A few days to home

We have parted ways with both Akin Demir, our host for the past 3 days, and Liwen and Jasmine, who have continued on to their European part of the tour. For me and David, we are into the last lap of our journey, where we will now jus spend most of it winding down and soakıng in as much of this beautiful city as we can.

This place, wıth its eclectic mixture of modernity and history has fulfilled my loftiest expectations, but to home I look to still because there are many things that I look forward to do there. From the PB camp to which I have been thinkıng about, and to all 3 years of its meaningful existence, and to the Redang trip wıth the JJC brothers, and of course to other loved ones that I have begun to miss.

This graduation trip have indeed been a wonderful experience, spiritually, aesthetically, mentally and emotionally. Alhamdullillah.

From Istanbul wıth Love

İ am at my 4th day here ın turkey, just reached Cappadocıa ın the mornıng from Istanbul, pennıng thıs entry while watchıng the Champıons League fınal. The people here are as beautıful as they are frıendly, and the sıghts and the ındependent roamıng that me and Davıd dıd around parts of Istanbul ıs really a wonderful experıence. The sıghts are spectacular and havıng 3 muezzıns gıvıng theır own rendıtıon of the call to prayer ıs truly surreal (from the Blue Mosque and another 2 mosque around the vıcınıty). And for our Cappadocıa and Ephesus tours, and later on, for other parts of Istanbulş we have been joıned by Jasmıne and Lıwen, both graduates from NUS. I really love thıs place. Wıll upload the photos once i get back.

That saıd, to all my frıends, take care, and to love, take extra care. Marsı and salams

for her

I think she is really a wonderful individual, always trying to keep my opinions which sometimes border on the fiery, in check, with her timely advice and relevant opinions.

Understanding and honest, with that good dash of jealousy that is an almost perfect admixture for any relationship.

Usually she thinks, she’s funny and when she laughs she tends to look up into the sky, but she doesnt realise that I usually dont laugh at her jokes, but I laught AT her. For trying to be funny and failing most of the times. Sometimes ignorance is really bliss.

That said, this 2 years plus, really has been a breeze, and shows the importance of rigorours checking and counter checking of what you want in your life, so as to limit the occurrence of imponderables and unwanteds. I thank God for that.

This relationship has really been a story of understanding, chemistry, honesty, care and trust. I’m utterly grateful for that dear.

DO NOTE however, this will be one of the rare moments that I write entries of this nature in this blog. But since I’m looking to Istanbul with love, I shall share some of my love with you (sounds corny/Malyish, I know), to help you tide over the 2 weeks I’ll be away (since you are a boring person and most probably wont have many activities lined up for yourself to keep you busy… hehe).

Take care babe. Je t’aime

pre-Istanbul Part iki (two)

I have met the people who I wanted to meet, either by coincidence or by planned appointments. Am throrougly excited about this graduation trip to my dream destination.

But before I leave, I’ll leave the readers with some questions to ponder.

I think in all the things we do, our nawaitu is the most important, because having a sincere one, will help you transcend the negatives that may happen along the course of that journey. It will help you for instant, to focus on what is the most you want to do, and if along the way you realise someone you thoroughly disdain upon, because of act/s committed is there, it would not matter as much because your objective is always for that greater good, nothing less. It may be easier said than done, but if youre strong enough, youre good enough. Having one person be the excuse of you not doing something, shows weakness in ones part and inevitably that chink in your armor, ultimately showing the other that you will always be affected and practice avoidance time and time again. So my advice is, when one promises something, remember why and how in that promise the reasons you wanted to do it, and not why you are not able to because of a recent occurrence. If some of us had let the politicking and undermining of position created by a dastardly few get to us, we would have a long time back quit what we had aimed to do. So give it a thought.

The next question is that, a Masters History student, a good friend, recently asked me a question. He tried to articulate his question so as to have it sound offensive. But I said to him, dont worry, I dont think I will have a problem with the question, just say it as it is.

Thus he asked, “Why is it that Malays always seem to want to prove themselves?”

I smiled, because this was the question I posed to Yacoob Ibrahim a few years back, but of course with differences here and there (I asked why do we have to always accomodate time and time again, prove our loyalty, our religiosity). I followed his question with my opinions, but I wont elaborate on it for now. But it’ll be interesting to know Whats yours?

My flight will be in about 9 hours time and I’ll leave you all, my friends with this questions to reflect on.

Once back, if any of you are interested, do help PBMUKS in their flagship Perkampungan Bahasa Camp from 9th to 11th June. Till then, take care and god bless. 

Assalamualaikum. 

P.S: Will be away from 18th May – 2nd June

pre-Istanbul Part bir (one)

This will be a chronology of what happened the past week, and if you’re not into mundane life stories, please proceed to the entry pre Istanbul Part iki (two), which I will pen later tonight.

So today I went to various destinations to purchase things that I need for the trip. Went to Bugis (Watsons to get toiletries, Singtel Store to check on my application for Pay as You Roam, at the same time to meet up with babe after her return from her Tioman/Genting/KL trip at 3am today), went to Masjid Sultan for prayers and inadvertently met Hafiz Kusairi with whom we later had light dinner with (discovered that this Monday would be his birthday, so treated him). After which babe, went to met her Eminence group for dinner, and I went back West to collect the big 70 litre backpacker bag from Irfan’s place and then proceeded to Lot 1 to get a pair of universal adaptors.

The past week, has been nothing but a week of running errands, and settling stuffs before the Istanbul Trip. Helped history society prepare for the Arts Open House today, looked at the graduation gown with Joanne, borrowed some books for reading during the trip, went to PB and dikir meetings; all enough to at least keep me busy while Nurul is away.

Also, surfing and reading incessantly about Istanbul, Ephesus and Cappadocia has made me extremely excited about this trip. I think, as history buffs, we would be able to appreciate more the monuments, the ruins, the artifacts of those places: the great minds that constructed those buildings, and the history that passed those hallowed walls/tiles/weaponry. More so, for a place of former Ottoman glory and prestige, where multiple cultures meet, collide and converge, that last great Muslim empire, the resonance becomes much more prominent. I really can’t wait… Masya allah

pedagogy of hope

A few days ago I sat in for a crash course at the MPS at Marsiling with 3 different individuals with their own approaches to handling the problems articulated by the residents. For a moment, I was overwhelmed because it is tedious to try to understand some of the problems that was brought up. Especially for one of the individuals, who had a record of suffering from schizophrenia and tended to deviate from her stem of truth to branches of fantastical tales and then go back to repeat that stem of truth. And from what I learnt, the induction period could range between a few weeks to a few months, depending on your ability to elicit confidence from the residence. Take this scenario:

1) You have a 40 year old man whose beleguered by multiple unpaid bills, and marital problems sitting in front of you, a 25 year old greenhorn (or younger, if they think I look young..haha), who have yet to experience the full brunt of paying household bills or even experience marriage.

He might think, “How is this guy going to help me? Masih hingusan!” So thus, like Mr. Hawazi says, you need a certain validation before you are given the greenlight to interview the people, and to understand their problems. I believe these are all life experiences that would be useful for me, more so if I have to handle the external problems of my students. With the knowledge at hand, I would thus be able to know who they can refer to, or where they can seek help.

Insya allah, in due time, I’d be able to prepare myself enough to be a full fledged interviewee. Running PBM taught me much, I feel this will very much do the same.

On a different note, I finally got down to borrowing the book by the renowned educationist, the late Paulo Freire, and his seminal work Pedagogy for the Oppressed. Borrowed another also, dedicated to him, Teachers are Cultural Workers. So far both reads seems really insightful and particularly useful for my career. Insya allah.

For that I wish to thank Rafis of Mendaki’s Research and Policy Dept. and from ( The Reading Group) for introducing me to the book. This will be my reads for that trip to Turkey and Istanbul.

Apology for 2

At various stages, I have written against the actions of 2 individuals whom I have from the start duly respect and consider as good buddies, and still see them as such today.

At various times to I have articulated my apologies, not for wrongly dissecting their actions or for want of retracting my opinions but for the medium that it was conveyed from and the way it was conveyed.

This apology thus comes in stages. For one of you I have from time to time articulated my apology, but I’m doing so now out of an appreciation on how you stood tolerantly and patiently by, despite the pressure and criticisms that I levelled against you. Some rightly so, but some on hindsight, a tad to harsh. So thank you for handling it so ably and thank you for your commendable show of patience and I hope this episode of yours will tide over soon, and that once again youd be able to gain the confidence of your friends. We shall see each other for dikir practice my bro.

For the second, one of the individuals who I really respect and appreciate because of the sincerity you show in educating the young, and the dedication and commitment you continually present towards the realization of activities for the community; I articulate the first phase of my apology. I was to harsh in that moment of criticism, perhaps influenced by the unbounded anger towards the action of another. For that, I’m sorry. I will talk with you about it soon, most probably during PB or during our Redang Grad trip, as a closure to the episode. Thats the least that I can accord to a friend who I thoroughly respect and appreciate. 

For both of you, salute. Apologies and Thank you. 

to save a life

You know that in my NS and post NS life, I had only 2 instances to which i had to utilise the life saving training that I had in order to rescue individuals. Even then, I only had to tow both to shore and to the side of the pool respectively. There was no need to perform CPR to revive them because they were still breathing.

So what happened today, was a tad surreal for me. I went swimming at abt 9 p.m with Yuyun (the little gal that my family babysits), and there were quite a number of people around, including a coterie of Korean families.

Halfway through, I hear frantic shouts at the other end of the pool, with the same Korean group crowding around. I inched closer at the same time pulling yuyun across the breadth of the pool. I realised then that a guy (most probably the father) was trying frantically to revive a 2 year old boy who for a few minutes was lying still his head tilted to the left, with eyes wide open. And for every minute that passed without the kid being able to be revived, the wailing of the mum got louder, and the CPR efforts of the dad got more intense. I wanted to step in, cos it seemed he wasnt doing it the correct way, but I realised that I have not practised it for years on end, and the last time I did, was to a manequin during CPR training. This with the plain fact that the father was trying his level best to revive the kid, and I’m sure any father who knows his CPR would prefer to have himself attempting to revive his own child. I would too.

As I looked on, it affected me a bit, cos this is the first time I saw raw, unadeltered emotions running in a life and death situation, that is with regards to a swimming pool mishap. Somehow, the wailing, and the frantic actions of the dad enhanced that experience too. Fortunately, in the end, the kid, fresh from toddlerhood spurted out water, and soon after began to cry. I can tell how relieved I was, and I for one cant tell the roller coaster of emotions that the parents might have felt. All I can do then was to run to my belongings, take my towel and hand it to one of the Koreans there, so that they can use it to wrap around him. Guess the towel is ‘burn’ in a sense.

It was indeed a surreal experience, that reminded me that one always had to revise what one has learnt, cos one never know when it may be uber useful one day. I myself was tryin to remember the steps in my head, just in case I decided to step in to try to revive the kid. Thank god he survived the mishap. Funny how though that the kid didnt have any bouy on him despite his young age.

Belated Bday Meetups wif Zat and Su

zat on the left, su on the right

take my hand for what?

happy birthday Izzati and Suhaila

Hey babes, Happy belated birthday yah. Phase 2 of your birthday gifts will be post-Istanbul. CIaoz

@ Post final day paper with babe

babe posing

babe trying to pose

fountain at boat quay

how you doing???

bright lights

fountain of lights

babe giving up

yes.. you look better that way

me too

looking out

the mini garden

So I waited for babe outside MPSH after her paper and we proceeded on to Boat Quay for out post-exams celebrations. And for farewell meeting before she leaves for her Tioman/Genting/KL graduation trip with the JK girls. Take care babe. And enjoy yourself.