AL-MANAR

Moment to Reflect ( Pt 8 ) - Whether Alive or Dead - SAW

2012-02-14T11:54:00.002+08:00

We have gone more than half way through the month of Rabiul Awwal. Mawlidul Rasul has been much talked about and discussed. Today I pick up one of my treasured books, The Life of Muhammad by Muhammad Husein Haykal.

By Muhammad Husein Haykal

The page immediately inside the front cover bears my signature and the date the book was purchased, KL 14/2/95, making it 17 years ago today, KT 14/2/12.

Purchased in KL on 14-2.1995

As I flip through the book and I reach Chapter 31 (page 504), The Prophet’s Burial. On the second page of this chapter I had some notes scribbled in pencil. Reading that I can barely hold back my tears. The scene was that of a total chaos, women crying near hysterical and others shocked and stupefied.

Umar, on hearing the sad news went straight to Muhammad’s bed, uncovered him and looked at his face for a while. He perceived its motionless and deathlike appearance as a coma from which he believed Muhammad would soon emerge. He found it hard to accept the truth of a great man he had so admired and worked for. So at the mosque he was proclaiming at the top of his voice, “Some hypocrites are pretending that the Prophet of God – May God’s peace and blessing be upon him – has died. By God I swear that he did not die ……. By God, the Prophet of God will return ……. Any man who dares to perpetrate a false rumour such as Muhammad’s death shall have his arms and legs cut off by this hand.”

Abu Bakr hearing the same news returned and noticed Umar addressing the crowd. He did not stop to listen to Umar but went straight to Muhammad’s body, uncovered his face and kissed it, saying, “How wholesome you are, whether alive or dead!” He then held the Prophet’s head in his hand and looked closely at the face which showed no sign whatever of death’s attack. Laying it down again, he said, “What would I not have sacrificed for you! …..”- such devotion.

Abu Bakr then returned to the mosque. Aproaching close to Umar he said, “Softly, O Umar! Keep silent!” He then went to address the crowd. After praising and thanking God, Abu Bakr delivered a brief address. “ O men, if you have been worshiping Muhammad, then know that Muhammad is dead. But if you have been worshiping God, then know that God is living and never dies." He then recited the following Quranic verse ( among the verses most dear toPakcik) :

Part of verse 144 - surah Al Imran

I have written above only the first half of the verse 144 from Surah Al Imran. Muhammad Asad gave us the following interpretation:

“ And Muhammad is only an apostle; all the (other) apostles have passed away before him; if, then, he dies or is slain, will you turn about on your heels? ….” He completed the other half of the verse.

Abubakr’s short speech, particularly the verse, worked like magic. The crowd listened to the verse as if they had never heard it before, now fully understood the stark truth. So that was that. The inevitable had to be accepted.

____________________________

So what does that scene above tell us?

Hadn't the great Prophet done enough ?

Do we simply keep on celebrating his maulid, without giving a thought what his life stood for?

And shouldn't we spare a moment to reflect over what the greatest man on earth had done for mankind?

“ What would I not have sacrificed for you! …..” ? - Abu Bakr's lament.

Have we nothing at all to sacrifice, in our own separate little way, in honour of what he did for mankind?

Sall Allah alaihi wasallam.

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With a sigh (Pt 11 ) - Atlas, what is it?

2012-02-09T01:08:00.006+08:00

Ask me, “What’s an atlas ?”

I will start with a book of maps showing position of countries, towns, seas and mountains etc. School children can answer that equally well.

A world atlas

“What else?”

I would go back to my childhood days when, like children of those days, I was interested in old folk lore like Pak Pandir, Hang Tuah etc. Then of course I would imagine the mighty Atlas of the Greek mythology holding the earth on his back.

The might Atlas

“What else?”

Now I have to scratch my head thinking hard of my old geography lesson when I learnt all about the prominent ranges of Alps, the Himalayas, the Andes etc. And among them stands Atlas Mountains stretching across North Africa.

“What else?”

Now you catch me. I am sorry. I cannot think of any more, unless you mean AlAttas.

“My goodness. You don’t have to go to school to know what Atlas is!”

---------------------------------

I was then doing English with my Form TWO pupils when something made me ask them what ‘atlas’ was when a line in the book we were reading read, “ …… bought me an atlas ….” I was glad to have asked them that question. a stupid question, perhaps. About twenty blank faces looked at one another, a few shaking their heads. I just stood there with disbelief. Then a boy mastered the courage to suggest,

“Kain pelikat, Pakcik!”

Indeed ‘Atlas’ was a popular brand of man’s cloth (kain pelikat) at that time. Everyone in the village knows that. How silly I was.

Pelikat Atlas

That old man standing in front of the class could only draw a sigh to realise how out-dated and silly he was. To him was kain pelikat 'cap gajah benang seribu', nothing but the best of his time.

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End of the tunnel ( Part 14 ) – Once a fisherman, always a fisherman

2012-02-02T07:33:00.011+08:00

The bell rang and I knew someone was at the gate. As I pushed open the main door a young girl was stepping in through the gate.

“Pakcik ingat saya lagi, tak?” ( Can Pakcik still remember me, or not?)

Her face was beaming with excitement. Of course she was a familiar face; but before I could pick a right name from that long list answer she already answered her own question, obviously so exhilarated to let something off her chest. “ Fiza, Pakcik. Nak bagi kad lah Pakcik.” ( Fiza, Pakcik. I have a card to give.)

A kad (a card). I knew it. It had to be an invitation card for her wedding. So that was it.

FIZA

Fiza is no stranger to Makcik and Pakcik.(click) End of the tunnel (Part 5 ) featured her elder sister who now has two children, holding a senior position in a private college in Klang Valley. Fiza herself is a nurse at a hospital in Kedah.

A few minutes later, sitting comfortably and obviously relieved after letting off her chest the reason for her visit, she talked about her job and family, a happy family. Her father, now at 61, is still a fisherman and has been one for 46 years. Shouldn’t he call it a day when children have begun to earn good income? I wondered and asked her so.

“ We all have told him again and again that he must stop going out to sea. But can you believe it? If he does not take his boat out for a few days he gets sick – rindukan ombak ( missing the waves)!”

Ten days later we duly attended her wedding, a grand kampong wedding, the second we attended in that particular house. When I looked at the brick house my mind wondered back some fifteen years ago to picture an old wooded house on stilts, often flooded during monoon season. They often needed a small wooden boat to reach the steps of the house from the higher ground around it.

Wedding day

Pak Yas (for Alias), the proud father, the ‘old man of the sea’, was equally excited to see us. “ I told Fiza she must send her card personally to Pakcik.” He stressed the word ‘sendiri’ (personally).

Pak Yas - Standing tall

And before we left the proud fisherman confided, “ I hope you will have a chance to come for a third wedding.” Indeed three daughters were ‘graduates’ from Almanar. Two are married and one to go.

In his pink dress the proud father looked young for his age. The secret cannot simply be the happy ending for his family but it has a lot to do with his 46 years of dripping his sweat in the sun and the storms, and being washed by the sprays of salt water of the South China Sea.

Makcik and Pakcik share the happiness of the family of this master fisherman.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Pakcik reminisces (Pt 23b) - Response to Awang Goneng

2012-01-31T00:21:00.004+08:00

Pakcik’s previous entry drew a number of comments. The one from Awang Goneng (copied below) touched on points very pertinent to learning of English language.

“Way to go Abang Ngah! I am happy to hear about your planned collaboration with a local university. The problem nowadays is not the quantity of teaching but the quality. Our children have lost their language skills but there are more opportunities for language learning around them. People say there's too much Malay nowadays, but there's too much English too. More and more government departments are writing in English, more people in public are speaking in English and there are many, many television programmes in English. Language learning isn't just vocabulary building or learning the mechanics of grammar. It is more than that. Children should read and love reading. They should listen and love listening. In short, they should love the language they are learning. Literature is kicked by the wayside nowadays and language is pushed into slots. English for Science, English for this English for that. Teaching English as English seems to be a futile exercise. Give them back the love of literature, the sounds of words.”

___________________________

While Awang Goneng laments briefly over the teaching and usage of English language I am using this avenue to express my concern on the same subject:

i ) - Would the few hundred teachers imported from America be of help to the likes of the poor rural children who attend classes at Almanar?

ii ) - Assuming our teachers have been suitably trained to teach English as a means to communicate and a tool to search for knowledge, are they at liberty to use their skill to the full or are they being restricted to doggedly and blindly follow what the demigods of education upstairs have outlined?

iii ) - Have the heads of schools been trained to MANAGE an organisation rather than to teach; and if so have they got the leeway to exercise discretion to suit the problems faced in their varied environments?

iv) - Seeing what has been the excessive emphasis on RECORDs of straight ‘A’ at state as well as at school level, should we not, for a change, see highlights of the number and percentage of pupils achieving nothing beyond ‘D’ and ‘E’? Not long ago, the percentage of the group of pupils in this low category at one school reached as high as 30% in one PMR exam. That is very telling isn’t it?

v) – Does the introduction of a subject like EST ( English for Science and Technology) reflect deficiency in our English as a subject?

vi) – Instead of hard copies, blackboard and chalks, must we encourage the use of computing technology to the extent that a teacher can leave the pupils on their own in class?

vii) – Are the text books used for teaching English up to standard? Is it acceptable, for instance, that poems and short stories by Malaysians are translated into English and used as parts of introduction to English literature? Are we making our children learn English literature or learn to be proud of ‘Malaysia boleh’?

I have these questions playing in my head from time to time for so many years when I keep seeing with despair at the attainment of many kampong children coming for help at Almanar.

I will not forget what Awang Goneng once mentioned to Pakcik how the problem of poor children at the bottom classes in schools of a neighbouring country was tackled. The method was so successful that teachers would scramble to teach bottom classes! But we are too proud to be a ‘copycat’. With Malaysia Boleh we should not be surprised when Malaysian engineers are soon required to reinvent the wheel!

____________________

To Awang Goneng.

Mi, I may have been unnecessarily critical. I may have raised some eyebrows among my readers. But in the environments I happen to live in, on top of growing old, I have my frustrations.

Thank you for your comments.

Abang Ngah

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Pakcik reminisces (Pt 23a ) - A milestone in time

2012-01-26T13:31:00.004+08:00

Weary of a possibility that this entry might be construed as an attempt to highlight self importance, Pakcik will have to be as brief as possible.

I cannot help waking up to the reality that this year marks an important milestone in my journey through time. Twenty years ago Pakcik had to vacate a cosy chair with an employer that I had been closely associated with for thirty five years of my life. I owe them my tertiary education and I owe them material gains and experience in building the life of my family. At the end of that milestone we were gratified to witness our three birds leaving their nest, and the two of us left contented to begin unhindered the final part of our journey. That was 30 years ago.

We were ready for our ‘hijrah’; in location, modes of living, devoid of clubs and partying, and, above all, the activities which preoccupy. Sadly we had to part with many very close friends and relatives, including our own children.

Two years later I chose a new career, one which the pair of these old birds would not expect any material gains. And now, eighteen years past the bridge in time, we are happy that, without any lingering doubts, we had Almanar launched. In its humble way Almanar shares the pride of seeing some deserving children from this small community progressing ahead in education, one that could bring gains to their respective families; as briefly sketched in our ‘End of the Tunnel’ series.

The very recent siting of a home for orphans and children of needy families by the authority has presented Almanar a new challenge. The present number of children living in this new home, a stone’s throw away, is about 80 children and very soon it will increase to about 100. Sadly, these children, resulted from shortcomings in years of upbringing them, have little inclination towards education. This is an added challenge which Pakcik have neither time nor expertise to deal with.

It is very fortunate that we have been offered an opportunity to open a discussion with representives from a university with the view of implementing a small project loosely called ‘transfer of knowledge from university to community’. I am hoping against hope that a new era will open in a not-too-distant future when members from that university will make programmed visits to Almanar to deal with motivation aspects of these children. It will surely mark a new milestone in time for Almanar.

On a slightly wider perspective, if the above-mentioned project truly gets underway successfully, I would like schools around us to take advantage of this new university-Almanar venture; instead of the current tendency among certain groups in the schools to look with scorn and doubts at what benefits Almanar could offer to their pupils.

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Interlude – Bengawan Solo

2012-01-20T19:05:00.004+08:00

“Ning, I have no class this afternoon. Let’s go out for high tea after my Jumaat prayers.’

“ So I don’t have to prepare lunch.”

“ And dinner!”

That was a deal and by three we were in town to join a small crowd with a three-piece band playing soft music. We found ourselves a table for two in a corner within sight of the music makers. After picking up some dishes we sat quietly enjoying our food half listening to lovely old English pieces – pieces for dancing.

I did not know what was in her mind but I quickly went back in time, some fifty years ago`. I could see couples, all properly attired; swaying to romantic waltzes and slow foxtrots. Oh, what a lovely scene it was in the pictures of my mind. Suddenly I was awakened from my reverie when the music changed. It was Bengawan Solo, my very favourite of the mid 50’s.

I looked up and saw the leader/singer smiling at me as he sang the lyrics. Yes we know each other and it was his way of presenting something special. What a song this is, an evergreen Indonesian classic.

Bengawan Solo

Bengawan Solo, riwayatmu ini
sedari dulu jadi perhatian insani
musim kemarau, tak seberapa airmu
di musim hujan air meluap sampai jauh ...

mata airmu dari Solo
terkurung gunung seribu
air mengalir sampai jauh
akhirnya ke laut ...

itu perahu, riwayatmu dulu
kaum pedagang s'lalu naik itu perahu

________________________

"Bengawan Solo, this is a song of your history.
People have been fascinated with this great river since ancient times,
In the dry season, your water is little, and in the rainy season, your water overflows till far,
Around the source of the Solo River, there are a thousand mountains,
And the river flows all the way to the sea.
There are always many merchants on board ships going up and down the river.
These ships also show your history."

________________

Before we left I made the few steps to the music makers and thanked the leader for his very special song. “ I knew you would want me to sing that. Until next time …..”

That was a good break for us. On the way home I expressed the thought which had been lingering in my mind. “ Ning, isn’t strange? Fifty years ago our Malay folks looked with contempt and disapproval at Malays in proper dresses dancing gracefully to the sentimental music because it was a western culture. And today, we see on TV crowds of young and old Malays swaying their hands in unison, delirious at boys and girls jumping and wriggling on stage in dresses I feel completely disgusted.”

“You are behind time, darling!” she responded with a wry smile.

Indeed I am. A lot of water has gone under the bridge (of Bengawan Solo)

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan yntuk kemanusiaan

Our Family ( Part 2 ) – From Adam to Adam

2012-01-12T10:32:00.006+08:00

Over forty years ago, a young couple indeed we were when we received the much awaited news of the coming of our first baby. And during the next nine months we were made to wonder in suspense whether it was a boy or a girl, whether it was just one or more, and hoping all was going to be a gift with perfect features and all. Baby scanning was not even a dream. In many ways, however, the months of expectation, suspense, dream and prayers were all part of the pleasure. Much of the thrill is lost today, not unlike watching a replay of a football final when the score is already known.

And the pleasure of trying to arrive at a suitable name for our first one was an added pleasure. We borrowed and we bought books of names to make our list of preferred names. And it had to be a boy’s and a girl’s name, with contingency added in the event of more than one. But how would one arrive at a name or two? What criteria and basis were to apply? At long last, after much deliberation and brainstorming, the name/names had to start with alphabet ‘A’. You see we went so far as to assume that the yet-to-be born babe would be clever enough to go into a university, and at the end of each year the child should not find it difficult to find his/her name from the long list of passes! It had to be among the top few name! It was beyond belief that the result could appear on a small screen held in your palm, wherever you choose to be.

So we had Ainun followed by Amran and Anwar – just three? Pakcik had wanted a full dozen, or even more, but three times on the operation table was enough for any mother to go through in the 60’s. Our Dr McCoy advised against going for number four. ( Note: Dato’ Dr McCoy is a founder member of Malaysian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (MPPNW) and has been its chairman since 1989. He is Co-President of International Physicians for the Preventive of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Disappointed, we conceded.

Our number one herself started the short list of four children whose names begin with ‘A’ except for an ‘S’. The ‘S’, for Sulaiman, was our special request in honour of the child’s great-grand-father, a scholar who died at the young age of 39. Like her mother, Ainun herself cannot go for a dozen or more, beating her mother by having four. The fourth was named after our first prophet ( Alaihissalaam), ADAM, and the first of human race.

The list continued with Aisyah, the first ‘Hawa’ in the list of our grandchildren, and finally Adam. We never asked why it should be Adam. But it could very well be the last child. If Makcik found three was enough, our daughter was brave enough to go for four
___________________________

I have a younger sister in my family, whose name does not begin with ‘A’. She has three children none of whom carries a name with ‘A’, and yet they are successful in life. Her youngest daughter, now in the Hague with her husband, delivered her first baby three months ago. It was a very pleasant surprise for us to know that this first baby was named Adam. This new family of three returned during the recent Christmas holidays.

And for the first time the two ADAMS, sons of two cousins, met.

Ainun & the two Adams (8 yr & 5 m)

We can only pray and hope that these two Adams ( both born in August) are blessed, will live up to their auspicious name, and be humane enough to be of service to mankind.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Hatinya baik (He had a wonderful heart) –Part 4

2012-01-01T19:47:00.006+08:00

A) INTRODUCING First Day of 2012

I have seen this first day more than seventy times. A lot of water has gone under the bridge, so to speak. And, if there is any left, how many more are there ahead? Wallahu A’lam.

The year just gone had many good moments. The few instances, which Makcik and Pakcik accepted with sadness, were the deaths of several very close to us, in particular Makcik’s own mother and her only aunt. And just about one week to the end of the year I was particularly saddened by the passing a national figure of whom I am writing below.

There is nothing to celebrate, really. Last night it was cats and dogs right through the night till almost dawn. Therefore open air first-day celebration in this world-class city was out of question.

This being the first day of the year I chose to close Almanar for the normal morning class, leaving just for the afternoon. And I made myself useful in the morning ‘supervising’ Makcik making my usual favourite home-made thick-cut marmalade. She ended with a batch of five tubs which should keep me happy at breakfast for another six months.

Soon after my afternoon class a middle age couple turned at our house. They are a husband-and-wife team planting vegetables for sale. They apparently heard that this old man by the sea had done wonders for free.

Would Pakcik kindly accept her daughter who had just obtained 3C’s and 2D’s (English and Math) in her recent UPSR exam? Whom should I pity, the vegetable growers or her poor daughter? It was not such a difficult question. Years ago I accepted an orphan with 2D’s in the same subjects and he converted them to 2 A’s three years later.

So that was my first day of 2012. This evening I am sitting to draft this posting.

________________________________________

B ) Hatinya baik (He had a wonderful heart) –Part 4

Utusan Malaysia – 24th December 2011

On 23rd December 2011, a Friday, once a minister in Prime Minister’s Dept, Tan Sri Dr Abdul Hamid Othman, passed away suddenly at the age of 72. I cannot claim to be more than an acquaintance to him. But he was a man I could not help admiring.

Had his son, his only child, not been a close classmate of my son during their secondary education at Sekolah Menengah Alam Shah, I would have never had the opportunity to know this very special man whose thought and vision I could share. That was in the 70’s when he was a lecturer at the University Kebangsaan. He used to call at my house in Damansara Heights and we had interesting talks on various subjects, particularly education. We shared a common beginning in education. The two paths in the forest, where I chose to take one leaving the other, were more or less the same paths; but he took the other. We would probably be friends at AlAzhar University had I chosen the path preferred by my parents.

We talked about St Andrew where he went to do his PhD in Islamic study, and I visiting the birth place of golf.

I remember how interesting it was doing research in Islam St Andrew’s University. He spoke very highly of the English professors’ knowledge in Islam and the Quran. I was not surprised when he said a number of them converted, but only after they had retired from the university.

He had high hopes for his son, Wafi, the like of my hope for my first son. He had wanted his son to reach the sky in education. Today I know deep in my heart how satisfied he had been to see the attainment of his loved one, obtaining first-class honours in law, a Masters in law at Cambridge, finishing with a PhD in maritime law, a chip of the old block.

I never wondered why the late Tan Sri was picked by Dr Mahathir to be his advisor in Islamic matters. I could not think of a better person, a quiet, humble and unpretentious great human being.

Many would miss arwah Tan Sri. I regret for not keeping in touch with him in his later days. All I can do now is to pray for him. Al Fatihah for him, and condolence to surviving members of his family.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

With a Sigh (Pt. 11) - A Class for Three

2011-12-28T01:09:00.003+08:00

Flashback - A year ago, on 15.12.2010 my posting went like this:

"With a sigh ( Pt 4 ) – Do I carry on or call it a day?

“O, no, … only NINE ….?” cried my first little thought when I stepped into my class at Almanar one day last week. Rising to their feet to greet me were just nine pupils, ALL GIRLS. What has become of all the boys?.... “

_____________________________

Indeed, Pakcik went through a very disappointing time and questioned whether or not to call it a day. A few reasons contribute to the dwindling number of children attending Almanar. I was truly depressed at the situation then. Somehow, nothing short of providence brought fresh light into the gloom. A house for children of poor families and orphans was opened one kilometer away from Almanar, calling for help from Almanar to tutor about 80 children from Form 1 to Form 4. This god-send fresh mission was most welcome, albeit a fresh challenge never thought of previously; the majority are of very poor quality, academically and in attitude towards learning.

How the Form 3 children of this group fared in the recent PMR is not yet known to us as these children are away on holidays. But we are certain of very poor results for a start. We will soon know.

In the meantime we have not closed our door to other children in the community. This morning was supposed to be the first day for new Form 1 pupils to join Almanar class. Against the previous high figure of up to forty, we had THREE pupils, a boy and two girls!

The class of THREE

But we are past being deterred from pushing ahead. I remember Mr Micawber, a character in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, one of the text books for Form 4 English Literature in 1954. This eternal optimist believes that "something will turn up".

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Merry X’mas - 2011

2011-12-25T02:38:00.006+08:00

To our Christian visitors and, in particular, our very old friends, Pauline, Julian, Ian, Raymond and their families, Salmah and I wish a merry X’mas, possibly a beautiful white one for those in UK and the States.

With kind regards from

Hassan & Salmah

_______________________

P/S

Untuk yang seugama, Pakcik ingin melakarkan ayat 45 dan 59 dari surah Al I’mran.

Oleh kerana Pakcik sendiri tidak berkemampuan memberi penerangan secukupnya, memadai lah dengan apa yang terdapat dalam “Tafsir Pimpinan Al-Rahman Kepada Pengertian Al Quran” yang diterbitkan oleh Jabatan Perdana Menteri- 1968 :

Ayat 45 dari surah Al-Imran

“(Ingatlah) Ketika malaikat berkata: “Wahai Maryam! Bahawasanya Allah memberikan khabar yang mengmbirakan mu, dengan (mengurniakan kepada mu seorang anak yang engkau akan kandungkan sematamata dengan) kalimah daripada Allah ( kalimah arahan Allah ‘kuun’ - atau ‘jadi’- dan terus jadi) , nama anak itu: Al Masih Isa Ibnu Maryam, seorang yang terkemuka dalam dunia dan akhirat, dan ia juga dari orang yang didanpingkan (diberi kemuliaan disisi Allah).”

Ayat 59 dari surah Al-Imran

“Sesungguhnya perbandingan kejadian nabi Isa disisi Allah, adalah sama dengan kejadian nabi Adam. Allah telah menciptakan Adam dari tanah lalu berfirman kepadanya: ‘Jadilah engkau!’ Maka jadilah ia.”

________________________

From those two verses alone we are being reminded that Al-Masikh Isa, is one of the greatest prophets who are to be honoured by us all. He is no less human than Adam, both of whom were created by a one-word command from Him – KUUN or simply BE. Adam was created without parents and Isa without the need of a father, hence Isa bin Maryam. That being the case, and firmly with that unshakable belief, should we not honour this prophet of Allah the way we are expected to do as enshrined in Al Quran? Could we not respect others for the basis they choose for their belief, that we be respected in return?

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Moment to Reflect ( Pt 7 ) - I – Who am I?

2011-12-18T20:15:00.008+08:00

5.30 pm today.

From our home we noticed,
An inviting scene.
We walked down.
And stood there.
Words unspoken.

Just watch.
Just admire.

Vast
Endless

The marvel of the Great Creator
Aku bertafakkur sejenak.

Click on pictures to enlarge

A 5.30 scene -Sunday 18.12.12

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What Pakcik Received ( Pt 2 ) - Room to Read

2011-12-09T00:57:00.003+08:00

In September this year ( click HERE) Pakcik decided to introduce this ‘What Pakcik Received’ series primarily meant to extend to my readers certain articles of interest sent to me by friends. Recently, one in Thailand emailed an article by Nicholas D Kristof, a well-known columnist of New York Times.

Subject: Room to Read

ONE of the legendary triumphs of philanthropy was Andrew Carnegie's
construction of more than 2,500 libraries around the world. It's renowned as
a stimulus to learning that can never be matched - except that, numerically,
it has already been surpassed several times over by an American man you've
probably never heard of.

I came here to Vietnam to see John Wood hand out his 10 millionth book at a
library that his team founded in this village in the Mekong Delta - as
hundreds of local children cheered and embraced the books he brought as if
they were the rarest of treasures. Wood's charity, Room to Read, has opened
12,000 of these libraries around the world, along with 1,500 schools.

Yes, you read that right. He has opened nearly five times as many libraries
as Carnegie, even if his are mostly single-room affairs that look nothing
like the grand Carnegie libraries. Room to Read is one of America's
fastest-growing charities and is now opening new libraries at an astonishing
clip of six a day. In contrast, McDonald's opens one new outlet every 1.08
days.

It all began in 1998 when Wood, then a Microsoft marketing director, chanced
upon a remote school in Nepal serving 450 children. Only one problem: It had
no books to speak of.

Wood blithely offered to help and eventually delivered a mountain of books
by a caravan of donkeys. The local children were deliriously happy, and Wood
said he felt such exhilaration that he quit Microsoft, left his live-in
girlfriend (who pretty much thought he had gone insane), and founded Room to
Read in 2000.

He faced one challenge after another, not only in opening libraries but also
in filling them with books that kids would want to read.

"There are no books for kids in some languages, so we had to become a
self-publisher," Wood explains. "We're trying to find the Dr. Seuss of
Cambodia." Room to Read has, so far, published 591 titles in languages
including Khmer, Nepalese, Zulu, Lao, Xhosa, Chhattisgarhi, Tharu, Tsonga,
Garhwali and Bundeli.

It also supports 13,500 impoverished girls who might otherwise drop out of
school. In a remote nook of the Mekong Delta, reachable only by boat, I met
one of these girls, a 10th grader named Le Thi My Duyen. Her family,
displaced by flooding, lives in a shabby tent on a dike.

When Duyen was in seventh grade, she dropped out of school to help her
family out. "I thought education was not so necessary for girls," Duyen
recalled.

Room to Read's outreach workers trekked to her home and cajoled the family
to send her back to class. They paid her school fees, bought her school
uniforms and offered to put her up in a dormitory so that she wouldn't have
to commute two hours each way to school by boat and bicycle.

Now Duyen is back, a star in her class - and aiming for the moon.

"I would like to go to university," she confessed, shyly.

The cost per girl for this program is $250 annually. To provide perspective,
Kim Kardashian's wedding is said to have cost $10 million; that sum could
have supported an additional 40,000 girls in Room to Read.

So many American efforts to influence foreign countries have misfired - not
least here in Vietnam a generation ago. We launch missiles, dispatch troops,
rent foreign puppets and spend billions without accomplishing much. In
contrast, schooling is cheap and revolutionary. The more money we spend on
schools today, the less we'll have to spend on missiles tomorrow.

Wood, 47, is tireless, enthusiastic and emotional: a motivational speaker
with no off button. He teared up as girls described how Room to Read had
transformed their lives.

"If you can change a girl's life forever, and the cost is so low, then why
are there so many girls still out of school?" he mused.

The humanitarian world is mostly awful at messaging, and Room to Read's
success is partly a result of his professional background in marketing. Wood
wrote a terrific book, "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World," to spread
the word, and Room to Read now has fund-raising chapters in 53 cities around
the world.

He also runs Room to Read with an aggressive businesslike efficiency that he
learned at Microsoft, attacking illiteracy as if it were Netscape. He tells
supporters that they aren't donating to charity but making an investment:
Where can you get more bang for the buck than starting a library for $5,000?

"I get frustrated that there are 793 million illiterate people, when the
solution is so inexpensive," Wood told me outside one of his libraries in
the Mekong. "If we provide this, it's no guarantee that every child will
take advantage of it. But if we don't provide it, we pretty much guarantee
that we perpetuate poverty."

"In 20 years," Wood told me, "I'd like to have 100,000 libraries, reaching
50 million kids. Our 50-year goal is to reverse the notion that any child
can be told 'you were born in the wrong place at the wrong time and so you
will not get educated.' That idea belongs on the scrapheap of human
history."

________________________________

There are among us bloggers who spend a lot of their time and effort, not necessarily their own money, to help the needy, the aged, the sick, the poor children etc. Let us salute them and try to do our bits.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Moment to Reflect ( Pt 6 ) - Hijrah 1433 – Dimana kita berada?

2011-11-27T10:34:00.005+08:00

Setelah berakhirnya seribu empat ratus tiga puluh dua tahun, dimanakah kita sebagai satu umat berada? Sudah berapa lapisan keturunan berlalu semenjak tahun junjungan kita berhijrah? Tahap manakah bangsa Arab berada hari ini selepas datangnya hidayat? Tidakkah mereka dianugerah Tuhan kekayaan didunia ? Beginikah kedudukan keturunan satu bangsa daripada mana seorang nabi teragung dilahirkan, dan dalam bahasa mana turunnya AlQuran yang teragung? Tidakkah mereka diberi sumber kekayaan?

Aku kembali berfikir:

Tahap manakah aku berada, umur dan pencapaianku? Selagi ada hayat dibadan ….. biar setitik peluh mengalir dibadan, tidak semata mata melaung azam

Let us spare a moment to reflect

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

With a Sigh (Pt 10) - Toil and Trouble

2011-11-13T14:27:00.006+08:00

“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” Macbeth

_________________

I have often sighed with despair watching children who, for their poor performance, are grouped into the end of the class. A large secondary school within my vicinity may have as many as ten classes of about thirty-five pupils each. I do not blame schools for placing the better pupils together. They are the likely children to give the schools a place in the honoured list when the PMR and SPM results are released. But I do blame the school principles who put up pressure on teachers to maximise number of excellent results, at the expanse of the pupils who are being grouped and neglected as ‘no-hopers’. We do not do that to our children. Likewise we are duty bound to help these children if we take pride pride in being teachers, and earn our livelihood at that.

In a large primary school in certain rural areas many children come from very poor background. They never see kindergartens. Their only hope is to learn something from schools the moment they join Standard One at seven years old. The seemingly total efforts of this state, in maintaining at all costs the record of UPSR results, often leave the needy children behind. And the situation goes on for six years at the end of which the poorer children hardly learn anything. Instead, they have sadly acquired all the bad habits within the years. I have a girl of thirteen with all E’s in her UPSR who admitted, “ Saya malas Pakcik ( I am lazy).”

For the first time in seventeen years I am now seeing a strange phenomenon; children of poor families and orphans do not only have poor UPSR results but have also acquired bad behaviour. By logic these are the children who should have been given all the helps and motivation in schools. Our zest and demand for record-breaking performance of all A’s at UPSR exam at all costs has this bye-product which many in authority may not wish it to be highlighted.

An now, as the state religious department have picked up children from nooks and corners of the state and put then in one home, I am seeing this phenomenon, the presence of which, people who matter may not wish to recognise. But, for the very first time I have about 80 of these children, from Form One to Four. I have never lost my temper as often as I have of late. It is a combination of anger, helplessness and desperation. You see it all in most of these children, the playfulness, misbehaviour, laziness and stubbornness. Only very few show rays of hope.

Should Pakcik weed out those very difficult ones? No, it is a challenge. Additionally I understand it too well the following two beginning ayats from surah Alma’un:

Surah AlMa'un

107 - 1&2

“Hast thou ever considered (the kind of man) who gives the lie to all moral law? Behold, it is this (kind of man) that thrusts the orphan away.”- according to Muhammad Assad’s interpretation.

I talk to my children and children of Almanar the need to overcome challenges which make better men and women of us; and I shirk a challenge involving the orphans and the poor?

________________________

Two weeks ago I noticed a girl of Form Four struggling to copy notes from her beighbour. Half suspecting the reason I asked her and got the expected answer. “Dia rabun, Pakcik! (She cannot see!) came a chorus of cries from around her. But she was not alone. There were two other girls who had trouble all the years with no apparent help coming. Immediately after class I drove them to an optician. One and half hours later I drove the three girls home, looking shy but with confidence in their new gift of clearer vision. Deep in my heart I regret that this state of mine is very proud of dishing out computers to teachers of Standard Six (to encourage them to better UPSR results!) and children at all levels. And the likes of these poor children suffer the indignity of struggling just to be able to see. Could this be a rare case? There have been other pupils of Almanar requiring that simple and inexpensive gift to enable them to see the board, not something to play cyber-games with or join the face-book community.

Such is life and I can only draw a long sigh.

________________

But I am going to get some small help!

A young lady teaching English at a university close to us is looking forwards to give half a day a week to Almanar. When forewarned of the difficult children she merrily said she would make them sing to her music. She has the equipment to bring along.

A senior lecturer at the Teachers’ Training Institute nearby, who is has a couple of years to retirement, is anxious to find something to usefully fill his time. He specialises in Mathematics. He too will, for a start, contribute half a day a week to Almanar.

Who knows there is a secret floodgate somewhere. We must not despair.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemsnusiaan

P/s:

To a number of teachers who call at my blog, I regret having to express harshly against their profession. There are umpteen dedicated teachers and I certainly have not lost my deep respect for them. It is often the case of 'Seekor kerbau ..... '. At the same time I believe in expressing oneself, giving and receiving criticisms.

11-11-11 - What’s in a date?

2011-11-11T01:26:00.008+08:00

I write about the dates which are meaningful to me.

_____________________

I saw beauty in 1.11.11, a date that appears once in a century, one day that I was blessed to have lived through, and I was thankful to Him for that. ( Click here)

_____________________

May 13^th 1969 was one day I wrote about, a day of frightening experience to Pakcik. (Click here) This date has become a land-mark in Malaysian history.

______________________

August 31^st 1957 was a day greeted with pomp and pride in a small country named Malaya, now standing tall among the independent countries of the world. On that very day the young Pakcik was sitting alone far, far away from home, strangely wondering whether that independence would indeed be a good thing. ( Click here )

POPPY

And ninety-three years ago today, the hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month of 1918 was the official end of World War I. November 11^th of each year was the Remembrance Day, the Armistice, celebrated year after year during Pakcik’s young days. It may no longer be celebrated in the independent Malaysia but the date was well etched at the back of Pakcik’s little cell. ( Click xxxx.)

____________________

Dates are turned into memories.

At this juncture I wish to apologise to Ninotaziz for having overlooked her comments for Pakcik’s 1-11-11 posting. As luck would have it, I was going through my deleted list when I noticed my mistake. In a way I am glad that it did happen as her contribution is not inappropriate to be included here. With apology to her, here it goes:

By Ninotaziz

----------------

“It is the way of the world
Time and tide, await no man

Except in the heart
Where memories reside

And yet there are those
Who belittle our hold to the past

I say to them...

Learning and teachings
Would be meaningless lessons

Why, civilisation was built
upon the memories of man!”

Isn’t that a beauty? Thank you Ninot.

________________

Of course there are many other dates of importance to us all; of birthdays, anniversaries and so on, especially for one with a big family. But on top of all the dates, each and every one of us has a mysterious date of ultimate importance, a date we cease to be who we are, stripped bare of pride and position. Let us offer Alfatihah to our loved ones who have had theirs.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

QURBAN

2011-11-04T15:51:00.006+08:00

( I prefer Qurban to Korban for that specific rite in Islam - and Quran )

What did P Ramlee say?

P Ramlee

------------

Berkorban apa saja
Harta atau pun nyawa
Itulah kasih mesra
Sejati dan mulia

Kepentingan sendiri
Tidak diingini
Bahagia kekasih
Saja yang diharapi

Berkorban apa saja
Harta atau pun nyawa
Itulah kasih mesra
Sejati dan mulia
hmm... hmm... hmm...

Untuk menjadi bukti
Kasih yang sejati
Itulah tandanya
Jika mahu diuji

Berkorban apa saja
Harta atau pun nyawa
Itulah kasih mesra
Sejati dan mulia

_____________________________________

“ Kalau hendak melakukan qurban seekor lembu secara berkulmpulan, buatlah.” The speaker said. “Tapi janganlah membuat masalah kepada diri dan orang lain” ( If you want to perform the rite of slaughtering a cow jointly, by all means do it. But do not create problem to yourself and others involved.”

Makcik was listening to an Ustaz talking on TV early one morning a couple of days ago. Pakcik was reading a book, with half an ear on what was going on. Those words from the Ustaz interrupted my reading. I stopped to listen with interest. On matters related to accepted practices in religion he was against asking too many questions on whats and whys at the point of performing them. It would be right to put those questions for clarification while being taught in class. If one is being told by a person in authority what is good and he intends to do it, just do it without kicking up an awful fuss. Read your ‘niat’ ( be sure of your intention) and push on.

______________________

I like to make reference to a Quranic parable contained in Ayat 67 to 71, Surah Albaqarah, which begins with:

It tells how a group of people during the time of Prophet Moses were told to ‘sacrifice a cow’. It was to be performed for a specific purpose related to unsolved murders at that time. The requirement was just 'a cow' of any sort. Instead of doing just that, they repeatedly sought to know greater details regarding the animal. Ir went on from a simple cow to its age, colour, pattern etc etc until the final descriptions made it extremely difficult for them to find a cow so specified.

Ask too many questions and you get it, so to speak!

__________________________

Selamat Hari Raya dan selamat BEQURBAN

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemnusiaan

P/S

I wonder how many people know about Qurban as organised by Yayasan Kemanusiaan of Muslim Aid, Malaysia. For more information click Cat-from-Sydney.

1-11-11- One and the Only One

2011-11-01T11:01:00.005+08:00

Today is an odd day, a truly rare one at that. It happened a century ago, in 1911, and will only be here again in another century, in 2111. And I know this, today, happens only once in my life time. Many of my friends, even those who were a few years younger, have left us and they never lived to see one. I think we ( meant for my Muslim visitors ), who have the opportunity to experience today, say ‘Allahu Akbar. Walahul Hamd ), and for our loved ones, who never lived to see one date like today, we offer them Alfatihah instead.

_________________________

And last week was very unlike any other week. The two of us at Nuri received two very special and distinguished couples, two bloggers, GuiKP and Cat-from-Sydney. GiuKP came with his family and Cat-from-Sydney just like a honey-mooning couple.

To me it was not just a get-to-know-you occasions to meet these learned people with varied, very varied experiences. They are doing things bigger that what I have ever done, one deeply involved in higher education and the second in charity work. Conversations with these very special visitors are an eye opener – how much one can do in education, on one hand, and on charity work, the other.

To me blogging is immaterial as far as these visitors are concerned. What they have been doing is what I can never hope to do.

Makcik and Pakcik appreciate the trouble they took to locate our home, giving us the pleasure of knowing them, and leaving us hoping that that they should not wait for another 1-1-11 to be at Nuri again.

These learned visitors are doing just what I believe in:

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Moment to Reflect (Pt 5) - It is here again

2011-10-29T11:28:00.008+08:00

Time and tide wait for no man. So does MONSOON.

The dark hovering clouds float threateningly low, accompanying waves growing in size and speed, bringing rain to irrigate our land.

And fishermen’s boats lie idling, threatening livelihood.

What will become of their children?

Do we wait and see, year in and year out?

Let us reflect for a moment

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

What Pakcik received (Pt 2) - The Brick

2011-10-22T02:40:00.004+08:00

How often do we sit back, look around and give some thought to what appears to us too insignificant to waste our few seconds ? Pakcik received the following “BRICK” from a friend. It made me stop to think.

The Brick!!!
PLEASE
Read It.

Read this today and
don't delete it even if
you are too busy!! You'll
see..

THE
BRICK

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked
cars and slowed down when he thought he saw
something.

As his car passed, no children appeared.
Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door!
He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to
the spot where the brick had been thrown.

The angry driver then jumped out of the
car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up
against a parked car shouting,

'What was that all about and who are you? Just what
the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that
brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money.. Why
did you do it?' The young boy was apologetic.

'Please, mister....please, I'm sorry but I didn't
know what else to do,' He pleaded. 'I threw the
brick because no one else would stop...' With tears
dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth
pointed to a spot just around a parked car. 'It's my
brother, 'he said 'He rolled off the curb and fell
out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him
up.'

Now sobbing, the boy
asked the stunned executive, 'Would you please help
me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and
he's too heavy for me.'

Moved beyond words,
the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling
lump in his throat.. He hurriedly lifted the
handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took
out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh
scrapes and cuts.. A quick look told him everything
was going to be okay.

'Thank you and may God bless
you,' the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy
push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk
toward their home..

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair
the dented side door. He kept the dent there to
remind him of this message:

'Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!'

We should not need a brick being thrown at us to stop and think: “ Can I be of help?”

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

With a Sigh (Pt 9) - Punish her or Pity her?

2011-10-11T14:39:00.014+08:00

This is the story of a small incident, insignificant on the surface of it. It is real. Initially I had no intention of making a posting of this but, on reflection, I doubt many of us would have a close encounter with that sort of situation unless one is a teacher. By default I was associated with the small school where this little drama took place. Because the incident meant something to me I chose to have it jotted down, and today is as good a time as any to share it with my visitors.

It is a small rural primary school with a total enrolment of just about 200 pupils. Many of their parents are just ordinary fishermen, small-time carpenters, petty traders and general labourers. A number of them are boatmen ferrying tourists to the island resorts off the shore. A number of younger ones found themselves manual jobs on the islands where rich operators serve super-rich tourists.

This school had nothing to be proud of by way of UPSR exam results. To improve the situation extra classes were arranged for the final year pupils of Standard 6. But many parents did not see it important enough to make their children attend these classes unless the children themselves could be motivated enough to attend. For this reason a very basic incentive scheme was thought of. Prizes would be awarded to those who scored well in their English monthly tests, English language being the most problematic.

I found it hard to believe when the teachers were almost unanimous on the kind of prize to be handed out to the top six best performers every month. Each of them would receive one or two packets of sugar-coated biscuits, each packet costing about two ringgits!

But it worked wonders.

Indeed, the teachers knew that the in-thing for these pupils was enjoying the luxury of those cheap sugar-coated biscuits, the craze of those children of that locality at that time.

__________________

A couple of months later, Pakcik was told by a teacher of what she had just heard. Children excitedly talked about the biscuits, how wonderful they tasted and so on.

This went on fine and the general improvement was surprisingly encouraging. Each time the prizes were presented, the losers would look with envy, lucky if the winners chose to share their prizes there and then with them instead of taking them home to proudly show their parents and share with their siblings.

One day Pakcik was told of an unexpected incident, a kind of the famous ‘Great Train Robbery’ ( of England in 1963 – a couple of years after Pakcik left the country, so I am not guilty! I estimate the 2.8 million pound sterling robbed, was equivalent to about 20 million Malayan ringgits at the exchange rate of that time. Only a very small part of the heist was ever recovered)

One packet of the biscuits was found missing!

A search was carried out resulting in a standard six girl being found with her bag containing the tell-tale biscuit wrapper. Not one piece of biscuit was left. On being questioned, the guilty girl full of regret and eyes full of tears, pleaded her case,

“Saya teringin sangat, cikgu. Tak pernah makan.” ( Too tempting, teacher. I have never tasted it before.)

She had found a quiet moment to pick a packet and eaten the lot of its content in one go. Fearing to be caught she innocently hid the wrapping in her school beg.

Now, would anyone have the heart to punish this girl?

I knew this girl, a shy little girl whom I would never lay a finger on. I would just draw a sigh.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

P/S

i ) The school had its record performance that year, thanks to the sugar-coated biscuits.

ii ) Against this kind of scenario, not an isolated one for that matter, would I consider importing Mat Sallehs from all over the world, with all their slang and twang, to raise the standard of English in rural areas like this? Do the people up there, up in and beyond the clouds, know what the likes of these children need to improve their English? Is it the Mat Sallehs for them to watch with awe, wonder and admiration, or the sugar-coated biscuits to struggle for?

iii) Given the freedom and appropriate means our teachers may know better how to make children work and improve themselves. This may be the path rural schools need to take instead of the glorified 'policy' pushed down from the sky. Do these children really care for the need to obtain points in the mandatory co-curricular activities to qualify entering one of the universities 'of taraf antara bangsa'? Which should come first, university entrance or just simple sugar-coated biscuits?

iv ) Now I am wondering where that sugar-coated biscuit girl is now. Pakcik would love to see this girl again one day.

Our Family ( Part 1 ) -Yesterday & Tomorrow

2011-10-08T01:38:00.011+08:00

My series ‘Pakcik Reminisces’ has numbered 22 parts, with likely more to come. In writing about my past I cannot help bringing in certain aspects of the immediate members of my family. Inadvertently, one may get the impression of unnecessary pride. This is something I wish to avoid. I see this is as good reason as any to create a new series to be called ‘Our Family’, this being Part 1, the spearhead. Dear readers may opt to leave unread entries in this series.

______________________________

Look at the following car registration numbers.

TAX 7917

TAH 7917 and TAB 9717

Earlier There was another vehicle bearing registration number TT 7917.

_________________

All of them belong to the lower end of locally manufactured car models, lacking in prestige as much as the plate numbers can testify. But seeing so many cars registered with that number under one owner can raise eyebrows – what’s in that number?

And somewhere in a garage is our very precious 30-year old BMW 525i undergoing a major operation by the end of which it should be running better than new! This vehicle bears registration plate WBA 7917.

The TAB 9717 was forced on us as we were late on deciding to buy the car. For the same reason we once had 1969 on registration plate.

7917 is just a number made up of 7, 9 and 17, the birthdates of our three children.

On 7^th October, exactly forty-six years ago YESTERDAY, our Number 1, the only daughter was born.

Click on the picture to enlarge

Ainun's and her wiriting in the sand of time '10 Tahun - 7 10 75 KTR'

36 years ago

____________

On 9^th October, exactly forty-three years ago TOMORROW, our Number 2, a boy, was born.

Anwar's and his writing in the sand of time ' 9 . 10 . 75 KTR'

36 years ago

__________________

On 17^th July, thirty-nine years ago last July, our Number 3, another boy, was born.

That made the initial five of us in the family.

The happy family : No 1, Babah, No 3, Mami and No 2
Camreron Highlands 30 years ago

The precious three

______________________

So there we are. The gift of three children is everything to us, nothing ever matches their worth. Lest our memory fails us, we should have those numbers to remind us of their birthdates. They are everything to us, His greatest gift. After all, they have brought into our family spouses, and in turn have given us ten grand-children to be proud of. But His gift does not stop there. Through Almanar we can claim many, many more children to keep us busy as the light grows dimmer in the west, before the final curtain falls.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

End of the Tunnel ( Pt 13 ) - What is success?

2011-10-02T14:01:00.015+08:00

Almost seventeen years ago Yani and Zira, two timid kampong girls, joined the form 1 tuition class at Almanar. Yani, currently working with a private college in Selangor, is already a mother of two kids. And early this year, Zira was married. She is working at a hospital, also in Selangor. Perhaps she too will be a mother before long.

An old picture of Yani with her second kid, Makcik and the new couple, Zira and husband

_______________________

One morning last month a young couple gave us a surprise visit. The young man gave me a broad inquiring smile, " Pakcik dah lupa saya?"( Have you forgotten me?)

No, the face was too familiar to easily forget. He spent three long years as a pupil at Almanar. Despite the seveneen years that had lapsed I could not forget that face. He was one of two boys having the same name, Hafiz. I called this one 'Hafiz tinggi' and the other one 'Hafiz Maradona'; the latter being stouter resembling Diego Maradona, at that time the idol Argentine footballer who captained the country to win the World Cup. These two boys were in the same group at Almanar with the two girls, Yani and Zira.

"Ini kad jemputan saya, Pakcik( This is my invitation card)" his murmur was hardly audible, caused by the big grin on his face. By nature he is soft-spoken as well.

"After all these years only now you decide to turn up to this house again." I made it sound like a reproach. Indeed, the last time I saw him was fifteen years ago.

In the course of the following conversation Hafiz repeatedly apologised for staying away from Pakcik and Makcik. He repeatedly said, " Malulah Pakcik ( am ashamed)".

This Hafiz was not a star performer in school those days. His namesake, 'Maradona' is today a civil engineer and this one is not. He was ashamed that, in his mind, he had failed Pakcik who, he was convinced, had expected only the best of Almanar pupils. And he did not quite make it.

Now he was getting married. We promised to be present without doubt. And we did.

______________________

Before he left our house Pakcik managed to have a few quiet words with him, assuring him that he was wrong. A degree is not the certificate of success in life. He now has a permanent job with the state government and his very charming bride is with a university here. That is a better start than his own parents. And he now has every chance to place his children a step better in life. He smiled - pleased with himself.

The wedding party we never failed to attend

The happy couple

And Pakcik and Makcik pray that this new couple will have a life blessed with success and happiness. We know he is in a position to contribute something to his parents.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Pakcik reminisces ( Pt 22 ) – Come September

2011-09-23T10:17:00.023+08:00

Year in and year out in my life I continue to see the passing of August to September. The arrival of September heralds the soon-to-come Monsoon rain.

_____________________________

September in the rain

(Dinah Washington)

“The leaves of brown
Came tumblin' down, remember
In September in the rain

The sun went out
Just like a dying ember
That September in the rain

To every word of love
I heard you whisper
The raindrops seemed to play
A sweet refrain

Though spring is here,
To me it's still September
That September in the rain

To every word of love
I heard you whisper
The raindrops seemed to play
A sweet refrain

Though spring is here,
To me it's still September
That September in the rain
That September in the rain”
____________________

September was the month I came into being three quarters of a century ago. I wonder whether it was raining then or bright sun-shine.

Now we have yet again left August behind and are moving towards the end of September 2011. These two months have brought Pakcik and Makcik a mixture of sadness and joy. Between the two of us we saw the last of five elderly relatives and a close friend, a very heavy toll in two months; and we have not yet seen the end of the month. We pray all will be well, until the next August, for us to celebrate another anniversary, and another birthday for Makcik; and the next September, another birthday for me. Makcik is just about to recover from the pain of having lost her only aunt and the aunt’s elder sister, Makcik’s own mother.

__________________________________

There is nothing magical about the months of August and September. However, the series of unhappy events which the two of us have to face during these two months prompted Pakcik to pick up one of my old diaries. Somehow that of 1956 was a natural choice. It was a very special year, not just a milestone to mark a distance covered, but a cornerstone to mark a prominent spot in time. It was in that very year I was allowed to realise a shift in the direction to one I was destined to head for.

I am looking at the year of 1956 from a different perspective, not just moments of joy and pain. On one part that year happened to be a year of discovery, when for the very first time I was made to explore life outside that I had been accustomed to until then. On the other part, the year carried a number of early academic successes, meaningful and important enough to chart my future.

In this posting I will explain why I have named 1956 'a year of discovery'. Insya Allah, in due course I will write another to give the other aspect of 1956.

I am fortunate to have kept diaries and carefully noted down what happened and how I felt at the point of writing. Today these entries bring to life what memory alone has begun to wear out in time. As I am reading the entries now, all seems like a playback of a video, uncannily real, despite a lapse of 55 years in time zone.

My 1956 diary

In my earlier posting, Pakcik reminisces (Pt 11), I described my maiden journey from Kuala TREngganu (note the original spelling, TRE…) to the far-away capital of MALAYA, Kuala Lumpur, with all its famous shopping areas along Batu Road, Mountbatten Road and so on. Till today I still call those two roads by their original names which are more meaningful to me (a sentimental old fool, maybe!). Through my mind's eye, I still see pictures of rows upon rows of shops no higher than two-storey buildings. And the Robinsons which drew mainly the elites.

That very first long bus ride to the Malayan capital in early January 1956 was a discovery expedition, a full two-day journey by bus. T here were seven of us. It sounds strange if I say that it was not just the seven of us who rode in the bus but the bus itself took a ride on a ferry on seven occasions along the journey. There were indeed seven rivers to cross en route to Kuala Lumpur. As the ferries were operated only during daylight, the journey required two whole days with a half-way stopover to spend the night.

Before the bus was driven up the ferry, all passengers (for safety reasons, of course!) had to step down. I do not recall being provided with life jackets or being advised what to do in case of emergency. I guess, as there was no record of serious incidents, safety measures were not deemed necessary. Standing on the ferries beside the empty bus was an experience for us. Maneuvering a ferry against the swirling current, which was pushing hard against one side of it, demanded skill and experience among the ferrymen. And there we stood in wonder whether the ferry would reach the exact landing spot across the river. It never failed. And watching the dark water around us, we wondered if there were crocodiles following us below the surface. The picture would be different if the ferry crossing was outside the rainy spells of a monsoon season, when the rivers flowed smoothly and everything seemed beautifully peaceful.

So the long bus ride was indeed an adventure for the seven of us, watching apprehensively at the strong current.

_____________________

My ‘expedition’ to Kuala Lumpur, on 27th January, was just a start for the year. I was to join the Post School Certificate class (Form 6). During the course of the next eight months the sitution changed. In the evening of Friday 7^th September I took a night train from KL station traveling second class to

Singapore

. That was an uneventful twelve-hour journey in the dark to reach Tg Pagar railway station, sadly closed down for good recently, at eight in the morning of the following day.

Then at 8.30 in the morning of Sunday 9^th September I boarded a turbo-prop plane, leaving

Singapore

on the greatest ‘expedition’ of my life. I was heading west towards ‘negeri orang puteh’ (the white men’s country). After an eventful journey I finally set foot on the English soil.

_______________________

Reading my entries about the journey, I can feel the great excitement and expectation. The kampong boy, just turned twenty, had left many things behind; his mother and ailing father and grandmother, his familiar environments, his friends, his way of life and above all his earlier dream of going to Al Azhar University for religious and Arabic education. I had now taken a one-way journey along a new path heading for a new destination.

______________________

Entry on 9th Sept 1956

The plane, before the advent of jet airliners, made four stopovers, Calcutta, Karachi, Beirut and Zurich. In total the number of hours we were in the air, as I meticulously jotted down in my diary, was close to 32 hours. That does not include the number of hours at the airports en route. (One of my children has just returned from his business trip to London. He took less than 12 hours in all to reach KL. How about that for a comparison?)

To make the historic journey of discovery more eventful, the plane to London had to be diverted to a military airfield about 30 miles (50 km) away from Calcutta. It was due bad weather. From there, we were taken by bus to Calcutta airport. That bus-ride itself was another interesting part of the discovery – running along a dusty road of the sub-continent of

India

. As if that was not enough, the plane was found to have engine trouble, and that caused a delay of another four hours. It was just as well that the fault was discovered while we were on the solid ground.

All in all, it was an exciting journey for this kampong boy, seeing the vast surface of the sea from the sky, admiring the inside of cloud formations and the upper side of the clouds, and watching the desert and the Alps (which I was familiar with from the geography lessons) with it snow-covered tops. There was a one-line entry noting down how air pockets after Zurich nearly made me throw up.

I summarise below the places we stopped and the flying time for each sector.

Leaving

Singapore

at 8.45 am on Sunday 9/9/56

Singapore

to Calcutta 7 hrs 45 min

Calcutta to Karachi 5 ,, 45 ,,

Karachi to Beirut 8 ,, 15 ,,

Beirut to Zurich 7 ,, 50 ,,

Zurich to London 2 ,, 20 ,,

________________________

Total flying time 31 hr 55 min

Arriving London at 9.30 pm on Monday 10/9/56

________________________

Indeed, the kampong boy had his year of discovery.

The ‘discoveries’ alone are not all the reason that made 1956 a milestone, a cornerstone and a prominent landmark in my early years. A number of early academic successes resulted in my change of direction. 1956 was the year I reached a fork on my path, where I chose one, knowing I could never go back to take the road not taken (reflection of Robert Frost's poem, The Road not Taken). HE had it all planned for me, for which I can never thank HIM enough but to serve HIM with humility whilst there is still daylight.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

P/S Insya Allah Pakcik will have another posting on the personal successes of 1956.

Hatinya baik (She had a wonderful heart) –Part 3 - Al Fatihah

2011-09-16T19:23:00.004+08:00

Although I have reported several departures of people, this is the third in my special series ( Hatinya baik ). On 2nd November Dato’ Ahmad Badri Basir passed away. He was a very close family friend of great many years, especially during our years together in Jesselton ( now Kota Kinabalu) in mid 65’s. He had his way of showing his appreciation for the work I was doing related to Almanar. His gift of a set of 150 copies of reference book for English grammar was one of the ways. Over the years, since his demise, children at Almanar remember him with Al Fatihah before opening the books, which is on a daily basis. His wife , Datin Rohani, took over her husband’s role. Sadly, she passed away following an operation on 15th September. The couple was so dear to us and both had Almanar at heart. For that Almanar blog pays tribute to her. Now she will join her husband to be remembered by us at Almanar. Semoga Tuhan cucuri rahmat keatas roh suami isteri yang intimewa ini. Takziah kepada anak cucu mereka yang berjaya.

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What Pakcik received (Pt 1) – Birds’ sayings

2011-09-11T07:16:00.011+08:00

I think most of us, from time to time, do receive from friends interesting items, slides, pictures etc which are meant to be shared without infringement of any copyright. I do not see any reasons why I should not share what I have received; and for this reason I am starting a new series – ‘What Pakcik received’. We will see how it goes with this first one.

The following is one Pakcik received from an old friend overseas. Titled ‘various birds and sayings’ is a set of 31 slides, 29 of which are sayings. I enjoy watching these slides against the enchanting old favourite tune ‘unchained melody’.

Click where it is shown to change slides and enjoy the music. At the same time give some thought to the sayings. Like what I have done you may like to pick, say, three sayings you like best.

Birds and Sayings

Contents:

Slide 1:
Various Birds and Sayings

Slide 2:
Music: Floyd Cramer - Unchained melody

Slide 3:
AN ENEMY TAKES UP MORE SPACE IN OUR HEAD THAN A FRIEND IN OUR HEART

Slide 4:

YOU FEEL HAPPINESS THROUGH WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE NOT BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU ARE

Slide 5:
THE SUN DRIES WITHOUT PREJUDICE THE GARMENTS OF THE RICH AND POOR

Slide 6:
THE CHEAPEST FACELIFT IS A LAUGH

Slide 7:

SHOULD YOU ENCOUNTER A PROBLEM ALONG YOUR WAY CHANGE YOUR DIRECTION, BUT NOT YOUR DESTINATION

Slide 8:
AS THE PUPIL IS READY, SO WILL THE TEACHER APPLY HIMSELF

Slide 9:

EVERYTHING THAT ANNOYS US ABOUT OTHERS CAN HELP US TO UNDERSTAND OURSELVES EVERYTHING THAT ANNOYS US ABOUT OTHERS

Slide 10:
BEGIN EACH DAY ANEW AND FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR YESTERDAY

Slide 11:
WISDOM IS THE REWARD FOR LISTENING OVER A LIFETIME

Slide 12:
I WON’T LET MYSELF BE RUSHED, I AM AT WORK AND NOT FLEEING FROM A TASK

Slide 13:

IT IS THE VERY THINGS THAT WE THINK WE KNOW, THAT KEEP US FROM LEARNING WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW

Slide 14:

IF YOU SEARCH FOR A PERFECT FRIEND WITHOUT FAULTS YOU WILL REMAIN FRIENDLESS

Slide 15:

ONE’S EGO IS LIKE A RIVER, IT MAY SWELL BUT NEVER BURST OVER THE RIVERBANKS

Slide 16:

THE VERY BEST WE CAN GIVE EACH OTHER IS OUR LOVE NOT OUR ADVICE, AND CERTAINLY NOT OUR JUDGMENT

Slide 17:

A LITTLE LOVE IS LIKE A DROP OF WATER GIVING ENOUGH STRENGTH TO A WILTED FLOWER TO RIGHTEN ITSELF

Slide 18:
FORGETTING AND LAUGHING ARE BETTER THAN REMEMBERING AND BEING SAD

Slide 19:
HASTE MAINLY SERVES TO SAVE A COUPLE OF MINUTES AFTER HOURS WERE LOST

Slide 20:
IF THERE IS PEACE WITHIN YOURSELF, THERE IS ROOM FOR ANOTHER MIND

Slide 21:
THE MOST IMPORTANT HUMAN RIGHT IS THE RIGHT TO DREAM

Slide 22:
I NEVER LEARNED ANYTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN TO BE SMARTER

Slide 23:
REACH FOR THE SUN AND, SHOULD YOU MISS, YOU WILL STILL END UP AMONGST THE STARS

Slide 24:
DON’T LIVE IN THE PAST, DON’T DREAM OF THE FUTURE, BUT CONCENTRATE ON THE PRESENT

Slide 25:

THE GREATEST CHANGE WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU STOP BELIEVING THAT YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOURSELF

Slide 26:
MUCH OF WHAT WE IMAGINE WILL BECOME REALITY

Slide 27:
WHAT WE MOST NEED IN LIFE IS SOMEBODY WHO POINTS OUT WHAT WE COULD DO AND WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF

Slide 28:
LIFE MUST BE LIVED WITH LOVE AND HUMOUR LOVE TO UNDERSTAND AND HUMOUR TO ENDURE

Slide 29:
NOT KNOWING SOMETHING IS NORMALLY A MILESTONE ON THE WAY TO KNOWLEDGE

Slide 30:
UPBRINGING IS A RESULT OF LOVE, PATIENCE AND WISDOM THE LAST TWO ALLOW LOVE TO RULE

Slide 31:
SAYING GOODBYE IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN LIFE AND WE NEVER LEARN TO BE GOOD AT IT

_____________________________

Those I like best of the 29 sayings are the following three:

Slide 5:
THE SUN DRIES WITHOUT PREJUDICE THE GARMENTS OF THE RICH AND POOR

Slide 11:
WISDOM IS THE REWARD FOR LISTENING OVER A LIFETIME

Slide 31:
SAYING GOODBYE IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING IN LIFE AND WE NEVER LEARN TO BE GOOD AT IT

_____________________

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

The Hari Raya not-to-be

2011-09-07T18:57:00.013+08:00

A week has passed. Makcik and Pakcik are not likely to forget the Hari Raya of 30th August 2011.

During each of Hari Raya periods of past years we could expect not less than 80 ex-pupils of Almanar paying homage to the old couple of Almanar. This year, because of our untimely absence from Nuri, only about 40 of them managed to catch us at home after our return and before they had to leave KT for their places of work or learning.

We are sorry to have missed those dear old Almanar pupils, especially those who came with spouses or babies. There is next year, insya Allah.

____________________

Here are a few photos taken after Hari Raya.

Except for the last two the few shots recorded below show a few of those who turned up upon our return to KT three days after Hari Raya.

An early child while the mother is still doing her degree in computer science

A cheerful bouncing baby belongs to a young couple, both civil engineers working in Klang valley. The happy mother was born in a family of great ‘satar’ maker ( the subject of ‘End of the end of tunnel’ Pt 7)

Group of 2006.
The proud radiologist ( subject of 'End of the tunnel' Pt 9 ) surrounded by a bevy of beauties made up of secretary, nurse and undergraduates in Environmental Health and Psychology.

Belated birthday gift from our missing two members away in London.

___________________________

A group I can proudly call mine (less two away in London)

____________________________

At sunset, the end of an auspicious day – A mother and a son beside a new grave of a super grand-mother. May Allah bless her for her years of love and dedication to help us build a happy home.

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Pakcik reminisces (Pt 21) – Hujan ditengah hari

2011-09-01T18:17:00.011+08:00

More than 70 years ago a sweet sixteen was married to a young teacher, and two years later the couple was blessed with a baby girl. So much adored, being the very first, the baby was given a pet named, Ning. Following that came two baby boys.

When Ning was nine, the family of five moved to England where the father was appointed a lecturer at a Teachers’ training college. Ning continued her primary education at a primary school with local English children.

Leaving for England - for a better future

Three years later the young lecturer left England and became a lecturer at a university in Singapore.

Everything was seen to go well with the family who, by then, had a second daughter.

But it was not all sunshine and rainbows.

At the age of 39, barely one year after taking up his new post, and a few months before celebrating the Merdeka of Tanah Melayu in 1957, the lecturer passed away.

__________________________

So at 34, the lady, Ning’s loving mother became a single mother and was left alone to raise the four young kids. The loss of her father affected Ning’s progress in education. She had to work soon after finishing school. And the mother chose to remain faithful to the memory of her deceased husband, remaining a single mother all her life. Her first real reward was when her adored Ning was married and, a year later, gave birth to three children, who in turn had ten children who were,naturally, the old lady’s great-grandchildren – a new generation.

_____________________

So life went on for good many years. The once sweet sixteen was now 88, a great-grand-mother. In April this year she fell ill, but life went on for Ning who has now taken over the role of a grand lady – or should I say the ‘first lady’!

Before the 30th day of last month, the very special month of August, Ning’s three children had planned a special gathering to be held at our home, Nuri, in Terengganu. There was something special about August 2011; firstly, there was Ning’s (and Pakcik’s too, of course) 47th wedding anniversary. Then there were two wedding anniversaries of our first two children, making it three wedding anniversaries in all. There was also the Merdeka anniversary on 31th August. Then there was Hari Raya which fell on 30th, all in the same month of August.

But that was not all. Tuesday 30th was not just any Hari Raya. It was also Ning’s 70th birthday. So, for all intents and purposes, that day ought to be a befitting day of the month to celebrate – (not to mention Pakcik’s own birthday which would fall three days later – just into September.)

As planned, the Hari Raya started all too well with the birthday and delayed wedding anniversaries cakes and all. And that being a Hari Raya, soon after ‘sembahyang Raya’, relatives and friends began to call in – the promise of a wonderful and joyous day.
_____________________________

Disangka panas sampai kepetang, rupanya hujan ditengah hari.

While things were warming up and the family gathered to take group photographs, Ning received a phone call from her sister near Tanjong Malim. Their bed-ridden mother had just passed away. Was this not a divine planning that the faithful wife, the grand old lady chose to breathe her last at the age of 88, on a Hari Raya, on the very exact day, 70 years earlier she gave birth to her first child, Ning? Just imagine how Ning would feel, celebrating her birthday and the Hari Raya to be followed with the death of a very loved one.

It was perfect – the work of the Greatest Planner of all.
________________________

So, Pakcik has lost two loving mothers. Fifty years ago my mother passed away while doing her pilgrimage in Mecca. I do not, as a result, have her grave to visit. Then this loving lady, who had been my mother, left us on that very auspicious day of 30th August.

On hearing the sad news, Pakcik made a snap decision to stop our part in the day’s celebration. The next seven hours of Hari Raya saw me driving on a relatively quiet route. We reached the burial ground when the last group was leaving the freshly made grave covered with flowers. There we squatted with tears running down our faces, reciting Al Quran, marking the end of our Hari Raya. We had to stop as the sun had gone down behind range of hills.

The final destination

We planned and planned, and we often forget who the Ultimate Planner is. HE reminds us over and over again in the Quran of HIS overall power ABOVE EVERYTHING.

Above everything

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

2011-08-30T04:20:00.003+08:00

“Di hari raya
Terkenang daku kepada si dia
Kampungku indah nun jauh di sana
Ayah serta bundaku….”

Kepada sahabat sahabat semua Pakcik and Makcik ucapkan

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

P/S

And to my loved one, Makcik, I wish her 'Many Returns of the Day' as well. What an exceptional day, today is.

Tell me (pt II ) – Lidah Buaya!

2011-08-25T20:18:00.009+08:00

So Aloe Vera and Lidah Buaya are one and the same. One silent reader rang me to say that he had heard of ‘Lidah Buaya’ but never thought it was what he had known as Aloe Vera.And from the few responses we know this wonderful plant had so many uses. Ninotaziz told that the plant does bloom but very rarely. As a matter of fact, a few day before I wrote my Aloe Vera posting I was greatly surprised, when while helping Makcik watering her plants one very hot afternoon, I saw

a long stem sticking out from one of the aloe vera pots. I immediately called her and she was equally surprised. After about ten years or more we took it for granted that aloe vera was good for anything else but as flowering plant.

The flowers grew pinkish and after about ten days the flowers remained as close pods and wilted away. We will have to wait for another ten years to see the flowers again!

So, dear visitors, grow this plant for decorative purposes as well as all the medicinal values as we have now learnt from the comments. I thank you for the feedbacks.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Tell me ( Pt I }- Aloe Vera?

2011-08-22T18:33:00.007+08:00

I think we have had enough of dreams, and should step down to earth, and watch the real objects around. I happen to see plants in the grounds of Nuri, our home. Among many plants are pots and pots of a kind, according Makcik, called aloe vera. It sounds exotic enough and I dare not argue with her, not within my area of expertise. But I am certain there must be scientific names which may sound even more exotic.

Makcik has her pots, certainly more than twenty, on the ground,

on the edge of low brick walls and

even on the floor of our verandah.

I presume it all started with one pot many, many years ago. The one plant must have 'beranak', multiplied. (Incidentally I read in the paper that the new edition of Dewan Bahasa Malay dictionary, which is already a kind of English 'rojak', will have many foreign words, enriching the Bahasa Melayu - so it seems. I dare not laugh. If now we are wrestling with poor standard of English in Malaysian schools, we will soon have poor standard of Malay, a kind of ‘global’ Bahasa Melayu, no longer bearing any resemblance to, or traces of the celebrated Wilkinson’s or Pendita Zaaba’s. To reciprocate, I expect the Oxford or Cambridge dictionaries will also adopt many Malay words of 'taraf antara bangsa', like 'beranak' or 'beranuck' , the way they have done with Malay 'amok' , also spelt 'amuck' - I suppose depending on whether it was spoken by Irish or Scottish English inn those colonial days.

Now, let's get back to Makcik's aloe vera. I would like my learned visitors, who are expert on plants (the like of my respected Tuan Temuk), to tell me two things:

a) Can aloe vera be turned into an edible dish instead of just a decoration?
b ) Does aloe Vera have flowers?

I do not ask a third question which concerns uses of aloe vera for its medicinal value as I have noticed a kind of cream in tubes bearing the word 'Aloe ...'. It may even be something to enhance the beauty of old and wrinkled skin. But please tell me about it anyway. At my age I need all the tips to remain beautifully wrinkled and ‘kuat’ ( the latter to run the tuition classes, mind you) - to be in English dictionaries as 'kowhat' or 'quact'.

Till I hear from you, I rest my case.

Selamat berpuasa and Selamat Hari Raya, including my friend Sintaitai.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Pakcik reminisces ( Pt 20 ) – I have a dream

2011-08-15T00:01:00.020+08:00

In August 1963 Martin Luther King.Jr. said in his famous speech, “ I have a dream.”

That was 48 years ago at about the same time Pakcik, too, had a dream. I wanted a partner in life to share my pains and joys

----------------
"When I was young,
I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart
what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows,
day after day
Here's what my sweetheart said
Que Sera, Sera,
What will be will be."
---------------------

And in August of the following year He granted my wish.

-------------- What lies ahead ?

However, one wakes up from a dream into another – But now it was no longer MY dream but OUR dream.

--------- We had our first princess

We had our first child to call our own. Then the dream continued.

My three ‘princesses’ ( EJ on the Princess Vandan Plas stands for East Malaysia Jesselton- Before Kota Kinabalu).

Three years later came our second, a hero.

----------------- Now we had two

We had a pair. But the dream did not end. Greedy, we wanted more. And HE granted us.

------------ With a princess and two heroes

Then He made it known to us through a gynecologist that we should ask for no more or else ....

We grew as a happy family. The children were big enough to entertain dreams of their own, surely.

--------- Togetherness - one happy family

Humans we were, we began to dream of acquiring ‘datukship’. And for that He has granted us ten - six heroes and four princesses.

--------------------- This is number ten to give us 'Datukship".

Will there be more? We have stopped dreaming.

Sooner or later we have to come to terms with what HE says:

---------------- Surah Alkahf

"Wealth and children are the ornament of this life ….. "

We have had most of what we dreamt for. Today, 47 years down the road our dream is simply that He grants us more days so that we can acquire more children, no longer our own but those who need love and care, the unfortunate.

--------------------- Orphans and of poor parents

Let us give these children a fighting chance to have a dream.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

With a sigh ( Pt 8b ) – Bring in the clowns

2011-08-11T22:37:00.004+08:00

Kotastar left the following comment against my post ‘With a sigh ( Pt 8a )’. The gentleman behind Kotastar, suffice to say a product of the famed Kirkby teachers’ training college, explained briefly how a teacher of his era was trained. Here is what he wrote:

‘Thank you for remembering Kirkby and Brinsford Lodge. Yes they were two teacher training colleges set up for Malaysians overseas. Successful for that period.Don't know if the same experiment will show similar result. Just to enlighten. We started reading the 'Chong Beng' book and ended with almost all editions of Shakespeare and not to mention other literary books the likes of authors Thomas Hardy, Conrad, L. Stevenson and other literary figures. Only then, we were able to speak and write English as it was. Maybe as good as the Queen's English itself. So no short cut, no brief induction courses will push our teachers and students to that height. It took good six /seven years of hard learning, practice AND 2+ years overseas in native English speaking countries to get us to that position.Similarly people like Shahnon Ahmad,Kassim Ahmad ( two Malay writers) English educated with strong command of Malay Language to be active and well known writers. Mind you English Literature and Sastera were two strong subjects in school.

Now?

Next,I attended our PAMKM (Persatuan Alumni Maktab Kirkby Malaysia last Tuesday at KL and surprisingly yr name was mentioned after I brought up your father- in- law's name. Dato Baharudin , Dr Shaari Isa and others know of your activities at AlManar. Our President Tan Sri Yahya too was surprised how an engineer got into such 'predicament' but with success. We referred to your 'kampong' near Tg Malim plus the durian tree.Ha.Ha what a small world. Just to let you know the old Collegians are still 'active' though many have even touch the octogenarian period.We are proud to be able to share your success story. Wishing that the teaching and learning of Malay and English too will find the lights in the tunnel.
Salam to you and 'family' Selamat Berpuasa dan Selamat Menyambut Shawal.”

I am truly humbled by what Kotastar related in the second part of his comment. A few truly learned people talked about Almanar and the person running it. It is praise indeed to be commented in that vein by these people. But my fear is that this may be a case of ‘Indah khabar dari rupa’.

Kotastar, you were not certain whether the ‘experiment’ you underwent to be a teacher in English would still produce good results today. I maintain we need not reinvent the wheel. Our ‘cerdik pandai’ have experimented and failed badly. And now we do not know how and where we have gone wrong that the result has been all but wrong. So now bring in the clowns.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

With a sigh ( Pt 8a ) – Bad English?

2011-08-08T22:34:00.006+08:00

Why the bad English?

That was the headline on Sunday. It was followed by another question :
Are teachers incompetent, or school books unsuitable?

-----------------------

For many years, schools and pupils benefited from teachers who were trained at the two colleges ( not universities of taraf antarabangsa, mind you) in Kirkby and Wolverhampton. Those young men and women returned to Malaya and successfully taught English (Queen’s English) with pride and dedication for many years. Then we became very clever, with graduates and post-graduates, PhD and all coming home from countries like America, England, Australia etc. Every one was clever and had new ideas which had never been thought of by the likes of the lowly diploma holders from the two teachers’ training colleges. And so, the people in position implemented novel ideas. Not long ago a very senior personnel from the Education Department went to a great length to convince me how the centre of learning English had shifted away from the good old England. With humility Pakcik listened to the mini lecture.

Here we are. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

--------------------------

And today we have thousands of teachers who are graduates with first and second degrees, many of which are from our own universities of taraf antarabangsa, no less. The so called English schools in the country would never dream of having such a high percentage of university graduates.

And we will be importing, by hundreds, teachers from America to teach real English at our schools. I have seen two of these English speaking teachers who spent useless couple of years trying to get used to the local culture and feeling distressed for not being totally accepted by local teachers.

-------------------------

And only last week one of Pakcik’s Form 2 pupils came to relate how her teacher marked as wrong a sentence she wrote – ‘ My home address is in Batu Rakit.’ Apparently the sentence was wrong. It should just read ‘ My home address in Batu Rakit’, the verb ‘is’ should be deleted because the sentence has ‘in’, making ‘is’ unnecessary! Now that is some English. The girl had a good laugh telling me that. Maybe I had taught her the wrong kind of English. The need for finite verbs etc is now obviously out of date.

---------------------------------

Why can’t we do a simple thing like teaching English the way it used to be done? I can only draw a long sigh.

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With a sigh ( Pt 7 b ) – Prebet sapu

2011-08-01T07:50:00.005+08:00

Selamat berpuasa kepada pelawat pelawat Muslimin dan Muslimat yang kami berdua hormati

-------------------

Finally Almanar has a fair share of orphans and children of poor families. Numbering about 80 and made up of pupils in Form 1, 2, 3 and 4, they belong to the first intakes into the new home, Darul Akhyar (of my earlier post),

In order to assess the level of their knowledge, particularly in English and Mathematics, I have taken it upon myself to conduct all classes and necessitates opening of evening classes for the first time. On me it has been particularly taxing on two counts. Until now I had never considered sacrificing my evening hours, and that I now have. Secondly, as Darul Akhyar would not have its promised transport facility until next week I volunteered to help out, anxious to get on with the classes as early possible.

Watch the picture of that beautiful white multi-purpose vehicle in the picture below. We acquired that last year. Among its many uses we thought of the great opportunity to load the vehicle with fruit when we go to Makcik’s kampong during the next durian season. I could imagine having a stall in front of Almanar selling durians! That is what a fruitful imagination is all about – making money.

----------- Prebet sapu

We never bargained for the vehicle to run as a ‘prebet sapu’ (illegal taxi). But that was exactly what happened for about one month. Do not laugh when I relate a typical day in July.

The last happened for days ago. A group of 27 pupils had to attend class at Almanar at 3.30 that afternoon. In the absence of any help Pakcik did a wonderful job fetching them from Darul Akhyar, a mere one kilometer distance from Almanar. Instead of loading that vehicle with durians I managed to cram into it 9 children of assorted sizes, finely separated between sexes, to travel the short distance from Darul Akhyar to Almanay. In 15 minutes flat I made three trips to transport all the 27 kids. Two hours later I repeated the acts to send the children back.

Then came the evening class. At eight I was at the wheel again also making three trips, this time to shuttle 28 kids of Form 1, one more; that meant ten passengers on one of three trips. Of course at the end of that I had to send them back. How they giggled and laughed and the poor driver shouting hoarse to keep quiet!

To them it was great fun, at the end of which the boys kissing the driver’s hand and the girls thanking Pakcik voluminously – and a couple of them were heard to add, “ I like you Pakcik.”

But the strain of that one month had begun to tell on the driver of the ‘prebet sapu’. Pakcik had to stay in bed for 24 hours, canceling classes for three days! Thankfully that was the last.

============

-------------- Part of Form 1

The new group of Form 1 pupils from Darul Akhyar consists of 28 children, ten of whom are boys. It is so satisfying to me to realise that this group is the 16th group of Form 1 to have joined Almanar over a period of 17 years of its life. It gives me a greater satisfaction to realise that this group of 28 has fourteen orphans and the rest belong to poor families of gardeners, rubber-tappers, broken homes and so on. The same goes with the rest of the 80 kids from Darul Akhyar - orphans and children of the very poor. Helping children such as these was the very objective Almanar trust (private) was established in 1992. Alhamdulillah.

Nevertheless I cannot help drawing sighs of regret to see how poorly these children were treated academically during their six years of primary education. Let us look at the 28 pupils in Form 1. In their UPSR exam at the end of 2010 this group can only boast of 1 A and 2 B grades in English. For the five subjects examined, only one pupil scored 4 A grades, and three pupils scored 3 As each. Nine children achieved only C,D and E grades, and of course, ‘my poor little thing’ can only boast of 5 E’s.

-------- Poor little thing's smile of hope

==============

Sintaicharles, a fairly regular visitor from Sarawak, left the following brief comment against my last posting.

“ Pakcik, I got 3Ds and 2Es in UPSR.”

It is slightly better than Pakcik’s ‘poor little thing’ but definitely worse than some of my new group described above.Yet, today, he is a damned good teacher in English, if I must say so without any reservation. And this man from Sarawak even exhibited an exemplary attitude as an educator. This is reflected in his earlier comment against Pakcik’s posting:

“Nine years ago, out of pity, I taught a very naughty boy how to read and write everyday after school. However, many colleagues insinuated to me that I was an empty vessel trying berlagak pandai mendidik budak yang tiada harapan lulus SPM'.I was hurt by what they said and soon gave up tutoring that boy.
Now, come to think of it, I should have persisted in teaching that boy. I lacked the spirit of Pakcik.”

That is Sintaicharles’s attitude and the general attitude of his colleagues.

To this fine teacher who started from a low beginning, I would like to tell him this:

Perhaps, Sintaicharles, you have now learnt something from what you called ‘the spirit of Pakcik’, a pseudo teacher who has never been taught all about the sophisticated teaching techniques and what ‘exam formats’ are all about. You are one person of my own heart, an example of one who does not believe in the need for a good early start to succeed. It is YOUR SPIRIT, Sintaicharles, that I need to plant in those Melayu punya children. I thank you and I say forget those colleagues of yours. Sadly, after having qualified, attended courses after courses they lack the natural attitude every educator should possess in the first place.
`

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

With a sigh ( Pt 7 a ) - Poor little thing

2011-07-24T11:57:00.006+08:00

I scolded her for not showing interest after three classes at Almanar. Let us call her Ani for simplicity. She proved herself lazy. She could not read a simple sentence. She did not know the meaning of simple words like face and cook. She had, a few days earlier written those words in her ‘vocab book’ which Pakcik gave to everyone on the very first day at Almanar. That is how important ‘vocab book’ is at Almanar in learning English – the way all Pakcik’s children were made to keep and learn.

A few harsh words were said and pakcik could see her eyes brimming with tears. She was sensitive, after all. Later I pulled her aside for a few more words.

When the class was over I went over my notes on the children of that special class – special because it was a newly formed class made up of ten orphans and the rest from poor parents. Then the reality began to dawn on me.

-------------

Ani is a girl of thirteen from a town about 150 km from here. A diminutive ‘little thing’ was my first thought of her when I first saw her. When she was a baby, a childless old couple adopted her. Today, Ani has no idea who her real parents are, whether dead or alive. Unfortunately, her foster parents are poor, too, financially and academically. Under such circumstances, she grew up through her first six years of primary education without any help at home. One would, then, quite naturally expect her to acquire something from her six years at her primary school. But what she achieved for her UPSR exam was EEEEE – 5 capital Es for the five subjects ! I am not surprised if her school is in fact one of those which have contributed towards making Terengganu the proud state for being the champion state in achieving AAAAA – 5 capital As – in every UPSR examination during the last several years.

Then I ask myself what had Ani’s primary school administration, the Head, her teachers, the guru ‘motivasi’, the lot of them, including PIBG, ever done for this pathetic-looking ‘little thing’ ? In my mind, had she been abused as a child labour at rolling ‘keropok lekor’, she would have been an expert at it today, able to earn herself and her aged foster parents a few cents a day. But, after six years of primary school education in a champion state this 'poor little thing’ had not learnt her ‘face’ and ‘cook’.

--------------

Two days ago, I approached her again with simple questions. She had got them! And there was the glimpse of a smile on her face; the 'poor little thing’, I thought, had begun to learn something. I have learnt something, too. Now she will be handled with kid’s gloves. But how much can I do it all myself, with limited time allowed and when she has eight subjects to learn at school – plus the ‘wajib’ (compulsory) extra curricular ( koko ) activities imposed by to-day’s education system? It would be a sad thing if she, one day for the entry into a local university ( of the famed taraf antarasa bangsa, of course ), gets EEEEEEEE – all 8 Es - in her SPM despite the full 10% points from her ‘koko’.

With a sigh,
We will try.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusia

Nisfu Sya'ban

2011-07-17T21:37:00.003+08:00

Today, in a modest way we celebrate Nisful Sya’ban. And today coincides with our third child’s (stress on ‘child’) 39th birthday, just twelve months to forty - not making the two of us any younger, though. Somewhere he may be celebrating the day with his other half and their ‘three Charlie’s angels’. With love we wish him and his family all the best.

Berkhidmat kernaa Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Pakcik reminisces ( Pt 19 ) - Truly FOREVER

2011-07-14T16:15:00.013+08:00

( A ) The last issue

Thank you and good bye. What a simple headline for a sensational newspaper. And on Sunday 10th July 2011 the curtain fell on the News of the World an old British Sunday newspaper that had survived since 1843 - 168 years in print!

“So what ?” one might ask. Indeed it does mean something to me. It is one of those items in my life that stretch my memory back, this time, to half a century ago.

An innocent young Malay lad was transported away from home to settle in an English home with lads from five other countries but Malaya; from Iraq, South Africa, India, Peru, and a working man from North Ireland. And the landlady who looked after the house and cooked for them was an elderly lady from Scotland, Mrs Robertson, a widow. At first the Malay lad thought at least he had for company a fellow Muslim from Iraq. He had that impression when during their conversation the Iraqi stated the best Arabic text is in the Quran. At the breakfast table came the surprise. The Iraqi seemed to be enjoying his bacon and egg! He turned out to be a Christian. Nevertheless, the atmosphere in the house, called ‘digs’, was one of friendliness. In the morning they trouped out on their bicycles heading for the same college, and every evening they met at the same dining table, the early arrival trying to secure one of the chairs with coal fire burning hot at the back. Oh, what a pleasure it was to come in from the cold to warm the palms of you hands in front of the fire!

It was those early days the Malay lad began to get acquainted with English newspapers. The Times was a heavy reading. But people would steal a look at you if you carried one. The young lad settled for Manchester Guardian, politically known to lean towards the opposition party of that time.

Then on Sundays there was the News of the World. What a paper that was, concentrating and specializing in sex scandals in lurid details. The lad never had that sort of eye-opener back home in Utusan Melayu (in jawi). This was exciting beyond words. However it did not take for him to learn that people read this paper on the quiet but showed expression of distain towards people who read it. ‘Wasn’t this a form of hypocrisy?’ the boy often wondered. Half a century ago, the standard of morality in the mass media was still conservative. So, quite naturally, the lad began to learn how not to show his liking for that Sunday paper. Fold the paper and tuck it nicely in the inner pocket of your overcoat. And every few days or so, flash your copy of Manchester Guardian. That did the trick. That was, indeed, a sign of sophistication in that boy from Malaya, some of whom thought was located in Singapore!

So, on the quiet I enjoyed News of the World, making doubly sure that I showed my liking for Manchester Guardian – but I truly did enjoy both.

It is a shame the paper has to go. But nothing lives forever, I suppose. Even my Manchester Guardian has lost its Manchester.

---------------

( B ) The man I knew.

Having freshly seen the end of a ‘great’ newspaper I was saddened to read the demise of a person I used to know well. Raja Aziz Addruse, the three-time Bar Council president. He passed away on Tuesday, 12th July. I have not seen him the last twenty years. The last time we had a chit chat was at the Lake Club when my family used to frequent that very special club in KL.

Raja Aziz was in UK about the same as I was (the time I was enjoying the News of the World ). At the same time my old class-mate of ’55 was also in UK doing his law. The latter was Tan Sri Wan Adnan who showed his brilliance in breezing through his course in two years when others laboured for three. Sadly he passed away prematurely, just one short sure step to take over the topmost post of he judiciary.

In the early ’60, our bachelor days, the three of us used to share a room on top of a shop house on Jalan Traverse, KL. Imagine how close we were then. But our careers brought us adrift, though Wan Adnan, and his family, remained close right to the end.

We shared a lot in common. We enjoyed the same age and were shipped to the same country to study. Today,of the three, I am the only one left behind, to reminisce and say my prayers and AlFatihah in memory of their valued friendship. I no longer need to remind myself that nothing, no one lives FOREVER, in all its majesty and glory.

The much celebrated surah Al Rahman has this to remind me.

“All that lives on earth is doomed to die. But the Face of your Lord will abide FOREVER, in all its majesty and glory” - Dawood

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Not forgotten

2011-07-04T09:41:00.005+08:00

In two cars they arrived, unannounced. They knew they would always be welcome to the house they got to know the inside and outside ten years ago; because they have not forgotten.

The seven young ladies

Way back in early 2001 these seven girls belonged to a group that joined Form 1 tuition class at Almanar. Today they still remember and talk with fondness the events of those days at Almanar and Nuri. The pain and frustration – and joy too - of those days are now being played back gleefully and with how-silly-we-were-then laughs. Each brought along a little ‘buah tangan’. One of them had two huge crabs (weighing 600 gm), still alive and kicking, her father’s catch.

I cannot imagine how six of these seven girls, a nurse and five with BSc degrees in various fields, have all just completed their studies. Only one, who did radiography, graduated earlier and is working at a university.

The visit, the ‘buah tangan’, crabs and all were not timed to celebrate a teacher’s day or a father’s day. To pay homage, to express respect, love and affection, one does not need a special occasion.

--------------

To the seven young ladies : Makcik and Pakcik thank you. You are not forgotten. Perhaps the day will soon come when the seven of you drop in to hand your special invitation cards, for a very special occasion - all happening in one year, too, insyaAllah.

Biarpun bulan dan tahun berlalu
Biarpun disilangi penat dan pedih
Biarpun berat beban dibahu
Tak munkin hilang jalinan kasih

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Auspicious days and love

2011-06-22T21:26:00.005+08:00

A bouquet of red roses is still standing on the dressin table. And a minute ago I was looking at my in-coming emails and noticed an old one that came a few days ago from my daughter in India. There were telephone calls too. All were expressions of love for a father on the Father’s Day.

(Earlier we had the Mother’s Day, the Valentine’s Day, Labour Day etc. apart from the more personal ones like anniversary , birthday and so on.)

Right now I am alone in our bedroom because my Makcik is spending a few days visiting her aged mother. And she had her share of Mother’s Day too not very long ago. In a quiet environment and all alone like this, looking at those beautiful red roses, I remember my parents. My father passed away when I was away studying some fifty years ago. My mother died in Mecca over forty years ago. Those were days I never knew of the so-called Father’s and Mother’s Day. So I was never into that.

Do I not love those two most important individuals in my life?

I remember both of them today and every day in my prayers. I even seek HIM to pass on to them whatever rewards HE wishes to give me for any good things I do to day. I want them to share, as a little reward from me for having raised me those difficult years.

Don’t we all wish this of our children? To deserve being loved, let us give them love, not simply the Valentine way.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Darul Akhyar (Pt 3) - Alhamdulillah

2011-06-17T23:01:00.003+08:00

About 100 poor children and orphans have registered at Darul Akhyar. Although no Form 3 pupils were planned to be taken in, to avoid interruption to their studies before PMR exam in six months’ time, ten of them have finally been accepted as they happen to be from this locality and are already attending the very school the other Darul Akhyar children will go to.Also admitted into Darul Akhyar are twelve children of Form 4. Realising the need to help without delay these two older groups of Form 3 and 4, we have already started tuition classes for them.

Next week we hope to start classes for Form 1 and 2 pupils. So Pakcik is starting to be kept busy again, and with more enthusiasm as well.

Not long ago the position was one of despair. It even crossed Pakcik’s mind to call it a day. But now unexpected help has come to keep Almanar running at full swing again. Soon children will come and go by vanloads.

To end this longish posting allow Pakcik to quote part of a short Surah from AlQuran, Surah Alnasr (no 110). I am drawn to think of this Surah because it is so strange to see certain parts of the Surah carrying ertain similarity to what is happening at Almanar.

It has been widely documented that this Surah was known to be the last Surah to be revealed to the Prophet (SAW)in its complete form. When he first recited this, a couple of his companions were seen to shed tears. They understood the implication of this Surah, a signal that the Prophet had completed his mission on earth. This Surah was revealed about the time our Prophet gave his famous Great Farewell Speech (khutbah alwada’), giving a clear indication of pending departure. True enough, within a couple of months from these two incidents, our Prophet (SAW) left us.

Part of Alnasr

When comes Allah’s help, and victory; and you see people joining Allah’s religion in droves; give glory to your Lord and seek His pardon …..

And now I see the help He has given and how suddenly droves of new pupils coming to Almanar – and I say ‘Subhanakallah waghfirli zanbi.’ For me a great challenge lies ahead and for these very poor children and orphans I cannot afford to fail.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Darul Akhyar (Pt 2) – Who drew the plans ?

2011-06-11T08:01:00.006+08:00

a) Search for peace and enlightenment.

Twenty two years ago we felt we had had enough of living like nomads and had seen enough of the bright lights. We deliberated and decided to settle down in Kuala Terengganu, years before it was declared a world-class city with Monsoon Cup and all.

We thought it was very fortunate that we already had a plot of road-side land just south of the town and within sight of the beautiful Masjid Terapung of KT. The mosque often imports imams from overseas for tarawikh prayers in the months of Ramadan. How nice it would be to be praying there.

Plans were drawn and duly submitted; but just as we were about to get the final approval the authority decided to widen the road in front. If we were to go ahead we had to set back and down-size our house, and be happy with hardly any front yard. Life would no longer be ideal with limited space around and with the likely dust and traffic noise.

With a heavy heart we had to abandon the thought of a quiet life near a beautifully designed mosque. Further south we went in search of an ideal site; this time a land with sea-frontage. That part of the coast-line is beautiful, with the enchanting view of Pulau Kapas, and within a short distance from the taking off point to the island. We could entertain visitors to the island, a pleasant thought. Unfortunately, such land as we were looking for was hard to find for sale, forcing us to move elsewhere. We decide to go north of town.

Again we thought we were fortunate when we finally came close to clinching a deal for a two-acre ground by the sea, and this time it was not very far from the airport. How convenient it would be for us to get flights to KL, and to be receiving and sending off our guests. But this was not to be as well. Just before we decided to close the deal, we came to know that the DCA (Department of Civil Aviation) would object to any plan for a two-storey building in its vicinity. So that put paid to that plan and dream. We were back to the square one.

The search for land now moved further north and, by divine intervention, I met Ghawi, an old classmate from my days at the Madrasah Sultan Zainal Abidin (MSZA), a good forty years earlier. It was an unexpected reunion of sort, and to our delight and good fortune this old friend, a well-known figure in that area, owned some prime plots of lands in that part of town. He took us around to view at least six sites, and it surely did not take us long to fancy two plots, each about an acre, separated by a long straight coastal road. One plot faces the open sea with the view of Pulau Redang and Pulau Bedong in the distance, and the second plot is right across the dividing road.

When I informed Ghawi of our interest in the two pieces of land, he casually asked why I had wanted the second piece of land across the road as well. To that question I gave a spontaneous answer - Today, I live to wonder how the idea was put into my head - Casually and as a matter of fact I answered, “Oh, buat tempat mengajar budak budak.” (Oh, just a place to teach children). Of course I had wished to help tutoring village children in a broad sense, but never a proper building on an acre of ground.

What was to happen next was simply amazing. When I asked Ghawi what price he would put on the property, he looked straight into my eyes and with a straight face said, “Ustaz, bayarlah apa yang utaz rasa nak bayar (Ustaz, just pay me whatever you like to pay ; the term ‘ustaz’ is often used locally to address with respect a person who teaches religion.) Incidentally,I do not know of anyone else who ever called me ‘ustaz’ because I never was.

It turned out to be a strange business negotiation, I kept pressing him to quote a price and he adamantly wanted me to pay whatever I chose. Ultimately I named a price which he readily accepted without batting an eye lid.

My friend Ghawi died six years ago. He lived long enough to see what had become of his land. The man had no greed over the sale of his property. And today whenever I remember him I offer him Al Fathihah, a small way to compensate for his generosity. He has a share in my Almanar.

Because of Ghawi we are where we are, peaceful and happy. We have Nuri (our enlightenment) and Almanar (The beacon – the light house that helps to give guidance and correct direction.) And we have enough activities to occupy our time.

------------------

b) Chances and probabilities

I must apologise for writing a thesis on my search for a place to retire. With that I wish to highlight how ‘destiny’ or 'fate' works in its wondrous way. That was TWENTY years ago.

For all the length ( Terengganu has 225 kilometer of coastal stretch ) and breath of Terengganu, the religious authority of this state has chosen to site Darul Akhyar on Jalan Batu Rakit Pantai, the very road our Almanar is, hardly one kilometer away. Above all, one objective of this pilot project is to help educate needy children in the state, the very objective I dreamt of for Almanar nearly 20 years ago - except that Almanar is to restricted to serve the community in its vicinity.

As if that is no enough, a new secondary school was opened four months ago. It is about five kilometers away and has enough places to easily accommodate the bulk of pupils accommodated in Darul Akhyar.

The mathematical side of me wonders - what are the chances and probabilities for the above events to happen?

Should there not be a Great Planner orchestrating the complicated routes taken by Almanar, Darul Akhyar and a secondary school to finally be so close to one another with education as the main theme?

-------------

I have already met the first Principal/Warden of Darul Akhyar, a man with many years of experience running a large orphanage in the state. In the course of conversation he declared,“ I want to prove that these children, given the helps they need, will make good in life.” (How this reminded me of my declared objective when Almanar Trust was dreamt of 20 years ago.)To achieve what he was aiming for, he needed help. When Pakcik offered assistance from Almanar, his spontaneous response was, “ Orang mengantuk disorongkan bantal.” (A sleepy head is being offered a pillow.)

To conclude ……

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Darul Akhyar (Pt 1) – A pilot project

2011-06-06T01:17:00.010+08:00

In the absence of an official explaination I would translate this expression as ‘Home for the Elite’.

View from outside

The religious department of Terengganu known as MAIDAM ( Majlis Agama Islam Dan Adat Melayu) has for the first time built and will operate a home for ‘anak anak fakir dan yatim’ ( poor children and orphans). There are other homes in Terengganu, but they are run by NGO’s, and they serve orphans exclusively. Darul Akhyar, on the other hand, is built for the very poor, orphans and others alike, with emphasis on their education. This new approach is as a very positive and welcome development in the state.

On the entrance wall

This pilot project is sited on a four-acre ground and the complex is capable of accommodating up to 200 children of both sexes. However, only about 100 children have been selected from the length and breadth of the state to be the fore-runners of this special home.Slightly more than half of the first intake are children from poor homes as against the orphans.

Inside view - One of two dorms

Another view

Surau

These children will register at Darul Akhyar in a few days’ time. That is before the end of the current school holidays. When the new terms starts on 12th June in Terengganu, these children will be attending form 1, form2 and form 4 at two secondary schools in the vicinity.

It will be interesting to follow the development of this new project.

To be continued …….

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

P/s:

The signage at the entrance reads " --- anak yatim". That is not intended to be.

End of the tunnel (Pt 12) – The path less travelled by

2011-05-23T17:33:00.009+08:00

Today it all looks nice and rosy, a young bride with her own loving parents and now a love of her own. What, then, is so different about Zira?

Very few know the tumultuous family life she went through at the first crucial stage of her education, the year she sat for her PMR exam. No one would want to go through what she did. The subsequent painful years brought her closer to us.

After her SPM she failed to get an offer to do a medical-related course. “ I like to work in a hospital,” she lamented. She was obsessed with a job in hospital.

Knowing that she could not have everything, she accepted to do a three-year course in mechanical engineering, a far cry from her aspiration. Nonetheless, she accepted, worked on it, succeeded, and saw herself as a technical instructor at a factory within a cycling distance from her house. Most would be satisfied but not this girl. She worked for nearly two years, all the while harbouring her a dream. She kept her applications going.

Then one day she turned up at Nuri all excited. She had received an offer to do a course in pharmacy – orang mengantuk disorongkan bantal! ( a sleepy one being offered a pillow ).

“ Pakcik, what do you think? Do you think I can do it?” She poured out her questions at Pakcik. I knew this girl too well. Over the years she never failed to call on us, to keep us in the picture on how she was faring in her job and otherwise.

She simply wanted a ‘yes’ answer. I knew it and she got it. Almost six years after leaving SPM she was about to begin again. Had she not forgotten her biology and chemistry? I was somewhat concerned. Many would tell her to forget it. After she hah had a good job close to her family.

This gutsy girl worked for her dream, and today, she is attached to a hospital – never mind the distance being a good 500 km away from home. She has got her dream:

Zira took a path ‘less traveled by; and that has made all the diffeence’, a girl who can offer us a lesson in life.

and finally she is alone no more

And today, she has her own man as well, with blessings from both parents. She deserves what she owns today. Today, too, she can look back - and cry.

Al Quran - Surah Al-Njm - Ayat 35

"Dan bahawa manusia tidaklah akan memperoleh, melainkan sekadar usahanya." – Dr Hamka

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

P/s,

Syaharahan Dr Hamka dalam Tafsir Al-Azhar:

“ ….. Inilah yan pernah saya sya’irkan waktu permulaan Revolusi Indonesia:

Insan medapat kadar usaha,
Tidah lebih tidaklah kurang;
Ajuk hati, tanyai jiwa,
Jangan menyesal kepada orang.

Hasil dari pekerjaan kita , kita dapati sekadar usaha yang telah kita lakukan. Apabila kita malas, akan mendapat sedikit, atau tidak mendapat sama sekali, tidaklah boleh kita menyalahkan orang lain, mengapa sedikit kita dapat …..”

End of the tunnel (Pt 12 – sec 1/2) – Two children later

2011-05-21T00:07:00.015+08:00

Two children ago, Yani was the subject of my End of the tunnel (Pt 5). Yes, that was what I said, two ‘children’ ago, covering a period of about two years. Yesterday Makcik and Pakcik met her again at a wedding of her old classmate, Zira. Yani ‘baru lepas pantang’ ( a 44- day period of detention indoor after delivery? ).

Almost seventeen years ago Yani and Zira, two timid kampong girls, joined the form 1 tuition class at Almanar. Yani has been working with a private college in Selangor and she delivered her second child one-and-a half months ago. And yesterday, after Yani’s second child, Zira was married. Today the two are no longer girls, nor timid any more.

----------------------

Zira, all the years I had known her, used to live just a couple of kilometers away from us; but the family moved to a new home about a year ago. “Please come to visit our new place, especially during a fruit season,” said Zira to us a couple of times. Somehow we never made it there until her wedding day, yesterday; and that was not without some difficulty.The new house cannot be more than about 30 kilometers away from us; but such a distance from the coast line of Terengganu can take us to some uninhabited and very deserted areas indeed.

Guided by a sketch we reached the vicinity of Zira’s house in under thirty minutes. But we took another half-an-hour getting ourselves lost, driving up and down, stopping here and there seeking directions. As we were in the midst of it, my handphone rang. It was none other than the bride herself. In a tone tinged with disappointment she asked, “ Pakcik, aren’t you coming to my wedding?’ No, I would not miss her wedding for the entire world. And I realised then what our absence would mean to her, this very special girl.

------------------

Towards the end of our search, very certain of where we were heading for, we found ourselves driving along a road running through what looked like a virgin jungle. We were told that only a lone Felcra office was at the very dead end. Then somewhat relieved we began to notice some vehicles parked on both sides of the road. We knew for sure we had finally reached our destination. After parking our car at the end of the row we took a foot-path leading to a clearing in the middle of nowhere, a two-acre piece of land with coconut palms, assorted fruit trees and trees of all sorts – and perhaps animals of all sort, too, lurking around!

A road to nowhere

The path into nowhere

A dream house on two acres of land in the middle of nowhere

Somehow the wild surroundings looked beautiful to me. In this wild but peaceful environment I could imagine myself reminiscing, perhaps with greater details and clarity. Poets and writers would surely find their ‘enlightenment’ and inspiration in this sort of place.

So it was Zira’s wedding. How radiantly happy she was seeing us around after all.

X

Yani and first child (L) and the grooms (R) flanking pakcik's bride

---------------------------

So what is so special about Zira that deserves a place in this End-of-the-tunnel episode?

She took the less traveled road.

I had no hesitation to tell her newly wed husband, “You are a very, very lucky person. Look after her as well as you can.” And I meant every word of it. And my Zira smiled and looked straight at me with eyes brimming with tears.

….. to continue

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Pakcik reminisces (Pt 18) – To Sir, With Love

2011-05-16T02:29:00.014+08:00

The day was Sunday 15th May, 2011, and the time was almost 11.00 pm. Earlier I had put down my autographed copy of AMOT and I was beginning to get absorbed in the second chapter of ‘A Doctor in the House’.

“Abang, come and watch this old film with me.”
I stopped reading to ask what film that was - on TV2.

“It’s To Sir, with love,” came her reply.

Not for one moment I hesitated to put down my book to watch this film for the umpteenth time, our favourite. We first saw the film way back in 1967, 45 years ago, in a town named JESSELTON, the capital of the state Negeri Di Bawah Bayu. We had not long been married with only our two-year old daughter with us. I was sent to serve in ‘Borneo’ for about four years, almost the whole of the early years of our married life. Away from the rest our respective families we had a chance to build our own life without interference, casting the marital love the way we would want it to take shape. It was then Sidney Poitier’s ‘To Sir, with Love’, with Lulu singing the hit song, was first screened.

It was not just the very touching story and the beautiful lyrics but the very title itself evoked so much memory of our family life, blessed with love and affection.

------------------
To Sir, with Love ( See p/s at the foot )

Those schoolgirl days, of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind,
I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try,

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters,
That would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, with Love

The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
What, what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start,
But I, would rather you let me give my heart,
To Sir, with Love

----------------------

The film ended this morning, 16th May, at 1.00 a.m. Before my tears ran dry I decided to write this, because I thought it was not inappropriate to have this posted on the Teachers’ Day. To Sir, With Love is forever to me a beautiful song and a beautiful film that tells about a teacher.

After all, in our own ways, we are all teachers in our lives.
-----------

P.S THE SONG

Here is a video of Pakcik's grandson's UPSR ceremony held a few years ago . It was his last day in the primary school. The video : Convocation 2007 ( To Sir, With Love in the background)

Kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Pakcik reminisces (Pt 17 – p/s) – An acknowledgement

2011-05-14T06:08:00.005+08:00

Apart from the Great Planner/Creator Himself, to Whom we all owe absolutely everything, I owe this gentleman more than he can ever imagine, and I am forever indebted to him.

Picture taken 60 years ago, of one young man who had begun to learn that there were different roads in life.

He is now an aged gentleman, well into his 80’s, with frequent lapses of memory, but, otherwise, physically well. Sixty years ago he had a vision that his younger brother ought to be equipped better than he had been, to face a future. In so doing he became instrumental in sending his brother on a ‘road less traveled.’ Subhanallah.

Picture taken nearly 60 years ago of one cheerful boy with dreams of a bed of roses.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Pakcik reminisces (Pt 17-Sec2/2) – Who and what am I?

2011-05-07T14:49:00.010+08:00

A cheat, no less

So, on Friday evening, Jan 4th 1952 with smattering of English learnt in afternoon classes I joined the evening classes at a private school, hoping that, by the end of the same year, I would have learnt sufficient English to be admitted to the only government English school in the state of Terengganu, Sultan Sulaiman English School (SSES). Whilst proficiency in English was never a necessity for one to further his studies in Cairo, it had, for unexplainable reasons, suddenly grown in importance in my case- the work of an unseen hand.

The morning classes at the religious school (MSZA) went well in 1952. Today I relate to my children with pride how their father completed a seven-year course at MSZA in five years, something unheard of until then. The two years saved was a gift from heaven without which I would never have an earthly chance to join the government English School. The age alone would put a stop to it and I would very likely be on a long boat journey to Egypt (Gaddafi would be a boy of about 12 then!) to join my other school mates.

I had to satisfy three conditions to join SSES viz,

i) Joining a class appropriate with my age group.
ii) Possession of a leaving certificate to show proof of
acceptable level of English education.
iii) Passing an entrance test in two subjects,
English and Maths.

AS mentioned above, the two-year credit the religious school was a blessing. I could be pegged to join Form 3.

The first condition satisfied, I was left with the impossible task of meeting the other two. It was simply impossible. How could one own a certificate when he had never sat for the exam? How could one pass a test for admission into Form 3 after a year’s study in the evenings.

What then?
Could we do it by-hook-or-by-crook principle?
Should we change the rule of the game so that crooked means justify honourable ends?

Yes, apply the ‘darurah’ (sheer emergency) rule and all should be legal!

Today I live to marvel at how with five ringgits (mind you, that was in 1952!) I became a proud owner of a leaving school certificate that came from someone/somewhere, the details of which transactions best left undisclosed. The certificate categorically stated that I had passed Form 2 in all subjects. This satisfied condition (ii)

Having achieved to satisfy the second condition, we began to work on good ‘human relation’ practices – one must cultivate the skill of intimately knowing who and who. This town was a small town where almost every one was connected to everyone else by blood or whatever. So it was not all that difficult

The long and short of it I was discreetly given a chance to study the test questions while everyone's eyes were closed. Armed and well prepared, on Monday, Jan 13th (lucky number!)1953, as recorded in my diary, I sat for the entrance test and with sheer brilliance I DID IT!

-------------------

And so, as recorded in my diary, on Sunday ( Fridays being weekend in the state) Jan 18th, 1953, I joined one of the two Form 3 classes at SSES, coy with inferiority, to be with a group of about 30 pupils consisted of Malay, Chinese and Indian boys and pretty girls. And the English teacher was an elegant English lady (in knee-length skirt!) named Mrs Patton. This was my first taste of ‘culture shock’.

How I envied my new friends, seeing them socializing with ease, and merrily conversing in English among themselves and with teachers. And I, in the course of the next few weeks, was a laughing stock when I, with sheer ignorance, read aloud certain words like ‘stomach, rhythm, volume’ etc (pronounced sto maach, raai m, vo luum etc) like an Arab!

However, it did not take long before I began to get on very well with them, albeit keeping my safe distance from the opposite sex. And, soon, I began to be myself again, a serious and determined fellow.

A dream is just another dream

Circumstances and new atmosphere created new ideas, new aspirations and new dreams.

In those days Bukit Besi in Dungun, if one studied geography as a subject, was known as having the world largest tin mine. Those who managed to be employed by the company operating the mine were seen as especially privileged people, earning good salaries and all, against the backdrop of farmers, petty traders, fishermen and so on in the state.

‘It would be nice to be a mining engineer working in Bukit Besi’, a seed of a new dream began to germinate to rival that of a graduate from Al Azhar university.

The following three years saw me being carried forward by my own momentum. All went on so well that I found it hard to step on my brake. It was just what Frost said:

‘ …….. Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.’

-------------------------------------------

Five of these seven musketerrs (1956) have sadly gone

Early 1956 saw me taking a two-day bus ride with a group of friends heading for KL, my first ever trip (Pakcik reminisces – Pt 11), to join the Higher School Certificate Class at two prestigious schools having ‘Mat Salleh’ principals, teachers and all; but at a price. Must I join my new non-Muslim classmates in the school chapel on Monday mornings (me, the product of a religious school with a headful of Quranic verses)? - more cultural shocks

I was beginning to come to terms with who and what I was in life – and more to come.

Just as I was settling down nicely in KL, getting acquainted with the busy Batu Road, Malacca Street, the week-end ‘pesta’ at Lake Garden nearby, the marvel of Robinsons departmental store, and my new hostel life of course, I came yet to another fork , two roads diverged in a yellow wood.’

One morning I was summoned to see the school principle who asked me whether I would be interested to be nominated a candidate for interviews with a multinational company which was offering two scholarships to boys in MALAYA. Successful candidates would be packed overseas to do an accelerated one-year A-Level course followed by a four-year tertiary education; and, all being well, would need to serve the company for a specific number of years somewhere on earth.

A new challenge; but what became of my earlier dream, a prosperous engineer mining this good earth?

Subsequently I did attend a series of interviews, only soon to be advised that two Chinese boys from other schools had topped the list. That ought to be my first bitter taste of appointment. But was it really?

Look at the opening page of my 1953 diary.

from 1953 diary

The highlighted words coined in Arabic told me on no uncertain terms : Never cease to expect His bounty. So as early as three years earlier I instinctively forewarned myself that life was not going to be a bed of roses. Be prepared and never cease to expect better things to come.

But there was an unexpected twist of event. Hardly two weeks later, came an official from the multinational company to my hostel. He was a bearer of good news that one of the two successful candidates had failed his medical check-up. Would I accept it or was I too proud to be just a stand-by? God works in mysterious ways. I did not win it but someone lost his chance by default. With little thought I made up my mind to go for it, knowing fully well that

‘I doubted if I should ever come back’

Accordingly, in early Sept 1956 I bade farewell to my parents, leaving behind a dream of the revered posts of an Al Azhar graduate and the prestigious position of a mining engineer. As Robert Frost said:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverging in a wood, and I,
I took one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
------------------------
I will end this posting with one saying that I learnt some 60 years ago, one that I do not expect to forget ever. It came from an early Islamic thinker/philosopher (before Imam AlGhazali), Yahya ibn Muaz Al Razi. He once said:

Yahya Ibn Muaz Al Razi

A person who truly understands and knows who and what he is, is indeed, one who knows who his Creator is.

Today I know better who and what I am, my weaknesses, strengths, failures, successes and how I have been led from one path to another less traveled one; and I think I know HIM better.

And today whenever I raise my two hands, I never fail to say in whatever little Arabic that I learnt sixty years ago, “My God. I thank You for the very life You have given me, and for giving me a wife, children, sustenance, knowledge ………”

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Pakcik reminisces (Pt 17 – Sec 1/2)) – The road not taken

2011-04-28T00:41:00.005+08:00

I do not remember when was the first time I came across Robert Frost’s poem ‘The road not taken’. It was certainly during my school days. I thought it was a beautiful, but at a young age I could not grasp the full implication of the poem. A few years back this short poem was included in the secondary school English text book. The short poem reads:

The Road Not Taken
--------------
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back,

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverging in a wood, and I,
I took one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

( By Robert Frost )
---------------------

And now so much water has flowed under the bridge. I have begun to see this poem in a new dimension. On a long journey through life one is bound to encounter ‘two roads diverging in the wood’. And more often than not we make our selection almost subconsciously. So whenever I stood to explain this poem to Almanar children I reflected on my own journey and could not help feeling tears well up in my eyes.

In my earlier posting I moaned over the five individuals in the picture below:

The 1952 school librarians

Today only one person still remains standing. The other four, all respected ‘ustaz’ in their own right, have left (Alfatihah to them). The last one to have left us was Ustaz Abdul Malek, who served as the Imam of Sydney mosque. He came from the well known ‘AlYunani’ family of Terengganu.

Looking at the above picture does not only bring me back to a distant, happy and care-free moment in time but also to a point in time which represented a corner stone, a very significant landmark in my life.

The picture was taken in 1952 ,our final year, the 7th year, at the Madrasah Sultan Zainal Abidin (MSZA). The five of us were appointed to be the first batch of librarians of the new school library. In age I was the youngest in that class because during the first four years at the school I was double-promoted twice. So by the time I reached Std 7 in 1952 I was two years younger than my classmates. All the same, many of us had something in common, A DREAM. We aspired to go for further studies at the celebrated Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Without exaggeration, many prominent Islamic scholars in the state, practically all the state ‘mufti’, ‘kadi’ etc, were the products of MSZA. This included the longest serving Menteri Besar of Terengganu, Tan Sri Hj Wan Mokhtar Ahmad.

About the time I was stepping into my final year at MSZA in 1952 my elder brother injected a fresh idea into my mind. At that point in time the idea was seen as a minor diversion from the original plan to go to Cairo immediately after MSZA. Having himself done a course in Islamic studies in Saudi Arabia, and regarded as the wiser one in our family, he felt that I should learn more English before going all out for the Arabic/Islamic education in Cairo – delaying the trip to Cairo somewhat.

Perhaps I should mention here that in 1953 there was only one Government English School in K Terenganu ( Sultan Sulaiman English School – SSES) to serve the whole state of Terengganu. There was a private English school which offered evening classes..

1952 & 1953 diary

1952 diary - ( Feb 2nd, the Federation Day - a public holiday)

My 1952 and 1953 diaries are in a pitiful state, faded and damaged by silver-fish. Nevertheless the 1952 diary had it recorded that in the evening of Friday, Jan 4th I joined the evening class at the private school. This date marked the starting point from where my English education was beginning to be taken more seriously.

Who was I to know that Friday Jan 4th 1952 was a fateful date. Unconsciously I had made a choice between the two diverging roads.
I repeat:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverging in a wood, and I,
I took one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

------------------------

To be continued …

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

VISITORS’ CORNER ( P.1) – Opening page - ninotaziz

2011-04-22T22:12:00.003+08:00

VISITORS' CORNER

For quite a while I have been thinking of introducing space in this blog for a visitor to address other visitors on a subject which is not quite relevant to any particular entry. For instance one may wish to share certain information or announcement. It may be in the form of a short entry. This is Pakcik’s first thought which I would invite my dear visitors to comment on. The main idea is to make Almanar site more interactive.

It is coincidental that a request for information has come from one of our frequent visitors/contributors, ‘ninotaziz’. She has a request to make and I am at a loss to help.

“Dear Pakcik,

I hope you can forgive my begging for assistance here. I know it is not very suitable...but I am calling out to anyone who remembers or have access to the old legend Syair Dandan Setia. Not the movie. I am drawing a blank wall.

I have bits and pieces. Major questions are ...

WHo was his father - Raja Merembat? Mother? Permaisuri Lela Mengerna?

Was he from Negeri Dendam Berahi?

Who gave birth to Intan Terpilih after eating the pomergranate that fell from the heavens?

Who was Dandan Setia's first wife?

How did Intan Terpilih become fair again - she was reborn pitch black skinned?

When and how did Dandan Setia win Intan terpilih back?”

=============

So here is an example of one use of our new VISITORS’ CORNER
Please someone, come to ninotaziz's rescue, giving her the information or a lead somewhere for her to get it. Thank you.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Pakcik reminisces ( Pt 16 ) - Durian semusim gugur semusim

2011-04-21T01:11:00.012+08:00

One afternoon early this month, having no Almanar class to conduct, Pakcik decided to sit and go through a small box of treasured ‘junks’. Among some old letters I stumbled on one handwritten letter in jawi script dated 4th Sept 2003 – more than SEVENTEEN years ago. It came all the way from Sydney and was signed by Abdul Malek Yusuf.

The letter began with: “ Azizil akhil ustaz Hj Hassan Abdul Karim ………….”

( My dear friend ustaz Hj Hassan Abdul Karim …..” ( Click on the letter below to enlarge.)

Enclosed inside the same envelope was a photograph, obviously taken in a photo studio, showing five young boys dressed in all-white school uniform. The accompanying letter said that the photo was taken way back in 1952 – more than SIXTY years ago.

Seeing the photograph my memory flashed way, way back to the distant past. I could see a school library which had just been officially opened with the five boys appointed to be the first group of school librarians.

Then I had an idea that this could be a subject of my next posting. With that thought in mind I had the letter and photograph placed temporarily on one table.

--------------------------

On April 9th Pakcik had my second posting on durian tree and what it symbolised to me. Among the first few visitors was an anonymous who left a message saying, “ I just heard the news that your friend Ustaz Absul Malek (in Sydney) telah kembali ke rahmatullah. Al Fatihah”

That brief message truly shocked me, coming so soon after I had just read his letter and seen the very old picture which he chose to me, for safe keeping perhaps. From my responses in the following days visitors might have sensed my mood.

I am ever so grateful to Ninotaziz who, in her typically unique style, chose to leave the following short poem, to which I immediately responded in my amateurish way.

Ninotaziz wrote:

Pomegranates lie in wait
From the precarious moment
Its seed germinates
Such is life’s momentum

From birth to blossoms
Bearing fruits in service
Until the earth welcomes
Newly scattered seeds

Seeds of awareness.

Xxxxxxxx

Pakcik's response:

Hamba berdoa
Hamba memohon
Harapnya berbunga
Sebatang pohon

Biarpun tak berbau
Tak berwarna bunganya
Yang hamba rayu
Buahnya berguna

Harimau dan Manusia
Belang dan nama
Semuanya
Apalah guna

Kepada Mu Tuhan ku
Aku memohon
Dosa nya dosa ku
Semoga diampun

--------------------------

I was then looking again at the old photograph. Ustaz Abdul Malek sat on the left and Pakcik stood on the right.

What made me especially sad then?

Of the five in the picture, Pakcik ALONE remains the only durian of that season, hanging on precariously from a branch.

Now I say Alfatihah to the fallen ones – will be joining them in due course, for sure. Durian seasons come and go ….. and the ‘good word’ (of my earlier posting) is Lailaha illallah.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhn untuk kemanusiaan

-----------------------

P/s:
1) I hope, in my next posting, I will be able to write more of my reminiscence related to the picture of the five young boys; and why Pakcik was strangely addressed as ‘ustaz’. Did I habitually have a white cap on my head?

2) Coincidentally, yesterday I made another 500 km drive to this kampong because of an unexpected death in the family. So I am Here again waiting for the last few durians of the season to fall.

A Map of Trengganu

2011-04-13T22:51:00.009+08:00

A Map of Trengganu – watch the spelling

This is a new book by Wan Hulaimi a.k.a. Awang Goneng, a book which should be owned and read by many who enjoy his weekly column in NST every Sunday, and his blog, Kecek-kecek

I admire a person for his ability which is beyond my reach. For instance, I would look with awe at a person who is head and shoulder towering above me. Wan Hulaimi has a way with words. In Terengganuspeak I say ‘ macang maing buwoh guling’ (like playing with marbles). And I would also say he is a ‘loyar burok’ (a lawyer good in spinning). You see, by his own admission, he picked up his Law degree scroll from the office of the Registrar of the famed London School of Economics ( mind you, just a ‘school’, not quite the taraf antara bangsa ‘universiti’ we have many in Malaysia). That happened one night when the door of the Registrar’s office was left open!

I have a close friend who reads Wan Hulaimi’s weekly column. At times this friend moaned over his difficulty trying to make sense what Wan Hulaimi wrote when the latter casually dropped a name or an event. In response I would question my friend with an air of superiority – just for him- what did he think he was when I myself – ha ha - would need nothing less than the whole set of Britannica to check the famous name or event referred to by this columnist.

Awang Goneng dropped by our house one day when he was in Terengganu launching his Growing Up In Trengganu. Before he left he kindly offered to give my Almanar pupils a session on creative writing. My goodness, I nearly told him I needed that for myself more than for those children.

That is a glimpse of the writer I know. He is skilled in an area which I am lacking, hence my awe and admiration. To have a preview of the book before you go rushing to spend your last ringgit and curse Pakcik at the end of it, have a look at the following few pages of that book.

http://www.monsoonbooks.com.sg/downloads/ch1-0854317.pdf

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

Moment to Reflect (Pt 4) - What’s in a durian tree, after all?

2011-04-09T14:52:00.012+08:00

Look at the height of one older than Rayyan's granpa.

Rayyan dwarfed against the giant tree

Looking at the picture of the durian tree in Pakcik’s last posting, we cannot but wonder in awe at its size, its height, its total strength and age. The presence of that little boy, Rayyan, standing at the foot of the tree should help our imagination of its immensity. And casually I remarked that the tree was ‘older than Rayyan’s grandpa’. The grandfather of my other half, who planted the tree, probably lived long enough to taste the fruit of his work. But I cannot help feeling that his real reason was to leave something for the benefit of his younger generations, more than for himself. To-date four generations have benefited and this may not yet be the end. As I reflect on nature, the like of the surf, the sea, the coconut trees and so on which I have posted, I cannot help thinking of a beautiful parable in the Quran. Verse 24 of Surah Ibrahim says:

Surah Ibrahim - ayat 24

Sayyid Abdul A’la Mawdudi gave the following understanding: “ Do you not see how Allah given the example of a good word? It is like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and whose branches reach the sky.” This is followed by the following verse (25):

Surah Ibrahim - ayat 25

Mawdudi’s understanding: “ Ever yielding its fruit in every season with the leave of its Lord. Allah gives examples for mankind that they may take heed.”

In his explanatory note, Prof Dr Hamka explained that the ‘good word’ is ISLAM itself which is built on the tree, the fundamental ‘LA ILAHI ILLALLAH.’

Mawdudi went a long way to explain verse 25 by saying: " 'The good word' is so highly productive that, were individuals or groups of people to base their lives on it, they will continually benefit from the good results ensuing from it. For it brings about clarity in thought, stability in attitude ………justice and compassion in economy, honesty in politics, magnanimity in war, sincerity in peace, and faithfulness in covenant. Like Midas, everything that it touches turns into gold.”

-------------------------

A large durian tree, that bears fruit season after season, is not known in the Arab world. Yet its likeness is described in Quran – as a parable which ought to be better understood by us than the Arabs, and be put into practice as well. Let us reflect for a moment. Suhanallah.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

Midnight bombing?

2011-04-05T17:56:00.015+08:00

This true story happened a week ago when I was 500 km away from my home in Terengganu, having driven that day all alone and non-stop. I was to be with my other half who was in her kampong helping to nurse her aged mother of nearly ninety. Not feeling that tired I sat watching Ajazeera. The time was midnight. They were showing bombing ecenes in Algeria. It was then the sound of a heavy thud coming from outside myhouse interrupted me – a bomb! Almost at the same time Makcik’s voice rang clear, “ Ada jatuh, babah!” – meant for me of course, happened to be the only able-bodied male in the house at that moment. I picked up the torch-light, put on a pair of Wellington boots and out I went out of the house into the darkness. A short search and there it was a big durian half stuck in the soft ground. The wind was blowing slightly, slowly shaking the branches of huge, tall durian trees around the house, each old tree about the height of four-storey building. Within a period of about two hours I picked up EIGHT huge fruit. It did occur to me what if one of these ‘bombs’ chose to land on one’s head? But I have not yet heard of one such incident.

Grand-son, Rayyan has found one - too heavy to lift

Rayyan dwarfed against the giant tree

Look at the height of one older than Rayyan's granpa.

The eight I gathered that midnight

So that mid-night I struggled to open freshly fallen durians for the the mid-night feast.

Just from one fruit. Can you finish this or open another?

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Water project in Algeria

2011-04-02T22:36:00.011+08:00

In my posting ‘With a sigh (pt 6)” I mentioned about the water project in Algeria. This point was picked up by Awang Goneng, who left the following comment that has led me to a blog which offers very interesting read on current affairs not likely found in normal western media:

“Dear Abang Ngah, Funny you mentioned the water project in Algeria. Go to the link below and be surprised: http://poorrichards-blog.blogspot.com/2011/03/virtually-unknown-in-west-libyas-water.html#comments
But they've probably bombed it all now.”

I am very pleased to have the ‘poorrichards’ blog in my ‘favourites'. I recommend my visitors a visit to poorrichards.

Thank you Mi.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

It’s Weird

2011-03-31T00:23:00.014+08:00

Yesterday morning I heard over tv of another quake in Japan, a smaller one. The bottom of the sea must have gone crazy, cracking and sending vibrations through its mass of water. And here things are truly weird. Monsoon ended over a month ago. End of March ought to see calm sea ready for ‘sotong’ season. But the poor fishermen have not been out to sea for a couple of weeks. ‘Aroh derah’ (the current is strong) they told me. Indeed the sea is unusually rough for this time of the year. Look at the picture I took yesterday afternoon. With the grey looking sea, the dark clouds threatening, it was a frightening to stand on the beach by yourself.

What colour is the sea when it is angry with the sky threatening to crash down?

If that is not enough, we have had a few days of continuous rain. A few days ago we had the second flood in two weeks – floods in March? Yesterday, after hearing about flood entering a friend's Makcik and Pakcik paid him anf family a visit. What a sight to see the ground floor of the house located in a small housing area right in the middle of this beautiful city of the global fame Monsoon Cup. Makcik and Pakcik were invited into the house WITH our shoes on! What a sight it was when the beauticully tiled floor we were familiar with was still partly covered in patches of mud. My friends showed me the pictures he took of his house under water.

The road between the houses

In front of the entrance

The sitting room

In the kitchen

The famous city of Kuala Terengganu is a city by the sea and this friend’s house is just over a kilometer away from the famous Batu Buruk ( Rotten Rock ) beach fronting the vast, open South China Sea. And this city cannot find a solution to drain itself dry of a small flood! My friend and wife spent two days cleaning their house of the mud left by the mini flood. And to think this had already happened a few years earlier.

We can only hope and pray that we would not have to go through anything the like of what the Japanese have just gone through.

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P/S; A Note from Awang Goneng.

Just before posting this Pakcik received from Wan Ahmad Hulaimi a.k.a. Awang Goneng in London, an email, specifically personal but with a short note on the latest position of his second book which many have been looking forward to. Here it goes and enjoy the first 27 pages. "My second book on Trengganu, A Map of Trengganu, has come out in Singapore but Malaysians will have to wait until the week of the KL Bookfair end of April. If you'd like to read the first 27 pages, here's where to go: http://www.monsoonbooks.com.sg/downloads/ch1-0854317.pdf"

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Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanuiaan

Terima kasih

2011-03-26T23:55:00.009+08:00

I was about 500 km away from Kuala Terengganu when a call came through on my hand-phone. It was noon on 23rd March; the day SPM results were announced.

“ Ini Syami, Pakcik. Terima kasih Pakcik. Saya dapat semua A”, the boy’s voice came through. I could imagine a broad smile on his face. As if that was not enough I still put in a question, “How about the grade for GCE English?”

“Itu saya dapat 1A.” That satisfied me. ( Many would get A+ for the SPM English but not necessarily 1A under GCE marking, which is more meaningful to Pakcik )

This is the time of the year I can hope to share the joy of my ex Almanar pupils, those who have managed to take in all the scolding during their basic three years at secondary school level and strived forwards.

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I returned home yesterday. And this morning three boys stayed to wait in my house until I finished a class at Almanar, across the road. I was pleased to see the cheerful faces of these three boys.

Right to left: Syami (9 As), Faiz (4As) and Azrol (8As)

At least the few boys I have at Almanar can perform no less. The girls would probably come later to make merry or moan. But these three boys, from deserving families, give me enough reason to put in a quick posting. Syami is the first in his family to be tutored at Almanar, Faiz and Azrol the third in their respective families, their elders being undergraduates at various universities, one of whom is finishing dentistry in Bandung.

A note to my ex Almanar pupils:
I congratulate you all and wish you the best. This is just the beginning. To those who have not performed satisfactorily,Pakcik would remind you that this is not the end of the world. I will always offer you a shoulder to cry on. Come over and we will discuss what we can do next.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

With a sigh ( Pt 6 ) – of different kind

2011-03-20T19:52:00.007+08:00

It saddened me to no end to hear of the UN decision on the no-fly zone involving military actions in Libya, short of ground invasion. I am no political analyst, least of all of world affairs. Perhaps I should rightly be blamed for viewing the scenerio from one narrow perspective – Arab world’s inability to correct itself; and these countries are among the world richest in natural resources! America, France and Britain are the main players. Little is highlighted of the views expressed by Russia and China.

How convenient it is to act hastily just because the Arabs themselves have asked for it!

Have we forgotten that easily the Iraq invasion and the number killed? Have we forgotten that easily the number of Muslim Bosnians slaughtered and the length of time taken before a corrective action was taken? Have we forgotten that easily how many Palestinians have been killed and are continued to be killed? Do we put aside the problems faced by persons with Muslim names applying for visa into America, and how many have been denied? Do we forget that easily how the French made sure the Muslim women do not have the freedom to dress the way the want?

Kita cepat lupa.

Members of Arab League want the Western powers to solve the problem within another Arab country – no matter what it takes because the Muslims themselves have failed!

Once, as a young boy, I was taught a saying of our great Prophet.

The greatest of all prophets drew an analogy of the relationship between a Muslim and another Muslim as a building in which different parts strengthen one another. The All-Knowing chose an Arab to be the greatest prophet and the holy Quran in Arabic. Do we not wonder why?

The long and short of it, we have failed.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

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P/S:

Nearly twenty years ago I had a first hand story, from a very senior European engineer working in Algeria, of a fantastic unground river project for irrigation purposes. A super power was trying to spin it as a underground atomic project! The hatred for that man in Algeria began long long ago. Orang mengantuk disorong bantal.

Moment to Reflect (Pt 3) - The sea! What’s happened?

2011-03-12T13:36:00.011+08:00

Yesterday morning when I opened our bedroom window the sight of the sea caught my attention. “ The sea! What’s happened?” I half exclaimed to ask myself.

The surface of the sea was very unusually dark, almost black, with strange formation of waves on its surface under the dark threatening sky. But I brushed what I saw aside, making belief it was just one of those things.

It was almost at the end of day yesterday when I happened to switch on Aljazeera and watched with horror the tsunami scene in Japan. Quickly I took a look at the sea and saw exceptionally heavy sea with wind blowing hard. That should not be so yesterday when the Chinese New had already signalled the end of our monsoon. Later I received a couple of calls telling me that the police had been advising people to be on the alert following the tsunami in Japan. With my other half away for a few days, here I was all alone in a house by the sea.

Second day

I spent the night, praying that I would not be awakened to hear the sound of water surrounding Nuri ( rumahku cahaya hatiku.)

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Regetting that I did not have the presence of mind to capture the sea ywsterday, I decided mkr good today. The sea has not quite turned to normal but nothing like it was yesterday. A fisherman hanging around the beach, unable to go out, remarked that yesterday’s high tide was exceptionally high. I do not think he knew what had likely triggered the condition. I made no attempt to explain.

Second day

/>

Back in my room with my lap top I began to draft this. Lines from AlQuran began to drift by - 'mauj; pl amwaj - wave, surge of the sea' . THey are quoted not less than seven times in Al Quran. In particular I am reminded of an ayat in Surah Hud ( Ayat 42 of Surah 11):

Abdallah Yousuf Ali had the following understanding: “ So the Ark floated with them on the waves (towering) like mountains …..” Yes, it relates to Noah’s Ark, the story that many of us have heard over and over again.

I wonder are ‘the waves (towering) like mountains’ reflect what we today know as tsunami? Wallahu A’lam. The Holy Book has many things way ahead of time and it is not subject to time dimension, one of its miracles. Stop for one brief moment to reflect - Subhanallah.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan

With a sigh ( Pt 5 – sec III) – Awang Goneng’s Comments

2011-03-09T12:55:00.005+08:00

( C ) Of reading books Vs
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How right Awang Goneng is. He said ‘hold on tight’
‘They probably don't read a book in a week because of tiredness and minyak Cap Kapak (for the aching limbs)’

I know, by comparison with children in other big towns, how much love for reading is among the children in my part of the country. I look at the library of a club in Kuala Lumpur and marvel at the large number of members’ children busy returning and borrowing books, each with more than one copy in hand. I visit the beautiful library of my famed bandaraya and can only draw my famous sigh at the pathetic scene.

The so-called ‘c-cafés’ are found in all the corners of my neighbourhood. They exist even in the midst of low cost housing estates. There is money to be made and the operators have no qualm over the damage their private enterprise does to the young kids. It is a common sight to see children from primary schools spending whatever little pocket money they have at these places, sometimes during school hours. Here I would like to relate a case involving a young brother of a pupil at Almanar.

One day a Form 2 pupil moaned over his failure to persuade his Form 1 younger brother to attend tuition class at Almanar, being so hooked up on computer games with friends. Whatever few cents he receives every morning from his single mother, who worked as a helper in a teacher’s home to supplement the small monthly allowance from Social and Welfare Department, would be spent on computer games. Not enough, the boy worked part-time helping to do the dishes at a food-stall nearby, just to earn a few ringgits, all for the computer games.

And now this rich state is applauded for having started distributing computers to school children. I would have thought the students at the universities ( of ‘taraf anatara bansa’, no doubt) have greater needs for them.
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We have three desk tops at Almanar for children to work on. Of late I have to begin tight control over these computers after realising that, among other things, the computers were on to provide ‘music while you work’ - working indeed! Furthermore, seeing the many prohibited items sold at ‘pasar malam’, I fear other uses/misuses of our computers; these are not unlikely hearing what the children have been saying to Pakcik. They are a clever lot on the novel uses of computers and hand-phone with cameras. These young kids are one up on Pakcik on taking pictures and sharing them through friends’ hand-phones. I only know how to operate a less-than-one-hundred ringgit Nokia, which is complicated enough for me. One day a boy confided that he had just received a picture of xxxxx through his hand phone. The subject was a known pupil of the same school! In fact the pleasure of sharing such pictures is common among his friends, girls no exception. I shuddered at the disclosure.

In short, who wants to read books which takes ages to read and understand when a computer can give all the things one needs without having a stack of reference books to page through.
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Of ‘tiredness and minyak cap lapak’, I think ‘minyak cap rimaa’ is better.

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Sebagai akhir kalam, Pakcik would like to apologise if dear readers, especially teachers, do not share the views expressed above.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan.

With a sigh ( Pt 5 – sec II) – Awang Goneng’s Comments

2011-03-04T20:23:00.014+08:00

In this second section, as promised, I will express my personal opinion on three areas contained in Awang Goneng’s newspaper column and the comment he left for Pakcik.

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(a) Of methodology

It saddens me whenever I find teachers believing that, firstly, ‘methodology’ is the tool without which teaching is meaningless and, secondly, knowing ‘exam format’ is of necessity to score good results. The business of teaching by old methods and the use of old proven reference and text books are looked upon with disdain. For the lack of these necessities I was once belittled. I relish the thought of relating in brief the occasion I was spoken of as an individual unqualified to teach.

Some time ago a secondary school, headed by a new principle with brilliant ideas, decided to introduce an ‘elite group’ in Form Three. Naturally, the group was made up of the top performers of the previous year’s Form 2 exam. The aim was, of course, the typical number game, to achieve greater number of top scorers in the PMR exam at the end of the year.

Together with their parents, about fifteen pupils with potential to satisfy the thirst for excellent results were called for a special briefing by the principle to mark and publicise the launching of this special 'elite' plan. Among the many steps to be taken for this special group – (never mind the bulk of other Form Three pupils numbering not less than three hundred) – many extra classes and special ‘camps’ would be arranged. It so happened that most of these selected pupils had been attending tuition classes at Almanar steadfastly for two years. Many of them were average performers when, two years earlier, they began their Form One at the school.

During the question time that followed, a father of one of the pupils, the top performer in that group, stood up to make an appeal that, whilst the many extra classes planned for the 'elite' group were appereciated, he hoped that his son and his friends would still have time to continue attending tuition classes at Almanar as they had been doing so for so long. In response to that appeal a senior official of the school proudly declared, in the presence of his boss, that Pakcik of Almanar was nothing more than an x-x-x- , not a qualified teacher by profession, and as such, was unlikely to be familiar with the methodology and exam format required to help pupils perform well in the exam, full stop.

The above father was so disgusted with the derogatory remarks uttered that he decided to call on Pakcik at the end of the day to relate the incident, and to say how sorry he was over the stance shown against Pakcik of Almanar. He was more than convinced that his son with 2A,2B and 1C ( the 'C' was in English) would not have progressed that far over the two years without some help from Almanar. (Incidentally the boy continued to get ‘A’ in English, Maths and Science subjects in his PMR through to SPM.)

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(b) Of extra-mural activities

Of the ‘extra-mural activities’ mentioned by Awang Goneng I have to admit belonging to the old school. My advice to pupils is to enjoy whichever games they like but never at the excessive of their studies. If it is just reading they like, by all means, so be it. But these days one is almost literally forced to take up extr-mural activities under the threat of not getting into a university without the precious 10% points – a must even if one fails in all the academic subjects which account for 90%! Pakcik would probably be a fisherman today as a punishment for getting 0% points in extra-mural activities more than half a century ago when my buddies played soccer bare-footed.

Now let us see what has become of tuition class at Almanar on a sports day.

Yesterday was a record day for Almanar. It was sports day at school and I did not know it. Children were required to attend - or be punished, so I was given to believe. As a result we had a record of ONE pupil who turned up at Almanar for Form 1 tuition class! But that was not all because the one who turned up was a boy, hence another record , 100% male!

Now who is this boy, so brave to absent himself from the school sports?

He is the third, the youngest, of three brothers in a family. His two elder brothers attended Almanar, obtained all the As they wanted in their PMR and SPM exams and are now in universities. And this little brother, in my assessment, has the highest potential of the three. I found it my duty to teach him yesterday and I did it with great pleasure ; he was so much like my own grandchildren. I think, Insya Allah, this boy will perform no less than his two successful elders.
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To be continued.

Berkhidmat kerana Tuhan untuk kemanusiaan