New Year 2022

 Before you know it, 2022 is pronounced 2020 too  (a joke a friend sent me just before new year). Kinda gloomy when you think about going through the routine of 2020 (and 2021). The covid scare, the test kit, the lockdown.

But others had it worse, yes. Death after death after death. Loss after loss after loss. I went through those too but the floods were worse: death and loss.

A lot to be grateful for no matter what. 

Let us remember that.

Happy Gregory New Year. May we be protected by Allah  all the time.

Alfatihah utk Long

 My eldest sister, Hajjah Rokiah passed away at 4 am at her daughter's home in Putrajaya. Nik and I were at Banyan Tree Hotel. They tried calling me at 4.26 am but i tak dengar.

Woke up to kak ngah's text, long not good. Kebumi di Semantan. I thought she was telling me her wish. Then saw Sal's message. She died at 4 am dgn mudah. We rushed to Putrajaya after a rushed bfast sbb van jenazah wld leave for Raub at 9.45 am. Nik said we wld do a late checkout. Tak sempat to pack.

Jenazah mandi, kapan, disolatkan di surau near ummi's plc. Sempatlah i tolong sikit2 and sempat kissed her and thanked her for her kindness since we were small. As kakak sulong, tjawab dia berat.

Im too sad to write more. Whn Im calmer, i will continue.

Alfatihah, Long. 

Z got Rob

This is a belated entry on Z's nikah to Rob on Sept 22. The date was received a wee bit late. They had to run here and there (6 different places) to get their documents for the nikah. Without complete documentation, no nikah date. Imagine the two flying back to KL not knowing if the nikah would take plc/not cos' no guarantee they would get a nikah date sebab takut penuh. And they only had 3 weeks tolak 2 weeks quarantine. 

Selangor is particularly difficult to marry. Things could have gone digitalised, right? A month after their nikah, sijil nikah belum dapat. Hadoi Selangor! They could have just issued it after the nikah right? Sekarang macam2 jenis gadget ada. 

I'm glad it's all over. The pandemic might be here for a while longer so maybe we did the right thing doing the nikah although many of our family members and friends were not able to share with us the joy.

Takpalah. Asalkan  hubungan mereka sudah halal now.

Gugurnya sebutir mutiara IMAN

 Kak Am passed away yesterday at slightly after 4 pm. I received a poster from Prez Abim of her demise. I thought it was a condolence on the passing of her husband 2 months ago but a small print in the takziah poster said on her return to rahmahtullah. I had to read it many times before I forwarded it to my IMAN network. Semua terkejut sebab we never knew Kak Am sakit.

She died of cancer. Late stage and it had spread to her liver, usus, stomach which she didn't know till a couple of days ago. Betapa mudah and how she didn't have to go through all those painful treatments.  Kak Oni kata itulah God's mercy on her. Dengan tumour yang besar, Kak Am masih kuat ke sana sini working for the ummah. Tanpa dia merasanya.

I wanted to tunggu kat kubur je but masa tu jenazah belum sampai so I bergegas ke masjid Mujahidin in Dsara Utama. Jenazah dah selamat dimandikan dan dikapankan. I just sat at one side sbb dah tak sempat nak ambik wudhu and cari kain telekong. Anggota IMAN lain duduk jauh so could not make it.

Mlmnya we did virtual tahlil. Very emotional mo for all. I'm glad we could verbalise our grief as we spoke of Kak Am's good deeds and how she inspired us in her kerja-kerja amal.

Dato Osman Bakar told Kak Oni: perginya sebutir lagi mutiara bagi kita semua.

Semoga Allah ampunkan Kak Am, menerima semua amal-amal baiknya dan menempatkannya di kalangan para solehah.

Alfatihah for Kak Am dan rakan-rakan IMAN yang telah pergi Saba, Aldila, Che Nor.

ASA fraternity

 ASA and I went a long way. I think I was its Vice President twice..when Prof. Nuraihan was President and when Prof. Aziz Bari was one..if tak silap. It seems so long time ago. I love its fraternity. We have done much together, the river projects, the pitching projects with Dr Amani and gang. I have wonderful memories which I must record and capture here as I get more and more forgetful with time.You need to probok-probok me to get my stories out.If not tenggelam macam tu je.

Yesterday was funny. Dr Addy macam biasa, probok2 saying now that Menteri MOHE dah letak jawatan, he nominates me as Senator to replace her. Haha. Lepas tu sorang demi sorang joined in the jest and supported the motion. Lawak but I played along and gave my strategic planning not only for the country but more for IIUM. Kata orang, sayang anak, sindir menantu? Gitew. Haha.

Addy tanya, banyak ke duit nak buat macam2 ni? I said duit monopoli parti I kan banyak? Haha. Nice to be silly sometimes.

The talk we did on Sharif 's prog katanya triggered similar discussions in the US panels. Bagus le if Kirp, Dr Fachrudin and Jeff and I managed to do that.  We had fun doing it anyway - talking about entanglement of religion with technology and how that affects our economy and overall social wellness. Tajuk tu I yang bagi. Something I feel strongly about.

Alfatihah Dr. Khamsiah Ismail

Dr Khamsiah Ismail passed away today hari Ahad malam Isnin at 8.35 pm. Text anak dia I dapat sejam lewat because I was busy marking fyp dissertations.

Macam biasa it took me a while to process the news.Mula-mula tak tau nak rasa apa, cakap apa. Then macam biasa I frantically looked for those who knew her to cry together. I have lost all who would pick the phone at a ring.Kawan2 lain pun habis tak sihat and biasa tidur awal.By then I was sobbing. Akhirnya Prof Noraini picked the phone and empangan terus pecah. Dia pun belum dengar cerita sedih ni. Pastinya dia tak tau head or tail.I kept hearing her saying what? apa? I had to say the news twice.

Then she sensibly said we would all go too, sabar dan pray that she will be placed in jannah.

IMAN, WPRU, PERAK groups semua kenal dia. Semua sedih.

It will take me a while to get over this. Please sedekah alfatihah for Dr Khamsiah Ismail,a good academic, researcher, counselor, a good friend, a good human being.

Dari Allah kita datang, kepadaNya kita kembali.

Loved ones fall sick

 Covid cases hit almost 10k now. We are doing wrong things. If we were doing the right thing, the number would hv gone down.

My niece was down and we thought we would lose her but alhamdullilah, she pulled through berkat rahmah Allah. And now, one of my good friends, Dr. Khamsiah is battling with covid. We all pray tht she will come out of it. 

I suddenly feel very sad. Sadness is an understatement. When leaders are stupid, this is where we are. We die, one by one. Greed does not kill. Stupidity does. 

5th wave?

 Bad times to do any prediction: scientific or otherwise. But it is not that the country lacks intelligent people. We have plenty but why O why, we are where we are now?? 

I think the way out would be any of the following:

1. Undur secara terhormat dan undi balik kerajaan yang berhak.

2. Be inclusive - dengar pelbagai suara dari pakar-pakar and act on them.

3. Let go..jangan nak control semua benda. Kita tahu satu-satu jalan keluar ialah memperbanyakkan vaksi dan membuatnya at a super speed. If that is NOT happening, you tell us apa masalah sebenarnya. Is it money? Is it supplies? Once kita tahu apa masalah sebenarnya, kita boleh fikirkan jalan keluar bersama.

JANGAN BODOH SOMBONG. That can kill the whole nation.

Covid 2021

 We were busy coping with covid in 2020 when it hit in March. We thought things would ease up in 2021. It has been over a year but looks like the 3rd or 4th wave will be more deadly. India has shown so. But look at how we seem not to learn from whatever Allah is trying to tell us. Kebodohan terus berlaku. Bila bodoh, kita juga sombong. Makin bodoh, makin sombong. Semoga kita semua dilindungi oleh makhluk jahat.

Pls be clever, observe your SOPs.

Gik, Gaa, Gupo

 Abg Tik and family came to dinner. Ziad had kindly offered to cook maqlubah and drove all the way to deliver 2 huge plates. Alhamdulilah, we all had fun talking and eating.

Abg Tik mentioned Gik, Gaa, Gupo (pronounced Gupont mcm Dupont bunyi French!) I wrote to David kot2 these were Dutch names. Not at all, kata dia. Haha. So I asked Afi... Nama Rao ke. Not at all. Lorr.. Orang asli ke? Haha. David said mungkin nicknames. Possible.

We enjoyed our company over dinner. Got to knw my cousin and 2nd cousins closer.

The food was delicious.

                                                              Syrian chicken maqlubah

                                         

                                                              Syrian lamb maqlubah

Berakit-rakit ke hulu, berenang-renang ke tepian

 ...bersakit-sakit dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian.

A phone call to Mak Tam Melah in Kg Jasu, Ulu Sungai gave me another image of old: orang dulu berakit 3 jam membawa barang dagangan seperti buah2an (rambutan, langsat, ciku, etc) dari Ulu Sungai ke Tanjung Malim melalui Slim River. Balik jalan kaki via Jalan Penarikan (jalan hutan). Makcik Melah pernah berniaga macam tu. Wow. Itu selepas merdeka but now jalan tu dah semak samun (jalan rakit). Sayang. I would have wanted to berakit 3 jam to Slim River.

Mak Tam Melah ajak pi rumah dia. She will cook asarong Ulu Sungai yang famous tu.My cousins semua melompat for another mision.Siap nak cari ayam hutan. Hamboi! Kena tangkap perlilitan nanti baru tau.One cousin said since many tak makan ayam, cari la rusa. Haha. Boleh berangan. Kalau kat Ithaca, rusa bersepah2 sampai they have to shoot sebab jadi nuisance dah. Hai, I wish.

Cicit Menteri Hassan di Slim River

 So the 4 of us took a day trip to conduct my research tracing Rawas in Slim River. Kg Pasir to be exact.Ghaz drove his Vellfire. Sedap la Kak Ngah and I tidur kat belakang tu mcm naik plane. 

Shareh also drove on 'work' all the way but arrived a bit late. By then, we were already served lemang dan rendang ayam and other kuih muih. Cicit Menteri Hassan from a different wife. We suspect his first wife but we can't really tell.

Lunch was served. Sayur2 tanam sendiri. Duan' s bro in law supplies sayur to Pasar Selayang. Bagus betul. 

The story was they (Hassan and Lijah) got married in Kg Atok then moved to Kg Gapeh but maybe they moved bck to Pahang at a later stage. Or they never moved to Kg Gapeh but Khalijah went bck to Slim River with her young son Bakar and left her daughter Putih with her ex husband after they divorced. No one could say whether Hassan was already married to Tupin Aishah when he married Khalijah or married her after his divorce. Org tua2 yg tahu semua dah tiada. 

But we met Hassan's cicit muit on Slim River side and saw gambar one of the aruah cucus who looked so much like my wan, anak Hassan with Tupin Aishah (or nama kg nya Esah) Im told ada seorang lagi cucu Hassan (Lijah route) yg berpindah ke Pahang frm Slim River (Kg Kela, Ulu Sungai. From Slim River to Ulu Sungai is only 26km jalan kaki ikut jalan Banjaran Titiwangsa) I spoke to Opah Beom last night. Whn I go bck to Raub, inshaAllah we will go to Ulu Sungai to visit her.

We met Aki, anak tiri Hassan. Byk cerita menarik from him but he tak sempat kenal Hassan. Only stories frm his mom about him. Orangnya tinggi. Garang. Sounds like my side. :) Kata Shareh, Menteri Hassan ni berniaga kerbau dan gajah bawak dari Raub ke Perak. Jgn dia ada wife lain kat Perak, udah.Letih nak trace waris.

It was a pleasant trip. Kenal sedara2 baru. 

Rawa news updated

 Zafuan tanya apa sumber Dt Am kata Nantian Saka meninggal dalam Perang Paderi. Jadi saya pun telefon Dt Am di Rao tanya apa sumber dia. He said he asked Datuk2 Adat yang lain sekitar Tanjung Alai (aruah  Datuak Mengudum Haji Ramli dan aruah Mat Toguh, Bendaro Besar - semua dah ninggal) Nantian Saka memang seangkatan dengan Tuanku Rao and Imam Bonjol 1818 -1832.

Yang Dipertua Muda tu bkn gelaran raja but ketua agama/pemimpin agama.Raja ketika Perang Paderi adalah Raja Kenayan. Kata Dt Amran Perang Paderi sesama rawa bkn pasal agama sgt. Psl perniagaan. Yang satu niaga candu, arak; yang satu menentang. Well, to do with agama juga la kan? Puak2 Yang Dipertua Tanjung Alai kan orang-orang agama.

I asked why berahsia bagi yang pindah ke Tanah Melayu. Kata Dt Amran, the perang experience was really bitter..sedara sesama sedara reported against one another yang berperang (they were on both sides..ada yang belah Belanda would inform Belanda akan activities yang menentang Belanda yang dibuat Rawa lagi satu, etc). So mmg bila pindah tu, tak pandang belakang dah.Sumpah mereka yang berpergian was: dipakuknya ke tingkap dgn parang sambil berkata aku tidak akan pulang selain  jika bekas kayu ini bercantum semula. Sesuatu yang tidak mungkin.Begitu mereka berpatah arang.

Sebab apa Zafuan focus on Tanjung Alai ..mungkin selepas Perang Paderi, yang kembali pulang selepas keadaan sudah reda akan dapati sudah hilang 5 kampung yang berdekatan Tanjung Alai dan hanya dapat berkumpul di Tanjung Alai. Ada 7 kg di Tanjung Alai: 

Tanjung Alai, Kg Pisang, Tanjung Pauh,Kg. Tengah,Kg Pisang Ular, Tobek Atas, Pancah.

Di hilir Tanjung Alai ada 5 kg  (now dah lenyap kerana penduduknya ramai hijrah ke Tanah Melayu waktu Perang Paderi):  Tanjung Durian (kg Nantian Saka), Tanjung Goda, Kubu Gadang (yang jadi benteng Perang Paderi), Koto Golinggang dan Kg Mudik. Setiap kg ini ada raja adatnya.

On isu ramai Rawas are mistaken for being Achehnese: Penduduk asal Meulaboh  tu dulu orang Rawa. Kingdom Rawa ni dah lama. Zaman Srivijaya, zaman Majapahit (mereka jumpa gelang yang sama di Majapahit dan Rawa di kurun 14) dan orang Rawa keluar masuk Meulaboh sebab tu pusat dagang, pusat agama. Ramai orang Rawa ninggal di Acheh. Wei, no wonder rupa Zafuan macam rupa P.Ramlee when Ramlee was in 1950s.

I have to catitkan ini.Takut lupa.

I stopped writing

I quit this blog, fb etc because I felt my privacy was being compromised. But I will use this blog from time to time to keep some links which are useful for my research.

https://varsitarian.net/literary/20081116/translating_maps_through_poetry

Back at The Hague

Aug 16-18: The Hague

Aug 18- 22: Lake Brienz/Zurich

Aug 22-25: The Hague

In case I forget when 2019 vacation was, those are the dates.
A day before I flew (alone) to KL, we went on a picnic at Stompwijk with Z's friend's family.Cantik tempatnya (kampong not far from The Hague).

I buat tauhu sumbat but sos terpedas. Robert's dad yang makan lebih dari satu. Orang lain were just being polite. Z's chicken curry dimakan dgn roti nan was a fav. R's mom buat quiche. Sedap.

It was a nice time out in the sun.

More pics of Swiss holiday

Summer vacation 2019

I did not plan to go on any this year sebab kerja banyak and susah nak ambik cuti (bukan susah...takut Boss tak bagi. Haha) but Nik memang planned to go to visit Z and meronda London with his surau friends. At the same time he ngok ngek komplen I never go on any family outing anymore. Kesian juga mendengarnya so I said OK, I take 10 days ja (he would take the usual 2 weeks)

So off we went. Letak bags sari at The Hague, cabut pi Zurich and rented a car to Lake Brienz near Interlaken. What we didn't know jalannya sempit dan bergaung and driving left in those conditions agak mengerikan. Banyak terowong yang panjang2 and Swiss drivers mcm KL drivers...semua kaki pecut dan tak penyabar!

But the thing about driving is time is within our control. Can stop mana kita suka. So we stopped at Lucerne for lunch.. pi beli chokelat dia. Menyesal tak beli banyak2 sebab kat Zurich takda! (satu brand tu)

Then we got to our chalet by the lake. Phuiyooo...cantik giler. The Alps kiri kanan depan belakang but cannot mandi. Air sejuk macam air batu.

Then we took a train at Interlaken up the Alps..to Murren..lunch and cable car etc. Hai, cantiknya. Jika je tak mahal..we would want to stay longer. I would want to go again. Duduk lama2 sikit.3 hari tak cukup.

Then we drove back to Zurich. Serba serbi mahal. Makan pun mahal (dan tak sedap). Met Prof W's friend who took us to a halal dinner.Cerdik dia ni.

Water at Lake Lucerne

Lake Brienz

Our chalet overlooking the lake

Our breakfast space with a view to kill

Boleh duduk termenung berjam-jam di sini

Eidul Adha 2019

This is a late entry. It has been a busy year but I need to put this on record.

The Queen was supposed to raya with us on 2nd day at IIUM but she postponed the trip to a later date but we had to go ahead with the raya rewang...lembu orang dah sedekah sampai 5 ekor (out of 60 given by donors). By the time I sampai, rewang was done. I thought I was late but apparently UMC members memang kena dtg lewat sikit. I was disappointed cos' I was ready to rewang doing my salad. I rewang juga. Some ladies were kind enough to rewang with me.

Then we had nasi bryani and korma daging. So fresh and so sedap sebab a staff from Engineering memang pandai buat paste korma tu. Some of us bungkus bawak balik  :)

The first day raya we went balik Raub mcm biasa. Jam was so terok that we had to break the journey to two: from my home to IIUM..berhenti solat etc then after 9 pm something baru bertolak. All in all close to 6 hours.

But it was worth it. This year, I did biri2. According to Shahrul, from Barbados. Haha..pandai jelah dia tu but it did look mixed. Suruh duduk, dia duduk, suruh masuk dalam Hilux, dia masuk tanpa banyak drama. And mashaAllah isinya sedap but of cos' we did not take all.

Trip to China

Entry ini tercicir (sebab byk sgt peristiwa berlaku setelah saya pulang dari Guiyang, China).

Ceritanya agak dramatik sebab saya tiada rancangan untuk ke China tetapi diminta pergi mengiringi team IIUM yang terpilih di dalam China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week di Guliang yang saya sendiri tak sempat nak google di mana di China. Dua kali naik plane dan flights di China terkenal selalu delay. Memang antara 4-5 jam delaynya. Lembik kami bila tiba hampir tengah mlm di Guiyang sejak bertolak selepas subuh di Msia. Nasib bilik hotel selesa.Tapi makan susah.Nompang bekal Dr. Zee dari UiTM yang biasa datang ke Guiyang. Ada sambal bilis petai yang telah dipack-kan.Katanya ada dijual di station Petronas Bukit Beruntung.Lain kali nak pi China kena siap bekalannya.

So we took part in the dialogue with Chinese unis and IIUM managed to sign up with 6 unis/colleges. Not bad for a new kid on the block. Dr Mariana and team sgt cekap. We were taken to an ancient city zaman dinasti Ming and Chin ke. Part of Chinese Great Wall pun ada di situ. Jalan byk juga sampai I tak larat. Jumpa satu basikal built for two, I suruh Haydan ambik and tolong kayuh I ke tempat bas kami. Pastu tak tau pulak mcmana nak brake..we saw a bus coming..I tekan je apa yang ada. Nasib mmg brake rupanya. Then sekali lagi this old man lalu melintas, Haydan ni melolong je boleh diharap. Haha.

But I'm grateful he was courageous enough to rembat entah basikal siapa je. Mmg I dah tak larat nak jalan. Rasa mcm nak pengsan dah masa tu.

I spoke to introduce IIUM. Our uni rejects participating in QS ranking so mmg we have no rank. While uni lain dok shared ranking mrk..IIUM had only makasid shariah, filosofi pendidikan nasional and SDG aspirations to share. Tak tau la how that was received by our communist counterparts. Nampak mereka mengejar2 juga kami to sign up. Kami pun kejar juga mereka. Ada yang lari takut. Haha.

But Guiyang ni very clean, very modern, very green, OK? Dr. Fadzil and I kata we don't mind staying here.Bukan nak mengada, kata disclaimer kami..tapi memang tenang..no traffic jam mcm KL.

Girls' Outing

This time I was not in charge and was the last to arrive. :) Dok sibuk menonton pertabalan Yang Dipertuan Agong, Sultan Pahang ku. What a couple. Nampak macam semua golongan rakyat menerima baik kedua mempelai ini. I kenal Tok dia since zaman I budak..ninda Agong tu. Memang mesra rakyat. I remember the day Sultan Abu Bakar merasmikan our kawasan perumahan yang dinamakan sempena nama baginda: Taman Tengku Abu Bakar. That pakaian rasmi di raja Pahang, jalur2 kelabu gitu. I remember it from my childhood days sbb Sultan Abu Bakar pun pakai busana yang sama.

And cucunya hensem. Itulah ralek menonton sampai lewat pi lunch dgn kawan2 di De Wan 58. I saw their WA message: Freda, switch off the TV. Food is here. Haha (sebelum tu I texted that I was still at home watching coronation).

We had a good time, being old and silly. Pastu merepek2 nak pi holiday together sana sini. Mula2 nak pi Lake District..then it got closer and closer to home. Berangan tak habeh. Some of us susah nak cuti lama2 so tunggu pencen je le. If we can still walk!

I feel rested sebab I took the day off semalam. This time last year, we were riding Icelandic horses. How I miss such a time.