Sekeping hati dibawa berlari
Jauh melalui jalanan sepi
Jalan kebenaran indah terbentang
Di depan matamu para pejuang
Tapi jalan kebenaran
Tak akan selamanya sunyi
Ada ujian yang datang melanda
Ada perangkap menunggu mangsa
Akan kuatkah kaki yang melangkah
Bila disapa duri yang menanti
Akan kaburkah mata yang meratap
Pada debu yang pastikan hinggap
Mengharap senang dalam berjuang
Bagai merindu rembulan di tengah siang
Jalannya tak seindah sentuhan mata
Pangkalnya jauh hujungnya belum tiba
-saujana-
One of my favourite song for many years. Reminding me of the arduous tasks lies ahead of me. Strengthening my spirit and will in persevering uncharted life in the future.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Bismi anyone....
HARDCOPY: Mamak restaurants add to pop culture
Syed Nadzri
June 23
A NEW wave of Malaysian restaurants in the form of chic unconventional mamak cafes are mushrooming all over the place — in most cases occupying strategic corner shoplots in housing estates, heritage bungalows near popular nightspots or even disused cinemas.
And instead of the usual names that were so characteristic of the eateries, like Bismillah Restaurant or Restoran Rahman, we now have Canai n Such, Mamak Bistro, Pelita, Ayza, Original Nasi Kandar and many more fancy names, each offering the same kind of Malaysian favourites, but in a "cool" and trendy ambience that attracts the young like ants to sugar.
These are mainly Indian Muslim or mamak joints — nothing derogatory about the term because "mamak" means uncle and it is, in fact, a term of endearment particularly among Indian Muslims and Malays in Penang. Even Mamak Bistro shouts its name on the billboards and it is hugely popular.
The explosion is most evident in the Klang Valley and Penang. Evidently, mamak restaurants are perhaps the single most noticeable change in these areas over the last two years, according to an engineer who has just returned to Kuala Lumpur after an 18-month stint in the Middle East.
"It is a phenomenon probably as big as the advent of the cineplexes which pushed the traditional cinemas out of the picture," he said. "This is going to be part of Malaysian pop culture."
And we all thought that those various foodcourts which were becoming a big trend themselves would drive the traditional restaurants out of business.
What’s interesting about these restaurants is that they know how to attract the customers, particularly the young crowd and the yuppies — big screen TVs with amplified sound systems ideal for live football, comfortable chairs and tables not unlike the ones at Starbucks, brightly-lit interiors with clear colourful menu boards on the wall and ample outdoor tables.
The old days of the typical mamak restaurant in hot and humid shoplots with wet mosaic floors, tiled walls and cheap plastic chairs are over.
Most of these restaurants also operate 24 hours a day, providing a wide variety of Malaysian staples ranging from rice and curry to naan roti and sup kambing. I’m not sure about the quality of the food though despite some of the restaurants claiming to offer genuine Penang nasi kandar or the best briyani in town.
So it must be the ambience rather than the quality of food that draws most customers to chat for hours on end over their daily fix of teh tarik.
Service is normally very satisfactory due to the good number of waiters and helpers, mostly immigrant workers. The fierce competition among these restaurants is reflected on how they try to outdo each other on workers’ uniforms that give them a sense of identity. Some of the uniforms are designed with the colours of the Malaysian flag, some with hip black t-shirts, and so on.
I asked Muslim Restaurant Owners Association of Malaysia president Jamarulkhan Abdul Kadir the other day about what is causing the mamak restaurant boom and his answer was simple: A supply and demand situation.
He said the concept of the restaurants works on young people — food and entertainment blending just nicely with the environment.
"Many of the restaurants offer a sidewalk café kind of environment at just a fraction of the prices in the designer coffee shops," he added. "Where in the world can you get a piece of roti canai for 80 sen and thosai for RM1? Only in Malaysia. In India you pay 35 rupees for thosai and that’s about RM3.
"By being a 24-hour operation, we provide a cheap alternative to pubs, discos and clubs. Many young people flock to our restaurants to watch live soccer matches, just as some do in pubs and bars.
"Ours therefore provide clean fun because we don’t serve alcohol and we are too open for undesirable activities like drug-taking by our customers."
The restaurants also appeal to working professionals — not only those looking for quick meals but business lunches as well. According to Jamarulkhan, he has seen many business deals being concluded across the tables of mamak restaurants after fish-head curry treats.
Jamarulkhan, who runs the Restoran Syed chain, however said opening a new wave restaurant requires a lot of investment.
"Those days, you only need to spend about RM30,000 to start a decent restaurant. With this new concept, you need something between RM300,000 and RM1 million.
"But the returns can be good."
Jamarulkhan said many of the owners of mamak restaurants are carrying on a family business into the third or fourth generation.
Although some of the restaurants have many branches, they are not a franchised trade. "It’s not easy to start a franchise because this requires another level of business expertise. For instance, you have to have a central production unit to ensure consistency in quality. But we are getting there."
New Strait Times
When I read this article on New Strait Times, I chuckled. Seems it is the norm here too at Melbourne ;)
The most famous restaurant among Malaysian students here without doubt is Bismi restaurant. It was renowned for its many tasty and mouth savouring food. It even has many branches here at Melbourne scattering all over the city.
If you would like to feel the atmosphere of Malaysia, just go to Bismi Restaurant. With the taste of Malaysian foods and with the full crowd of Malaysian and Singaporean over there, that is the best you can afford to release your homesickness ;) That by the way is only for those who are homesicks.
In my opinion, Bismi is best for its food and since it was just a far cry from my house, what do you expect. Surely will I be visitng this place quite often.
My housemates even made a joke about Bismi restaurant. Bismi ie with the name of restaurant. How's that for a name :D
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Love
When we were born into this world, we learned to utter the word mom and dad. Then as we walked to the new world surrounding us, we got to know our siblings and cousins. We learned to love them. First, our parent then our close relatives.
As we approached the era of school and the formal education, we met new people and we called them friends. Some we considered them as our best friends to which we can told all our doom and glooms. Best friend is the place where we share our thought and opinions in facing the everchanging world. We learned to love our best friends.
In the place called the school, we met our teachers. The teachers taught us to respect and love the one who taught us. Thus, we learned to love our teachers.
The teachers also mentioned as a good citizen, we ought to love our government and to have pride in our nation. The land we lived on, has provided us with many blessings. Thus, we learned to love the nation and the government who lead the country.
Some of our teachers told us about faith. We were taught that if we do good things, we will get reward and we do bad things, we will be punished by God. So, we followed.
As we grow up and enter the era of adulthood, many things and event occured. We learned to love many new things. We learned to love to be in a famous group. We learned to love the actor and actress that appeared in the TV, magazines and newspapers. We learned to love technology. Some of us asked and pleaded to our beloved parent to equip us with mobile phone, computers and many new inventions. In the age of adulthood, many new forms of love we encounter to which most of us become a loyal follower.
As we left the age of adulthood, some of us gained a strange insight. An idea that told us to love human of different gender. Weird indeed that when we were small kids, we does not even care what 'the different gender' do or does. As long we can received the love from our parent and siblings, 'the different gender' does not matter.
By the early 20s or 30s, most of us find our future spouse and get married. We learned to love our spouse. Whatever our spouse demand of, we will try as much as we can do to attend to. We become devoted to the love of our spouse. Some people by this time, the love towards their spouse will be greater than the love towards their parent. Strange. The first love we encountered in our life is the love towards our parent and now, we seems would like to leave them alone, loveless.
A couple of years later, our kids will be born. Looking over their new and cute face, we learned to love them all. By this time, our love seem to be divided into many. Love towards our parent, if it still exists, love towards our spouse and then, the love towards our kids. We devoted much of our time to attend to the needs of each part of our love.
As we grow older, our kids now become teenagers. Then, they get married and have their own kids. If they still remember to love us as their own parent, we will get the chance to see our grandchildrens. Seeing the cute little ones, our loves again shattered and generated a new division of love. We learned to love our own grandchildrens. Whenever the grandchildrens came to visit us, we will be overjoyed. If they want ice-creams, we gave them the best we can offer.
As we getting more older, our body diminished in their strength and vitality. Our spouse probably will die of old age, if we were lucky. When our beloved parent died, we cried. When our beloved spouse died and leaved us alone, we cried even more.
Living all alone with only the love for our own kids and grandchildrens, we tend to contemplate all the past events. Is there anything in the past that I can do better? We learned to appreciate every form of love that we possessed in this time. Live life to the fullest.
Starting from beginning till now, which form of love we have forgotten? Most of us, when we were old and has nothing to do, will regret on one form of love. A love that most of us neglected the most although it is the most important form of love. When we were kids, we were taught but never appreciate it. When we were teenagers, we were to busy to pursue the love of 'the different gender'. When we were married and have our own kids, we tend to devote most of all times to our love towards our spouse and our own kids. When we have our own grandchildrens, we put most of our love into them. The most important and the highest form of love, we seems to forgot and never paid any attention before. When the signs of death approaches, we will regret that we have never try to pursue the highest form of love. Without the highest form of love, we will be perished and thrown into hellfire.
The highest form of love is to love our Almighty Creator. He is the One who taught us to love all His creatures. He is the One who gave us a life to be fulfilled with. Yet, we filled our own life with many form of love but never with the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Taala.
Yet, to attain the highest form of love is nevertheless that easy. Some people will try but later succumb to receive failure. Some people tried even harder but then, they cannot endure the torments and affliction that come with it.
The love of Allah is only for those who managed to persevere the most. If you want to pursue the highest form of love, be prepared. It ain't easy along the way.
Wallahullam
As we approached the era of school and the formal education, we met new people and we called them friends. Some we considered them as our best friends to which we can told all our doom and glooms. Best friend is the place where we share our thought and opinions in facing the everchanging world. We learned to love our best friends.
In the place called the school, we met our teachers. The teachers taught us to respect and love the one who taught us. Thus, we learned to love our teachers.
The teachers also mentioned as a good citizen, we ought to love our government and to have pride in our nation. The land we lived on, has provided us with many blessings. Thus, we learned to love the nation and the government who lead the country.
Some of our teachers told us about faith. We were taught that if we do good things, we will get reward and we do bad things, we will be punished by God. So, we followed.
As we grow up and enter the era of adulthood, many things and event occured. We learned to love many new things. We learned to love to be in a famous group. We learned to love the actor and actress that appeared in the TV, magazines and newspapers. We learned to love technology. Some of us asked and pleaded to our beloved parent to equip us with mobile phone, computers and many new inventions. In the age of adulthood, many new forms of love we encounter to which most of us become a loyal follower.
As we left the age of adulthood, some of us gained a strange insight. An idea that told us to love human of different gender. Weird indeed that when we were small kids, we does not even care what 'the different gender' do or does. As long we can received the love from our parent and siblings, 'the different gender' does not matter.
By the early 20s or 30s, most of us find our future spouse and get married. We learned to love our spouse. Whatever our spouse demand of, we will try as much as we can do to attend to. We become devoted to the love of our spouse. Some people by this time, the love towards their spouse will be greater than the love towards their parent. Strange. The first love we encountered in our life is the love towards our parent and now, we seems would like to leave them alone, loveless.
A couple of years later, our kids will be born. Looking over their new and cute face, we learned to love them all. By this time, our love seem to be divided into many. Love towards our parent, if it still exists, love towards our spouse and then, the love towards our kids. We devoted much of our time to attend to the needs of each part of our love.
As we grow older, our kids now become teenagers. Then, they get married and have their own kids. If they still remember to love us as their own parent, we will get the chance to see our grandchildrens. Seeing the cute little ones, our loves again shattered and generated a new division of love. We learned to love our own grandchildrens. Whenever the grandchildrens came to visit us, we will be overjoyed. If they want ice-creams, we gave them the best we can offer.
As we getting more older, our body diminished in their strength and vitality. Our spouse probably will die of old age, if we were lucky. When our beloved parent died, we cried. When our beloved spouse died and leaved us alone, we cried even more.
Living all alone with only the love for our own kids and grandchildrens, we tend to contemplate all the past events. Is there anything in the past that I can do better? We learned to appreciate every form of love that we possessed in this time. Live life to the fullest.
Starting from beginning till now, which form of love we have forgotten? Most of us, when we were old and has nothing to do, will regret on one form of love. A love that most of us neglected the most although it is the most important form of love. When we were kids, we were taught but never appreciate it. When we were teenagers, we were to busy to pursue the love of 'the different gender'. When we were married and have our own kids, we tend to devote most of all times to our love towards our spouse and our own kids. When we have our own grandchildrens, we put most of our love into them. The most important and the highest form of love, we seems to forgot and never paid any attention before. When the signs of death approaches, we will regret that we have never try to pursue the highest form of love. Without the highest form of love, we will be perished and thrown into hellfire.
The highest form of love is to love our Almighty Creator. He is the One who taught us to love all His creatures. He is the One who gave us a life to be fulfilled with. Yet, we filled our own life with many form of love but never with the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Taala.
Yet, to attain the highest form of love is nevertheless that easy. Some people will try but later succumb to receive failure. Some people tried even harder but then, they cannot endure the torments and affliction that come with it.
The love of Allah is only for those who managed to persevere the most. If you want to pursue the highest form of love, be prepared. It ain't easy along the way.
Wallahullam
Sunday, June 19, 2005
the shade of Allah.
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet (p.b.u.h) said, "Seven people will be shaded by Allah under His shade on the day when there will be no shade except His. They are:
(1) a just ruler;
(2) a young man who has been brought up in the worship of Allah, (i.e. worship Allah (Alone) sincerely from his childhood),
(3) a man whose heart is attached to the mosque (who offers the five compulsory congregational prayers in the mosque);
(4) two persons who love each other only for Allah's sake and they meet and part in Allah's cause only;
(5) a man who refuses the call of a charming woman of noble birth for an illegal sexual intercourse with her and says: I am afraid
of Allah;
(6) a person who practices charity so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand has given (i.e. nobody knows how much he has given in charity).
(7) a person who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes get flooded with tears."
-Bukhari, Muslim and Ahmad-
On the Day of Judgement where all human beings will be suffering from distress and hardship, Allah bestows upon these seven group of people as a great blessing for the true believers.
‘Uqbah ibn ‘Aamir said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say:
“The sun will be brought near to the earth and the people will sweat. For some people, the sweat will come up to their heels; for some it will come halfway up their shins; for some it will come up to their knees; for some it will come up to their backsides; for some it will come up to their hips; for some it will come up to their shoulders; for some it will come up to their necks; for some it will come up to the middle of their mouths; and some of them will be comepletely covered with their sweat.”
-Ahmad-
Truly, without the shade of Allah, we will be afflicted with great distress and difficulty. Out of these seven group of people, which one are we?
Reflecting upon my deeds in the past.
Friday, June 17, 2005
jumping to the outside world
This couple of days, I have been busy. First with the reformatting of my laptop. Now, I'm currently head my nose deep into books again. Not medical books though ;)
I know the exam is over but I'm not revising for the next semester yet. In fact, I never study the next semester beforehand as some of my friends do. So, what book I read now eh?
:D currently have finished book written by Michael Crichton. For your information, he is a famous writer to which many of his books made into movies. Yet he is a Harvard-trained doctor. Envy him a lot.
He is the author of Jurassic Park and also the screen writer of the famour ER. Many of his novels were based on science facts and that what made his novels interesting. The way he blends science with the art of writing. That is one strong achievement to be produced by a physician who learned and educated from science backgground.
The novel that I read called 'sphere'. Basically, it talks about the deep sea adventure of few scientist confronting with alien spacecraft. After reaching the last page, truly I am satisfied with the message that the author tried to bring on.
Human are gifted with the power of imagination. He can imagine good or bad things but never take the responsibility due to his imagination. Think of scientist who had imagined of creating an atomic bomb in the first place. They want to end the war as soon as possible but never they knew that the repercussion of the bomb lasts many generations. Till today, the generations of atomic bomb survivors still suffering from the effect of the atomic bomb explosion.
Who ever you are now today, you are what you are imagined of. If you imagined yourself as a confident and amicable person, you will achieve your imagination. If you think yourself as a person who are hostile and immersed with the feeling of doom and gloom, so be it. You will be that kind of person.
The power of imagination are truly remarkable. It can changed one person from one extreme to another extreme. What would happen to the world if Bill Gate does not envisaged the usefullness of making personal computers back at 1980s? What would happen if nobody dares to imagine that human can reach the aerospace?
Without imagination, human will fail to fully utilise his/her capability. There is always inside us, a certain innate ablity that remain to be discovered. We will never know we have it till we try to discover it. Some people never know they are good at writing till they started to write. Some people never know that they good at painting till they start to paint.
In essence, the life is full of discovery. What it needs is for the person to take the first step. Have we done that yet?
I know the exam is over but I'm not revising for the next semester yet. In fact, I never study the next semester beforehand as some of my friends do. So, what book I read now eh?
:D currently have finished book written by Michael Crichton. For your information, he is a famous writer to which many of his books made into movies. Yet he is a Harvard-trained doctor. Envy him a lot.
He is the author of Jurassic Park and also the screen writer of the famour ER. Many of his novels were based on science facts and that what made his novels interesting. The way he blends science with the art of writing. That is one strong achievement to be produced by a physician who learned and educated from science backgground.
The novel that I read called 'sphere'. Basically, it talks about the deep sea adventure of few scientist confronting with alien spacecraft. After reaching the last page, truly I am satisfied with the message that the author tried to bring on.
Human are gifted with the power of imagination. He can imagine good or bad things but never take the responsibility due to his imagination. Think of scientist who had imagined of creating an atomic bomb in the first place. They want to end the war as soon as possible but never they knew that the repercussion of the bomb lasts many generations. Till today, the generations of atomic bomb survivors still suffering from the effect of the atomic bomb explosion.
Who ever you are now today, you are what you are imagined of. If you imagined yourself as a confident and amicable person, you will achieve your imagination. If you think yourself as a person who are hostile and immersed with the feeling of doom and gloom, so be it. You will be that kind of person.
The power of imagination are truly remarkable. It can changed one person from one extreme to another extreme. What would happen to the world if Bill Gate does not envisaged the usefullness of making personal computers back at 1980s? What would happen if nobody dares to imagine that human can reach the aerospace?
Without imagination, human will fail to fully utilise his/her capability. There is always inside us, a certain innate ablity that remain to be discovered. We will never know we have it till we try to discover it. Some people never know they are good at writing till they started to write. Some people never know that they good at painting till they start to paint.
In essence, the life is full of discovery. What it needs is for the person to take the first step. Have we done that yet?
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