My Thai Ponggal wishes to everyone celebrating it. Too bad I will be celebrating it at my office :( Yeah, I'm working tomorrow. Damn, should have taken off! *sigh

Anyway, just had time to work on 2 wallpapers - one is here and another one in the MIndsblog. Just a small introduction to the MIndsblog, a weblog especially dedicated to Malaysian Indians. Derived from the words Malaysian (M), Indian's (Inds) and Blog (Blog), the MIndsblog started off with a mission to gather all Malaysian Indian Bloggers (MIB) in a common platform. Beside creating a platform for all of us to mingle around, and contribute to the progress and well-being of our community at large in the future.

So, who are we? We are a group of Malaysian Indian Bloggers (MIB) who wanted to start this blog ever since we organized Bloggers Buff 2007! That was like 4 months ago and now finally the plan has materialized. Pheww…! The MIndsblog team members are:

BMahendran - His name says it all! He blogs in Bolehland.

Puvanan - Our young engineer (wink wink) from JB! He blogs in The Blank Page.

Saravanan - He is the one providing technical support for MIndsblog. Thanks a lot Sara! He blogs in Saravanan07.com.

Raaja -Hails from the Penang. The initiator of this whole idea of creating one platform for MIBs. He blogs in Raajarox.

Praveen - The jewel of MIndsblog. A busy blogger from Kuala Lumpur. She blogs in The Dissected Mind.

Rames -The designer of MIndsblog. An avid photographer as well. You may find his designs and photos in RamesStudio.

and yours truly.

Would like to join us? There are only two rules if you would like to contribute to MIndsblog. One - you have to be a Malaysian Indian and two - you have to write a post on any category (refer to categories in MIndsblog) in relevance to Malaysian Indians. That’s all. Simple isn’t it? Just e-mail us (admin@mindsblog.com or im@tulipspeaks.com) if you would like to contribute to MIndsblog. We will do the rest!


Now, before I forget, here is the wallpaper as promised:

Spent most of my free time either with my new darling or in shopping complexes :P I guess it is an unofficial competition between the shopping malls on who has the best X'mas deco for 2007! *sigh.. talk about commercialization! How about X'mas deco in malls you frequent?

Will be back updating as usual next monday. Till then, 'savour' my second instalment in the postcard series. You may find the first one HERE.

Theme: Deepavali
These postcards were designed using photos taken in & around my home on the eve & first day of Deepavali. Hope you guys had a wonderful Deepavali too!!

***

Movie: Nayagan
Song: Naan sirittal

What could be a better choice for this Deepavali? :)

I was going through the saved photos in my camera, and I found 2 more photos of the cookies yet to be published - achi muruku & london almond cookies:




*almond spelt wrongly in the photo


I'm taking a break from blogging for few days for Deepavali. Wishing everyone a Happy Deepavali, and with God's blessing, I will see you all again after the celebration. Hugs!

Online buddies never fail to amaze me. Whenever I post something, the comments never stop pouring in. In fact, I do receive some crap which could not be published. An usual post in tulipspeaks will be greeted with a moderate number of hits and a fair number of comments. But sadly, whenever I post sensitive issues like my previous post, which I really need everyone's feedback and co-operation in making it 'big' enough to attract relevant authorities' attention, nothing came out of it. To be fair, yes.. there are caring and sensitive souls out there who share my grief, but the majority remains silent. It is not that no one reading it - my hits shoot up like no one's business when I published the post. So, why the silence? This is something I noticed even in other blogs such as Bolehland & Kav's Kollage. Why no one is speaking up? Afraid? Oh come on! Bloggers are not timid creatures!! Bloggers advocate free speech, and that's what I expect of everyone here.

I'm sorry if I'm putting high expectation, and I am aware that it's readers' rights to comment or not. But at the same time, I would like to see some sort of feedback and awareness among the community. Guess that is not too much to ask for this Deepavali.


Okie okie.. Forgive me for nagging you guys.. back to my Deepavali mood.. I did two wallpapers for Deepavali, which I used as e-comment & e-card as well. Here they are:

**I'm getting lazier nowadays, so only one size (1024*768) available. Feel free to re-size them.

It's Muruku Day again. I remember posting on muruku during last year's Deepavali season. Digged my archive and found the post! Hehehehe.. Read my old muruku post here.

Somehow I feel Muruku Day is jinxed! Last year, I couldn't find a camera, so used my camera phone to take the photos. It turned out to be kinda pathetic. This year, coincidenly my uncle took the camera to a function just moments before we start the 'muruku session' *sigh!. This time, I used my sis's camera phone to snap the photos. Something is always better than nothing! Here they are

How was the Muruku Day in your home? :)

Whoa! Looks like everyone love cookies!!! Here are 3 more cookies, we did during the weekend:

In Malay, this is called Sarang Semut (Ant's colony). Basically this is another form of curtard cookies. Again, it contains eggs, so will only get to taste it tomorrow.



This is a solo attempt by yours truly *wink wink. Two doughs were prepared - one out of Corn Flakes and another from Koko Krunch. Both were 'attached' together, cut and baked. After letting it to cool, I dipped it in melted chocolate and sprinkled with coloured chocolate rice. It gives a lingering chocolate taste in your mouth everytime you take a bite! Purely vegetarian! :D


This is another Corn Flakes delight, but much simpler compared to the previous one. This time around, only a single dough is needed and I added crunched Corn Flakes to it. Yes, it turned out to be crunchy and again vegetarian.


Before anyone starts complaining of pictures of cookies one and after, I just wanna assure you this is something which will not dominate tulipspeaks. I'm longing for a serious post too. May be in a day or two.. okie? ;)

Finally, the moments I have been waiting for has arrived! It's cookies making session again. We started with our favourite cookies, Pineapple Jam Tart..

It looks so yummy.. but too bad I can't taste it for now (I'm vegetarian for Navarathiri festival) *sob sob!

This song rekindles the sweet memories I have. I mean 'micham meethi' memories. :P Beautiful lyrics. It brings out the best out of simple / small incidences in our daily life. Something we don't usually appreciate, just like some of us who don't appreciate our significant other :)

Between, Saturday will be our Tamil New Year. Did 2 wallpapers for the festival - not so great, but I think it looks alrite there. :P Enjoy the song, download the wallpapers and have a great weekend guys.




Movie: Pori
Song: Perunthil Nee

P/S: micham meethi - the remaining

2 post in 1 - hopefully that explains the bizarre nature of the title for this post.

First, its Chinese New Year (Year of Boar - although I call it Year of Piggies :P) again. I digged my archives and found an ancient post on CNY. Save my time writing another one for this year :P what a lazy piggy I am. kekekeke. But I'm hard-working enough to design a wallpaper for CNY. It actually developed from pictures I took of the lantern hanging over my dining table.

Now about chastity belt. I think by now, you guys already know how many dungus Malaysians have as authority. lolz. Here is another bizarre announcement/suggestion which came from someone who is described as 'a well-respected religious figure'. I don't know if these guys actually think before they speak or it is otherwise. Of course, the suggestion came under fire from the women groups.

Wait.. may be he is right, just got the gender wrong. What if I say.. "the majority of sexual offenders are men. so its mandatory for Malaysian men to wear chastity belts and the keys are to be hold by their mother or wife". Nice eh?

Alrite.. I think by now you guys had enough of my jabber on Ponggal.. Promise this is the last okie? :P

We had a small People's Ponggal celebration at Menara KL yesterday. Similar to the one I've posted on the 15th Jan, but on smaller scale. Yet I think I had more fun this time. With some friends and other uni students, I think I really had good time. Thanks Mahen ;) Been some time since I had good laugh and good time like yesterday.

Forgot to bring my cam, so no clear photos of the events. Took few snaps with my mobile phone but it turn out to be small (160 x 120) hehehehe.. so, made a collage of the photos as below:


Guess, for me officially this year's ponggal celebration comes to an end. Hope the new Thai month will bring happiness to all. God bless.

[Updated]: I did went to Batu Caves. Took some pictures which I uploaded to my personal flickr account. Here's a collage of the photos:

I told myself I'm not going to follow anymore chariot procession ever since the terrible experience I had during the procession last year. But somehow the temptation was just too great and I decided to walk 15km with the chariot last minute :P Started my walk at 12.45am (yea.. that was before the chariot moved from the temple) and reached Batu Caves at exactly 5.45am. I still had similar problems like last years - bikes, conversations which are made up entirely by vulgar words (yuckss!!), phone number seeking etc. Glad to have my bro around though. Just like having a bodyguard watching over 2 gals (sister and I) hehehe..I'm still not sure if I'll be going off to Batu Caves again 2moro for Thaipusam celebration. Still thinking.

And oh yea.. below is a wallpaper made up of a photograph I took this morning at Batu Caves. Between this is Tulipspeaks' 200th post!! ;)

I had real fun this ponggal. Guess this is the first time we ever celebrated ponggal actually. Morning around 7am, we cooked ponggal at home. And that was my speed cooking lesson. by 9.30 I was in UM, participating in People's Ponggal. Getting the fire to start was kinda "tough" kekekeke.. And the whole process of cooking ponggal took me 1 hour (compared to 20mins at home). The sun was shining brightly, just like today and it was a beautiful day indeed. Posting some pics of this year's ponggal.


| View Show | Create Your Own

09:00 a.m.: Arrival of Members of the Media

09:40 a.m.: Arrival
Y.B. Dato’ Ong Tee Kiat
Deputy Minister of Higher Education Malaysia

09:45 a.m.: Speech by
Encik Mohd. Affandi
YDP Majlis Per. Pelajar UM

09:50 a.m.: Speech by
Mr. P Kamalanathan
Organising Chairman
People’s Pongal 2007

10:00 a.m.: Speech and Launching by
Y.B. Dato’ Ong Tee Kiat
Deputy Minister of Higher Education Malaysia

10:10 a.m.: Act of Launch and meeting participants

10:30 a.m.: Departure of
Y.B. Dato’ Ong Tee Kiat
Deputy Minister of Higher Education Malaysia

As per Visithra's request, I'm posting the tentative programme for Monday's People's Ponggal. Together with this, I'm posting 2 more Ponggal-themed wallpapers as well. Enjoy & hope to see someone from the blogworld during the celebration! Have fun for this Ponggal.

Ponggal (the Harvest festival) is here again. Will be celebrated on 15th Jan. In conjunction with Ponggal & Visit Malaysia Year 2007, a string of events has been organized:

13th January 2007 : Live Interview on Selamat Pagi Malaysia, RTM 1 at 9am

13th January 2007 : Talk on the Significance of Ponggal at Dewan Serbaguna SS 3 @ 645pm Organised by Brahma Kumari Raja Yoga

14th January 2007 : Ponggal Welcome Reception at KLIA Sepang starting from 10am.

15th January 2007 : People's Ponggal in Universiti Malaya

19th January 2007 : Ponggal at Dataran Perpustakaan KUSTEM at 9am Organised by KUSTEM.

28th January 2007 : Ponggal at Dewan Serbaguna Bandar Sri Damansara at 9am. Organised by MIC Bandar Baru Sri Damansara.

3rd February 2007 : Poeple's Ponggal in Menara KL

You may want to check out MyPongal.Com for more details. Oh yea, there is an online contest going on there, participate in it too!

A quick post i mean :P

Me in a good spirit after Deepavali. Its still festive season right now. Busy as always. Just hop in to post some Deepavali pics (below). Off to a picnic in beach 2moro. Catch ya all after this! And thanks for the e-cards, smses, e-mails and offliners. Muuaxxx..Love ya all!

p/s: please wait patiently for the slides to appear.

Certainly not a post i wanna write about..Valentine's.. but i can't help it but to wonder how ignorant people are.. when i was in my schooling days..Feb 14 is relatively unknown..okie okie..its an understatement.. V-day not something celebrated in grand manner like now...i'm wondering what makes it so special to shower our 'loved-ones' with flowers and gifts..and i'm really sick of growing number of stalls selling pinky and redish gifts..plus with 'special' offers for diamonds and rubies..the cinema theatre, parks, restaurant (even McD) will be packed with couples lost in each other's eyes..i think if they can paint everything pink and red if given a choice to do so.. :P

Yesterday i was having a 'decent' but fiery conversation with a chat friend of mine... we were talking about V-day, marriage and stuff..then the conversation lead to the type of girl he is looking for matrimonial.. i was quite fascinated with the fact that he is looking for a 'homely' gal..i wonder what does 'homely' gal means in the first place..he said he doesn't expect his wife to wear salwar and saree everyday..at the same time, he is thinking twice when i ask if baby-tees are 'allowed'...kekekeke..funny guys...

Now, why am i narrating you that incidence? its because i feel many (not all) guys don't understand what a gal needs.. they make their own assumption based on what is going around them.. but each gal is different, with different character.. how many make a point to understand the gal beside them? you bought roses, chocolates , jewels and in some instances, sexy lingerie..but is that what she wants? ask yourself..and ask her what she wants.. you'll be surprised...

Okie..now, don't comment/email asking what i want for v-day.. its not roses, its not chocolates (although i'm crazy about ferero), its not diamonds (although i've just lost a ring :(((( ), its not a lavish dinner in a fine restaurant, its not even a quick 1 1/2-hour romantic movie in local theatre.. its your time and attention..not for a day..for a long time to come.. look at my eyes and tell what u have inside ur heart...is that too much to ask?