A MOTHERS ABSENCE

                      A mother’s absence is felt for the first time when a daughter gets married and leave her house to live with her husband.When a girl leaves her home after married a mother will get all the necessary things for her daughter including basic clothes, kitchen utensils and what ever the daughter needs or wants from her mom. But when a girl has lost her mom and taken care by her siblings, hardly her basic needs are given priority or no one asks her what she needs before she starts her new life with her husband.

     Something glamour about the sisters in the family, they will make sure the sister dressed well during her wedding reception. To outsiders the sister must look nice and beautiful saree  during the  function, but her basic needs no one bothers to ask her. This is a very common atmosphere which happens in conservative families.Where the girl was proposed to the family choice of groom, and she must nod her head to please her family and her relatives.

  The second time the girl misses her mom or feel her mothers absence is when she is pregnant and live far away from any of her family members, No one to prepare the food she wish to taste or try, or to cook special during her conceiving period. What the girl does is she prepares what ever she wants to eat or taste.

      Even though she has sisters, no one has time to visit her or bring food she yearns to eat during pregnancy years. After she delivers her baby, no one to cook or to help her with her baby. Fate really plays important role in certain ladies life, where life long these ladies destined to be on their own and live life as orphans and being helpless in the presence of their siblings. After experiencing so much hurdles in life, this lady learns to live a life which is known as “her family” husband and her children. The rest mean nothing to her  and doesn’t make sense in her life. As grew grew older, the mothers care which she has been missing during her younger days, she gets fully from her kids who treats her like their queen. So the hardship and hurdles and the pain vanish in her kids love attention. But at times she recalls her moments spent with her mom, during her moms last month in her life.

                                                                                 

Mulberry and its goodness to human being.

 

Mulberry has been cultivated by man since centuries, for its leaves, which were used to feed the silk worms that produce silk material. How many of us know that the berries  are  one of the fruit which consist of rich beta carotene and functions as best remedy to lose weight, to purify blood and to detoxify our body. The red colour of this fruit is rich in vitamins and minerals and used to help to cleanse the complexion and helps anti aging, anti cancer and booster to our eyesight, improve one’s vision and rejuvenates the body when consumed.  The leaves are rich of nutrients and best as tea, no caffeine and tannin in these leaves. These leaves found to have multiple nutrients and minerals and helps to heal many  body ailments. The tea from these leaves found to be rich of  nutrients and minerals. The plant grows easily in tropical and in subtropical climate, bears very few  tiny fruit, but when the branches trimmed, the plsnt strted flowing in huge scale  and  even heavier. After every harvest the brances and twigs are trimmed to prepare for the next harvest.

Rojak ( ammas special) MIX VEG SALAD

When ever I eat Rojak at any mamas stall, I recall mum's special Rojak. The way mum prepares the Rojak is so special because she uses lots of vegetables and  the source is damn delicious and taste  fresh.


  Ingredients.

3 young mangoes

1 cup of beansprouts

3 ripe tomatoes

1 medium size cucumber

1 medium size sengkuang ( tuber eaten fresh)

5  rose apples

1 ripe guava

Ingredient for source:

1 cup of roasted peanuts

1 boiled sweet potato peeled and mashed

1 Tablespoon of dried shrimps

 2 large onions mince and fry until brown.

 a   pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of  sugar

 Method of preparation:

1. First wash and cut the vegetables into cube size.

2. Pound the peanut roughly and add to the mashed potato.

3. Wash and fry the dried shrimp in a pan with one table spoon of oil, then pound it.

4.Fry the Onion until brown.and keep it in a bowl.

5. Melt the sugar in a pan with half cup of water using slow fire.

6. Take a salad bowl and add the syrup, mashed potato, pounded nuts and shrimp, mix everything thoroughly and add all the vegetables.

7. Now the Rojak is ready to be  served as  "Salad".

Tuna curry (Amma's special0

  1small can of Tuna
    2 Aubergines
    2 Tomatoes
    1 onion
    3 pulps garlic
    4 tablespoons fish curry masala
    2 baby manggoes
    1 table spoon Curry leaves
     half table spoon cummin, mustard and fenureek seeds
    3 tablespoons vegetable oil
    salt to taste

Method of cooking:

1. First cut the aubergine and tomato each in to 4
2. Cut the onion and garlic finely
3. Heat the wok and add oil, when the oil is hot add onions and garlic and the mixed seed and fry until golden brown then add tomatoes and aubergines. saute it  for 2 minutes and add half cup of water mixed with fish curry masala and pour into the pan and let it boil, then   add the young mangoes and let it boil.while the mixture is boiling add the tuna and  the curry leaves and cover the pan for 3 minutes and until the aubergine is tender  and switch off the fire. Now tasty Tuna curry is ready to serve with rice, chapatti or bread.


 Other vegetables can be added  as you like, to make the curry more tastier.

my love and likes: AMMAS COOKING

my love and likes: AMMAS COOKING:             When I think of my mum, only her mouth watering recipes reminds me of her simple dishes. The very simple dishes which amma frequ...

Madurai Meenakshi amman Temple

   Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple  is one of the largest and huge temple in south India.This temple was built  by  the Raja Cholas from 9th to 14th Century.Today this temple is listed  and declared as world Heritage site by UNESCO. It is really surprising that people around the world especially, Hindu's visit this temple on religious purpose and also the foreigners are not forgotten.
    This Temple has four main entrances with its towers. These towers are known as the  East  Tower, West Tower, North Tower and South Towers.
    The Thousand Pillars hall  (Ayiramkall  Mandabam) is one of the main attraction at this temple, where the Purana stories and the stories of 64 Nayanmars told in pictures stories with sketches.
The Bharatha natyam and the meaning of its movements are elaborated in sketches in the 1000 pillar hall.

    Madurai is one of the Indian metropolitan city which is still preserving the original Hindu culture and the customs  are not exploited or influenced by the modern society. The bus terminals in Madurai are very clean and has its modern and ancient looks which are really uniq.

   One of the city which is alive even at odd hours, the migrants at this City are mostly Bengolis who preserve their culture and live among their clans. this is the place where I noticed very healthy cows roaming around the temple area and there was so much food these cows were feeding on left overs at the roadsides.
  

My Days in ACS

     My school days were rich of information , knowledge and exposure, the three different parts of my school life is primary full of my culture and I learnt about my language, religion and literacy related to Tamil and my passion for dramas and plays.I had a Malay neighbour friend who was same age with me, but language was a barrier between us. My Malay was not so good but we still manage to be good friends. We at times in the evenings explored our schools, i mean we played most of  teh evenings in both of our school compounds. I was in  MGVS Sitiawan and she was in SK Seri Selamat, a national primary school.After scoring  strait A's in UPSR, her family sent her to Tun Fatimah Boarding School. Her name is Siti Halimah and her father was a police driver. Her sister is Kamisah and she was my sisters friend.

     When  I started  secondary school , I was very happy to gain many friends.Most of them were Chinese and they were all my classmates. The lower secondary school  life was full of fun. My Chinese friends were my best friends during this time and I mange to polish my Malay and  became the most friendlier girl in my class and liked by most of the students, even from other classes. The teachers were very friendly and learning  hours were  something I cherished. The environment was Malay medium, and I improved my Bahasa Melayu until I manage to get 78 or  79 , A not even once   The mark which i gained considered very good compared to many of my class mates who failed the subject and even those who passed scored just  40 to 50.

   Each and every one of the teachers were unique and few of them were very funny, when they speak in  colloquial Malay, especially the Chinese Teachers. Mr. Wong, Mrs Diong & Mrs Jesudason, frequently spoke in English but when they saw no response from the students, they started to speak in funny Malay.I would like to share here that the seventies Teachers were gems. Most of my teachers were dedicated and the teaching and learning hours were quality . Lower secondary was the peak years of my study years.

    When I was in form 4 the environment was totally different, from Malay medium, I was upgraded to English Medium, that was in ACS. Everything was in English, the teaching , learning hours and the discussion with the Teachers. Even during Bahasa Malaysia , The conversation was in English but the learning hour was in Malay, Same  with the geography Teacher Mr. Ong Seng Hee. He taught my class geography but everything was in English only the names and things were mentioned in Malay. Mr Ong pronounce "potato' In Malay as "Gentang" which sounds funny.These Teachers have been teaching in English and when the Malay medium was introduced and my batch was the pioneer batch of the Malay medium, The teachers some how struggled to use Malay.
     One more interesting news is , My Form Teacher in form 4  was Mdm Aida Abdullah, she was our English Teacher. A very simple lady without makeup but the most beautiful Teacher in our School. She wore simple cotton batik suits almost daily. A verysweet and soft spoken fair complexion lady.Who never utter Malay words. She was the wife of the ADO of Lumut in late seventies.Mr. Soo Fong Beng was our English Teacher in form 5, He is the writer  of human  geografi text book in  seventies with Goh Cheng Leong.
       Mr. Ong Seng Hee, joined Ulu Kinta Teachers Training College and became one of my lecturer during my study years. One of my classmate, Ling Siew Lee was in the same programme and was in the same class with me during my  training years in Ulu Kinta.

     Though Mr. Soo Fong Beng was  a very strict man and at the same time a  sporting teacher. He encouraged us  to go  outing on our own and without any teachers assistance. During school break, the first weekend we  outing to  Pangkor Island and Pasir Bogak was  our choice . There were only mini huts at that time.We booked two mini huts for us. One for the girls and the other one for the boys. We were almost  14 of us. I was the only Indian girl and there were four of the boys, Baskar, Gopi, Ganapathy, and Ravindran, The rest of them, Toh Peng Leong and his sister Geok Sie, Oi Chan, Siew Lee, Chew Eng and several of  my class boys. It was  two  nights and three days outing. We  all like small kids played  games and in the sand and in water. Ooi Chan and Geok Sie were the main cooks  and the food was really delicious and fresh. Actually we bought everything in  Sitiawan and took with us, such as few whole chicken, cabbage, eggs, onions, carrots, rice and cooking oil. Fridge , woks , stoves and pots were available there including cups and plates. So preparing food was something easy for us.

     ACS has its own culture of nurturing the learners in literacy in the early morning and the first slot of the day is, newspaper test. This culture was applied to all the form 4 and form 5 studentss. Its an informal way of forcing the students to read  the news papers daily. Monday to Friday News paper test, 10 questions given to students and we need to get at least 5 wright answers and those who get 4 and below will get canning(boys)  and  girls duck walking around the block.So we all visit the school library almost everyday to read the news papers and escape from being punished. This method had made wonders and thats why majority of the students, I mean the ACS students  are quality students.