Cross-Cultural Conversations

Observations by a Malaysian studying in Australia

We're not merry, we're Malaysians

Still recovering from the Chinese New Year celebration-fatigue? Well you better recover soon, because Aidiladha (1st Feb) is fast approaching. Thankfully for our overworked stomachs, this one's not too "festive" and involves only a limited range of food, as opposed to that other major Muslim festival, Aidilfitri, which involves every type of food.

Sacrificial lambs and cows make way for sacrifice of the mental and physical kind, as devout Hindus put on their kavadis for the Thaipusam ritual, a "long" 4 days after Aidiladha.

It's the middle of February 2004, and just when you think 'Celebrations' is having a dry spell, in comes Maal Hijrah, the Muslim New Year on the 22nd, a mere few days after my own birthday, which surprisingly is NOT celebrated as a public holiday. Could the authorities look into this please?

The month of March spells B-O-R-E-D-O-M for festival-freaks, while for the rest of us this is the chance to start a beautiful and relaxing thing called Normal Routine.

In April, while we in the Peninsula start fantasising of a permanent end to 'Celebrations', in East Malaysia, Sabahans and Sarawakians prepare to acknowledge Good Friday which falls on the 9th.

'Public Holiday' strikes back with a vengeance this coming May, as Labour Day (1st), Birthday of Prophet Muhammad (2nd) and Wesak Day for Buddhists (3rd) are celebrated 3 days in a row. As I reflect upon this startling finding, the word 'Festive' naturally comes to mind. My mistake, it's actually 'Crazy'.

Just to remind us never to underestimate the power of 'Merry-Making', the month of May ends with the Harvest Festival (30th, 31st) in Sabah, and June starts off with Dayak Day (1st, 2nd) for the indigenous people of Sarawak.

August ends with a big bang, as Malaysians celebrate National Day (31st) and are reminded of what a lucky and bountiful country this nation is (as if we didn't know that already) and how we should treat each other better (because some of us do need to be reminded of this).

The silence of September is merely a twisted prelude for the months to come, and those of us who enjoy peace and quiet should soak themselves in this tranquility to the fullest, because peace and quiet will not be around for a very, very long time.

It's mid-October and the holy month of Ramadan is upon us. It's a hectic month ahead as some of us fast, some of us skip, and most of us buy food from the Ramadan bazaar, whichever religion we belong to.

The big festive period starts off in November, with the Hindu festival Deepavali on the 11th. The month-long Aidilfitri begins on the 14th, and Open Houses are once again the order of the day, every Saturday and Sunday.

The celebratory year ends with Christmas on December 25, but of course we all know there is no real end to festivities, as we prepare for the New Year, and another year of continuous celebrations, once again.

 

posted by: Tembaga2 at 16:53 | link | comments (2) |

Eatery Mystery

I don't understand why, in Malaysian restaurants, the garlic bread we order as appetizers almost always comes after the main course, or in the case of one Italian restaurant in One Utama, it simply didn't come at all

posted by: Tembaga2 at 00:37 | link | comments |

Go Wth The Flow

The German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW-TV) recently ran a report on the growing trend to drink mineral water.

A water bar has already cropped up in Paris and there is now such a thing as a water sommelier, who recommends which kind of water, based on oxygen, mineral and carbon dioxide content, goes best with the appetizers, and which ones are strictly for the main course. This is understandably very important, because the type of mineral water can make or break an otherwise lovely meal.

Trust the Europeans to make a whole gourmet fuss about something as plain as plain water. I just wished we had thought about it first.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 04:30 | link | comments (1) |

I Believe I Can Fry

During the holidays I inevitably succumb to the lure of watching the TV. On an episode of A Cook's Tour, chef Anthony Bourdain toured the Mall Of America in Minneapolis (not unlike our own oversized malls in KL) to have a taste of a local delicacy, deep fried cheese mould on stick.

Not surprisingly he only had unkind words to say for this abominable treatment to something as highly regarded as cheese. He'd probably make similar comments on the deep fried Mars bars they serve in Scotland, a country which thankfully, has not been very successful at exporting their local cuisine.

Why would you want to dump cheese moulds and Mars bars, already good enough on their own, into a steel vat filled with greasy oil?

The good thing about all this is that I know for sure  I won't be having the two items. Just the thought of them being lubricated in grease makes me want to voluntarily fast for a week.

Let's just hope they dont come up with fried chicken skin on sticks. That I just have to eat.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 02:42 | link | comments |

Chain Reaction

Today I received an email from a friend. This is a very rare occurence so predictably I was pretty excited and immediately clicked on it to read the contents.

"Sorry,"-Anything that starts off with an apology must not be very good. "but this chain letter is for real"- chain letters! I've read about this global phenomenon in the newspapers. People who receive this will then have to forward it to their friends, and those friends forward it to theirs, and so on. But surprisingly I've never actually received one. This is my ticket to social interaction. I'm already seeing the wonderful possibilities.

"When Anne Wichert got it for the first time," Wichert? That's a pretty unfortunate surname. I was glad I didn't inherit Wichert as a surname, although my own could potentially cause problems for me in American airports where I might be mistaken for a terrorist.

"she ignored it and a week later the love of her live dumped her for no good reason" Could it be he was embarrassed to be associated to someone with such a weird surname?

"so BEWARE, and just send the stupid letter!!!!!! Remember, it must be sent to 25 people within 1 hour or your wish will not come true" 25 people in 1 hour?! I don't know that many people. I was starting to regret opening this wretched email.

"if you do not pass this on, something bad or worse will happen to you. You will have bad luck with your love life for seven years. This is no joke" No joke? That means they must be serious.

I've had bad luck with my love life since forever. Another 7 years is perfectly manageable. There and then, I made the life-altering decision not to participate in the chain letter movement.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 10:06 | link | comments |

A Weighty Issue

Recently someone in the States invented a device which you can install in the car that tells you your weight. A middle-aged woman was asked on television what she thought of the device, in which she replied she couldn't think of anything more useless than that.

I had to agree with her. Why would you want something that, in all likelihood will tell you you're overweight everytime you get into the car? We already have well-meaning and brutally honest friends for that.

But then I thought, if I did have the device, I wouldn't have to weigh myself before and after a visit to the toilet which I sometimes do (the weighing scales are conveniently located opposite the toilet bowl). I also no longer have to weigh myself after I wake up and before I go to sleep at night since I've already done so in the car on my way home.

Suddenly this device doesn't sound so useless after all. 

posted by: Tembaga2 at 03:36 | link | comments |

A Bit Of Promotional Blitz

My website's been updated at http://www.geocities.com/phatcigar. Or you could always click on the link to My website. Go have a look, it's a shame not to, considering the amount of money I wasted on phone and internet and electric bills.

To those who's in my Friendster and Email list who've received this exact message TWICE already, you have my deepest apologies.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 02:52 | link | comments |

Happy New Year ??

This time around I didn't feel like going out during New Year's Eve, but at the last minute we decided to go down to town. Knowing how jammed up the streets would be, we took the LRT (Light Rail Transit) instead. The thing I don't like about public transportation is not so much the 'transportation', it's the 'public' part which bothers me.

There was a group of teenagers talking in a very overdone broken Malaysian English, and extremely loud at that. When they got off the train I was filled with relief, but this wasn't going to last for long. As their replacement were a horde of about 15 malnourished and deliberately flat-voiced (apparently it's cool) kids/animals, with enough oil on their hair and faces to deep-fry a whole chicken, high on drugs and harassing anyone who wants to get out of the train who happens to be in their way with either racist taunts or sexist jokes.

Everyime I get on any mode of public transportation here there's always this strong desire to change my nationality.

After living in a hole for a year, I've lost the ability to dance, and so I gave the clubs a miss. The fireworks show would be the highlight of my New Year's Eve celebration that night.

We chose a spot close to the Petronas Twin Towers as that's where the show is held every year. There were thousands of other people there, all presumably waiting for the fireworks show. This looks to be a vantage point to watch it. I patted myself on the back for choosing such a good spot.

At 12 o'clock there were sounds of explosion, and people somewhere were cheering. As for us, and the thousands of other people with us, we were trying to spot the fireworks. It turns out one of the fireworks show were at the other side of the Petronas Towers, and the 6-storey Suria Shopping Centre, together with the Towers, blocked our view of the fireworks so that we could only see it in half its glory. There was another fireworks show at nearby Bintang Walk, but again our view was totally blocked by, what else, an office tower.

There I was, having waited solely for the fireworks at the spot for a full hour, only to see them in half, and in the case of Bintang Walk's, none at all. And the same goes for the thousands of other people in the same area as us. I was surprised to know there's so many stupid people in KL. I was even more surprised to learn that I was one of them.

After a lot of pushing and shoving, I managed to get into the LRT to go back home. People around me were looking down and giving dirty looks among themselves. What, are my shoes that ugly? I looked down. Someone took the liberty to vomit what looked like tomato puree at the exact spot were we (which included ME) were standing. There was no space to go anywhere else so I had no choice but to remain standing there.

What a great way to start the new year.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 03:12 | link | comments (1) |