Say What!!!!

Had my last exam today…..:-( Yeah..didn’t do as well as I hoped for the software Engineering paper….Romba Kashtam(Very Difficult). I just hope I can scrape through….I want to do nothing…

sigh….sigh…

sigh…..oru nila vei vaa…vaa…vaa…nila vei vaa…vaa….see seeing sad songs…

A poem which is longer than the Mahabharata or the Ramayana??? This is certainly news to me….and it’s a Bugis poem…best part…er…..the topic of this poem is …er…."scandalous" to say the least…..sure want to read it though…but 300k of lines….whew….I haven’t even read my own culture’s treasures…hmm…I think this jewel (see piece below) would be read right after I read the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Bhagawad Gheeta.

POINT BLANK: Bugis epic is world’s longest written poem  (NST Online) Johan Jaaffar Apr 23:

THE Bugis epic La Galigo is considered the longest written poem in human history. At 300,000 lines, it is longer than Homer’s Odyssey or The Iliad, or the Indian Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Odyssey and The Iliad contained 15,693 and 12,110 lines, respectively, while the Mahabharata and Ramayana have more than 200,000. One of the earliest written versions of La Galigo, in a five-syllable metre, discovered by Europeans in early 20th century, was categorised under 118 "items" totalling 28,086 pages of text. A researcher, Campbell Macknight, suggested the materials be appropriated as "a cycle of stories". Very little is known of La Galigo although some of the texts are languishing in major libraries in Europe. Macknight has been trying to bring La Galigo to the attention of Western scholars, researchers and artists since 1975, but with little success. For thousands of years, La Galigo was probably part of the oral tradition of the Bugis, the people of South Sulawesi. But for the last 200 years, La Galigo, like any written narrative in the Malay world, has been part of the palace tradition. Perhaps it was there that royal copiers took the liberty to transform these oral compositions into written ones. La Galigo played a crucial role in pre-Islamic Bugis society. The Bugis anthropologist Mattulada called La Galigo a reference book dealing with the social and cultural background of the Bugis. Another anthropologist, Eric Havelock, regarded La Galigo as "a tribal encyclopaedia". Rightly so, considering that it is a massive repository of knowledge pertaining to all things Bugis — ethics, politics, history, worldview, psyche, and everything else But what is La Galigo? Consider this story line: In the land of the Middle Kingdom (Luweq) twins were born to a noble family — a boy who became a dashing young man, Sawerigading, and a girl, We Tenriabeng, whose beauty was the stuff of legend. He was destined to be a warrior-adventurer, she a priestess. Sawerigading travelled the world, but never saw anyone as beautiful as his twin sister. He fell for her, much to the horror of his parents. He was told, "Your pleasure cannot be put before the kingdom." In his anguish, he terrorised Luweq. Only We Tenriabeng could save him and the Middle Kingdom. She was as perplexed as others why her brother was so obsessed with her. "It is your beauty, your face, the curve of your back, the glow of your skin," he told her. Politely she told him, if it was her body he desired, there was a cousin by the name of We Cudaiq, who was her exact double. She resided in China. So, with the help of Welenrengge, the benevolent dewa (god), ships were made and Sawerigading sailed to China. Unfortunately, We Cudaiq, though possessing the beauty of We Tenriabeng, was vain and arrogant. To add insult to injury, she mistook an emissary of Sawerigading as the man himself. The man was ill-mannered, ugly and uncouth. She refused to marry Sawerigading. To win her, he had to go to war. Even when she relented, she refused to see his face in daylight. La Galigo was born of such encounters. There is an interesting footnote to this story. As far as I can remember, there are only two other literary works in the Malay world that touch on incestuous tendencies. One is the famous Javanese legend of Sangkuriang (better known in Java as the story of Tangkuban Perahu). A boy separated from his mother comes back to confront a beautiful woman. He falls for her and on the eve of their marriage discovers she is his long lost mother (Hints of Oedipus, you say?). In Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai, one of the most notable Malay historiographies, Sultan Ahmad lusted after his own daughter, Tengku Takiah Dara. He was stopped by his son, Tun Beraim Bapa, who paid with his life to save his sister. La Galigo was "rediscovered" by a filmmaker, Rhoda Grauer. She was in Sulawesi to film a documentary on the myths and rituals of the legendary Bugis shipbuilders when she stumbled upon it. She discovered the role of Bissu priests in Bugis society. Astonishingly, these beautiful priests were, in fact, men, The tradition of the Bissu priests, she found out, originated from the old Bugis legend of La Galigo. She ended up filming the Bissu tradition and, in doing so, reintroduced La Galigo to Western audiences. It captivated the imagination of Robert Wilson, a stage director familiar with Indonesia. To cut the story short, La Galigo became a stage production directed by Wilson. Wilson engaged authorities on La Galigo from all parts of the world — Dr Sirtjo Koolhoof, Dr Christian Peltras, Dr Roger Tol as well as local Indonesian scholars like Dr Nurhayati Rachman and Dr Mohammad Salim and Bugis elders like Pua Matoa Saidi, Andi Anton Pengerang, Yusuf Majid and Ibu Andi Ummu. La Galigo’s world premiere was held at the Esplanade-on-the-Bay, Singapore, in 2004, followed by performances in New York, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Madrid, to critical acclaim. As many as 50 of Indonesia’s finest artists were involved, headed by composer Rahayu Supanggah. The world famous Bali Purnati Centre for the Arts was the prime mover of the project. Even before the performances, renewed interest in La Galigo resulted in the Festival and International Seminar of La Galigo in Desa Pencana, Kabupaten Barru, Sulawesi, in March 2002. The village was chosen because it was the birth place of Retna Kencana Colliq Pujie Arung Pencana Toa, the princess of Ternate who was responsible for saving some of the Bugis cultural paraphernalia. She even copied La Galigo herself, 12 copies of which survive in Leiden University in Holland. More importantly, the papers presented in the seminar were compiled in La Galigo: Menelusuri Jejak Warisan Sastera Dunia. It is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding this truly remarkable literary achievement.

Our hollowed parliament chambers and it’s equally distinguished members have done it again…They’re now debating that Malaysian Airline Stewardess’s dress code is too sexy…..My My…..I know that the baju kebaya is a sexy dress…but I don’t find it revealing…I mean…what’s wrong with the MPs….do they spend time leering at women….I’m sure they have better things to do then to look at women and comment on their dress sense…I mean just because the MAS stewardess are a pretty lot….doesn’t mean that guys should *stare* or more appropriately oogle/ (or is it ogle?) at them…..

Hmm…when MPs should be debating better stuffs they’re debating worthless issues….hmm…malaysia boleh???

The grand old dame of the publishing industry(New Straits Times paper) has changed her style! Egad!!! What….no more broadsheet!!! I mean..a paper is a paper right..whether it’s broadsheet, flatsheet or narrowsheet…who cares…as long as its loaded with content right??? wrong!!!!! Apparently some people are nostalgic about its previous style. Lots of "emotional" outpouring has been occuring lately..something which I just can’t comprehend…

Anyway…again…procastinating..I really need to concentrate..exam is coming..next paper is own wednesday..wish me luck!!!

Got to go…sleep(it’s 2 am here at the time of writing)

Adios amigo..or in Tamil (Poythu varen…meaning going to go but will be back later) or in malay…Selamat Tinggal…or in chinese(err…what is it in chinese????..will get back to you once I know what is it…have to consult  my fellow friends)

Macam -Macam ada….(loosely translated to having many things)

Sigh..from someone so far from home, the piece below sure tickled my heart…enjoy

This certainly takes the cake. A trio of excellent programmers created a program that would allow you to generate a thesis paper! Am I joking…No…it’s true…

Go to this link to create your own paper! Now..don’t think you’llnot get caught…first and foremost if professors were to check it, it’s absolute nonsense!!! mixture of really good obstentatious words which does not fit the academia….unless ofcourse you’re in the arts then usage of bombastics words would ring well…if you’re in engineering…such grandiose elucidation would not work…See what has gotten into me…I myself am using such words….Darn the academia!!!!

Anyway..would you believe that the paper submitted by the trio was actually approved for submission to a conference!! It also got coverage from the venerable BBC. Well…thankfully the conference administrators found out about it…(I presume from the BBC ).

This does make you wonder eh…create a program that generate random coherent sentences (and graphs) and you get a paper….sigh…if life could be that easy…..On another note…I’d be making lots of money if I were to follow the footsteps of the trio….so any of you want thesis writing programs…don’t hesitate to contact me….Hmm…I must dust off the cobwebs on the dictionary to input more bombastic words.

Cheerio,

Suresh "Great Baron" Jeyaverasingam

Yeah babe…In love with this new curvy babe… Check out the new BMW 3 series BMW now out on Malaysian roads.

Sigh…I wish I could ride…then again…I also wish I could ride myall time fav, Mercedes Maybach. Sigh…I hope one day I would be able to own such cars..

I don’t understand this simple matter….We’re indians in malaysia…..Whether you’re ceylonese, malayalees, Tamilians, Telugu, Punjabis, Sikhs, Sindhis or any other group from the sub continent…why are we so adverse with each other….Okay maybe not all of us…but unfortunately the minority who promote ethnic superiority are the one trumpeting defeaningly and not the silent majority…why..why..why…

Got this from the star….Shucks…People…let’s get together…Indians in malaysia…let’s work together and be successful…why are some people more worried overly worried about their heritage and not working together….We’re not in India…and trust…me it’s better being malaysian indians…

Standing up for the Ceylonese

SMALL and marginalised but educated and enterprising, Malaysians of Ceylonese Tamil descent do not know their actual numbers because they are lumped together under the grey label of “others”. 

Mainly from Jaffna and Trincomalee, they were brought in by the British in the 1920s and 1930s as administrators to Malaya’s rubber estates and railroads. And they worked hard. 

As their numbers grew, one M.W. Navaratnam, a civil servant, founded the Malaysian Ceylonese Congress in 1958.   

Today’s Malaysian Ceylonese are highly literate, have a strong command of English and gravitate easily to the professions. Medicine, law and engineering are favourites. 

The luminaries, most prominently Westport executive chairman Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam – another is the reclusive tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan – are ever grateful to their parents for having given them a good education. 

But where Ceylonese used to occupy 10% of the seats in university, today they are relegated to only 1% or 2%, said newly elected Congress president Datuk Dr N.K.S. Tharmaseelan.   

“The educational opportunities are there but not given to us. Instead our students are given ‘junk courses’ in the humanities, or political sciences. When they graduate, they cannot get jobs,” he added. 

Outside the community, few Malaysians recognise the difference between Indians and Ceylonese. So in the 2000 census, many a time Ceylonese were counted as Indians. 

For this very reason, the MIC has invited the Ceylonese to join up, as the problems faced by the two communities are somewhat similar.   

Rasiah: Receives no pension

The Ceylonese, however, declined, feeling that “every race wanted its own identity to survive, said Tharmaseelan. 

“We are not a superior race. We just don’t want to be the first of the lost race of Malaysia. 

“We were born Ceylonese, so we want to pass on our culture and language to our children.”   

Unspoken, perhaps, is that education had given the Ceylonese a slight edge over the Indian coolies.   

It was the MIC leaders who did not want the better-educated Ceylonese to take over the party, countered lawyer Datuk Param Cumaraswamy, current president of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International. 

Still, the Ceylonese Congress has always supported Barisan Nasional, even if it was never formalised as a political party. 

The Ceylonese once basked in the political limelight. 

“After Navaratnam, senator Tan Sri C. Sinnadurai represented us into the 1970s,” said Tharmaseelan. 

The Ceylonese miss their glory days. Their wish list: 

·to participate at least as a dialogue partner (with Barisan Nasional);   

·to regain one senator’s post, to start with; 

·to have qualified and able Ceylonese run for Parliament; 

l to set up a Council of Minority Affairs in the Prime Minister’s office. 

To this end, Tharmaseelan and his team are aggressively recruiting new members, aiming to treble or quadruple the present 3,000. 

He is also inviting donations for a building fund, because while they have built several temples and ashram, they have never built something for themselves. (Donors may phone 06-647 7588/ 06-799 5880/012-6802803.) 

Other efforts to pull the community up by its bootstraps include introducing Tamil literacy for adults, while encouraging the youths, who are already fluent in English and Malay, to speak Tamil at home.   

Meanwhile, a minority of Malaysians of Ceylonese descent are sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers “back home”. Individually, some have sent money for hospitals, schools, to help flood victims and to provide food.   

The Ceylonese do, however, scratch among themselves, as they do with Tamils of Indian descent. 

“They can never be united,” said Cumaraswamy in disgust. “It’s the crab mentality. They just cannot see another do well.” 

The lack of cooperation between Ceylonese and Indian Tamils was painfully evident when they tried to repair the Scott Road Temple and the Mariamman Temple downtown. 

For as long as the Ceylonese Tamils do not stop bickering among themselves, they have little chance of putting up a united front to the government. 

And these are crucial times. As all the other community leaders are fighting for allocations under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, “by putting us under others, we will lose out on quotas, business, education grants, funds,” said Tharmaseelan. 

“We don’t want to be the last of the Mohicans,” he said. 

As a minority among minorities, their greatest fear is that they may one day just drift into oblivion. - By SUHAINI AZNAM

I stumbled upon this site which allows you to create your own avatar.

http://www.stortroopers.com/classic_boy/

Check it out..!

I actually created a blog wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy long time back..a year ago…and I just found out about it…

It certainly has better template than friendster’s…but heck….I will maintain both of them…not that I’m a blog freak…but it sure is a good way of procastinating…damn…and my exams are just around the corner…Eh suresh….Padipu Pannu….Yeah..got to remind myself to study…thinking of sun..sea…girls..????? yeah ….should go "sight" seeing once I get back to KL.. The best city in the world….<I think something is moving along my esofagus….hehe>