baby boom

traumatised i was this morning, i wasn't mentally prepared for this ...

the new silent generation or generation z or generation alpha, they've really infested my world! oh ya! one of the dads present was my tadika wirawati classmate, i even remember where he sat in class. call me psycho! oh and he went to rmc later, stupe, you might know him but err ... i don't remember his name, i'm crap with names.

as i'm typing, sha2 is in labour - epidural in, the last time her text came in through mummy-o's mobile. it'll be a baby boy.

eh stupe, sir. is your baby ryan out yet? alang2, do you want me to shop for your baby boy's shower as well?

oh ya! mama imtiyaz, thanks for the party pack, this kakak loves the teddy, kalo ada extra you know where they should go. ;o)

ribbit! ribbit!

1st syawal this time round marked many 1st in our family;

1st raya without both opah + nenek taiping
1st raya wawan sembahyang raya with us since he started flying
1st raya our cat, fatty bom bom, balik taiping
1st bakar lemang attempt by ayah chik ... sedap ok!
1st time my sister, bibots, visited my granparents' kubur
1st time my brother, wawan, met our cousin's baby, adeeb
1st time since i came home, i raya without any duit raya from my aunts + auncle ... like hello!

it also marked my first encounter with kundera's work. the unbearable lightness of being was really heavy + dark, it made me sit quietly for a bit to think, reassessing my 'being'; life + attitude towards life.

people are capable of change, right?

seperti katak di bawah tempurung. i'm sure many of you are familiar with the pepatah melayu. i personally think kataks are cute. i used to sometimes get greeted by "ribbit! ribbit!" during secondary school, thanks to the infamous acronym. for 'them' to associate my friends + i with kataks, kataks must be adorably cute. (shut it them who are thinking of going, "eh? perasannya minah ni!!!")

i've read all sorts of newspapers retailed by the mamak in taiping. i discovered, i merangkak when reading utusan melayu. harks! arwah opah would be very upset with me for forgetting what i've learnt if she were still around. somehow, to her it's important to retain an acquired skill but that's the hardest part - retention. learning is easy.

anyways, back to the newspapers, from the content i somehow felt malay newspapers assumed that their readers are all malay. even if that's true, wouldn't that presumption alienate non-malay readers? having considered that i bought a copy of dewan masyarakat + i saw the same approach to it's content. how would that help in making all malaysians appreciate bahasa melayu or is it bahasa malaysia now as our bahasa kebangsaan when malay medium magazines/newspapers are delivering contents targeted at their malay audience only?

or do i think/worry too much? (suddenly, the star's "bloggers beware" headline went flashing in my head. harks!)

the newspapers content triggered "seperti katak di bawah tempurung" to go flashing in my head as well. consider this, a katak is normally seen as soft, passive + vulnerable, according to the pepatah, hides under a hard, seemingly sturdy tempurung shelter. the katak is convinced that this was all the world could be + that it was safe + secure as long as it remained there.

isn't it ironic that many who live in a slightly bigger tempurungs like to tell the smaller kataks to get out of their lair + join them kataks in a bigger tempurung?

i'm an asian, i too have a tempurung, to some extend. having been abroad (yup! that was intentional. i had to do it to prove to 'them' who condemned me for singing "dendang perantau" that i too had a fair share of being away from my family. haha!) i did leave my tempurung, went thinking + experimenting + go getting. somehow, now that i'm back, i start building a flimsy tempurung i call my own. call it peer pressure. (it feels good to blame your decision on others. *evil laughter*)

i too, subconsciously, am guilty of inviting other kataks to have a tempurung as similar as mine. after all, i'm human too. wait! not that i think my tempurung is any better than others, honest. (it is necessary to point that out since i find that here we are being measured by another person's definition of what we are saying/our behaviour) i reckon, it's just that when another person accepts my design of a tempurung, it makes me all warm inside. (meow! i really sound like a true asian, by my sociology lecturer's definition) :op

i bet you must be wondering, why am i blabbering incoherently over kataks + tempurungs. well, it's just that i'm worried of the implications of this tempurung attitude asians are notorious for, in the context of our future survival, malaysians especially in the wake of the pre-raya anisism riot. i hope the day would come when we can convincingly teach our children that it's ok to be a thinking human - it's ok to question + learn about the unknown, not kataks driven by the instinct of fear.

have a good weekend!

note to self: 7th november birthday shazlan! don't forget to call!

that's all. (ala ala miranda priestly from the devil wears prada)

food for the soul (?!)

was at silverfish books today. had the honour of being served by raman himself. i felt so small, so much so i wanted to cry. no, he was real nice + friendly + helpful + patient. it's just that at 27 and a bit, i felt like i still have a long way to go + that triggered the alarms to ring. gulp!

oh! farish a noor will be launching his website www.theothermalaysia.com @ silverfish books on saturday 28th october 2006 at 5:30 pm. i've attended his talks before + he's real articulate, one eloquent speaker, i immediately fell in love with him. unfortunately he's happily married. dan-g! :op

i'm having the unbearable lightness of being - milan kundera, generation: a collection of contemporary malaysian ideas - amir muhammad, kam raslan + sheryll stothard + the lawful + the prohibited in islam - yusuf al-qaradawi for my hari raya feast.

goodbye boys

obviously still guilty from my forgetting of bibots birthday, yesterday i bought "goodbye boys" vcd for her. she mentioned not too long ago she wanted to see the film since she was told that her friend acted in it.

"goodbye boys" shares the same theme as indonesian's "mengejar matahari" - a coming of age tale of a group of boys whose bonds are tested, only that "goodbye boys" does not share the same intensity in its delivery, the movie was rather subtle and quiet. it is more of an evocation of reality, a subtle nudging reminder. it affirms growing up as being a real charming tragicomedy.

i would recommend "goodbye boys" for one of those lazy afternoons. oh ya! cik pms, i miss my "mengejar matahari". :op

mengejar matahari - ari lasso

di sini ada satu kisah
cerita tentang anak manusia
menantang hidup bersama
mencoba menggali makna cinta

tetes air mata
mengalir di sela derai tawa
selamanya kita
tak akan berhenti mengejar matahari

tajamnya pisau takkan sanggup
goyahkan cinta antara kita
menebus ruang dan waktu
menyatu di dalam jiwaku

tetes air mata
mengalir di sela derai tawa
selamanya kita
tak akan berhenti mengejar matahari

it's that time of the year again

when is the right time to ask for forgiveness?

once a year?

during festive seasons?

or while you still can?

i wish every single one of you reading a selamat hari raya filled with love, joy and forgiving.

*hugs*

[images uploading in progress]

fast breaking

the recent riot in anisism, a reaction to anis's berbuka puasa post sent me into one of those thinking mode. all the while ...

i thought if you're having lunch or even berbuka in a crowded foodcourt and you see a couple with trays trying to find a table, you should invite them to join your table if there's space.

i thought it's ok to give a lift to a bangladeshi who you met at the plus rest area to ipoh hospital to visit a relative who's sick.

i thought if you see a girl trying to get on a bus home at 6:45 p.m. + didn't have a small change, but was hesitant to pay the RM 5 in her hand + let the feeder bus keep the change, it's ok for you to just pay her fare so that she'll get home in time for berbuka.

i thought if you find a kid who's lost + wailing like a wailing ambulance or even wailing ah beng next to his transformer machine, which has forgotten to transform properly, you should wait by him until his parents find him.

i thought if you saw a burmese cleaner trying to get his kyat, burmese currency, changed at the money changer + was rudely shooed away, it's ok for you to ask him what he needed the money for + get him a mcdonald's value meal because he hasn't eaten since he started work two days ago + if he were to convert the cash he had, it wouldn't be enough to buy any food from klia.

i thought if you saw a proton iswara in the subang jaya ss13 monsoon drain with a girl pinned in her seat, you should go over to the fire brigade 3 minutes drive away. bang at their door + hurry them off their arse to help the girl out because if you were to just call it'll take them almost an hour to come. sigh! but it was still too late when they arrived.

the stand by majority comment leavers in anis's blog questioned why should we bend ourselves for others, especially for their beliefs, when we don't share them. every man is for himself; don't expect others to give support or be considerate.

or did i miss the point?

anyways, i leave you with sorry for the stupid things - babyface

what's on your berbuka menu?

my attitude towards berbuka has always been "by the way, you have to berbuka". i guess that came from having to berbuka in the exam halls, during lectures or whilst working, circa student days. if i were to berbuka on my own, a glass of water + something light to munch would suffice. that same attitude explains why i'll only be at a berbuka venue 5 - 10 minutes before berbuka. hehe! sorry y'all! even yesterday, we grabbed a drink for berbuka + had dinner much later, when the eateries were quieter.

but at the same time, i love my food. when there's food, man ... i can layan.

one day during a berbuka meet,
wegra: eh ... i kenyang laa ... kenyang gila ok! ... cemana eh?
zizie: wegra ... orang kalau kenyang tolak pinggan laa ... bukan tarik pinggan

yeah ... you know that feeling


















and last but not least ... the infamous pengat pisang
teehehehehehehe
dah jumpa pengat pisang in penang ke belum muz?




so, what's on your berbuka menu?

mukhsin

[source: http://yasminthestoryteller.blogspot.com/]

With Mukhsin" I try to examine one common and uncomfortable human experience: What happens when your very best friend - someone with whom you've been learning to do cool best-friend things ... starts to develop romantic notions about you? [...]I feel it's an interesting human condition to look at because I myself have never been able to understand how sometimes something as beautiful as Love can threaten to end something else that's just as beautiful - Friendship." Yasmin Ahmad

meremang OK! is the hand above trying to tell me something 'cos movies which are dump onto me are au-contraire-ish to my stand, my belief, of late. the same theme appeared in "full house" boxset we finished on monday, which addiction made us forget that we had a berbuka appointment, a missed opportunity. dan-g!

or maybe i'm not supposed to strike another cool best friend feat with the opposite gender? at least that way i won't go all sakit al-akibat kene kicked + shoved as though i'm one of them tough boys. errr ... any one of you boys silently reading my blog? :op

ok lah, shall i jump into the girlfriends rock bandwagon?

[hey, it's my blog, ske laa if i want to have a psycho bimbo moment believing in "huuuUUUuuuUUUuu ... wegra ... huuuUUuuuUUuu". i'm no specko a.k.a spastic yo! i'm just unique. :op]

on a serious note, love is capable of ending something else that's just as beautiful, friendship. i learn to not get entagled in it + to walk away before it gets ugly, sometimes even before the story begins.

p.s. i haven't forgotten that i owe cik pms a picture of me way back when my iranian housemate, zainab, used to call us 3 girls "2 1/2 girls + 1/2 boy" + my basketball partner, peter, used to call me "little boy". and i haven't forgotten the i owe muz the picture of a pengat pisang. they are on their way, peeps. ok, have a good day.

it's still early + i'm knackered

ada apa dengan kereta yo?

our little greenie at home has been working a tad bit too hard of late. thanks to my falling asleep while driving not too long ago. yup! since the accident, ms 22 hasn't been well. it's been in + out of the 'hospital' several times now. obviously, the nagging from my mom hasn't stop. :op

i'm thinking of getting a new friend for the greenie. at the moment it's just a dream. there's no harm in dreaming right? which is the better choice to bring home do you think?

nissan micra

suzuki swift

ford ka

kia picanto

oh! if i happen to win the british lottery like ti.e.na did, i'd go for one of them babies!

audi tt

beetle

mini one seven, cooper park lane, cooper s checkmate or traveller

*drool*

ok dah ... back to work!

p.s. don't think i'm driving to kl today, am afraid i may repeat the falling asleep.

happy tuesday

i didn't know rina reads my blog but she just delivered a happy news - zt delivered a baby girl, zaara alyssa, 11:42 am 8th oct 2006. i'm so over the moon for zt + juke. you're in dublin aren't you rina?

*wave to rina y'all!*

i've just read nad's blog + the entry on her thumb made me realised i share the same habit. i too need to learn that sometimes leaving things be is the fastest way to make it better.

anyways, since yesterday we had a debate on animal social behaviour + i'm thinking what should be the best baby shower for zt/juke junior, i felt like sharing my artpad.art.com painting with y'all. ... hehehe ...

tadaa!!!

bibots: eEEeeeEEEeee ... ma!!! tengok ma, budak 28 tahun lukis!!!
wegra: oi! 27 laa
bibots: please ...
wegra: cute pe? there's a name to the style ok ... naive panting ... phewwit!
bibots: yucks!
wegra: jeles
bibots: mana kaki diye?
wegra: eh, susah laa nak lukis kaki.
bibots: i think you desperately need to attend an art class.
wegra: freehand ok, pakai mouse. ingat senang ke?


so kengkawan ... what do you think? do you agree with bibots?

think hard ok ... real hard.

p.s. you have to go to stupe's blog, "We're Not So Furious" post for the jj + rudy vandalised teriyaki boyz's tokyo drift. hilarious!

meandering thoughts

lions are a very individualistic lot, is that why they carry the air of king to the animal kingdom?

i had chat with my aunt, wan bi, over the phone yesterday. i find it interesting that she pointed out our late grandparents taught the seven beradik to be achievers and implied that this came with a little snag. i immediately saw what she meant by it. i observe the same pattern with my siblings.

teaching your children to be achievers would indirectly expose them to being individualists; by promoting unrestricted exercise of individual goals + desires. a traditional parents would begin with scholastic achievements, is teamwork possible here when we all belong to different age group?

since people tend to get lost in translation, i have to point out that here i'm not looking at selfish, egoistic individualism, rather human independence, self-reliance + liberty bit of it.

lets ponder on it. the higher we climb, the more complicated our environment is. we are so used to battling our battle on our own, we forgot that there's a support system behind us; be it emotional, financial, technical know how and even technical know who. we spill our problem only when it's at a critical point, even then we don't know how to ask for help. since we always looked good externally, seemed tough, people trust that we are capable beings, hence help sometimes hesitate to come.

look after each other, be sensitive, don't wait for another to ask.

have a good week ahead!

lima budak hitam tinggal dua

[uji, elly, wegra, sha2, zetty]

remember them ... we had a blast organising the 10th year reunion this time last year ... somehow, i felt like they're the best team i've worked with ... the lima budak hitam would soon tinggal dua ... in january, sha2's leaving for paris.

hi mummy-o! lepas ni, just the two of us, you and i. unless you're migrating with daddy-o as well, soon?

untitled - maliq + d'essentials

project greenroom

beautiful girls with beautiful heart

people love others not for who they are but how they make them feel, then again we tend to forget that being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. it means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.

have a good week y'all!

ada apa dengan definasi?

an interesting point by ziad in his blog on the origin + definition of "bible" + "al-quran". i'd like to expand on it + wanted to include the definition of "tanakh", but it's actually an acronym for the three parts of the hebrew bible: the torah (pentateuch), nevi'im (prophets), and ketuvim (writings, or hagiographia).

the "bible" is etymologically derived from medieval latin word “biblia”, which means scrolls or little books, which came from greek, plural of "biblion" book, dimunitive of byblos papyrus, i.e. book, which originated from byblos, an acient phoenician city from which papyrus was exported.

the “qur’an", on the other hand, is an arabic word, which literal meaning is “the recitation”. within arabic grammar, the word "qur'an" constitutes a masdar (verbal noun) and it's derived from the arabic verb قرأ qara'a ("to read" or "to recite") which is the root. the metre (الوزن) of this word is "فُعلان" which is a metre that indicates that the act “الفعل” was done with excessiveness, diligence or devotion. for example, the verb غفر (ghafara), which means “to forgive” has a masdar of غفران (ghufran) which means an excessive or diligent act of forgiveness. similarly, the word qur’an conveys the meaning of diligent reading. the word qur'an has been used within the qur'an in its generic sense of "reading", "recital".

ada apa dengan definasi?

i guess, all three are meant to be read, to be understood and to be actualised. :o)