Saturday, July 10, 2010

Culture Shock

Okay, tajuk English tapi nak tulis dalam bahasa ibunda, ya. Or rojak.

Saya tak pernah mengalami 'culture shock', defined as the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.

Bukan niat saya nak memperkatakan orang di sini, sebab saya mengaku saya bukanlah baik sangat. But this is a whole different topic altogether.

Sebenarnya, saya berasa kasihan dengan mereka yang mengalami culture shock ni, terutama sekali kaum perempuan. Kasihan pada diri mereka, dan kasihan pada ibu bapa mereka.

Terdetik hati saya ingin menulis tentang culture shock ni (okay nak mengaku dulu, tak tau apa culture shock dalam bahasa Melayu), ialah kerana saya sedang melihat gambar segelintir kawan/keluarga di Facebook.

Maksud saya disini ialah these girls yang disuruh pakai tudung sejak mereka kecil lagi, akan tetapi apabila sudah dewasa, tak tahu ke mana hilang sudah tudung mereka.

It's just that, pada pendapat saya, certain parents are too extreme in protecting their children that the are blinded as to its consequences. They fail to notice the limits in their action.

Eh chup, kembali pada bahasa Melayu. Kena cuba untuk consistent.

Saya rasa sedih, apabila saya sendiri tahu betapa susah-payah sesetengah ibu bapa inginkan yang terbaik untuk anak-anak mereka dari segi menjalani kehidupan dengan cara Islam yang sempurna, tapi apabila anak-anak tersebut sudah dewasa, mereka lupa akan ajaran tersebut, hanya kerana mereka telah menjelajahi dunia luar.

Dari segi itu, saya terpaksa salahkan ibu bapa juga kerana terlalu extreme. Extreme yang tahap pentingkan perkara luaran tetapi tak memupuk sebab-sebab perkara luaran itu diwajibkan ke atas mereka (Eh, macam merepek tapi hopefully understandable).

Dalam konteks ini, maksud saya, ibu bapa memang dah suruh dari kecik anak-anak mereka pakai tudung, tapi tak explain kenapa, hanya cakap, dalam Islam wajib pakai tudung. Jadinya, bila budak-budak tu dah besar, they are exposed to new things. Mereka nak merasa apa agaknya perasaan bila tunjukkan rambut yang dikatakan mahkota wanita, dan lebih cantik tak kalau tak pakai tudung. Mereka nak rasa glamour kat dunia luar ni, where, presumably in their minds, perempuan yang pakai tudung tak dipandang.

Mungkin salah mereka, tak menyedari bahawa pemakaian tudung ini adalah zahiriah. In every action there is an underlying meaning, yes? I do not know much, but pemakaian tudung ni adalah salah satu peringatan, bahawa apabila tudung dipakai, rambut dilindungi, tetapi yang tersiratnya ialah, tudung itu adalah sebagai penutup, pendinding, what ever you call it, metaphorically, daripada perilaku akhlak kita (Okay, macam dah terbabow balik ayat).

I mean, okay, pakai tudung, jaga aurat, but symbolically, it's a reminder to jaga akhlak dan perilaku, yes?

It's the same concept as fasting.

Saya tak kata yang ibu bapa tak patut paksa anak pakai tudung. In actual fact, memang tak patut paksa, tapi patut didik. Didik kenapa tudung perlu dipakai, dan bukan sahaja atas sebab "Islam suruh pakai, pakai".

I know, all of you must be thinking, "Huril ni gebang je lebih, diri sendiri tak pakai tudung." All I can say is, memang, saya sendiri tak tahu kenapa tak pakai lagi tudung ni. Betul, sebab dah biasa tak pakai tudung dari kecik. Tapi baiklah saya dari tak pakai tudung ke pakai, instead of pakai tudung ke tak pakai. Biarlah saya sebatikan konsep pakai tudung tu zahiriah dan menjaga akhlak saya batiniah together.

Sekali lagi saya tekankan, saya cuma berasa kasihan.

Culture shock pon jadi extreme. Bukan setakat buka tudung sahaja, tapi bahagian lain pun buka juga.

It's just that in my opinion, generations and epochs are constantly evolving, and demography plays a part. The youngsters are perpetually exposed to new environments. Therefore, in disciplining them to a certain teaching, try not to force them bluntly, instead, instill a sense of rightness in that teaching.

I wish I don't have to feel so sorry for some of them whom I call family.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Chocolate

Hey ya good men and gentle ladies :)

Topic is 'Chocolate', ergo the chocolate (brown) font! Hehe.

So about this time yesterday, something delightful happened. Only during this time, though.

Because before that, I was not in an entirely good mood.

Germany lost to Serbia (how could that be, right?!), and I had a fight with my ex. And I don't remember what else, but it all came down to the fact that I just did not have any mood, good or bad.

So I posted the following as my status update on Facebook:

"I need chocolate. Lots of 'em. If any of you would be kind enough to give me some, it would be great. Call me. I'm serious. *muka serious*"

Only eccentric people would take that seriously, yea? Of course it was somewhat a joke, to highlight my frustration.

Apparently, there are some eccentric people out there, God bless them.

I turned on my Facebook chat and then Dian messaged me. She requested me to not sleep yet and that she'd call around before 12 midnight, but she had something to do first. I was like, yeah, sure.

Came 12AM and she didn't call, so I tucked into bed and read a novel. Then a few minutes after that, she called.

She told me she was outside my house. I was like, WTF?! I asked her who she was with but she didn't tell. She just asked me to come down.

So I scrambled around looking for a bra to put on, as some of you may already know, I don't wear them at night. I was wearing my caftan, though.

So I went down to meet her. She was with Faiz, her friend that I've met only once. Dian was like, Faiz has something for you. So I scrunched my face into a bewildered expression, wondering what on earth could this stranger have in store for me.

You guessed it, he held up a plastic bag with assorted chocolates in them AND an ice-cream. God knows I did not see that coming.




Friday, June 18, 2010

First Entry For Two-Oh-One-Oh

Hellooooo readers!

I know it's been awhile (awhile would be an understatement, yes?), but I won't give the excuse that I had been busy. Excuses are not meant to be entertained, anyway.

Shamefully, I had been indolent. You can say lazy, but I wouldn't want to appear too cheap hehe.

It's uh-maaayy-zing how some of my friends keep their blogs incessantly updated, like Esah, Nadia, and Nisa Rashid to name a few. Amir Hamzah tak payah cerita lah! Dah boleh qualify to be a published author dah.

How could I have let this happened when I claim myself to be an avid writer? No excuse, really. Maybe there were too many other things I was too involved in.

However, watch out for more entries!

Much love, peeps <3

And gooo Germany for World Cup 2010! Haha.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Open Fire, Cease Fire

No, I'm talking about BACKFIRE.

Notice my last post I mentioned "technology rules"?
Well, yeah, have you ever heard of a saying that goes; don't praise something too much or talk bad about something so terribly lest it backfires and happens to you?
Well, of course you've never heard of it, I just created that a nanosecond ago.

So here's the story. Last night before I tucked into bed, I charged my phone. Well, I needed to sleep badly, but I also needed to have my phone charged so that I could wake up the next morning. Alarms, you know.

I rarely do this, but last night I had no choice. I charged my phone, and left it there until I woke up the next morning. I would normally pull out the charger once my phone is fully charged, which usually takes up about only an hour or so.

I slept at 2AM and woke up at 8AM.

So in the morning I pulled out the charger from my phone. Then a few moments after that Nazim called. After I hung up, there's this beep sound that resembles the sound when I charge my phone. I looked at my phone, and surprisingly, it was CHARGING! I was like, what the F?

I stared at it for a few minutes, mesmerized, then it suddenly went like "BATTERY FULL".

It was an iterative process. It kept going; charging-battery full-charging-battery full.
Up until one point when someone called me, I can't remember who, and we talked until my battery died.

I turned it back on because I know my phone has been acting like a pile of dung lately.
Heck, I only talked for like less than a minute!
Only after that did it stop being a lunatic, in terms of the 'charging-battery full' routine.
The battery is still a pile of muck.

HINT: I NEED A NEW PHONE!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Old School



Went into a small tepi jalan shop.
Found the traditional rollers.
Bought them.
And decided to try them on:





The outcome was dreadful.
I shall not embarrass myself in public.
Thank you (:


Now look at my little cousin, Alia (aged 10, I think) using them:


She looked like a grown girl! *ignore my "meditation"*
And her result was disastrous as well.

Lesson learned: Don't use traditional hair curlers/rollers if you're not a professional.
Technology rules in one way or another.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Think Twice Before You Look Twice

Today (or rather, yesterday), I heard twice on the radio; driving to and back from classes, about men and hot girls. So I decided to blog about it, taking it as a sign to finally "pen down" something after a long hiatus!

In the morning, I was listening to the Fly FM's Pagi Show with Phat Fabes, Ben and Nadia (God, I sound horribly like an advert). So Ben was complaining about one of the guys from the Cleo's 50 Most Eligible Bachelors or something (I'm sure every girl would know, myself included, only I haven't been reading the magazine -- or any magazine for that matter -- so I'm not so sure about the actual name/title for that). He stressed out that he has no hard feelings whatsoever towards this guy, Henry Golding, saying he's a nice and cool guy yada, yada. What bothered him was the fact that this kind of men and women, being Pan-Asians, are getting all the attention in the mass media; advertisements, magazines, television, etc. just because they're supposedly hotter and more glamorous and all. They were questioning, aren't we, being Chinese, Malays and Indians, hot enough to be getting as much attention?

See, I didn't hear till the end because I was already arriving at my campus. I did, however, hear enough about some people that do prefer looking at the usual crowd of Asians. Although most had said that it's all natural to be looking and paying more attention to people like the Pan-Asians, because, you know, they don't look typical and all that jazz. It's all in the mind.

Coincidently, I was just talking about it with Nazim the night before. It is ridiculously frustrating that they're getting all the attention. With their kind plastered on every inch of the wall at every corner of Malaysia, it makes you feel so bloody inferior if compared to! But I guess living in a multiracial country, we have to "accept" them and not just the usual Ali, Chong, and Muthu (or Pe'ah, Wen Jie, and Minachi) to live up to our reputation. They are partly Asian, after all.

On my way back home, I'm not sure it was Fly FM or Hitz.FM (I like flipping, yes), but I think it was Fly FM's Prem, who was doing all the talking. The reason I cannot be sure (because I am always so sure of myself) is because today, I decided to try a new route back home and I thought I knew the road (supposedly shorter than my usual route), but turned out I got LOST! So, wasn't paying my fullest attention to the radio. So, he was having this little "survey", where guys called in, I think, (because I wasn't in the car yet when this happened) about which do men prefer in women; BEAUTY or BRAIN (read: coming from Prem, he DID mention "beauty" first!). So he claimed most of guys answered : BRAIN *teeeeeeet!* Definitely a lie, right!

So, the girls called in. I remember one of them saying about it being a total lie (agreed upon) because yes, men maybe prefer the brains, but only eventually! They would obviously go for looks first, then they might think, oh this chick is dumb, I'd better just bed her then dump her. They would keep on doing the same evil thing until they've decided to settle down and pick "the right one". I would say, women, on the other hand, would definitely not  go for the looks straight away. Guys, I know what you're thinking : Oh of course, they search the pocket first! Which is not true for most decent, upright, and dignified women! 

Let's face it, how many hot men out there do you see walking with stout and sagging women? You can always, always, find hot girls accompanied by not-so-dashing men. This one dude called in, saying that men do like checking out hot girls. They would look twice, sometimes even FOUR times at the said women. They obviously, obviously like to LOOK. Us girls do "look" as well, but we'd only go like, "Oh my, what a bold and dazzling creation." Then, that's it. We don't fantasize anything like how they boys do it. Yes, I say boys because in truth, you men will always be boys.

As always, I can never have a proper ending to my blogs. I would always want to write more and more. Though space allows it, my time and mind do not. And, I never know how to end things. I always hate endings. What I can say is, guys, check out all the hot girls you want while you can. Just make sure when you do have a girlfriend or wife, don't make her feel ugly, EVER. Cherish her like how you'd always fantasize with someone hotter, and you'll be rewarded with the greatest brand of love you can never imagine from your fantasies. Better yet, know that they ARE hot in every single way. Hot girls are splattered everywhere around the globe. Girls, we simply rock, don't we? *wink*

PS, Personally, I don't think Henry Golding is all THAT hot. In fact, I don't think he's hot at all. Hmph! Jambu, sia!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Never Again

Oh curses.

I have a lousy zit on my right cheek.

Been eating too much fast food.

Should cut down, I should.