Development Vs Environment

At the place where I work I was quite sad to see several huge (and I think ancient) trees being cut and uprooted to accomodate yet another development project. I estimate around 30 trees were cut down. That's progress - the good with the bad but its still sad. I was wondering whether they could have accomodated the trees into the landcape and design of the structure coming up.

It brings to mind what one friend told me sometime back about Universiti Utara Malaysia. I ma not sure whether it is true, but during the design phase, the architects/contractors were asked by the then PM, Dr. M, to leave as much of the originial vegetation as intact as possible and build the structures around them. Well! the results are there for us to see. I think UUM is the most "green" and beautiful university in Malaysia.



Also read this in the WWF site (not related to wrestling in any way). As indicated in various newspaper reports, places that had healthy coral reefs and intact mangroves acted as natural buffers and were less badly hit by the tsunami than in other places. This includes the Maldives and Andhra Pradesh, in India.

Now replanting of the mangroves are on full swing in Malaysia and I hope the momentum picks up before we forget and we do tend to forget.

Azan Software

For those who are interested, I found this great software which plays the Azan or Azaan or Athan (call to prayer for Muslims) for every prayer time (5 times daily). It is the Athan (Azan) Basic 2.1, from Islamic Finder. The software covers more than 6 million cities, towns, and villages all over the world and also includes Qiblah directions (direction to the holy mosque in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia). You can choose Azans from Mecca, Medina or Al-Aqsa or even no azan at all. It also gives you the choice of adding a doa(suplication) after the Azan.

I have checked and so far it hasn't crashed the computer, doesn't have any hidden spyware and best of all, its FREE. They do have a another version called the Athan Pro 2.1, which you can buy online.

Conference Blues

Before people think that we misused public money for the Delhi trip, let me assure you that we did go there for a conference and we paid for the sight seeing trips, from our own pockets. The thing is that I hate talking about work.

About the conference, it was held at the Grand New Delhi, which is really GRAND and is considered as one of India's newest and finest luxury hotels. For those who think that things are cheap in India - we couldn’t afford to stay there.

I noted one interesting phenomenon if I can call it that. The conference was like a gathering of Indian diaspora. A number of the participants from the US were of Indian origin. There were Indians from UK, Indians from Australia, Indians from Kuwait and so on. Among us also, there was even a Malaysian lady of Indian origin via Sri Lanka (she is a Tamil whose ancestors came to Malaysia long time ago from Ceylon now Sri Lanka). We had a surprise when my wife’s colleague (also her Head of Dept.) confessed that he has some Indian blood. His dad is Chinese, his mum is Tamil and he is of course Melayu. Interesting isn’t it. That’s Malaysia for you – “Truly Asia”.

Anyway, there were five of us from Malaysia and I am proud to say that we did Malaysia proud by winning 2 awards. I say we even though I didn’t win any, because one of them was my wife and I have to say she deserves it. Her paper was good, the presentation slides were very professional and she handled the questions like a pro – that she is.

We were surprised to learn that many of the participants were admirers of Tun Dr. Mahathir. Being a long time fan, it was nice to hear people heaping praise upon praise on Dr. M. Of course there were an ignorant few who had very wrong ideas about Malaysia. One of them queried me about the oppressed minorities and women. I pointed out that one of our group was a Tamil and two were women – including my wife. I asked him whether they looked oppressed and that seemed to stump him.

Taj Mahal

We finally reached the Taj Mahal, which stands on the bank of River Yamuna, about 2 kms away from Agra Fort. Even though it was not listed among the 7 wonders of the Ancient World compiled by the by the Greeks, it is one of the World's most beautiful man made structures. It is definitely India's most famous architectural wonder.

When we got there, we were mobbed by vendors, many of them kids trying to sell us all kinds of stuff ranging from key chains to T-shirts. We had to leave our bus behind and get into electric powered mini-buses. We leant that this was a new measure to protect the Taj from pollution damage. And we were finally there at the gates of the Taj complex.

Let me tell you a bit about the love story behind the structure.
Arjumand Banu (later known as Mumtaj Mahal) was the daughter of Asaf Khan, the brother of the emperor Jahangir's wife, Noorjahan. As mentioned in my earlier post, Prince Khurram (later known as Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor) met her at the Meena Bazaar for the women of the harem inside Agra Fort. She became Mumtaz Mahal in 1612 after her marriage. They were married for 19 years during which she bore him 14 children, 7 of whom died in infancy. Mumtaz Mahal died in childbirth in 1630 (or 1931) in Burhanpur where she had accompanied her husband as he went to war. She was buried there and her remains later shifted to the Taj after it was completed. According to popular legend, she had made him promise to build for her a monument that would symbolize their love and to never to remarry, as she lay on her deathbed.

About the building and the surrounding complex:
There is disagreement about the time taken to build the Taj. An anecdote says Taj Mahal was built over a period of twenty two years, however some say it took only eleven years to complete. Expert craftsmen from India and other places including Baghdad, Shiraz and Bukhara worked on the tomb.



The Darwaza or main gateway is made of the scarlet colored sandstone and has twenty-two small domes on top of it. The gateway has Islamic calligraphy in black on the surface. To reach the Taj Mahal, we have to walk across the garden with it beautiful fountains and manicured lawns.



The Taj Mahal is on a raised marble platform and we were not allowed to walk up with our shoes. Just to be safe, we opted to put on a protective cover over our shoes instead of leaving them there outside by paying about Rs 20 (approx. RM 2) to a guy there.

On the East and west sides of the Taj Mahal (which is built entirely of white marble) are identical red sandstone buildings. On the west is a mosque. The replica on the other sides is the Naqqar Khana or rest house and its purpose is merely to preserve the symmetry of the structure.


What can I say about the tomb? Both my wife and me could only go, "Wow!" "Wow!"

Though we didn't notice it at first, there was something amazing about the Quranic verses around the archway. They appeared to be uniform, regardless of their height. The guide mentioned that spacing, density and size of the letters increased in size as the height increased giving us the illusion of being the same size, when viewed from below.

Inside, the tomb of Shahjahan lies next to his wife's and breaks the perfect symmetry. It was not intended to be there but his son, Aurangzeb squeezed it beside the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. We learnt that the real tomb that houses the grave of Mumtaz Mahal is at a lower chamber below. Unfortunately we were not allowed to enter it. The graves are surrounded by a screen (or jali), which had been carved out of a single block of marble.

Inside the tomb, a person came towards us and volunteered to show us around. He had noticed that we were trying to read the Islamic calligraphy on the walls. Of course we were a bit wary and tried to slip away saying that we didn't need a guide. I guess he sensed our feelings and mentioned that he didn't want to take any money, mentioning that he was a Muslim too. He showed us around and read out the various surah (verses) of the Quran on the walls. He had a small penlight and by pressing it to the wall, showed us that the intricate designs were not painted on but were indeed precious and semi-precious stones inlaid on the surface. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures. The guy then demonstrated the fantastic acoustic design of the building by shouting out the Azan. The whole structure echoed with his voice and it made the hair on my arm stand up.

On bidding farewell to the guy, we tried to give him some money but he refused to take any saying that he was one of the custodians of the building and it was his job, leaving us a bit ashamed about our earlier thoughts.

As in the palaces of the Agra fort, the intricate inlay designs (of semi-precious and precious stones) on the marble surface is breathtaking and mere words cannot describe their beauty. Unfortunately, I noticed that some of these are scarred and hollow today - I guess damaged and looted by greedy people over the years.



We were a bit sad as we were about to pas the gates and took a last look at the memorial of love. Some say that the World is composed of two groups of people, those who have seen it and the other who have not. We are fortunate to be in the former group.

Bad Luck

I will remember this Aidil Adha as a series of misfortunes. It was nice to be back with my wife and Rahil in KL for a few more days than usual. My parents also came down from Kota Bharu. My dad had soem short of workshop in University Malaya and took the opportunity to spend sometime with their only grandchild (and with their son and daughter too).

It would have been VERY nice if not for a few unfortunate incidents. My wife lost her handphone on the day of Aidil Adha. We were having a drink at an Indian restaurant near her house in Kelana Jaya and she left it on the table. We realized too late, that she had misplaced it. Either a customer or one of their workers had taken it - they denied coming across a phone. While coming back after meeting my parents who were staying in a hotel, we learnt that my wife's cousin's house, just a few houses away, had been burgled.

Next day, more bad news was coming. I realised something was wrong when I went to their hotel to fetch tem for lunch. My mom had gone to Jalan Masjid India to buy some gold jewellery. While looking at some items in a shop, my mother realized that someone had made away with a set of gold bracelets costing RM1600 from her bag. I was surprised as she was with my sister and 3 other family friends. My sister lodged a report with the police and learnt that the culprit had been captured on the CC TV in the shop. She was an Indian girl carrying a few plastic bags. She had sat next to my mom for a few minutes and had expertly slipped off with the small bag containing the bracelets. According to the police, she was a professional.

That was not the end of their ordeal. My mom was making her way back to the hotel with her friend, while my sister and others were making the police report when they suddenly realized that they had reached Bangsar. The taxi driver had literally taken them for a ride. They should have sensed something was wrong when the taxi driver had offered them some sweets. Looking back I realize how serious it could have been. They could have been drugged. The thought give me shivers. They then noticed that the taxi didn’t have a meter. Instead of apologizing, the taxi driver instead blamed them for not giving proper directions. They finally reached the hotel and he demanded RM10 even though it would have cost them only about RM4. My mom and her friend quickly gave him the money and got out. They were just thankful they got out unharmed.

While my mum was relating the story while having lunch, we learnt that my mother-in-law had lost her credit card the day before.

What is happening to our family? I guess we need to have a cleansing ritual or something.

Looking at the bright side. I bought my wife a brand new funky Nokia phone yesterday. Learnt that my wife’s cousin hadn’t lost anything precious. My mom actually had another necklace, which cost around RM4000. She was lucky the thief had not made away with that. My mom in law was able to cancel the credit card as soon as she realized that she had misplaced it and also found that no one had misused it.

Yeh! I look at the bright side. May all our bad luck go away with that.

India Trip 4

Continuing with my ongoing India Trip series. By the time we reached Agra, our stomachs had started to growl and they took us to a five star hotel (I can't recall the name). After a great lunch (I love North Indian food), we were on our way to the Taj.

Even though we were eager to go to the Taj without any more detours the tour guide informed us that we HAD to visit one more tourist spot. The Taj Mahal often overshadows it but it should be on the "must visit" list and we were thankful for his advice.

The Agra fort is about two kms from the Taj Mahal and stretches almost 2.5 km lies along the Yamuna river bank. It was built by Emperor Akbar in Red Sandstone on top of an earlier fort and became the seat of power of the Mughals. Other additions were later added by his desendents, mostly by his grandson Shah Jahan. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1983.



As we pass the Lahore Gate (also called the Amar Singh Gate) and enter the Great Courtyard we noticed the Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) buit by Shah Jahan. This was the place where the Emperors once sat on the Peacock throne before it was looted by Nadir Shah and taken to Iran (then Persia). According to the guide, the entire throne was covered in gold and encrusted with precious stones including emeralds, rubies and other stones. Inside the fortress are several palaces such as the Jahangir Palace and the Khas Mahal, built by Shah Jahan and two mosques- Nagina Masjid and Mina Masjid.



The guide told us that the marble surfaces of several of the rooms had been once encrusted with semiprecious stones. Now most of them are gone (looted by various invaders including the British) and all we can see are the marks where they once existed. The ones that still remain are those higher up, where I guess the looters couldn’t reach. One thing you will notice is that these encrustations seem like they have been painted on the walls. That shows how talented these craftsman were.

This fort is also the place where Emperor Shah Jahan (then Prince Khurram) first met his future wife – Mumtaj ( then called Arjumand Banu) at the Meena Bazaar (the private market for women of the royal harem).



Aurangzeb, his son imprisoned Shah Jahan at the Agra fort. He was allowed to view the Taj Mahal, situated across the river from his private chamber every evening. He died watching the Taj. Sad ending.

More later...

Moving On

I have decided to continue with my India Trip series later and blog about something instead. I was going through my 'Other Blogs' list and discovered that many of the bloggers have moved/are moving to another blog or have stopped blogging altogether.

I guess some people get bored with blogging after sometime. Others decided that being anonymous is a better way to blog. Others feel that their blog reminds them of too many unhappy past events and want to move on. Whatever their reason, its sad whenever you find that a blog that you used to visit has suddenly decided to close down. Though I have never met any of them personally except for Acat, I have shared in their heartbreaks, happiness and dreams though their blogs.

However, that hasn’t happened to me yet and I still have a lot of things to share. It is interesting to note that my wife is a regular visitor of my blog. Initially she was not very happy as she thought it was a waste of time and a kiddie hobby. And then she would mention the disproportionate number of ladies in the list of blogs listed. My explanation that "most bloggers are ladies” didn’t cut much ice with her. Now she is my biggest critic and even urging me to write about this and that. “Darling! Please get your own blog please.”