An independence day post in Malaysian Language. Pardon me for the unavailability of an English version. Presenting a wallpaper in conjunction with the event.

Happy 50th Independence Day, Malaysia!



Also read my previous posts on Malaysia & Merdeka:

Aku, si Jalur Gemilang
Countdown to Merdeka: The Country
Countdown to Merdeka: The People
Countdown to Merdeka: The Capital
Countdown to Merdeka: The Landmarks

Visit my FLICKR for the rest of convocation photos!

IPOH: A man was ordered by the High Court here to pay at least RM70,000 for breaking a promise to marry a woman.

Justice Mohd Azman Husin ruled that legal clerk S. Nagamah, 38, had proven a claim against legal office administrator R. Punnosamy, 41.

The decision was made in chambers yesterday.

Justice Mohd Azam said he found Nagamah’s testimony to be more convincing than Punnosamy’s and ordered him to pay RM50,000 for breaching his promise to marry her.

He also ordered Punnosamy to pay RM20,000 for Nagamah’s mental anguish and loss of reputation, name and honour, as well as costs.

Another RM2,000 was awarded to Nagamah as compensation for assault when Punnosamy slapped her in 2002 after she had supposedly threatened his fiancée at a tuition centre in Teluk Intan.

Read the rest of the news HERE.


A case of a man breaking his promise to marry a woman is a rather very subjective matter. Mere monetary compensation will definitely not going to undone what he has done to her, but remember for some men out there, money means a lot to them. Taking a portion of their wealth surely gonna hurt their ego (plus with the fact that their names have been published in leading daily!). Nagamah might never get back what she has lost, but she has set a precedence to women in Malaysia.

Guys... Dare to cheat another gal again???


*Glad to be back on my usual mode of blogging! :P

Hey guys! Thank you so much for the wishes and blessings via the blog, sms and phone calls. I truly appreciate the concern. Thanks again!

Right now I am in Sabak Bernam, a district at the tip of Selangor, conducting my research. I will be back on Friday and will respond personally to all the comments then. At the moment my schedule is pretty tight and I am actually starving (its dinner time) while typing this. :P

Many wants to know the updates of the robbery that happens in my home last Friday. Yes, Keshi.. that happened for real and I am very glad that I am still alive. I really thought we are not going to see another sunny day ever again. It was very scary and I am still traumatized by what happened. Even slight metal sound (eg. when my spoon dropped to the floor) reminds me of the parang! The scene keep on flashing in front of my eyes. I can still hear my mommy's scream. Trying to act as if everything is fine here but no, things are not fine with me. I still find it hard to sleep at night - end up watching the stars, moon and the sea till I feel really sleepy. Calling back home every now and then to check on everyone. Its freaky. And no, there is no news or updates from the police. I can only pray and hope the robbers won't target my home again. The fact that they know every inch of the house now doesn't help to pacify me either.

Its my convocation this Sunday and I'm not in the mood to celebrate.

:(

Yesterday morning, my home was attacked by armed robbers. Yes, my HOME. Ladies (which includes me) and children were at home that time. I was very much traumatized by what happened, and couldn't bring myself to put up a post on it yesterday itself. Let me narrate the incident now, just like my statement to the police.

About 9.30am (may be a little earlier), 3 armed men around 20-23 yrs old entered my home. One of the guys put the parang* to my bro's neck and made him to sit down at the sofa. He also guarded the front door. All windows and doors were then locked. There was a fourth guy in the car waiting.The second guy went to mom, grabbed her neck n put parang on her neck. He asked everyone to shut up but everyone kept on shouting. He hit my mom's head n punch her face. mom felt down and started to bleed. I shouted and told him to take whetever he want but not to hurt anyone. But the idiot didn't understand what I was saying and hit my head with parang's back too. I got disoriented and almost fainted, but somehow stayed strong. He grabbed mom's chains, thali, bangles, wedding ring. Same with grandma and aunty. Then he asked us to take off our earrings. The third fella asked for handphones and purses. i said i don't have a handphone (don't know how he bought that!). He took bro's new Nokia. Then he made me to bring him to the my room to get my purse. I manage to hide my ATMs and phone, and gave him about RM50 that was in my purse. He wanted to take away my precious lappy but it was all connected n wires all over the place. Its old lappy and by that time, ppl started to gather outside my house. They panicked and ran away with the waiting car outside the house. The whole robbery thingy took less than 10 mins. The police arrived about 2, 3 minutes after neighbour made the phone call. Till now, those bastards still roaming free on the street.


I still can feel the pain on my head. Damn! But in a way, I'm grateful to God - we are still well & alive. IF the idiot hit mom or me with the sharp point of the parang instead of the holder, we won't be around right now to narrate the story.

It's a dangerous world out there, and everyone regardless their place of residence, country of origin, age and gender should and MUST always becareful of their surrounding. Never, ever take anything for granted, including our own life. Till yesterday I never feared for my life, but the fear I felt yesterday cannot be described in words. So my friends, please becareful all the time and remind that to everyone you guys know.



Although my boss has advised me to rest at home, I don't think sitting here doing nothing will bring me any good. I will be going to outstation on Monday and will be back on Friday. Will try to blog from there. I will miss you guys and thanks to everyone who rang and wished me well. God bless everyone.



And DannyFoo has highlight my post on dating vs sexual services in his bloggie. Got a serious discussion over there, do take part. Will check that out once I come back!




*parang - Malaysian equivalent of the machete
**pardon me for grammatical error in this post, which was typed in hurry :)

I never blogged solely for money. My posts for the past 2 1/2 years always been about me and events surrounding me. I always believed and still believe that a blog is one's personal space and no one else has any business dictating it - which includes online advertising companies and individuals sponsoring posts. But looking at the other side of the spectrum, of course getting paid for what I love is really tempting.

I was toying with the ideas of paid/sponsored posts for a while now. I don't want tulipspeaks looks like a yellow page of all sorts of advertisement, and I am not willing to trade my personal dear space with such thing. But again, getting paid is tempting.. :P

I am a frequent visitor of the Foreign Beauty by Cindy, a fellow Malaysian. She does this paid post thing and I am quite amazed the way she post it without jeopardising her blog tone. Brilliant! I was asking myself for few days if that is possible with me - can I incorporate adverts without losing my touch? I tried it with an album review and find it okie with me. Proceeded signing up with PayPerPost, and then waited. LOL! I don't know how and where to start about. Thank goodness Cindy helped me out by answering to my endless curious questions! Thanks dear! I find that PayPerPost will allow me to continue to blog as usual while earning some extra bucks!

Alrite, I know some and many be most of you loathe seeing ads in personal blogs. But let me promise you that I will never gonna let it to disattract me from my initial objective. Okie? Now, that's a promise! Lets see what PayPerPost can do for us, and who knows may be I can afford an e-treat for everyone (as requested by the Protector! :P)

Read more here: payperpost

On 14th February 2003 (yes, on a Valentine's Day), I sent off my application form to do a master degree in Universiti Putra Malaysia. I was still a final year student completing my BSc back then. On 9th June 2003, I commenced my studies majoring in Clinical Nutrition in the Faculty of Medicine. I successfully defended my thesis after a gruelling 3 hours of viva voce on 21st December 2006. And now, after (slightly more than) 4 years, I will be graduating with a MSc tagging behind my name.

Cool eh? Well, the path was not that cool or simple. While some lucky ones get to go through their graduate studies within 2 years, I took double the number of semesters. The 4 years I would say, the most difficult period in my life so far. My first degree was a breeze, but my graduate studies was the greatest challenge I have experienced so far. Not because its another level of study, I had difficulties in the research and in my personal life as well. I almost quit my studies half-way, but somehow managed to stay afloat. A simple thank you to those who held me when I felt down will never going to be enough.

Graduation is one of the last thing in my mind when I was struggling to complete my daily tasks. I still can't believe I am holding the invitation letter from my university. It seems like I send off the application forms just yesterday :) This is a moment of glory which has a lot of significance for me, and I would like to share this moment of everyone here. Yes, I am inviting all the visitors of tulipspeaks to my convocation on 26th August 2007. Please e-mail me before 21st August for more details eg. the map, timing.

I'm announcing this way earlier so everyone can make it. Hope to see you guys there!!!

I am pissed. You might get pissed too if you got messages via social networks from self-proclaimed genius like this:

Warning: These are real messages exchanged between a moron & yours truly. Take note of the language.


The Moron : ammu how areu?

ammu : im fine thanks.

Things were fine only in the beginning... then the nightmare began....

The Moron : hallo ammu, i am fine,ur indian?how is ur work?ur more custemer?pls reply ammu.i hope visit malasia.u pls join with me 15 days.how much ur cost ?pls reply dear.u have ur nace picture for me?sexual picture?pls send to me.

ammu : sorry i am not for sale.

OMG!!! His English literally blinded me for a second!!! I still don't know the meaning of "more custemer" & "nace picture". And I just hate it when someone spell Malaysia as "malasia" or whatever! Especially not when Malaysia is celebrating her 50th birthday! Grrrrrr!!!!! And what on earth "sexual picture" means??? Nude photo huh? I didn't want to waste my precious energy typing out looooooooong reply to this moron. So, my reply was simple ;)

The Moron : ammu sorry ur dating girl? ie i am askig sorry. pls tel me more

ammu : u dont know what 'dating' means??? it means i am seeing someone i.e. i have a boyfriend.

LOL. This one really got me laughing! Hahahahaha.. The moron was referring to my marital status (as you can see in the screen shot below) which says "Dating". Generally I like to put my status as "dating" or "in relationship" just to minimize such harassment. But I never thought there will be such geniuses (like this one) in the Internet world!

The Moron: ammu dating means sex worker. that is i ask somthing sorry. ammu i am really sorry

ammu:a sex worker is a sex worker. LOL. i think u need to find a new English teacher.

v. dat�ed, dat�ing, dates
v.tr.
1. To mark or supply with a date: date a letter.
2. To determine the date of: date a fossil.
3. To betray the age of: Pictures of old cars date the book.
4. To go on a date or dates with.

source:
http://www.the freedictionary .com/dict.asp? Word=dating

At this point, I wanted to hammer his head already! Between, did you count the number of times he said 'sorry' and 'ammu'?

Now, would you like to know the url of his profile page? ;) May be he needs some 'coaching' on communication skill & English language! Any takers?

P/S: The blog header has been changed in conjunction with Malaysia's Golden Anniversary. Nice huh? :P

Many have been wondering what has happen to my style of writing. I found myself not writing any debates and serious posts for sometime now. And that is definitely not me. It just that my current life consist very much of travels and work. I have to spend a lot of time away from the Net and spend the rest of time writing my experiences in the rural areas. Soon will be reverting to the real mode of this blog :P Hopefully some of my 'blogmates' who has since disappeared will return back to tulipspeaks then. *amen.....

Kireedam - the movie sucks big time! But somehow (by mistake, i think) this lovely song ended up in Ajith's latest movie. Surely going to be in my playlist for a long time.



Movie: Kireedam
Song: Vizhiyil Un vizhiyil

Now that I am back (for now), lets go into the.....blogging-mode!!!! :P

Officially launched on 9th June 2007 during the Global Indian Shopping Festival in Midvalley, Naana Neeya audio album definitely has caught attention of local fans. I don't know about the movie as yet, but the audio seems to be making waves here in Malaysia.

Personally I am not inclined to 'love' or even to listen to most of the locally produced albums. Now, don't give me that wicked look. Its not that I am not supporting local music scene, its just that not ALL are good production and worth my time listening. However, voted among the top 3 local songs in Malaysian TopTen in THR Raaga (local Tamil station), the title track Naana Neeya sung by Vizz Da Blizz & MC Loga, is one my current fav. I don't know if they actually knew most of you guys not going to understand it in Tamil. They actually have the English and Malay version of the hit song as well!!. You may want to listen to the sample here:


powered by ODEO


powered by ODEO


P/S: you may have difficulty listening via odeo. God knows why the site always down! Grrrr!! Anyway, pls head to NaaanNeeya's official site to listen to the sample songs.

One thing that amazes not only me, but lot of people out there is the ability of children nowadays to pull extraordinary feat. I read in the newspaper about Galven, a young golfer who made Malaysia proud. On the other hand, Vizz Da Blizz is a young talent in the music industry who definitely gonna make (or is it already made) us proud :) At just 12, he has created history as the youngest Malaysian Indian to sing solo in a local album. Definitely not an easy feat.

I have just read and published Diya's comment on my previous post:

diyadear said...

tulip,
u haven't been speaking much lately :D

6:40 AM, August 05, 2007

Well... what she said has some truth in it. Or should I say, that's the truth? :) Been really busy travelling for the past 3 weeks and those places I went had bad or no Internet coverage. It was a different world out there and I don't know if its a blessing in disguise that I get to experience it right now. It was a work-related field trip, where I conducted a research among rural folk. Can't reveal more than that, but it taught me lot more than just research. Especially my last trip to oil palm estates around Kuala Selangor and Klang area, kinda rekindle alot of memories. This requires a post on its own :)

The time I went away was a more or less a test period for me. I have heard my friends complaining that blogs are nothing more than just html codes; people here are fakes and what so not. They claimed that no one gonna bother me once I stop publishing post/updating tulipspeaks, and this blog will just die off with no one wants to know what actually happened to me. While I can't refute their claims 100%, but I know there are people out there who care about me and what I write here. Despite my no show in others' blogs, I still get commentators and respectable number of hits in tulipspeaks. Better still, I am still earning some bucks via the adverts here :P. Although I feel its not fair for me to continue expecting visitors when I am not visiting their space, its kinda sweet to know that there are people who missing me when I'm away even for a short period. I feel loved. Thank you to all!

Sharing some photos I took during my field trip.



And a wallpaper I did :P