In My Hands Today…

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The Art of Hearing Heartbeats – Jan Phillip Sendker

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present.  When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.

2015 Week 22 Update

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After my rant on Friday, I felt much better, but only for a while.

The whole weekend was taken up by the news of the children trapped in the earthquake in Kota Kinabalu. These are Primary 6 children, the same age as BB & GG, who were there for an Overseas Learning Journey with classmates and teachers.

When news started filtering down that almost 10 students and teachers did not make it, it really broke my heart! I think this incident has hit me hardest as the children are the same age as GG & BB and my heart goes out to all the parents there who have to live with seeing their children go before them. As I type this, my eyes are overflowing and I am typing without really seeing the words on the screen. I wonder when they see their children’s books and clothes how they will feel – will they curse themselves for signing the consent form? Also who knew there would be an earthquake in Malaysia – the place thousands of school children from Singapore – both primary and secondary go for learning journeys every year. BB & GG went to a neighboring state – Sarawak – last year for a learning journey, though it was not as intense as climbing a mountain and I guess this is also why it’s hit me so hard!

I also read that the day before the earthquake, some tourists were found naked and being disrespectful in the mountain, which is considered sacred by the native people. They say this is the mountain’s way of showing her displeasure. I now wonder, will these tourists feel a sense of shame and self-guilt as to the being the cause of the quake which killed so many children?

To all those children who were stuck down before they even had a chance to live their lives, may your souls rest in peace!

It’s a very somber post today and this is all I wish to write. Maybe more later…Have a great week everyone…

PSLE Week 22 Update

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The first week of the school holidays ended with GG & BB having done three of their five Hindi extra lessons. Like I mentioned earlier, there’s only one clear week where they don’t have extra lessons.

The news of 12 year old Primary students being stranded in Sabah while on a school camp really broke my heart. Apparently there are confirmed reports of one girl who died. These are children who are the same age as my BB & GG and I can imagine what must be going through the parents minds and hearts. I can’t imagine a life without my children…Praying that they get as many out and safe as possible.

Our last week movie plans went flop, so hoping we mange to do it this week!

In My Hands Today…

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Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh

“In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra.”

It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the “ghost train” arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.

TGIF

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This whole week, I’ve been in a funk. It’s 80% work related and another 20% stress over GG & BB’s exams.

Please feel free to not read today’s post as its mostly a rant and also I want to get it off my chest. I’ve found that writing it down helps me do this the best otherwise I tend to brood about it all day long and screw up my days and nights.

OK, here’s my 80% rant. If you remember I applied for the internal job and within a few days the recruiter’s assistant got in touch for a phone interview with my current boss. Then two days later she called me to cancel saying since he is traveling they will reschedule it this week when N, my boss is in town. I waited and even started work on something to show him during the interview. This week i waited for the assistant, lets call her J to confirm the interview date and time since i knew N will be in office this week.

When nothing came by till Wednesday, I reached out to J to check. I was told N is busy and she will get back to me. I know N is busy – interviewing people for the role, both physical and phone interviews!. In fact he also spoke to me in passing about that saying we need to talk. But this was after i told him that J had cancelled the phone interview. From what I understood, N was interviewing people via phone the week my interview was supposed to have been done.

Now i really don’t know what to do – am I not in the consideration at all? Or i am in the race, but since N has seen what I am capable of, he would prefer to screen the others for a first round? This is so confusing and I hate to feel like this!

I am OK if I am out of the consideration totally, but would have appreciated if someone told me that so i don’t build any expectations. This is not like other interviews where you don’t hear from companies (although how long does it take someone to drop the applicant a one liner about the status of their application is beyond me) but since this is the place I work with, I will ultimately know who the successful candidate is and will be working with him/her in the near future!

I’m trying to be positive, but somehow this week has been difficult. Thank Goodness today is Friday. I can’t wait for the week to end. Monday is a new week and hopefully a more positive week for me.