Love life - Rhonda Bryne's The Power

Recently I was running out of books to read. But then I realized I still got a book that I haven't read in my computer. I almost forgot about it. It is "The Power" by Rhonda Bryne. It is considered to be the sequel to another more popular book of the same author, "The Secret". My friend Yogesh sent me this when I was hitting the lowest point of my life. 

But at that time, I didn't want to read it. I know exactly what the book is about. It is a motivational book. For me, I had never read this kind of books. I used to think that no one needed this kind of book, like "The Secret" or "The Chicken Soup for the Soul", and that they were meant for the 'mentally weak'. I used to think that I can stand up on my own after falling down, for I am a Man.

I was so wrong, and had never been so wrong before. As a famous quote says,

The strength of women is the pretense of weakness; the weakness of men is the pretense of strength.

So as I read through the book, like exactly what I thought, plain English and filled with almost prejudiced lines, such as 'You know you can do this', 'Imagine the best, keep thinking positively', bla bla bla... But this is exactly how it needed to be. The word 'love' is mentioned millions times in the book, so many times that it has became a little cheesy. But guess what, it should be like this! I also used to think that, the word 'love' shouldn't be said that much for it to be precious and special. But what the hell! We should say 'love' more!

Waited so long for me to pick up the book, I guess the moment I pick up the book, sit down and read it, I think I am already ready to love again. So thx Yogesh for your book!

Whenever the word 'love' comes across me, I can't help myself not think of my ex. She gave me a note when we moved to different towns, and I still keep it until now, the only thing from her that remains. She always has this positive attitude against problems upon her. She normally just smiles the problems away, the smile that I want to learn. 

Love life!!!

How the Sleeper in the valley died - Blood Diamond and Total Eclipse

I read the poem of Arthur Rimbaud "Le Dormeur du Val" after watching the "Blood Diamond", I just can't help myself not to think that Danny Archer is the Sleeper. 

This is my favorite scene of the movie, when Danny is going to die and phones to Maddy. After the phone call, he sits on hill side, facing a valley, with sun bathing on him, and slowly dying of bullet shot. This is so like the poem. Rimbaud never mentioned how the sleeper died, but I prefer to think that this is how the sleeper died. It seems like the director had read this poem before.

The funny thing is Leonardo Dicaprio acted as Arthur Rimbaud before, in the movie "Total Eclipse".

This poem is the first poem I have read about a dead body. I was shocked but impressed when read it for the first time. This is also the first Rimbaud's poem I read. So, allow me to copy "Le Dormeur du Val" onto my blog :

< Le Dormeur du Val >

C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière,

Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons

D'argent; où le soleil, de la montagne fière,

Luit : c'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue,

Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,

Dort; il est étendu dans l'herbe, sous la nue,

Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme

Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait une somme : 

Nature, berce-le chaudement : il a froid.

Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine;

Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine,

Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.

- Arthur Rimbaud -

Insomnia during a snowing night

Winter is harsh. Snow is beautiful only if it is seen by the one who is in his comfort zone. Watching the snow falling while sitting inside a warm building with a hot drink is of course very enjoyable. Or may be even go outside to play with the snow with all your thick warm clothes on. It is fun only because once you get cold, you can always get back to warm whenever you want to. 

Many of us have a house. Many but not all. Some don't even have a shelter. I cannot imagine how those SDF survive the cold winter each year. Whenever the weather get cold, I can't help myself not to think about the fact that somebody is suffering because of the cold, or even dying. But I still don't take any action yet, to actually help those people. So in the end I am just like many other people, sitting in our comfort zone and do nothing about it.

The coming winter will be my fifth winter. I always prefer it snows rather than getting colder and colder but without snow. I always feel not that cold whenever it snows, which is a funny thing to think about.

The melody that travelled the world

I heard the french version first in 2008, then the chinese version in 2012. It doesn't matter whether who came out with this melody first. Great song is worth to be sang again and again.

I don't know whether is there any other version of this song in other language. I found only 4 in different language :

The Brothers Four - 500 miles  (english)

Richard Anthony - Et j'entends siffler le train  (french)

Peter Beil - Und dein zug fahrt durch die nacht  (german)

邓福如 - 你好吗  天气好吗  (chinese)

I want to become Paris

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.

Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast 

The Paris I mentioned is of course the capital of France, the city of Paris. Certainly not the Paris, the prince of Troy, a coward. Though I have never really lived in Paris before, I am lucky enough to have visited Paris, not only once but a few times. And these few times are more than enough for me to start to understand what Ernest meant. 

Each time I went to Paris, I went with different person and each of them is equally important in my life. I went there once with a bunch of new friends, once with my old friends from high school, once with a Parisien, once with my first love and even once alone with nobody. For all these times, Paris has never failed me. Every visit to Paris is a new sensation. 

Ernest considered Paris as a feast but I see Paris as a living man. He has Eiffel Tower as his romantic appearance to face the world ; Arc de Triomphe and Invalides as insignia to a soldier,  to represent his status and power ; his financial capability is relatively strong as he has La Défense ; with Pigalle, he knows very well his sexual side ; he knows literature and art very well too ; he certainly knows fashion, as most of the world recognises him as the edge of fashion. He even has a wild and darker side like the quartier Saint Dénis. 

Paris has many sides. It seems like he knows many things. The more I visit Paris, it is becoming apparent that he really knows many things. 

If Paris is really a human being, I will say he is more like a 40 year-old man, or may be woman. Gender doesn't matter here, since i always think 40 years old is the golden age of human. At this age, a human had seen enough, experienced, mature and also charming. If considering human can live until 70 years old, then 40 years old is like the half way point. I am looking forward to 40 year-old me, eager to achieve the mindset of a 40 year-old. I like Paris so much, most probably because I see the person I want to become. At 40 years old, a person will start to understand the world around him. Probably, he will know a little bit of the meaning of life too.

Unlike the other european cities I had been to, Paris is the only one that I don't mind going back there again and again and again. In my opinion, if considering a city as a human being, Rome with all those thousand year-old rocks is like a very old man ; Venice is too pretentious ; Athens, also fill with ancien rocks, but is more like a dying old man. London is the closest to Paris, but I still think London is a little too modern than Paris, that gives Paris a slight edge. 

At a certain point of my life, I realised, photos nor videos cannot capture the charm of Paris anymore.

Family photos

I still remember my father buying the very first camera in our family, in 2006. It was a luxury that time but my father can still afford it. It was a 6-megapixels camera. Comparing to today's technology, almost every mobile phone on the street can beat that. We really had fun when we first got the camera. My family and I take a group photo every year ever since 2006, except 2010, when i was staying in France for the whole year. I guest we will try our best to continue doing this for the years to come. 

Year 2006 Genting Highland

Year 2007 home

Year 2008 Hatyai

Year 2009 home

Year 2011 Redang

Year 2012 home

My big family of my father side, taken at Port Dickson. 

Family is important. So family photo has great significance. During the past summer, during my great-grandmother funeral, we discovered a photo from those things she left aside, so old that my grandparents already forgot about it, even they were inside it. It brought out great memories, and everyone in the family sat down and listen to my grandparents' story behind this photo. And this is the photo >>>

My great-grandparents in the middle, with their five children.
The one standing in the middle at the baack with a stylish hairstyle of her time is my grandmother,
and my grandfather is the one wearing glasses.

I took some time wondering whether should i write this post. Well, what i was considering was quite silly for some. I have been thinking whether our family has enemy or not. If yes, these photos i post here will do harm to us. But luckily, we don't have any, at least not that i know. Anyway i am just proud of my family. Everyone gets along so well with each other. There were fights and quarrels, but they didn't last long. I guess quarrel is just very common in every family. From another point of view, quarrel is communicate, it makes everyone in the family understand each other better. I simply cannot imagine everyone in a family doesn't talk much to each other. 

Quarrel you can, but just make sure it doesn't last long. Forgive.

  

Varanasi and Ganges

Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old  as all of them put together.

 --  Mark Twain --

Varanasi and Ganges cannot be separated in many's point of view. Varanasi is also called Benaras and Kashi. Modernisation doesn't seem to have reach on this holy land. Old, like Mark Twain said. So old that you think you go back in time once you step foot on this magical land. I might have exaggerated a little bit, but forgive me, i was truly touched by city. 

Varanasi is very famous, so just like any other famous places, it attracts many tourists. Unlike any places in Europe or any developped countries, a large amout of tourists in under-developping country will surely lead to booming tourism industry and also annoying touts and scams. When i was there, i was asked so many times whether i would like some drugs. There are many people selling a large variety of drugs, from cocaine to weeds, and many more that i first heard of their names. Why there are so many drug dealers anyway? My guess is they are selling to hipster tourists or may be to those holy men, as drugs may have used to achieve 'higher' mental state.  

Nevertheless, Varanasi is so old that it doesn't lose its charm because of all these side effects of tourism. Varanasi seems like a stubborn, uncorrupted, old-fashioned man, who doesn't give a f**k to these things so called civilisation and modernization. 

You can already feel the holiness of the city once you get off the train at the train station. The train station itself looks like a temple. The station isn't very big but it is surely busy as always. Groups after groups of Hindus and Buddhists, some are led by a guide, some are self-organised, going into and out of trains. Most of them are carrying bottles for the water from Ganges and all of them are here for either pilgrimage or for the funeral of their relatives. 

Varanasi is also where you will see many corpses, carried around on stretcher, covered in colourful fabric. The rich uses silk, the poor uses lower quality of fabric. They are sent here to be cremated into ashes, to be recombined with Ganges and Mother Nature. They all will be burned in either one of the only two burning ghats in Varanasi. Female members of the family cannot attend the ceremony of cremation, since women are commonly thought to be crying during such depressed moment. No tears should be shed during the ceremony because it is considered an honour to be cremated in Varanasi. Everybody should feel lucky and happy for the dead. After the cremation, every member of the family will take bath in the Ganges. 

The burning ghats keep going on 24/24, 7/7, and 365 days every year and never stop.

Burning Ghat

Burning Ghat

The cook in Yogi Lodge. Nice guy and cooks good food.
My mom and I didn't stay in Yogi Lodge but a guest house just opposite Yogi.
We came to eat here very often.

Forget all the famous spots in Varanasi. Varanasi is famous for only three things, its temples, its ghats and its narrow criss-crossing, confusing alleys. There are only two things worth-doing in Varanasi, get a boat ride on Ganges and get lost in the confusing maze of narrow alleys. Enjoy the beauty of Varanasi from outside during the boat ride, and feel the true nature of the city by walking through the alleys.     

Too bad i visited Varanasi during wrong period of time - the week of high tide and monsoon season. So many beauties were submerged under water, and i didn't get to see them. What a shame...

    

失眠的流浪者

一只忠狗一瓶酒，
无人夜巷独游走。
远望富户灯火旺，
寒风刺骨抖又抖。

泳不放弃

我在池中游不断，浪花四起猛拍岸。
思君令人泪断肠，欲止泪流泪愈淌。
竭尽所能平思绪，唯独继续游下去。
不知不觉心伤复，泪已化作池中物。

Delhi, Red Fort, Qutub complex and squirrels

There are many places to visit in Delhi but we chose to visit only a few, which are the Red Fort and Qutub complex. Nothing very interesting to me in Red Fort, just a few buildings built during around the same period as the Taj Mahal. However, the Lahore Gate is quite impressive. While on the other hand, the Qutub complex seems basically like an ancient Roman ruins with some islamic features added. 

The entrance to the Red Fort.

Lahore Gate.

The square infront of  Lahore Gate.

Delhi metro and indian workers.

Qutub Minar.

Qutub complex is a great place for photography.

Like i said, Roman ruins alike.

Impressive tree.

Squirrels in Qutub complex are not afraid of people at all. 

Posing for photo, there are so many places in Qutub complex for great photos.

The famous Iron pillar on the lower left of this photo.
Obviously not famous enough cause i didn't even notice the pillar during the visit.
I knew only after i read about it on wiki.

It supposed to be a minaret but remains incomplete.
And now it looks like a pudding with a lot of chocalate chips on it.

Paharganj.

Paharganj at night.

Well for me, the most unforgettable moment in Delhi is not visiting these famous tourist sites, it happened when we arrived at New Delhi train station from Amritsar. It was already 11pm at the moment. Our booked hostel is in Paharganj, just opposite the train station. From the direction given on their website, they said it was just walking distance from the station. So we decided to walk. 

At first we headed to the wrong way into a dark alley. No street lights and it was already quite late, so it was scary. We then quickly headed back to the station and took a tuk-tuk. Paharganj is pretty well-known as backpackers' ghetto, so there are many hostels there. Finding a particular hostel is no way an easy job. Our tuk-tuk driver also didn't know the direction and asked here and there. In the end we found the advertising board of the hostel. It indicated the hostel is inside an even darker narrow alley! WTH!!! The driver refused to take us further, so we had to take the risk and walked in. Luckily along the way, there were other tiny shops still opened, providing some precious light to guide our way. The following video shows how deep inside the alley our hostel is. The video started at the entrance of the alley. At that time, it was around 8 pm, so many shops are still opened.