Today is my baby brother’s Birthday. I wished him Happy Birthday a day earlier ‘coz I got the day wrong. Haha! I thought yesterday was the 16^th of June, 2008. My brother was speechless! Having an absent minded sister like me, I’m glad he’s used to it.

My brother is 16 years old. 16 years old on the 16^th of June. My! That’s special, isn’t it? My brother just hates studying! He has a short span of concentration. He loves to play computer games, basketball, and chat with his friends the whole day long! So, being the considerate me, I bought him 3 text books as a present: Physics, Maths and Chemistry. My brother almost strangled me! Hahah! I’m glad I’m the eldest!

Today is the first day I’m giving a career talk to a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds! I’m so nervous! But it turned out fine! The talk was at a fertilizer plant. Outside the seminar room, was a Petanque (pronounced ‘petong’) court. I have never heard of this game, neither have I any knowledge of the origin of this word. It might be French. The game, according to an experienced speaker who was also new to the game, that it was very much like lawn bowling, except that it was played on hard, grey pebbles instead of the soft, green grass.

Petanque court

In Kedah, there are not many tall buildings. Most buildings are about 1 storey, at most 5 stories high. The tallest structure was a telecommunications tower, equipped with a lift to the highest point and a revolving tower, exactly like the KL tower, only shorter, and beautifully lighted up in the night, illuminating its surroundings.

As for food, Kedah is famous for its little, hand made kuih. I bought Dodol (a sticky kuih made from brown sugar!) freshly made! It was still warm when I bought it!

I also got the opportunity to snap a picture of Malaysia’s own Dr. Mahathir’s childhood home!

All right! I admit!

This is not exactly a picture of Dr. M’s home. Instead, it’s a picture of the gate outside his childhood home. It was closed when we arrived, so we could only get a glimpse from the outside.

Anyway, the highlight of my trip was this: I was curious as to why there was a Petanque court in the plant. So I asked the employees. All of them gave gave me the same answer, "Our previous boss loved the game so much so that he decided to share his passion of the game with his employees!" So, he built a Petanque court in the compounds of the plant and and the bug caught on!

Kedah

When I went to Vietnam in December 2006, I took a lot of pictures of the paddy fields in An Giang province. I was delighted that I got to see the change of colours, from green to brown and to green again; scenes of men and women cycling and carrying hay on the back of their bikes. So, I showed it to a friend of mine who was from the North of Malaysia and she remarked with indifference, “Jean! We see this in Penang everyday! What’s so special about that? And you flew all the way to Vietnam just for that! My! My! Don’t you know that we have this in Penang too?”

I was slightly frustrated. I mean it was such a beautiful scenery. Indeed, Malaysia has paddy fields too. But not as wide, as green and as brown as these! There are paddy fields in Perak too. But they don’t look the same! The paddy fields in Vietnam were as vast the ocean, the irrigation channels were like a river, thousands of kilometers long and with a width of more than hundreds of metres. How could she even compare this scale of magnificence with that of Malaysia’s?

I didn’t understand until I visited Kedah on the 16^th of June, 2008. The moment I stepped out of the airport, I was taken aback to see so many patches of paddy fields right beside the airport, and opposite too! Only then did I begin to comprehend the words of my wise, young friend. Though there were tar roads and brick houses, but behind those houses and beside those wide tar roads were hectares and acres of paddy fields, looking so fresh and green! It reminded me of the time when I just arrived from Japan, when I flew above the kelapa sawit (oil palm) trees of Sepang and the wetlands of Putrajaya, and thought “Wow! Look how green Malaysia is! It’s such a big contrast from all the white snow surrounding every corner of Hokkaido Island, Japan! My! My! I love my home country so much now! I love Malaysia! It’s so green! It’s so young! And I love it!”

Kuala Lumpur is surrounded by gigantic, tall, grey, metallic, robot-like looking structures. The Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, PETRONAS Twin Towers, KL Towers for instance. They possess all the characteristics as described above. Not only that, it seems so impersonal, so materialistic, and they all lack the human touch. Because they are all built from minerals from the earth, it doesn’t seem welcoming. Instead, they display the message that “we’re built to display the brilliance of man-kind, to show how majestic this place is! So come in, be impressed by our skills and architecture and be amazed!”

The paddy fields in Kedah and Vietnam, in contrast, are organic matter. They are all built from the same hands of God, and therefore possess a certain human touch. The moment you look at them, you can’t help but fall in love with them. Your eyes will be wandering far and wide, trying to judge just exactly how far do the boundaries of this wonderful scenery stretch, and how exactly do anybody, for that matter, work on this extensive pieces of land, which is a thousand, million times larger than their own two feet, day after day. Even with the help of buffaloes and machineries, the fields are still so much larger than human, animal and machine combined. At this instant, you’re filled with awe. You look at the paddy fields longingly, yearning to join the farmer in his efforts, building scarecrows to chase away the preying birds, catching fishes, frogs and leeches in the fields, spraying insecticides to do away with insects which destroy the crops, and scattering seeds in on the freshly dug earth, sowing and watering; watching the delicate plants grow and mature and turn brown, to be ready for harvest.

Yes! Paddy fields are always welcoming. Whenever I look at them, they are always telling me, “Come! Come! Come and lie among us! Forget all your troubles, forget all your worries. We will remove your stress and rejuvenate you again! Feel us, touch us, smell us! We will replenish all the love that you lack, give you all the love that you need. We love you so, so much! ”

No wonder whenever people, in general, feel stressed out, they always retreat to the countryside. I think they yearn to be back to be in the arms of Mother Nature, feeling her soothing voice in the winds, her loving touch in the woods, and welcoming hugs in the midst of the youthful, emerald children.

So, the next time, you feel tensed, just picture yourself in the middle of a paddy field, surrounded by paddy plants at the height of your waist, and ankle-length muddy waters, with little fishes swimming around your smooth, petite feet, the gentle wind nudging you along, and the clear sun-rays shining through the clouds, like light shining from heaven, emitting warmth to warm your heart and soul, radiating with love, basking in the glory of the wonders of the creations of God.

The green paddy fields under the big, blue sky