Namaku Jalur Gemilang, namaku yang baru sebenarnya. Sebelum ini aku  hanya dipanggil sebagai bendera Malaysia. Mujurlah Tun Dr Mahathir berikanku nama ini beberapa tahun yang lepas. Sungguh seronok dipanggil dengan nama baru. Ceritaku agak istimewa juga. Berbeza sungguh daripada rakan-rakanku. Mestilah istimewa. Negara mana yang beri layanan sebegini kepada bendera mereka untuk sebulan lamanya. Bermula dari 15 Ogos hingga 16 Sept setiap tahun, aku diraikan di seluruh pelosok negara. Wah, saudara/i tak pernah tengok aku ke? Aku berkibar di atas hampir semua teksi (sesetengah kenderaan persendirian) di Malaysia. Tak ingat ke? Tak bukan teksi, apa kata saudara/i pergi ke pusat membeli-belah? Pasti ‘potraitku’ ada di situ. Aku juga menghiasi blog orang :P. Ada juga yang buat ‘rangoli kolam’ bertemakan aku. Ada yang pecahkan berbagai-bagai rekod Malaysia dengan menggunakan namaku. Macam-macam la. Ikut kreativiti rakyat Malaysia yang kearifan mereka tidak boleh disangkal lagi. Aku juga diberikan percuma kepada rakyat oleh Perdana Menteri. Wah, bukan main hebat kan? Glamor sungguh hidupku ini.

Tetapi lepas 16 Sept, tamatlah sudah zaman kegemilanganku selama sebulan. Pendeknya hidup mewahku selama 30 hari. Kasihan la aku. Kadang kala aku tercabut dari kenderaan yang meluncur laju di lebuhraya. Terbang dibawa angin masuk parit, loji najis pun ada. Tapi ada juga yang lebih menyakitkan hati. Mulut yang manis memuji aku dalam sebulan ini mengutuk pula diriku untuk 11 bulan yang selanjutnya. Inilah yang aku paling tidak faham dan paling aku benci. Aku tidak pernah diminta untuk disayangi sebegini rupa. Tetapi, bukan main hebat lagi layanan mereka ini. Pada masa yang sama, aku tidak relakan diriku dicaci. Sekali lagi, niatku itu tidak juga dirahmati.

Memang aku tidak faham-faham kerenah manusia ini.

Originally published in tulipspeaks.

To those who have missed the first stage play on Tun VT Sambanthan, here is another chance!

Attention everyone. This is a public service announcement to those who always have that thirst for charity. Remember you won’t be paid for this and that is the reason it’s called public service or voluntary work.

Well cut things short, we are seeking for volunteers to teach English, Science and Maths for student in SRJK (T) Bangsar. This is to cater for all those students who cant afford to pay private tuition fee. So we need people to come over to the school on every Saturday for only 2 hours. Maybe from 11am till 1pm (time yet to be confirmed)

The classes will be conducted for students from Standard 1 and Standard 2 primary. If you have the heart and you think that you would want to extend your help to us, do email me your contact and I will call you up. You may provide contact via email rujjcoomarh@yahoo.com with the subject line “SRJKT Bangsar – Voluntary Work”

My email will be running on filters so you wouldn’t want your emails to go into my junk folder, right? J

This will be our first project and we hope to expand this activity to several schools.
Do take note that we are not politically involved with any parties or even NGO’s or society. We are on our own. Just bunch of people who are willing to help.

Thank you and hoping for a good response.

Valgha Tamizh, Valarga Samuthaayam

Rujjcoomarh

Greetings. Since everyone has shared their experience in Universities, I would like to take this opportunity to share my piece studying in private college (now its University-College). Before I could start I would like to clarify that my write up here does not reflect 100% of the happenings or attitude of every individuals in a private college. This is merely my own experience.

I graduated from APIIT a.k.a UCTI. Immediately after SPM I told my dad that I want to do audio engineering, he just showed me his middle finger and asked to study something where I can make easy money. So there I was, first year APIIT. I am someone who always wanted to go to public universities and I don’t know why. It’s more like a fascination. End of the day I have no choice; I got no balls to do STPM, so I decided to go to private college.
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As promised.

Plenty of comments were put up on tzarina’s post on Malaysian Indians in Malaysian Universities. Since questions were put up regarding the validity of the talked about issue in private universities, I would like to regale my experiences. Furthermore, I graduated from a Indian-majority university, which was set up by an Indian-based political party. I will reserve my thoughts on the university itself for the time being, and would rather, for now, care to explain more about the student mentality there.

Entering an Indian-majority surrounding at 18 years old was a big culture shock, to say the least. Growing up as a minority in the city (so to speak), it felt kinda weird being a majority race for the first time. Since the university was still in its infancy, I got to see a bunch of colorful characters there.

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