According to the Star, a tabloid in Malaysia, Metro Ahad reported that a group of Muslim tudung-clad girls were not ashamed to say they were no longer virgins. Some of these girls even said they lost their virginity when they were merely ten years old while others claimed they had multiple sex partners. The girls would also ostracise schoolmates who were still virgins. Tudung refers to the scarves worn by Muslim girls in Malaysia. The Arabic term would be Hijab. In some Arabic-speaking countries and Western countries, hijab refers to the modest dress for women and this according to most Islamic legal systems must cover everything except the face, feet and hands in public.Strangely, when I read about these girls, I thought of Buddhist monks! During my schooldays, I remember seeing a monk smoking in a Siamese temple. Many people,I suppose, would expect monks to just sit, meditate and chant. Of course, they could do other things too but definitely not smoke especially when in some societies, the habit is considered a vice. Then, there was the other monk whom I saw in Varanasi, India. One common practice of Buddhists everywhere is the release of animals, birds for example, especially during Vesak Day. In Varanasi, India, I saw a monk on a boat releasing some fishes in a pail into the Great Ganga. When he was through doing that, a local Indian man asked him to for money but the monk just looked at him queerly and walked away. The monk wouldn't pay for the fish, I told a friend there and we couldn't help laughing our heads off. The monk probably didn't have a dime in his pocket but then why released the fishes that did not belong to him in the first place. Being kind to the fish probably meant that he had been unkind to the Indian man who was only earning a living. Now,the scene was played out to us from afar and probably I had a wrong idea about the whole incident but I wouldn't be wrong to say that a cover does not maketh a book,would I ordo you prefer to go by the old adage, you can't judge a book by its cover...
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