Thaipusam

Thaipusam, was held on the 20th of January 2011 in Malaysia.
It is a Hindu festival mostly celebrated by the Tamil community. It was a day when my friends and I wished to get a chance in throwing coconuts. Well, the throw of the coconuts towards the ground to break it, is to clean the road for procession, as a respect to god from a prayer for both wealth and health. Unfortunately, I thought it was on the day of Thaipusam itself so we missed the coconuts throwing event that day. Now I am acknowledged that the coconuts throwing event is held on the day before Thaipusam in Dato Keramat Road.


The Nagarathar Sivan Temple

Despite the feeling of disappointment, we continued our walking journey towards a Hindu temple located nearby which is just a short distance starting from Penang Komtar. To our amazement, we get a chance to watch the entire process of the mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers mostly on the body of the Kavadi-bearers.



The mortification of flash by piercings.

Frankly, at the begining of the process, the Kavadi-bearer seems like being possessed as shown in the third photo. The person was acting strangely before he was calmed down with some sayings by the chief and started the piercings of his body parts. We spent almost an hour watching and trying to understand the entire progress of mortification of flesh piercings. As far as I know, the Kavadi itself is a physical burden through which the devotees implore for help from the God Murugan.


There was a flower car stopped just outside the Nagarathar Sivan Temple, fully decorated with different kinds of flowers and statues of Hindu Gods on it.

After spending an hour in the Hindu Temple, we finally headed back to 1st Avenue under the radiating sun to shop for new clothes for Chinese New Year. It was great and eye-opening to have a chance watching the entire mortification of flesh's ceremony.

The Moon And The Space Wonders

When we were small, we gazed towards the sun and the moon in the skies from the inside of the car and wondered or even asked our parents, "Why is the sun (or the moon) following us?" It was the curiosity that questioned by our brains as a child. It was a lie told by the elders that we are not suppose to point our finger to the moon if not, we will fall sick or whatever. In what age you were when you actually discovered that it was a lie? Even until today, there are parents telling their kids not to point at the moon. It burst me a laughter when I heard it as it reminds me of my childhood of what my parents had told me.


The moonshot taken with my H50 together with both optical and digital zooming.

It was the incidence of hearing the parents told their child that night had inspired me of taking moonshots. Grabbing my tripod and started snapping the moon for an hour hopping to be able to obtain better quality photos of the moon. It was a great night, when I was spending my night in the outdoor enjoying the chilling temperature instead of sitting in front of the computer.


Photo of the moon without the digital zoom

In the clear nights, the moon is usually surrounded by the stars. Of coarse, not all of them are stars, some of them are actually the satellites and the galaxies because of the distance measured in light years, they appeared to be similar as a star. According to the ancient astronaut theory, aliens are from one of these stars or may these stars. It makes sense to me as they compare the longitude and the latitude of the ancient tombs like the Mayans, Pyramids and so on that had the structures constructed on earth like these three stars' arrangement in the sky like what we see today. You may be interested towards these documentations about the ancient aliens by simply search "AusAries2" in YouTube and look up for AA series.


Stars in the clear night. This photo was apparently being edited.

Let us debate our origin as a human.
Are we actually evolved from the apes or are we the test subjects which were genetically engineered organisms created by the aliens?
What is your opinion?

AUPians Barbecue Party for January Intakes

January the 19th, a barbecue party was thrown to welcome the January AUPians intakes in that Wednesday night. It was an awesome party that was held on the rooftop of INTI International College Penang's. It was held until 10.30pm in the night. Get to meet some new friends from local and other states as well.


Everyone was gathered on the rooftop of INTI Penang's. Photo : Andrew Tan was talking to his friend, Solomone who had switched to our course from other institute.


Here they are, the January intakes gathered and were paying attention towards Zuan Fu who was giving a brief introductions on the start of the barbecue event.


My Korean friends, Rusy and Ted. They are my seniors as I am from August intake last year while they were earlier than I do.


It was awesome barbecue night. Everyone were able to enjoy the sunset view from the rooftop while chitchatting or might as well as having their dinner in groups.

We started playing games right after having our dinner. The funnest games we enjoyed were the "World Genius Record of .." and the short dramas for the title of a movie chosen. We had the "World Genius Record of .." the biggest, roundest, smelliest and so on. The smelliest armpit and the hairiest nostril were the ridiculous yet funniest moment we had following by the short dramas especially with the title "Transformers".


Photo of the day, reddish cloud above the condominiums during sunset. Many of us were alerted by this bizarre phenomenon especially the photographers even Paul who was barbecuing the pizza beside us.


Friends of my August intakes arrived late in the middle of the gaming activities.
From the upper left, Edwin Teoh, me, Ching Shen, Tze Hern, Ling Shing and Ichin.


Alex was in the photo with us who was on the first in the photo. Ching Shen with the Malaysian Studies looks silly, isn't he?

It was an enjoyable night for us and we went for Adam's Burger as our supper together after the barbecue event before we headed home before 12 midnight like cinderellas.