Spirit of Ramadhan

Today mark the first day of Ramadhan in Malaysia. Muslims will fast from dawn till dusk. Except for my 5 year old son Danial (who claimed this morning that he is fasting after finishing a bowl of cereal ;-)), all of us in the family is fasting including my 9 year old who didnt even miss a day of the entire holy month last year. Pretty impressive for a boy his age.

Actually Ramadhan month means more than just refraining oneself from eating and drinking. It's a blessed month marked by prayers, fasting and charity. Fasting serves many purposes. While they are hungry and thirsty, Muslims are reminded of the suffering of the poor. Fasting is also an opportunity to practice self-control and to cleanse the body and mind. And in this most sacred month, fasting helps Muslims feel the peace that comes from spiritual devotion as well as kinship with fellow believers -Holly Hartman (infoplease.com). In short, Ramadhan means more than just hunger and thirst. He who does not desist from obscene language and acting obscenely, Allah has no need that he did not eat or drink -(Bukhari, Muslim).

I am far from being a perfect Muslim. But what Ramadhan teaches me most is humility and moderation. Whenever Ramadhan arrives, I felt a sense of calm in me and it reflected in my actions. Indeed the Spirit of Ramadhan should lives in every Muslim for the entire year not just 30 days.

As we remember the Sept 11 tragedy, let us pray that irresponsible people do not repeat such act and claimed it to be in the name of a religion. Nobody deserves to be a victim in such tragedy - not the Americans, nor the Palestinians, nor Iraqis, nor Balinese and not the South Koreans. Not anyone!!!

Above all the spirit of Ramadhan reminds me to correct/educate/prepare/forgive myself . I would like to borrow a line from Michael Jackson's (Man in the Mirror)'If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change'. So let us make ourselves be a better person instead of judging or questioning others.

Ramadhan Al Mubarak (Blessed Ramadhan)to all

Here we go again

Whenever my family goes back to my parents place, my kids will always ask us to bring them to the beach. You can never say no to them or they will keep asking you until you finally said okay. And if that okay means later in the afternoon, you better make sure you convey that message earlier on or they will purposely act as if they don’t know the time and bug you with ‘can we go now?’ just about a million times.




And once you are at the beach, it’s another battle persuading them to go back home when the time is up.
Angah and me watched out for the kids as they played on the sand till sunset. They had so much fun.


On our way back in the car, my son asked me ‘Ma, when can we go again?’

Kids stuffs…are you kidding me?

My boys were excited about their new Bionicle figurines.
The green one belongs to Danish while the brown one is Danial’s.
Danish spent only half an hour to assemble TWO of these ‘creatures’ last nite. I gets headache just looking at the manual. But according to my son, this is ‘kacang putih’ (white nuts - literally means very easy) compare to assembling his gundam figurines – which the manuals are in Japanese!! I guess kids nowadays are so advance in many ways. This morning they posed their new treasure for me to take pictures.
I can hear them in the next room planning their attack to each other. Trying to save their own galaxy. Lost in their own little game.

The End, finally

At last I managed to finish ‘the’ book. When I just started, I don’t quite like the story. Not until I reached at page 300 or so that I started to enjoy the story’s dark secrets, painful memories etc. Most of the time the story leads you into making some harsh or rather an obvious conclusion to its mystery only to be told otherwise in the next chapter. The plot twist and turn. Sometimes, the writings/words were just too eerily familiar with how you would think/talk/response which shows how clever it is being written. As I mentioned in my other entry earlier on, this book is different from my usual genre (which also explains why I struggle to finish it) but I guess its okay. Bcos at the end, I did enjoy it (this much is true).
Tonite, after fallen asleep twice and woke up to continue reading, I ‘m proud to say that I had finally conquered its 1000 small font pages.

Now back to sleep.

Awakenings

I just finished watching Awakenings. I know, I know its an old movie but I never get the chance to watch it (or maybe just plain uninterested before) until just now. Maybe this comment of mine is many years too late...but anyways Robert DeNiro's acting was superb. His portray as a neurologically damage patient was so believable. And Robin Williams as his compassionate doctor was brilliant too. This is a good movie. I'm glad I was able to catch it.
Cried my eyes out.

50 years and counting

Merdeka literally means freedom. Above is the copy (reproduce) of the newspaper headlines in 1957 when independence was declared 50 years ago.

Malaysia celebrated its 50th Merdeka (Independence) last Aug 31. I don't know why but every time I watch the Proclamation of Independence by Tunku Abdul Rahman, it never fail to bring tears to my eyes.

I hope for the next 50 years, as Malaysian we will be able to free and outgrow ourselves from the narrow boundaries of races, religion and mindset. We will never lose sight of the past and the sacrifices made by our yester years heroes so that we will always be grateful for the freedom that we enjoy today. And may it always last.

Happy 50th Merdeka

Wired...less

Last weekend was a long weekend cum holiday for my family and I. Since hubby had some work in downtown Ipoh so we decided to drive back to our hometowns early. I took leave on Thursday while the kids skip one day of school (yeah, the father said it's okay). The boys had a wonderful time with their cousins (2 of my sister in-laws family were down as well) and of cos' meeting their grandparents.

The only thing I don't quite fancy when it comes to going back to our hometowns is the inaccessibility to the Internet. So I was un-connected for 5 days!! I used to go berserk the last time when I don't have access to the net but not anymore. I learn to keep it under control. Good thing I had my really thick novel with me (which I've been trying hard to finish) and I'm happy to say that I'm almost there.

Last nite I was busy catching up on news and visiting blogs.