Category: Uncategorized

I was reading a book, A history of Religious Ideas by Mircea Eliade. This book is a massive undertaking by the author and is a very detailed historical study of religion and the various religious practices from the very beginning of the human race.

It was one aspect of the book that hit me yesterday. Almost all of the ancient religions from Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Indus civilizations seemed to have had certain uniform beliefs and practices. This is despite the fact that there is no evidence of any direct connection or communication between these civilizations and so its not clear how they all came about to have these very similar practices. Unless of course all of them derived these from a prior single common source, a civilization that existed prior to the Sumerians and which had spread out to all these other areas, of which nothing is known.

The commonality appears to be the existence of multiple gods of different hierarchies often representing different domains such as the sun, wind, rains etc with the existence of a superior god. Fights and competition between gods are fairly common, gods marry humans, the praying and giving of offerings to idols who represented the gods, the building and importance of temples, the significance attached to a king who was seen to represent to gods on earth, the regular cleansing and renewal of temples, animal sacrifices, celebration of an annual harvest or new year festival signifying rebirth and refresh. All of these practices appear to be common to all these early civilizations.

The modern religious, however, such as Christianity and Islam have by their religious teachings effectively abolished these early practices. Christianity developed about 2000 years ago and Islam some1400 years ago. Both these religions preached the existence of only a single God, no idol worship and have downplayed the role and importance of temples. Buddhism, the other major religion, doesn’t believe in a god at all.

Something then hit me when I recalled my recent trip to India when I visited some temples.

All these ancient practices which were in existence some 6000 years ago are practiced in full force in South Indian religious culture.

They have multiple gods of differing levels people pray to and they also have their superior gods namely Shiva and Vishnu. They pray to idols, who signify their gods. Temples are revered and temple ceremonies play a very important role in the lives of the people. Temples are regularly cleansed and temple consecration ceremonies are very important occasions. Harvest and new year festivals are still important religious events in their lives. There was a particular temple I visited, the Alagar temple in Madurai, where animals are sacrificed outside the temple grounds to honour and give thanks to the gods and the entire family and relatives gather to then cook and consume the meat of the sacrificed animal.

I found it amazing that almost all the practices that existed more than 6000 years ago are still in existence today in full force. How did this continuity come about? Or is this something innate in humans I wonder?

This was an event organized by the Indian High Commission at the Shangri la Hotel and was held over 3 days.

I decided to have lunch here with my mother today.

There were multiple varieties of biryani. At least 10 different varieties with lots of Indian curries, vegetables and desserts. And a live appam station. The biryanis were good and there was a dindugal mutton biryani and a Kolkata egg and goat biryani that was exceptional!

I was pleasantly glad to see that it was very well patronized.

I met quite a few people I know as well at this event. I met Ashwani from the HC. He was there with his family. I saw Prasoon and also Wendall Wong. And my mother. bumped into an old student of hers at Christ Church Secondary School.

Today’s lunch was with a good friend at Violet Oon restaurant at Dempsey. He choose this place and he decided to play host.

This restaurant has just opened at this location for the last one month. It wasn’t packed for lunch, about a third full. Not sure if their dinner crowd is better.

The food is decent but I always thought Pernakan food is a glorified form of Malay food but with pork. We had gado gado, tahu telur, beef rendang, chicken curry and eggplant, all fairly typical Malay dishes. I think we over ordered and we were both kind of full after just the 2 starters!

Typical of Pernakan food, I felt a bit bloated after lunch, probably due to the lemak in the food.

Of course conversation with U Zyn is always good and we covered so many topics!

Last night was once again the time for our ACS catch up dinner. This time it was hosted by Mildred Tan at Min Jiang Restaurant at Goodwood Park Hotel.

As always the conversations touched a huge variety of topics. Elections, EVs, vaccines, the current state of the US, buying furniture in China, prices of medical devices in Singapore, good and reasonably priced food overseas etc.

I was not too impressed with the food. Although it is a very well known restaurant, I didn’t think the quality was quite there. But that could be said of most restaurants here nowadays. Expensive without the accompanying quality and therefore not worth the money.

I just got back from KL. I left KLCC at 10 am exactly with a 100% charge. I cleared Tuas checkpoint at 135pm with 14% battery left. I arrived home at 150pm with 10%. It was a very smooth drive with no traffic jams. And I didn’t stop at all. I think I went a bit faster than the last time and that might explain the higher drain on the battery. From a timing perspective, door to door this is probably faster. From a cost perspective, it is also cheaper. So long as I don’t get exhausted doing there drive.

This is a beautiful Mexican naval training vessel and today the news was that it crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. I saw the videos and was surprised how the vessel could be attempting to go under the bridge when clearly there was no height clearance. 2 crew members have died so far with a few others injured, some seriously.

I had the pleasure to be invited to go on board the vessel when it arrived in Singapore in August 2024. I remember waiting onshore and watching the beautiful vessel slowly coming in to dock at Vivocity. All the crew lined up on the vessel and it was such a beautiful sight. There was a lot of pomp and ceremony when it arrived. It docked in Singapore for 3 days and I met up with the very same captain and his crew on board. It was on a goodwill world wide tour and everyone was cheerful on board the vessel.

I do hope they quickly sort out why the crash occurred and my sympathies to the families of the deceased and the injured. Such a dreadful incident to happen to a vessel which was on its mission to spread goodwill.

Today I watched the final episode (?) of this franchise. Watched it in Kl at the brand new Aurum cinema at TRX. It’s a beautiful cinema with different options to watch a movie such as IMAX, split screens, suites with dining etc. I have never seen a movie in Malaysia before and I thought since I am watching, probably the final episode, I will watch it in style and opted for the suite with dining.

I have seen all the previous 7 movies in this franchise and, bar no 2, I have enjoyed all of them. In preparation I watched no 7, which is part 1, on Friday night on tv. Just as well I did cos I had forgotten almost everything about the previous movie which I had seen a year ago.

The pre movie dining was at the Hokkaido Table, a rather fancy place for a movie dine in. There is an option to eat inside the cinema but I thought I better eat first and then focus on the movie!

The cinema suite was very comfortable with a Getha sofa bed and blankets and a mini fridge with free refreshments. The Dolby Atmos sound system was good and I could hear the dialogue clearly.

I liked the movie. It is fast paced but I thought the action sequences could have been trimmed a bit. A fitting finale to the series with a generally happy ending!

Today I watched an MPO performance at their beautiful concert hall in KLCC. Tonight’s performance is entitled Bizet 150 A symphony of celebration, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the passing of French composer and pianist Bizet at the young age of just 36.

This concert hall and the MPO were both conceived at the time the PETRONAS twin towers was being built. The orchestra was set up in 1997 and had its first performance in 1998. The concert hall is purpose built for the orchestra with wonderful acoustics and wonderful ambience. I have always enjoyed concerts here and there was a time in the early 2000s when I would drive up to KL regularly on the weekends to catch their concerts. They used to bring in very well known conductors and soloists to perform with the MPO. To me, a memorable performance of Beethoven 9th, Mozart’s piano concerto for 2 pianos with Melvyn Tan and Joshua Bell on the violin stand out still.

I stopped coming here after a while. I think the last time I was here must be have been in 2007 or 2008. After that, I heard the quality of performances by the orchestra dropped.

The first half of tonight’s performance started off with 2 short pieces by Falla followed by L’Arlisienne Suite No 2 by Bizet. I didn’t care too much for the 2 Falla pieces but the Suite was alright.

The second half was the highlight and it featured excerpts from his most famous opera Carmen. There were 4 soloists performing with the orchestra. Bizet completed this opera just 3 months before he died and unfortunately for him, it was only declared a masterpiece after he died. Poor man. It became so successful after he passed away.

It was a good performance tonight and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Drove again yesterday morning to KL. This time I left at 530 in the morning but only managed to cross the Singapore Tuas immigration at 6am.

After a smooth drive, I decided to stop at Ayer Keroh to have a coffee at Starbucks and do a quick charge. I arrived there at about 820am. I have never charged my car using a fast charger and so this was a new experience of sorts. The battery charged from about 45% to 80% in 15 minutes. Although I could arrive in Kl with 15% still left on my battery, it was good to know that I learnt how to charge it on the road. Also the short break dis do wonders for the alertness level!

Thereafter another smooth drive to KL and I arrived at 1010 am.