Fiction Character 1.0

"I want to sail away from here," Otherside by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

As he sits there typing on his MacBook Pro, his head is frantically looking for something to say, something meaningful, something truthful, something inspiring. But he isn’t feeling very inspired himself. He asks himself, “why do I want to write?” and the answer slaps him in the face: he doesn’t know.

He likes the idea of writing. Of people being able to get a glimpse of what is going on in his head. For what purpose, he’s not fully aware. It might be that he feels that writing could relieve his stress. He’s been feeling emotionally unstable of late. That is, if the past year can qualify for “of late”. It might also be that  he feels that letting other people read his thoughts would inspire other people to greatness. He admits that he is by no means great,but people seem to think that he is worth watching and listening to, thus he would like to reveal to people that any Muhammad or Atiqah could be twice as successful as he is, if what he is can be considered a success.

Or maybe it’s just for the ego trip that he gets when he receives feedback from people. He’s fully aware that his English is head and shoulders above the majority of those who use it as a second language and people tweet that his English is so fluent, they want to be like him, they want him to teach them how to be like him. Maybe that’s it.

But it’s not.

He hates the notion of people trying to be him. He knows himself. He sucks. As a teacher. As a writer. As a friend. As a family member. As a human being. He sucks.

And he is always intrigued by the idea that people actually think highly of him. Or maybe it’s disgust. Paralyzing disgust. Disgust in himself that he is still able to sleep at night and smile when he is awake and allow people to sing his praise. It’s disgusting how much he allows people to be deluded into thinking that he is a righteous person with very little flaws to show. And him? A role model? Please.

If people were actually like him, there would be a lot more cynical people in the world. Fake smiles would be plastered onto their faces while sarcastic remarks form in their heads. People would be sad all of the time, without really knowing why. People would be tired, and hate having to live through another day. People would be emotional. People would be judgmental. Most of all, people would be insincere. 

But they won’t do good deeds for money. No, much too “surface” for this type of human. That would be way too easy to judge, and he’s not anything if he’s not afraid of judgement. Or rather, negative judgement. He has to be seen as a flawless human being, a model citizen. The example for Muslims, or even human beings in general. Because he’s full of himself like that. Because he needs to be seen as a superior person.

So he puts on a mask for everyone to see. What he thinks everyone should see. The bright side. The smiles. The happiness. The righteousness. The motivation. The optimism. And right behind that mask rots the depression. The downright cynicism. The bitterness. The pessimism. The hypocrisy.

So he doesn’t want people to be like him. Because that’s too messed up. Even for him. I suffer alone is his mantra. Other people are too good for him. 

He still likes the idea of writing though. But why, he can never really say.

Story Telling

"Can you remember when we laughed together?" 1986 by Ely Bruna.

So earlier today we attended a story-telling workshop. It was conducted by a Roger Jenkins. Here's a video of him in action to allow you to get the feel of what we experienced.




The video doesn't really do justice to the workshop that he conducted, but I will tell you that we had our minds blown away by this amazing performer. We sat through the 2-hour workshop like it was a half-an-hour episode of Friends.

He stressed the importance and usefulness of story-telling in the classroom, and I'm sure a lot of us went away wishing that we were able to tell stories half as well as Mr Jenkins.

I can't deny the effectiveness of telling stories in capturing the attention of other people, especially children. I remember when I was talking to a class of primary children who didn't know who I was, and I failed miserably at capturing their attention with my psuedo-motivational hooblah, evidenced by the students' actions of drawing on their pieces of paper throughout my session. As bad as the experience was for me (and even more so for the students, I think) there was definitely one shining moment of redemption on my part. I noticed that when I said "Ni saya ada satu cerita masa saya kecik dulu," I could immediately see heads popping up to look at me, in anticipation for my story. I told them about how I got caught lying to my parents when I was 10 and got punished for it. Thing is that telling the story was totally unplanned, so the story jumped all over the place and I wasn't very consistent. But their eyes stayed on me until I finished my story. I even got to include some moral values at the end (even though this practice isn't encouraged by Mr Jenkins).

Bottom line, story-telling is a boss thing to do, and when you can do it well, you become that much better a teacher.

Me? I'm the worst story-teller ever. But Mr Jenkins' answer to the question "What if I'm not a good story-teller?" made it clear that anyone can improve.

"Did you come out into the world knowing how to ride a motorbike? How about swimming? Was anyone of you able to walk right out of your mothers' bellies? It takes practice. You develop the skill by doing it. You get better. Practice."

May peace be upon you.

Cheers!

Kain Telekong Tesco

"Why don't we break the rules already?" Some Nights by Fun.

So I just noticed that I didn't post anything in February. Now my 2013 archives won't look pretty. Boohoo ;_;

So here's a story:

I was in my car, getting out of the maktab gates with some friends, when, while signing out, another friend of mine, let's call her Maddy, was also signing out. We asked her where she was going, and she said Tesco, so since we were going there anyway and there was still space in the car, I asked if she wanted a lift. She accepted.

She was carrying a bag, so I asked her what was in the bag.

"Maddy, ada apa dalam beg?"

"Kain telekong."

"Hang nak pi juai ka apa?"

"Dak aih. Saja amek kain telekong had ada kat surau Tesco tu bawak balik basuh. Ni nak bagi balik ah."

"Aik? Awat hang pi basuh plak?"

"La, biaq pi kat aku la nak buat apa pun!"

The end.

There are always ways to make the world a better place. And those ways don't have to be extravagant or big scale. Something as little as picking up a piece of plastic on the sidewalk and putting it into a nearby garbage can. Or moving a rock from the road. Or seeing that the prayer garments in a surau you frequent are dirty/smelly, and washing some. Or smiling to a stranger. It improves not only our own lives, but also others'.

There are an excess of opportunities to do good in the world and make it a better place. We just have to look.

May peace be upon you.

Cheers!

Notes on a Plane

"Never want to put my heart on the line," Locked Out of Heaven by Bruno Mars.

So I've been wanting to write for forever, but the usual mind blank happens everytime I open blogger. Sungguh tak sihat.

So I've scrolled the "notes" I have in my phone and I came across this list of thoughts I had while being really bored on the plane back to Malaysia in December. Here they are:

- When you're in the service business, please smile to your clients/customers, at the very least.
- When a client/customer asks "Can you help me do that?", one of the worst responses you can give is "Can you please help yourself?"
-Because the air outside can reach temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius, airplanes must have heaters instead of coolers, huh?
- I wonder if any airline still condones smoking in their aircrafts.
- Remember to always have a handkerchief handy. You never know when your nose is going to run. Tissues just don't get the job done very well. They might even be making it worse.
- I wonder what good seatbelts do on an airplane.
- I wonder if I'll be calling Sydney regularly after this. I hope I do.
- Should be high time airplanes have free wifi (pun intended). At least good airplanes.
- Help others and don't expect anything in return. You'll be disappointed if you do. The root of all disappointment is expectation. Or something like that.
- Malaysia. Food. Goody.
- I wonder when squat toilets will be the norm worldwide.

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In retrospect, the list isn't very extensive for an 8-hour plane ride. But then again I was trying my hardest to sleep the whole way to avoid being all sad and stuff.

May peace be upon all of you!

Cheers!

How Significant We Are

The following is a quote from Carl Sagan (1934-1996):

Consider again that dot.
That's here, that's home, that's us.
On it, everyone you love, everyone you know,
everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was
live out their lives.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering,
Thousands of confident religious, ideologies and economic doctrines.
Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward,
Every creator and destroyer of civilisation,
Every king and peasant, every young couple in love,
Every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer,
Every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,
Every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species,
Lived there on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
There Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that,
in glory and triumph,
They could become the momentary "masters" of a fraction of a dot.
Think of all the cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel
on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner.
How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another,
how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
The delusion that we have some privileged position in this universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity, in all this vastness,
There is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life.
There is nowhere else, at least in the near future,
to which our species could migrate.
Visit, yes.
Settle, not yet.
Like it or not, the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience.
There is perhaps no better demonstrations of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another.
And to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot,
The only home we've ever known.

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I came across this quote on Zen Pencils, a cool comic blog that adapts inspirational quotes into comics. Part of the description of this particular quote goes as follows:

"The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft at a distance of 3.7 billion miles away. The spacecraft had completed its primary mission and was passing Saturn, hurtling through space at 40,000 mph. Carl Sagan requested that the spacecraft turn around and take a photo of Earth, not for any scientific purpose, but as a sobering reminder of our planet’s insignificance. The resulting image inspired Sagan to write this now famous and breathtaking passage."



When I read the quote through the comic, I was like, "Yeah man, we're REALLY small. This guy speaks the truth."

But then I googled the picture.

The Pale Blue Dot.

And I cried.

Take a minute and try looking around you right now. Look. Please?

Now look back at the pale blue dot.

We look around and think that this Earth is so big, that our houses are so big, that our cars are so big, that our selves are so big.

But that's a lie.

We're nothing but a fraction of a dot. And that's from just a few billions of miles away. How big is this space we're floating in? How big is all of creation? How big then is The Creator?

Yet we think that we're so important. That we're all that. That we're so significant.

Just think, in the sight of God, how significant are we? How significant can we be?

We're nothing. And yet we live our lives as if we're high and mighty. As if the world owes something to us.

Everyone from Adam a.s. all those years ago to Muhammad s.a.w. to you and me right here and now has only ever lived on this speck of dust that seems to be merely existing amongst the darkness. 

We have to realise that we are not big. Thus there is no rational to claiming that we are better than anyone. We're specks, just like everyone else in the world. How good we are is not for us to say. It is the sole responsibility of Allah SWT to say where we go after we leave the pale blue dot.

Allah SWT has sent us models in the form of the Prophets s.a.w. for us to make examples of how to carry ourselves on the pale blue dot. So be kind. Smile. Don't get angry. Show affection. Bring peace everywhere and to everyone you meet. Seek and speak the truth. Love.

And every time you feel an ego-trip coming, you could always come back to the pale blue dot and get a reality check.

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Among other things, Carl Sagan was an astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and author. He was also known to be an agnostic. 

May peace be upon all of you!

Cheers!

Kenduri Thoughts

"There's a house across the river," Alas I Cannot Swim by Laura Marling.

So it’s the end of the year and in Malaysia, that means kenduri season.

And while I’ve been eating away, I’ve also been observing and am called to make some comments regarding what I’ve been consistently seeing throughout the kenduri-season. So check it.

1. Salam

It’s common practice in Malaysia (alongside most parts of the world) for people to shake hands upon meeting each other, either for the first time or for any other time for that matter. The unique thing about Malaysians, especially among the Muslim community, is that the younger participant of the hand-shake would usually be obliged to kiss the hand of the older one (if not kiss, then bow their heads). It is a sign of respect towards the elderly, and something I find charming.

Of late, I’ve been seeing more and more young people refusing to even bow their heads when shaking hands with people who are clearly older than them. To me this is a big loss to the Malay-Muslim culture, and if left untreated will take away one of the flavours of the Malaysian experience.

Some people might go on and say “but what’s the big deal?” and my answer would be the same question. 

What’s the big deal? What’s so hard about bowing your head towards your elders, showing them respect for their years? What do you lose when you bow? Dignity? Value? In my humble opinion, you actually increase in respectability when you show respect towards others, especially towards your elders. 

There’s a Malay saying that goes “ular menyusur akar tidak akan hilang bisanya,” which roughly translates to “a snake that slides below a root does not lose its venom”. The point here is that even if you are of very high value, it does not hurt you in any way if you respect others, even those regarded “below” you (if you believe in such rankings).

Main point, young people, guys and girls, show respect to earn respect. Tunduk pi la bila salam orang tua. Bukan susah sangat pun.

2. Waste management

If there’s one thing that ticks me off, it’s littering. Generally, people seem to think that there’s nothing wrong to throw their paper napkins, candy-wrappers or cigarette butt into a nearby gutter or on the floor, even when rubbish bins/plastics have been established and are plentiful. 

Admittedly, the problem is not only limited to kenduris, but you can see the extent to which cleanliness is of insignificance during these gatherings.

The problem lies in the thinking of the people that assume that their “little bit of rubbish” is not a significant enough amount to hurt anyone. 

“Hang toksah dok buat teghok ngat aih. Plastit ceklet hack ja pon.”

That’s during the early stages. When it finally gets bad enough to actually show, there’s another way of thinking, which goes “it’s already dirty, like this little thing is going to make it any worse. Alang-alang dah penuh sampah tu, kita guna ajalah macam tempat buang sampah.”

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Throw your junk where they’re supposed to be thrown. There’s bound to be designated areas. If by the impossible chance there aren’t any or if all of them are full, point this out to the host of the kenduri. It is their responsibility to ensure there are places for guests to throw their rubbish. And I’m sure they’d appreciate the heads up.

3. Monetary gifts

It is normal for people to bring gifts for the newly-weds. It is almost expected of the guests that are close to the family of the newly-weds. However, sometimes people forget to get gifts. And in these cases, it is common for people to palm some money to the host (usually one of the parents of one of the newly-weds) when shaking their hand.

And I’ve seen hosts rejecting these monetary gifts. They refuse to accept the cash, some even return the money by going to the extent of shoving the cash back into the giver’s pocket.

I disagree with this act of returning money.

You might want to seem more “sincere” in throwing the kenduri by not accepting the money. But let’s be honest. If I were the giver of the money, and the money was meant to make up for my bad memory, then I would be insulted if you gave the money back to me, just as I would be insulted if I brought a gift-wrapped microwave oven (or anything, really) as a gift and you refused to accept it on the grounds of wanting to seem “sincere”.

So hosts, receive the gift, in any shape it may come. If you want to go through the routine of rejecting a gift to seem polite, then do it only once. If the giver insists on giving the gift, then accept it with a big smile and thank you. And hug. If you want to.

So that concludes my kenduri-thoughts for now. May all the newly-weds be blessed and get lots of children. Muahaha, typical wish is typical.

May peace be upon all of you.

Cheers!

Hastened Farewell

"Forgive me.. I cannot stay," What He Wrote by Laura Marling.

So this is it. My last post from Marsfield, New South Wales, Australia.

This has been the place of new experiences and new faces. The ups and downs have made me who I am today, for better or for worse. 

So many things done, yet so much yet to do. Too soon, I feel. But just enough.

This will always have a special place in my heart. 

Alhamdulillah, life goes on.

Here's for a better future.

Cheers!

May peace be upon you.