Wishing You Selamat Hari Raya

To all my muslim readers,



I just wanna wish you guys "Selamat Hari Raya". May you guys happy with the love one. If you are driving to go back to your home town, please drive carefully. Enjoy your ketupat rendang, cookies, biscuits etc.

For those who aren't celebrating hari raya, this is the time for you to take break.

and Don't forget to come to work.

Regards
Zayed

Escape to Hyderabad: Chowmahalla Palace

After went to Charminar and Mecca mosque in Old City of Hyderabad, next pit stop is at Chowmahalla Palace (as if i was in Amazing Race). Again, this is another magnificent architecture, 300 years old and it is stand still. Compared to other building, the palace is still in a good condition, well maintained. The landscape and plenty of security guards watching the palace.

While Salabat Jung initiated its construction in 1750, it was completed by the period of Afzal ad-Dawlah, Asaf Jah V, the V Nizam ensured its completion between 1857 and 1869.

It is believed to be modelled on Shah of Iran's palace in Tehran. The palace is unique for its style and elegance. Building of the palace began in the late 18th Century and over the decades a synthesis of many architectural styles and influences emerged. This palace consists of two courtyards , southern courtyard and northern courtyard. They have elegant palaces, the grand Khilwat (the Durbar Hall), fountains and gardens. The palace originally covered 45 acres, but only 14 acres remain today.I heard if i were to go there by night, it will be totally different from day tour. I dunno and don't care as my original agenda in Hyderabad was meant for business; so didn't have much time.


I let my photo do the talking. A picture worth a thousand words. All i can say, superb. By the way, you have to pay in order to capture picture around the palace but I didn't pay and I took the picture illegally and sneak around...heheheh.. Enjoy the pic though.

The picture of myself with the palace was taken at the backyard




INSIDE THE PALACE
Below are the photo taken inside the palace. You can see the chandelier, the floor...Wow! I was speechless.

As usual, i refused to go unless my picture taken with the thrown background.Cool and Nice. This kind of view can't really be seen any where else.

Escape to Hyderabad

I went to Hyderabad in mid July 2008. Didn't have much time to write up a story until today.

As mentioned before, this was a business trip. As usual, I took chances to look around especially the historical place. One of the trip was going to old city of hyderabad. Hyderabad was the last state taken by India. Prior to that, Hyderabad was an independent state ruled by Sultan Nizam. You can see a few amazing architecture, just like the taj mahal. I can conclusively say that ancient indian was full of tremendous architect.

This is Mecca Mosque. It's about 400 years mosque. The mosque stand still. But too bad, it is not properly maintained. You can see pigeon flying around.



I was trying to snap bright sky picture from Mecca Mosque. You can pigeon flying. cool huh! as if i am the professional photographer. This was accidentally taken. hehehe



This is Charminar. Its function during those day as the sight tower. Another superb architecure from far. When you get close to it, you can irresponsible people who didn't appreciate historical heritage; vandalism on the wall.



This is bangle street. Took this photo from charminar tower. Why it is called bangle street? the merchants along the street only sell bangle. Nothing else.


This is myself. From charminar, the background is the mecca mosque. Cool view



This photo also taken from Charminar. You can see so many traditional indian taxi. Got meter just like any other taxi. Note that in India, they honk a lot. Signal light (left and right) are unused at all. Every 30 seconds to 1 minute, they will honk each other. Reason is to make other driver alert that you are on road. Traffic light? There are but they don't really follow sometimes. But rarely you see major accident.



You can see thousand of people here. If you see this and assume this is really crowded, then you can imagine New Delhi is even crowder than this.

All in all, i can say i can enjoy the trip. but what really disappointing me is that, it's very hard to find souviner item i.e: t-shirt, key-chain, fridge magnet etc. I found one but it was enuff.

Indian Cuisine: Jeera Rice

I went to India for business trip. it was a good experience. One of the thing that i like is indian cuisine. It's not a problem for me to find Indian cuisine in Malaysia because Malaysia is multi-racial and cultural country. You can find Indian food, Chinese, western etc. But when i went to India, i found this. It's totally rare. This is the first time i see it in my life. It's called jira rice (the rice portion only). Jeera means cumin (jintan). It's cooked together with cumin and a few other ingredients. If you would like to try this recipe, here it is.

Ingredients:

1 cup Basmati rice
2 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds)
2 tbsp Cashew nuts
3 Whole peppercorns
2 Bay leafs
3 Cloves
2 Cinnamon sticks
1 Onions, sliced
2 tbsp Ghee
Salt To Taste


How to make Jeera rice:
[*]Wash the rice and soak in water for half an hour.
[*]Heat ghee in a heavy saucepan, add cashew nuts. Fry until brown. Take them out and keep aside.
[*]Add onions , bayleafs, cloves, cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds, peppercorns to the same ghee and fry for a while.
[*]Add the rice , salt, water and stir. Cover with a lid and simmer the flame.
[*]Cook until the rice is done.
[*]Serve jeera rice

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Happy trying.

Credit to Sijo Mooken (my Indian colleague in Bangalore, India)

Labu Labi In Another View

Malay oldie movie i believe will never miss out watching this movie. I have been watching this over and over again, and i still watch it until today. This movie was released in 1962. I was not even born yet at that time. the director cum actor P-ramlee was truly genious when coming out with the movie plot. The plot if we were to look at different angle, it is against the cultural streamline. The character labu and labi was about 2 male servants working with stingy boss.



What is weird, there was never be in Malaysian culture that male become a "maid" that cook and doing some housework. In a british culture, yes it is. They have butler to cook and doing some housework. I can say it represents the influence of british culture in this movie.

2nd point to highlight, labu and labi fall in-love with their boss's daughther, manisah. They never straight forward expressed their feeling towards her. In my view, probably manisah is coming from rich family, whereas labu & labi were just a maid. Two different social status; the rich and the poor. Those day, a lot of movie plot portray this kind of social problem where the rich and poor fall in love each other, and then, family will definitely support this kind of status. Where do you guys see it often where you status play important role? Bollywood movie of course! Another culture influence in malay movie. Additionally, movie was full of song similarly like the indian movie.

Labu & Labi fantasized and bullied back their boss in dream.


Photo of labu and labi. P-ramlee played role as Labi and labu was played by Mohamad Zain. P-ramlee, he is the best there was, the best there is and the best there be. He can act, direct, sing and a great comedian.


Ok folk, shoot your view!

Financial Planning (2): Insurance + saving

Insurance has become a necessity today. I was once believing that insurance does give benefit much to its contributor if nothing happened. As time goes by, i am more appreciating insurance than before. I realize that if tomorrow or someday, if i were to get heart attack or cancer, do i have enough cash to bear the medical cost? I have cash which is not much. If i were to go government hospital, the service is less preferably. I have been admitted to government hospital because dengue fever. Of course you want the best for your health, you want to be comfortable while you are very sick.

Before this, there's not much variety in the insurance industry. If you were to purchase insurance back in previous years, less likely your money will be returned to you if you are health and live longer. today, the industry has come with better solution. They have some sort like saving and at the same time you get protection. If you are healthy upon the maturity period, you will get back what you have invested.

First, you have to treat as your expenses. It's for your future billing if u were hospitalized. I have frens who had cancer and tumor. One live and one passed away. THe one who live, at first he is using company benefit to cover the medical cost. At last, it has reached to maximum amount and company started to cut half of his salary after the 3rd month. This is when the insurance becomes handy.

Another variety that industry can offer is college fund. Few years back, we have scholarship to cover college expenses. For bumi status citizenship of malaysia, you are lucky enuff to have that kind of privillege.

Education is getting more competitive than ever. Government has introduced loan for college expenses like PTPTN. Do you think that the PTPTN loan is sufficient to cover pocket money as well as other expenses?

Remember, you will still get back on what you put (meaning choosing the right product that has 3-in-1 funcctionalities (saving + coverage + hospitalization). with you insurance, you'll have piece of mind. No need to worry when you are unable to work, gain money. Let insurance takes care at that hour.

Financial Planning (1) - Saving

I dunno how many of young malaysian save money for future? I bet 98% will spend everything and dont keep a dime in their saving account. They will only start save when they reach 30. I have experienced this. I only start saving few years ago (if i remembered it starts in 2004) with minimum saving RM50.00. Before that, before end of the month balance in saving account almost nil. Until i met an insurance agent, then i realized the need to have saving. That was the trigger point to start saving. then, i extend further by opening up Hajj Fund with Tabung Haji, almost minimum amount RM50.00. Years after years, i keep increasing my funding. It's never too late to start.

I am still student. i don't have money to save

-- nahh..Lame excuse. You got money. Money from PTPTN, money from your parent, money from working part time. Start to save some money even with RM5.00 a month. Start early and you'll never regret.

I have so many commitment. I have to pay my bill, debts, expenses

-- start to discipline yourself. Save as low as RM10-20. If you dont start now, u never will.

Rules of thumb!
Never touch your fund unless it is really really a matter of life and death. Why? Power of Compounding effect. Let's say you put your money in hajj fund (tabung haji), they will give you dividend/bonus (e.g: 5% average).

1st Year
Hajj Fund: RM1,000
Dividend: RM50
Total: RM1,050

2nd Year
Hajj Fund: RM1,050
Dividend: RM52.50
Total: RM1,102.50


Imagine, for 2 years u have gained RM102.50. The amount will keep compounding and increasingly add value to your money. u do nothing and yet RM102.50 added into your account. Let the money work for you.

This is very simple rule, journey of freeing yourself from debt.

Good Luck!

Blog Money (3) - Blog-ads

Nowadays, the new era of advertising has changed. Few years ago during the era of internet booming, lotsa company advertised their product by putting pop up banner. Mostly banner were sponsored by either gambling or porn industry. It was really annoying plus add-on virus to it and has infected your pc.

those days has gone. With google as a new player in the market, it has introduced a new way of advertising, a brand new search engine. Previous years, companies might want to concentrate on conventional advertising such as tv, radio, newspaper, magazine etc. Today, the segment of advertising has been extended to personal advertising especially to the eyes of internet consumer. More and more people are buying things, goods, items through online. The online industry or e-commerce has done it again! Advertising can be seen everywhere in personal website based on its content. For example, if a website content is about credit card; the ads will be automatically portrayed advertisement about credit cards. It's very niche and specific. Who started? Gooogle!! To put ads in the big website is very timely and cost. What google done is reducing the cost by putting the ads in small website and specific to website content.

Due to this, many of ads companies grow. They give plenty of opportunity to small companies or individuals to display ads at their website and they pay for it.

here is the list of website that can give u additional part time income (though it wont make u rich just like bill gate, but something is better than nothing):
1. http://www.google.com/adsense

Google adsense is the pioneer in blog-ads industry. Google will pay you through western union for USD100.00. If your amount in your account is less than USD100, it will be hold until it reach that amount. then, payment will be released. up-to-date, my google adsense amount since i open up on 18 august is USD11.20.

2. https://www.matched.co.uk/affiliate/6858174

Just click the above link, register your website/blog. Matched.co.uk is giving money once u sign-up £5.00 (about RM30.00). But you need to have paypal account. payment will be made to your paypal account and you can widthdraw the money to your credit card (minus 5% transfer charge). In addition to that, you'll get what other ads company give, per-click charge. Anyone who has visited your website, they click on the ads, you'll get paid for it. Amount, is depending on traffic etc and paid in Pound Sterling!!! You have to sign-up for this! highly recommended. But bear in mind, not all your application for matched will be approved. there are tips and tricks to be followed.

3. http://www.adbrite.com

Same like google adsense, they pay you once your amount reach USD100.00 (but i believe it is optional, u can put as low as USD50.00.

4. http://www.nuffnang.com.my
Local company ads. they pay you once the amount reach RM50.00. But, nuffnang is a bit inconsistent. Sometimes u can see the ads and sometime u dont.

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All of the above require u to do some reading and effort to learn new thing. WHat? u think money fall down from the sky? in your dream!!...

And good luck and happy trying. email me if you need further assistance. I'll be happy to help. Until then, CLICK my Ads as support for giving you free info