Blog Entry #7 : My Idol, my grandpapa

In life, usually, everyone has at least one person that they adore. That someone who gave inspirations from their life's stories. That someone that inspired us to be a better person.
For me, that some is my maternal grandfather, Mr. Muniswaran

He is someone I have always been with since I was a little girl. Until this day, he is the person whom I call when I am in trouble or when I need some encouragements. For all that I know, I adore him so much for all the words and actions he display to me, including his life experiences.

His life story is one thing that I will never get bored listening to every time I asked him. It was filled with so much of emotions and challenges. To see where is he now, is an inspiration.

Let me tell you a little bit about my 80 year old grandpa. He was the 9th child and the youngest for his parents. He always told that he was a pet to his dad,who was then, a firefighter. After few years, as a child, he lost his father.

Grandpa used to tell that his father was a very tall man. His mother on the other hand, had to care for all of her children at that time. She was only a housewife. She could not care financially for all her children and few of her children were separated to relatives.
Those were the times of Japanese Occupation.
 Grandpa used to say that they only ate sweet potato and nothing more than that.  Life at that time was scary for him and his family.

One of my grandpa's relative promised to care and give him education. The family took grandpa to Klang from Kuala Kubu Bharu at the very young age. Instead of giving grandpa a proper education, he was asked to help farming. Frightened and lost, my grandpa as a child, ran away from that place finding for his mother. He said he took the train from Klang to Kuala Kubu Bharu and walked many kilometers to his house. As devastated as it seemed, grandpa's mother was taken aback of her youngest child's condition.

Grandpa is the second from the RIGHT

As time pass by, his mother's condition was challenging caring for her children. So, his elder sister took him with her when she was married. Grandpa's brother-in-law was a police officer. He was a strict man. Grandpa moved around the country with his sister's family and grew up with his nieces and nephews. As time goes by, he realised that he may be a burden to his sister . So, grandpa left to find for work after his Secondary 3, he was offered a job as a teacher at a school in Malacca. After few years, he was offered a position in the Customs.

He worked himself up, away from his family and retired as a Superintendent Officer of Customs in Penang. I could go on more and more of his life's story, but it is at a great length. As summarized, this story has inspired me in many ways. Without his sacrifices, I may not even be given this opportunity to further my studies.My grandpa is one of those people who have encouraged me to pursue my post-graduate degree as well.

Thank you Tata for being such a inspiration!

Blog Entry #6 : Ambition as A Child

One of the very common questions asked to children is ' What is your ambition? ' or ' What would you like to be when you are older?'

If this question was new to the child, the child will look puzzled as they may have never thought about it.

But as time pass, children have been taught by parents on what their parents' would like or want them to be . It will eventually be instilled in the children's minds.That is when they get an idea about ambition.

At that point of life, I remember saying that I wanted to be a doctor,because I heard my parents saying it to me or maybe I herd people saying it to me.
Without knowing what is the job scope like or how it is to be a doctor, I wanted to be a doctor badly.

As time passed, I realised that I do not want to work in hospitals and treat people, or be in an operating room and deal with blood and pain.  I started thinking of being a teacher or a lawyer.  Being a teacher was thought to be nobel yet not too cool as an occupation. Therefore, being a lawyer was in my mind.

My teachers thought that I spoke a lot, my parents thought that I argue a lot and my friends thought that I always win arguments.


Looking at my strengths, I believed that one day, I will be a lawyer.
I thought that one day, I may be looking stylist in the coat and visiting the courts,fighting cases for people who need justice. Yes, that was my ambition as school-going child.

Yet, time changes many things in life. Once, I used to like the color black, now I like blue instead. In
the past, I used to enjoy fried food, now I enjoy eating grilled meat instead. Alike, in the past ,I wanted to be a lawyer. Once I was older enough, I wanted to be a teacher.

I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to pursue my career as a teacher and do enjoy my career.

But,if only time permits me...I may want to pursue my career as a lawyer and I still do wonder how it would be to be a lawyer.

Blog Entry #5: Scariest Moments

Ghost? Haunted houses? Spirits?

I am not too sure if I believe they actually exist, maybe because I have not experienced them myself. No doubt that these words do give me goose pimples, I have no story of paranormal activity that I have experienced.

But I have another story that relates to paranormal activities.

I do enjoy watching scary paranormal activity movies! I think I watch them a lot with my husband, almost every weekend. That is our  weekly movie activity.  As scary as it sounds about ghost and of its sorts, watching these scary movies have always thrilled me.  Those were the moments where the heart will be pounding so hard and always hoping the movie does not come to life.

One of the scariest moments I had was when I was 16 years old. It is always fresh in my mind as my family always laughs about it.

Back then; I do not prefer watching scary movies. It was the time when I enjoy dramatic movies.

It was one night on a weekend, when the movie ‘Ju-On- was playing on TV. I always waited for any nice movie to be played. The movie ‘Ju-On’; was reviewed quite well from my friends, who watched it before it was played on the television. I was so excited to watch this movie and made my family stay up with me late to watch this movie. It movie started about 11pm.

The movie was scary indeed! It is a movie about a small boy who is a ghost that haunts a house. This character in this movie does not speak, but just stares. That gives me the chills! I closed my eyes practically for most of the scenes and watch it in a pinhole size of my palm. I did scream and having my brothers, aged 15 and 6 then to laugh at me.

Eventually, as time passed, my parents and my brothers were sleepy. They went up to their rooms to sleep, leaving me alone. But I was determined to watch the movie until the end. How am I to sleep peacefully without watching the ending of the movie?  So, I gathered myself and sat there for an hour or so to watch the end.

Once the movie was over, I switched off the television and lights, walked up to the upper floor of my house to my room. Before I entered my room, I went to the washroom, brushed my teeth and washed my face.

Then, I opened the washroom door and I screamed to the top of my voice!

I did, I screamed! Just screamed, because I saw a little boy, almost to the same size of the boy, Ju-On in the movie, in tears and vomit on his shirt looking at me!

It freaked me out. It was my little brother.

The teary boy burst into wailing with fountain of tears, which woke my parents from the other side of the house.

What a relief! It was just my brother. I thought the boy from the movie appeared in front of me. The angry old people in my house started scolding me for scaring the little fellow.

This is just my opinion about paranormal activity and its feelings. If you dwell into it too much and create imaginations out of it, it will bring all the fear you never imagined to life!

As for me, I still watch the scary movies in the pinhole view. Nowadays, I use my husband’s palm to cover my eyes.