MMMC, Convocation 2010

Of caps and tassels, robes and certificates, a joy-filled transition from the shelter of college to the wide world of accomplishment and success, congratulations dear seniors on your graduation day! It's amazing to hear the muffled thumping sound of footsteps down the red carpeted aisle accompanied by the triumphant melody, Chariots of Fire as I watched the procession of graduates to their respective seats enviously. 'If I were part of them...' this little heart mumbled. The Hippocratic Oath sworn became a vow of a lifelong commitment to be ethical in the practice of medicine. Somehow, it sounded like a menace to me, an impending danger to doing faulty things concerning life and death.Yet, it was certainly a day of victory after battling for years to be called a doctor, officially. These people deserved it all.

I was there at the event to help out with some onstage job. 

 

Made plans with Shisan and Jienyeen to go to the saloon early morning to get a hair-do. Before the makeup.

 

 My hair was plaited and tied into a giant bun. (:

 Camwhore with senorita Jienyeen.

 

The graduates of Batches 15 and 16

Throwing hats!!!

 

 Onstage crews.

 

With Miss Dino

With Dr. Anoop, the best medicine lecturer.

 

With Dr. Shinde, Paediatric lecturer.

 

Jienyeen, Dr. Shinde and Shisan.

 

With Shisan, the gorgeous senorita.

With Mr. Gan

With Mr. Suhaimi, my coach at gym and soon to be swimming instructor.

 

With Dr. Annamma Kurien, deputy dean of the Manipal Campus. My former Pathology lecturer.

With Prof. MV Kumar, the lecturer who had never failed to freak me out everytime he took a class.

With Dr. Ullas Kamath, the dean of Manipal campus, also my former biochemistry lecturer.

With Dr. Maya Roche (Biochemistry) and Dr. Shoba (Microbiology) from the Manipal campus.

With Dr. Sushil Suri who's always talking about lifestyle modification diseases,

With Prof. Ramnarayan, the vice chancellor of MAHE.

With Dr. HDX. (sheeesh, not smiling! Benciiii laaaaa!!) d:

With Jienyeen, June and Shisan.

With Tzeyin, who was searching hi and low for Dr. Soe.

Jienyeen and Dr. Santhosh Pai

With Dr. Ong LK, senior from B15.

Camwhore at the sports complex.

(: (:

Author in baju kurung.

.:.The end.:.

Let the music heal your soul

The silence of that night was broken by a gasp of monotonous weep where yearnings and dreams were shattered into unmendable fallacies. The succession tune sent waves of familiar sequenced frequency to the acoustic apparatus, a part of a composition by the Owl City entitled 'Vanilla Twilight'. Flashbacks were there to trespass at every stanza, not to mention, every single line of its lyrics. The sense of deja vu which bordered my psyche was so strong I could picture several encounters with him that tallied as the music played on. I vaguely remembered, the play-count counter hit 17 when I took notice. We ended the talk after a click on the send-button. That was the last piece of music I sent and it became a reminiscence from then on. Things began changing and my focuses started diverting. In a way, I was glad at how it made me realized who was there all along.

I wonder if you(readers) have ever felt the same, an impression of liaison towards music. Sort of like... when a piece is played repeatedly, it sucks you back to status quo where the deepest notion is developed. It reminds you about something/someone. Familiarity I call it. I come across this pretty often. Eg: Wonder by Embrace. It was December 08, the month when I was in craze with the kryptonite. I was exposed to this song in one of its episode and Wonder was playing unceasingly for a couple of days after I was done with Smallville. That season coincided with the Geminid meteor shower where I was there with J to watch the most magnificent collision between earth and the streams of debris from a comet. A night of definite incredible natural phenomena I'd witnessed in the span of 21 years I'd lived. And never such lovely night sky appeared before my naked eye ever since. Whenever I get tuned to this song, this is the picture that runs through my mind without any flamboyant possibility, over and over again. I suppose every music bears its own significance in our lives.

Some months have passed. Vanilla Twilight is playing for the 950th time now. It still gives me that intimate feeling as before, a sense of warmth whenever I have it played. All that happened that night seems vivid as though I've been imbibed with a memory of how the relationship had blossomed and ended, it retains in this little frontal lobe. As I scrolled down the chat history, sweet sensations filled me once again. I knew then that was the best recollection I'd ever had. And perhaps that's what I'm still searching for. A potential successor for Vanilla Twilight.

I CAN COOK!!

Lately, my eating habits have left much to be desired. I've been on a strict diet for almost 3 weeks by now with the intention to revert to my pre-weight gained state. I'm almost there. Anyways, the objective of this post is not about my diet and workouts, which I will talk about some time later. Despite the constancy of a reduced carb plan, I grant generous allowance during the weekend. I decided to cook a decent meal (besides instant noodles) merely to top up some extra calories burnt. I was at the korean mart in Singapore doing some grocery shopping to stock up junks in the fridge and the idea about making bibimbap and ddobokki came to my thought. I've always been a fan of korean food. You can't doubt my passion in cooking, cuz I love this just as much as my other interests! Since it's the day of grace (as I declared), I bought all the ingredients needed at the sundry store.

Ingredients for Ddobokki. Korean rice cake, cabbage, carrot, garlic, onion, fish cake and korean red pepper paste.

Ddo bok ki. One of my best dishes, even gramma liked it so.

Ingredients for bibimbap. Rice, carrot, fresh mushroom, bean sprouts, cucumber, egg, marinaded chicken and red papper paste. Season the vegetables with salt, sugar, sesame oil.

Dress the side dishes on top of the rice.

Bibimbap. Mix it with the red pepper paste and savor it with kimchi.

That's a ridiculously easy to make korean course, provided that you have the all ingredients for the recipe. Took me quite a while to cut, slice and mince but again, you can't doubt the satisfaction and joy when everyone starts praising, it's delicious!! Am certainly gonna explore more recipes, I promise.

Singaland

I was rather bored that afternoon when the impromptu decision about going to Singapore invaded my mind. See, the Singaland has always been everything about a shopping paradise to me. Till now, I can't comprehend why do the Singaland citizens cram the roads in Malaysia, i.e. Malacca, every weekend. I don't see a purpose if shopping became a reason for them to save. Being spontaneous at heart, I was in the tiny dot for a day.

I was doing my favorite activity around Bugis junction. My mom has an OG membership card and with a tight budget for the trip (still financially dependent on my parents, I had to save), I got myself this handbag, though I'm not a fan of Guess. The price is pretty affordable even after the high conversion rate.

The best purchase was something of my interest but totally out of expectation when my dad said YES! Absolute love!! Not my belonging but dad's. I could see the delight in him after I showed him the wonders of this semi-pro and god knows when he's so into photography, he's enthusiasted in fact, learning about angles and focuses today. Even my bro started snapping hundreds of pictures.

2010 Release, Nikon coolpix L110

Randomness during dinner.

Till then, Singaland. Shall revisit when I've saved up enough.

I Will Be Good

The negative point about me is I never learn from mistakes. And it's as if I need to be taught a lesson recurrently to keep me in awareness and be reminded about the fall. I claim myself to be really ignorant at times when it comes to the theme of friendship. It throws me into bouts of despondency when my trust is betrayed and as tediously as it may sound, some of you might be wondering why do I even get upset over minor issue as such. I do learn it now, the hard way that is, to be more cautious with acquaintances who cross my life every now and then. Sometimes, significant enough to make them bloom into friendships yet sometimes, just the other way round, foes. But I don't make enemies. Not that I can recall.

I'm pretty much a melancholic, such that I tend to hang on to emotions and thus appear to be more serious and critical. If you're a fun-loving sanguine, you're probably not gonna decipher this sentiment. I used to end up in serious arguments with my parents when I thought they were merely accusing of me being oblivious about other people's intentions. Truth to be told, I was. When I was talking to my best mate about this, I came to realize I lived a life of paradox, an oxymoron - smart failure! Anyways, I can feel the tension building up in me. Everything about me is no longer safe in their hands.

I was once told a story about a priest who wisely instructed the man who spread rumors about him to pick back all the feathers he threw out on the streets. Exactly, how do you collect all the light feathers that are spread across borders? You do not even bear an idea where/how far they've flown. There's no way of retrieving back what is told. What is done, you can't turn back time. I'm a common listener of this dictatorial phrase, 'just let it be, there's nothing you can do about', when I wished there is something I can seriously do out of the impossibility. The fact that I'm being really concerned about what people bear in their speech which may incoherently reflect the subjects of gossip. It's like, 'Hey, are you even civilized? Where are your moral and intellectual advancement? Stone age you're living in? Come on, progress!!' We don't go around turning one's mourning into dancing, do we?

In the end, I still unobtrusively resort to embrace the act of forgiveness and accepting that there's nothing I can do about. I just don't care, is seemingly the only phrase I use to defend myself in the most subtle manner. Thanks to those who remain as true friends all these while. You know who you are and I truly appreciate you above all else.

Sg. Petani, Day 3

The Registration of Marriage was held in Sg. Petani. We traveled from Penang, early in the morning to witness the ceremony. The 'in-laws' had invited us for breakfast at a famous dim sum restaurant. The third day of that for breakfast.

Second round of breakfast! We actually had our complementary buffet breakfast at the hotel before this. Such HUGE eaters we are.

 Passing the 'baton'.

But bigbro looking all tensed up!

The 'in-laws' insisted that we should stay for lunch and so happenly, the restaurant is located somewhere near where AikMunn is staying. I had a snappy 30mins meet up with him and he brought me for a ride around those places he hangs out, the lovely river and crispy durian puffs!

The bros purposely posed to let me snap their pictures, cuz they were teasing how much I like photography. Even uncle-in-law was laughing at me. -_-''

Buddy, Dr. Goh!!

-Closing chapter-