Gambling away a life.

Once upon a time, there were two brothers from a poor family. At the tender age of fourteen, the elder brother had to drop out of school so as to enable the other brother to continue his studies because the family just did not have sufficient money to afford two school-going children. You see, in those days, parents had to buy text-books, pay school fees each month and fork out a sum of money for transport. The poor family found the expenses too much for their meagre incomes.

Life for the younger son was not easy although he had the opportunity to go on studying. He had to cook for the family, clean the only rented room they had and wash up the plates and utensils besides completing his homework. The only thing in the house he needed not to do was to wash the clothes. His mother did that before preparing some food to hawk in the streets from afternoon to late evening in order to supplement the husband’s income. To help her hawk her food was the younger son.
Life was tough but the family was tough enough to carry on with their life.

Unfortunately, life is never as easy going as this endlessly. There came a time when evil lurked at the elder son’s place of work, eveready to pull him away from his profitable boiled cuttlefish with sauce which he was good at and selling the food at the Penang Esplanade at night. The younger son helped him by waiting at the tables.
Somebody started a gambling table where the stall-owners and outsiders gather to stake their money for easy gains. Then, there was one evening when business was not as good as usual. The elder brother moved towards the group of gamblers, pulled by the lure of winning money. Initially, he did win and that was the problem. He learned from the experience that easy money could come from gambling. It was to be his downfall.

He lost interest in his own stall and business. He left his younger brother to manage the business while he gambled. Of course, he did win now and then but most of the time he ended the loser.

Realising what is happening, the younger brother decided that action had to be taken to stop the evil. One evening, he had to leave the stall unattended to slip away and report the gamblers to the nearest police-station which was about four kilometers away. The police came and broke up the gambling group but the urge to gamble had lodge itself too deeply in the gamblers. They posted look-outs and continued with their games, stopping only when they received word that the police was on the way.
Eventually, the stall of boiled cuttlefish with sauce had to be closed as it could not be managed by the younger brother alone.

That was the first tragedy to befall the gambling brother. Since then, wherever he worked, he was constantly frequenting places where gamblers gather. His earning is usually lost and sometimes he was even in debt.

One vice led to another and soon he even took up drinking. As a result he got diabetes and then, high blood pressure. Throughout his life, he was always unable to cope with his money, gambling his pay away and drinking to enjoy whatever life there was in drink; or was it to forget the misery of life. Some gal did love him enough to try to get him away from his vices but failed and gave up. Finally his life ended after much booze at a New Year Eve’s party.

See how dangerous the pull of gambling is to people. We certainly do not wish anyone we love to be dragged into its ‘quicksand’ unable to crawl out to save himself or herself. Gambling is a vice we must always be on guard against.

Ego, commerce or superstition?

Throughout the year, I have a great appetite. I consume a big amount of food as my activities in a day consist of much physical action. I needed the carbohydrates through grains, fruits and vegetables to supply the amount of energy I use up each day. Of course, I take sufficient protein, vitamins and minerals food to ensure I stay in good health.

However, there was a time, always at this time of the year, the eve of the Chinese New Year, when I lost some of my appetite as the result of seeing the enormous amount of food placed on the table.

This is a pecularity of the Chinese. I came from a poor family and despite that, there was always a great quantity of food; fish, chicken, duck, pork, salad leaves, salted vegetable soup with meat in it and the thousand-year fermented duck's eggs; on the table on new year's eve. The amount of food was always obviously too much to feast on and the sight of it was usually enough to chase away my appetite.

The only beautiful things about the new year then were the number of red packets I could manage to collect during those younger days and the bottles of cold aerated water I was allowed to drink. During those days, the financial situation of the family allowed me such luxuries rarely.

After the new year's eve dinner, the torture began. Day after day, for the next few days at least, it was left-over food, cooked and recooked, recycled with a little bit of meat or other vegetables added. How healthy that food was I would never know. Of course, we know that each time we subject food to more heat, more nutrients are lost. Fortunately, I had never experienced any food poisoning, malnutrition maybe.

Today, with myself having a say in my food, my family as well as my brother's family do not practise that any more. Funny, is it not, that we do not do that when we have a refrigerator to store all that food whereas there was no refrigerator for such a purpose when my parents were doing that, using the heat from the stove to recook the food after each meal.

And in my curiosity as to why some families still do that, I discover that they have the belief that the kitchen god would come for a visit and so as to ensure that he could put in a good report on the family, the family has to somehow fill the rice-containers to the brim and have lots of food in the food-cupboard.

For me, that sounded like a commercial reason. Business people, in order to have good business, must have put such ideas into the minds of the simple folks to encourage them to spend on more than was needed.

Or was that an excuse to assuage one's ego when it comes to the poor or to show off the capability of the family when it comes to the well-to-do.

Whatever it may be, it is also an opportunity to splurge a bit on some expensive items such as more attractive new clothes and the more exotic delicacies that are usually available at this time of the year. This is one of the reasons, people are most happy and appreciative in welcoming a new year.

Another con job.

There are lots of people wanting to con someone out there. I have received so many emails telling me i have won a million dollars that I no longer read the full story anymore. The latest seem to come from Microsoft itself. As I do not have much time for some free cash, I just delete it and I am my happy old self again. You know, being a millionaire just isn't my cup of tea. Today, as I am, I do not even have to bother about locking my doors securely as sometimes I just hope someone would cart away my old furniture so that I have an excuse to buy some new ones. Well, no such luck, fellows.

Below is an email where someone experienced a new way to con some money from your relatives. As they say, to be fore-warned is to be fore-armed. So, we can learn from the experience of theis guy. We certainly would not like to learn this first-hand. So. please read on and beware!


Dear all

I cannot stop myself from sharing this with all of you.

Its all started when I received a call from someone claiming that he was from Maxis and he asked me to shutdown my phone for 2 hours for 3g update to take place. As I was rushing for a meeting, I did not question him but did what I was told and just shutdown my cell phone.

After 45 minutes I felt very suspicious since the caller did not even introduce himself and tell me his name. I quickly turned on my cell phone and immediately received several calls from my family members. There were other calls as well from the number that had called me earlier.

I called my parents and was shocked to notice that they sounded very worried and asking me whether I was safe. My parents told me that they had received a call from someone claiming that they had me with them and asking for money to let me free. The call was so real and my parents even heard 'my voice' crying out loud asking for help. My parents were at the bank waiting for the next call to proceed with the money transfer. I told my parents that I was safe and told them to lodge a police report.

Right after that I received another call from the guy asking me to shutdown my cell phone for another 1 hour. I refused to do that and hung up. They kept calling my cell phone until the battery had run down. I lodged a police report and I was informed by the officer that there were many such scams reported. Most of the cases reported indicated that the victim had already transferred the money! And it was impossible to get back the money.

Be careful as this kind of scam might happen to any one of us!!! Those guys are so professional and very convincing during calls. If you are asked to shut down your cell phone for updates by the service provider, Ask around! Your family or friends might receive the same call.

Be Safe and Stay Alert!
Please pass this around to your family and friends!

Yes, fun with your children is an important step to bonding.

Yesterday, you saw pictures of children having the time of their lives with parents. Fun is so necessary in a family that each day, as we look at ourselves in the mirror, smile at ourselves and remember that here's another new day to bring our children closer to us with fun.

It was sometime at the beginning of this year that the Art of Living held a celebration to welcome the new year. Look at the previous day's pictures and see how precious such moments are.

Members and their families as well as relatives and friends turned up for the event. The event was a success not so much due of the numerous delicious food served; more so because of the convivial atmosphere and the joy of participating in the events where children are given no less importance and attention than the adults.

Having fun with our children is of utmost importance as it will bring the family closer together. The love and closeness are so evident in their joy.

The fun at the gathering was doubled, even tripled when it was shared with other families. The smiles, laughter and joy were so infectious that even those who were more content to merely watch felt them seep into their being. Such is the beauty of being a part of a joyful event. The spontaneous happiness derived is immeasureable! The memory of it can never fade away. Forever will it remain in the hearts and minds of those participants. Look at the faces and we see happiness radiating with the thrill of having fun with a parent. Such was the joy of the moment.

Happiness through some activity with parents nurtures the important bond between the child and his/her parents. Life is then so much more delightful. Being close helps both parents and the child to confide in each other, exposing problems that might never surface until they become threats to harmony in the family.

For example, I believe my own child would not have confided to me the fact that a child in his kindergarten had used a vulgar word so boldly, had I not been close to him and caused him to understand that his parents are the ones to approach and relate without fear of any loss of love no matter what happens; that we are the ones he can depend upon to help him solve any difficulties he may encounter. Through such closeness, I was able to know what had happened and was enabled to take steps to prevent further damage from such undesirable influence. (I did not pull him out of the kindergarten. I explain the undesirable effects of such words and told him those were the reasons daddy and mommy do not use such words. He understood and the result is that, to this day, my two children never use such vulgar words.)

As the years roll by, such happy memories will return whenever they are needed in times of loneliness, doubt and depression to drive out the negativity and help them to appreciate that life; though never constant, forever changing, sometimes bad and other times good; has more memorable happy times than lousy ones. Those who have experienced such joy would be able to use such memories to skip over the possible bad patches in their lives.

Don’t you see, this is the reason why we keep photos of all those good times we have had. Photos and memories of joy are an essential part of our lives.

So we ought to put as much joy as possible into our lives so that we, including our children, knows the joy of playing, socialising, language learning, reading, learning, experiencing and working as a family as well as a community.

A family is only as strong as its weakest member.

This morning, I attended the knowledge session to listen to the introduction of Patanjali in The Art of Living Centre in Kedah, Malaysia.

In the introduction is a story of how Patanjali had a thousand people gathered towards the South of Vindiya Mountain in Southern India. He told the listeners that a screen would be placed between them and him. That was the condition for imparting the knowledge. Besides that no one was to move out till the full knowledge had been completely taught.

Everyone was absorbed in the knowledge. With each new knowledge, a new realization came and the enthusiastic energy was so great they found it difficult to contain themselves. Still, they maintained their discipline.

But then, as fate would have it, a young boy felt the need to answer nature’s call. Quietly, thinking no one would notice, he went to the toilet. But when he started to move, the collective consciousness was broken. People turned their heads, looked towards the movement and started to wonder.

“Who’s that? What happened? Who is going out? Why is Patanjali behind the screen? Yes, why is he there?” And some of them lifted the screen to look for Patanjali. As they did so, the place burst into fire and all the nine hundred and ninety-nine people died. Only the boy who went to the toilet survived.

The one who survived was the weakest link in the group. He disconnected the strong chain of discipline the group had formed. He disrupted the collective consciousness. Without the togetherness, people in the group started acting as individuals with their doubts and curiosity. The fire in the story was a symbol of the kind of tragedy that can befall a group when its collective strength was destroyed, destroyed by its weakest link. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

In a family, it is also true that it is only as strong as its weakest member. A weak father, a gambler or a drunkard, can easily break up a family. A weak mother, on personal pursuits and neglecting the family can also cause chaos. A pampered child who merely wants personal demands met can bring problems to the parents and the family. Therefore it is in our interest to love, nurture, help, look into the welfare of and be responsible for every member of our family.