Govindasamy Pillai Part 1: Brief Biography

P. Govindasamy Pillai, or popularly known as PGP, was born in Koorainadu, Mayavaram, Tanjore District,Tamil Nadu, India in 1887 and died in 1980. He was a successful businessman and a well-known philantropist. He was donated a lot to Perumal Temple and he was also a founder-member of the Indian Chamber of Commerce set up in 1937. He founded the Ramakrishna Mission and was a Justice of the Peace in 1939.

He ran away from home in his teens and came to Singapore by ship in 1905. He searched long and hard for a job and finally found one at a provision store. Unfortunately, he had to work throughout the day and past midnight. He was not paid; only given food and a place to stay. However, this job provided him with the knowledge that he would need to run a business.

He went back to India in 1929 with his new wife. When he returned to Singapore, he was dismayed to find out that he had lost his job as the owner of the provision store had passed away and the store was put up for sale. He took the advantage of the situation by buying the shop with some money he had borrowed from the chettiars (Indian moneylenders).

He originally named the shop Dhanalakhshmi Stores but later changed the name of the store to P. Govindasamy Pillai Stores or PGP Stores. He sold oils, spices and grains. He lived frugally and saved up enough money to start more shops. He also invested in properties.

He and his family managed to escape the second-world-war but he had to start from scratch when he came back to Singapore in 1945 as all of his goods and properties had been taken away. However, he did not give up. He expanded his business over the Causeway and prospered.

He retired in 1963 and his family managed the store until 1998, when it had to close down due to enormous debts. When he died of a heart attack at the age of 93, an Indian community leader said,” The Indian community will mourn the loss of a grand patriarch of old whose like Singapore will not see again.” Govindasamy Pillai's shared what he had with the poor. He always maintained that more Indians should settle in Singapore.

References:
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/singapore/facts_old_singapore/353/singapore8217s_tamil_pioneer_mr_p_govindasamy.php
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_262_2005-01-13.html

Anger towards Students from 'That School'

My good friend recently celebrated his 13th birthday. I do not want to name him because i do not have his permission to use his picture. Also because he is from Raffles Institution (RI). So please do not whack me just because he is from our school's 'rival school' (I do not wish to name my school). What is wrong with being friends with someone from that school? I knew him since i was in Primary 2. If we can still be friends after so long, then why should one 'little' exam end our friendship?

A picture of my friend blowing out the candles on his birthday cake

Honestly, i don't get the it. Just because someone is from RI, doesn't mean we must be enemies. Whoever created that 'theory' must just be jealous. Maybe he had wanted to go to RI but couldn't make it in. Someone he knew but didn't like probably got accepted so he got very angry and jealous. Then he created the 'theory' that all the people from that school were just like that person. Somehow that 'theory' must have spread so now most students from both schools have the mentality that the other school students are all the same.

I personally do not agree with this stereotyping. Just because of a few black sheep the whole school is disliked by the other school. Although we both have the occasional childish argument about which of our schools is better (they always seem to end with:

Friend: What's your school motto? Ours is very nice and has a lot of meaning.

Me: My school motto is that you are dumb!), i do not think that we should stop being friends. There were also a lot of people from other at his party. Quite a few were also from my school and his school. We don't hate each other because we know that we all have one common point. We are all from the same church.

An example of a black sheep would be this incident at his party. We were playing rugby but after a while a few of us did not want to play any longer. So the few of us (including me) went back to my friend's house to help him pump water balloons for afterwards. Unfortunately, one of them from RI spotted someone's PSP and started playing it (He is also my friend. I knew him since Primary 1. So i was left to pump the water balloons with the three girls that my friend had invited (I know what you are thinking but we are all JUST friends).

No matter how many times i called him, he was still stuck to the PSP. He was also lousy at it. Icould beat him with only one hand playing that game. That's beside the point. The point is that he hadn't played that game for a long time. See, that's why he was playing it and being so UNHELPFUL. There's always an explanation for everything.

I hope that this post has helped you clear up the problem against people from that school. This post shows that students from both schools can get along. Remember what i said and do not just take things for what they are. If you find those people irritating, there's an explanation for their irritating-ness. You just have to look for it.

Indian Rojak Poisoning

You might all remember the recent Indian rojak poisoning at the Geylang Serai market. The Indian rojak stall was famous and had been featured in Makansutra's 2007 food guide. The stall was highly rated with two-and-a-half chopsticks out of the possible three. Inside the review, regular customers of the stall “swear by its stewed beef liver”.

However, it was recently hit with a food poisoning scandal. As of Thursday, April 9, 146 cases of rojak poisoning were reported. Out of these people, 48 were hospitalised. The main symptoms experienced by these cases were severe abdominal cramps, vomiting, and diarrhoea. Most of the patients have been discharged but 11 are still hospitalised.

Many of the patients had eaten seafood items from Rojak Geylang Serai (the stall that was responsible for the cases) - either the prawn fritters or cuttlefish, or both. According to a source, the seafood items were believed to have been contaminated by Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacteria and a cause of food poisoning. This bacteria is commonly associated with food poisoning involving partially cooked or raw seafood.

Among those warded, two women - Madam Noraini Kasim and Mdm Aminah Samijo - have died. One woman who was two months pregnant had a miscarriage. This is could be Singapore's worst case of mass food poisoning yet. Workers from the stall have been told to go for screening at the Communicable Disease Centre.

A MOH (Ministry of Health) spokesman said a joint inspection was conducted with officers from the NEA (National Environmental Agency) on Saturday morning at the stall.

Samples were collected from the stall and investigations are still going on. A NEA spokesman also said that the agency was notified about the food poisoning cases by the hospitals and customers of the stall. The owner of the stall had a ‘C’ grade for hygiene.

Mr Allaudin at his stall in Geylang Serai temporary market

This leads us all to wonder, if even a poor hygiene grade will not stop customers from patronising a stall, then what is the use of having this grading system in the first place? The owner of the affected rojak stall, 70 year old Mr Allaudin was still displaying a ‘B’ hygiene grade even though the hygiene grade for his stall had been revised to ‘C’.

I am quite sure that even if he had been displaying the correct hygiene grade, his business would not have been affected. After all, a few days back, there was a report in The Straits Times which stated that hawkers with low hygiene grades did not feel that their business was being affected.

So, what use is the hygiene grade for then? I think that the lowest standard of hygiene required to operate a hawker stall which is ‘D’, is not good enough. I think that only stalls with a ‘B’ grade and above should be allowed to operate. This way, it would be safer for the public as there would be a lower risk of something bad happening like food poisoning.

Even though Mr Allaudin apologised and said that he had ‘no intention of harming people’, it is too late. The damage has already been done. However, it was good of him to admit that this fiasco was his fault and he was ready to undertake the full consequences.

This shows that he was honest enough to admit a mistake. In today’s society, many people have an extremely high standard of their pride. They would never humbly admit that they are wrong. This is something we can learn from Mr Allaudin.


References:
http://www.asiaone.com/Health/Eat%2BRight/Story/A1Story20090407-133857.html http://www.straitstimes.com/vgn-ext-templating/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=1f2f0c7499b80210VgnVCM100000430a0a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=cf70758920e39010VgnVCM1000000a35010aRCRD