Tuesday 15 November 2011
Ramblings on...budu
Budu. How is that made? Fermented pulverised fish in brine to preserve it? Much unlike pekasam or even my own favourite cincalok (pulverised fermented prawns - udang pipih).
Back in the 60s, 70s and 80s I get to savour them once in a blue moon. These days...holler and yee shall be served. I blame the transportation system. Back then the only highway worth mentioning was Seremban-KL. Now, the network is near complete. You can eat your fresh stock of budu departing from Besut at 6am and arriving in JB in time to be served for lunch.
Old wives tale: stay away from men who likes "makanan masam" (sour food)! They talk too much and proclaims of voracious sexual appetite.
Aug 16, 2011
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerryR smartphone
Ramblings on...my first school
My Ismail School is now Sek. Ren. Pendidikan Khas Muar (P).
Wait a minute. This was the entrance in 1965. Under that tree, in the first room was Darjah Satu Beruang(?)
The new entrance leads to the hall where we had our huge tiger - our float.
That very low shack was the toilet, right?
The badminton court is still there in between our Std 1 and Std 2.
The hall looks the same.
The shared field is still there. Beyond is still Sekolah Dato
Memories...
9th November 2011, 1130am Ismail School 2
Wait a minute. This was the entrance in 1965. Under that tree, in the first room was Darjah Satu Beruang(?)
The new entrance leads to the hall where we had our huge tiger - our float.
That very low shack was the toilet, right?
The badminton court is still there in between our Std 1 and Std 2.
The hall looks the same.
The shared field is still there. Beyond is still Sekolah Dato
Memories...
9th November 2011, 1130am Ismail School 2
Ramblings on...the devil incarnate
"...you should not worship Satan. Verily, he is a plain enemy to you..."
Oh! By the way, this particular piece will NOT go down well at all! So do NOT read on if you are easily offended.
My version of the Devil or Satan is not run of the mill type of devils with red skin, horns and sharp pointed tail. Neither do they sneak from behind. Nor does it devour you with sharp fangs at night.
It is most appealing and beguiling. In fact, some admits openly that they can't live without them.
These Devil Incarnate are our modern Idols. They are all over. In fact, we welcomed them with open arms in our homes. We placed them in revered positions above the fireplace, in special rooms, on tailor made altars, on specially decorated and designed walls, sited in fit-for-purpose niches...
Some swears that without these Idols, life will be meaningless and devoid of life itself.
Some need two or even all their presence at the same time!
Let me introduce them to you: Televisions, PS2s, PSPs, Computers...
I am no different from you.
Some would have a 52 inch plasma on a wall surrounded by other lesser Idols with different names; blue-ray, dvd player, astro. It would be left switched on for 20 hours a day. There are four different levels of audiences - nay, devotees: pre-schoolers, primary level, teenagers and adults. Prying the devotees away from this powerful Idol is VERY difficult. Sometimes, promises of sweets helps. At other times McD or the Colonel. A fair amount of offering (money ma!) must be placed before it can give you what you want; news, repeated movies, dramas, cartoons...
In another room would sit another Idol - devoted to games. TVs with PS2s or PS3s or Xboxes. When the devotees starts, nothing else matters. Not even the muezzin's pleading can wrench them away. Promises of fire and brimstone doesn't help either.
In a den somewhere you would have another Idol dedicated to www - PC with the ubiquitous Wi-Fi connection. Devotees will be immersed in "work", internet games, "facebook", chats, emails...there is no limit to it's powers. The offering is minuscule as compared to the vices it can provide...including gambling, pornography...
The problem with portable Idol is that it needs the Lord of the Idols - Television - to accompany it. If not, it seems incomplete. So, a laptop is the other devil incarnate.
Even this berry is also an Idol, if it is used for purposes other than "work" or "good deeds".
Only until '85 do I recollect that people stopped chatting or discussing or meetings or annual dinner speeches when they hear the muezzin's call for prayers. We are obliged, by the way, to reply to his call.
Maybe I am deaf or blind, but whatever happened to this "good manners"?
Idol worshipers are warned time and again in the Quran.
What sticks to mind is just one from Surat Yaaseen, verse 60 which translates as "...Did I not command you, O Children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan. Verily, he is a plain enemy to you..."
Almighty Allah, The Most Merciful, I seek Thy forgiveness for myself, my parents, my wife, my children, my kith and kin. I admit that my iman is infinitesimal. But I beg of Thee to shower them all with Thine Guiding Light, for my time is merely borrowed time and it is running short.
5th November 2011, Eid-ul-Adha
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone
Oh! By the way, this particular piece will NOT go down well at all! So do NOT read on if you are easily offended.
My version of the Devil or Satan is not run of the mill type of devils with red skin, horns and sharp pointed tail. Neither do they sneak from behind. Nor does it devour you with sharp fangs at night.
It is most appealing and beguiling. In fact, some admits openly that they can't live without them.
These Devil Incarnate are our modern Idols. They are all over. In fact, we welcomed them with open arms in our homes. We placed them in revered positions above the fireplace, in special rooms, on tailor made altars, on specially decorated and designed walls, sited in fit-for-purpose niches...
Some swears that without these Idols, life will be meaningless and devoid of life itself.
Some need two or even all their presence at the same time!
Let me introduce them to you: Televisions, PS2s, PSPs, Computers...
I am no different from you.
Some would have a 52 inch plasma on a wall surrounded by other lesser Idols with different names; blue-ray, dvd player, astro. It would be left switched on for 20 hours a day. There are four different levels of audiences - nay, devotees: pre-schoolers, primary level, teenagers and adults. Prying the devotees away from this powerful Idol is VERY difficult. Sometimes, promises of sweets helps. At other times McD or the Colonel. A fair amount of offering (money ma!) must be placed before it can give you what you want; news, repeated movies, dramas, cartoons...
In another room would sit another Idol - devoted to games. TVs with PS2s or PS3s or Xboxes. When the devotees starts, nothing else matters. Not even the muezzin's pleading can wrench them away. Promises of fire and brimstone doesn't help either.
In a den somewhere you would have another Idol dedicated to www - PC with the ubiquitous Wi-Fi connection. Devotees will be immersed in "work", internet games, "facebook", chats, emails...there is no limit to it's powers. The offering is minuscule as compared to the vices it can provide...including gambling, pornography...
The problem with portable Idol is that it needs the Lord of the Idols - Television - to accompany it. If not, it seems incomplete. So, a laptop is the other devil incarnate.
Even this berry is also an Idol, if it is used for purposes other than "work" or "good deeds".
Only until '85 do I recollect that people stopped chatting or discussing or meetings or annual dinner speeches when they hear the muezzin's call for prayers. We are obliged, by the way, to reply to his call.
Maybe I am deaf or blind, but whatever happened to this "good manners"?
Idol worshipers are warned time and again in the Quran.
What sticks to mind is just one from Surat Yaaseen, verse 60 which translates as "...Did I not command you, O Children of Adam, that you should not worship Satan. Verily, he is a plain enemy to you..."
Almighty Allah, The Most Merciful, I seek Thy forgiveness for myself, my parents, my wife, my children, my kith and kin. I admit that my iman is infinitesimal. But I beg of Thee to shower them all with Thine Guiding Light, for my time is merely borrowed time and it is running short.
5th November 2011, Eid-ul-Adha
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone
Ramblings on...sharing knowledge
"...verily, mankind is loosing. Except for those who believe and do righteous deeds and recommend to one another to the truthful..." Al-Asr, 2 and 3
I am at the end of my time. Accordingly, my place has been set when I was first conceived some 53 years ago. My name has always been on the list. Where, how and when has already been written.
What will I leave behind?
Knowledge? Not much. A little to my children. An autocratic educator that educates with a whip! Or did I? The proof is in the pudding, so they say. I shall wait and give the pudding(s) more time.
A little bit to those who did work with me.
They might remember but then again it doesn't matter since the knowledge that I passed on is probably lesser than the size of a quark. So many things I have learnt, yet I yearn for more!
Go to China if you have to...sayeth a Hadith. I did not. But I did gather some along the way. More of culture (working culture, mostly), way of life, idiosyncracies, language...
What did I do with these information or knowledge or experience? Some, I shared in my incoherent ramblings. Others, I put to daily practise for those who worked with me. Some, I spoon fed them (teach them step-by-step), others I left them by igniting a small spark (giving them ideas), some with a "big bang" (engineering a crisis was the phrase some liked to use).
Unless you are an educator, you would have passed on your knowledge to thousands (from your own class alone 25 students x 30 years) throughout your 30 years of your career - a most revered career indeed. I envy you.
I can recall my classroom teacher of Standard 1, Standards 2 to 5 (my Sulohan Classmates can verify their names), I forgot those of Standard 6 (The Bears can testify), forms 1 to 3 (Rajendran, Zainuddin, Hanafi...can jog my clouded brain due to 20 fags a day), but not so for forms 4 and 5 (FFFers - come forth). Those that I remembered left indelible marks - for life. (Some of them did tell us that we will remember their words for life)
My parents, both primary school teachers, continue to receive adulation from far and wide even after more than twenty years since they left their chalks behind. Their students comes bearing gifts usually during Eid. Once in a blue moon, someone new would appear at their run-down abode and announced that they were students from a particular class or year. You should see their tears! Each drop brings bitter sweet memories. The best students or the worst would jog my parents' fading memory.
I guess that is why they do not want to leave their home of 50 years lest their students can't find their frail teachers.
The best profession indeed! Two or is it three professors in my midst, scores of teachers reading this can testify right?
Nowadays the school children are required to recite their daily "doa's" which are dedicated to their teachers. It wasn't a practise in my era! Would you not want at least 25 people to pray everyday for your well being for 30 years of your life?
What I have of my own religion, is probably smaller than a "string" (latest quantum theory). Even the converts have more knowledge than I despite being born and raised as a Muslim! A pitiful Muslim, I am indeed.
Until the age of 15, I did not even know the meaning of the words I recited by heart. Once, a self-proclaimed Irish agnostic did point that I knew not what the muezzin's call was all about. Shame on me, indeed.
I, like millions of others, recite by heart verses of the Quran in our daily supplication and yet I personally do not know their meaning!
Yes, I have read the Scriptures, Book of Revelations...but I have NOT understood the Quran. My lame excuse was I have to read in Arabic and its translation in English whereas the Bible was in English. How stupid of me!
But it is never too late to learn. Afterall, I managed to pickup Hokkien, Cantonese, Urdu, German, Javanese without attending a single formal classroom... (self-gratification ok?)! Arabic should be a breeze. Unless of course I choose to read only the translation of the Quran first...
My own challenge then was to be able to recite by heart 83 verses. Only decades later, I have started to memorise the meanings. Shameful existence of an ungrateful servant of the Almighty, won't you agree?
Why is that? Overwhelmed by work? My existential being dedicated to gathering wealth here in this borrowed lifetime? How lame can that be?
It is still NEVER too late
23:40, 7th November, JB.
.
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone
I am at the end of my time. Accordingly, my place has been set when I was first conceived some 53 years ago. My name has always been on the list. Where, how and when has already been written.
What will I leave behind?
Knowledge? Not much. A little to my children. An autocratic educator that educates with a whip! Or did I? The proof is in the pudding, so they say. I shall wait and give the pudding(s) more time.
A little bit to those who did work with me.
They might remember but then again it doesn't matter since the knowledge that I passed on is probably lesser than the size of a quark. So many things I have learnt, yet I yearn for more!
Go to China if you have to...sayeth a Hadith. I did not. But I did gather some along the way. More of culture (working culture, mostly), way of life, idiosyncracies, language...
What did I do with these information or knowledge or experience? Some, I shared in my incoherent ramblings. Others, I put to daily practise for those who worked with me. Some, I spoon fed them (teach them step-by-step), others I left them by igniting a small spark (giving them ideas), some with a "big bang" (engineering a crisis was the phrase some liked to use).
Unless you are an educator, you would have passed on your knowledge to thousands (from your own class alone 25 students x 30 years) throughout your 30 years of your career - a most revered career indeed. I envy you.
I can recall my classroom teacher of Standard 1, Standards 2 to 5 (my Sulohan Classmates can verify their names), I forgot those of Standard 6 (The Bears can testify), forms 1 to 3 (Rajendran, Zainuddin, Hanafi...can jog my clouded brain due to 20 fags a day), but not so for forms 4 and 5 (FFFers - come forth). Those that I remembered left indelible marks - for life. (Some of them did tell us that we will remember their words for life)
My parents, both primary school teachers, continue to receive adulation from far and wide even after more than twenty years since they left their chalks behind. Their students comes bearing gifts usually during Eid. Once in a blue moon, someone new would appear at their run-down abode and announced that they were students from a particular class or year. You should see their tears! Each drop brings bitter sweet memories. The best students or the worst would jog my parents' fading memory.
I guess that is why they do not want to leave their home of 50 years lest their students can't find their frail teachers.
The best profession indeed! Two or is it three professors in my midst, scores of teachers reading this can testify right?
Nowadays the school children are required to recite their daily "doa's" which are dedicated to their teachers. It wasn't a practise in my era! Would you not want at least 25 people to pray everyday for your well being for 30 years of your life?
What I have of my own religion, is probably smaller than a "string" (latest quantum theory). Even the converts have more knowledge than I despite being born and raised as a Muslim! A pitiful Muslim, I am indeed.
Until the age of 15, I did not even know the meaning of the words I recited by heart. Once, a self-proclaimed Irish agnostic did point that I knew not what the muezzin's call was all about. Shame on me, indeed.
I, like millions of others, recite by heart verses of the Quran in our daily supplication and yet I personally do not know their meaning!
Yes, I have read the Scriptures, Book of Revelations...but I have NOT understood the Quran. My lame excuse was I have to read in Arabic and its translation in English whereas the Bible was in English. How stupid of me!
But it is never too late to learn. Afterall, I managed to pickup Hokkien, Cantonese, Urdu, German, Javanese without attending a single formal classroom... (self-gratification ok?)! Arabic should be a breeze. Unless of course I choose to read only the translation of the Quran first...
My own challenge then was to be able to recite by heart 83 verses. Only decades later, I have started to memorise the meanings. Shameful existence of an ungrateful servant of the Almighty, won't you agree?
Why is that? Overwhelmed by work? My existential being dedicated to gathering wealth here in this borrowed lifetime? How lame can that be?
It is still NEVER too late
23:40, 7th November, JB.
.
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone
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