Cruelty

Yesterday I saw a program on NAT Geo featuring Bad Behavior on the part of lions. The clipping showed a live baby elephant being eaten by a pride of lions. The pitiable thing about it was that the baby elephant made no attempt to run away nor did it cry out. It just lay there and was eaten by the lions. The worst thing about the program was that the people who shot the scene allowed the incident to take place without lifting even a little finger to save the baby elephant. That was the most cruel part of the program. The narrator simply stated that the baby elephant died subsequently. Cruelty at its height.

Australia And New Zealand

Went to Australia and New Zealand from the 22nd. September to the 30th. September. Spent seven days in Australia and visited the cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Spent two days in New Zealand at Auckland. There were a total of 92 members in the group that went visiting made up predominantly of Doctors and their families. Visited the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the Fitzroy Gardens at Melbourne. Here are a few pictures of Melbourne. The first two are views of the lounge at the Kuala Lumpur Airport on Malayasia where we had to break our journey. Then comes the lounge of the Ibis Hotel that we stayed in Melbourne. Then come some views of Melbourne taken from the highest point in Melbourne followed by pictures of some sculptures at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and then by some flowers at the Fitzroy Gardens Conservatory. The next one is a picture of a dog that we saw when we went shopping at the China Market. There was nothing much to see at Melbourne. In fact there wasn't much to see in Australia.

We then went to Sydney where we had a guided tour of the famous Sydney Opera House. There was a rehearsal going on in one of the theaters and the acoustics were simply awesome. Then we went to the Water World which is an aquarium housing some of the sea life of Australia. Here are some pictures.

We then went to Brisbane. There wasn't much to see in Brisbane except the Movie World which houses some of the memorabilia of Hollywood. Here are some pictures taken at the Movie World. Had a scary roller coaster ride in Scooby Castle. Saw a 4D movie of "The Ice Age - Return of the Dinosaurs"

From Brisbane we went to Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand was better than Australia. After arrival at Auckland we went to see the Waitomo Glowworm Caves that are situated some 60 km away. This was a visit worth experiencing though all the glow worms had to be seen in pitch darkness and pictures could not be taken. It is a sight to be seen. Though it was not like the glow worms that we had seen in Malaysia. Here there were millions of them flying about in the darkness. Here in Auckland we visited the Government Gardens which was very beautiful and then we went to the Auckland museum which houses Maori artifacts. We also visited the hot geyser springs at the outskirts of Auckland and the mudflats. Here are a few pictures.

We left for India on the 30th. via Malaysia (transit) reaching home at about 2:00 a.m. on the 1st. of October.

My Dog

My Dog. His name is Winchy.

Wedding Anniversary

I celebrated my 35th wedding anniversary at the home of a cousin of my wife yesterday the 9th September. Another cousin of my wife shared the occasion celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary. We had a small prayer meeting with some songs and later on a small dinner. The function was well attended and we had a good time. A lot of family members, cousins of my wife and their families turned up for the function and it was a pleasant get together.
I did not take any photographs but my wife's cousin did and he has promised to send them over. I will post them when I get them.

Death

I take my dog out for a walk early in the morning and today I was saddened to see a dead cat. It had been run over so many times that it was completely flat. I only hope that it died the first time it was hit. I cannot understand it. Why did god create the animal only to let it die such a horrible and painful death? What was the purpose of its creation?
Come to think of it, what was the purpose of creating man. The state of the world defies imagination. Hunger, strife, murder - think of any bad thing and it is happening everywhere all the time and you hear lots of it. But when someone does anything good, there is hardly any news about it. Add to these are the natural disasters that take life in the thousands and destruction of property that takes years to rebuild. It does not make sense at all.

Punctuation

I was asked to punctuate this sentence -

"james where john had had had had had had had had had had had the teachers approval"

Can some one help me out.

An Accomplishment And A Retirement

My wife got her Doctorate in Science from the Dr. M.G. R. Medical University in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India on February 29, 2012 and retired from service on the same day having attained the age of 58. That is the biggest thing that happened in her (our) life. She had a great send off party at her workplace in a hospital where she was working as an Obstetrician and Gynecologist. Unfortunately my camera was on the blink and I couldn't get hold of another to take some pictures of the event. Some other people took some pictures and I have asked them to send it to me so that I can post them but I still haven't received them. Maybe I'll post them later.

New Blog

I have started a new blog called "Origin Of Hymns" wherein I shall try to place at least one post per day. I have another blog called "Where, What, How and Why" also.

Autograph

Not having anything particular to do than the routine reading I am now doing, I started to rummage through my collection of odds and ends and came up with my old autograph book that I had maintained during my boyhood days and through school in Burma. Brought back a lot of memories, especially those of my singing days in St. George's Cathedral in Yangoon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma). We got paid to sing, at least us sopranos did. Most of the jottings are from my friends and it brought me memories of Elizabeth San Ba (She was doing medicine a that time), her sister Esther San Ba; my organist George Ronson and Mary Maung Pe (we used to call her Kyu Kyu), Hazel and Flossie (who were singing Alto) and the others. I sang soprano till my voice broke and I sang tenor for some time till I left for my native India. There were also two other sisters June-Rose and Heather Forbes-Mitchelle. They left for England before I left Burma. There was also a Kendly Smith who also did his schooling in the same school I went to - St. John's High School.
I kept in touch with Esther for some time after I came to India and then the writing fizzled out. How I'd love to go back to Burma and look these old friends of mine.
I remember my friends from I.E.S. Khalsa High school, particularly a S.M. Writer. He left for the U.S after I left for India and he used to make soapbox radios using a crystal. I still have the letters from him from U.S. and from Esther San Ba (all in Burmese which language I have practically forgotten, so I am not able to read them).  I'm trying to find a website that will teach Burmese online but so far I've not come up with one. I'd really like to read all my old letters once again. May be I'll go to Burma once again and see my old friends.
Now that I'm old, I am able to recollect the small incidents in my life that happened decades ago. Old people seem to recollect their childhood experiences vividly as they grow older. I was there in Burma fro nine years, from 1954 to 1963, an they were the best years of my life. Come to think of it the best years of my life were till I finished college and then I found myself a job and life after that was somewhat different.

Nothing Much

Nothing much is going on around me. The only thing of real importance that took place was my wife's presentation of her post-doctoral thesis to the public. It was about "Fetal Risk" and it was well attended and also interactive. At the end of the presentation the examiners, four of them, appreciated it and gave her their recommendations to be submitted to the University.
Other than that I have managed to go through my collection of books that I had purchased during the early ninety's. I finished all of John Grisham and Jeffrey Archer and now I am reading Forsythe. These stories can be read again and again after giving them a reasonable gap, preferably a couple of years. Reading is immensely enjoyable and also relaxing. Beats watching the TV.
Time passes by swiftly. The day breaks and before you know it, it is gone. There is truth in the verse from a poem - "What life is this, so full of care, we have no time to stand stare. Not that I have a lot of cares. My retired life is peaceful though there is nothing much to do. When I am not reading I listen to music, eat, nap  and, when the day ends, go to sleep. Boring.
I some times stand at the window overlooking the street in front of my house and watch the people passing by.

2011

Well, the year 2011 has gone past, just sort of flew away. Nothing of any importance happened to me. It was an uneventful year. I didn't leave my home very much. Had a few visitors during Christmas. Attended midnight mass. Nothing much is happening around me and I spend most of my time rereading the books (Sydney Sheldon, John Grisham etc.) that I had collected over the years and watching TV. Nowadays there's nothing much interesting on TV also. Maybe something interesting will take place during 1012. Who knows? And I'll have something to write about.