Hey everyone!!!

How are you guys? well, I'm fine here....I'm back!!! It was such a long break....
Currently, I'm working on my dissertation. I still have approximately 5 weeks to go for my submission. So far, I'm doing fine i guess...Need to put more x3 effort to get a good result..

I was browsing through the net, suddenly I saw one image which really caught my attention. As you can see above, that's the picture I'm talking about.

Well, some might agree and some might not...But I don't give a damn.!!..
I believe there is only ONE GOD in This Universe...Well, the paths (religions) that we follow might lead us in a different directions. But eventually all of us are reaching the same destiny.
No religion teach us to be Bad..or do evil..
No holy books (Bible, Quran or Vedas ) teach us to be Bad...

So, all of us are the SAME....

So, stop talking bad about other cultures....If can try to learn about other cultures and the way of their living.. As now, we are surrounded with multi- racial people, I think is better for us to know about their culture and norms.

As I always say to myself...I don't think That I'm knowledgeable if i only know about my religion. I need to know about other religions too...Thats how I respect my own religion and other religions.....


GOD IS ONE...

Shamrat Guna

Journey of Realisation Part: 1

Approximately one month ago, my batch mates and I were on a trip to the most popular country, Egypt. We spent almost two weeks mainly at Cairo city. After being in UK for quite some time, staying in Egypt was something different for me. Thus, in this piece of writing I would like to share my traveling experience to Egypt.

Way of living in Egypt – Poor are getting poorer and Rich are getting Richer

If I were asked, how was my trip to Egypt? I rather say it is meaningful instead of saying enjoying. I was touched by seeing the way people live there. According to a source, almost 15 million Egyptians are living under poverty line. Adding to this, when the world food price rose recently , the suffering of the people increased more.This is something sad to hear about. Kids sitting in the streets bagging for money. According to a middle class Egyptian family, after the food price have risen , there need to cut off vegetables, meat in their daily food. Their are only afford for lentils and rice for their meal. As mentioned by the World Food Program, most of the Egyptian people are lacking in nutrients as they have cut down the healthy foods. Hence, this will cause a lot of health problems eventually. Maybe as I am in UK, I have not realized the impact of the rising food price , but in Egypt, the citizens are suffering. Besides that, one of the typical foods in Egypt is a bread called “Irish” (not very sure about the spelling.). I tried eating it, but did not enjoy it. No matter which part of Egypt you travel, you can get this bread easily. However, for the Egyptians, this bread is a basic food. To reduce the burden of the citizens, there are certain bakery shops, where this bread has been subsidised by the government. For instance, in normal Bakery shops, one loaf of bread cost 10sen, while in subsidised bakery shops, one loaf cost 1sen. So, there will be a huge crowd in front of the subsized bakery shop. Normally, people started queuing from 6am and might get the bread after 3 to 4 hours. Recently, there were 16 people died when queuing in the line. I was really hurt when I heard about this. Just to get a basic food, there are struggling !!!!.

Me and with Bedouin brother. I was totally
shocked seeing him with barefoot and sitting
alone beside the road in such a hot weather.

This is how people there sales
bread " Irish". It's common

Subsidized Bakery shop.People are queuing to get cheapest bread.

Architecture

Apart from observing the living atmosphere there, another aspect that I observed was the architecture. I realized most of the building there have some similarities with the western type of buildings. The pictures below will show you.

Above pictures :

1st: Egypt and 2nd: Paris. As you can see, the window patterns are almost the same.

Above pictures :

Even here, it is pretty obvious that the building patterns are the same. The first picture is taken in Egypt and second picture in Belgium.

Aggressive men

Imagine, in two weeks, I have seen roughly 4 fighting scenes. These Egyptian guys are a bit aggressive and easily get to their nerves. Hahaha. Well, just look at the picture below.

TO BE CONTINUED

Motivated again!!! Being consistent is the toughest part

Lately, I haven’t updated my blog as I lost my motivation towards it. I can’t get any idea what to write which left me with a blank page. Adding to this, after coming back from my Egypt and Spain trips, I was really de-motivated to update it. However, today, something has inspired me to write and to be active again. As I was surfing the internet a few hours ago, I spotted some of my friends’ blog. Gosh…!!!..It was totally amazing how they have updated their blogs. One of them, as he is good photographer, uploaded the pictures he has taken and edited using Adobe Photoshop. The outcomes of the pictures are simply superb. To be frank, I can’t stop browsing his beautiful pictures.

Besides this, another friend of mine, in his blog, he has written about the wonderful reminisce back in IPBA. His writing brought me back to IPBA for a moment.

And there are lot of my friends who have started blogging. Even in Marjon, I think majority of my friends here have their own blog. Some are being secret and some are not.

Looking at my friends’ blogs really inspired me a lot.

Well, I’m a practical person, but some time I do believe in Numerology. One of my weakness as stated in the book was inconsistent which I do agree with it. : ). No matter what I do, I lack in being consistent. For example, in blogging, easily get bored I guess : ). Well, sometimes I think it is good to get bored easily because it urges you to try other sorts of things.

Guna

Mahamrityunjaya Mantra

Mahamrityunjaya Mantra is a famous mantra in Hindu veda.

Mahamrityunjaya Mantra (maha-mrityun-jaya), also called the Tryambakam Mantra, is a verse of the Yajurveda (TS 1.8.6.i; VS 3.60) addressed to Tryambakam "the three-eyed", identified with the Hindu deity Shiva. It's literal translation is the Great Death-Conquering mantra. It is a mantra that has many names and forms.

It is called the Rudra mantra, referring to the furious aspect of Shiva; the Tryambakam mantra, alluding to Shiva's three eyes; and its is sometimes known as the Mrita-Sanjivini mantra because it is a component of the "life-restoring" practice given to the primordial sage Shukra after he had completed an exhausting period of austerity. The Maha Mrityunjaya mantra is hailed by the sages as the heart of the Veda. Along with the Gayatri mantra it holds the highest place among the many mantras used for contemplation and meditation.

The mantra reads (IAST transliteration):

tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam

urvārukam iva bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt

In the translation of Arthur Berriedale Keith, 1914):

"To Tryambaka we make offering, The fragrant, increaser of prosperity;

Like a cucumber from its stem, From death may I be loosened, not from immortality."

Grammatical analysis:

• tri-ambaka-m "the three-eyed-one" (accusative)
• yaja-mahe "we praise" (1st pl. middle)
• sugandhi-m "the fragrant" (acc.)
• pusti-vardhana-m "the prosperity-increaser" (acc.)
• urvaruka-m "cucumber" (acc.)
• iva "-like"
• bandhanāt "from attachment" ("from the stem", ablative)
• mṛtyos "from death" (ablative)
• mukṣīya "may you liberate"
• mā "not"
• amṛtāt from immortality (ablative)

There is a parallel formation mṛtyor māmṛtaṃ gamayeti/gamaya iti "thus lead me from death to immortality" in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad 1.3.28 (se asato ma sad gamaya) with amritaamritat as ablative rather than accusative forces the interpretation of ma as "not" (and not "me") and leads to the rather stilted translation by Keith given above. (immortality) in the accusative; having

Taken from wikipedia.org.

Public Transportation

These 2 years of my stay in England, many things that I have explored and learnt. Being in this British culture, one thing that I have learnt from them is Punctuality. These people are well-known for their punctuality. As all of us are well aware, when we talk about Malaysian punctuality or Malaysian timing, normally we will add extra 30 mint. As I was born in Malaysia, I'm also infected by this decease as well. However, I have tried to change my self to be on time. Well, some time I succeed to be on time. Still trying!!!...

Well, one aspect that we can look at when we are talking about English punctuality is their systematic public transportation. The buses here are really on time. In fact, each bus stop has one digital screen on top where you can view what time the bus is approaching the bus stop. When the first time I saw it, I was shocked and wish how good if Malaysia's public transportation can have such a systematic approach like this.

The screen indicates what bus is approaching and the time as well.














It is really convenient for the public when they know what is time the bus is approaching because they are able to make a good planning. No need to waste time waiting hours for the bus !!!!.








There are two bus companies running in Plymouth which are City bus ( in the picture ) and also First bus.












It shows the route the bus takes





Guna

Proud of myself.....

Recently, I participated in volunteer activities involving workshops with the local students around Plymouth area. One of the main reasons of having such activities is to bridge the gap between different cultures. Being in Plymouth for almost 2 years, I think students here lack of knowledge about different cultures. Therefore, having such activities like this surely will help the local students and even me, to widen our knowledge about different cultures. Furthermore, as a future teacher, being part of this program gives me an opportunity to see how people like Faye (in charge for volunteer activities) who tries her best to create a good bond between the school students and the community.

The activities I involved were carried out every Wednesdays mostly at Stoke Damerel Community College. Bellow shows the activities I took part

Graffiti workshop

(Our effort!!!..although it does not look exactly what it supposed to be (RESPECT) but we enjoyed doing it as a team....

Faiz and I, the team members were working hard to complete our poster

Farah my another team member, working on the drawing part.

Circus Skills

Some of the stuffs were brought for us to have a go


My favorite activity, walking on the rope..I manage to learn it quite quickly


Mr. John, the man of the day!! he is such a versatile teacher i ever seen.

My friend, Faiz, who also tried his very best to learn the skill. Eventually he managed to do it...



So, these are some of the activities I took part. To be honest, initially, I was a bit regret when signing in my name for these workshops. I thought it was another 'burden' for me to do. But now, I am so glad being part of this group. What I learnt from here will be engraved in my heart and mind....


Guna

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups. Within this ideology, individuals will judge other groups in relation to their own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behaviour, customs, and religion

Here again, with another important issue ‘Ethnocentrism’. As the definition appears above, in short, ‘Ethnocentrism’ is the attitude of judging other people based on our own perceptive, belief and background. From my standpoint, I don’t agree to those who are being ethnocentric. I think one of the major factor causes people fighting with each other is because they are having this ethnocentric disease.

Basically, human beings are different from one another in terms of language, background, culture and in many more aspects. Majority of the population today like to compare what they have believed with those from other community groups. Mostly, it’s related to religion comparison. Some people who are very educated in their own religion tend to have this humiliated disease in which they will show how good they are in their religion by comparing to another religion. They will condemn other religion saying this is not the right way to follow and so on. This cause hatred among each other and will ended up in an unwanted situation. I think, staying in a very multicultural environment, we need to respect each other and respect their perspective too especially when it touch about their religion.

Think forward; no matter what faith you are following, it only direct you to one destination which is DO GOOD TO OTHERS. Being a human being, we need to respect each other regardless of what we believe. They are many issues to be taken into consideration like country’s developments, education and so on. So, please stop judging other races and please try to understand that other religions are also as good as your religion.

“Give respect and take respect”…

Shamrat Guna

Fault in NEP....my own view!!!

"Education in Malaysia is an on-going efforts towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holostic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intelectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God"

Ladies and gentlemen, I, as a Malaysian citizen proudly present our wonderful National Education Philosophy (NEP). Well, as the title says, ‘fault in our education philosophy’. So, what is the fault?

I would like to draw your attention to the phrase “firm belief in and devotion to God”. As we all know, Malaysia is a multi-racial country and the three main races, Malay, Chinese and Indian have our own standpoint when comes to religion and God. And we have our own place to worship to our repective God (although i belief thr is only ONE GOD).

Recently, the Malaysia government has been demolishing the Hindu temples around Malaysia especially in Selangor. According to a survey, it’s stated that, 1 temple is being demolished in every three weeks.
Why s incident this happening in Malaysia? How do the Indian people show our devotion to God as stated by the National Education Philosophy, “devotion to God” if the government is acting like this? Is the “devotion to God” in NEP direct to only one race? I don’t think so. So, they are not following what they have written down.
Even in our Rukun Negara it is stated “kepercayaan kepada tuhan”. To be honest, every time I read this, I dont feel any national spirit in myself.

This 'rukun negara' or National ideology is written at the back of all workbooks provided in schools. And when I was in my primary and secondary school, we were force to memorize this. Now, when I read this phrase. I think it’s just a LIE. And the so called Government for 'ALL' is neglecting their job and doing others things which they are not suppose to do.

So, where will this lead do? Why they are doing to us? Aren’t we part of Malaysian citizen and don’t we have the right as equal to others. As stated in the federal constitution, in article 11 “All of us have the right to worship our own faith “and the government is responsible to preserve the worship places. And why they are not doing their job?
We don’t ask the government to build a new temple but please let us to preserve the temples we have.

NO Matter who u are….respect is given if only u respect others... So, what is the fault?

Regards,

Citizen