Bengang habis ....

(p/s he looks better in short hairs !)

back from school yesterday, AF looked very despaired. through out the journey home, not a single word he uttered. usually, once in the car he would immediately switch on to fly.fm. of course i sensed that something was not right. i don't want to upset him further, so i just keep my big mouth shut. arriving at home, he immediately dashed into our bedroom and blasted out ... 'mama, cikgu tu sioklah, abang tengah bengang ni. tengok ni cikgu potong rambut abang, dah pendik sebelah dah. abang susah susah bela, dia senang senang saja potong' ... well, so that's the root of his discontent!

honestly, i didn't want to blame the teacher. i know he was very obscessed with his hair. for the last few weeks we've been trying to get his hair trimmed but to no avail.i remember him saying ..' rilekslah mama, dah nak exam pmr, cikgu tak buat spot check lagi'.deep inside me, i thought the teacher has made a right decision, it's unbecoming of a 3rd former to keep long hair !. but on second thought, i could understand his frustation. when i was at his age, i felt the same thing when my hair was cropped off by non other than the late cikgu rashidi.

i remember a few years ago while glancing thro' the album, he was so excited to see his dad with long unkempt hairs. well, in the 80's every male students in campus kept long hairs. i still remember those guys who were very proud of their afro look. worn out jeans and partially torn t-shirts were the trend of the day. every guy wants to look ruggered !. thing have change since. varsity students nowadays are spotted with nicely groomed hairs and are also smartly dress. and apart from medical students, some do wear ties to lecture. ask me again, i would very much prefer the good old days !

KLKL

come tuesday and friday evening i would try to make a point to listen to kenangan lalu kuala lumpur (KLKL), a popular program air on radio kl.fm. from 5 - 8 pm. the selection of songs (mainly oldies) were simply marvellous. i simply adore those 2 DJs (fauziah zakaria & azizah sulaiman). they just have natural taste for good songs. dj fauziah @ kak diva (quote from ixoraroxi) in particular, would try her very best to entertain requests from the many sahabat kl.fm listeners.


thro' kl.fm i've known some of the sahabat kl.fm listeners. needless to say i do enjoy meeting them. the good thing about them is they do interact among each other thro' kampung mms (www.kl.fm). and among the sahabat (yang dikira famous dalam kg mms) are ixoraroxi, lelamajnum, semekin, flyingdutchman, blackcanary, mem tito,azieazah,farhakesuma,bull, puansridewi (just to name a few)

the dj's (nik aida, azizah sulaiman & kak diva)

Buka Puasa Again

Dato' E.G Lim left a message with my receptionist last week asking me to return his call. but knowing me, i always keep forgetting things. his new group assistant GM, puan MMN sms me a few days latter ... "dato' will be happy if you could joint him for iftar dinner on tuesday". i wasn't really looking forward for a free makan, not during the ramadhan time. knowing the old man, i'm sure he'll be upset if i turn down his invitation again this year. i've only known dato' E.G Lim, the group chairman of Lejadi group of companies only for the last 3 years. though at a glance he look like a serious type, in person, he's such a dear and wonderful friend.

i arrived in mount kiara (with my other half) 15 minutes before iftar. was greeted by Puan MMN on arrival and lead to a table in a small cozy private room. A small function indeed with only 6 tables. dato' introduced us to the 2 couples who were seated much earlier. the list of guests were clearly displayed on the table, goshhh, sharing the table were 2 tan sris and another 2 dato's and their spouses. looked like we were at the wrong table ... oh my god this can't be real, we can't be sharing the table with them. realizing that we were rather uncomfortable, datin penny broke the ice by introducing us to the other guests. according to her, it's an annual gathering for family members, closed friends and senior management staffs of Lejadi group. but alas, why do they have to prepare so much food for such a small crowd. bukankah sangat membazir namanya !

the last time i had dinner with dato' was about 6 months ago. and been a very friendly and talkative person, there was so much things to update, from his never ending jokes (occasionally the 18SX versions) to current political issues. sorry to say, whenever they met, business people and corporate figures alway talks about politics!. needless to say, i missed my tarawih again. anyway, nice to know some new personalities, tan sri RI, the formal malaysian ambassador to the united nation (such an interesting and lively person) and a very quite, reserve and serious looking dato' AS, the director general of anti corruption agency.

Bad Parenting.

watch the prime news last night. teary-eyed, i can't help feeling so sorry and despair. a very sad ending for cute little nurin jazlin. how could someone be so cruel and sadist.implicating pain by raping and sodomizing a 9 year old is absurd, disgraced and unthinkable. my prayers goes to her and her family. the news of missing child is nothing new. recently too, there was this young boy who went missing while his parents were busy shopping at the sogo shopping complex. lucky for him, he was found safe and sound.personally the parents should be more responsible. in the first place, how could they let nurin venture on her own to a pasar malam !!!. very irresponsible parenting indeed.the parents should be investigated for possible negligence and if need be, charge them under the child protection act.

i suppose letting a young child on their own is quite a norm for some parents. just drop by at keramat or kampung baru at 1 or 2 in the morning. you'll see children as young as 4 or 5 years old still playing and running around while their parents are busy entertaining their customers in their warung. Please parents, be more responsible to your children!

Breaking Fast

when was the last time i break fast at a hotel ??? oppsss, can't exactly recall. perhaps 10 years ago. well, come to think of it, it's really funny. come ramadhan, all the hotels in town will try to out do each other, providing tremendous and lavish buffet spreads. honestly, how much can one eat. i'm sure you can't possibly sample all the 120 different dishes. i keep wondering why do the fortunate ones would spend rm 100 for such a treat, knowing that the same amount of money could easily fill the gaster of 20 unfortunate ones. well, i suppose that's life. again, talking about breaking fast in a hotel, one thing i find very irony is the crowd. drop by at any porsh hotel in town. you're bound to see many non fasters. by 7.00 pm they have already loaded their plates to the maximum without giving due considerations to those who were fasting. and by the time the maghrib's azan is on air, those same people were already on course for their second or third serving. really pelahap i think.

A scenario i find very heartening. a great experience indeed !



breaking fast at masjid al-nabawi in medina. and those believers were very humble and considerate !

Centre Mosque

semalam semasa sedang mencari some old documents di dalam almari buku, terpandang pulak gambar lama ini.

rasa rasanya yang masih ingat cuma 4,5 orang saja yang dalam gambar tu (sorry lah, grey matter dah berkurangan). Bukan apa, cuma teringat pada adik adik undergraduate tu. masa bulan posa dulu, memang boleh save duit, sebab tak payah keluar belanjar beli makan. satu jam sebelum waktu berbuka penuhlah undergraduate students (tak ketinggalan juga some solo mature students yang dok buat masters and phD) kat central mosque di glasgow tu). walaupun pada waktu itu saya bukan lagi di katogerikan sebagai student, tapi masih lagi menumpang berbuka free. setiap hari, selesai saja tugas saya di goven, terus rush ke centre mosque. selalunya sampai just on time untuk berbuka, sebab waktu petang trafik memang heavy dari goven ke city centre. kena pulak ford sierra saya waktu tu asyik semput aje. biasanya si kamal lah yang reserve tempat untuk saya. bila si paki tanya kenapa nobody's sitting here .... his standard answer, pergi ambil wudud. bila terfikir balik memang betul kata kamal, kalau nak tengok ramai melayu di glasgow, datanglah ke centre mosque time berbuka puasa.

I've since lost touch with dr. kamal. the last time i heard from him, he was lecturing in uniten. mungkin dia dah jadi full professor kot, tak pun dah ada title dato'.

SMSK in memory

tetiba jer teringat pulak pada sekolah dulu. don't know why, at a very tender age i had to go there. had to leave my family and stay in a hostel. the first time in my life i embarked on a long journey leaving my kampung in kuala terengganu heading to kota bahru. of course i was scared, all alone in an express bus heading to a foreign land. can't remember much of the details, but i manage to find my way to pengaklan chepa. yesss, it was my school, sekolah menengah sains kelantan (SMSK). i wonder why they have to rename the school to sekolah menengah sains tengku muhamad faris petra now.

sesungguhnya kesempatan belajar dan tinggal bersama dalam satu bangunan membawa seribu kenangan dalam hidup kita. i may post my countless memories some other time. for a start, there are a few thing that i cheerish most
a. the dinning hall
- well the food (though some people just call it nasi kawah) was just heaven. first time in my life i have chicken and beef every week ( beef for lunch on monday and chicken for dinner on friday!). back home then, my mum will only cook chicken only on some very special occasions. i remember having alternate day of ayam goreng masa berkhatam dulu. and of course we only have beef during hari raya aidil adhar - the famous daging korban.
b. the airport
- the pengkalan chepa airport is just within the vicinity, and from the hostel we could see the fokker landing and taking off. oh how i miss the great sounds. don't blame me for that - that was the first time i saw an aeroplane !. since my first day in school i keep counting the days when i would go on an aeroplane.

childhood friendship last. so here we're now. we still remain good buddies. of course after 30 years everybody changed (samaada perut dah kedepan atau rambut dah berkurangan). one thing for sure, i'm very proud of my former classmates and SMSK ... among us now stood some very successful businessman and women, professors, specialist doctors, corporate figures, members of parlimen, advisors to both the PM and his deputy and heads of department.

Just Like Me

this morning abang as we call him (AF, our only son) give me a letter from his school. 'jemputan ke majlis solat hajat pmr, khatam al-quran, berbuka puasa dan solat hajat SMKST'. whe he told us he was selected to participate in the khatam al quran, naturally we're very excited. but to our dismay, he says ' abah, mama tak payah pergilah '. kalau abah, mama nak pergi jugak, then abang nak mahu pergilah. cuma abah bagi sumbangan jer untuk jamuan berbuka puasa tu. well, not the first time he'll never let us go to his school, what more meet his teachers. i don't remember getting the invitation for the school's pibg meeting, sports day, meet the teacher session and hari anugerah cemerlang (bila ditanya, katanya ... dah lepas dah) and i don't remember signing his record book for the last 2 years ! secretly, on a few occasions, my wife would got thro' his school bag looking at his exam and test papers - not bad, in general his marks were consistently above 80%, so i suppose we have no reasons to complaint then.

on a personal note, i suppose i did exactly the same to my dad before.Kira macam like father, like son lah!). sampai sekarang pun i still remember my father's signature. i once remember that when i was in form 2, one of my sister bribed me to sign her record book. Despite that, AF is a nice and obedient boy. at 15, he's still very manja manja with the mum (kira mum's boy lah tu). unlike his peers, he still enjoys very much going out dinning and shopping with us.

last week we asked him what does he wants to be do after his spm. be a cardiothoracic or plastic surgeon kata dia. but he says, .... i want to study abroad!. to study medicine abroad will cost a fortune. scholorship are hard to come by nowadays and only reserve for the most academically excellent students. i'm fully aware that my son is not one of those brainy students. obviously we cannot afford to send him to uk or aussie. but he says he doesn't mind going to russia (at least legalah sikit) . katanya to moscow and tak mahu pergi tempat kakak (IL) in nizhny novgorod. sekarang ni dah mulalah terbayang how to cope paying for 2 kids studying medicine in russia ! pernah jugak tanya mara dan jpa dulu, kot kot boleh mintak pinjaman sikit untuk top up, untuk bayar tuition fees pun cukuplah. masih ingat kata pegawai yang bertugas 'syarat kita ketat, untuk pinjaman pelajaran, pendapatan keluarga mesti less than rm 5 K, jadi secara otomatiknya encik memang tak layak!

well, my son, we'll work something out. insyaallah if you want to do medicine, then you'll get to do medicine. let us (and not you) worries the finance part of it)
best of luck in your coming pmr dear son.

remembering her

waiting for berbuka. as usual the kids (AF & AZ) dah minta mama mereka beli juadah kegemaran mereka ... laksa penang is a must for adik (AZ). samalah macam si kakak (IL), suka sangat dengan laksa penang.

agaknya apa khabar kakak (IL) sekarang. harap harap lecture dia taklah pack sangat hari ini , otherwise tak sempatlah dia nak masak untuk hidangan berbuka nanti. but knowing my eldest daughter, i'm sure she'll survive. if she can survive 2 russian winter with a temperature of -35 C, then what is puasa.

Oh Ramadhan..., Oh Tarawih

Ramadhan is back and solat sunat tarawih has started. seperti tahun tahun terdahulu, saya menunaikan solat sunat tarawih di masjid yang paling hampir dengan rumah - masjid universiti teknologi malaysia jalan semarak. selesai sudah solat sunat terawih yang pertama tahun ini. seperti yang dijangkan kehadiran jemaah untuk malam malam awal ramadhan sangatlah mengalakan. hampir 75% jemaah merupakan pelajar pelajar universiti dan selebihnya mereka mereka yang tinggal berhampiran. imam malam tadi adalah iman baru universiti (but personally i would prefer the imam who lead the prayers last year). eh, tak nampak pun imam tu malam tadi !, entah entah sudah bertukar ke tempak lain. actually i'm not looking much for this year's ramadhan. dah register dengan rayhar travel untuk menunaikan umrah akhir ramadhan tetapi dukacita kerana tiada kekosongan lagi, so nampaknya this year saya akan menghabiskan solat sulat tarawih di masjid ini saja. itulah al kisahnya kalau last minit baru nak buat booking. bukan tak teringat nak book earlier, tapi just take for granted sahaja kerana rasa confident boleh dapat pergi umrah lagi akhir ramadhan tahun ini.

tapi walau bagaimana pun rasa syukur juga kerana tahun lepas dapat menyempurnakan keseluruhan 10 malam terakhir sunat tarawih dan sunat tahajud di masjidi haram. dan seperti biasa, sekembalinya dari umrah atau haji dulu, sure kena upper respiratory tract infection. so last year berayalah dengan ubat batuk, antihistamine dan antibiotiks. the best thing about spending your last 10 days of your ramadhan in Mekah is that you can really devote yourself to Almighty Allah - don't have to worry about the job, the family or friends. Insyaalah, next year we'll book early. kesayuan serta kemerduan suara imam masjidi al haram (especially imam al saudis) benar benar memberi satu ketenangan dan keinsafan. dalam mengerjakan solat sunat tarawih dan tahajud, tanpa disedari air mata akan mengalir membasahi pipi. sesungguhnya terasa betapa kerdilnya diri ini disisi Allah SWT. on of my friend use to ask me, what is so special about performing umrah during ramadhan ? it's not cheap you know, you can spend that amount taking the who family to gold coast. my simple and sincere answer ... well, it's worth paying that amount to cry!

selesai solat tarawih malam tadi , saya di teguh oleh suatu suara yang memang rasa familiar. terus saya memaling muka dan memberi salam sebelum menghulurkan tangan. walaupun tinggal berjiran, tapi agak lama tak jumpa dia. Dato' Dr. MMN adalah merupakan merupakan mentor dan bos saya dulu (opps, i used to be so scared of him before, he's a man of principle and very strict. with him you has to be very punctual. athough officially we clock in at 8.00 am, he'll be in office by 7.00 am, and make sure you're there before he does). after his retirement, he seem to be more approachable. as usual he'll come to the masjid alone in his merc. as ever, his wife, Dato' Dr. SH, been a vice chancellor of a university in bangi is alway very busy.

The Yesteryears

can't remember much 'bout my humble years. vividly i could remember, in the late 60's i was still running around the kampung clad only in a worn out pelikat, minus the shirt. yes, that same pelikat serve as a selimut for the night. Only the kids from relatively well to do families (only a handful in our circle of friends) runs around in short and a shirt. on course i still remember the stripe shirt that was given to me by my father the day after i was circumscised. a shirt bought by one of his friend who was back from kuala lumpur. in retrospect, i was already brand conscious - a 'don' shirt from kuala lumpur (from the famous globe silk store!). Not surprising now my 3 kids are also brand conscious. i supposed they're lucky. though they have not earn they money but are running around in tommy hilfiger, united colours of benneton, levis, gucci, polo raph lauren and all those stuffs ! buying a piece of jean or t-shirt for rm 350.00 may be unthinkable those days.

can't remember much either about my early years in school. but i do remember having to wake up very early in the morning, rush to the nearby river and dive for a quick bath. by the time we started from home it was still very dark and we had to find our way through the thick undergrowth and cross the stream with our school bag high up on the head. we also kept our shoe in the school bag and walk bare footed, only to pun on the shoe when we reach the school.

Salam Ramadhan Al Mubarak

Tak pernah terfikir untuk mewujudkan blog sendiri. Mungkin dengan adanya blog in saya dapat memaparkan pengalaman serta perjalanan hidup saya, pengalaman hidup yang mengcecah hampir setengah abad mungkin dapat menjadi sedikit tauladan dan panduan pada anak anak yang baru hendak melangkah meniti kehidupan. Pengalaman yang saya kira sangat berbeza dengan anak anak zaman sekarang. Pengalaman yang kita lalui sesungguhnya mengisafkan kita dan menjadikan kita insan yang berguna dan bersyukur. Menunggu Ramadhan yang akan tiba membuat kita bertambah insaf serta rasa bersyukur ke hadrat Illahi.