I went for an interview in a wellness center. 2 interviews actually. Second was by the medical doctor, who runs the place. Everything was fine. Till she asked me if I have children. And I said yes. 3 kids. I could see her attitude change suddenly.She looked at me straight and told me.” I have a daughter and it is so hard to balance work and home, since you have three kids, it means three times the trouble” She assumed that, I will take 3 times the normal sick leave to take care of the kids and would never be able to work properly.
I was so close to getting a job and having some sanity. On the way back home after the interview, I was mad at the kids. I was mad that I gave up my career to raise them. I was even mad that I had kids. If i didn’t have kids, I would have been a specialist by now. My classmates are all working in prestigious hospitals as senior consultants, while I am putting all my hopes on a wellness center for a job. My best friend works in John Hopkins as an MD. When we were struggling through the medical school days, we would see papers and papers published by the Dr’s at John Hopkins and we would tell ourselves, One day we would make it to John Hopkins, finding cure and healing. She did, and I didn’t.
I never went back to my old students reunion dinners, cause it hurts to see that I was nothing but a loser. I was one of the top student at my medical school. One of my professors when he met my mom, told her that he still look for my pictures or news about me in the newspapers, because he knew I would be one of the best doctors. My mom normally calls me the world class idiot.

When I reached home,I was still mad, I wanted to kick the door, kick the plants that are outside and I also wanted to throw the kids out. I was also mad at my mom too. If she helped a little bit, I could have still worked. All I wanted was someone home to have an eye on the maid. But my mom too didn’t want to help. She wanted to gallavant around the world.I haven’t had this much anger in me before.
I opened the door and i saw the sweetest smile on my kids.My oldest asked me, mama did you get the job? No, I wanted to scream and tell her, it is beacuse of you I didn’t get a job. Somehow I controlled and I asked her Why are you asking me that, and she replied, “Mama, I don’t want a nanny to take care of us,I want you to take care of us, You are the best mama in the whole world” Then It dawned to me, If I ever had a second chance to do things in life, I would still choose to have my kids. That sometimes we do things, because we want to do it. It may not be the right thing, It must have been the worst decision in my life. My kids didn’t chose me. I chose to have them. And i will never ever regret having them. Never ever.
Here is to the Dr, who told me, my three kids means three times the trouble. No ma’am. You are wrong. My three kids means three times the happiness. I may not have made it to John Hopkins, But I am one heck of a mama and I made a difference to three kids. I passed my motherhood test with flying colours.. That is all that matters. Really.

A newspaper editor has been kicked out in Sarawak, Malaysia for reprinting the famous prophet Muhammed cartoon. He was asked to resign. It is deemed a major offence to tarnish the islamic value. I was under the impression that Malaysia is a democratic country and secular. However, anything to do with islam is the rule now. You can even sack an editor for a cartoon.
Honestly I am worried about the editor’s life. Why? We can see from the past..
In 1989, Indian born British author Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death for blasphemy by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini for Rushdie’s depiction of Muhammad as a businessman in his novel The Satanic Verses. Khomeini offered a $3 million reward to anyone carrying out the sentence against Rushdie. Other Islamic scholars follow suit, providing similar fatwa.
Hitoshi Igarashi, the book’s Japanese translator was murdered at the university where he taught in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 60 kilometres north of Tokyo.
The book’s Italian translator was beaten and stabbed in Milan.
William Nygaard, the Norwegian publisher was shot in 1993.
37 people, who had come to listen to a speech by the translator and publisher (of some parts of the book) Aziz Nesin, a well-known satirist, perished in a tragic escalation of events when the hotel where they had gathered was torched in Sivas, Turkey.
In May 1994, a fatwa on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin came after she was quoted in The Statesman that “…the Koran should be revised thoroughly.” This follows attacks and persecution of Taslima for her 1993 book Lajja (Bangla word for ‘shame’)
In 1998, Ghulam Akbar, a Shi’a Muslim, was convicted, in a Rahimyar Khan court, of uttering derogatory remarks against Muhammad in 1995 and sentenced to death. He was the first to receive such a sentence under Section 295(c) of the Pakistani penal code.
In August 2000, a Lahore court sentenced Abdul Hasnain Muhammad Yusuf Ali to death and 35 years’ imprisonment for “defiling the name of Muhammad” under Section 295(a), 295(c), and 298.
In 2001, prior to 9/11, American magazine Time printed an illustration of Muhammad along with the Archangel Gabriel waiting for a message from God. The magazine apologized for printing the illustration after widespread protests in Kashmir.
In June 2002, Iranian academic Hashem Aghajari gave a speech that challenged Muslims to refrain from blindly following their clergy. His speech provoked international outcry, and, in November 2002, he was sentenced to death for “blasphemy against Muhammad.”
In November 2002, an article in the Nigerian ThisDay newspaper prior to the upcoming Miss World pageant, suggesting Muhammad would have chosen one of the contestants as his bride, sparked riots that eventually claimed over 200 lives.
In December 2002, Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Marlette published a drawing that showed Muhammad driving a Ryder truck, with a nuclear rocket attached. He received more than 4,500 e-mails from angry Muslims, some with threats of death and mutilation.
In 2004, Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali created the 10-minute movie Submission. The film is about violence against women in Islamic societies. It shows four abused naked women, wearing see-through dresses. Qur’anic verses allegedly unfavourable to women in Arabic are painted on their bodies. After the movie was released, both van Gogh and Hirsi Ali received death threats. Van Gogh was stabbed and shot dead on November 2, 2004, in Amsterdam by Mohammed Bouyeri. A note he left impaled on Van Gogh’s chest threatened Western governments, Jews and Hirsi Ali (who went into hiding).
In September 2005 the Tate Britain gallery decided not to display a work by John Latham entitled God Is Great #2, made ten years previously, which consisted in part of a Koran, a Bible and a Talmud that had been disassembled. The exhibition was close to the time of the July 7 2005 London bombings which influenced the Tate’s decision.
In Malaysia one can sell any number of books against Christianity(walk around Masjid India area and you can see). I have even seen a book with the title” Sex in the bible” sold openly. A hindu man’s dead body was snatched and given islamic last rights, for he has purpotedly converted to islam. The worst,,the wonderful religious authorities let the hindu wife know abt the conversion when the man was already in coma( 3 months after the conversion, and too late to verify). That says something about how open the islamic religious authority is. It took 23 years for the Catholic church to build a single church in Shah Alam. What is odd is while my muslim brethren is vehemently protesting and destroying the public property all for the reason of a cartoon that depicted their prophet, the rest of the non muslims in Malaysia is silent.. They don’t have much choice. One member of parliament told the rest of the non muslims, “if you are not happy in Malaysia, then leave”.
When you see the anger of all the muslims all over the world, all for one cartoon, I wonder, where was the same anger, when a muslim woman was sentenced to death in Nigeria, for carrying a baby out of wedlock( didn’t matter at all that she was raped by her brother in law???)? Or when the court freed the criminals who gang raped a muslim women in Pakistan? Where was the anger, when China invaded Tibet? Where was the anger when 6 million Jews perished in the holocaust? Where was the anger when there was ethnic cleansing in Rwanda? Where was the anger, when Arab militia went on a cleansing spree in Sudan?

When JFK was negotiating with the Russians in the cold war era, he said this abt the Russians. They think” What is mine is mine, what is yours we negotiate”. How true it is now for the muslims. Somehow I don’t see any justice or equality anywhere.. Just anger and superiority and what is mine is mine and it is superior to yours philosophy.
The world is ours, we live here for a shortwhile, what happens after our death is not proven till this day. Yet we forget to live now and think of the heaven and redemption. Pity us..who kill and and hurt in the name of religion.

The Husband Store!

A store that sells husbands has just opened in New York City, where a
woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the
entrance is a description of how the store operates. You may visit the
store ONLY ONCE !

There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the
shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch . . .. you may
choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a
floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the
building! So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband .

On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 – These men have jobs and love the Lord.

The second floor sign reads:

Floor 2 – These men have jobs, love the Lord, and love kids.

The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 – These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids,
and are extremely good looking.

“Wow,” she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads:

Floor 4 – These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids,
are drop- dead good looking and help with the housework.

“Oh, mercy me!” she exclaims, “I can hardly stand it!”

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads:

Floor 5 – These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead
gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign
reads:

Floor 6 – You are visitor 4,363,012th to this floor. There are no men on
this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible
to please.

Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. Watch your step as you exit
the building, and have a nice day!

About a year ago, I stole a black tshirt my youngest sister. She came home for holidays and before she left, i took the tshirt out of her bag. My sisters and I have been stealing clothes from each other for ever.
This black tshirt had some writing on it and I never bothered to read what it is.It is black( my favourite colour) and cotton. I have been wearing it at home all the while.
Yesterday I was in the kitchen and my oldest was standing next to me. Out of the blue she said ‘mama is a maniac” and like all maniac’s something snapped and barrage of crap came out of my mouth. I was so mad. Not enough that I am a maniac, I don’t need a 7 year old to tell me that. My poor child looked stunned. She was just about to burst out crying and told me she just read what is written in my tshirt.

I looked at my tshirt. It is written “MANIAC” in bold and side ways the m is ‘e’ for eyewear,n is ‘c’ for creative and the c is ‘u’ for unlimitted.
Damn, I can never ever tell you the guilt I felt..I made my child cry for no reason

When we were in Malaysia, my kids had computer lessons at school. It started in kindergarten. I didn’t want them to learn, but there was too much peer pressure..my kids felt out of place explaining to their classmates that their mother is a nerd and didn’t want them to attend computer class at the age of 4. So they went.
I saw the first computer when I was about 18 years old. My sister was doing her master’s in computer applications and I saw it in her lab, a huge machine with black screen. I had my own computer when I was 23. I didn’t even know how to switch the machine on. I still learned slowly. Did I miss anything by not having a computer while growing up? Not at all. Would my kids lose something, if they don’t sit in front of the PC? I think not. There is a time for everything. Now is the time for fairy tales and happily ever after. When you see youngsters running away from home hoping to meet their chat friend( often adults masquerading as kids!!!)I wonder where exactly are we going wrong? Do we give our kids things, because we are worried that if we didn’t it will affect their intellectual well being, or did we reach a point, that we have no time to know what our kids are doing?
Does kids below the age of 10 need a computer?

When we were in Malaysia, my kids had computer lessons at school. It started in kindergarten. I didn’t want them to learn, but there too much was peer pressure..my kids felt out of place explaining to their classmates that their mother is a nerd and didn’t want them to attend computer class at the age of 4. So they went.
I saw the first computer when I was about 18 years old. My sister was doing her master’s in computer applications and I saw it in her lab, a huge machine with black screen. I had my own computer when I was 23. I didn’t even know how to switch the machine on. I still learned slowly. Did I miss anything by not having a computer while growing up? Not at all. Would my kids lose something, if they don’t sit infront of the PC? I think not. There is a time for everything. Now is the time for fairy tales and happily ever after. When you see youngsters running away from home hoping to meet their chat friend( often adults masquerading as kids!!!)I wonder where exactly are we going wrong? Do we give our kids things, because we are worried that if we didn’t it will affect their intellectual well being, or did we reach a point, that we have no time to know what our kids are doing?
Does kids below the age of 10 need a computer?

Traditionally all families want a male offspring.( In India, millions of female babies are aborted each year).
My own modern mum even gave me a chinese calender that can help me to concieve a boy child. Some how boys are always favoured. The notion that they take care of the family still prevails.
But nobody tells you how expensive it is to raise a boy
Yesterday, my son broke his spectacle frame again…. it is the 6th time in 9 months.. each frame costs nothing less than $80. His sister is still wearing the same spectacle for the last 1 year.
none of his toys last.. we have a bin named UIBUO “unknown items, belonging to unknown objects” HE dismantles his toys and then throw them around.
While his sister still has toys from her toddler stage.
My son needs new clothes every few month.. cause he will tear them all”accidentally”
I can’t keep up with the electronic gadgets meant for his gender. play station 1, PS2, now x box… while the girls can be kept happy with a barbie..

Only now i figured out, why people demand dowrey in India. They are making the girls family pay for all the expenses incured while raising the boy. it is pay back time..

I was once a famous doctor, working 48 hours shift and saving lives. After I had my kids, My career took a dive. I chose to be a stay at home mother in the first year after their birth, then worked only part time
. It is a tough choice. What is more important.. My kids or my career?
I have slogged and worked so hard to become a doctor. But I am also a mother.
My sisters are smart, they chose not to have kids as they interfere with career decisions. I wanted kids. They mean the world to me.
My cousin in US send her 1 month old daughter to her parents in Malaysia and they raised her till she was 3 years old. Another one in KL sends her child to the childminder and picks up the child only during the week end. I couldn’t do that to my kids. My mom once asked me, why am I so fuzzy? Why couldn’t I get a nanny and go to work? I wanted to be there for the kids. But still deep some where I missed working. I missed my job.
Would I be a lousy mother, if i go back to full time work? Am i loser if i give up my career?