An Unforgettable Day in My Life

Today is 1st December 09. Karthigai Festival falls today. It's sharp 5pm. I just ran out to my car after work. I planned to go to the TIC camp today. Yes, a special guest will be arriving there to give a motivation talk to the kids. He is none other than the great Sitarist Mr. Samuel J Dass. I am his fan. I had never ever met him in person and also not afford to go for any of his music programs. But still I'm proud to admit, that I'm his big fan.

After reached home, I get refreshed and went to temple to fulfill my Tuesday prayers. Then, I moved up at 6.50pm. I wrongly chose the Federal Highway. I am supposed to use the Old Kland Road. Oh my god..! When entering the LDP toll..I really got mad at myself. It was damn, terrible, hectic, f*cking traffic jam on the road. And the best part is, it’s started to rain. All the time, driving along the road, I was RESTLESS....and I was praying that I don't want to miss Mr Samuel's talk there. This is my chance...one and only chance in my lifetime to meet him. I remember, Ms Letchumy said that his time slot is from 8-9pm and he said he will coming at 7.45pm. Ms Letchumy, the coordinator of the TIC Camp. Such a wonderful person that I’ve ever met in my life, who has the inner and outer beauty as well. The chance of meeting Mr. Samuel today is because of her. Yes, she is a good friend of him and he is agreed to give the motivation speech to the kids upon her humble request.

My eyes were kept on turning to my car's digital clock. When the time ticked to 7.45pm. I almost lost my hope of reaching the school at time. I was at the Amcorp Mall building on the Federal Highway, at that time. My legs started to get pain due to pressing the clutch for more than 1000 times. At about 8pm I really got a great escape from the bloody jam and speed up my car till I reached the Taman Melawati Tamil School. It was 8.25pm when I stopped my car engine.

I looked up, there were few guys standing at the boys dormitory as if like packed up their things. They were holding the sitar. Gosh..!!! I thought I missed his talk or maybe his performance..! I ran towards Rishi, asked him "Am I late??" He said "you are at the right timing, they just came". Rishi, my younger brother, he is the assistant coordinator to Ms Letchumy. Then I realized there was someone walking towards us at the corridor. OHHH...MY....GOD...!!!!! It's him..It's him...Mr. Samuel J Dass..!! I ignored the whole world for a second and straight away said "hello sir…!" to him. He replied me "hi" with a broad smile. Actually I am a person who is very shy to say even a "Hi..!" to anybody. But just now, "where do I get the courage from???"

He entered the classroom. He was wearing short Kurta in red with golden embroidery on it with black pants. The students welcomed him with putting their hands together. I quickly went and sit beside Sahitra when she called me saying there is an empty place to sit. Our Penna Ji gave a welcoming speech and all clapped our hands in cheers..! Especially me. He sat down on the mat which was specially prepared for him. He hold the microphone and said, "okay, what are you all going to ask me and wanted to know about me?". The cute kids, one by one raised their hands and flooded him with their innocent questions. But only one attracted me most. “Sir, are you single or married..?” Yes, I didn’t get answer for this when I searched about him in web. What is the answer would be..? jeng…jeng…jeng…! He is single. He made a joke saying, “singgam single ah than varum..” then all laughed. He has good sense of humor too. (*“singgam single ah than varum..” is a famous dialogue in a tamil movie "SIVAJI" acted by superstar RAJINIKANTH...it meant "a lion will come alone")

He started his speech. He was born in Klang, in his own house…I mean his father's actually. He started to learn sitar at his age of 7. His first guru was his father. He was taught sitar by his father for 5hrs per day. Actually he hated sitar to the max and he had no interest in learning it at that period of time..!! His ambition was to become a lawyer or engineer. But he had no choice other than learning it. Mr Samuel even mentioned that his father beaten him on his fingers while teaching him sitar, using the rattan. He added “u know those days rotan, which looks like in the shape of hand and which we used to scratch our back body.” Then he laughed when remembering it back.

When Mr Samuel was 10years old, his father deceased due to bone cancer at his age of 36. Before the father's last breath at the hospital bed, he called little Samuel to the ICU room where he was admitted and whispered something. His father said to him "en kalaiye veenakkirathe..!!" Which means "don't waste my art" (*he actually asked him to continue playing sitar after him*)

His mother had taken care of him after his father’s death. She had worked hard to brought him up. He told us his childhood was not like others. After a short pause….he mentioned till today he will be taking only one full meal per day. His daily menu was, a glass of tea in the morning, full meal for the lunch and at night he won't eat at all. He asked the children "do you know why?" some of them answered.."diet".."wanna maintain your body" and then he laughed and said "I was only taking one meal since I was small and now my stomach couldn't afford taking the extra meal even though I have money to have 6 or 7 meals per day..!”. All were quiet then. (*yes i banned myself from writing his childhood story due to some P&C purpose*)

Then he continued. Even in that situation he was still able to finish his SPM, but of course not with flying colors. Yeah..who will make it..not even me…! I might have chosen a different way to survive if i were failed my SPM. But he…he didn’t follow the steps of any crap groups and ruined his life with the any bad habits. He mentioned that the one who failed in studies or life usually will take wrong path in their life. Such as will become as a drunker or drug addicts…and at last will blame the community for making their life like this. At this point of time I really admired his courage of leading his own life with well disciplined manner. I salutes him in my heart.:)

Then he started to talk about his career. He then joined Temple of Fine Arts where he learned and adopted the perfection of this traditional art from Mr.Orme Maheswaran. At the same time he also guided by Giani Bachitar Singh. Then he underwent training to Mr.Raj Kumar Sharma and Professor Haridev of Chandighar University and obtained the “Sangeeth Bushan” which is equivalent to a senior Diploma in music. After that in 2002, he studied under the sitar maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan in Pune, India for 7 years and his talent was acknowledged by the maestro himself. Now he had done few albums. After a while he mentioned he have 7 kids now.

This strikes a student and anxiously he asked him a question, “sir u have kids ar…? You said you are single?...then how come got kids, sir…?”” Mr.Samuel burst into big laugh and we joined him too. He then listed down the name of albums that he made. They were Sitarasa, Sitarasa Nostalgia , Vrajalila, Biography of Swami Sivananda, Vidiyal, Raga Moods and Prana.

Then he also shared his moments in his recent achievements in World Championship of Performing Arts in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA 2006. He won seven gold medals and one silver medal for the eight categories he took part in. He also won 7 Championship of the World plaques. I was just staring at him with my mouth slightly opened…and imagining him holding 7 gold medals…MY GOD…!!!! He is the real LEGEND..!

He told us, actually he never ever thought of winning even 1 medal, not even a bronze in his mind after looking at other participant performance. He and his partner were joking among themselves to book their earliest air ticket to Malaysia. But at the end, he was nominated for the eight different categories and won gold in 7 and silver in 1. He couldn’t believe himself when his name being called repeatedly in the hall. Till the MC had stopped him at the stage thinking that he will sweep off all the medals, he added with a smile. And now he had opened a new school The Samuel Dass School of Hindustani Music in K.L Malaysia.

“So that’s all about my story…you have any questions to ask?” he ended his speech with a question.

But this time there is not much questions unless one which makes everybody eager to know the answer…! A boy asked, “Sir, why you never get married…?” He answered back the boy, “Nalla ponnu kedaikkale….! nee enakku ponnu paarkariya…?” with a laugh.(Which means "I didn't get a good bride..! can you find 1 for me..?") The boy smiled and asked again. “Sir, please tell lah, sir…!” Then he said he will be getting married with a famous lady sitarist. And then all puzzled..! He continued, “You all don’t have to think deeply, where got lady sitarist in Malaysia..?” he laughed. So it is only his intention, but never found the girl yet. Then another boy replied him, “Sir, why don’t you train a girl and then get marry with her?” Hahahhahaha…I really laughed for this! All of us were laughing. I never expected this neither Mr. Samuel, I think. He was shocked and was laughing too. Then he said “yeah good idea! Why I never think of it ar…?”

Then Ms Letchumy announced, its performance time…! Yes, he played the sitar for us. The sitar music sounds great…! It’s crystal clear… first time in my life, I’m listening to the music lively. Wow….amazing…! It drags me straight to the heaven. He played few songs for us. Kuch kuch Hota Hai… Vaseegara…Andaikanlah (the allycats one)….and even one Chinese song…! But I just adore the Vaseegara….! I don’t know how to describe the feelings…! It was total mind blowing….!

After his speech, which ended with laughs and cheers and claps, all of us quickly queued up to get his autograph. I forgot to bring my autograph book…! Yeah..I was in rush…but how could I forget that…I should have prepared it a day before….! Oh man..! I was looking around to grab some papers from the kids…while this comes in my mind… “Should I give my palm to have his sign…nah…no no… what about my chest..hahahaha..That is a nonsense…! only stupid girls will be doing that…I’ve seen it in many tamil movies…! Then at last I found a small note book which I always keep in my hand bag, to take note of something important. That helped me finally.

Yesss….it’s going to be my turn soon…! Before me, I saw Vidhya taking his blessing by touching his feet. I wanted to do that also…but something interrupted my mind…! Vidhya learned music, so that she has the qualification to touch his feet…! I didn’t know anything about music…but one thing, I can’t live without it, that’s for sure. I just love listening to it…! So I feel I’m not qualified to take his blessings, I feel I’m just like a dust in front of him…! He is more than a GURU…I meant he is the maestro..hehehe..! When I was standing near to him to get his signature, I was so nervous….and slightly shivering. I passed the small notebook to him. He asked my name, and then he wrote some words with his signature. Wow…unbelievable…! I also have his autograph right now…! I walked towards the other with proud…:)

After he had left, I’m still amazed with his life story. All the great man in the world had gone through the tough time in their past. So we won’t gain anything without hard work. And whatever that comes easily to us will go easily. No matter how difficulty life is we should move it on in a right way. I salute you, Mr. Samuel J Dass. Thanks for the wonderful time that spent with us that evening.

Thanks to Ms Letchumy, who coordinate the whole TIC camp and invited Mr. Samuel for giving the motivating speech.

Saami, Poo Venuma..? (God, do you want flower..?)

It's about an incident happened in a temple, which makes me laugh about it whenever i think of it.
I used to go to temple every Thursday. There is 2 reason why I'm going on Thursday. To fulfill my vows to the special GOD Thatchinamoorthy and I don't have to work over time on that day..:)

So...one fine Thursday, I was in temple ready waiting for the priest to come and do the prayer. Quite number of people also waiting with me. I used to go alone, and i don't have any friends to meet up in temple as well...so I don't have anybody to chat with or smile with. As usual, my face was serious and was concentrating on the decoration they made to the statue of god.

Then, i was attracted by a little gal, aged around 3 to 4 years old, wearing beautiful silk blouse and long skirt (pattu paavadai) holding a small plastic bag, walking and jumping behind her mother. Her mother asked her to wait with her daddy and while she was preparing lit up the lamp for the prayer purpose. The l'il cute gal, was not stand beside her daddy but she walk forward to the statue. She stared for a while and then she opened the plastic bag which she was holding. It was flowers. Her mom brought it for the prayer. This cute gal, was showing the plastic bag to the statue of the GOD and asked, "Saami poo venuma...?" which means, "god, do u want flower...?" hahaha.....I burst into a big laugh and the others as well...:) She was keep on asking very seriously...to the GOD, and that makes us to control our laughs and get back to normal when the priest come to do the prayer. Her parents were smiling at us and kept her with them from being so near to the prayer place...:)

She was so small and her question made me to think, that her love to the GOD was so true and pure...until it made her to have a conversation with the god because she believe the god is there. Even I was using the word "statue" (for the god) in this whole story...haha shame on me..! she is a great eye opener...love the kid..:)

Who is the Stolen Angel...?

I met her in the year 1999 around the month of July at PTPL College in Shah Alam. Yes, it was my first day in the college. She is my batch mate. We did Diploma in Computer Science (UPM franchised course). In my batch she is the prettiest gal, I've ever seen… Even though I controlled myself being stared at her, but my eyes were rolling and rolling toward her. Her appearance and style makes me to stand few steps away from her. Her hair was colored in Burgundy, tiny “slop” at the ear side and covered with a cap…black string with silver locket on her neck. Dressed in light blue shirt covered with black jacket and light gray jeans…with gray shoes. On her back, she was carrying her black color bag, with writings “sally Brandon lee” in liquid paper on top of it. Sally…must be her name. All these, makes me feel she must be a “gangster”. Her look makes me to think, “Is she Punjabi…? Nah cannot be…. coz she is not wearing the silver bangle! Eurasian…? Then how come she can speaks good Malay in the very own Malay’s slang..! Hmmm…. could be mixed race….Chindian maybe” I confirmed with myself!

Day 1, day 2, day 3 passed by…. I was walking alone to the campus canteen. She was standing there alone near the theatre hall, as if like she is waiting for some one. She smiled at me. I was so happy and…I smiled back at her…! Then we introduced ourselves to each other. She said, “Hi, I’m Sal”… we shook our hands. This is first time I was standing so near to her. She is so fair, her skin texture color is unique, not like Punjabi or Chinese…! She wore dark brown lipstick, her eyebrow was well trimmed and slightly shaved at the edge, she have mole in between her nose and mouth…. She looks like Simran. A tamil film actress..! While walking to the canteen, we have talked abt ourselves. She was an aerospace engineering student from UPM, due to gone though some struggles in her studies, she is unable to continue and quitted from there and joined here. She was 1 and ½ years elder than me. She did her schooling in Sabah. And....yes she is mixed race…Ceylonese + Malay…!

2 weeks later…we had a big “click” now…6 of us…Yen Ling, Prema, Sal, Risma, Vani and ofcourse me..! Its actually a group formed for assignment and thesis purpose. While we were discussing for the assignments in the library…. we also used to chat many things apart from the subjects. At that time, we asked “Sal do you have boyfriend?”. She smiled and said she was married with a kid…a baby gal…named Sally..! I was so shocked. Married??? Oh my god! Why she never ever told me that. She doesn’t even look like a married lady?? So many question marks popped on top of my head! Then I calmed myself. So the name on the bag was her daughter’s name. Vani and I were more curious to know more about her life. But others were so cool and never bothered with the story. After the lectures over, I asked her abt her daughter. She then can’t control herself and burst out into big laugh and said she was lying just now. Hahahaha…. yes it was a true lie…!

Few months later… we talked so many things and topics. We became closer…and become best friends. We had shared our childhood stories, family stories, friends stories, ghost stories, happy stories, sad stories, 18sx stories, admiring stories, love stories and many more…its uncountable…! We gone through so many pains, happiness, laughs and tears…and even a silence in between us had tied our hearts closely to each other. She is the best listener, friend, teaser, joker, storyteller, adviser, guide, philosopher, teacher, motivator, and a great human being that I’ve ever met in my life. She is adored and loved by all...and more by me…. of course my best friend what! She can read my mind and my heart as well. It goes same to me. We understand each other 100%…yes its true! Even our eyes will be talking when we were sitting quite far or at the time our “enemy” is just around…or the best time was when our "favorite one" is passing by us….hahaha..! I really enjoyed my college days with her. It was heaven for me. That 2 years was so memorable for me! We graduated in July 2002 at UPM. I was a bit worried, thinking what if I might lose contact with her after studies! Yes we did...few months only. Because she was busy with her work and I came to another university to continue my degree. I begged her to continue studies with me. But at the same time I can’t force her too…coz I know her situation.

Then a year passed by…I’m happy that we still kept in touch…we do write letters and post cards to each other and share our stories and recent updates through email…and do visits each other on our festival days or in family functions. At my final year of my studies, I couldn’t forget Sal’s help in my life. I failed in finding a place to do my practical job. Indeed, I almost thought to drop the subject, which will make my graduation falls a year later. But when I called her, she immediately gave me her superior’s number and recommended me for their IT department. Woooohoooo…I’m overjoyed with this opportunity, because I’m going to work with her this time…a seat next to her…hahaha…. I had a great time in KIMIA! I felt like I'm living the college life again. She said “Its not a big deal shashi…” but with her help I graduated in the same year. She is the first person who came towards me from the crowd and wished me with a big bouquet of roses. I hugged her…! She looked at me…and smiled…she was wearing sunglasses… It’s a hot Sunday. Then she enjoyed in taking pictures of joyous moments with my family. That night she sms me…she said she cried in a proud when looking at me holding the scroll at that afternoon. That is why she never take off her sunglasses…she said her eyes filled with tears…and she said she was so happy. I’m also waiting for her graduation, which soon will be in JB.

We do still keep in touch. We seldom meet, 1 or 2 sms through mobile in a month, no mails, less phone calls…. but once we meet up..we rocks…! hahaha..back to life of our college days. We used to go for movies, shopping or just sit at a “mamak” restaurant whenever we feel like wanna see each other. We often meet up whenever we wanted to share our secrets. When I talk to her, I can’t hide anything or keep any secrets to her. The same goes to her. I believe her more than myself. She is my perfect DIARY FOREVER...There is a saying, ”Best friends are siblings that God forgot to give us!”

But I want her to be my best friend in my next life too….! The latest..i met her in my house on Deepavali Day 17th October 2009 and our latest movie that we have watched together was "The Ghost of My Girlfriends Pastl". And today.... 6th November.....it’s her birthday.

Sal,

Wishing you all the best in your life, and hope the wishing stars always pours on you, so that all your wishes and dreams soon come true. Happy birthday…Sally!

With Lots of Love,

Shashi
(ur sash)
p/s:This photo was taken after 8 years.

Diwali Eve......

Its Diwali Eve 16th Oct 2009 time 2.48pm...and I'm working...! Feel so bored here. Yep, its my mistake should apply for the leave for the eve earlier on, but i did after the festival days. I'm still thinking to go back home after 3pm..but is it possible?? Can I apply for it? Ohh..What is the use? within 2 hours what I can do at home. Its okay..let me finish the whole working day until 5pm.

First Day Blogging......

It's me. First day starting to blog. Inspired by Sal...!

Don't know what to write...yeah everyone say this phrase at first...but will drag the story once started ......till it comes to a never ending story.

Maybe mine will be like that too....see i have started ready...!