Selamat Menyambut Kemerdekaan

31st August is a public holiday. The norm on this date is the big merdeka parade we watch on TV. Not many is willing to let go their morning sleep and brave through the crowd at Dataran Merdeka to witness the parade live. Watch it on TV is much preferred. Live also mahhh.....I personally like the 'acara padang'. The many formations, surely they have practised for months. kesian budak2 tu.

If we were to ask our children what do they know about kemerdekaan, they would repeat those words which they learn from text books or repeat from what others are saying. Hey, dont forget, the local media is another point of reference. Merely paroting it. Do they truly understand it? blink....blink....

What do we know about kemerdekaan? I think we have taken it for granted far too long. We look forward to 31st August as it is a public holiday, extra rest day. The rest of it, well...u know...lepak and watch tv (they have special programmes for merdeka, u know), shopping, outing with friends or maybe some other chores. i'm talking about me la....

I remember when as a child and my parents were still around, they would be busy with their political activities. Those 'kapal layar' badges were all over our house. My parents were active loyal supporters of our political leaders. It is unfortunate that i did not have the opportunity to learn and understand how it was then. Really understand it. Even I, post merdeka child, read all the struggle for independence from text books.

Right now we are witnessing a new wave of 'independence fighters'..., seeking for freedom of speech, freedom to express...part of democracy. We are witnessing street demonstrations which sometimes turned ugly. These demonstators are mostly orang Melayu. The supporters, just like my parents, believe in the cause that are being championed by the leaders. Those are the very people that the leaders rely upon for them to remain as leaders. The very heads that the leaders stand on to for them to remain leaders.

We do not know the outcome and the result of this 'fight'. Maybe the children of our children will then read all these in their history text books as they continue celebrating another public holiday which falls on 31st August.

1 Malaysia - u tell me

Rakyat didahulukan, pencapaian diutamakan.

Big words huh? too ideal. when i first read the tagline, aahh...another political agenda....sick of it. pleaseee la.......

we see the logo at every corners, billboard, main stream media. big advertising budget for sure. those media houses, advertising agencies and vendors for the campaign can be assured of good company returns as the campaign will surely last many months and years to come. just like any other government campaigns, when it is at the intro stage we will see the main stream media, supporting all the way by splashing the concept all over their media channels with hope that the people will give support or at least are aware of such campaign. do we even bother to understand what the message are all about. no need to do that people as it will be shoved down yr throat anyway. we are practically bombarded with information and we the people have no choice but to read it, listen to it.

YAB Perdana Menteri said this when explaining the concept of 1 Malaysia,

"1 Malaysia bererti rakyat Malaysia berdiri, berfikir dan bertindak sebagai Bangsa Malaysia dengan “mengambil tindakan-tindakan berdasarkan kehendak semua kumpulan etnik dalam negara kita”.

what is that???

hey, don't get me wrong. i love my country.

so, are we really into 1 Malaysia? are we really? honestly, do we need such campaign to be a Malaysian? the true spirit of being a Malaysian. Yasmin Ahmad with her heart warming festive ads, those are all about capturing the Malaysian spirit. her ads pulled the strings of our hearts and her messages made us think. we understand as we relate to her messages.

do we relate to 1 Malaysia messages? i dont think so....

p.s.

have u visited 1 Malaysia official website? (www.1malaysia.com.my) so much of Najib's face there, do not fear people, there are more of him as the website is also linked to YouTube, flickr, twitter. we get to see what being a PM is all about. he is all over the place, i tell u!!!!

is 1 Malaysia=Najib? u tell me...

OTW home series 1

location : Taman Seri Serdang - maghrib

I was lucky...to have captured these shots.

OTW work series 2

These pics were taken near Taman Universiti, Seri Kembangan. Time : 7.05 am. biasalah...acara berbaris depan traffic light...while waiting, appreciating God's gift.

OTW work series 1

Pics captured on the way to work...amidst the traffic congestion, defensive and not so defensive drivers....

Decided to take the Putra Jaya Hiway to KL today. Branding and Marketing course to attend at Sheraton Hotel.

so much for highways..the Putra Jaya hiway, exit Pandan. RM2.50 and....... hello!!!!! start crawling people...

yup...still inching away the hiway...

nothing much to do but the enjoy the scenery, KL skyline from a distance

Arif suka cake

"ma, on the way home later, pls buy a cake for arif", my husband pesan. "dok merengek dgn i ni. only u know what he likes", my hb kindda put it to me to settle this pressuring matter. i was between calls and deadline. "ok", i said. i left the office, late and had to brave through the traffic. about to reach home, singgah the laundrette to pick up my dry cleaning, then to the nearby shop to buy bread, also pesanan penaja di rumah. reached home....so late. Upon seeing my face, beloved husband asked, "did u get the cake?" tepuk dahi!!!!NOOOO...i forgot all about it and the nearby bakery dah tutup. to lessen the impact, took anak2 out for teh tarik and while waiting for our orders, conveyed to arif the bad news that dearest mama forgot his cake. His response was this ...

if stare could kill....i was dead!!!

he was upset. isn't that obvious? i promised him to buy him a cake the next day....with much pujuk and sugar coated words and more promises, with a heavy heart, he said ok....

the next day, mama kept her promise and brought a cake for him. no special occassion, he just wants to blow the candles, that's all. upon seeing the cake, his face was full of delight as u can see here.....

muka manis macam gula...macam cake tu la...

It was not meant to be, mak

i have been writing this ...so called my 1st novel for months....i even have the title for it already...."Katakan kasihku", ye la...love story. it kindda stuck there in that thumb drive. not moving anywhere. the plot and sub plots are there, the characters are there. the whole damn storyline is there. but whatever u call it, writer's block...whatever...the pages were not added. i dont have the feel to continue. keep on staring at the screen whenever i have that little urge left in me to continue the writing. i must complete this, i kept on telling myself, many, many times. but there i was staring at the screen...no additional words, no additional sentences that would eventually become my 1st best seller. maybe i will continue this tomorrow, i tell myself again and again...went on with my life, busy with work. fair share of good and bad stuff along the way...add colours to life, well u know the rest. the normal daily life.

today, the plot and subplots are no longer there, the characters are gone, those pages that i have written are all gone. erased accidently when prompted with virus attack on my thumb drive. bye-bye my 1st novel, bye-bye my 1st master piece.

was i upset? very much at the beginning. but i soon realised that i was not really happy with my own writing and that was the reason for delaying and writer's block. it was not meant to be. Maybe that was not my best writing. Allah SWT belum mengizinkannya lagi.

i know now that when i have that creative juice flowing, i must not allow anything to stop it from flowing...write it all down, quickly before it run dry.

need to get away for a few days, away from distractions and focus on my writing. when will that ever happen? my target, to have a book completed by year end...and later with a published title to my name, just like what arwah mak wanted me to be, a writer just like her and i will use her nick for my writings. her nick was, marinah...

InsyaAllah, mak....