People From The Sun,People To The Sea

There was a deluge of people of some fashion at the surau tonight. Many unfamiliar faces were present. Most of them were boys at early teen. Probably it's a long weekend at most boarding schools which explained their presence. A refreshing change since only the pakciks and the really nuisance boys are the main frequenters of the place.

Akak left for the UK tonight. He's probably on the plane now, waiting in great agitation for the flight to take off and whisk him to a faraway place. A whole new dimension is going to open before him after this. I wish you all the luck in finding your footing there. Tyra and Hay-Z will join you shortly. So, fret not 'cause you're not the only AKY there though you'll be the first!

Which leads me to my latest dilemma. My Visa application hasn't gotten through. So is Wan's. Inevitably, we have to delay our departure to an indefinite date. Which means that we're gonna miss the first few days of the Fresher's Week. We do not know the magnitude of damage caused by not attending the 'compulsory' (yes,they plainly stated it in our offer letters) programme but we sure as hell know that VFS has failed to keep their policy. Although it's understandable that this is a peak season when many apply for Visa, it's close to unprofessional to exceed the deadline promised. Heck, this is the seventh working day after we submitted our applications yet, there's still no decision from them! We're praying hard for an answer to be made latest by Monday.

The extra days at home can be considered as a boon for me. I've got additional time to spend with my beloved family. Heck, I haven't even started ringing people to inform them of my departure. With this extra time, I hope I can let my extended family members know of my leaving the country.

Of course, this also means that I have more chances to start learning how to cook. Yes peeps, I haven't so much braved into the kitchen than to get food from the fridge or to do the morning ritual of washing the dishes. Learning the culinary art is actually as hard as comprehending NMR in a stuffy lab to me. Oh well, I think I can list down the reasons why I'm still tangled in the ropes of cooking. Speaking of list, I notice that, of late, I've taken to posting my blog in this form. List is convenient to refer to. It also eliminates the need to write in long paragraphs which can be a tedium to readers. I still remember this Mercedes commercial (or was it BMW?) which explains why we make lists on a myriad of things.

Again, a digression. Here are a few reasons why I don't feel like venturing to the kitchen:

#1: My flat is at the mosque's kitchen doorsteps where Halal food is available and it's dirt cheap. So did Aqtar tell me. This is an excuse to eat out. Tesco is a stone's throw away too.

#2: I have this phobia of knives. It still marvels me to see people chopping onions or vegetables at a furious speed with the knife barely a hair away from their fingers. I always have this vision of me losing the tip of my fingers while handling a knife. Remember the Raja Bersiong tale? Say, I eat the vegetable smeared with trickles of my blood. Then, I'll develop an insatiable liking for human blood. How many people will I kill to keep me satiated? Hahaha. WTH! Anyways, I can't, for the life of me, understand why I have this fear since I'll be handling scalpels to cut people up. Please pretty please let it be a different experience!

#3: DoE has taught me more than how not to cuss or bite people's heads off when walking under the unforgiving Sun. It introduced me to Brahims and the wonders of express food. Although it's a hopeless plan to cling to this invention throughout the course of my stay there, it is nonetheless invaluable in helping me to settle down. I've been so ensnared by the promises of convenience conferred by it that 4 kg of my baggage comes from any number of instant food packets.

#4: Let it be known that it's not that I can't cook for peanuts. My proudest accomplishment is cooking chicken sauteed in oyster sauce (ah crap,the name isn't that fancy!). Although the meat went 3/4 cooked, it was still delectable. I didn't get an upset stomach after consuming it so I guess it's safe to consume not properly cooked chicken. Hey, the Japs do it on daily basis! Also, I can boil water, cook rice, fry eggs (with bits of sausage and cheese),boil eggs,and make French toast. Oh oh, I can prepare spaghetti provided that I have a can of Prego! Lol.

Cook-A-Rama, do hire me as a guest chef, ASAP.

But the raison d'etre of my reluctance to learn cooking is the fact that I'm lazy. It's as simple as that. If anyone plans to visit me, don't expect me to whip a gastronomical blowout. Wan, I'm counting on you to provide me with sustenance. Lol.

The idea of traipsing around the continent has already been conceived. Initial plans, although sketchy, are starting to take shape. Pretty ambitious for someone who hasn't got his Visa...

Talking is Fun!

N.B: This is something that I fished out from my old blog. Surprisingly, unbeknownst to me, Friendster has changed the layout of my blog! I think it's more austere than the previous one but now I have the liberty to link people to that blog. I don't plan to delete it. Instead, I'm keeping it as a sort of reminder of how far I've come before arriving at a point that jumping ship was a necessity. And it does feel good to go through the old posts, like reading notes from an old lover. Anyways, I want to re-post this here with some alterations because I think it's somewhat related to the current state we are in now.

Discussing freedom of speech might be considered passé by some while others think it’s a vanity. It is a vanity because in-depth knowledge is prerequisite to postulate substantial arguments either to go against or for the ideology. My ineptitude on this matter might not satisfy all readers and the very fact that I’m taking side in discussing it influences the magnitude this two-cent worth bears. I must apologise for that.

A few months ago...

Of late, the blogosphere in KYUEM has expanded at an exponential rate. It’s like a fad; people find it fashionable to project themselves on to the Net and preach ideas, which are hoped that others can scavenge for a hasty bushel of mealy details from their drop-fruit posts. Otherwise, people have matured enough after two years in college that they feel compelled to let others know that they, too, are opinionated.

But this piece is not about the trend that is engulfing the community nowadays. It’s the freedom of speech and how I feel that the phrase is oxymoron in its conviction that I want to talk about. Recently, someone’s blog came under fire when a person, claiming that he/she is an advocate of freedom of speech blithely left comments that show little, if any, respect to the owner of the blog particularly and the community in general. Disregarding the sensitivity of others’ religion, the same person mocked Allah in his/her comment. For easier reference, let’s name the person as PM. Although it’s not news that Islam suffers considerable beatings after 9/11 (the caricature, Fitna, and others), this inconsiderate person has shattered the illusion of harmony and integrity among the members of the community which is fiercely sponsored by our government. Beneath the placid surface of homogeneity, there lies a dormant grudging, that the idea of colluding is a blithering hope and superiority is inevitable. The event clearly underscored this.

It was clear that PM’s comments were meant to provoke. Eliciting hatred from others and instigating a war with the blog owner, the culprit was poised to use his/her ultimate weapon. PM was cloaked in the seemingly impregnable freedom of speech and was not afraid to wield it against an army of disgruntled readers. For PM, victory was righteously his/hers. The ideology conferred invincibility and PM was going to exploit it in any way possible. But the battle was not a lost cause. Someone called MFK, who I believe possessed boundless energy and wit to emerge victorious in this crusade left a comment that was directed at the person, meant to irk PM. As expected, PM quickly recoiled and lashed out at this clever person. Irascible PM defiantly defended his/her ally, denouncing MFK for being irrational and dismissing MFK’s comment as irrelevant. MFK didn’t fumble like PM and was set to deliver his/her final blow. To put it simply, the very weapon that PM vigorously used backfired. In the name of freedom of speech, MFK pointedly reasoned that his/her action was completely acceptable. Were FM to emulate his/her ideology fully, he/she wouldn’t have snapped.

Nowadays...

Although this incident isn't directly linked to the notion, I can't help but to think that this person's refusal to apologize to the nation for what had been said illuminates every trait of somebody defending his right to speak. His failure to filter his thoughts and reckless drive to win triggered a small series of sparks within a certain political outfit. I have stated before that I hate politics and this issue is indeed a political one but I'm looking at a bigger picture. Unhindered sentiments flagging is a not-so-far cousin of the freedom of speech. Things can spiral out of control and I can't imagine the consequences if it happens. Is an apology hard enough to elicit?

What is appalling from these skirmishes is the nature of some freedom of speech supporters. It’s innate for a person who dislikes another person to make comments to degrade that other party even though it’s morally wrong. But to make it justified and accepted by everyone, the person hides behind the propaganda. Nobody will raise an issue if the expression is made in the spirit of freedom of speech. Everybody can express whatever they think regardless of the repercussions. IMHO, freedom of speech is expression of condescending repackaged. In the liberal world that we live in, sins can be disguised as long as one has the means to fashion and label it in an acceptable way. We tend to consider the superficial nature of things hence the staunchest ally of this culture is able to promote and propagate their repackaged belief easily. Greed is justified by evolution; the latter proposes that only the best can survive. Power hungry people lurk in the shadows of equality. We put on cosmetics to ensure that the hidden motives, however reeking with self-centered agenda, will remain, well, hidden. No one is going to look deeply enough to penetrate through the smokescreen. Everyone is contented if the packaging is glossy enough and readily accepts it as a norm.

To limit freedom of speech will only render the phrase to being oxymoron. But what can we do about it? Dissent is vital in keeping an organization in order. This is not the era when the superiors have the power in everything. Its presence keeps a tyrannical government out of the office. But a complete freedom is dangerous. Should we change the phrase to rational-freedom-of-speech? Long enough to put people off from using it. Do we need to eradicate it completely? No, we shouldn’t. What we can do is to revamp it so that everyone can feel comfortable to use it regardless of circumstances.

Apropos the incident, some advocates clearly cannot accept critics from pounding on them. They should answer this question, why bother to use the phrase in the first place? Me, I’m a stickler. I make some leeway here and there but to uphold a principle strongly but later abandoning it because it hurts me, I’d rather not. Voltaire may have said that he might disagree with someone but he’ll die for that someone to say it. But will we really?

You might think that I'm a conservative with a closeted mind but I still think that there should be a line drawn somewhere when discussing contentious ethos. If you really believe in it, so be it. It's your every right to do so. But it's also others' right for you to adhere to it completely and not lapsing easily once it affects you.

I must stress that I don’t totally oppose freedom of speech. I’m just disgusted at the failure of the so-called associates of the ideology to really stick to their belief…

A twisted tale of shrunken people...

It's official. I can't bring the weight of my luggage to below 20 kg although I've had a little success in trimming it to less than 25 kg. I think I need to smile my way through the custom check but I bet it's not charming enough for me to pass it scot free.

This funny idea struck me when I was contemplating on taking or leaving one of the favourite Tees. It's not my original. Oh no, it's not. Josephine wanted to do this to me before. Well L&G, I wish that I possess a technique to shrink people so that they can fit in a jar. I wanna bring them with me to Edinburgh where I'll line all the jars on a shelf by my bed. They'll keep me company in their jars of suspension of suspicious shades of green, day in and day out. I wanna put

Mom.Dad.Adik.Lawi.Waa.Pidah.Fiqry.Syazwan.Fer.Anwar.Hajar.Jo Tan.Naomi.Kak Pah.Pam.Ikram.Naim.Dio.Lyla.Tyra.OB.Dilah.Ariz.Cikgu Rohaiza.Teacher Wan.Kak Ton.Cikgu Hazilah.Cikgu Rose.Miss Yati.Madam Madeline.Puan Kas.Zoul.Ali.Jan.

in my little devices.

How I wish that this is possible...

Surreal!

7 days can go poof! Just like that.

Being Beautiful...

The preparation before leaving the country really got in the way hence my failure to finish the book early. Man Booker Prize winners have always been disappointing (a claim undeniably unfair; I’ve only read three such books) so I had high expectation when I picked up The Line of Beauty. To recap, I’ve read The Gathering by Anne Right, a novel so bleak and aimless that when reading it, I’ve always wondered why it won the prize. But I must say that I like the ending. Shattering to say the least. Another, which was a bigger letdown, was Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. The story was so-so and the ending was ‘blegh’; in fact, close to being inept. On the other hand, I found the finalists far more deserving of the title. Fine examples are Never Let Me Go and Atonement. However, as proposed by someone wise, the prize is meant for baffling work replete with obscure themes and convoluted prose.

I digressed.

the oh-so-gay cover!

Well, the novel was about a gay Oxford grad named Nick who had the opportunity to stay at his friend’s place. The man of the house was an MP in Thatcher’s government and the family consisted of the wife, the son (Nick’s friend), and the daughter who was plagued with manic depression. Basically, it told the story of Nick and how he maintained the secrecy of his highly contentious sexuality, his relationship with the family, and of course, his exhaustless pursuit of all things beautiful.



If previously I thought that the Booker committee had wrongly picked the winner, I now reserve little doubt that this book is different. Firstly, there’s a direction in the way the story is presented, unlike the two books that I mentioned earlier. The whole point of finishing a novel is to find and follow the vein of the story so as to reach its heart of hearts, not to simply get lost in random mini narratives that when accumulated, amounted to nothing. Then again, most award-winning books are destined to confuse readers with any number of side tales before closing abruptly. On to the second reason. Well, the language used is just beautiful. On this point, I won’t argue that all three books excel admirably in language.



The novel isn’t pretentious. One might argue that it’s overtly scattered with unimaginable riches and power (underscored by its ceaseless dictations on fine arts, sprawling mansions, powerful acquaintances, and lavish parties). But don’t they make the novel really British? Them people are absurdly prim if not pompous. And yeah, the title clearly suggests that it mainly concerns beautiful stuff. Money permits one to obtain beauty even though most of the time it is underappreciated which results in a continuous hunt for it. In short, it has successfully portrayed the life of British aristocrats and doesn’t make it cloying. However, this quality has the danger of pushing the novel to being highly tedium especially in the middle of the story.



But the high point is the ending. Profound and affecting, I was moved to the point that I nearly cried! Finally, a satisfying ending to a well written story. I’ve been disappointed for too many times already.



I have to hazard you though; be prepared to skip a few passages, or even pages if you think the carnality of the novel gets on your nerves... And do read it with an open mind. I know that this novel isn’t really for everyone. But I still highly recommend this book to anyone, homophobic or not.

Future Infamy...

I'll be broke. Oh yeah, I will.

You Brightened up My Day like a Multicoloured Parasol!

Some good things are better left unexpressed. Because even words can fail to capture the essence of happiness. Ah, wth! The sleepover at ASiS (yes, I've been there on Friday and there I was again on Tuesday night!) was the best evah!!

Reason #1: I've toyed with the idea before Ramadhan came and thought that, given the amount of time left here, it wouldn't have a chance of happening. But heck, I got to buka puasa at the school for the fifth year running! It's a ritual I hope to keep.

Reason #2: The Ramadhan bazaar, although noticeably reduced in size this year, hadn't failed to instigate the well trodden memories. There's also a nice briyani stall there. The Ayam Madu Istanbul was a counterfeit, a substandard imitation of the original, I think.

Reason #3: A chance meeting with Erul and Pak Wan.

Reason #4: Met with Ustaz, C. Ghani and Mr. Allen. Paying homage is very close to coming to a full circle now.

Reason #5: Got to jump the queue at the Visa centre. Thanks Ajah!

Reason #6: Reunited with many AKYUEM...

Reason #7: A rather fine day at VFS. Hopefully, my application is approved *prays hard* and ready for collection in time *prays even harder*

Reason #8: Saw Wall-E. Pidah, I totally agree with you; it was just soooooooooooooo cute!!! I won't run a review. It'll just be too cliched. Said by too may people already.

Reason #9: A Good School was in my possession, finally. All thanks to Ikram!

Reason #10: Got this!

And a pair of this!

BUT THE BEST REASON OF ALL IS ...

THE TIME I SPENT TOGETHER WITH LAWI AND IKRAM!!!

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!

Adieu, great friends. May our paths intertwine again.