Official But Not Prefered

Everyone (perhaps everyone in the world) knows that Malaysia's official language is Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia. But, the most prefered language for communication, especially in a more formal setup) is English. Even my friend in Indonesia was surprised when I told him that we conduct our meeting (internally, no Mat Salleh or expats) in English.

Even in a not so formal setup, English is still a prefered language for people of all walks of life!

Photo courtesy The Star

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Wonder what people from Northern states call a sharpener? It's 'gerumit'... derived from 'groom it'... :-)

Irrelevant Topic of Discussion

First of all, please apologize if this post would offend anyone but it's just my thoughts.

This morning between my sahur and Subuh, I managed to catch a repeat of Al-Kuliyyah, a TV3 islamic talk show (rather a discussion program with two penalists). The topic was 'Tukar'. To my surprise, they talked about sex change and in specific gender reassignment surgery (GRS). The program, however, failed to provide any statistic to qualify this topic for discussion in such an Islamic program. And I don't think the program achieve anything - in terms of educating people or helps reducing/stopping GRS cases.

For me it's clear, and as an Islamic country (we always claimed as such), we know it's forbidden - for any reason. And there are still callers asking about... there's one man whose inner-self is very lady-like, he felt he would be better off to do the GRS... bla bla bla... and the panelists kept on saying whatever the situation is, it's still haram. That's it. Why bother to discuss further? Aren't there anymore interesting topic(s) to be discussed like wastage in the month of Ramadhan, the simplest ways to reap the benefits of Ramadhan, Islam-way of celebrating Eid, bla bla bla...

And the panelists kept on referring to those who're interested in GRS to undergo counseling sessions to overcome their problems. I think there's only one effective solution. As an Islamic country, just forbid all hospitals (government or private) to perform the GRS. Full stop!


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Maybe they're run out of topics. Well, they could generate ideas via sms - make more money! I don't know whether I'll watch the program again if it keeps on discussing/debating on something which clearly forbidden.

1 Ramadhan 1427

Bulan Ramadhan is here again... semoga amalan puasa kita diberkati.

Niat puasa for those who forget...

"Sahaja aku berpuasa esok hari menunaikan fardhu Ramadhan tahun ini kerana Allah ta'ala"

Sunat-sunat puasa:

1. Menyegerakan berbuka puasa apabila telah yakin waktu berbuka.
2. Makan sahur walaupun sedikit.
3. Melambatkan makan sahur iaitu lepas daripada tengah malam dan sebelum waktu imsak.
4. Memperbanyakkan membaca Al-Quran.
5. Memperbanyakkan sedekah.
6. Beriktiqaf siang hari dalam masjid.
7. Menghadiri majlis-majlis ilmu.
8. Menyediakan makanan untuk berbuka untuk orang-orang berpuasa.
9. Jangan bersugi setelah tergelincir matahari ke arah laut barat sehingga terbenamnya matahari kerana boleh memakruhkan puasa.

Other things (this one for me too...) - do solat terawikh as much as possible, don't just do it in the beginning of puasa but also the last 10 days of puasa... another thing, don't be too lavish buying foods to break fast, buy what you can finish eating and eat moderately so that maghrib, isyak and terawikh could be performed...

Selamat Berpuasa Everyone!!

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Kalau terasa nak buat jahat di bulan Ramadhan, tanyalah pada iman tentu iman kata tak boleh... jangan ditanyakan pada AIMAN, nanti dia kata AIMAN TAK KISAH...

The One... In A Million

It was a great night, great performaces not just from the three finalists but also the top 12 plus Norayu and another contestant who were eliminated earlier. I personally like Norayu because of her husky voice. Somehow, she didn't make it to top 20 (probably because of her look, which not comparable to Farah, or even Suki).

Faizal escaped the elimination in the beginning of the final when 8TV announced that all three will be up and running for the RM1 million. 'Kezutan' for the fans or just another gimmick to invite more votes (translated into more profit)? Anyway, the night would be a bit boring if Faizal didn't perform. His performance outshone Suki's and Alif's and he got the biggest cheers and also standing ovation from the fans.

Unfortunately, Suki whose fans were relatively quiet that night walked away with the 'biggest' prize in Malaysia's reality talent show. Fans of Faizal, in the hall, were stunned and it was rather quiet in the hall after the result was announced. He came 5% short from Suki 's 39% votes.

Anyway, there you go. People call it instant millionaire. And, she's just 17!!

Weekend With The Family...

My parents were in town last weekend for my brother's convocation. The last time they were at my place was almost a year ago (or more and I haven't washed my cushion covers since then). The preparation started like a week before, with house chores like cleaning the fan blades (now the fan blows stronger), mopping the floor, washing the cushion covers, etc etc etc... I think I burnt more calories the last one week than the rest of the year.

I woke up at 5.30 on Saturday morning, something that I've not done for the past 364 days. What I usually do is go to bed at 5.30am. :-) My mom was ironing all clothes to be worn that day while I was preparing breakfast. My mom brought ketupat, rendang ayam, kari daging... We went to UiTM, parked at the padang kawad, took the transfer bus to Dewan Sri Budiman for the convo session. Only parents are allowed to enter the hall but I saw not just the parents dressed up but everyone, just to watch the session from under the canopy provided. What a spirit!

Mom and dad were out from the hall early (my brother was the 43rd recipient), so we wandered around the stalls (most selling flowers and souvenirs), took some pictures and took a most-deserving nap somewhere in a building nearby. It's quite a while before we decided to make our move to the convo hall while waiting for my brother to come out. Finally, he came out, grinning from ear to ear. My parents couldn't be more proud of him.

After taking some good pictures, we went straight home, had lunch, and sleeeeeeppp before our next activity... trip to Bagan Lalang for seafood dinner...

We went all the way to Bagan Lalang for our dinner. I haven't been there for exactly one year. So, we had ikan siakap masak 3 rasa, ikan pari bakar, udang masak pedas, pepahat masak halia, sotong goreng tepung, kailan ikan masin, tomyam campur, air kelapa and some juices. Syok nya makan and there goes my diet and my cholesterol level! :-) Somehow my brother's Naza Ria moved so slow on the way back home - reflecting the full stomach of its passengers. We reached home around 11pm.

On Sunday, we had mom-made karipap - our family's favorite. And bapak supplement the menu with his specialty kuah bawang for the dip! My niece and nephews were off to the swimming pool in the middle of breakfast and came back empty stomach.

Save the best for last, it's the last stop for this trip... Mydin!!! Usually they visited the one near Sinar Kota but this time it's the largest Mydin in Malaysia (in USJ). Traffic flow was so bad but that didn't affect my parents' spirit. As usual, they spent a worthy 3 hours in Mydin, shopping mostly the essentials for their Haj trip later this year.

While they're busy shopping I was tasked to take care of the niece and nephews. It's just four of them but it's more than handful for me. And believe me, the smallest is the most difficult to handle...

At around 5.30pm, my parents made their way to Pudu Raya with my brother and I made my way home and slept all the way from 6.30pm to 6.00am.

A tiring, yet a good weekend with the family!!