Salam Lebaran - Eid Mubaraks

Salam Aidilfitri to all Muslims in the world. In a short while, during dawn, it will mark the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Syawal, the starting of Eid Celebrations for Muslims. This event is an annual event whereby Muslims around the world will celebrate their commitment to fasting successfully for 30 days and celebrate with new clothes and visiting one another to strengthen their ties.

In Southeast Asia, mainly, Malaysia,Indonesia,Singapore and Brunei, this festive day is celebrated joyously with colours, food and tradition. The malay baju Melayu or the traditional Malay clothing for men and the baju kebaya or Kurung for the Malay Ladies will be worn throughout their visiting to families and friends. The difference here is the Malay Tradition encourages forgiveness from one another and this is widely encouraged from all walks of life so as to forget the fast and forgive the mistakes done by one another and be closer than before.

Now, if this spirit of enemies becoming brothers and forgiving is currently being practiced by us here, wouldn't you call this the month of Love and Happiness?

It's Syawal and it will mean a lot to those who have fasted for 30 days. I do not understand when peple will say that they have difficulties in fasting for 30 days especially when children as young as 7 years old who have not reached puberty, are currently doing so. Well, its up to them and its between them and Allah.

Anyway, in a few hours time, Ramadan will move along. I love Ramadan and I hope that I will be able to see you again next year. May Allah bless us all. Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf Zahir Batin.

The Love Birds That Have Gone Astray..

It was just a few days ago when my classmate, Faz and I were doing our project in school. Both of us are fasting and I cannnot tell you how much I love this month. It brings me peace and happiness. In fact, I can never be angry during this month as I feel calm and relax.

How I wish I can have this month of Ramadan forever. It will indeed brighten up my life always. Well, back to the story, both of us are on our way to the computer lab in the library. Suddenly we bumped into these Muslim couple in the lift. The lady is using a veil, a Muslim Lady's headgear and the Man was holding her hand firmly.

This is a normal scene in my school. There are so many lovebirds going around every now and than. However, what we are concerned is that, this couple refuse to respect Ramadan. They are not only always to themselves and anti-social but, they gladly and freely kiss in front of us on their cheeks. Haha. A veiled woman kissing her boyfriend on the cheeks. Hmm. Hey, what happen? Why are you disrespecting Ramadan? Plus, i do not care if this couple to have sex but what angers me is that they are not in their greatest goodwill attitude in this month of Ramdan.

Let me get this straight. I have nothing against Muslim Ladies wearing Veil. I believe most of them look sweet and humble in it. On the contrary, we will not even see this as a threat to our daily progressive lives. One thing for sure, I have always had high expectations for veiled ladies to behave in public as they represent icons of Islam itself. If one is not to behave accordingly or appropriately in public, it will be a mediocre.

Well, like i said to Faz, let them answer to God directly. We shall mind our own business and concentrate on our projects and examinations. The more we try to be Superman, we will end becoming Strained Man.

Have a great Ramadan and Syawal Celebrations. It's 3 days to countdown.

An Overly Expressive Individual

Yes, the title speaks for it. In this glorious month of Ramadan, I never thought that I can be tested so much on faith as I continue my daily fasting. Ok, here is a little story touching on my school life.

We are all tasked to create a Student Centred Learning package using Info-Communications Technology. We are divided into pair groups and were asked to implement such a package within a month's time.

The funny thing about this is that, my group had decided to finish this project asap and we manage to do that quickly during our one week holiday break last two weeks. Last Monday, we are all asked to post some ideas of our proposals up to our class forum so that we can receive constructive feedback by others to improve on.

Thats the funny part. We decided to ask some of our good classmates whom we are familiar with to comment on our project and vice versa. What we get is an abhorrent remarks degrading our project's motives. We were appalled at his remarks. To make the matter worse, his comments are so unprofessional and unconstructive and immature that I feel like giving him a tight slap.

This is not because that I cannot take criticisms well but there's no basis to his arguments on the forum. A quote from his remarks is where he mentioned that peer assesment cannot be done by Primary 3 students whom are still immature and naive. Sigh. Apparently, this statement shows how inexperienced of him to judge our project and worse condemning the capabilities of primary 3 students. Another quote was when he said that I need to improve on my snapshot of our package as it is not easy to be viewed. He is darn wrong in this. He is mistaken on the software used for the project. I feel like hitting his head with water to wake up his bloody mind. The reason is, the information that we uploaded into the forum clearly depicts our snapshot idea of the package. It does not entirely mean that it is our package. It can be a form of a webpage or flowchart. This is where I believe that without Information Technology knowledge, people will be against IT development in many ways. What happen here is that, he tried to unzip the file and run the programme from winzip itself. Oh my god, how pathetic that can be. He was supposed to extract the whole damn thing onto a folder in a pc and view the index.html file.

I feel so irritated with these people. Especially those students who thought that they know everything but they refuse to admit that they are confused and dumb about it. The frustrating part about this is that, he is our good friend in class and he sabotaged us by making his jealousy of our completed package, public to all.

Now, maybe this is a norm for all in school but I take this wholeheartedly and how do I prove him wrong? Definitely by showcasing them my final product on the day of presentation.

Stupid, young, naive and pathetic brat! I am fasting.

Ramadan's Celebration into Syawal

It has been more than two weeks ever since we fast together as Moslems worldwide. Celebrations of Ramadan can be clearly seen from places all around the world. This is indeed an exceptional thing for Singaporeans as we often welcome Ramadan with tremendous joy and faith always.

Geylang Serai has always been lighted up with coloourful decorations and grand bazaars to cater for the local Moslems to prepare their home with various food for breaking their fast, shopping in lieu of the coming Syawal Festive and so forth.

It is a time whereby many Moslems in Singapore or rather the whole Singaporean community to come together and enjoy the many delights and shopping items for them to purchase as a family.
I can say that many old friends met again during their visit here. It is like the only way where you can restore your ties amongst lost friends from the past.

Well, how can I say about Geylang Serai? It is a lighted up place annually for Ramadan which will always be the heart of every Singapore's community destination. There are other bazaars in other part of Singapore but i assure you it can never beat the grand and traditional feelings of Geylang Serai Bazaar.

Many of us will say that this is Malay Village Of Singaporeans. The older generations will say that this is the place whereby the roots of the local Malays can be found and thus that is why it is one of the oldest popular local and foreign hotspot.
Yesterday, I had bought my new Baju Melayu (Traditional Malay Clothing for Men) at this bazaar yesterday for fifty dollars. I think it is affordable for now. Well, of course it is always been like that for me as I will always purchase a new Baju Melayu every three years. Therefore, you can imagine the number of Baju Melayu I had in my wardrobe.

As all the years for Ramadan, I think this is a special year for me as i will be studying and doing assignments during the whole of Ramadan. To add things worse, I will be celebrating Syawal with examinations this year as a Trainee Teacher. It had been that long since I touched books for examinations!

However, I am bound to sacrifice the eve of Raya and Raya itself for my own happiness. This means there shall be no books on these two days before the battle started.

It's a week more to Syawal. Ramadan, is nearly over. For some, it is going to be very depressing to see Ramadan go away. I know I will. It is a month of peace and happiness.

A Husband In Dire Need Of Help

Well, what happen, Max? I happen to meet a very close friend's husband who is in a crisis in their relationship. That is the problem, I am always the person for them to look for when they face their marital issues.

I have to meet him up as he needs a man to man talk about his wife whom I had known for over a decade even before he marries her. I often end up in a situation like this. I always wanted to avoid such trivial matters but how can I do that when they happen to be my close friends?

Do you know the meaning of love? Is it to care for someone and to tell everything you know to the person? Is that part of love? If that is, is love real after all? Ironic, as this always happen to me. Is it our failure to love or our disatisfaction with our needs that disappoint our way of life?
As for my life, I have yet to see that.

Well, back to the story, I met him and we discuss about his marital issues. I told him many times, that I am not the right person to discuss with as I am not a married person but he declines that opinion. He told me that the only person that can change his wife's opinion on not divorcing him is myself. I was astonished! Yes, the wife has been a very close friend of mine for a long time. Why did he say that way to me than? I mean for six years of marriage, does this mean anything to the both of them? You see, the wife asked for a divorce.

The reasons? It is the normal stuff such as the husband's infidelity, debts and the unsatisfaction of life but, what does that have to do with me? He is like begging me to make me talk to the wife to change her mind, to give him the last chance so that he will change for the better.

Oh my god... These people are so pathetic. I , being the humble and nice person, lent him a ear to listen, give him some tips on how to handle her wife...or sad love life but in the end, both of us know that she does not love him anymore.

Now, do you really expect me to worship the concept of marriage? I simply am totally against it.

Deranged Person On The Train

Have you ever been so bored travelling on the bus or train or even while driving on a car that you realized that you need to have some music tuned in to the highest volume and had fun listening to it?

That was my feeling recently as I had a touch week of assignments and quizzes. Let me enlighten you with some typical visions in the morning on the train. People finding or rushing for seats every time, people sleeping comfortable on their seats ignoring everyone until their station arrives, people listening to mp3 players loudly, people standing with frowning faces looking for places to seat in a crowder train ride and people who are wide awake and simply love reading something.

I belong to almost all of these categories of people in the train. However, mostly, I will end up listening to my Ipod Nano and fly my way into a world of music and dance. Why not? It is a bloody one and a half hour journey to NIE. I need entertainment to cheer me up.

The best part happened to me last Friday. While I was having fun listening to my Ipod Nano, a stranger next to me stood up and give me a slap on my shoulder and start showing me his index fingers going all around his left ear. Now, at that spur of the moment, I felt surprised by his reaction. I thought he is referring to some horrible spider up on my right should and so I brushed my shoulder off but nothing was found. That's weird. What is he up to? The next possible reason will be that he is trying to tell me that he is crazy or he could just be disturbed by my loud Ipod Nano music. Well, for whatever he reasons, he left the station, leaving me smiling and shaking my head repetitively. Why me? There are other people on the train listening to loud music on their mp3 player. Why did he choose me? And that question shall linger on....Isnt that strange?

Is it me or am I giving up hope

I have never felt so calm and peaceful in any other months as in Ramadan. I mean, this month itself has told me to do a lot of soul searching to my life. It is a feeling to relinquish all evil or bad habits and embrace good habits or deeds. It is never felt in other time of the year and trust me, it is one of the most joyous and spiritual time for me.

I felt that sometimes, I face problems in understanding my lessons. Oh yeah, for the benefit of you who have yet to know me, I came from another blog, and had moved on to start writing about things which I have kept hidden before. I am now studying to be a trained teacher in NIE. I am faced with many subjects to learn and this has been one of the difficult times of my careers.

Why is it so? It is because, it has been 16 years since I touched Mathematics, be it, Grammar and Science. I am going to teach in the primary school in the near future. However, I thought wrong about learning primary school subjects in NIE. We are left with acquisition of knowledge of the deeper understanding of the primary school subjects. Let me tell you one thing though. It is tough. The momentum of getting to recall all my basic foundation of education has brought me into a pandemonium.

I was feeling rather upset recently as I find it hard to cope with the strenuous tutorials and lectures but it turns out to be a fantastic thing when I realise that I can actually progress better in understanding the lessons. I guess it comes from my passion to teach.

Yeah yeah, i know. The common reasons most people will say about joining teacher are most likely to be of their passion to teach, the love and joy of handling kids and so forth. On the contrary, I think, it is more to that. I ever heard from a senior teacher telling me one thing about being in this industry of educators. It is the passion of teaching the kids, loving the school, loving the parents and the ever after desire to do your best in becoming an inspirational person to someone. I guess it somehow makes sense to me than any other people joining this career as all my life, I have always wanted to help people in their studies and be the example of how students can turn out to be what they want when they choose to be.

Kass, one of my good buddies, told me the other day about his passion to teach. He has always wanted to teach and now he is currently studying in the National University Of Singapore. Like most people, I believe that all of us has it within ourselves to be a Teacher. Is it just how much we decide about what we want to do in our lives.

Oh well, i got two years to complete the Diploma. I will love to pursue a degree in education but that depends on the situation at that time. Till than, I guess I am not giving up hope on life yet until I can make a difference in someone's life.

The Class Reunion Of 1989

Oh my goodness, I had met some of my old secondary friends yesterday. Apparently, one of them had came across my friendster account and he decided to give me a message there. We exchanged numbers and what happened next was a meet up with two of my oldest and closest friends.

It was a remarkable experience to see them, yesterday. In fact, I was rapturously excited to see the various changes that had occurred in our lives ever since we graduated from our GCE 'O' level and moved on. Now, of course, both of them, AZ and Mur had settled down and they are both fathers of three and two kids altogether. Now, all of them must be wondering about me still being single and so forth but fortunately that question did not come to our discussion yesterday and we practically talked about wonderful times of our teenage lives in school.

Indeed, they had changed into mature adults. Raj and Han was there with me too as it was coincidental that the meet up coincides with my appointment with them. Therefore, since Raj and Han was our junior in our secondary school, they are 11 years younger than me, I thought it could be a good thing to introduce them to my fellow schoolmates whom had progressed so much in their lives. It was a good experience for them too to witness this long due meeting and it was enriching for them to decide on what they will like to do when they start their first career.

Back to the topic of Az and Mur, we yalked on many things. We compare our knowledge on the many ex secondary school friends who have departed from our lives. It's weird as in the first place, I chose to run away from mixing around with them instead. they were astounded about my limited information of the old friends we used to them. I just smiled as hey, I moved on. We all have different perspectives on life now and I am just glad that the reunion made me happier than before. Why? I am glad that I am still single and I am not a father with many issues clogged with financial burden and stuffs. It kind of make me feel relieved that I can do anything I want right now and not bothered about it.

Anyway, they are all very happy and I am amazed and overjoyed to know that they had travelled frequently. One of them is a Project Engineer and the other is a System Engineer. I am also glad that I manage to tell them that I am mid-career swap employee of MOE, a trainee teacher. They were surprised but they were pleased too.

The meeting ended with us telling one another to remain in touch. It is an indeed a shocking moment for me.

The Exceptional Bachelor

I had a great discussion with SPG, a friend of mine who resides in New York on a career basis. I confesses to her that I need a miracle to happen to me from God, if I am ever destined to get married. Oh no, it is not a matter of me getting desperate to get married. That is so demeaning to the word, marriage itself.

I had seen and dated many ladies in my life and the outcome of all the countless searches, ended up in disappointment at last. Who does not want to get married? I want my own kids of my own. I have begun to realize that I am not destined for that yet. How does that happen? Could it be the issue of me being "picky" in my choice of girls? Not really. It never meant to happen to me yet. I had come to an age whereby I have gone beyond of searching for the right one.

In fact, being to strive for a better life had turned me into a stubborn headed, yet patient and cautious in any decision in my life. As what, my old hyppcrite friend, Dave, used to say that I am a person who lacks "People-Relationship Skills", he is totally ignorant on what he claims. I am not affected by. I am just compelled to say that he lacks it himself with his constant "wayang" or bluffing with actions, with his friends.

In all, I have put his friendship aside with no issues at all after I got to know that of his desperate views on life. Why should I mingle with people who flew around the world, cleaning toilets in the airplane as their career and get drawn to their beliefs and practices? It's sad of him.

Back to my story, the search for the right girl continues but with a little change to the objectives. Im no longer persistent in expecting all relationship to flourish. I will just let God decide now. Let Faith revive my will to explore Love.

To conclude, the very essence of all relationship, relies on the other party's willingness to commit and trust. At least, I rather think it that way, since I want them to love me more before I jumped into one.

The Singapore Idol - A Kudos Event.

I have always been an Idol Fan. In fact, to me, everyone in the world love to sing and appreciate music in life. Be it, the American Idol or The Singapore Idol, it has made me realize many things about life and that is to inspire another person.

We just had our Singapore Idol last Monday, 24th September. It seems to be another charade whereby two competitors of of local stars trying to fight for a record deal. It may seem to be a cliche to me but all went well as the performances in the Singapore Indoor Stadium turned uot to be extravagant.

There are many unworthy comments coming from youngsters that this seems to be a fight betwen a Malay man and a Chinese man but this is definitely not the case. How can that be when the truth is both of them can really sing? Apparently, when the Grand Finale arrives, the mature Singaporeans tend to look for quality rather than embarking on the required race to win. Its not a racial thing as it has rumored to be.

Hady and Jonathan both proves to be the Singaporean Idol when they sportingly showcase their talents in the drive to attract the voters island wide. Both of them did a spectacular show and in the end, there can only be one. Hady appeared to have 70 percent votes from around 1 million votes provided on the show.

Let me see here. Does that make Jonathan a looser or does that make Hady the winner? That is not the point at all. I believe it is none of the above as what really matter is that we, Singaporeans, want to see the best Singaporean to win. Jonathan is good in his own way and Hady is best in his talent. Is Hady equivalent to Taufik, the previous Singapore Idol Season 1? No, that just make it more exciting as they are all unique in their profession.



Last but not least, it was a splendid event that touched a lot of Singaporeans who have always believed in Singing. Especially for people like me, I always hope to be a good singer, though I know that is not possible. Shall we see such excellent young and new talents in the next Singapore Idol? I am not sure but hey, kudos to the winner. I am glad that I had enjoyed it.

Mi Amor Ramadan

Hi , I know it had been a long time since I write something. To start it off, it's the holy month of Ramadan again. I have always enjoyed and loved this month as it has never failed in bringing me peace and happiness all the time. Fasting has given Muslims or myself personally, a way to reflect and re-embark on a new journey to self cleansing of evil and ugly temptations of life. It is like getting another chance annually to improve myself to be a better person in life.

Let me see. Fasting requires Muslims to cease temporarily eating and drinking between dawn to dusk and refrain myself from all the misbehaviours that may deem inappropriate as a human being such as gossiping, lieing,fighting and many more. For those who have always been facing trauma in trying to lose weight, fasting will enable you to do so. Appetite for eating tends to be controlled in a reasonable way for us and in the end, you will tend to see some people losing weight after a month of fasting.

Honestly, non-Muslims will find this hard to follow but trust me, Fasting enlightens your spirit in a manner whereby, you learn to be patient, perservere, reconcile and relinquish any evil ideas or bad habits that you have all this time. It gives you the authority to deliberately accept goodwill and happiness.

Well, I hope the month of Ramadan, the month of Muslim Fasting, will not end that fast. I pray to God that we will all find blessings and wisdom in our path to sucess.

Ameen.

Olla - This is life..

Olla , this will be my first posting in my new blog. I got to move to blogspot in hope to be able to write without prejudice or reservation about my thoughts on certain people. Stay tune.