more expensive than top-loaders but heck, I’m willing to pay the extra amount to avoid all those things above. As soon as I save enough, I’m getting myself a front-loader, since one’s not gonna materialize magically in our backyard.

Here’s to a great year and may you all live your lives true to yourself

The current theme I’m using is the most interesting one I’ve found thus far (I love the squiggles and non-linear lines!). Unfortunately, there are a few things that I can’t seem to work out, like how to change the Archives tab to read something else or get the page to display my archived posts by month.

Currently, I’ve pointed it to my photo gallery (quite old photos because I haven’t had time to upload the new ones) but the tab still reads “Archives”. Apparently, I need to edit the image file and re-upload it, all of which I am too lazy to do even if I knew how to, so if you wish to see some not-so-new photos, do go to the Archives tab on the top of the page I’ll try to upload new albums, one fine day, hehe.