Prof. Madya Dr. Che Nor Noraini

When Dr Khamsiah rang me around 5 pm at the office telling me, "we have bad news.." I just went what? who? where?

She dropped the name.

Dr Che Noraini meninggal dunia.

Speechless then I asked for reaffirmation. She said yes. She died in Kuala Tganu and filled in the details. It was minutes before my brain could process and digest everything then I got up, paced up and down and broke down and wept! I called Prof Maliah first and we both wept on the phone.She equally shocked, me slowly digesting and needing to pass on the grief. Prof Maliah was requested to announce the news to our Tashkent group online (I had left the group). Then I rang my husband cos' we are close to her family. I broke down again with him equally surprised on the other end.Then I had to inform Prof Saodah and we called Prof Asiah. Both were cool but Prof Asiah later on tak sudah2 posting me her kenangan and pics and video with aruah taken only last week.And for the whole evening and night the network was doing this. Prof Rosnani went to pay her last respect with her Education colleagues naik van ke KT jam 12 tengah mlm. I wish I were strong enough to take that long trip or at least fly this morning. I hope aruah will forgive me for not being there.Tadi lepas saya tidur kejap lepas solat subuh, I heard she call my name loud and clear. Only she at IIUM knew my home name (Dah). I heard she call "Dah!". I terkejut and terus terjaga. I told Lin..jgn2 dia nak ajak I sama. Lin said I love your raw humour but this is too sad.Jus sampai ini never gets out of her grief in losing Dr Mimi..kawan dia car pool sama2..kawan lunch.Maybe we should form a support group. I ni rasanya belum betul2 recover from the various deaths of my loved ones in the family: Mak, Irshad, Mek...

Aruah ni kwn saya yang I can call at any time..and likewise she with me.Sifatnya suka kasi makan kpd kawan2, suka bersedekah dan a fighter. 5 days before her death she was still trying to fight for justice over an issue.Not for me, kata dia. For others supaya tak menerima nasib yang serupa like her.I'm glad she telah meninggalkan anak-anak yang soleh (semua hafiz) dan pintar2. Semoga she lives in all of them. Even her menantu perempuan is so much like her in her thinking and behaviour.

I'm glad we spent some time together last Wednesday. Dia mesti bawak I makanan. Dia bawak kerupok lekor Tganu but terdetik juga di hati ketika itu. Biasa she would bring me fresh, warm food. Kerupok lekor dia dah kecut.But still sedap. I let it go and we had a good time discussing and planning what to do with our rejected FRGS report (yang dah berzaman kami submit baru ni dpt feedback ada a few things incomplete).Sambil2 tu we spoke of my gelang2 and cincin2 emas which I tak suka pakai to be redesigned and yang dah siap tu kena kecikkan balik. Ini termasuk my cincin kawin and cincin dan gelang pesaka Mama beri kat I. Che Nor came from keluarga towkay mas Tganu and they have many gold shops.

Dr Farizah and I dok cerita time kita buat research together...Templer's Park research retreat..kami dikejar oleh segerombolan monyet liar di tempat air terjun. Monyet tu rampas my bag di bahu yang dalamnya ada my handphone. Ni masa nak naik ke air terjun. Masa balik pun mereka berbaris kiri kanan tunggu kami dgn menyeringai tunjuk gigi tajam.I almost cried out of fear but I menyorok and pegang lengan baju aruah. I felt safe sebab dia baca ayat-ayat Quran dan kami lalu mcm menyeberang Laut Merah semasa Nabi Musa dikejar Firaun. Sampai kat chalet, gelak2.

Masa kerja kat prison pun mcm tu. Che Nor lah yang dok pi solat kat Mekah, solat lebih dari biasa agar kerja kami selesai dgn baik.

I hope aruah tenang di sana. Kuburnya pasti terang sebab dia rajin baca Quran.Perginya pun mudah..lepas jadi imam solat Zohor kpdd adik beradik perempuannya, dia sempat baca surah kahfi dan berdoa untuk dimudahkan sakratul maut dan mati dlm iman (bukan doa panjang umur). Dia masuk bilik air nak ambik wudhu..terjatuh terus tiada.Allahuakbar! Kasihilah sahabat aku ini Ya Allah, rahmatilah rohnya dan tempatkanlah beliau di kalangan orang2 yang Engkau redhoi.Semoga kami bertemu lagi di akhirat di syurgaMu bersama ahli-ahli keluarga kami,

https://i-glass.blogspot.my/2016/03/the-heat-of-disappointment.html

https://i-glass.blogspot.my/2016/05/tashkent-happening-city.html

No tajuk

My bday cake tiba lewat tahun ni. When I told Z and her dad no bday dinner, they took it as no bday cake as well. So whn they found out I wanted cake mcm we bought for Hanna, Z said Monday baru sampai. So I waited and brought it to work. We had coffee and blackforest cake at the ASA room.Dr. Adli came with Dr Irwan then Dr Adli ajak Dr Aishah then my young colleagues also came.Meriah jugalah kami catching up! Pagi tu ada drama pulak so we spoke about that too.Then issue roundtable cropped up again.Best juga berkawan dgn org2 muda ni. :)

Today we went to visit Prof Kazmi.Shabnam dah quit her CEO job with a giant pharmaceutical company in the US to care for her parents.Mulianya!But she said rahmat Allah mencurah2 and she gets to do things she loves.Semoga Allah give her strength.Dr. Aishah drove and Eda pun ada.Kazmi dah 92 but dlm sakit2 tu dia ingat lagi kami! Among his students were Anwar Ibrahim, Prof Kamal Hassan..patutlah pjg umur dia dlm kesihatan.Well...at 92..kira rahmahlah tu.

Dr. Amani invited us to the ISDB talk by this lady (kerabat King Salman juga). We were all in awe of her coolness..tak nmpk stress pun walhal she also works for UN.And so smart.
Balik tu, we started thinking of another river project.Sambung yg dulu.Dr Fauziah, Lin and I dah excited.

And so, I'm 25 today

Syukur alhamdulillah masih diizinkan Allah bangun pagi walaupun kaki dok cramp2, lutut dah tak sekuat dulu. Sedekahkan alfatihah untuk diri sendiri setiap bangun pagi dan ucap alhamdulillah.

Z came back from her European holidays on Monday. So my bday gifts both from her and her dad pun tiba minggu ini. Alhamdulillah. I have decided not to eat out as always sebab teringat kata-kata Yusuf Estes : anda siapa yang nak meraikan harijadi anda? Siapa yang bertarung nyawa di saat anda dilahirkan? Kenapa nak syok sendiri makan2, tiup2 lilin etc. Wough. Jadi we will have a doa selamat at our surau mlm ni (sekali dgn kesyukuran cos' Z will be working at The Hague for over a year starting March InshaAllah). And that is it. Semoga Allah rahmati kedua ibubapa saya dan semoga saya sentiasa dilindungi Allah dari kejahatan yang nampak dan tidak nampak. Saya tiada kudrat mahupun kederat untuk melawan.

A lot had happened this week. The roundtable discussion on the use of foreign textbooks in Msian schools left me dumbfounded. The younger gen (who were present which I know would not even represent even 5% of the nation) seemed to embrace globalisation in its totality.That is not as worrying as what seems to me like the death of critical thinking in them! (the "saya menurut perintah walaupun boss suruh saya terjun ke laut" mindset). Someone asked if there were an external reviewer comm to vet books before they were made textbooks? Jawapannya ada. Then how come masih ada mistakes? Prof Gana said yes, he found many too. Prof Zuraidah (key person in introducing the book?) said yes, she found mistakes too. Then why the hell was the book pushed as textbooks? Then I raised the issue why want to use CEFR? One of the comm members said cos' x number of countries are using it (so?). And that the framework was the output of 30-40 years of research (if it's so dated, why are we still using it in the 21st century? Even Blooms Taxonomy is so faulty and it's been there since the 1960s..and we still subscribe to it). I saw Pulse 2 : text is too easy for our teens that it looks like they are dumbing down the minds of our young gen.When I was 13, I could write creative and critical essays because we had literary texts introduced in our English classes (abridged version but that stirred our love for reading and knowing other cultures too so tak timbul issue foreign text ni tapi the outcome would be more impactful than just knowing about basic rules of grammar or mastery of parrot-like 4 skills of reading, writing, listening and writing..where are critical and creative thinking skills and the opportunity to explore free  writing?) My bet is to give the teachers flexibility how to teach their kids. The book can be used as a resource book but must not be forced as a textbook and this cefr thingy: throw it out the window, Standardisation is a thing of the past. We are supposed to be creative and innovative in solving our own problems. I heard how teachers of other languages (like Chinese and maybe Malay) said cefr was not appropriate for their subjects. There you go!

And I don't believe when I was told : ini kehendak kpt, we cannot do anything.And when things do not work accordingly, how quick to use that "kerajaan takda duit nak implement". Bukankah nak termuntah mendengarnya? Kalau takda duit,buat cara takda duit.Jangan menyusahkan orang lain.Ini..buku tak cukup utk semua..ada buku takda workbook. Ada buku, dvd pulak takda.Ni main masak-masak ke apa?

And so this is me at 25. :)

And bon voyage to my friends from Andalas. We had a fruitful 3-day book retreat on the Raos.Took them out to makan durian Musang King in Bentong and cendol Tok Ki. I told them cincau ni bagus untuk high blood pressure. Dr Pramono said yes but not good for the eyes. I went say what? He said yah, mana bisa letak di dalam mata. Haha. Humour orang Jawa tinggal di Sumatra. :))

Pak Undri itu pakar budaya. It's so enlightening moving around and discussing things with them. And Dr Afi is as always..fast and funny.

Pasir Belanda-Jeram-Kota Bharu

Sudah lama kami tidak balik ke Kelantan.Cuti akhir tahun kami bercadang untuk bercuti di Pasir Belanda di samping menziarah kubur-kubur ahli keluarga yg bersemadi di Banggol (datuk nik) dan di Kg Jeram, Pasir Putih (ayah Nik).

Tidaklah kami ketahui bahawa Pasir Belanda itu berada di kg Nik di Banggol..beberapa simpang away on the same row! Makcik sepupu aruah ibu Nik semua ketawa apabila diberitahu di mana kami bermalam.Tetapi suasana damai sebuah kampong itu tetap ada.Kami bersampan di sungai di belakang chalet kami.Besoknya saya masuk swimming pool yg dalamnya paras leher.

Malam Jumaat itu kami buat tahlil utk yg tiada. Di masjid Banggol ini makanan selalu disediakan.Sungguh meriah.Besoknya selepas bersarapan nasi kerabu di rumah makcik yah, saya mengurut dgn makcik Nah. Mmg lain cara org lama mengurut. Lepas itu kami ke Pasir Putih.Jalan ke kubur ingat-ingat lupa tetapi dgn izin Allah, jumpa.Waktu itu hujan renyai2. Kami tabahkan hati mencari kubur Nik's dad who died at the age of 27 in 1967. Kami jumpa kubur adik aruah sbb namanya masih ada.The brother was buried nxt to him and Nik remember Mama buat pagar keliling kubur aruah bapanya. So we cleaned up.Not as bad as we thought.Pokok2 bunga di atas pusara yg mudah dicabut.It's quite touching watching a good son clearing his dad's grave. Damailah abah di sana.You have a good son who tanpa jemu berwakaf dan bersedekah in your name. I bear witness.Semoga pahala sampai kpdnya.

Then it was non stop eating. :)