LABUAN

Labuan is an island off Brunei in East Malaysia in the State of Sabah ,its located in the south china sea and has one big island and six small islands as part of it.
Labohan in Malay meant  anchorage
It is known as the Pearl of Borneo
The main town was  called Victoria in the colonial era and now is called Bandar Labuan .
Labuan was historically part of Majapahit empire in the 14th century and then part of Brunei Sultanate but taken over by the British ( source Wikipedia ) in 1846 and later became its colony ,during second world war the Japanese conquered it and changed its name to Maida island it was liberated by the Allied forces in 1945 and when Malaysia attained independence it became part of East Malaysia .

Its an international offshore financial center since 1990 and has steel mills offshore banking,floor mills ,methanol plant and offshore supplies
close to Brunei Labuan today is a tourist spot for holidaying Bruneians as its a tax free haven and also a pleasant beach resort .
Ferries and speedboats connect the two and it takes approximately 1.5 hours of travel to reach Labuan .
We had planned to leave by MV Hope the ferry which could carry vehicles too though we had parked our car in the paid parking area near Maura Ferry station ( 10 Bruneian dollars for one day )
Indians need a Malaysian Visa for going to Labuan and a multiple entry Brunei visa to return back .
We reached Maura ferry point by 8.30 am and parked our car .
We stood in line to buy the ticket which was 13 Bruneian dollars each approximately 700 INR
After buying tickets we had to go to immigration and customs before we alighted the ferry .
MV Hope had space to accommodate lot of cars motorcycles and some big containers too .
Passengers could either sit on the deck but would have to face the sun or relax in the AC hall .
the huge ship glided away from Maura and into the open sea ,the sea was smooth as the ferry sallied forth .
the safety instructions were shown as a video film  and later a movie started playing ,I moved into the deck for the photo ops
within an hour and half we could see land again as we reached Labuan island ,we could see the famous Financial center looming ahead of us a lot of ships were berthed there and we too moved into the jetty ,completing immigration we sauntered into the jetty building
the first impression was of a small town full of colorful shops overflowing with chocolates and liquor bottles
Rightly called the Chocolate island the duty free haven was famous for these two items .
there are small malls like the one stop shopping center laden with liqour ,tobacco and ,chocolates
there were several restaurants and a sprinkling of KFC and other eateries.
We went through customs formalities quickly and bought our return ticket for the next day ferry and in time as we found out the tickets would have been exhausted shortly !
Our hotel the Labauan Beach resort was 17 km away from the ferry point and had shuttle facility from the ferry point ,we put our luggage in the small aircon van and as the driver was waiting for some more customers quickly did some chocholate purchases and i clicked away furiously anything in sight ,it was quite warm and the sun was pretty strong .
soon we were moving along the main road crossing the island and passed a church a mosque saw a board for the famous second world war cemetery with more than 3900 graves which was a tourist destination though we did not visit it .
on Remembrance day many family members from different countries would visit the grave
the Allied landing point when they reconquered the island was also well known
the surrender point was where the Japanese surrendered in 1945 and the famous chimney which existed from the coal mining era but no one knew its purpose .
Soon we were at the resort itself which was picturesque and stately with a colonial touch ,the high ceiling-ed hall was cool of course Ac was on but the place was less hot as there were lit of trees
the swimming pool was shimmering in the back and was an infinite pool bordering the sea and private beach

We hit the bed in the room and had a relaxing nap till evening when we woke up groggily to catch the shuttle to the town where we shopped a bit and had some dinner and by 9 pm was back ,the next day we woke up late had a swim in the pool but the chlorine in the water made my eyes smart a lot and i got out quicker than my usual swimming pool sojourns ,the breakfast spread was satisfying and by afternoon we had gone to the ferry point by 4 pm we were in MV Hope back to Brunei and hoping to return to Labaun another day 

Holy cow

Cow slaughter ban an RSS agenda is being projected by the BJP government ,this is absurd for a secular country like India which caters to all sorts of likes and dislikes and many different beliefs and food fads .
If it is really love for animals then let us stop stop all slaughter and turn vegetarian enmasse ,
I would join that happily because slaughter of animals today in
India is so crude and cruel
In what way is a lamb or a poor chicken lesser than a cow ?
All animals suffer pain and sadness when being slaughtered
this has been scientifically known ,
i have seen some pictures of cows and lambs shedding tears before being lopped off the most unhygienic conditions of slaughter houses in the country The sight would put off most from eating non veg food .
The way cows buffaloes lambs and chicken are transported to slaughter houses are by the most cruelest possible way
I have seen trucks filled to capacity with tied buffaloes with their heads locked to each other to prevent them from moving and their big eyes looking sadly at the vehicles coming behind ,they are dragged down by their tails and made to see their fellow animals being beheaded so cruelly
they smell blood and dung and there is fright in the air
their bodys are full of adrenaline as their hearts thud at the horrible way they know they are going to die

The number of illegal slaughterhouses in India is 10 times more than the legal slaughterhouses ,
corrupt and callous health and sanitation officers make even the legal ones torture houses so one can imaging the plight of illegal slaughterhouses in the country ,
Eating meat of such frightened animals has its own harms as the tissues of these poor animals are full of toxins endorphins and adrenaline and will transmit these endotoxins to the person who eats it .

 If there is hell this surely is a part of it .
but this is not only for cows or buffaloes or lambs or chicken or pork its for all animals which are slaughtered by humans 
fish caught in the sea seem to better off without human touch as they gasp to death which also is cruel to a certain extent 
In developed countries strict rules for slaughter exists 

I am just copying the humane slaughter act in the USA below :
The Humane Slaughter Act, or the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act, (P.L. 85-765; 7 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) is a United States federal law designed to decrease suffering of livestock during slaughter. 
It was approved on August 27, 1958.[1] 
The most notable of these requirements is the need to have an animal completely sedated and insensible to pain. 
This is to minimize the suffering to the point where the animal feels nothing at all, instead losing a consciousness from which it will never awaken. 
This differs from animal to animal as size increases and decreases. 
Larger animals such as bovine require a stronger method than chickens, for example. 
Bovine require electronarcosis or something equally potent, though electronarcosis remains a standard. The bovine would have a device placed on its head that, once activated, sends an electric charge that efficiently and safely stuns the animal.
Chickens, on the other hand, require much less current to be efficiently sedated and are given a run under electrically charged water. 
To ensure that these guidelines are met, The Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors at slaughtering plants are responsible for overseeing compliance, and have the authority to stop slaughter lines and order plant employees to take corrective actions
this is how developed countries slaughter animals

So instead of instigating the people of this country by unnescary acts and bans the BJP Government should work to make humane slaughter a must in the country ,
even in monotheistic countries the eating needs of their subjects who believe differently are provided so there is no reason how such unilateral decisions can be taken in a country like India with so many beliefs and and likes ,

duty of the Government should be limited to providing them with clean hygienic meat made in clean humane conditions

CAIRNS

 

Our flight from Sydney to Cairns was in the morning ,
Sydney airport was busy and huge and we were in domestic section which by itself had plenty to offer ,
Quantas airlines was Australia Air India and had like our counterpart senior crews !
Most of hostesses were above thirty but they were suave hospitable and experienced and cared well ,we had a warm breakfast and in around two hours landed in Cairns .

Cairns is a small town in Queensland state and was famous as a tourist destination for one began his tour of tropical rain forest ( rainforest is one which has minimum 250 cm of annual rainfall and green forests ) and The Great barrier reef from here .
we had a pick up in the Airport from The Colonial club where we had been booked ,
Colonial club was a sprawling resort with a swimming pool and cottages around it ,
we refreshed ourselves and walked along the near empty road to a nearby park 
it was quite warm and the sun reminded us of Chennai 

We reached Fletchers Botanical park and walked in its shady paths

 we saw some aborigines who work there sitting around the lake fishing etc

 Next day morning the tour bus came and picked us from the hotel


 we were to visit the Rain forest up in the hills and to a town called kuranda on top .
 There were three ways one could do this ,by cable car ,by train or by road ,
before we ventured up we visited the Aborigine camp called Tjabukai 
There was a show where they exhibited their traditional dances costumes and how to make  fire the primitive way ,they spoke excellent English and posed for snaps with us 
we also went to try boomerangs throwing a spear learnt on traditional medicines and had temporary tattos painted .real great experience 
we could also buy souvenirs 
all well planned and marketed 

 we went up by cable care a distance of 7.5 km over thick forests the Barron waterfall 
stopped on 2 stations on the way up 

 

 

we reached kuranda a tiny tourist town and were taken by a shuttle bus from cable car station to its center just 2 km away some went into the butterfly park some did shopping or just walked along the qaint shops we returned to the railway station 
this was vintage styled and train itself was neat and well kept
The distance to cairns was just 36 km but it would take one and half hours with a couple of stops and a lookout at Barron gorge ,it traversed 15 tunnels 
 there was a gold class where food would be served ,the train left at 3pm and it was a wonderful experience similar to mountain trains in India like Ooty and Darjeeling but the height was lesser ,building the railway was also a feat and involved accidents and deaths we heard 

the next day we were off to the jetty to board a huge cruise ship with all facilities we chugged for around an hour having refreshments and reached near  an island 
we were off to the great barrier reef


one could snorkel or take a submarine boat or scuba dive if one had the training to do so
we took the submarine boat ,this was a speed boat with a hull having glass windows for viewing as hull was under sea one had a good view of the reef as one sat in the hull  
the great barrier reef is strip of corals more than 3000km long and can be seen even from space it has millions of living corals and several spieces of aquatic life teeming in it great efforts are made to preserve this ecological treasure 




It was one of the kost beutiful sights to see the swaying corals in multicolours and teeming fishes in all sizes gliding close to us nature was astounding and we were all speelbound 

later my wife went snorkellig while i walked around the island 

we returned  back for a sumptuous cruise lunch and chugged back to reach cairns by evening 
Next day we were off to Melbourne and that is a story  for another day 

Doctors Union

It was in the nineties ,

We were running a clinic in Cochin west, for more than 10 years then and we had reasonably busy practice.

Strangely We were one among the many couple doctors who practiced in the same area, yet to know why so many couple doctors were attracted to the place

Palluruthy is a thickly populated middle and lower class locality with a sprinkling of upper class  and hence many of us had very busy practice

Most of our patients used to think we doctors keep among ourselves specially since we were all competing for the same clientele but it was nothing of the sort,

we were all quite close and used to meet often laughing at the common tribulations we went through in our day to day practice ,there was no rat race at all and we even went for short picnics together on and off ,some among them are still our closest friends .

Family medicine is a bit different from hospital practice one needs lot of communication, patience empathy and listening and in turn one receives trust

I had written earlier on this

 

To make the story short our bete noirs were the local small time political pests who made a beeline to the clinic whenever they needed money as to everyone squeezing a doctor was a fair proposition especially in Kerala

Malayalee’s in general probably fed by their breast milk of trade unionism felt Doctors to be bourgeois and it was all right to squeeze one when it was opportune .

So every other day small coterie of mundu or lungi clad inveterate would barge in between patients never waiting in line with an officious look on their vacant faces

We had to bear these mosquitos as much as we had to the real ones in Cochin

We learn to grin at both

“ Daktar , so busy , I see making lot of money from all our poor sick is it? “

One of the morons would ask while the others would wear their imbecile looks

“I thought I was treating them “ me  

“ Oh whatever anyhow daktar we have our state committee meet coming up ,

have you heard about it ? “

As if one could not live without hearing of this earth shaking event

“ Well haven’t actually but saw several posters and assumed it should be one of those “

“ Never belittle our revolutionary conferences my dear doctor we decide on how you all should live”

This was delivered with a hint of….. don’t be smart guy ….in it ?

“ Oh yes I can see that “..me

He continued with a frown on his face

“So how much should I write the receipt for is it two thousand or five ?”

“ Oh don’t you have receipts of   hundreds ?”

“We may but it is not for your ilk who regularly milk the working class of their blood just because they have some fevers “

 “Oh and I thought I remember you coming and thanking me for  making your child with primary complex better last October now its only fever is it ?or is he not having working class blood ? “ me

That made him quiet

He just wrote a two thousand rupee receipt collected the money and walked off with his sorry flock of parasites

 

So this was the routine not only for our clinic but for every doctor in that area

We decided to do something about this and planned to start an organization to pay them back with their own medicine

We decided to call it Palluruthy  Doctors forum ….PDF in short and as UDF and LDF the two main parties were known to even babies PDF would be easy for their small minds to grasp

We even registered it and made official bye laws etc

We hung a notice in every members clinic stating that as members of PDF from now on no donations can be given by its members individually unless it was below 20 Rupees and that all donation seekers should send an application which would be discussed in the following executive committee which met once in 2 or 3 months and decision would be made to give from the common fund ,any harassment of individual members would  be opposed by the organization

All very legal and high sounding and written to impress in the language those nincompoops would understand

The next time the same group came for a collection I just pointed to the board and also handed him a copy of the same

“Oh so you doctors became clever is it ?”

“Oh no how can we? when you are all around we just following your footsteps to organize “

“In fact we are planning to have a state working committee next month how much would your party give ?”

This shocked the idiot

“Doctor we need donation now how long will it take ?”

“ Maybe two or three months we people unlike you are quite busy you know and we have no time to meet often so next meeting we will deliberate on your application and maybe give you something after say 6 months “

“ But if it is twenty rupees I can give you now “

He grinned foolishly

“Ok doctor after all you serve the poor so you can give that twenty no problem “

Yes I know every paisa is needed for you guys to go straight to your toddy shop I thought

And thus ended our harassment

We still laugh over those CDF days

 

Selfies

The world of Selfies

The moment of discovery that smart phones can turn their cameras to click the person behind the camera can be considered as one as historical as much as the discovery of the camera itself .

Suddenly the hidden figure who clicked others and the world at large found to his delight that he could now become the prime image of his device!

To all the narcissists peering at the mirror and asking the question tell me who is the most beautiful among us? The selfie  was made to order

Suddenly the clicker gained independence no more d id he have to rely on unwilling or uninterested neighboring help to click his sad face ,he could do it himself or herself anywhere and with anybody he favored

Selfies with celebrities became the rage and selfies in a crowd of happy friends was a delight

Selfies with varied landscapes during travel was an addiction

As the newer phones brought better quality of their front cameras with better resolutions and easier focusing, selfies are clicked in millions and posted to the cyber world in seconds

The art of selfie taking itself is still new and there has been no strict rules and commandments laid out so far

I would define the right selfie moment as below

The mechanics of a perfect selfie is that the click should be done at that nano second of the right expression adorning the selfed face and not in the penumbra  of anxiety before and after that single point in time …one could term this as Haris selfie commandment one

The wrong moment of taking selfies gives comic results

 Some appear as if they are crying with their face sad and dejected, others appear weird trying to look at the camera and looking away from it at the same time

Some try to fit in the back ground so well that they lose their own head or eyebrows or some other vital part

Some are angry and stare with a fury

celebrity selfies were made a rage by Obama taking time off a not very right occasion for taking selfies poor Nelson Mandela after having been incarcerated by the imperial powers for years and after getting freedom from the whites becomes a world celebrity only to die and have a fellow black celebrity leader gleefully clicking away with good looking presidents of other countries instead of crying his heart out Nelson would surely have squirmed wherever he was then

somebody else did squirm then and that was Obamas wife who was furious with her husband behaving like a juvenile whenever he saw a pretty face and like a school boy sitting in the back benches he with his new found face and another leader went about clicking selfies and the next thing we see is a sullen Obama shifting his seat away from the said beauty and a stern wife sitting in between with an expression of you come home for the rest

President of the US of A may be the mightiest man in the world but you know what happens when you are married at home you are just another married  mouse!

And then came the selfie stick

With this came further liberation the angles were better the anxieties were lesser and on could take better selfies

With remote buttons and more sophisticated sticks which shortened could be put  inside pockets and could be used as a weapon if needed

And so the selfie addict goes on clicking his way to glory

My Angel

I still remember Mr Peter who taught me in seventh Standard ,he was a terror for us
He  taught us mathematics  if I remember correctly ,
he used to wear sunglasses most of the time as he had some eye problem ,coupled with that he was known to get angry quickly and used to even make fun of us having nicknames for each of us of course all this was in jest to make us good I realized later but at that time he was one of my childhood night mares  .
I lost my dad quite early in life when I was just 10 years old ,though he did not let us in penury and provided us with enough comforts for a decent upbringing my mother wanted to be independent of her relatives who pressurized her to move to our village in Kerala and this was something she would not do as she knew our education would not be the same as in Madras
what a great mother she was !

So even though we had literally a palace in Parappanangadi my mothers place in Kerala we stayed put in Madras in a middle class locality in Mylapore very near to my school the Santhome High school today the Santhome higher secondary school .
There was nothing we did not have and both me and my elder sister were quite happy with a house that my dad built in another part of the city providing us rent and we also getting his family pension regularly .
I still remember me  standing in que in my half shorts in the Tamilnadu secretariat for the family pension renewal as my dad had been an employee there before he left us all so suddenly .
i rememebr travelling by bus to Kilpauk to get rent from our tenant wo would pin it in my shirt pocket so that it wouldnt be picked in the bus ,it did happen once as a finger tried to sneak into my pocket and i clamped on it and he swiftly disappeared .
I learnt early

Childhood without a father is a bit painful specially when every time a new teacher comes or we enter a new class we had to introduce ourselves and the first question those days was
whats your dad doing ?
I would shrink from this sorry question and pip meekly
 I dont have a father ,
some would tut tut while others had even asked and how do you live !
one sir had even declared Harimohan is a poor father less boy !

So the time came once when the teachers decided to come to each home to collect a donation for some fund ,I dont remember but it was for some building and the personal home visit was to garner huge donations ,
our school generally did not do that but it had a fair sprinkling of reasonably well offs too and it never collected extra money so fair enough .

I knew my mother was quite careful with spending money  so I warned her not to give sob stories of losing her husband and just give what they ask specially because Peter sir was supposed to come to my house with others and he would not budge without getting the dues .
he is very strict just give what he asks ok I  told
she just nodded her poor head
the D day came ,
I welcomed all of them inside
please come sir please sit down sirs
My mother came and folded her hands
hows Hari, sir in studies ?
Hari is ok nice boy not very keen on sports but good in his writing
even those days to me reading a book or writing was more interesting than playing cricket and I shirked PT classes as much as possible .
Madam we are needing some funds for the school building and we need all the help we have marked a minimum amount for every parent so we came to collect it .
My mother said
we are not poor sir we can manage to give that amount its not a problem but I do not know if you are aware that Haris father left us all when he was 10 years old and I need to have a tight control on my purse ,Iam sure you will understand
her eyes were filled when she said this

I was shocked
I knew it was the disaster I did not want to happen
I dare not look at them now
Peter Sir would  punish me for sure
I was near Peter sir then

suddenly I felt a warm hand caressing my hair
no madam nothing needed we are sorry we should not have troubled you
your looking after your children against all odds is a lesson to all of us
may God be with you and your family

He looked at me and said Hari you should study well to be a worthy son of this mother of yours who loves you so much
saying this they left

My mother looked at me and said sorry Monne ( son )

no Amma I know I know said I

I still remember Peter sir my nightmare who turned into an angel that day

how much memory teachers leave on us even after decades

Mallu mouth

The great sickular state of Kerala is overjoyed at the way things have happened in Delhi ,loss of face to BJP is like a good hartal gone well for Kerala
so the media goes about with catchy phrases like the lotus being nipped in its stem ,the great march of BJP halted ,and reverse of BJP fortunes from now on and so on and so forth ,
its great expert commentators are falling over each other to declare the death knell of the party they hate the most and the man who brought i...t to the top ,
They rant and rave
its because of their arrogance ,its because of their not doing anything ,the great Indian public has seen the true face of BJP
what vocabulary brilliance !

I feel God when portioning intelligence gave to the Malayalee a great gab but not enough sense to speak the gab !
he is excellent in reeling off in pure malayalee exuberance ,
words come out of his mallu mouth with no stop and like a mimicry artiste he can gab for hours
don't ask what he means but ,mostly he doesn't mean much
the very people who have patiently borne a Government which has done nothing since its inception instead of fighting amongst its own coalition partners with the choicest sound bytes filling the TV day in and day out ,jumping from scandal to scandal the Government has not even the ability to build toilets in girls schools leave alone managing a state
bankrupt and begging it bumbles along and the great media of this state now espouses on a Government which in 8 months has done more than 6 decades of ineffectual impotency by the previous Governments be it in the defense ,foreign ,financial sector ,perceptible changes like bank accounts for every citizen ,no nonsense approach to Pakistan and China strengthening of internal security better foreign relations and investment climates stricter timings for government offices
all this had already happened ,
when did we have any Government that worked in this country ?
leave alone Kerala where the people are happy with only the two morbid parties that keep juggling their power seats in alternate periods and their fates like ping pong balls
.,and now the same media is going ga ga just because a tiny place like Delhi has been lost to a maverick who will show his true color shortly and declare it as a Modi stopper ,
stopping Modi ( read not BJP ) will only make our country fall into the loop of having none with vision or dedication and our country will be the losers
So guys and gals be smart and start thinking after all you are in news in media and you have to think with your heads and not with your mouths

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