Innocence re-discovered..

After 3 exhausting days, the WeCAN conference has finally come to an end. I must admit, not all the lectures/ presentations that i attended made complete sense to me. Some topics were too technical for me to comprehend but some were just right. Learnt quite alot of new concepts and managed to get a comprehensive view into the world of Autism (mainly Asperger's Syndrome).

Started to see their situation in whole new light.. just like how we first understood the difficulties of the visually impaired when we blindfolded ourselves ( be it for 3 blind mice or to
experiment). The general misconception is that they(people with aspergers syndrome) are suffering from some incurable disease but the fact is that they are not that different from us. It's just that situations and emotions that we tend to handle quite easily doesn't seem that easily manageable to them. Sometimes even we (so called normal people) can't handle certain emotion and we blow up a mound into a mountain.

For these people, the world is categorized into 2 (to the best of my knowledge, dun sue me, i am not qaulified enough) aspects.. the logical and the literal. If something doesn't make sense to them.. they won't do it. The latter is the more interesting one. It's a simple case of looking at the world in a literal format.. metaphors do not exist on this plane. For example.. today when i purchased a book written by Eric ( he has aspergers syndrome), rather than saying "would you want an autograph?" he said, "do you want my handwriting on this book?" .. though it seemed funny initially, it made complete sense to me later.. No part of my signature is automated to call it an autograph and neither does it have a graph in it.. Here we are thinking we are smart... just call a spade a spade la.. why term it as the device that excavates dirt ? make it short and sweet..
Its such nature of the syndrome, which has led me to believe that they are not capable of being liars.. example again.. prior to buying that book (for which i and yasmin shared cost), he told us that (like a statement of fact in monotone) he still had alot more books to sell in order to break even.. and that he would really like some support.. there was so much innocence in his voice that we decided to buy that book.. he jus melted our hearts not with sympathy but with sincerity. that is when i realised that in certain perspective, it's us who lack in development and not them..

The truth (my perspective of course) is that we are the ones who have complicated our lives to beyond an irrepairable state. Its just so typical of us, what we do not comprehend , we fear. what we fear, we either destroy or keep out of sight hoping it would disappear.. but honestly they are not different from us at all... hmm starting to feel that some of my close buddies could be autistic.

PS: it would be nice to support his quest of breakin even.. the book costs 25 bucks.. jus consider. the author is Eric Y Chen. He is 22 . Its a collection of peoms and his perspectives..

picnic anyone

just a short one.. tot of utilisin all available means
anyone interested in a picnic in december first / second week? its gotta be a weekend so scrap ideas to hold it on the weekdays statin its the school holiday. there are people who are working ( tho i am on school holidays too... spare a tot who are workin...)

Not sure how many ppl are gonna read this blog of mine but its not much of a prob.. will be callin u all up personally as well.. jus do me a favour.. pls tell me a confirmed answer rather than can i tell u when the time comes nearer and then totally forget abt it.. thank you..

PS: i know the pic does not link with a picnic settin.. unfortunately no time to search up a proper one.

Got Piss?

Taking the urine sample had always been quite difficult for me.. be it during the pre-employment check up, or during a normal routine health check up or the mother of all pain in the ass.. the drug test in NS..

[an insight of my thoughts]
I always had a problem in producing urine on demand. It comes when it wants to no one tells me what to do. i may have a full stock but when someone else wants what i am holding in my bladder.. i get too reluctant to share it with them.. its my urine, its mine.. MINE! and somehow i don't feel like peeing anymore. The urge miraculously vanishes. Apparently this is what the professionals(i wonder how many bladder auditions they had conducted) call "shy bladder" ..

To be very honest ... the pre-employment check and the routine health check is not so bad.. they at least respect your privacy and direct you to a closed cubicle toilet when requesting your pee.. there you can at least coax ur rebellious bladder to let loose abit and be more generous with its possession.

The "shittiest" one is the random drug test in NS.. i believe all the guys who had endured NS would understand what i am talking about. The following is the true life incident of myself... who else.

It was cold and beautiful morning.. birds chirping at the window of my bunk... the sun rays.. flooding the ...enough crap.. let me cut to the chase.

[ After the routine roll call and equipment check duties]

myself: maan, wait up.. going bunk rite.. finally can sleep for a while la..
maan: shut up and walk faster la.. u jus wasted 15 seconds of my sleep.
"encik": Oi!!
maan/myself: yesh ENCIK!!!!
encik: where are you running away to? to go sleep rite!
maan: no encik.. going to the OPS ROOM to retrieve the PDV(the primary response vehicle or my unit) key.. Plt 6 LTA requested me to help him encik! it seems that the auditors are coming today so all units to display their best behaviour. Can i proceed Encik!?
[in a daze,looking at maan with my mouth open]
Encik: Din!.. You escaping where ?
Myself: I...er..I oso gonna help Maan encik...
Encik: for wat F***, the key that heavy ah? no need , YOU! go for drug test.. give me ur 11 B and follow me.

[at the testing centre, standing at a corner gettin a carceral feeling as provosts surround me. ]

Provost: Din, ur turn, take the cup and pee into it.. the toilet is there ( ya rite all i see is a urinal and nothin else.. no partition no nothing and it doesnt help that there is another gayish provost who is overlookin u from the back while u pee into the cup and furthermore he looks like he is enjoyin his job.. bad.. very bad.)

- after standing there for abt 5 to 10 mins.. manage to pee something to a substantial level..

provost: Din, ur pee pls( with a colgate smile and passion in his voice)...
provost: not bad...

- DUDE !!! DUN DO THAT.. its freaking sick.. i know our govt has been campaignin for courtesy and service orientation but this is ridiculous.. YOU do not ask for my PEE with so much happiness in ur smile and comment on how good it looks. show some disgust on handling the cup full of my urine la... dumb jack ass.. feel like puking.

myself: can i go now..
provost: ya sure...

[ i dash out of that sick place]

with experinces like this why wudnt i have difficulty in peein on demand... hey guys.. anything similar to share? ;)

A typical blog on an uneventful today...

Just had a reminder of how fast time flies(not good), today. planned to go for my medical checkup( which was a total failure as the clinic was closed) around 11 and accompany my sis jus before that.. i asked her why she needed my company, and she simply replied that i had to help her enroll Juhi (my niece) in a the Ugama Class (religious class) at masjid abdul gafoor.

I asked my sis why she was rushing to enroll a 5 year old at the masjid.. why not a few years later, to which she gave me a very peculiar and somewhat disappointed look. Well.. you may ask what's so peculiar about that.. nothing much actually, just that i have been thinking my niece was 5 years old for the past 5 years.

So here we were, outside the tekka food centre, risking being turned into road kill, so that we can proceed to dunlop street.. for some odd reason, i just cant bring myself to utilise the traffic lights there.. prestige problem la.. if i abide by the light which makes no sense to the countless bangladeshis and indian nationales ( this is not intended as a rude remark) , where got face la.. must also show that i too can put myself in danger along with the motorists and that i too can swear at motorists who have the right of way and get sworn at by motorist who almost turned me into pulp. The funny thing is that there is always some prestige problem(henceforth referred to as P.Problem) involved when crossing that particular road. You want to use the traffic lights also P. Problem, you take too long to cross that stretch of road also P.Problem..You decide to utilise the traffic light after wasting 15 mins cursing everyone... also P.Problem.. Lets say u are crossing the road and the TP catches you.. very big P.Problem.. after all this hassle, we managed to arrive at the masjid and when we inquired on the procedures of enrollment they simply photocopied my nieces bus pass and my sisters ic and they said they will get back to us. i was like er........ err....... errrrr..... ok...

In a daze, we set to out to sakunthalas for lunch, mainly thosai and tea... something was really wrong.. did not feel satisfied at all.. productivity was zero... After lunch, Sis suggested walkin around tekka mall to distract ourselves from the unproductive events so far..Still in a daze, was looking at some running shoes.. when i crashed into a group of kids.. sensing that i could have seriously bruised them i turned around,panicking and apologizing frantically at the same time.. guess wat, i apologized to a bunch of white kids... literally. Add insult to injury..in a some ways.. guess this has really been a blue saturday...well nothing that a good run cant cure..

E.M.H vs A.R.R

For the uninitiated, E.M.H aka Nagore Haniffa.. is the pioneer of tamil islamic songs(at least thats what i believe la).. those from the 80s to now all know at least one of his songs ( remember "iraivanidam kaiyaenthungal" ?).. my mom listens to him almost religiously but personally i cant tolerate him.. His groggy and husky voice coupled with ripped off tamil song tunes and sometimes the arrogance in his voice.. if only this guys listens to himself...i bet he will agree... another irritating factor is the music, everything is designed to be loud and jarring.. maybe thats why everyone listens to it.. they have no choice i guess..the music paves the way to your ear drums and his voice makes the grand entry. I go running for mufflers when his songs are on..

Now coming to my Favourite... A.R.R... now this guy is a genious.. he has the soothing voice, the mastery in melody and this god given talent to make hair stand on end with his music (not coz its jarring ah ok).. his personal albums all are hits, like vande maathiram , but too bad he hasnt forayed into the islamic song market.. the only song closest to the genre, is the song "zikr" from the movie Bose the forgotten Hero ... just waiting for the day he is gonna make a religious album and oust all the competition.

food for thought: wats gonna happen when EMH collaborates with ARR and a single called " ganniya kalaimaanae feat ARR" is released... hope it neva happens.. if it did .. dun tell me.

PS: anyone knows the singer Kailash Kher?