An excerpt from The Straits Times’ (Singapore) interview with Mr Simon Tay, Associate Professor of Law (National University of Singapore) and president of think-tank Singapore Institute of International Affairs. A master’s degree holder in international law from Harvard University, Mr Tay was a nominated member of parliament from 1997 to 2001. He is also a novelist - his book, City Of Small Blessings is published by Landmark Books.

His wife Jin Hua, who runs a natural health shop, homeschools their 10-year-old son, Luke.

“The Singapore education system seems to be a highway where you drive very fast and, if the car doesn’t overheat or get into an accident, you get to your destination very quickly. But you may not enjoy the drive and you may not see the sights. And if you do break down and overheat, you are in trouble,” he says.

“If you don’t like the highway, is there another path? My wife gave it a lot of thought. For me, I see this highway I am not certain about, and I see that my wife wants to beat this path over the hills.”

The fact that they learnt three or four years ago that Luke is dyslexic affirmed their decision, and Tay says they have not decided whether he will go to school or continue to be home-schooled.

“There are benefits to home-schooling. We can go on holiday any time we want,” he says.

“The downsides: Socially he is fine because people come by the house all the time and his character is outgoing. But his teacher always loves him and thus he is not used to indifference, which is a tough thing in life to learn.”

- 22 December 2008

Me : So Bear… We’ve read stories about circuses and animals, right?

Bear : Yeah…

Me : What do you think the animals are like?

Bear : I think they look kinda sad, because they are trapped in the cages.

Me : Oh…

Bear : I’m sorry I said that.

Me : But why? I like it when you are honest. I like it when you express yourself.

Bear : I’m just sorry because I think I made you sad when I said that.

My smally dolly is growing up…

“Well, we have been seeing flowers for years - but our children haven’t. Flowers are still new and wonderful to them, and it’s the fault of grown-ups if every new flower they see ceases to delight them.”
~ Charlotte Mason, volume 1 page 53

“They must be left to themselves for a good part of the day to take in their own impressions of nature’s beauty. There’s nothing worse than children being deprived of every moment to wonder and dream within their own minds because teachers and adults are constantly talking at them, not leaving them a moment’s peace. Yet, the mother must not miss this opportunity of being outdoors to train the children to have seeing eyes, hearing ears and seeds of truth deposited into their minds to grow and blossom on their own in the secret chambers of their imaginations.”
~ Charlotte Mason, volume 1, page 45

Ms M was very interested in the Second World War and we kept reading books related to it - fiction and non-fiction - for the longest time. I was going to write summaries and/or reviews, but I am in a blue funk because my digi-cam has gone wonky.

So here is a list of books we like… reviews will come later in shaa Allah… when my good humour is restored…

Reference

• Eyewitness: World War II (Eyewitness Books) by DK Publishing
• Navajo Code Talkers by Nathan Aaseng
• The Usborne Introduction to The Second World War: Internet-linked (Hardcover)
  by Paul Dowswell
• Unsung Heroes of World War II: The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers by Deanne Durrett
• World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities (For Kids series) (Paperback)
  by Richard Panchyk

Stories/Chapter Books by Michael Morpurgo

• Alone on a Wide Wide Sea
• Billy the Kid
• Friend or Foe
• I Believe In Unicorns
• Kensuke’s Kingdom
• The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
• The Mozart Question
• Waiting for Anya

Other Chapter Books

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito by Sheila Garrigue
• The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss
• War Boy: A Country Childhod by Michael Foreman
• When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

Picture Books, etc.

• Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II by Marisabina Russo
• Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming
• Home of the Brave by Allen Say
• Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizuki
• The Butterfly by Patrcia Polacco
• The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida
• The Cats in Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse
• The Greatest Skating Race: A World War II Story from the Netherlands by Louise Borden
• The Lily Cupboard by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim
• The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II by Louise Borden
• The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter
• Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop
• Willy and Max by Willy and Max: A Holocaust Story by Amy Littlesugar

In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Scout says about Maycomb:

“A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with…”

That pretty much sums up how I feel about the village. It is a quiet sleepy place where folks would saunter over and sit a spell.

Just outside the madrasah gate was a small herd of goats. A few visits later, Ms M made friends with one of the shepherds and got to pat one of his goats. She said they had cute little heads and friendly smiles :)

As we drove home that evening, we saw the village folk walking home. I saw a boy herding his buffaloes to a large pond for their well-earned rest and drink. The silhouette of their figures in the dusk made a picturesque sight. I didn’t get a snapshot of it, but I guess I didn’t need to. I have the memory and it is quite enough…

OK, back to Dadi’s madrasah …

The school is large but it is by no means luxurious. The walls are smooth and clean but unpainted. Similarly, the floors are bare cement. The girls sit at simple desks for lessons and sleep on mattresses which are stacked neatly come morning. Since the madrasah relies on donations, money is prudently saved and even more carefully spent. Almost every piece of furniture is donated and pre-owned. The only items which seemed remotely grand were framed Qur’anic verses beautifully inscribed on papyrus. Even these were donations … from a terminally ill man who wanted to contribute to the madrasah.

Still, the place has a quaint and unique charm. There is tranquility that fosters contentment and at the same time, provides the ideal atmosphere for focus on academic and spiritual pursuits.

My daughters could not wait to help prepare the meals. A lady who lives close by comes in during the late morning everyday to prepare the students’ meals. Patient and ever so smiley, Aunty let my kids experiment as much as they liked.

Ms M preparing roti

Hers is no kitchen of dreams. She has only a little shed-like structure where the groceries are kept, washed and prepared. Vegetables are held over and cut directly into the cooking pot - no chopping boards for this chef! Her stove is a tandoor - a clay, coal-fed (well, in this case, wood) oven.

Here you can see how the cook prepares the tandoor. She has some wood lit - branches, scraps and whatever else she can get her hands on.

Here is another view of the oven. Maybe it would have been better if they had built it away from the wall - it is blackened from the smoke!

They don’t eat meat very often there but this was a special occasion :) Aunty’s signature chicken curry was in the works… Spicy and a little oily, but mouthwatering all the same. It isn’t easy cooking over the tandoor, I think, since it is hard to control the fire.

When the curry was done, the fire was doused with some water so only a small fire and glowing embers remained. Time for the roti - a flatbread made of wheat flour - to be cooked. Aunty had already prepared a mountain of dough. She rolled pats of dough into little balls and then expertly pinched them to form flat rounds. These were then flipped quickly from one hand to the other in a clapping motion to make them thinner and then speedily slapped onto the walls of the tandoor to bake. All done completely by hand with nary a rolling pin in sight! :)

I’m not a big fan of roti - I prefer rice or the less healthy parathas made of refined flour and ghee - but this roti was delicious. The outer shell was crispy while the inside was soft and fluffy. Here are the results of Ms M’s efforts :)

Lovely stuff ma shaa Allah…

More in Part 3 in shaa Allah…

French Toast… desi style :)

Chopped onions, coriander leaves, green chilli and ground spices like turmeric, coriander, chilli and garam masala were added to the egg mixture.

I wasn’t kidding when I said everything must be taken with spice in this continent!

My mother-in-law, a sheer dynamo of social activism, runs charitable and da`wah projects. Several years ago, she was determined to do something to help the poor and illiterate in the rural areas. My late father-in-law (may Allah bless him with the highest of Paradise, ameen) donated land to her and she got the wheels in motion. She got her friends and other sponsors to back her and proceeded to build a school for girls in Bara Gawa, Jehlum.

Yes, she built a school :)

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting her school several times. Ms M and Bear love the gaoo (village). The girls love everything rural and rustic and find everything in the village a delight. They spend hours outdoors and even try to make friends with the goats.

Bear and Dadi trudging to the madrasah

A few summers ago, we made a trip to the madrasah. We drove the madrasah’s APV - fondly referred to as the dubba (box) - but due to a broken bridge, had to park a distance away and walk the rest of the way. We saw a few interesting things like this river which had gone dry…

… and teelay - hillocks and dunes… This is a typical landscape of rain-fed land in Pakistan.

As we got closer to the madrasah, the girls got really excited. Since Dadi is the principal, we get VIP treatment :)

Just outside the madrasah walls now…

Dadi’s madrasah was modelled along the lines of her family home in Rawalpindi. Much of that home has been sectioned off and sold but in its heyday, it was a sprawling mansion with a large courtyard. She has fond memories of her childhood there, so she decided to replicate it in this sleepy village.

The photograph below shows a two-storey building - the lower floor consists of the classrooms and the second, the dormitory. The roof-top has a kitchen and serves as an open-roofed dining area for the girls on sunny days.

When I first visited the place though, some six years ago, it was only a one-storey building. My mother-in-law didn’t have sufficient funds to proceed with the construction. Rather than delay the girls’ education, she decided to open the school anyway with only the classrooms completed. Her plans for the hostel/dorms were postponed but alhamdulillah, has come to fruition with the help of many well-meaning sponsors.

It is Dadi’s vision that graduates of her school return to their respective villages and educate their people. This has already commenced with her first batch of students. It pleases me to see how hard some people are striving, quietly but determinedly, to improve the lives of those who are in need. Alhamdulillah, change has begun.

More in Part 2 in shaa Allah.

WITH SPICE!

A street vendor preparing challi with chilli and lime

Pic taken by my sister-in-law, E Wang

I think it is officially winter in Islamabad. We have awakened to cold, dreary mornings for two days in a row and we have been without our craft-while-we-sunbathe on the terrace for three.

Winters in Pakistan are a huge challenge… why?

• You get none of the pretty snow… just lots of cloud, cold air and rain. It is just as well given the amount of dust in this country. Any snow would start looking like grey sludge anyway!
• The houses are built to dispel heat (this country of extremes has sweltering summers, did I mention that?) so you have to contend with bone-chilling drafts. If you have asthma like I do, get your inhalers ready.
• There is no central heating system in most houses. Since electricity is expensive, gas heaters are the norm… they do get you warm and toasty, but you can’t leave them on for extended periods as you might run the risk of suffocation…
• You get huge amounts of laundry and mess what with the sweaters, jackets, thermal garments and such that get trotted out with the onset of the cold season. Since the sun is hardly ever out, they will either (a) end up smelling musty because they take forever to dry or (b) end up smelling smoky because you put them in front of the gas heaters to combat (a).

But ‘nuf said. It isn’t all bad here… We have it better than most, alhamdulillah. In terms of economics, this is also a country of extremes and I don’t have to remind myself of those worse off because they are around all the time.

So… I am not going to RESIGN myself to being content. I will make it a PRIORITY to celebrate the positive aspects of Pakistan :)

So here are the good things about life in Isloo…

• The cold makes pink tea all the more satisfying. If you don’t know what pink tea is, you have been seriously deprived! It is a brew of Kashmiri tea leaves and fragrant spices that has simmered for ages till it is attains a gorgeous deep colour and flavour. Add some milk, crushed almonds and sugar and you have just about the most delicious beverage this continent has produced.
• Load shedding… what’s that you say? Well, it is the monitoring of electric usage and shutting down certain electric loads or devices a certain threshold is reached/approached. Sounds a mouthful but for the common man, it just means “no electricity”. Wait a minute, you might say, how is that good? It took me a while to get used to it but it has really taught me to focus on the simpler things in life. When my elder daughter, Ms M, experienced her first power shutdown, she ran out of the house and delightedly yelled, “Look at the stars, Ummi. Look at the STARS!” We’ve learnt to slow down and to not rely on electronic gadgets too much. When we get load shedding in the day, we take our embroidery out and sit by the window or terrace. When it happens at night, we take the torches out and just enjoy each other’s company. Rather idyllic, I like to think :)
• Fabrics… this country is teeming with fabrics. In winter you get lovely karandi - a textured cloth much like linen - and in summer, vibrant lawns. There are beads, sequins, laces and ric rac galore! If you are a compulsive crafter like me, Pakistan is a great stop for supplies.
• Second-hand bookstores… I have found award-winning titles, encyclopaedias and lovely craft-books and magazines going for a song. If you are ever in F6 or F7, you will find me - fingers and abaya covered in dust - rummaging through the heaps of old books.

I could go on with this blog post, but I have more pressing matters to attend to… like my stitchery and my cup of… what else? … chai :)