Athena

I was in Genting Highlands recently and at the skyway cable car station there was a queue which was not too long. We were waiting for our turn to board the cable car when several times over some chinese-looking tourists shoved past us with no regard for the people before them. It went on and on and the people on duty at various stations at the sky way did not seem to notice this gross lack of curtesy. On enquiring I was told that they get a bunch of such tourists from mostly Taiwan and China who do not know what waiting even means.

I thought the workers should not let such tourists off easily. I was angry and wanted to tell off the guy who pushed past me to get into the gondola but Alas, how do i tell him ? They speak no English and this was the problems faced by the workers as well.

Next time around i thought i should give them a taste of their own medicine.

There was this talk floating in town last week that a certain employer would be win the Employer of the Year Award this year. I had a few friends who even thought it would be wise to put in an application to this employer for a possible employment. After all, it is not often we come across such caring employer. Buying a condo for over RM200K and standing as guarantor for a sports car loan are indeed exemplary deeds . All this for free or a fee we dont know but what if one's life is the cost of these ' favours'???

Girls these days are threading on risky ventures these days all for temporary bliss without knowing the hidden perils. If a single woman traps a married man for money and power, she must know and take responsibility of the consequences. If she has to pay for her misdeed with life, it would be too late to repent. We have women whose preoccupation these days seems to be serving married men and that becomes a salaried occupation. And married men we have would think nothing of having a side pillow. They say variety is the spice of life and all the more married men find this extra-marital engagements quite fulfilling.

So, in every instance of extra-marital affair, we must always remember that there is a willing giver and a willing taker. Why blame one and protect the other?

A day shy of International Women's Day, I was coaxed into watching this play by ST Bala titled Iruvar 2. I am not a regular play-goer but this time I thought why not and what a mistake it was.

The play started off with an aged couple exchanging warm words on the ocassion of their 35th wedding anniversary. I didnt think much of this till the play went on with other couples coming in to juxtapose the first couple. Every couple was heading for divorce and the chief issue is educated wife in high jobs. The men found such pursuit hot and were incapable of handling the situation. The men were still expecting women to be the maid in waiting at home and when this does not happen, the women are faulted. The first couple surpased three decades of marriage because the wife was a home make and she tolerated all the scoldings and beatings from the husband. She was the ideal wife as portrayed by Bala. The message was loud and clear that the verbal and physcial abuse must be tolerated by the wife as it is assumed that the husband beats her as he cares for her. Holy Shit !

While the play had excellent casting and dialogues, i was taken by shock at the sheer ignorance shown by the director ST Bala. With a play like corrupting the young mind ( especially that of boys), all the efforts by the various women's groups seeking emancipation and equal rights is down in the drains. ST Bala is at least 50 years behind time. He appears to me a very immatured man with chauvinistic ideas and ideals for women. I was distured with the message ST Bala was trying to relay to the masses and i would strongly oppose a play like going public.

The unfair and judgemental statements made on working and divorced women screams of chauvinism. The cruel part is these statements were made by the female casts. As one one main cast obsrved that divorced women are always viewed as second hand it would be impossible for such women to find genuine life partners was absurd and uncceptable by any standards.

ST Bala needs to grow up. I havent seen his other plays so I would not want to pass comments on his other works and neither would I want to stereotype him but Iruvar 2 needs reworking.