Pinned down by life

It's been a while for me not blogging in here. I'm very sorry :-(

Plz gimmi a chance to tell u my excuses:

Excuse #1: Pinned down by my customer project
Working on logistics planner application for postal company in Helsinki, Finland.
As the lead, got to work extra hard & smart. LOL.

Excuse #2: Pinned down (emotionally & financially) by my houz renovation
Alhamdulilah, at last, I can physically see, touch & smell my houz extention. Insyallah, next few weeks, I can taste it...hehhehee....

Believe me, it was such a looooooong process, right from the earth & dirt to bricks & walls. I'll share my experience on this one someday. Just tune in!

p/s: picture illustration by James Greenway.

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A Passage to India

One of my resolutions for Year 2011 is traveling.

For almost 2 years (since my return from Singapore), I have been tightening my belt and save every nickel and penny for my house renovation. That's not counting the many years ever since I was a little girl with a big dream, started saving money to buy my dream house. It's now under renovation. InsyAllah, we will move in this April.

With that, I could unfreeze my traveling plan!

A passage to India would be a great treat for me after years of hard work, sacrifices and patience.

Actually, I've been saying to myself and friends to visit China. However, a friend of mine mentioned that he planned to travel to India. Since India is also in my list, I don't mind to put it first over China, which I can plan after India trip.

Well, my short list so far looks like this:
1) India
2) China
3) Middle East
4) Europe

A Passage to India

We are planning for a 10 or more backpacking trip to India next year. So, this year is the year of planning :-) Yes... it's still a long way to go. But, at least we can start with something and hopefully we can materialize the plan, insyAllah :-)

I have quite a number of Indian friends because I worked in an Indian company for 5 years! Friends from Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad (my ex-company headquarter), Bangalore, Gujarat, Mumbai, Kolkata and many more. I hope I can meet up with some of them over there although most of them are working abroad, away from India. We'll see who's lucky!

Frankly, I know nothing about the geography of India, what's in the north and what's in the south. I never really study India map for real. Only last week, I browsed India map and getting to know the places. All this time, I just hearing the name of places and never really know which part of India they belong to.

Getting to know the places is the first step in the planning so that we know where to go and what to see or do.

India is a huge colorful country and full of diversity in terms of climates, geography, language, culture, religion etc.



One can find white carpeted mountains of snow and lush forest of pines and maple in the beautiful Kashmir on further North or Mount Himalaya in North East.

Amazingly, one can also find blazing, arid and vast sand dunes on the desert landscape of Rajasthan, North West of India.



In general comparison, North India has seasonal climate (winter, summer or pre-monsoon season, Moonsoon or rainy season and Post-monsoon season), mostly speak Hindi, people have fair skin color and atta (whole wheat flour) is their staple food.
Whereas in South India, it has tropical climate with little difference between the summer and winter temperature. During summer season, temperature of some places may reach as high as 42 degrees centigrade. Many people speak Tamil or Telegu and have darker skin color. They take rice as their staple food. South India is pretty much similar to Malaysia or perhaps hotter.

Taj Mahal, one of the 7 Wonders of the World is in Agra, Uttar Pradesh of North India. India is full of monuments, palaces, forts, temples, mosques and museums.



However, Mumbai (aka Bombay) alone I find interesting on its own. 3 places in Mumbai which stand out to be unique and different to me are Dhobi Ghat, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Chor Bazaar.

Dhobi Ghat is termed as the world's largest outdoor laundry. The washers locally known as Dhobis work in open to wash the clothes from Mumbai's hotels and hospitals. There are row upon row of open-air concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone.



Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (aka Victoria Terminus) is one of the busiest railway stations in India, and serves Central Railway trains terminating in Mumbai as well as the Mumbai Suburban Railway. At noon, you can watch its famed dabbawallas deliver more than 200,000 hot lunches prepared by housewives for their husbands working in the office. I once watched this on National Geographic. Particularly impressive is their efficient system – Forbes magazine has calculated its accuracy to one error per six million transactions.

Chor Bazaar: "Chor" is in Hindi which means thieves. "Bazaar" is Persian word, also known in Malay, Hindi, Turkish and Greek which means market. Together they make out "thieves market". Originally, it was called Shor Bazaar meaning "noisy market" but "shor" became "chor" because of how the British mispronounced the word. Eventually stolen goods started finding their way into the market, resulting in it living up to its new name! These days it's famous for antique and vintage items.

Some options we can consider are:

Delhi -> Agra – > Jaipur
- The famous Golden Triangle Delhi - Agra - Jaipur.

Delhi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Jodhpur -> Jaisalmer
- I would love to go to Jaisalmer for the desert dunes and domes.

Mumbai -> Gujarat -> Jaipur -> Agra -> Delhi
- Start from the busy city of Mumbai, move up to Gujarat, Jaipur, Agra and finally end at Delhi

Well, there's still a lot of time to browse and plan :-)
Gosh... I'm very excited!

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Salam Maulidur Rasul

Wishing to all Muslims around the world, Salam Maulidur Rasul.



Maulidur Rasul means the birth of the Prophet is the observance of the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who was born in the year of the Elephant on 12 Rabiul Awal (23 April 571M) in the Arabian city of Mecca.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah is the prophet of Allah SWT, the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets and the last prophet of Islam as taught by the Qur'an, the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith (Islam) of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets.

He was also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, reformer, military general, and, according to Muslim belief, an agent of divine action.

Muhammad is the chosen one by Allah SWT.




In a time of darkness and greed
It is your light that we need
You came to teach us how to live
Muhammad Ya Rasool Allah

You were so caring and kind
Your soul was full of light
You are the best of mankind
Muhammad Khaira Khalqillah
Sallu ‘ala Rasulillah, Habib Al Mustafa
Peace be upon The Messenger
The Chosen One

From luxury you turned away
And all night you would pray
Truthful in every word you say
Muhammad Ya Rasul Allah

Your face was brighter than the sun
Your beauty equaled by none
You are Allah’s Chosen One
Muhammad Khaira Khalqillah
Sallu ‘ala Rasulillah, Habib Al Mustafa
Peace be upon The Messenger
The Chosen One

I will try to follow your way
And do my best to live my life
As you taught me
I pray to be close to you

On that day and see you smile
When you see me
Sallu ‘ala Rasulillah, Habibil Mustafa
Peace be upon The Messenger
The Chosen One

Sallu ‘ala Rasulillah, Habibi Mustafa
Peace be upon The Messenger
The Chosen One

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Asma Allah

This song is really wonderful. MasyaAllah...
Asma Allah means Names of Allah SWT.

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RM 4 Ang Pau is very special for me

Ever since I started working, I never get green packet (similar like Ang Pau - a packet containing money given out during festive season) during Hari Raya celebration anymore. Instead, I would give to kids and old folks.

What I like about Chinese New Year is that I would get red packet (Ang Pau) :-)

Every year, four of us ( my siblings and I ) would get Ang Pau from Mei Mei's grandmother, my neighbor who stay on the same floor as us. Last time, she took care of her granddaughter, Mei Mei and her grandson, Mei Mei's brother. We called her "Nenek Mei Mei" (Mei Mei's grandma). Mei Mei and her brother used to be my little sister's playmates. But a few years ago, Mei Mei and her brother had moved to stay with their mom.



For the past few years, we've got RM 2 or 3 or sometimes even RM 5. Although the amount is very small but it is very special for me.

Let me tell you why it's so special.

Every Chinese New Year, Mei Mei's grandmother will knock on our door carrying plastics bags containing not only oranges (a must) but also biscuits, chocolates, moon cakes or "kacang cap tangan" (nuts). She will gave them to us together with 4 red packets, one for each of us.

For this year, we received 2 plastics bags: one containing oranges and another with a pack of Munchy's biscuits, a bar of Cadbury chocolate and a pack of Solivites drinks and of course they come with 4 red packets of RM 4 each.

Now you see how special it is, right?

This is what I would say as "1 Malaysia". She showcases the spirit of neighborhood regardless of race and religion. In return, we will invite her to our house for a feast during Hari Raya celebration.

I am wishing a very prosperous "Gong Xi Fat Cai" to all Chinese in Malaysia :-)

P/S: This year would be the last time I would get the red packet from her because we are moving to our new house in a few months. I will definitely miss this!

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God'ed & MisGod'ed

In Malaysia, most of us were born Islam and learn Islam as Muslims since childhood, just like me. We were not really exposed to religion comparison like in the west where this is taught in some universities. I work in MNC and met many kind of people from different background and religions. One of my friend who is an Atheist and who also claim to be a thinker, loves asking questions and debating about religions. He claimed that he read Bible, Quran and knows Hinduism, Buddhism and many more.



I tried to understand and just to get some idea what are the other religions all about. Of course this topic is quite heavy and we need to be extra careful so as to preserve our iman and taqwa. One of the books I read was God'ed & MisGod'ed by Dr Laurence B. Brown, MD, the top American surgeon who embrace Islam. www.leveltruth.com



Actually, I read this book in Year 2008 and blog about it before. I would like to share this with all of you in here. Here it goes:

Originally was written in a single book titled The First and Final Commandment. But later was split into two books:

God'ed?: The Case for Islam as the Completion of Revelation

MisGod'ed: A Roadmap of Guidance and Misguidance in the Abrahamic Religions

It lay down a roadmap of guidance and misguidance within Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Judaism is the religion of Jewish people. According to traditional Rabbinic Judaism, God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both Written and Oral Torah (Old Testament).

Christianity is the teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical Gospel and other New Testament writings adhered by the Christians.

Islam is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Al-Quran and by the teachings and normatives called Sunnah and Hadith of Prophet Muhammad SAW. Al-Quran which was revealed to Prophet Muhammad SAW is the divine guidance and moral direction for mankind.

Interestingly, Islam acknowledges both Moses (Nabi Musa) and Jesus (Nabi Isa) as prophets of Allah SWT. Prophet Moses, Prophet Jesus and Prophet Muhammad SAW (Nabi Muhammad) are descendants of Prophet Abraham (Nabi Ibrahim). Islam also acknowledges both Torah or Old Testament (Kitab Taurat) and Gospel (Kitab Injil) as the preceding revelations. These are all specified in the faith of Islam (Rukun Iman). Unfortunately, the contents of these revelation now may not be the original ones. Al-Quran is the final revelation which completes the preceding revelations.

The book discusses about each of the religions and their similarity and differences. I find it as a good reading. You may give it a try :-)

Here's the table of contents:

PART I – MONOTHEISM
1. Judaism
2. Christianity
3. Islam – Part 1
4. Islam – Part 2

PART II – UNDERSTANDING AND APPROACHING GOD
1. God’s Name
2. God’s Name and the Royal Plural
3. Understanding of God

PART III – DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES
1. Unitarians vs. Trinitarians
2. Jesus Christ
3. Word of God
4. Messiah (Christ)
5. Virgin Birth
6. Jesus Begotten?
7. Jesus Christ – Son of God?
8. The Trinity
9. Divinity of Jesus? – An Inquiry
10. Divinity of Jesus? – The “Evidence”
11. Holy Spirit
12. Crucifixion
13. Lamb of God
14. Original Sin
15. Atonement
16. Return of Jesus

PART IV – BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE
1. Old Testament
2. New Testament
3. Inconsistencies in the New Testament – Part 1
4. Inconsistencies in the New Testament – Part 2
5. Problems in the New Testament Canon
6. Old Testament Meets New Testament Meets Holy Qur’an
Conclusion
Appendix – Hadith Methodology
Bibliography

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Why are there very few Malays in our company?

"Why are there very few Malays in our company?" - That's the question I got from my foreign co-worker during today's lunch time.

For the locals, they may know the answer or at least have some idea of reasons behind this. However, for foreigner, they may not know the situation in Malaysia. Perhaps, they may come out with something once they stay here for a while and mingle around with the locals.

Sadly to say, there are only 5 Malays plus 1 half-Malay (Malay-Thai mixed...hehehee..) out of more than 100 people in our company. Indeed, it's been quite challenging to recruit talented, smart and qualified people (regardless races, religions etc) with the high standard expectation.

Let's open our mind and ask ourselves. Perhaps, from questioning ourselves, we start thinking, realizing and acting to make change towards paradigm shift.

Think of a Paradigm Shift as a change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis.

From my observation, 3 main aspects we can discuss here:
1) Education
2) Mind setting
3) Attitude

1) Education = education style + education trend

There are ample space of improvement required in our education style, I think many people realize this too. The exam-oriented school system trains the students to read and memorize to pass exam. They end up study but not learn.

Earlier people who obtained British-like education during British colonial government where schools were taught in English turned out to be of higher standard with great English language fluency. Recent years showed that Malaysia was struggling to make corrective action in the education system by introducing the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English. Unfortunately, it was revoked after few years of implementation.



Students are afraid to put up hands to volunteer answering question or even asking question. I remember a friend of mine once told me that in India the competition in education is very fierce. They have to fight competitively to obtain the limited places in schools and universities. When lecturer asking a question, almost everyone shoot up hands to answer.

So, teachers should encourage students to speak up by instilling creative, critical and analytical thinking to support their argument. We have to throw away the stigma of regarding the students as disrespectful when they start questioning or challenging opinion.

In my personal experience, during the year I started my university, the education trend was quite rigid. The highflyers (top scorers) typically will take up Medic, Engineering or Law courses. For average achievers will end up with Business, Mass Communication or IT (or Software Engineering) courses. Not to mention Musics or Arts, most of parents think that their children would not be able to make a living out of it. In fact, the community was also bound to such perception.

People kept asking me why I took IT when I can easily apply for Medic. Even my mom expected me to become a doctor, Sorry Mom. My answer was very simple, I love computer very much. I was first being fascinated with the green text over the black screen monitor, the MS-DOS computer system during my second year in primary school. Since then, I determined to learn computer and wanted to become Software Engineer. A primary-school friend of mine loves animals and reared many cats, rabbits, iguana and God-knows-what. She is now a Veterinarian. Another friend from Science MARA Junior College (MRSM) who is a brilliant Malay guy and passionate about mathematics. He decided to take up Mathematics in university but the scholarship funder was questioning his choice as to why he decided so and not Engineering courses. It's all about passion. Passion drives a person to stride greater height and go against the tide.

I believe there are many talented, smart and qualified Malaysians out there. It would be great if we can have many more talented, smart and qualified Malaysians!



2) Mind setting

By definition, mindset is a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviors, choices, or tools.

Correct mindset leads to how we think and how we approach things which contributes to greater achievement. This is what I always believe in to be successful:

1. Ambitious - We must have great ambition or dream to achieve be it for yourself, family, community or country. Aim to change from bad to better and to best.
   
2. Determination - spirit and passion to achieve the dream
3. Knowledge and Strategy - plan out how to achieve the dream
4. Work hard and smart
5. Tawakal and redha - everything and anything we do in this world can never be separated from our spiritual believe to the Oneness of Allah SWT. Good deeds in Islam are not constraint to just prayers but they cover beyond that. It's the entire lifestyle.

Regrettably, many are lack of ambition and determination, having poor or no knowledge and strategy, lazy and secular.



3) Attitude

A positive attitude leads to happiness and success and can change our whole life. We have to have positive attitudes like positive thinking, constructive thinking, creative thinking, expecting success, optimism, motivation to accomplish your goals, inspire and being inspired, not giving up, looking at failure and problems as blessings in disguise, believing in yourself and in your abilities, displaying self-esteem and confidence, looking for solutions and seeing opportunities.

Just get rid of negative attitudes like being too relax (or chillex), less competitive, lazy and other non-beneficial attitudes.

Conclusion

Let's start thinking, realizing and acting to make change towards paradigm shift to become educated, competitive and progressive Malaysians.

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