All for the sake of love

Ever been in love? Really? How much?

Love in itself is a huge, mysterious,fascinating as a topic but today we will try to focus on one important aspect : Up to what extent can someone go when he/she is in love?

Some people, specially youngsters commit suicide for the sake of love. As reason who can hear:

• Parents don’t like the guy/girl
• Your girlfriend/boyfriend left you for someone else (and it is even worse when your partner stars going out with somebody from the same sex as him/her :S )
• You have wasted your partner’s money in some kind of gambling and now you are indebted so much that you kill yourself because you cannot bear the suffering you have brought to your partner.(huh…what a joke, coward!)
• And the hero-kind suicides: To save your lover (i’ve seen this only in movies though)
• There is also the murder disguised as suicide: boy or girl think that the other is cheating, so he/she kills then kill himself/herself as well

Most common methods used by lovers for suicide:

• Drink poison (in mauritius ‘Tamaron’ has proven quite effective, it’s a commonly available pesticide in a brown bottle. Big doses of Panadol [paracetamol] are also used but most of the time, it is just to frighten others as it is well-known for its ineffectiveness). Drinking poison has the advantage that the couple can drink it in parallel and make sure that no one is cheating :p
• Hanging (most of the time a ceiling fan is used. But tree branches , for those who like nature and even window bars (baro coment dir en anglais?) have proven effective. Unfortunately hanging is for the lone lover.
• Free fall! Oh yeah…that would have been cool, provided you have some secure elastic holding you from smashing on the ground. In mauritius, free fall spots are easily accessible (don’t even think about pont colleville, there is a net there, and you will have to pay fine when you get trapped in it). Le Soufleur , in the south, at L’Escalier is a nice place. New Engineering Tower at U0M seems cool (and has not been used for any suicide attempt yet). This method can also be used to mask murders as suicides. (remember bassin blonc!)

Let alone suicides, do you really believe that giving your life for someone you love is worth it? (I’m not talking about risking your life, but giving your life, getting killed for sure)

If you happen to have stumbled on this page while googling for some ways to put an end to your life…Then I have something to tell you: Pleaase, for the sake of the ones who have given birth to you, call 800 93 93 (Befrienders Mauritius)

Befrienders Mauritius

First Floor
152 Royal Road
BEAU BASSIN
Helpline 1: 46 48 889
Helpline 2: 800 93 93
Opening hours:
Mon, Tues: 18:00 – 21:00
Wed, Thurs, Fri: 15:00 – 21:00
Sat: 12:00 – 21:00
Sun: 09:00 – 21:00

“We work worldwide to provide emotional support, and reduce suicide. We listen to people who are in distress. We don’t judge them or tell them what to do – we listen.”

Befrienders International: http://www.befrienders.org

Ene Mauricienne alle aprane Canada…(A Mauritian studying in Canada)

Post hijacked by manga-lovers: check the comments, you will understand what i mean :p

Ok, a change of style: I have decided to invite someone from time to time as guest-blogger to share their experience with us.

As first guest, we have a young mauritian girl, who after her HSC, went abroad (Canada more precisely) for further studies. Let’s see what she has to tell us!

Episode 1 – The GTA (Greater Toronto Area)

First of all, I was surprised to see so many Chinese people in Toronto. As a Mauritian, I always thought that Canada was full of white people. The parts of Toronto called Markham, Richmond Hill, and Scarborough look like little Hong Kongs… wait… they should look like big Hong Kongs, since they are bigger versions of the original Hong Kong… So, where do all those people come from? From Hong Kong of course! It’s very hard for me to imagine how overpopulated Hong Kong (a country smaller than Mauritius) was before all those people moved to Canada!!! By the way… Hong Kong is still overpopulated!
The Chinese in Toronto refused to speak English to me because I looked Chinese and they were angry when they found out that I could speak neither Cantonese nor Mandarin. Here is what they can’t understand:
1) My great-great grandmother was Cantonese, but I am Hakka Chinese. That makes me 3% Cantonese. I already know how to count 1-100 in Cantonese, so, that’s already 3% of their language and that’s more than enough for Cantonese for me!
2) Furthermore, my Hakka ancestors lived on a farm in China and never went to school. They could not speak Mandarin either. So, why would I?
3) Would you expect an African to speak Chinese? They are so prejudiced! They judge people by their skin colour!
Toronto also has a significant Hindu and Muslim population. So, apart from diriz frire and mine frire, you can also find gato pima (known as gram badai), samoosa (known as samosa) and briani there. The only difference is that a Canadian gato pima or samoosa are 3 times the size of the Mauritian ones, and the briani is spicier and boucou moins gras. There were also dal puris as large as pizzas! With all these Mauritian-like people, I wasn’t surprised to find the Asian part of downtown Toronto as malang as Port-Louis.
After spending a few days with the Chinese (where I was getting zoreil fermal and lizier fermal), I left Toronto for a much more Americanized city. I travelled 2.5 hours by car in a straight line (si mo ti fer sa dans Maurice, mo ti pou fini tombe dans la mer), on a type of street that they call a Highway. The speed limit on the highway is 100km/hr, but most cars were travelling at 120-150 km/hr!!!
To be continued…
By Serenity

Are you interested in becoming our guest-blogger too? drop me a comment and we will try arrange something

La Mousse Noire – Grass Jelly

In Mauritius, the Grass Jelly is known as “la mousse noire” (black jelly) and is sold as chilled drinks. But have you ever wondered what this sinister-looking jelly is made from? Where? How? Don’t know for you, but personally, I’ve been quite suspicious about its origin and that’s the reason for this post; going upstream in the preparation of this mysterious jelly.

 

The Grass Jelly has earned itself many names from various regions of the globe, most commonly from Asian countries like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China…where it is a very popular drink known for its cooling effect (its “yin” if you prefer).

In Singapore for example, the Grass Jelly is referred to as; Chin Chow (Chin Chow means grass in Hokkian) while Thais call it Chao Kuay and the Malaysian call it the Cincau without forgetting the vietnamese’ Suong Sam.

In Mauritius, we simply call it “la mousse noire”!

 

How does it look like?

Ever drank Grass Jelly? Don’t hesitate to give it a try if you haven’t tasted yet. But please don’t get frightened by its rather unconventional appearance. Most probably you will either fall upon a can of grass jelly drink or a cup; the jelly looks like small ‘blobby’ pieces of brownish, translucent crystals mixed in a sweet brown (or rather purple?) syrup.

 

The cupped style grass jelly is readily available at the University Of Mauritius Cafeteria. (Anybody knows the cost?).

As for me, I used to buy grass jelly for R3 ( $0.1) packed in plastic bags at college from someone that all those who were at Royal College Port Louis some 3 years ago will remember; “mamou”, may his soul rest in peace.

 

But hey, that’s not the only form that grass jelly can be consumed! It can very well integrate itself into various recipes, specially desserts. And that’s left to your own creativity in the art of desserts .

 

Like above, mixed with cream, fleshy-juicy mangoes, the jelly cubes makes a nice blend of colour effect among the orange mangoes and white cream.

 

And some people who prefer to eat the jelly, straight away with a spoon (or add some honey to it ).

 

Is grass jelly beneficial to the health?

• The Chinese say so…(and you know that you can count on Asians to come up with all kind of medicinal herbs ).
• Don’t forget the cooling effect of the drink (its yin)
• In Vietnam, grass jelly is believed to enhance fertility in women.
• Some people even say that it can be used to fight against diabetes (of course, don’t add sugar to the preparation: p )
• For all those on diet, trying to lose weight, grass jelly can help as well

From what is it made?

It’s not from grass ! I know, I know…I have been calling it ‘grass’ jelly so many times now that you must have been convinced about the grass and grass jelly relationship. But NO, it is instead made from leaves and the leaves come from a plant, not a grass.

The plant is from the mint-family and is known as the Menosa Chinensis. It is grown in countries is Vietnam, China and Indonesia. Two other plants used in Indonesia are Melastoma polyanthum, known as Cincau perdu, and Cyclea barbata, known as Cincau Hijau.

 

The leaves are dried up for months, boiled, juice extracted and allowed to ‘crystalise’.]

That’s how the dried leaves look like.

 

There is a guy who has actually visited one of these grass jelly factories and made some nice pictures, which unfortunately I have not yet receive permission to republish them here at the time of posting. So you will have to check the blog there itself: here’s the link

http://realthai.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_archive.html

It is indeed a quite detailed and interesting virtual site visit of that factory and I strongly advise you to check it out.

 

Can you make your own grass jelly at home?

Of course for all those who like to make their own stuff, yes, you can make you own grass jelly!

All you need is to purchase a readily available packet of grass jelly power, which u can pour into some boiling water and allow to rest. (This initial preparation, you can use the measurements for preparing normal jelly.)

After your grass jelly becomes rather ‘blobby’ (you understand what I want to say, do you?), you can proceed with either eating it or add it to some desserts or add a sweet syrup to it and mix (without crushing the jelly completely…) to obtain a nice and refreshing drink.

This article is partly based on wikipedia’s entry about Grass Jelly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_jelly including some pictures.

Let’s turn earth into the “Green Planet”!

Blog Action Day

Today we unite, 1 issue, voices from millions of people through thousands of blogs ; Our Environment!

Ever heard about a green planet? Ever wondered how earth would look like if it was green?

Let’s have a look:

Not bad uh?

Thinking about the environment, well, what happens if everybody agrees to stop pollution right now?

• First of all, you will shut down your computer! (using electricity…unless it is using a clean source of power)
• No more cars, lorries on the road. Traffic problems will be long forgotten one…(we don’t have traffic jam with bicycle, do we? unless we live in China)
• Most factories will be closed down causing millions of people to lose their job
• Let alone nuclear weapons, even the gun will be something of the past (we need factories for them right?). Wars will be fought on horse-backs and with spears,swords and arrows.
• We will stop cooking food with fire, cause this destroy our environment. We will use heat from the sun to try bake breads :p (and of course u can forget about pizza , kfc, mcdo…no fast food!)
• most of our clothes will be home-made from very nature-friendly materials like goat-skin and tree leaves.
• ……….ok people, you add more items now! What are the things that will change if ever everybody agrees to stop pollution completely!

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak to all my readerz.

Youtubed below is an Eid song, (mixture of arabic and english) by Sami Yusuf (www.samiyusufonline.com). Have a nice Eid Day everybody

“Death, be not proud”!

Well, actually this title is a borrowed one from one of the few poems i read i think from a book that we were supposed to study at college…”poems and poetry” i think.

The poem demonstrated that death wasn’t as powerful as some might think it is. Well, the question of death itself…i know people who, when i mention this topic, they stop me right away or feel upset.

I just don’t understand, why are some people so (i won’t say frightened) sensitive to matters related to death while others are quite indifferent about it. Is that related to the way we are brought up? The experiences we encounter?

Ok, let me tell you from where this post took roots…lolz from the bus of course! I was traveling to university the other day, as usual, my head against the window pane, trying to sleep a bit and at the same time, my pair of powerful ears scanning voices, my brain weeding out interferences and singling out interesting bits of chitchats….Lucky meee, right behind me sat a couple (rather old, i would estimate a 45-40 husband and wife) and the wife was complaining with her husband that her mum had called her twice already since morning and was angry cause she was still at home. They were on their way to mum’s place actually and the latter was not doing that well, having lost consciousness twice already since morning. From the way they talked, mum’s time on this planet was running out.

And then followed the misscalls; a rather “kanjoos” (money-minded) couple…they misscalled several relatives and were angry when the ones they missed calls didn’t call them back. Finally they decided calling one and angrily asked why they didn’t calll???? and pretending that they were miscalling because they have no credit on the mob. (but yeah before the misscalls, they had just put a R100 card).

Some 15 mins on way, they received a call: mum’s no more…and a silent of death overcame the couple, neither of them would speak a word :S Ohh c’mon say somethiiiiing, I want to listen!!! Fortunately, the wife broke the ice and said “sa em li ti envi” (that’s what she wanted) referring to her mum who is now not among the livings. Actually, i was expecting some cries from the daughter :S But nooo…this daughter is saying that her mum wanted death since long.

And superstitions come into play!

The husband followed by saying that since morning he had a bad feeling…something bad was bound to happen. And the wife: I had a very bad dream about mum last night, and this morning while speaking to priya (faked name) I heard the lizard “criyer” (how do we call the talk of the lizard?)

And the minutes that followed, the mourning couple starts receiving calls from relatives wanting confirmation about the death…

Strong daughter i must say…she didn’t seem that much affected by the death of her mum, she was expecting it to happen.

I wonder why superstitions at times turn out so real :S Are they merely psychological?

Ohhhh I nearly forgot that, It’s EID. Sooooo Eid Mubarak to everybody out there!!!!

It’s all about the way you code!

Woke up this morning, and guess how my day starts…switching on my pc of course (well for those who don’t even off their pc at night, that’s a different story :p).

And here i go for another day of my life with computer codes. Lately I’ve been using mostly java. Got 2 modules (Real Time Systems and Distributed Systems) as well as my final year project where this nice language is being used.

Due to the amount of time that the future president spends on coding in his daily life, he started thinking about things that can affect a programmer’s life. Hmm, forget about the usual stress, computer-related problems…Today we will focus on the way programmers are employed.

I think many of you will agree that the IT sector is a very volatile one and having your job as one which is directly related to that field also implies the volatility of your job. Most of the workers in that field will keep moving around, moving from one section of a company to another and even leaving one company for another (on a more frequent interval compared to those holding jobs in other sectors). I have been told that this is so, because at times companies no longer need the skills that you have (in case you have become obsolete with your old-fashioned computer skills) and also, it can be the choice of the workers themselves; they want to acquire experience in other things that their current company is not giving them the opportunity…so they move on.

But unfortunately not all people like jumping around from one section to another, for one company to another.(They prefer “stability” :p) . So for them, I have been able to obtain some tips about how to secure their job and avoid this company changing stuff :p

It is all about the maintainability of your codes!

It is indeed very simple to understand, the better the maintainability of the codes you write, the easier it becomes for someone else to maintain it :p And if it is so easy for someone else than you to do the job, then your job is not safe anymore buddy, you can be replaced :p

So what we can do…make our best to write unmaintainable codes! I know ,I know…I am saying something completely the opposite to what any trainer will say when you learn to write programming codes. But now that you are rather well versed in speaking to machines…you can venture out of the advice you got initially, trust me , its fun

Lesson 1: Naming of variables

What you learn: You should give meaningful names to your variables. e.g “sum” for storing the result of “value1″+”value2″

What you should do:Choose variable names that are completely out of context like:”apple”=”banana”+”orange” or more confusing, swap the variable names of the meaningful ones… “value1″= “sum1″ + “sum2″. Or even more simpler, for the lazy programmers out there: “a”=”b”+”f”

Ok…there are are hundreds of lessons of that kind, so next time, I will give another one for improving your abilities in writing unmaintainable codes. Until, start practicing lesson 1 today itself! (and i’m sure that in a short span of time, we will be having the best programmers around )

The raped and the rapist…violação

Update: Some of you may have noticed that I have activated moderation for comments. As from now on until further notice, all comments will need approval before getting published. You just leave your comments, and they will be reviewed and approved as soon as possible.Reason for this: Some comments were drifting away this discussion towards attacks against specific religions. And on this blog we do share the richness of our religions but at the same time we should refrain from targeting other religions. I sincerely hope that you understand my decision.Regards, Roushdat.

When asked their opinion about rapes, the first word i received from most of the people I’ve interviewed so far is this: “horrible”

Indeed, it is a horrible act whereby the rapist (who has more similarities to beast than human) tags his/her victim for life. That’s the first reaction most of us have and store in memory, but a deeper dive into the matter, as highlighted by a friend of mine;

I think dats a stupid act where a man shows how much affection he needs and not getting.

It will not be fair simply to qualify the rapist as merely a beast-like creature craving for sex, but we should take into consideration the motives behind this act.
Among the possibilities,

• he/she is lonely, no friends and social life, rejection by society for not being as smart as others
• mental disorder, he/she doesn’t really know what he/she is up to
• But the fact that some people are sexual predators cannot be omitted (born rapist?)

But not always should only 1 finger point at the rapist though;lets take a look at the victims.

• Wearing provocative clothing like mini-skirts (at times so mini, that i wonder if its still a skirt). Well, its not all about skirt, but any outfit which describe the body curves can be provocative enough to attract the attention of potential rapists. To this, some people, specially girls will start shouting at me, that they are free and all,and that its the men out there who should learn to control themselves…oh yeah surely you are free, am not giving you any orders, but am just advising, so u take it or leave it
• getting all drunk, c’mon, we know you people enjoy parties, but don’t you realise how vulnerable a state you put yourself into by getting drunk among strangers (or at times even ‘friends’ cannot be trusted)?
• Never leave drinks unattended and be careful from whom you are receiving drinks (even if its just juice or soft drinks) as drugs may have been added to them (rape drugs).
• meeting with strangers alone is never a good idea. (last week itself i read in the papers about a girl meeting a guy for the first time after getting in touch via Internet Chat…and she was raped on that same meeting in a bungalow at flic en flac)
• And the list will keep growing (Send me more, I will add them here)

What can people do to protect themselves:

• Wear non-provocative clothing, and specially wear jeans as they are more difficult to be forcefully removed!

Some stuff out of my head

my vision is clear,my wish so sincere, my objective is near

Oh God, please hear, help me not to fear, and vanished be my tears

There was this day, i woke up and everything was upside down

In the clouds i was swimming

On sea i was walking

And the bad guyz turned out nice

Behind bars were the cops who ate bribes

This cannot be true, hell this cannot be true

even hell was now heaven and heaven  became hell

And the birds were diving, though not being penguins

while the fish were getting tanned in the sun

am i dreaming? is that all a dream?

till then, many dreams i will sell, to my readers i shall tell