Daniel’s Lifestory
Quirks and Quacks
The kitchen is on fire!
A chef in Malaysia once told me that there were only two jobs in the world that were absolutely certain: a doctor because people will always get ill and a cook because people will always need to eat.
Until leaving home, I couldn’t cook to save my life but motivation from that infinite source of inspiration for a man (if you guessed a woman, you’re right!) prodded me to give it a shot.
Like Michael Jordan, I felt the only thing I could impress a girl with was being a “kitchen-mack.” That juvenile ambition soon blossomed to genuine passion when I discovered that people didn’t die from food poisoning and most even enjoyed my dishes.
My favourite recipes are those which combine different ethnic flavours – even though fusion cuisine is so ubiquitous in big city restaurants I still get a lot of pleasure from trying my own concoction with Thai, Indian, East Asian, Italian, Greek and Mexican mixes.
Knowing what you are putting into your system, making healthier (and often cheaper) food choices and having the ability to make simple, delicious meals is definitely an asset (and yes, it makes you a very attractive person!).
It is something I think anyone can be good at and should try out. I really enjoy cooking with friends and family; it is something that definitely brings people together like few other things can.
College Living Tips
Patch Adams: Please write me if you can
Another hobby of mine is collecting post-cards from around the world (and sending them on occasion). I’ve built up a modest collection of about 30 all over the globe from Taiwan to Hungary. I love receiving handwritten stuff in the mail and a post-card from a friend from a different location never fails to brighten my day.
It all started in 2002 when I watched the movie Patch Adams starring Robin Williams and realized that it was a real story. This inspired me and I went surfing for more information. I soon found the real Patch online and discovered that he enjoyed receiving postcards. I sent one from Brunei never expecting to get anything back. But a month later, the man himself sent me a letter and postcard from Japan! I’ve been a post-card junkie since.
Dreams, Hopes and Ambitions
When I close my eyes
Nothing has fascinated me as much as the World Map or a globe. The whole earth with all it’s people, places and needs. With this in mind, finding work that is meaningful and that I’m passionate about is very important to me. And I truly want what I do as a career to have an impact at the place where I am and also to the world at large.
I care deeply about the spiritual condition of people, health issues, social justice, the environment, music and sports. I want what I do to inculcate each of these aspects or at least some of them.
But sometimes, less can be more – I’m learning not to compartmentalize things in my life or try to do too much. I have a problem with over-committing and having a lack of follow through. And I know that the “real world” is notorious for killing dreams.
I still think having faith and refusing to let circumstances dictate your life are keys to living beyond mediocrity. This may mean embracing the arduous reality of a disciplined life where the unglamorous rigours of staying faithful to the basic things that bring you towards your goals needs to happen day in and day out.
- Caught the Travel Bug?
- Eyewitness: Poverty in Bolivia
- Meeting my sponsor child
- Travelling in Search for Life
The Road More Travelled
The places and faces while growing up
I was born on the coastal town of Madras, in South India. I was an only child and since I was two, I would barely see my dad for the next eight years as he traveled overseas to work.
I grew up with my mom and grandparents and my mom really struggled to make ends meet. But she would never let me see her suffer, would always placate to all my demands and wishes. Life was simple; playing cricket, board games and stealing mangoes (an important rite of passage) were my primary activities.
When I was about 10, my mom and I moved to a little country called Brunei where we rejoined my dad. It was very different – language, culture, people and environment. I really struggled to fit in. But somehow, I picked up fast and made some great and amazing friends.
Since Brunei is a more diverse social environment, growing up there helped me develop an awareness of and ease in other social settings. Even though it is a very affluent country, my family was only lower middle class. We had to live out of a re-furbished car park for over five years. And since East Indians are a small minority, there was the definite presence of both direct and indirect forms of racism and discrimination. Thus I was very self-conscious about my background – both of my ethnicity and socio-economic status.
One factor that was constant in my family was our Christian faith. In India, it is very common to be nominally Christian and flaunt that status and discriminate others (see Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things). But due to separate spiritual experiences of my grandmothers, faith in the person of Jesus Christ was very much real and very important in my family. This is where I learnt the difference between being religious and being spiritual (i.e. having an active relationship with God).
I moved to Canada when I was 18 to attend at the University of Waterloo. This would be the genesis of change and challenge both tumultuous and joyous.
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