~ Lean on Me ~

Such an educating movie! Human needs discipline, etiquette. This is said based on the revolutions and civilizations that our species has gone through. Mr. Joe Clark wants his students to be such. As the newly appointed principal of Eastside High School, Mr. Clark was obliged to be correct the whole system of the school.

 His capability and intelligence in managing the rebelious students is definitely laudable. The line 'Students will behave like animals if you treat them as one', is really a meaningful one. Teachers need to be exemplary.

This movie is so associated with me. We, teachers are given the responsibility to educate the young generation. The current generation is our 'hope' and the duty of raising up this 'hope' is ours. We are very powerful and we are the agent of change. The metamorphosis of this current generation into a civilised one lie on us. Together we can create history,so lean on me!

~ Mother & Child Out of Wedlock ~

'A Great Injustice' and 'The Merry Maid' are such poignant stories. Both stories narrate on women and child born out of wedlock. Sex before mariage is not safe for women and the baby. Women can get pregant and end up aborting their unborn babies. The baby born out of wedlock will be tormented by the society. In Asian culture, we are not allowed to talk or think about sex and on top of all committing sex before marriage is a crime.

In 'A Great Injustice', Ah Nya became pregant and was left by her boyfriend Steven. Months later, her tummy started to bulg and that made the society opened its eyes and mouth wide. Ah Nya felt embarrassed. She illegally aborted her baby with indescribable pain. In this case, Ah Nya was affected physically and emotionally. She had to bear the physical pain of abortion and the prickly comments from her unscrupulous neighbours. The innocent baby whom she believed to have a bleak future did not get the chance to see the world.

In "The Merry Maid', Lakshmi had to run away from her family. She could not even raise her newborn and left the innocent child at the door of a rich man. So pity! Her supposed-to-be husband was caught before they could get married. Laskhmi would not want to be insulted by the society and let go of her baby. Later, she joined ad a maid in the house where her daughter, Sakinah was. She had to conceal her love in front of Sakinah. That was a severe torture she went through.

Pre-marital sex is taboo in our culture. Sex is carried out to make baby and this should only be done by those who are married. Pre-marital sex does not benefit anyone and sex to be done without love but lust is not meant for human!

~ Arrange Mariage & Dowry ~

Reading local literary masterpieces brings one near to their culture. This is a generalization that I have formed based on my experience of reading  tremendously culture and tradition oriented stories, 'Everything's Arranged' and 'A Question of Dowry'. These two short stories highlights the culture and tradition of Indian in Malaysia and its complications.

In 'Everything's Arranged', Rukumani and Devanayagam loved each other very much. However, both of them did not inform their respective families about the new relationship that they are engaged in. Love among young ones before their marriage is forbidden in Indian culture. This tradition kept both Rukumani and Devanayagam to conceal their feelings. Later on , both families started to find suitors for their son and daughter. Accidentally, both families agreed to marry their children to each other with knowing that Rukumani and Devanayagam loved each other. When the truth is discovered towards the end of the story, both families cancelled the marriage. This shows how important is family honour in Indian tradition.

Dowry is a must in Indian family. It is traditionally offered by the bride's family to the groom as a gift. Some grooms are very demanding and fixed the dowry while some are not. In 'A Question of Dowry', Sivasothie's marriage is cancelled because the groom was not contented with the dowry offered to him. Mr.Ramachandran, Sivasothie's father failed to offer a good plot of land to his future son in law, Thiruchelvam. this failure leads to another failure that is the Sivasothie's wedding.

Arrange marriage and dowry is a must in Indian tradition. This customs started long a time ago and breathes till today. It a blasphemous to have a love marriage. It is taboo for a female and male to love before their marriage. Parents are the decision makers of their children's lives. I feel this to be unfair as children's interest and suggestions to be taken into account by parents. Children must be given the liberty to decide what they want. Situation has improved a little today. There are space for love marriage and wedding without dowry. I don't mean to condemn arrange marriage and dowry but both have a limit. Some extremists have really given me a bad impression on this topic and they deserved to be blamed for the mess they have made.