JANJI

KERBAU DIPEGANG PADA TALINYA

MANUSIA DIPEGANG PADA JANJINYA...

Simple... straightforward... tak macam bidalan dan peribahasa lain dalam dunia sastera dan adat melayu, peribahasa yang ini sangat simple, sangat straightforward... tak perlu diterjemah, tak perlu dihurai. Sekali baca dah faham.

Dan itulah yang aku harapkan bila orang berjanji dengan aku - terutamanya kalau orang itu adalah orang yang aku harapkan, orang yang aku anggap penting dalam hidup aku. Sebab kalau tak boleh nak pegang pada janjinya, nak pegang pada apa?

Menunaikan janji adalah ukuran sebuah kejujuran dan keikhlasan... tidak menunaikan janji walau sekecil mana janji itu adalah menandakan ketidak ikhlasan, malah juga sebuah pembohongan. Apatah lagi, jika janji itu adalah sebuah janji yang besar, yang mana pada janji itulah disandarkan sebuah harapan.

Ada yang menganggap perkara ini remeh... kalau remeh kenapa ada hadith Rasulullah mengenainya?

Dari Abu Hurairah RA, bahwasanya Rasulullah SAW bersabda, 

“Tanda orang MUNAFIQ ada tiga: bila berbicara, ia berdusta; BILA BERJANJI IA MENGINGKARI dan bila diberi kepercayaan (amanah), ia berkhianat.”

Menidakkan kepentingan menunaikan janji adalah sama dengan mengingkari hadith Rasulullah...

"Ramalan Bintang"

I came back from work late tonight (about 8pm)... like that is unusual... hah!!!

Anyway... while I was driving, in a slight drizzle, my mind went wondering, like that was unusual too, and I suddenly got a craving for popiah... dont know why... but I was thinking... kat mana nak cari popiah malam malam buta ni... and what was worse is that I have a dr's appointment tomorrow morning. I have been an extremely good girl today,  I skipped lunch and had only plain water all day today... just to make sure my blood sugar stays below 8 tomorrow... (oops.. I did have a cup of nescafe 3 in 1 regular at around 3pm... yikes!!)

Aaaah... thank god for pasar malam... so I dialed MJ's no to ask him to go to pasar malam with me... Yup! I'm guilty of talking on the fon (without handsfree) while driving, which I very very very seldom did... that shows how bad my craving was... he told me to wait at home as he would pick me up in his car (I'm not sure if I told him that I was actually driving home from the office when I called him)...  when I reached home, he was already waiting in front of my house...

Hm... panjangnya mukaddimah... actually the purpose of me writing this entry tonight is to talk about an old song that I heard on the radio on my way home from the pasar malam...

The title of the song is the same as the title of my entry above... the singers are A. Ramlie and Maria Bachok... and to my own surprise, despite not hearing the song for years I believe, I still could remember most of the lyrics and I was even able to sing along with it...

I tried googling for the song on youtube as soon as finished eating one whole popiah plus a bowl of curry mee... but to no avail... I only found a video of a couple singing (well... trying to sing) that song on youtube... cari lirik pun tak jumpa...

I'm sure I'm gonna be humming that song for days to come...

Here are some of the lyrics as I remember them...

AR: Mengapakah engkau diam wajahmu pun muram...

MB: ku teringat sabda bintang nasib masa depan...

AR: janganlah kau percayakan semua ramalan

MB: da da da da da da da (forgot this line)...

MB: Dalam sabda bintangku kita akan berpisah

disebabkan sengketa atau kerna bencana

hati rasa tak tentu kalau benar berlaku...

tiada tempat mengadu.....

hm... lupa pulak the rest of the lyrics...

Anyway... sesiapa baca blog ni, kalau ada MP3 ke, or come across the song on youtube ke, or know the rest of the lyrics ke... please email to me at aasmahani@gmail.com. I would really appreciate it. :)

Oh... it's almost 10.30pm... dah way over my bedtime... good night... hope that I will dream about my childhood tonight (circa 1970s) when the song was popular... and life was so much easier and I was definitely sooo much happier...

Tripple wedding

We often hear of double wedding... itu pun org cakap kalau boleh elakkan... sebab nanti org banding2 kan pengantin mana yg lebih cantik, yg mana dapat anak dulu, suami siapa lebih handsome... etc etc etc...

Tripple wedding memang amat jarang kita dengar, in fact I think I have never been to one such wedding, until recently... it actually took place on 11 December 2010 and the wedding is (or is it the weddings are?...) of my cousins... 3 beradik sekali kawin... all girls... Munirah, Nuwairah and Athirah...

These girls are daughters of my auntie who is actually my late father's sister from my grandfather's second wife. My late father is the second son of the first wife... huh! berbelit salasilahnya.... so, nak ceritanya, we are not that close... jumpa pun beberapa tahun sekali.... last jumpa my auntie ni rasanya masa wedding of her first son in December 2004...

Father of the brides are of the very alim type... so no bersanding2... there was even no pelamin... ada cuma satu corner tu ada lah letak 2 teak chairs with a very simple curtain at the back with a big frame of a quranic verse on it... if we can call that pelamin, that would be the simplest pelamin I've ever seen in my whole life...

So, oleh sebab tak ada bersanding, I just requested them to take the following photos with them...

MJ and me and the brides (I just remember the middle one is Munirah, the other 2 are Nuwairah and Athirah, tapi tak ingat which is which... that's how "close" we are... hehe..)

MJ and me and the grooms - nak tau which groom belongs to which bride, just look at the color of their outfit, the blue groom belongs to Munirah, the pink groom belongs to the pink bride and the purple groom is the purple bride's husband... :-) In fact, bilik pengantin was also decorated ikut tema color masing2.... the curtain on the door of each room is according the pengantin's color theme... my auntie said "to make sure pengantin tak tersalah bilik malam ni"... hahaha...

Me and the mother of the brides (my auntie, I call her Acik Leha)

Me and my girl, Mia (she is 13 and already taller than me...)

Semoga ketiga2 pengantin ni hidup bahagia sampai akhir hayat... and you bet next time I see their mother, my first question would be... siapa dpt anak dulu... hehe...

Interesting news on TV3 tonight

I was watching "house arrest" on HBO tonight... the movie was quite interesting that I almost missed TV3 news... so, as soon as the movie was over (almost 9pm) I quickly flipped the channel to TV3...

And... extremely interesting news was shown...

KAMBING BERANAK ANJING...

yup, u read it right... KAMBING BERANAK ANJING... kambing hitam pulak tu...

hahahaha... how appropriate... hahahaha...

Now I know why.... rupanya all those anak kambing are actually anak anjing...

Read more here:  http://www.bharian.com.my/bharian/articles/Anakkambingberwajahanjing/Article

and here's the foto:

Azam baru...

New year hasnt begun, but I have already decided on my new year resolution, that is...

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending...

 Random photos...

On the way back from kampung after Raya Haji... waiting for the kids outside of the ladies' room...

Annual dinner UMW Corporation 23/11/2010

Perfect weekend...

Weekend is meant for rest... but I very seldom get to do that... being a working mom, weekend is normally for washing and cleaning and dusting and mopping and what ever one thousand and one "ing" more... but not this weekend... not out of plan, it just happened... and I just have to thank my kids and MJ for that...

At first, I was contemplating to go to a wedding on Saturday - wedding of a cousin's son. The invitation was put on facebook (tagged by the groom's auntie). I asked my brother if he was going, and he answered before I even finished my question: "buat apa?" or "for what?"... The question that my brother gave as an answer to my question was because of a long story or rather long history that I dont wish to elaborate here, because the story/history would open many old wounds... and I'm just in such a good mood today that I do not wish to dwell on sad old family history... So, I ended up staying home all day Saturday (after coming back from office of course - yup, I work half day on Saturday)...

Since dah tak jadi pegi kenduri kawin, I thought I would just stay home and just lazing around in front of the TV sampai malam... but tiba2 MJ called and asked to pick him up at the bus stand at around 9pm. He is normally away during weekends and only comes back on Sunday. So, naturally I asked him "mimpi apa balik sini on saturday?" His answer was short "Saja.."...

Anyway... dah MJ balik awal, I suddenly got an idea to bring the kids see a movie... so, that's what we did.. me, MJ and the kids... we managed to catch Rapunzel at the 10pm show...

It was a good movie... and it was a good (short) outing... MJ was like a little boy asking so many questions about the characters in the movie... hahaha... a few times I had to hush him.. well.. for one, rapunzel is a fairy tale that normally little girls read about, while boys are busy playing with guns...

And today, we just spent lazing around in the living room... tido satu hari... best... sampai nak masak pun malas... it was Muaz who prepared lunch today (ayam masak kicap and vegetables)... thanks Muaz... my own chef in black.. hehe..

So... I had a very good rest this weekend (which is very rare)... to prepare for another week  (minus Tuesday - public holiday for Maal Hijrah) of kelam kabut at the office.. I just hope that there wont be any bidan terjun job for me to do again this week...

Bisikan hati...

Tiba2 teringat lagu ni...

Dengarlah bisikan hasrat hati

Yang merindu menjelma kembali

Ingatanku yang telah lalu

Bersama berjanji sehidup semati

Kini tinggal hanyalah kenangan

Dikau hilang di mana gerangan

Tiada berita kudapati

Hanya ingatanku di masa yang lalu

Kasihanlah kepada ku sayang

Tiap hari jua wajahmu terbayang

Ampunkanlah segala dosaku

Seandainya kita tak lagi bertemu

Dengarlah bisikan hasrat hati

Yang merindu menjelma kembali

Ingatanku tetap bersemadi

Walaupun kau kini telah mungkir janji

Another last minute assignment...

I tend to get more and more of this nowadays...like I have become the official bidan terjun for the faculty... Aduh... letihlah macam ni...

One colleague commented: "sebab u perform jugak walaupun last minute, that's why management pick u..."

Is that really the reason? Serba salah pulak kita... kalau buat keje ala kadar, kena label "sloppy", kalau buat elok2 asyik kena "pick" la pulak... diluah mati mak ditelan mati bapak...

But really... I'm really getting tired of being assigned last minute to do something which sometimes is not something small... like the time I was asked to be in the organising committee for an event launched by a minister... nasib baik the launching went well, kalau tidak, mau putus leher aku kena pancung...

The thing about last minute assignment that pissed me off is that I normally have to set aside something else which is actually my real KPI or tugas hakiki... So, when the deadline of the original KPI is not met, sure kena pulak, the appointment-to-do-the-last-minute-assignment excuse is never accepted. Instead, bad time management is usually blamed...

In some instances, like in today's case, I was told to prepare a presentation to be tabled to the management tomorrow, this morning... And I had a class in the morning, and 3 meetings in the afternoon - all these cannot be canceled or postponed... So, basically I was not given any time to prepare for the presentation. When I commented about it to my immediate boss, she said "u kan otai... kacang je tu..."... aduh...

Letih... letih... but what to do... as one friend puts it "kita ni mentimun, mereka durian, menggolek kita luka, digelek kita luka"... huhu... sob sob...

Oklah, got to go... got to finish the presentation... wish me luck... :))

Facebook...

To me, like people always say about guns... it is not the gun that kills people, it is the person pulling the trigger...

Even drugs can be used as remedies... like me right now... I'm on drugs (medicine) for my blood pressure and blood sugar problems... as a friend puts it, if you have 1kg of morphine in your pocket during solat, your solat is still sah...

Anyway... FB can be used for many good causes... yet ada juga nak salah guna... agaknya sebab tu la FB is banned in China....

Finally... Just "US"... ahhhhh...

(This is actually a long overdue post... but what the heck, to me it was just like yesterday... good feelings stay with you forever kan...)

We were separated in raya of previous 2 years for obvious reason/s. This raya was like a "reunion" raya for me and my FIL, MIL and the Pagoh clan...

It was nice, we had red raya just like the previous year... new outfits, but same colour theme.. some people actually asked if we didnt buy new outfits for this year's raya... :)

And I think this was really the first time that we had a chance to celebrate raya just "us", no "outsiders"... I checked photos of our previous rayas, and found that we actually never had raya photos just the 7 of us (or 6 of us, when we were only 6, or 5 of us when we were only 5..... or 3 when we were only 3... got the picture? *wink)... we always had unwanted pelakun tambahan... except this year... and that gave me a real good feeling... :)

On top of that, FIL and MIL were very nice to me, extremely nice I might add...

Ok, here are some photos of just the 7 of us...

The 7 of us plus FIL and MIL

Just "us"...

My body guards... don't mess with me...

MJ and me...

Busy...

Work has been almost impossible to catch up with... deadline upon deadline upon deadline... overlapping and queing like a row of ants to nowhere...

Oh well... no use complaining... at least I have a job... a good one too... *smile...

So... akhir kata...

Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted. --David Bly

Have a nice weekend everyone!!

 

Sumpah (not the sumpah org minyak kind...)

I spent my raya haji recently at my inlaws' house in Johor... as I wrote in my last entry, it was one raya that I will remember for a long time if not foroever...

One of the events that made it memorable is related to the title above...

My MIL and FIL have 11 children, all are married now. And between them I think they have more than 30 grandchildren. Recently they have been blessed with yet another grandaughter, a beautiful Putri something (I forgot her full name - ramai sangat anak sedara, susah nak ingat nama *grin).  As usual, adat melayu (and Jawa too, btw, my inlaws are Javanese), masa confinement we would stay with our parents ("we" mean the ladies). So, following the tradition, that was just what my youngest SIL did...

Unfortunately, during the stay, my MIL had an argument (more like a confrontation) with my SIL's husband which resulted in him swearing (bersumpah) to never set his foot in my MIL's house again... Adoi... itu lah orang melayu (Jawa pun sama)... suka sangat bersumpah-sumpah... consequently, during the raya haji recently, when he came he had to stay outside la kan... because he had to honour his sumpah... At first I didnt know about it, so I wondered why he was staying outside while my SIL was with us inside the house... It was another SIL that explained to me... hmm...

Suddenly I remembered another person in the family (one of my MIL's daughter in law) who once also did take the exact same oath (sumpah) some 20 years ago... she also pledged that she would never set her foot in my MIL's house ever again... tapi sekarang selamba badak je pulak keluar masuk rumah orang tua tu sesuka hati dia je... *grin **wink...

That's why orang tua2 selalu pesan... be careful with what you say... terlajak perahu boleh berundur, terlajak kata buruk padahnya... bersumpah-sumpah ni tak baik... kalau muka tak malu boleh lah selamba je jilat balik kata2 sumpahan sendiri... *grin... kalau tidak, kenalah selama hayat dikandung badan menanggung sumpahan yg dilafaz sendiri, samada secara sengaja atau tak sengaja... kan susah tu...

AidilAdha...

A very memorable AidilAdha indeed...

Inilah kali pertama seumur hidup aku tengok lembu disembelih betul2 depan mata... lembu tu pulaknya jinak, the night before they were to be slaughtered, MJ and the kids boleh main2 lagi dgn 2 ekor lembu tu... they must have known that they were going to do something for a noble cause...

And being a hypertensive patient myself, I shouldnt be eating so much beef... tapi that day, sebab the beef and bone were so fresh, I couldnt help myself... I think I drank up 3 bowls of soup and a couple of plates of rice to go with that... adoi... lepas ni kena go on a strict diet... cant go on giving excuse "ala sekali sekala apa salahnya..." because the sekali sekala has really turned out to be banyak kali banyak kala... *grin...

MJ and his family bought 2 cows for qurban this year... One was for the 7 of us (MJ, me and our 5 kids). And the other one was divided among 7 members of his siblings and parents. Even though this raya was extremely simple raya, (simple means no baju raya, no kuih raya, no visiting relatives), I felt utterly happy and contented... 

significance and insignificance

Life is short, life expectancy in Malaysia is about 74 years, and the age of the earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years. 74 vs. 4.5 billion years... if you take the ratio, it is 0.00000001644444444444...

That is the fact... life on earth is extremely short, so, make the most of it, by making yourself significant to those who are significant in your life.

However, there are some people who actually think that they are so significant, that everything in this world is about them. Everything everyone says is about them, everything everyone does is related to them and everything that everyone writes is also about them. And in the end, they get stressed up unnecessarily.

Well... life is too short, I just want to be significant to those who are significant to me. I want to be happy with my significant people... and indeed right now I am happy...

Perfect Sunday...

Even though it was a working Sunday... it was still a PERFECT SUNDAY... In fact it was a perfect weekend for me... Come to think of it last week was really a perfect week for me...

Work was abundant... deadlines were endless, which I managed to meet most of them... oh, one misfortune did happen... I lost a staff on 24 hour notice, but even that somehow did not spoil my mood...

I'm seeing many things with a new perspective now...

working weekend...

This is a working weekend for me... management retreat to review last financial's business plan and to present next financial year's activities... I'm not complaining, in fact I feel very honoured to be part of the management team of this organisation... though my part is actually very tiny...

The meeting yesterday ended at almost 11pm...

And today's session is about to start... perfect sunday...

Yeay!!

Yeay!! mission accomplished!!!

hahaha...

Some people are really over confident... and talk as if they are better than everybody else... and in this particular case that I am refering to, the person is still very young... which I cannot help but to blame the parents for instilling the values in her that cause her to have the annoying attitude that she has... she thinks that she is so pretty (and mind you... she is NOT pretty at all), so clever (yesterday proves that she is actually STUPID, well stupid may be too strong... she's not as smart as she thinks she is la kot... *grin), so rich (sebab family dia penyamun!!!)... OMG so annoying!!!

So, hey girl... if you're reading this... and I know you do follow my blog (you and your idiot sisters and cousins)... I hope that you feel that you are being squashed by the squash zombie!!!

Serve you right you little witch!!! for someone as young as you, you can really be a big bitch!!! 

So... the conclusion? I'm happy today... no matter how bad my day turns out today (I mean it can be really bad, because there will be a management retreat starting at 2.30pm today until Sunday, and everyday the schedule is up to 12.00am...yup.. it can be that bad...)... I will be smiling all day and all through the weekend too... :)))

Autumn in Beijing

My work has brought me to many places here in Malaysia as well as overseas... and last 22-25 Oct 2010, it brought me to China... Tianjin and Beijing to be specific...

I went there to accompany 59 students to complete their final project for their subjects Cross Cultural Management and Global Strategic Management. 

(this post is still in draft actually... when i have time i will edit... bz sangat sekarang ni...)

Tianjin-Binhai International Airport

It was autumn in Beijing, thus the panorama along the road on the bus ride from Tianjin to Beijing that took almost 2 hours reminded me so much of my student days in New England, US, in the 1980s... Autumn has always been my favourite season of the year... Cool and soft wind, golden leaves... syahdu...

Bus ride from Tianjin to Beijing took about 2 hours...

Our first stop - Niu Jie (Ox Street) Mosque, to perform Asar (jamak with Zuhr) and Maghrib (jamak with Isya'). When we arrived there it was after 5pm, and the bell (no azan) to announce the Maghrib time rang just as we finished performing Zuhr and Asr... Maghrib time was 5.33pm if I am not mistaken.

Niu Jie Mosque is the oldest and the largest mosque in Beijing, it was built in year 996 during the Liao Dynasty and was rebuilt, expanded and renovated many times after that, the most recent was 15 years ago.  The architecture of the mosque is a mixture of both Islamic and Chinese cultures, which is not unexpected at all - the bulding shows strong Chinese influence while the interior is decorated with Islamic decorations and Arabic scriptures/Quranic verses. As I walked from the front gate to the solat hall for women, I felt like I was walking inside an ancient Chinese palace...

Nui Jie literally means Ox Street and according to the our guide, the street was named as such because Muslims mainly eat beef and there are many restaurants and shops in the area selling food made of beef. And these halal shops and restaurants  are easy to identify - the colour of the front door or signage is green. The front door or signage for muslim schools are also painted in green.

There are about 200,000 Muslims in Beijing and some 10,000 (ten thousand) of them are residing and working in this area. Total population of Beijing is 16 million, by the way. And total population of China is 1.4 billion... phuh...

The chinese lady on my right (in the photo below) is the care taker of the mosque...


Outside of the solat hall for women...

By that time, our stomachs were beginning to sing some keroncong songs already... the last meal we had was breakfast on Air Asia X... the guide wanted to bring us to watch the famous Beijing Acrobat Show  as the show was scheduled to begin at 7.30pm. But the students were so hungry, I had to request from the guide to take us to dinner first.

The Beijing Acrobat Show...  

I was informed by the guide, the youngest performer was 5 years old, and the oldest was 19.

The highlight of the tour was on the second day where we scheduled to visit one of the 7 wonders of the world and the only man-made structure that can be seen from space - the Great Wall... 

 

  

Day 3 -  fresh water pearl culture center - Freesky Pearls Beijing.

I have already had a good collection of pearls from Sabah... and I thought that these pearls would not tempt me... hah!! was I wrong... I just couldnt resist those dangling ear rings and sparkling bracelets... oh well... takkan tak beli souvinirs kan... hahaha... nak rationalise konon...

Pasu... pasu and  pasu..... sigh....

Food was terrible... nasib baik the trip was only 4 days and 3 nights, 

if it were longer than that I think I'd die of hunger...

A beggar on the street - we were warned not to give beggars any money, tapi kesian pulak tengoknya.... Actually I didnt find that many beggar on the street - unlike in India and Indonesia...

At the Herbal Center - where we got a free foot massage...

IBM Beijing...

Bicycle Parking Area next to Carrefour Beijing... the government encourages people to use bicycles, many incentives are offered such as very cheap rental rate (150 yuan a year per bicycle...). Right now there are 4 million cars on the road in Beijing - that's 1 for every person in Beijing...

I didnt buy anything at this Silk Center - even though the price was quite reasonable (in fact cheaper than in Malaysia), the pattern was outdated...

Acrobat Show...

Wangfijing Street - where we bought most of our souvinirs.... but later we found out we could 

get cheaper souvinirs at Sony Market.... (cheated by the tourist guide...)

At the Herbal Center - where we got a free foot massage... ahhhh.... nice...

 

Marco Polo Bridge - at the Longevity Lake (Summer Palace) 
The temperature went down to -4 degrees that day...

Summer Palace - where the Dragon Lady liked to spend her summer...

The Birdnest (Olympic Stadium)

With Mr Tomson (owner of Olympic Stadium Gift Shop)

Water Cube

Young Imam Taufiq (Masjid at the Olympic Village... forgot the name of the masjid)

Masjid near the Olympic Village where we did our community service

Last day - before boarding the airplane to fly home...