Wednesday, January 31, 2007
On the Train, Oct 31, 2005
The train is almost empty and quiet this morning. To think about it this is something I secretly love. There is something in its emptiness, so quiet minus the usual hassle and bustle of city life. A pleasant moment if you want to think. A pleasant moment if you want to doze off as well. LOL. The effect was nostalgic to me and I could help myself from thinking about the old days. As we came into the KL Sentral the atmosphere was so obvious except for a few ‘leftovers’ like me. KLlites are going home for the Deepavali and Hari Raya celebrations. It was not as bad as a few years ago when we were celebrating back-to-back Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. KL then was really empty. That’s what major celebration would do to a city like KL. For us, this is the time to be with our family members and no matter how strong you are, come the big day you will be lonely and homesick if you were alone. It is a pity some of my friends who are overseas now. All my life I had celebrated three Hari Raya alone away from the family. Twice during my school days in boarding school, once when it was too far and costly for me to go home and the following year because I was sitting for my MCE which was immediately after Hari Raya, just like my son now. The third occasion when I was studying in US. What held me together and in one piece during those times were the friendship of my friends and the community. Friends and community do play an important role in our life and no body can deny that. Heck! It is important for knowledge management now. It is not that it’s not has been but only now the realization of its importance in knowledge management.
Managing Discontinuity
Recently my friend who had just came back from KM Asia 2005 shared with that that the trend is shifting from managing continuity and discontinuity. What my friend meant was, using her words,
‘Most organisations spent tremendous effort and investment in building the infrastructure for knowledge, which at the end it becomes more like a routine process of coding, capturing and storing knowledge. But, how much of these knowledge are really useful for the organisation ultimately? How do we know the quality of our tacit knowledge? What is the real value of building KM tools based on yesterday's information?’
To me both have its merit. In order to have KM happening in any organization IM (Information Management) has to be there first. When they talked about capturing, coding and storing to me they are talking more of IM rather then KM perse and there is a very thin line separating these two now. I believe this is still the struggle in most organizations. The questions asked are valid. John Seeley Brown and Prusak also talked about intellectual and social capital where managing knowledge flow is even more crucial
‘Most organisations spent tremendous effort and investment in building the infrastructure for knowledge, which at the end it becomes more like a routine process of coding, capturing and storing knowledge. But, how much of these knowledge are really useful for the organisation ultimately? How do we know the quality of our tacit knowledge? What is the real value of building KM tools based on yesterday's information?’
To me both have its merit. In order to have KM happening in any organization IM (Information Management) has to be there first. When they talked about capturing, coding and storing to me they are talking more of IM rather then KM perse and there is a very thin line separating these two now. I believe this is still the struggle in most organizations. The questions asked are valid. John Seeley Brown and Prusak also talked about intellectual and social capital where managing knowledge flow is even more crucial
On The Train. Sept 9, 2005
I have had at least four buns while waiting four the train at Bangi station. But still I ordered Big Breakfast at the McD at KL Sentral. Again I chose McD not so much because of the food but I need a coffe and a good place to ‘view. The was what I did, ‘viewing’ people coming up and down from the kommuter station below. I just love watching the ‘happenings’ in front of me. I saw at least the same number of commuters at the station and there isn’t any sign to say that the number has increase yet despite the recent increase in the oil price.
The train was late this morning and the same usual reason was announced, ‘technical problem’. What technical problem I am not sure but I am beginning to think that ‘technical problem’ means just about any problem faced by KTM. They do not have a better reason to give for a late service. I guess the management of KTMB one day just sat for a meeting and decided unanimously to use ‘technical problem’ as the main and only counter measure for delays. ‘ Ok any delay we just say ‘technical problem. Anyone for it say aye! Aye!!! Yelled everyone and it was accepted by everyone. I won’t be surprised if this really been minuted somewhere in their meeting minutes.
The train was late this morning and the same usual reason was announced, ‘technical problem’. What technical problem I am not sure but I am beginning to think that ‘technical problem’ means just about any problem faced by KTM. They do not have a better reason to give for a late service. I guess the management of KTMB one day just sat for a meeting and decided unanimously to use ‘technical problem’ as the main and only counter measure for delays. ‘ Ok any delay we just say ‘technical problem. Anyone for it say aye! Aye!!! Yelled everyone and it was accepted by everyone. I won’t be surprised if this really been minuted somewhere in their meeting minutes.
On The Train, Sept 27, 2005 – Unreliable
The commuter service has been unreliable in the morning lately. Today I had to wait until 0702 hr for my normal train that supposed to come at 0647 hr. I just could not understand why these delays? This morning alone I heard a lot of commuters were cursing KTMB because they would be late for work and I would not blame them for doing what they did. Most of them have the same view that KTMB just couldn’t careless whether we are late for work or not. This is sad, even some of them admitted if there were an express bus service for them as an option they would have gladly say bye bye to KTMB. If only KTMB knew what they do not know…
Not on The Train, Sept 12, 2005 – Tg Jara Resorts
I arrived at Tg Jara Resorts from Kuantan at noon yesterday and immediately was introduced to tranquility that I have missed for quite sometimes. The moment I entered my room I knew this is the best place for me to think and write. The Kampong style environment with good facilities came to no surprise when I got to know it is an award wining resorts. After reading about it I now know why my wife really wanted to come here. It will be a week of LDP for me here and I am very sure I am going to enjoy this place. My wife will go berserk if she read this and even though it is a bit pricy one day I am going to take her here for our umpteen honeymoons. In KM terms I consider this place as the best environment for KM type activities especially knowledge sharing through storytelling. My decision not to bring my camera is a big mistake I should have known better despite my wanting to limit the size of my luggage.
On The Train, Aug. 12, 2005
The haze was better this morning. It was the worst so far yesterday where the API recorded at 429 in KL at 11am and 295 at 5pm. Klang and Kuala Selangor were declared as hazardous when both areas recorded above 500. So, I was really watching outside when I woke up this morning to see whether I need to go to work or not. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, it was a bit better than yesterday. As the children were not going to school, the state government announced that most schools in Klang Valley and effected areas to be closed for two days, I went out early to catch the 0633 train as I am going to the Renaissance. Obviously the station was a bit empty without the school children and I just barely made it.
Since I am heading for Renaissance I had to stop at KL Sentral and take a connecting Putra LRT to Dang Wangi. I got there at 0718 and decided to have breakfast first at Syida’s Café. I knew I made a wrong decision as soon as the meehon touched my lip. I should have just stuck to McD for a simple breakfast. At least I know what to expect. The lesson learnt was, it is good to be adventurous – to do out of the norm sometimes for the discovery but normality has its purpose. The same thing in KM – complexity is good so that we could allow certain natural thing forming but sometimes-simple form of doing the expected is necessary to ensure effectiveness.
I saw it the first time when I had to board the Putra LRT at KL Sentral to go to Nikko Hotel for a conference. On the platform were long lines of commuters waiting for the train. I said to myself, 'Ók there is hope for Malaysia. We are beginning to be a bit more civic about something.’ My hope disintegrated into the morning air when I saw the guards instructing people. But today I saw it with my own eyes; I saw the lines forming nicely and naturally without the guards around. Everyone was standing patiently waiting in lines for the train and later allowing the passengers to disembarked properly before boarding. I can tell you this is not going to happen anytime soon at any KTMB Kommuter stations. After so long of chaos I guess someone decided enough is enough and decided to forces order and put the guards to it. And now it became a norm. A good example on how you can change certain culture. But, I bet you being Malaysian, once in a while there will be idiots spoiling things. When I got to Dang Wangi I squeezed myself out of the packed train, put on my mask and walked up towards Renaissance. Another thing that I do not understand is that many of us still could not get the idea of standing on the left side allowing someone to pass on a deep escalator
Since I am heading for Renaissance I had to stop at KL Sentral and take a connecting Putra LRT to Dang Wangi. I got there at 0718 and decided to have breakfast first at Syida’s Café. I knew I made a wrong decision as soon as the meehon touched my lip. I should have just stuck to McD for a simple breakfast. At least I know what to expect. The lesson learnt was, it is good to be adventurous – to do out of the norm sometimes for the discovery but normality has its purpose. The same thing in KM – complexity is good so that we could allow certain natural thing forming but sometimes-simple form of doing the expected is necessary to ensure effectiveness.
I saw it the first time when I had to board the Putra LRT at KL Sentral to go to Nikko Hotel for a conference. On the platform were long lines of commuters waiting for the train. I said to myself, 'Ók there is hope for Malaysia. We are beginning to be a bit more civic about something.’ My hope disintegrated into the morning air when I saw the guards instructing people. But today I saw it with my own eyes; I saw the lines forming nicely and naturally without the guards around. Everyone was standing patiently waiting in lines for the train and later allowing the passengers to disembarked properly before boarding. I can tell you this is not going to happen anytime soon at any KTMB Kommuter stations. After so long of chaos I guess someone decided enough is enough and decided to forces order and put the guards to it. And now it became a norm. A good example on how you can change certain culture. But, I bet you being Malaysian, once in a while there will be idiots spoiling things. When I got to Dang Wangi I squeezed myself out of the packed train, put on my mask and walked up towards Renaissance. Another thing that I do not understand is that many of us still could not get the idea of standing on the left side allowing someone to pass on a deep escalator
On The Train, Aug. 11, 2005
I just could not believe that there are still a lot of Malaysians consider API of 325 lightly. I saw the majority of the commuters at the station were without their mask. It was so obvious what in the air with the surrounding so depressing to look at. The smell of smoke was obvious as well. I guess health is not a priority to most Malaysians. The train services somehow were delayed and the announcement later told me the delayed was due to the haze!!! I wondered aloud to as why??????? The train was of course a sardine can because of that. In KM term it means we have not learnt much from our past experience.
On The Plane, June 5-12, 2005
Another kangaroo trip for me and this time in Europe. One week in Europe is enough for me where the last leg was a bit unbearable for my body. Although it is consider summer now the weather is still around 13C and the wind and slight rain made it worse. In a week I would have been to London, Amsterdam, The Hague and Berlin in fact I just got in from Berlin and now holding out at Heathrow for my flight home. I got bored waiting and started to write this at the MAS Golden lounge. The trip as a whole has been successful and I should be writing a bit more on it when I get home. I have learned a lot from this trip and a quick lessons learnt.
- Europe is expensive
- Open space and office concept is a reality and it is all about human and change management
- Libraries in corporate environment are getting smaller
- Libraries could be very successful if you get the community fully involved
- Heathrow and Schipol airports are Muslim friendly facility wise
- Berlin is very interesting - new and modern buildings exist with the old nicely
- All the cities that I have been are very easy to navigate and the best way to explore them is on foot
- Asians and muslims are every where and halal food is easy to find
- Learning and knowledge sharing in oragnizations are big
On the Train, May 17, 2005
It was raining when I got on the train at Bank Negara station. The sky was already dark at 6.30pm and it got darker as we moved on. This created certain effect - a nice comfy and homely feeling in the coach. Although it was not raining as we went on, the sky got really dark and I am very sure a very heavy rain would follow soon. The surrounding, ambience, and coldness in the coach somehow took effect on most commuters as when I looked up from my reading I realized most of my fellow commuters were sleeping comfortably. They were sleeping peacefully like they were in their own bed. I just smiled to myself looking at them. I even heard somebody snoring at the back. It was really something – so homely as if I am close and knew everyone on the train. I could have, really…. INTUITION?
On The Train, May 6, 2005
Knowledge Accidents
I thought it was going to a usual Friday morning ride today but I was in for a very nice surprise. As I was sitting down when I got on at Bangi I saw somebody familiar through the left corner of my eye. I am very sure I know that person so I completely turned and sure enough there was Col Abd Razak, my super senior from my school days, sitting comfortably holding his business jacket. Although we were totally from different years and era we met few times through various activities. In short we are brothers. I straight away abandoned my seat and walked over to sit next to him. It was a nice surprise to find out that Colonel is actually staying at Taman Semarak Nilai that is quite close by to my place. You guess right what happen next... endless SDARA stories until both of us disembarked at Bank Negara station. Luckily we were not loud enough to control the whole coach. Colonel was actually meeting Yon, another friend, for a high-powered meeting in KL. In reflection I would have not had that opportunity if I were to drive and that is another good thing about train. In KM context this is a very good example of ‘knowledge accident’. Colleagues accidentally bump into one another and started to talk and share a lot of new insights. Most of the times these insights very much related and useful to both sides. For instance when Colonel talked about his mate it happen to be the very person that I have been trying to get in touch with. So, we have to create a lot of situations and spaces for knowledge accident to happen.
I thought it was going to a usual Friday morning ride today but I was in for a very nice surprise. As I was sitting down when I got on at Bangi I saw somebody familiar through the left corner of my eye. I am very sure I know that person so I completely turned and sure enough there was Col Abd Razak, my super senior from my school days, sitting comfortably holding his business jacket. Although we were totally from different years and era we met few times through various activities. In short we are brothers. I straight away abandoned my seat and walked over to sit next to him. It was a nice surprise to find out that Colonel is actually staying at Taman Semarak Nilai that is quite close by to my place. You guess right what happen next... endless SDARA stories until both of us disembarked at Bank Negara station. Luckily we were not loud enough to control the whole coach. Colonel was actually meeting Yon, another friend, for a high-powered meeting in KL. In reflection I would have not had that opportunity if I were to drive and that is another good thing about train. In KM context this is a very good example of ‘knowledge accident’. Colleagues accidentally bump into one another and started to talk and share a lot of new insights. Most of the times these insights very much related and useful to both sides. For instance when Colonel talked about his mate it happen to be the very person that I have been trying to get in touch with. So, we have to create a lot of situations and spaces for knowledge accident to happen.
Not that I do not have anything to write
Well! It has been for quite sometimes since I posted anything here and it is not because I have not written anything. It just that I have them written on my notebook (the old fashion notebook) with my famous 'worse than doctor’s' handwriting (sorry doctors). I have been busy as well and to get them typed is a challenge at the moment. So please bare with me for a while. Now, I am seriously looking at nice gadget to blog on the train.
On the Train, Apr. 5, 2005
(What you see may not be what you think it is)
The lady boarded the train at Mid Valley on my way home and her appearance told me she was a Malay lady. I was very sure of that and if I were a gambler it was a sure bet for me. Now I understand what it meant when Malcolm Gladwell describe this situation as priming. I was so focus on the obvious that my thought process was blinded and my brain made a conclusion that the lady was Malay. I completely ignored her dressing. The type of dress she was wearing and the way she tied her hair. When we got to Serdang she alighted and at the same time talking to her handphone a bit loud. What I heard actually stunned me to full attention; she spoke in a very fluent Cantonese. I looked up and watched her walked out in disbelieve. I should have known better to assume that she was Malay. In our society we could never assume race and religion by just one look. That reminded me of what KM is all about. Any body of knowledge would only be useful and properly shared if the context associated with that knowledge is right. In this case my judgment was based on appearance and made a decision based on the knowledge that I have associated with that appearance. My context was wrong.
The lady boarded the train at Mid Valley on my way home and her appearance told me she was a Malay lady. I was very sure of that and if I were a gambler it was a sure bet for me. Now I understand what it meant when Malcolm Gladwell describe this situation as priming. I was so focus on the obvious that my thought process was blinded and my brain made a conclusion that the lady was Malay. I completely ignored her dressing. The type of dress she was wearing and the way she tied her hair. When we got to Serdang she alighted and at the same time talking to her handphone a bit loud. What I heard actually stunned me to full attention; she spoke in a very fluent Cantonese. I looked up and watched her walked out in disbelieve. I should have known better to assume that she was Malay. In our society we could never assume race and religion by just one look. That reminded me of what KM is all about. Any body of knowledge would only be useful and properly shared if the context associated with that knowledge is right. In this case my judgment was based on appearance and made a decision based on the knowledge that I have associated with that appearance. My context was wrong.
On The Train, Mar 28, 2005
I just can feel it now that I am tired and wish that I am on leave. One whole day on the field yesterday that ended on a happy note for our team. Mior and I are coaching, if you can call it that, our under 15 football team. We were playing in the Bukit Mahkota/Bnadar Seri Putra closed U15 nine-a-side tournament organized by both communities. When the referee blew the final whistle and we won the final, by 4 – 0, I was so happy for the boys. I was not just happy because they won but more of being happy that we provide them an option to be confident, brave, creative, learning and live within a community instead of involving themselves in something negative. Frankly speaking I am a bit selfish in that sense. For if I do not have a 13 and 17 year old sons to worry about I may not involved actively coaching them. Now, I plan to continue guiding them playing football. Thanks to Mior, the players, both team A and B, and their parents for making all these possible. This is only the beginning to more good things.
I do not know why but I just love to see people coming and leaving for a long journey. Especially a train journey. I do nit mean I love goodbyes, farewells or things like that but just watching them with their activities and watching their faces with different kinds of expression gives me a good feeling. There are faces that show, ‘phew!, what a relieve finally we are here’. Faces with, ‘ok, what’s next?’ ‘Where are the guys that suppose to wait for me?’, ‘taxi! taxi! I need to find a taxi!’. I am writing this from my observation point, Mc Donald’ KL Sentral where I arrived about 20 minutes ago. I am waiting to join my colleagues at Sentral Hilton for a day KM Program. Actually our first KMO get together for the year. Of course I am watching train travellers come out from the platform with their bags. I just could not help but to say to myself, ‘when is our next train?’ Ever since we took the Langkawi Express we have not been to anywhere by train. A new set of office workers emerge now. These are people that clock in at 9 am rushing out of the KTM Komuter towards their next connecting transportation or straight walking to the office. Lovely sight and if for what ever reason everything scheduled for the day were cancelled I would have stayed there just observing. At 8.30 am I abandoned McDonald to walk to Sentral Hilton for our KM program.
On the way home after a tiring session of badminton I slouched lazily at my favorite seat. At KL Sentral boarded a woman and what seemed to me her daughter. But what caught my attention was the woman’s face that indicated tiredness beyond my condition. Her appearance gave an indication of a woman that had been working very hard on laborious tasks. I could imagine her pushing carts, washing things or mopping up the floor. I genuinely felt sorry for her. Despite her tiredness I observed certain kind of contentment in her voice when she spoke to her daughter. I was sure after getting down at Bandar Tasek Selatan she’s not going to sleep when she got home but to do more chores until everyone else has gone to bed. She’ll start early again the next day and continue the routine until her body could not take it anymore. All because of her family….
I do not know why but I just love to see people coming and leaving for a long journey. Especially a train journey. I do nit mean I love goodbyes, farewells or things like that but just watching them with their activities and watching their faces with different kinds of expression gives me a good feeling. There are faces that show, ‘phew!, what a relieve finally we are here’. Faces with, ‘ok, what’s next?’ ‘Where are the guys that suppose to wait for me?’, ‘taxi! taxi! I need to find a taxi!’. I am writing this from my observation point, Mc Donald’ KL Sentral where I arrived about 20 minutes ago. I am waiting to join my colleagues at Sentral Hilton for a day KM Program. Actually our first KMO get together for the year. Of course I am watching train travellers come out from the platform with their bags. I just could not help but to say to myself, ‘when is our next train?’ Ever since we took the Langkawi Express we have not been to anywhere by train. A new set of office workers emerge now. These are people that clock in at 9 am rushing out of the KTM Komuter towards their next connecting transportation or straight walking to the office. Lovely sight and if for what ever reason everything scheduled for the day were cancelled I would have stayed there just observing. At 8.30 am I abandoned McDonald to walk to Sentral Hilton for our KM program.
On the way home after a tiring session of badminton I slouched lazily at my favorite seat. At KL Sentral boarded a woman and what seemed to me her daughter. But what caught my attention was the woman’s face that indicated tiredness beyond my condition. Her appearance gave an indication of a woman that had been working very hard on laborious tasks. I could imagine her pushing carts, washing things or mopping up the floor. I genuinely felt sorry for her. Despite her tiredness I observed certain kind of contentment in her voice when she spoke to her daughter. I was sure after getting down at Bandar Tasek Selatan she’s not going to sleep when she got home but to do more chores until everyone else has gone to bed. She’ll start early again the next day and continue the routine until her body could not take it anymore. All because of her family….
Not On The Train, Mar 26, 2005
I was sitting in a café called Gallery Café at the Balai Seni Lukis Negara with my wife and daughter Fatimah Mardhiyah. We were there waiting for Kak Cik to finish her art class. My eyes were focused outside at the modern sculpture but I was not thinking about anything in particular. I just love watching the rain falling, especially through a clear glass window or door. Somehow, it brought something wonderful in me. Memories of growing up in Kuantan and enjoying a different set of life brought about by the rain. I still remember during the monsoon season when we were living at Bukit Galing Camp. The heavy downpour was too much to bear for most of us just to stand there and stare. We had to be part of the rain somehow. Despite our parents yelling at us not to play in the rain there we were on the field in front of our house enjoying the water. I enjoyed it so much then and now understand why certain heavy rain triggers my memory. The deep excitement was the trigger I set for myself. Sometimes during a monsoon season the rain would stop for a while before the pour continue. This rain ‘intermission’ was something we anxiously waiting for. For within that precious few minutes we would come out like we were attending a fancy dress party or parade. There we were in jackets, pullovers, several layers of shirts or t-shirts, and few creative fellows in sarong and army boots. Of course I turned out in full regalia for my puppy love, Yah. We used to sit in front of her house chit chatting and teasing each other. How sweet and innocent we were. I guess my dear wife saw me smiling while writing this.
If you observe carefully there are a lot of different things the rain brings about. I do not mean just the wet. Everything else change after the rain, the earth became fresh and cooling that bring about certain inviting pleasantness. All the trees and grass perk up with life. Depending on the time of the day you just see life emerge after the rain. Even us the human species turn out fresher and better after the rain. When I was in the boarding school rain meant a very good night sleep especially on weekends. It also, just like when I was in Kuantan, an invitation to fashion show. For some reasons all of us would turn out for prep in jackets, suits, sweaters, and even winter coats as if blizzard just came to Malaysia. I mean complete with mufflers, or as they say in the US scarf, and hats. For a few years I was in full army commando ‘celoreng’, courtesy of my father. The following year when I was a senior, form four, I moved up to sweater and blue denim jacket. Also, at the time I was the only guy in school that owned and wore a complete 50’s attire. My dad’s old outfit showcased and made to be a fashion again by his son. When I think about it now I must say we must be a very confuse lots…LOL.
What ever it is contrary to what other people think about the rain. I love it as it brings a lot of nice memories.
If you observe carefully there are a lot of different things the rain brings about. I do not mean just the wet. Everything else change after the rain, the earth became fresh and cooling that bring about certain inviting pleasantness. All the trees and grass perk up with life. Depending on the time of the day you just see life emerge after the rain. Even us the human species turn out fresher and better after the rain. When I was in the boarding school rain meant a very good night sleep especially on weekends. It also, just like when I was in Kuantan, an invitation to fashion show. For some reasons all of us would turn out for prep in jackets, suits, sweaters, and even winter coats as if blizzard just came to Malaysia. I mean complete with mufflers, or as they say in the US scarf, and hats. For a few years I was in full army commando ‘celoreng’, courtesy of my father. The following year when I was a senior, form four, I moved up to sweater and blue denim jacket. Also, at the time I was the only guy in school that owned and wore a complete 50’s attire. My dad’s old outfit showcased and made to be a fashion again by his son. When I think about it now I must say we must be a very confuse lots…LOL.
What ever it is contrary to what other people think about the rain. I love it as it brings a lot of nice memories.
On The Train, Mar. 24, 2005
'The Power On Intuition’ by Gary Klein was delivered to me today and I spent the rest of the journey home starting on it. I was so engrossed that I could not put it down until I reached Bangi. Of course I’ll share with you all when I have finish reading it. The world of knowledge management now has really moved towards finding the best ways to capture and transfer knowledge across boundaries. Almost everyone, if not talking about story telling, would be talking about social networks, some form of cognitive task analysis and narrative management to capture tacit knowledge for better decision making. What surprise me is even IT experts or figures like Karl Wiig and John Seeley-Brown (JSB) are also talking about this. JSB even went further to discuss the use of what he called as ‘social software’ like Wikis, Blogs and IMs. Interesting development indeed. When skeptics beginning to spell the demise of KM things got even more interesting. Opportunities for KM to be embedded into the work processes are tremendous now.
It started to rain heavily when the train was halfway between UKM and Bangi. I was caught by surprise
It started to rain heavily when the train was halfway between UKM and Bangi. I was caught by surprise
On The Train, Mar. 23, 2005
(Knowledge Management: A bit of Complexity Theory)
I just had my breakfast at the KL Sentral and went down to platform 5 to wait for the train to Subang Jaya. I was going to Sheraton Subang Jaya to learn about the new IBM offering on the Lotus products. I reached KL Sentral from Bangi at 7.33 am and decided to hang around there for a while as it was too early. I walked to the next level and was surprised to find that the Niles Bookstore was opened so early. I went in and stayed browsing for about 20 minutes. There were certain books that I was looking for that I wanted to buy but they were not there. I decided to have breakfast at KL Sentral but not because of the food but more to make sure I had something before I took the train to Subang Jaya. The Koay Teow that I had was lousy if you wanted to know.
It was 8.33 am when the train came and not many people boarded. I was sitting observing…no actually…absorbing the surrounding. I was actually trying to gauge the difference between this route and my daily route. I could not place any actually I guess it was more or less the same. The same habits and peculiarities. But what set me to think was the perception of out-towners. What would the people from outside of Selangor think about us when they observe us on the train? Probably a totally different perception that we have never think off. I mean to us things that we took for granted everyday could mean something else for them. In knowledge management theory this new environment would create a knowledge discovery for the person and if the person would share his or her perception with me I would have learn new perception out of the norm. I was in a ‘known’ quadrant according to Dave Snowden and to ‘jolt’ me to learn new perspective is to introduce ‘chaos’ in my schedule or thought process. This would force me to recreate my perspective and thus continue to learn. Not complacent or satisfy of my current achievement which was already obsolete few days ago. What I am saying is in order for us to continue to learn once in a while we have to introduce disturbance or chaos in our daily routine. Just as what I was experiencing while riding the train to Subang Jaya. A new set of knowledge were being created in my mind and at the same time I unlearnt certain things that use to be true to me. Confusing? That’s Complexity Theory 101 for you.
From the Subang Jaya Komuter Station I walked to Subang Sheraton. I decided to do that because it was not that far and furthermore I need to keep to my daily exercise schedule. Personally the event was a bit disappointment. Still there are enough things that I could learn. For example I learned that Maybank is embarking on their Corporate Portal project based on Learning Organization and KM strategy. Although I question by what they mean by KM nonetheless it was a good sign.
I was reading the Malay Mail on the way home when I came across the news where the parliament was said to be debating the issue of the validity of the train advertisement/courtesy campaign. Some of the MPs were arguing that it was a stereotype of depicting Malays having no manners and courtesy. It became a racial debate in the parliament the previous day. I just could not help smiling broadly reading the piece. The advertisement that they were debating was the one that I describe not so long ago. Remember the one that my friends joke that I was the character that refused to vacate his seat even to a blind man.
I just had my breakfast at the KL Sentral and went down to platform 5 to wait for the train to Subang Jaya. I was going to Sheraton Subang Jaya to learn about the new IBM offering on the Lotus products. I reached KL Sentral from Bangi at 7.33 am and decided to hang around there for a while as it was too early. I walked to the next level and was surprised to find that the Niles Bookstore was opened so early. I went in and stayed browsing for about 20 minutes. There were certain books that I was looking for that I wanted to buy but they were not there. I decided to have breakfast at KL Sentral but not because of the food but more to make sure I had something before I took the train to Subang Jaya. The Koay Teow that I had was lousy if you wanted to know.
It was 8.33 am when the train came and not many people boarded. I was sitting observing…no actually…absorbing the surrounding. I was actually trying to gauge the difference between this route and my daily route. I could not place any actually I guess it was more or less the same. The same habits and peculiarities. But what set me to think was the perception of out-towners. What would the people from outside of Selangor think about us when they observe us on the train? Probably a totally different perception that we have never think off. I mean to us things that we took for granted everyday could mean something else for them. In knowledge management theory this new environment would create a knowledge discovery for the person and if the person would share his or her perception with me I would have learn new perception out of the norm. I was in a ‘known’ quadrant according to Dave Snowden and to ‘jolt’ me to learn new perspective is to introduce ‘chaos’ in my schedule or thought process. This would force me to recreate my perspective and thus continue to learn. Not complacent or satisfy of my current achievement which was already obsolete few days ago. What I am saying is in order for us to continue to learn once in a while we have to introduce disturbance or chaos in our daily routine. Just as what I was experiencing while riding the train to Subang Jaya. A new set of knowledge were being created in my mind and at the same time I unlearnt certain things that use to be true to me. Confusing? That’s Complexity Theory 101 for you.
From the Subang Jaya Komuter Station I walked to Subang Sheraton. I decided to do that because it was not that far and furthermore I need to keep to my daily exercise schedule. Personally the event was a bit disappointment. Still there are enough things that I could learn. For example I learned that Maybank is embarking on their Corporate Portal project based on Learning Organization and KM strategy. Although I question by what they mean by KM nonetheless it was a good sign.
I was reading the Malay Mail on the way home when I came across the news where the parliament was said to be debating the issue of the validity of the train advertisement/courtesy campaign. Some of the MPs were arguing that it was a stereotype of depicting Malays having no manners and courtesy. It became a racial debate in the parliament the previous day. I just could not help smiling broadly reading the piece. The advertisement that they were debating was the one that I describe not so long ago. Remember the one that my friends joke that I was the character that refused to vacate his seat even to a blind man.
Not On The Train, April 6, 2005
(Knowledge Management Center)
We had to reorganize everyone’s schedule at home that morning all because I wanted to use the truck. The reason I was driving was because I had a Gala Dinner to go to that night.
I received an invitation to attend the 50 years Gala Dinner of the Persatuan Pustakawan Malaysia at Istana Hotel on Tuesday (April 5). I did not think much of the dinner because all the indications were saying that it would be just a normal dinner. I was in for a surprise. Yes, I know the possibility as our new Knowledge Management Center (KMC) had recently been assessed for the 2005 Library Excellent Awards but I was not convinced that we win anything. On personal note I actually did not mind not getting any award as at least I had had the chance to share my vision with the library community. However, if I considered what my colleagues had gone through to make the vision a reality I would fought tooth and nails to win. Just for my colleagues at the KMC. So, I was there at the dinner for ‘just in case’ as well.
It all started a couple of years ago when I started to talk about knowledge management. In most of my talks, and since I am part of the library community, I always emphasized and certainly believe that the library could be used or transformed to be more ‘knowledge centric’. To be a base for organization’s KM initiatives or programs. Only when I joined the Bank I had the opportunity to put my worth where my mouth is. So with my background and experience in KM I researched on the notion of space and the use of space for learning, and knowledge creation and sharing. I also knew without a proper process and first getting my colleagues to unlearn what they know about running a library it would be almost impossible to achieve what I had in mind. So I embarked on the initiatives firstly to explain what KM and what it means to a library. So we began to recreate ourselves and the way we do things by being more ‘knowledge centric’. Our work used to be collecting, processing and disseminating information but we never used what we know and the information that we processed as knowledge to our advantage. So ‘knowledge centric’ means making the information and knowledge work for us. We changed the way we handle our stakeholders by getting to know them better so as to provide improved services. We had the information on them all the while through various means just that they were left untapped within our systems and processes. With the knowledge of our stakeholder’s information behavior we rearranged the collection to make them more visible and easy to access. We give a proper meaning to all the statistics that we collected and we acted on them effectively. We started to share our experiences and continuously educate ourselves with new things. As soon as we are comfortable with the changes and new processes we began to think of the best way to transform the physical state of the place. This is where the concept of KM would really come in. We practically used the concept to recreate our layout and spaces within the library and get interior designers to translate our vision into reality. The final result is what we now called ‘knowledge spaces’. Space where our users could come to learn through various pedagogies, sharing knowledge with the help of the tools and environment and a space where knowledge accident could happen. In short an effective knowledge space for knowledge creation, use, reuse and sharing. This does not mean that the library collections and services are irrelevant. On the contrary they formed the core to our existence.
This is why I was at the Gala dinner and indeed when it was announced that I was to receive the award for KMC I was a bit surprise and of course glad. I walked carefully to the main stage to shake the hand of our Deputy PM first and then to receive the award from him. I was very please when I received it and the first thing that came to my mind was my colleagues at the KMC. They should have been here sharing the occasion. I am proud of them. The excellence award is called Anugerah Khas Transformasi Perpustakaan which an award for the excellent effort of transforming the ‘old’ library into a knowledge management center not just physically but a total mindshift. This is proven by our changing roles and responsibilities. If you want to know more of what I have written here please drop me an email and you can come for a visit. Now, I have the real thing to share rather than just talking about it.
We had to reorganize everyone’s schedule at home that morning all because I wanted to use the truck. The reason I was driving was because I had a Gala Dinner to go to that night.
I received an invitation to attend the 50 years Gala Dinner of the Persatuan Pustakawan Malaysia at Istana Hotel on Tuesday (April 5). I did not think much of the dinner because all the indications were saying that it would be just a normal dinner. I was in for a surprise. Yes, I know the possibility as our new Knowledge Management Center (KMC) had recently been assessed for the 2005 Library Excellent Awards but I was not convinced that we win anything. On personal note I actually did not mind not getting any award as at least I had had the chance to share my vision with the library community. However, if I considered what my colleagues had gone through to make the vision a reality I would fought tooth and nails to win. Just for my colleagues at the KMC. So, I was there at the dinner for ‘just in case’ as well.
It all started a couple of years ago when I started to talk about knowledge management. In most of my talks, and since I am part of the library community, I always emphasized and certainly believe that the library could be used or transformed to be more ‘knowledge centric’. To be a base for organization’s KM initiatives or programs. Only when I joined the Bank I had the opportunity to put my worth where my mouth is. So with my background and experience in KM I researched on the notion of space and the use of space for learning, and knowledge creation and sharing. I also knew without a proper process and first getting my colleagues to unlearn what they know about running a library it would be almost impossible to achieve what I had in mind. So I embarked on the initiatives firstly to explain what KM and what it means to a library. So we began to recreate ourselves and the way we do things by being more ‘knowledge centric’. Our work used to be collecting, processing and disseminating information but we never used what we know and the information that we processed as knowledge to our advantage. So ‘knowledge centric’ means making the information and knowledge work for us. We changed the way we handle our stakeholders by getting to know them better so as to provide improved services. We had the information on them all the while through various means just that they were left untapped within our systems and processes. With the knowledge of our stakeholder’s information behavior we rearranged the collection to make them more visible and easy to access. We give a proper meaning to all the statistics that we collected and we acted on them effectively. We started to share our experiences and continuously educate ourselves with new things. As soon as we are comfortable with the changes and new processes we began to think of the best way to transform the physical state of the place. This is where the concept of KM would really come in. We practically used the concept to recreate our layout and spaces within the library and get interior designers to translate our vision into reality. The final result is what we now called ‘knowledge spaces’. Space where our users could come to learn through various pedagogies, sharing knowledge with the help of the tools and environment and a space where knowledge accident could happen. In short an effective knowledge space for knowledge creation, use, reuse and sharing. This does not mean that the library collections and services are irrelevant. On the contrary they formed the core to our existence.
This is why I was at the Gala dinner and indeed when it was announced that I was to receive the award for KMC I was a bit surprise and of course glad. I walked carefully to the main stage to shake the hand of our Deputy PM first and then to receive the award from him. I was very please when I received it and the first thing that came to my mind was my colleagues at the KMC. They should have been here sharing the occasion. I am proud of them. The excellence award is called Anugerah Khas Transformasi Perpustakaan which an award for the excellent effort of transforming the ‘old’ library into a knowledge management center not just physically but a total mindshift. This is proven by our changing roles and responsibilities. If you want to know more of what I have written here please drop me an email and you can come for a visit. Now, I have the real thing to share rather than just talking about it.
On The Train. Mar 22, 2005
(Social Network/Communities of Practice)
I have not seen it developing into one but I saw indications to its potential development. I am talking about the formation of social network of train commuters or, others may term it as, the commuters Community of Practice (CoP). By definition CoP in an informal group of people who share the same believe, aspiration or common ground/interest. In this case sharing the passion for riding the train to work if not the train it self. I saw few small groups of commuters have potential to become full fletch CoPs. At the moment they are still small. These groups, I trust, were accidentally ‘formed’ one day when they started to converse with one another. The conversation would be trivial at first but soon enough they became serious, Especially when they realized that they share the same interest. Overtime, they develop into certain routine like sitting in the same coach, conversing on topics like ‘how KTMB could improve its services’ or bashing KTMB because the lack of it. Everyday in the morning, going to work or going home in the evening they keep to certain schedule. Unknowingly they became community of practice. They began to feed each other with information of the latest services, e-ticketing system, the best time to take a service or how best to connect to other services. They are indeed becoming learning groups and effective as well on the subject of train in short period of times. This is exactly the trait of CoPs. CoP is effective for collective learning, knowledge transfer and sharing. This is similar in any organizations. This train CoP could be stronger and powerful if developed properly. They can develop into a formidable enemy for KTMB if it is not careful. If KTMB is smart it can start to identify this potential CoPs and develop them to its advantage. For instance they can be used to effectively market KTMB’s products and services. Leveraging these CoPs to get feedback to improve the services and more. But, knowing KTMB I do not see this happening soon. Hey! This is Knowledge Management idea for KTMB. Anybody listening out there? That makes me wonder whether there are people like me blogging about train?
If you want to read about CoP I recommend Hubert St Onge’s ‘Leveraging Communities of Practice’. It is going to be fun for me to observe the development of this train, if not KTMB bashing, CoP. Or if not I just start one myself
I have not seen it developing into one but I saw indications to its potential development. I am talking about the formation of social network of train commuters or, others may term it as, the commuters Community of Practice (CoP). By definition CoP in an informal group of people who share the same believe, aspiration or common ground/interest. In this case sharing the passion for riding the train to work if not the train it self. I saw few small groups of commuters have potential to become full fletch CoPs. At the moment they are still small. These groups, I trust, were accidentally ‘formed’ one day when they started to converse with one another. The conversation would be trivial at first but soon enough they became serious, Especially when they realized that they share the same interest. Overtime, they develop into certain routine like sitting in the same coach, conversing on topics like ‘how KTMB could improve its services’ or bashing KTMB because the lack of it. Everyday in the morning, going to work or going home in the evening they keep to certain schedule. Unknowingly they became community of practice. They began to feed each other with information of the latest services, e-ticketing system, the best time to take a service or how best to connect to other services. They are indeed becoming learning groups and effective as well on the subject of train in short period of times. This is exactly the trait of CoPs. CoP is effective for collective learning, knowledge transfer and sharing. This is similar in any organizations. This train CoP could be stronger and powerful if developed properly. They can develop into a formidable enemy for KTMB if it is not careful. If KTMB is smart it can start to identify this potential CoPs and develop them to its advantage. For instance they can be used to effectively market KTMB’s products and services. Leveraging these CoPs to get feedback to improve the services and more. But, knowing KTMB I do not see this happening soon. Hey! This is Knowledge Management idea for KTMB. Anybody listening out there? That makes me wonder whether there are people like me blogging about train?
If you want to read about CoP I recommend Hubert St Onge’s ‘Leveraging Communities of Practice’. It is going to be fun for me to observe the development of this train, if not KTMB bashing, CoP. Or if not I just start one myself
On The Train, Mar. 21, 2005
(Knowledge Management: Story Telling)
With the normal Monday crowd at the station I thought I was going to have a normal ride to the office. I was wrong!. The train was crowded than the usual and I sat sandwiched between a gentleman and a sleeping lady on my right. What I realised was the existence of a group of students sitting in front of me across the isle. They were not the usual students. There were seven of them conversing in English and looked a bit different. I knew instantly that they were from Seremban. I could not read it at first glance and when I looked carefully the name of the school SMK St Paul was obvious on their badges. They were accompanied by a teacher and I deduced from their conversation that they were attending an event at a school somewhere in PJ. They were chatty lots. What I really wanted to write was not so much about them but their association to the school that I used to familiar with. SPI as the school was popularly known then was a powerhouse in school hockey in Negeri Sembilan. They trounced us whenever we played them. I can remember only on few occasions that we managed to beat them and that during the early days of SDAR in Seremban when for a few years we made a clean sweep. But in 1977 and 1980 we managed to give them a good fight but lost narrowly. We beat them in football all the time and only managed one win when I was playing. Obviously they celebrated after that win. They did not even had a rugby team then and I guess still is now.
They were really chatty on the train. They started with complaining on how long the journey was and took ages to get to the KL Sentral. Moved to about football, computers, Internet and eventually to movies. They were the only sound apart form the noise created by the train. In fact their teacher made a remark ‘you guys were the only people talking’, when they arrived at KL Sentral. Of course all of them were relieved to have arrived at the station. At last they said.
It was raining on the way home and I dreaded the thought of getting stranded before Serdang. I thought it was going to be a hot day, that’s what all the experts were saying. Equinox effect or something. Suddenly my mind just refused to ‘flow’, I drew blank on what next to write and as always automatically switched into a thinking mode. The question on my mind was should we tour Malaysia at the end of the year or should we go to Sabah. My family definitely would want to go to Sabah but the idea of touring Malaysia (West) intrigued me. Tiring but fun. At the same time I could visit my friends along the route.
So lesson learnt today. It is true in your life you set a lot of triggers. Triggers that associated you with strong feeling of attachment. To me Seremban and anything associated to it would set me onto memory lane in an instance
With the normal Monday crowd at the station I thought I was going to have a normal ride to the office. I was wrong!. The train was crowded than the usual and I sat sandwiched between a gentleman and a sleeping lady on my right. What I realised was the existence of a group of students sitting in front of me across the isle. They were not the usual students. There were seven of them conversing in English and looked a bit different. I knew instantly that they were from Seremban. I could not read it at first glance and when I looked carefully the name of the school SMK St Paul was obvious on their badges. They were accompanied by a teacher and I deduced from their conversation that they were attending an event at a school somewhere in PJ. They were chatty lots. What I really wanted to write was not so much about them but their association to the school that I used to familiar with. SPI as the school was popularly known then was a powerhouse in school hockey in Negeri Sembilan. They trounced us whenever we played them. I can remember only on few occasions that we managed to beat them and that during the early days of SDAR in Seremban when for a few years we made a clean sweep. But in 1977 and 1980 we managed to give them a good fight but lost narrowly. We beat them in football all the time and only managed one win when I was playing. Obviously they celebrated after that win. They did not even had a rugby team then and I guess still is now.
They were really chatty on the train. They started with complaining on how long the journey was and took ages to get to the KL Sentral. Moved to about football, computers, Internet and eventually to movies. They were the only sound apart form the noise created by the train. In fact their teacher made a remark ‘you guys were the only people talking’, when they arrived at KL Sentral. Of course all of them were relieved to have arrived at the station. At last they said.
It was raining on the way home and I dreaded the thought of getting stranded before Serdang. I thought it was going to be a hot day, that’s what all the experts were saying. Equinox effect or something. Suddenly my mind just refused to ‘flow’, I drew blank on what next to write and as always automatically switched into a thinking mode. The question on my mind was should we tour Malaysia at the end of the year or should we go to Sabah. My family definitely would want to go to Sabah but the idea of touring Malaysia (West) intrigued me. Tiring but fun. At the same time I could visit my friends along the route.
So lesson learnt today. It is true in your life you set a lot of triggers. Triggers that associated you with strong feeling of attachment. To me Seremban and anything associated to it would set me onto memory lane in an instance
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
On The Train. Mar 17, 2005
(Knowledge Acquisition and Capturing: Learning from Experience)
I was beginning to think that I do not have anything to write anymore when an idea strucked me. Let’s talk about the train stations that I pass everyday going to work. One major law of Knowledge Management is you only know what you know when you need to know. As an example while writing about this I realized I knew a lot more about train stations that I thought I knew. Points flow out like a stream flowing from a waterfall and connect with one another.
My routes everyday would start at Bangi station, follow by UKM, Kajang, Serdang, Bandar Tasek Selatan, Salak Selatan, Seputeh, Mid Valley, KL Sentral, KL and Bank Negara respectively. Obviously the reverse when I am going home
Bangi
Just like Kajang when the developments are in full swing in Bandar Baru Bangi a lot of doomsday sayers were pilling the nails on Bangi’s coffin. Just like Kajang when we first moved there a lot of people were saying to me that Kajang would be a ghost town in no time. How wrong that was and it is the same case with Bangi. Instead of going into a slow death it erupted with vengeance with two major townships of its own – Bandar Bukit Mahkota and Bandar Seri Putra. The train station from lazy looking with next to nothing also burst with commuters. Since the first time I took the train it is now one busy station. So much so it commercially viable for ‘teksi sapu’ operators. The station itself is an old station as we know that I like very much. It has been refurbished improving the look and feel. Still, KTMB could do a little bit more. Sadly the toilets are hopeless. It used to have a fish pond that I like but an idiot, sadly, mistakenly poisoned the fish by washing their hands in the pond. I got friendly with the staff there and from my conversations with them I could understand the scope of their mentality. The thing is the KTMB top brass should spend more time on the ground visiting these stations.
UKM
Used to be my station before I moved to Bandar Seri Putra. Due to its location, rightly so, it is a student’s station. Even so there are many commuters like me boarding from there. It is also one of the many purposely built stations for the Komuter service. We normally reached that station at 7.15 am every morning. Quite a number of commuters boarded in from there.
Kajang
This is an established station where even the intercity trains make a stop. This station was also rebuilt about 200 meters from the old Kajang station. Kajang station is serving one of the biggest number of commuters along the route. The location of the station, I believe, is not that strategic for those living on the other side of the Kajang as they have to brave the nasty Kajang’s traffic congestion to get to the station. However, it is very strategic for school children living along the route before Kajang like my son as his school is just about 400 meters away across the road. In fact there are actually four schools along the road from the station. Yes, you guess right now that every morning my son takes the same train as me going to school. School children could be a bit too noisy and mischievous on the train. Once we get to Kajang silence suddenly confront us.
Serdang
This is the second largest commuter station in terms of ridership along my route. Almost all of them were to stand all the way to KL Sentral. Only pregnant ladies (pregnant men are ignored), senior citizens and blinds would get seats. But then again maybe not. Everyone seating could be snoring…LOL. This station is notorious for flash flood. More than once last year I was stranded due to the flooding. Once during pausa month all of us muslims ‘berbuka puasa’ telan air hujan.:)))))) at Salak Selatan station.
Bandar Tasik Selatan
The crowd is as big as at Serdang simply because it is an ‘exchange’ station for STAR and KLIA Express lines. Commuters could change here to either take the STAR LRT to the heart of KL or Seri Petaling the other way. Or KLIA Express to the airport or KL Sentral. I do not think that my fellow commuters would take the KLIA Express to KL Sentral as it would be too costly. But you never know. Nevertheless, this is where you begin to get amore chic looking commuters. Obviously again due to the location that has people coming from the area as well as from the other two service lines.
Salak Selatan
There aren’t that many people using this station. One primary reason is that it is not strategically located and secondly the STAR LRT is offering a better location for the commuters. This station is more effectively used now for emergency passing and waiting for the trains in case of emergency like during a flood at Serdang.
Seputeh
It is the same with this station only used to be slightly better compared to Salak Selatan until Mid Valley station was built. The majority of the commuters using this station before were commuters meant for the Mid Valley.
Mid Valley
Of course this station should have been built even earlier. KTMB should have known better. Both ways are popular as it is the easiest way to go to Mid Valley Mall. I could see this station growing once more office spaces are available around the area. Most of the commuters to and from here are teenagers. Now you can see even more outrageous fashion on the train.
KL Sentral
I don’t have to say much about KL Sentral. It is a commuter’s hub. In the morning the train would be practically emptied here. Here as well when ‘sleepers’ automatically open their eyes. They have been programmed that way after commuting for a number of years.
Kuala Lumpur
It was the main station before KL Sentral and almost everyone knows that. Now it just serves commuters going to Daya Bumi and the vicinity. This old main station is practically a museum piece now.
Bank Negara
The train is really empty now. Bank Negara station is a hub as well. A hub for office workers along Jalan Raja Laut. Of course this where and few of my colleagues get down going to work. Everyday the walk up to my office is refreshing. The gardener would say his salam to me and office mates arriving in a car will acknowledge me with the minimal use of the horn. I would be in the office at 7.49am and immediately start of my morning ‘chores.’
I was beginning to think that I do not have anything to write anymore when an idea strucked me. Let’s talk about the train stations that I pass everyday going to work. One major law of Knowledge Management is you only know what you know when you need to know. As an example while writing about this I realized I knew a lot more about train stations that I thought I knew. Points flow out like a stream flowing from a waterfall and connect with one another.
My routes everyday would start at Bangi station, follow by UKM, Kajang, Serdang, Bandar Tasek Selatan, Salak Selatan, Seputeh, Mid Valley, KL Sentral, KL and Bank Negara respectively. Obviously the reverse when I am going home
Bangi
Just like Kajang when the developments are in full swing in Bandar Baru Bangi a lot of doomsday sayers were pilling the nails on Bangi’s coffin. Just like Kajang when we first moved there a lot of people were saying to me that Kajang would be a ghost town in no time. How wrong that was and it is the same case with Bangi. Instead of going into a slow death it erupted with vengeance with two major townships of its own – Bandar Bukit Mahkota and Bandar Seri Putra. The train station from lazy looking with next to nothing also burst with commuters. Since the first time I took the train it is now one busy station. So much so it commercially viable for ‘teksi sapu’ operators. The station itself is an old station as we know that I like very much. It has been refurbished improving the look and feel. Still, KTMB could do a little bit more. Sadly the toilets are hopeless. It used to have a fish pond that I like but an idiot, sadly, mistakenly poisoned the fish by washing their hands in the pond. I got friendly with the staff there and from my conversations with them I could understand the scope of their mentality. The thing is the KTMB top brass should spend more time on the ground visiting these stations.
UKM
Used to be my station before I moved to Bandar Seri Putra. Due to its location, rightly so, it is a student’s station. Even so there are many commuters like me boarding from there. It is also one of the many purposely built stations for the Komuter service. We normally reached that station at 7.15 am every morning. Quite a number of commuters boarded in from there.
Kajang
This is an established station where even the intercity trains make a stop. This station was also rebuilt about 200 meters from the old Kajang station. Kajang station is serving one of the biggest number of commuters along the route. The location of the station, I believe, is not that strategic for those living on the other side of the Kajang as they have to brave the nasty Kajang’s traffic congestion to get to the station. However, it is very strategic for school children living along the route before Kajang like my son as his school is just about 400 meters away across the road. In fact there are actually four schools along the road from the station. Yes, you guess right now that every morning my son takes the same train as me going to school. School children could be a bit too noisy and mischievous on the train. Once we get to Kajang silence suddenly confront us.
Serdang
This is the second largest commuter station in terms of ridership along my route. Almost all of them were to stand all the way to KL Sentral. Only pregnant ladies (pregnant men are ignored), senior citizens and blinds would get seats. But then again maybe not. Everyone seating could be snoring…LOL. This station is notorious for flash flood. More than once last year I was stranded due to the flooding. Once during pausa month all of us muslims ‘berbuka puasa’ telan air hujan.:)))))) at Salak Selatan station.
Bandar Tasik Selatan
The crowd is as big as at Serdang simply because it is an ‘exchange’ station for STAR and KLIA Express lines. Commuters could change here to either take the STAR LRT to the heart of KL or Seri Petaling the other way. Or KLIA Express to the airport or KL Sentral. I do not think that my fellow commuters would take the KLIA Express to KL Sentral as it would be too costly. But you never know. Nevertheless, this is where you begin to get amore chic looking commuters. Obviously again due to the location that has people coming from the area as well as from the other two service lines.
Salak Selatan
There aren’t that many people using this station. One primary reason is that it is not strategically located and secondly the STAR LRT is offering a better location for the commuters. This station is more effectively used now for emergency passing and waiting for the trains in case of emergency like during a flood at Serdang.
Seputeh
It is the same with this station only used to be slightly better compared to Salak Selatan until Mid Valley station was built. The majority of the commuters using this station before were commuters meant for the Mid Valley.
Mid Valley
Of course this station should have been built even earlier. KTMB should have known better. Both ways are popular as it is the easiest way to go to Mid Valley Mall. I could see this station growing once more office spaces are available around the area. Most of the commuters to and from here are teenagers. Now you can see even more outrageous fashion on the train.
KL Sentral
I don’t have to say much about KL Sentral. It is a commuter’s hub. In the morning the train would be practically emptied here. Here as well when ‘sleepers’ automatically open their eyes. They have been programmed that way after commuting for a number of years.
Kuala Lumpur
It was the main station before KL Sentral and almost everyone knows that. Now it just serves commuters going to Daya Bumi and the vicinity. This old main station is practically a museum piece now.
Bank Negara
The train is really empty now. Bank Negara station is a hub as well. A hub for office workers along Jalan Raja Laut. Of course this where and few of my colleagues get down going to work. Everyday the walk up to my office is refreshing. The gardener would say his salam to me and office mates arriving in a car will acknowledge me with the minimal use of the horn. I would be in the office at 7.49am and immediately start of my morning ‘chores.’
On The Train. Mar, 16, 2005
I have been writing on the train on the way to work for quite sometimes. Actually, after a while, there is nothing much to write as I see the usual faces doing their things everyday. Tuck in the corner behind the driver’s cabin in the first coach is a lady sleeping soundly with her face covered. A nurse in her light blue uniform is half asleep anticipating her pending arrival at Kajang right in front of me across the isle. I said before the train is a bit empty in the morning during school holidays. Commuters begin to move in slowly at UKM station and again the usual faces getting their usual preferred seats. I observes there is a new lady on board in the first coach and I found out later she gets off at KL Sentral. Yes, that in itself is another observation; percentage wise there are about 60/40 distribution of ladies and gentlemen using the train going to work. I strongly believe this is more of an ego thing rather than anything else. I could be wrong about this and I am sure there are gentlemen out there are angry reading this. Daylight breaks in as we are passing Kajang. This is always the best view in the morning for me. The light sneaking in creates silhouette across the horizon creating a sense of serenity to me. Skylines of life moving according to the speed of the train in front of me. Suddenly, my gaze falls onto somebody – hey that is my fellow commuter that I have not seen for quite sometimes and the person looks different. This is how it is sometimes people come and go on the train.
If I were an artist I would have sketch the scene in front of me. It is, huh! so hard to describe my feeling now, glowing, yes, glowing feeling I think. I realized what I have been missing when we arrived at Serdang station. There used to be an Indian young man and two Indian ladies that everyday get on at Kajang. While on the train they happily gossiping almost about everything in the full view and audible to most people in that coach. I gather they are good family friends as the two ladies were a bit older. I missed the sound of their chattering and sometimes I just smile to my self eaves dropping on their conversation. Hey, as I said conversation on a public train tends to be public. Conversation also tends to be a bit lauder as everyone wants to hear each other on top of the din. What’s funny is when the train suddenly stop they continue chatting in the same decibel and their voices could be heard very loudly across the coach. I am smiling now thinking about them. At KL Sentral the train’s belly is almost empty and a new set of commuters join me and they bring with them a different aura. They are either ‘extended commuters’ from another lines or services like PUTRA, KL Monorail and the KTMB Intercity trains. The commuters/travelers from the KTMB Intercity train are the obvious. I mean with their bags and the ‘deprived of sleep’ expression on their faces. They stand out in the crowd of clean shaven and good smelling beautiful faces.
How, I love the train
If I were an artist I would have sketch the scene in front of me. It is, huh! so hard to describe my feeling now, glowing, yes, glowing feeling I think. I realized what I have been missing when we arrived at Serdang station. There used to be an Indian young man and two Indian ladies that everyday get on at Kajang. While on the train they happily gossiping almost about everything in the full view and audible to most people in that coach. I gather they are good family friends as the two ladies were a bit older. I missed the sound of their chattering and sometimes I just smile to my self eaves dropping on their conversation. Hey, as I said conversation on a public train tends to be public. Conversation also tends to be a bit lauder as everyone wants to hear each other on top of the din. What’s funny is when the train suddenly stop they continue chatting in the same decibel and their voices could be heard very loudly across the coach. I am smiling now thinking about them. At KL Sentral the train’s belly is almost empty and a new set of commuters join me and they bring with them a different aura. They are either ‘extended commuters’ from another lines or services like PUTRA, KL Monorail and the KTMB Intercity trains. The commuters/travelers from the KTMB Intercity train are the obvious. I mean with their bags and the ‘deprived of sleep’ expression on their faces. They stand out in the crowd of clean shaven and good smelling beautiful faces.
How, I love the train
On The Train. Mar 15, 2005
I was already on the train going home and about to write this piece that I realized the date was already Mar 15. I have to entertain Deputy Minister from Saudi Arabia tomorrow I thought and I was not sure. So I tried to call Razman to confirm. Lucky me, Razman confirmed it, if not I’ll make a mess of the visit. My MDC days have thought me a lot about entertaining high level guests so I was not worried. The train was packed again and I was lucky, again!, to get a seat at KL Sentral. I just sat thinking of nothing in particular when a ringing tone of a hand phone interrupted my reverie. It was not a unique tone but it triggered my thought and suddenly as life I was hearing all hand phones were ringing. All kinds of tones. What amazed me was that almost everyone on the train owns a hand phone. I bet all brands, sizes and colors as well. I could not imagine at all this is possible when I grew up. In the whole village only one house had a phone. Today if you do not own one you must be probably seen as fanatics or something. A lady standing in front of me had her Nokia 2100 hanging like necklace around her neck. I bet a teenager beside me has a groovy one in her pocket.
One incidence though brought a good feeling to me when we reached UKM station. Out of nowhere an empty mineral water bottle rolled down the isle towards a young lady standing at the door. I was expecting the lady to ignore it. One thing for someone to just conveniently throw or left the empty bottle on the train. The worse was everyone else to ignore it. I was surprised and glad this lady picked up the bottle and took it along with her disembarking and than to throw it into the bin outside. We have hope after all.
One incidence though brought a good feeling to me when we reached UKM station. Out of nowhere an empty mineral water bottle rolled down the isle towards a young lady standing at the door. I was expecting the lady to ignore it. One thing for someone to just conveniently throw or left the empty bottle on the train. The worse was everyone else to ignore it. I was surprised and glad this lady picked up the bottle and took it along with her disembarking and than to throw it into the bin outside. We have hope after all.
The Birth of Muhammad Ghazi
July 1 and 2, 1988
The phone rang beside me; it was my wife asking me to pick her up because her contraction was getting closer. I put down the phone and rushed to see Mr. Kaw telling him that I had to go. The guys were telling me to take it easy and drive carefully. What flew in my head was how to get to Jln Raja Laut as fast as I could. Somehow I managed to calm myself down and drove carefully to the National Library. When I got there my wife was already waiting. She said the contraction had already eased off. ‘What in the world is going on’, I said to myself, ‘is this what they called a false alarm?’ Alarm indeed. My wife decided to go home first. So, I drove home carefully and kept asking her is everything all right.
When we got home, the false alarm proved to be false alarm indeed as thing quite down and my wife lied down in the middle of the house. We waited the whole night for something interesting to happen. But, everything had to be in the early hour of the day, my wife’s contraction beginning to pace itself. I decided there and then to go ahead to the hospital. Abang Ibrahim, my Bro-in-law, followed.
My wife was safe in the delivery room; we were waiting outside counting minutes and soon hours. Both of us were getting tired I decided to go home to take a bath and pray. I called Eddy, my wife nephew, first and asked him to come over to wait for my wife for a while. When he came we went home, Abang Ibrahim said he was too tired to go again and would like to catch some missed ZZZZZ. I went back to the hospital late in the evening and still nothing happened. Amir, also my wife’s nephew, who came with Eddy was getting restless, how do you think I felt? Soon to be a father, a very proud one you might add, yet the minutes were getting longer. Maghrib came and Eddy decided to go home leaving Amir with me. What else could we do, but sit and wait. The clock was clocking hours in front of us but nothing happened, then suddenly the delivery door swung opened. I saw Sam on the stretcher; the nurse was taking her upstairs. I rushed to her and asked the nurse had she delivered. ‘Haven’t you been told’ said the nurse. Well, what else is knew the father was always the last to know. The baby had been delivered at 10 pm. and it was already 11 pm. What! an hour passed and nobody care to tell me that I am a father. I asked Amir to follow his aunt so that I could go see the baby first. As I walked in all thought went blank, I didn’t know how I really felt. I guess the long wait killed off all the suspense. But, one thing for sure, the minute I stepped in that room I knew I was a father at last.
I picked up Muhammad Ghazi, I decided to name him Ghazi so that he will grow strong and has the mentality of a warrior, so small, a red nose and a lot of hair sleeping peacefully, the nurse showed me the direction to the Kaabah, I Azan and Iqamat my son, kissed him. I didn’t want to put him down I wanted to hugged him endlessly. But, I had to let him go for a while. When I got out Amir was already outside and told me his aunt was at the third floor on the second row on the right. I went up, so my lovely wife so pale after her Jihad to bring one human being out to the world for the first time. How much I love her, you cannot even say the words because it would never be enough. I told her to take a rest, I had to go home and would be coming back tomorrow as early as possible
How could I celebrate this special occasion with Amir? Where else but my old favorite watering hole, Jaleel. Met Pak Anjang there and told him the good news, Jaleel too. I had the best sleep ever in my life that day.
The phone rang beside me; it was my wife asking me to pick her up because her contraction was getting closer. I put down the phone and rushed to see Mr. Kaw telling him that I had to go. The guys were telling me to take it easy and drive carefully. What flew in my head was how to get to Jln Raja Laut as fast as I could. Somehow I managed to calm myself down and drove carefully to the National Library. When I got there my wife was already waiting. She said the contraction had already eased off. ‘What in the world is going on’, I said to myself, ‘is this what they called a false alarm?’ Alarm indeed. My wife decided to go home first. So, I drove home carefully and kept asking her is everything all right.
When we got home, the false alarm proved to be false alarm indeed as thing quite down and my wife lied down in the middle of the house. We waited the whole night for something interesting to happen. But, everything had to be in the early hour of the day, my wife’s contraction beginning to pace itself. I decided there and then to go ahead to the hospital. Abang Ibrahim, my Bro-in-law, followed.
My wife was safe in the delivery room; we were waiting outside counting minutes and soon hours. Both of us were getting tired I decided to go home to take a bath and pray. I called Eddy, my wife nephew, first and asked him to come over to wait for my wife for a while. When he came we went home, Abang Ibrahim said he was too tired to go again and would like to catch some missed ZZZZZ. I went back to the hospital late in the evening and still nothing happened. Amir, also my wife’s nephew, who came with Eddy was getting restless, how do you think I felt? Soon to be a father, a very proud one you might add, yet the minutes were getting longer. Maghrib came and Eddy decided to go home leaving Amir with me. What else could we do, but sit and wait. The clock was clocking hours in front of us but nothing happened, then suddenly the delivery door swung opened. I saw Sam on the stretcher; the nurse was taking her upstairs. I rushed to her and asked the nurse had she delivered. ‘Haven’t you been told’ said the nurse. Well, what else is knew the father was always the last to know. The baby had been delivered at 10 pm. and it was already 11 pm. What! an hour passed and nobody care to tell me that I am a father. I asked Amir to follow his aunt so that I could go see the baby first. As I walked in all thought went blank, I didn’t know how I really felt. I guess the long wait killed off all the suspense. But, one thing for sure, the minute I stepped in that room I knew I was a father at last.
I picked up Muhammad Ghazi, I decided to name him Ghazi so that he will grow strong and has the mentality of a warrior, so small, a red nose and a lot of hair sleeping peacefully, the nurse showed me the direction to the Kaabah, I Azan and Iqamat my son, kissed him. I didn’t want to put him down I wanted to hugged him endlessly. But, I had to let him go for a while. When I got out Amir was already outside and told me his aunt was at the third floor on the second row on the right. I went up, so my lovely wife so pale after her Jihad to bring one human being out to the world for the first time. How much I love her, you cannot even say the words because it would never be enough. I told her to take a rest, I had to go home and would be coming back tomorrow as early as possible
How could I celebrate this special occasion with Amir? Where else but my old favorite watering hole, Jaleel. Met Pak Anjang there and told him the good news, Jaleel too. I had the best sleep ever in my life that day.
My Calling - Part 1
I was walking into my favourite bookshop and immediately I saw the book on the shelf, as the New Arrival Section as the name implies is waiting for the customer’s arrival as well, especially someone like me. I picked the book, took out my wallet and headed for the counter, paid and went home smiling. It took me roughly one day to finish the book. If I can do that normally the book must be special. This one is indeed special – Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth Of Organization by Thomas Stewarts was what I subconsciously waiting for. I was not surprise of my reaction after reading the book mainly because it practically outlined on what I really believe in thus far. All my working live I have been working and dealing with information – acquiring, classifying, managing, leveraging and disseminating information. When I was not in the rat race I was utilising information in a great deal as well. This is not just saying in order to do my work effectively I have to know where to source out the information and how to use it effectively. But, I am saying that information and knowledge is going to be core component of my daily existence as well as for all Malaysian.
Deep down I always believe that information is one commodity that going to be very important for the future of Malaysia not to mention my own future. The book Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth Of Organization by Thomas Stewarts in a gist is telling me that the information commodity, now collectively called Intellectual Capital to emphasise on it’s economic importance, has been transformed into knowledge within most organizations today. So far corporations and organization have not been paying too much attention on their intellectual capital and we thought that we have to always create something new to be competitive. Also, we thought we have to go out of our organization to learn more of be effective. In actual fact we have spent a lot on technology, new methods of doing things and trainings to gain our competency. Indeed we know a lot and have learned a lot collectively as well. The problem is collectively we do not know what we know and have not been using of what we know effectively. The book suggests for all organization to look inwards to identify and leverage these ‘knowhow’ – knowledge..
Soon enough the concept of knowledge management came into being where the major part of the idea revolve around managing and leveraging the intellectual capital. If we looked closely at what actually had happened in our economy it is obvious that this is going to be something big in Malaysia and the announcement of the Vision 2020 and subsequently the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor project confirmed my theory. The knowledge economy is here and I have to be meaningfully in it.
Thus, that is how I got very passionate about knowledge management.
Deep down I always believe that information is one commodity that going to be very important for the future of Malaysia not to mention my own future. The book Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth Of Organization by Thomas Stewarts in a gist is telling me that the information commodity, now collectively called Intellectual Capital to emphasise on it’s economic importance, has been transformed into knowledge within most organizations today. So far corporations and organization have not been paying too much attention on their intellectual capital and we thought that we have to always create something new to be competitive. Also, we thought we have to go out of our organization to learn more of be effective. In actual fact we have spent a lot on technology, new methods of doing things and trainings to gain our competency. Indeed we know a lot and have learned a lot collectively as well. The problem is collectively we do not know what we know and have not been using of what we know effectively. The book suggests for all organization to look inwards to identify and leverage these ‘knowhow’ – knowledge..
Soon enough the concept of knowledge management came into being where the major part of the idea revolve around managing and leveraging the intellectual capital. If we looked closely at what actually had happened in our economy it is obvious that this is going to be something big in Malaysia and the announcement of the Vision 2020 and subsequently the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor project confirmed my theory. The knowledge economy is here and I have to be meaningfully in it.
Thus, that is how I got very passionate about knowledge management.
My Calling - Part 2
I’m sure all of you have been in a situation where you just slap your forehead and go…”Hey! Now, why didn’t I think of that?” Worse, it can hit you anytime, be it while you are in the middle of a conversation or while listening to a speaker at a talk or while quietly watching a TV programme.
In my case, the forehead slapping episode happened while reading the book ‘Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth Of Organizations’ by Thomas Stewart and in this issue I will elaborate on the profound effect the book had on me.
Lest you think this is a book review, it’s not because I know there are plenty of books like Stewarts’s in the market now but for the basis of discussion, I am using his book as a case in point.
I realise that the discussions may be academic, unavoidable at times, but in this column I’ll try to confine my thoughts on knowledge management to what the “man of the street” needs to know about this subject.
The gist of the book discusses about the other types of capital that most organizations have ignored until recently.
If you think about it, organizations spend a lot of money building business empires and always put priority on acquisition of the land, buildings and even blue chip stocks but fail to capitalise on their biggest assets in this new economy.
These assets, as Stewart explains succinctly in his book, are the three types of intellectual capital that exist within the organization that have often been left untapped. Worst still some organization couldn’t even bother to look at them.
Stewart opined that intellectual capital is divided into three types, namely human capital, structural capital and customer capital. (Another thought leader in the field, Karl Erik Sveiby uses the Competency, Internal Structure and External Structure.)
The “types” that Stewart describes makes a lot of sense and struck me as very logical, something I had always believed in and what I have always wanted to explore further.
What strikes me most (and my forehead gets slapped again) after reading the book is that most what Stewart said is something that we are already dealing with everyday, yet we fail to realise it.
Human capital basically is looking at what sort of competency and skills that an organization has, the wealth of knowledge within its employees. It is these core competencies that the organization has to manage and leverage upon.
Think about it. If you spend a lot of time and money to train an employee and to have them gain these core competencies, then you should know how best to make their knowledge work for you and to retain it within the organization.
Let’s face it, it’s just common sense really and, ironic as it may be, it is always common sense that somehow escapes us.
Just think about it: organizations spend a lot of money on employees training and learning but knowledge gained are not retained or shared.
Most organizations also spend a lot of money on trips, study tours and benchmarking exercises and yet again fail to leverage the knowledge gained.
With a lot of learning organization still make mistakes - worst still – keeps repeating the very same mistakes over and over again.
A lot of organizations claim to be a learning organization but the ‘Silo’ working environment still prevails, meaning that there is very little sharing and everyone is trying to be protective of whatever knowledge they have.
The organization does not realise that it has gained enough competence over the years but, probably due to poor knowledge management, it is willing to spend a lot of money to hire outside experts to do a job that it’s own staff is capable of.
To conclude, I would surmise that in many such organisations there has not been enough knowledge sharing and leveraging on collective ‘know how’. The question to ponder is, how do we leverage on this human capital? Stay tuned
In my case, the forehead slapping episode happened while reading the book ‘Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth Of Organizations’ by Thomas Stewart and in this issue I will elaborate on the profound effect the book had on me.
Lest you think this is a book review, it’s not because I know there are plenty of books like Stewarts’s in the market now but for the basis of discussion, I am using his book as a case in point.
I realise that the discussions may be academic, unavoidable at times, but in this column I’ll try to confine my thoughts on knowledge management to what the “man of the street” needs to know about this subject.
The gist of the book discusses about the other types of capital that most organizations have ignored until recently.
If you think about it, organizations spend a lot of money building business empires and always put priority on acquisition of the land, buildings and even blue chip stocks but fail to capitalise on their biggest assets in this new economy.
These assets, as Stewart explains succinctly in his book, are the three types of intellectual capital that exist within the organization that have often been left untapped. Worst still some organization couldn’t even bother to look at them.
Stewart opined that intellectual capital is divided into three types, namely human capital, structural capital and customer capital. (Another thought leader in the field, Karl Erik Sveiby uses the Competency, Internal Structure and External Structure.)
The “types” that Stewart describes makes a lot of sense and struck me as very logical, something I had always believed in and what I have always wanted to explore further.
What strikes me most (and my forehead gets slapped again) after reading the book is that most what Stewart said is something that we are already dealing with everyday, yet we fail to realise it.
Human capital basically is looking at what sort of competency and skills that an organization has, the wealth of knowledge within its employees. It is these core competencies that the organization has to manage and leverage upon.
Think about it. If you spend a lot of time and money to train an employee and to have them gain these core competencies, then you should know how best to make their knowledge work for you and to retain it within the organization.
Let’s face it, it’s just common sense really and, ironic as it may be, it is always common sense that somehow escapes us.
Just think about it: organizations spend a lot of money on employees training and learning but knowledge gained are not retained or shared.
Most organizations also spend a lot of money on trips, study tours and benchmarking exercises and yet again fail to leverage the knowledge gained.
With a lot of learning organization still make mistakes - worst still – keeps repeating the very same mistakes over and over again.
A lot of organizations claim to be a learning organization but the ‘Silo’ working environment still prevails, meaning that there is very little sharing and everyone is trying to be protective of whatever knowledge they have.
The organization does not realise that it has gained enough competence over the years but, probably due to poor knowledge management, it is willing to spend a lot of money to hire outside experts to do a job that it’s own staff is capable of.
To conclude, I would surmise that in many such organisations there has not been enough knowledge sharing and leveraging on collective ‘know how’. The question to ponder is, how do we leverage on this human capital? Stay tuned
On The Train. Mar 14, 2005
I was guilty as hell today as I did not see a pregnant lady was standing beside me on the way home. I only realized it when two chatty ladies sitting on my right offered their seats to her. I was really ashamed of myself. I was actually too engrossed reviewing my office work to realize too late.
It’s the school holidays again. The trains are empty in the morning and full in the evening, especially at Mid Valley station. This morning I came out a bit late than the usual and got to the station at 6.54am. I thought I was going to wait a bit longer for the 7.12am train. Fortunately the train arrived at 7.02am and the moment I sat down the driver announced that we were being held there to let the Intercity Express passed us. However, after a few minutes of waiting no train passed by and our train proceeded on. When we got to Kajang we were made to wait again and this time he announced that we were waiting for the Express Komuter train from Seremban instead. A few minutes later the train did pass us and I thought we were moving along immediately. Instead commuters kept coming and reopening the door into the train. I was not annoyed as while waiting for the express train a lot of my fellow commuters actually disembarked to wait and board the express. They rather stand in the packed coaches just to rush to work. I can understand probably they were in a hurry and already late. But the time difference is not that much anyway and furthermore the meaning of express in Malaysia is somewhat questionable. Express to us could be going too fast without considering safety, doing lousy job to cut cost, waiting even longer due to systems failure, and taking things for granted forgetting the basics. Well, I arrived a bit late today but I was happy to avoid another stressful beginning to a week.
On the way home I noticed in the packed coach an Indian boy, probably 7 or 8 years old, was playing with his newly bought ‘trasnformer’ toy. The family boarded at Mid Valley. The boy was in his own world playing his ‘transformer’ complete with ‘special effects’. I could see clearly the expression in his face. Engrossed in his own fantasy world free of the stressful environment around him. Sadly though this is not going to be long. His parents no doubt soon enough will introduce the stressful environment of ‘learning’ and schooling with the letter ‘A’ as the ultimate objective. I dreaded the day that the boy would be having that joyous face again. Innocent sense of wondering and discovery will be lost and replaced with endless pursuit for academic perfection. All because parents thought they knew better. Just today in the news it was reported that a group of bikers hacked a motorist to death and among them supposed to be educated people. I think we have our perspective haywired already. Reflecting on my own childhood I consider myself blessed. No, we did not have ‘transformer, then but we were creative enough to make our own toys. My parents stressed for the need to learn and acquiring knowledge and we did it by going to school, surau, paddy fields, rivers, jungle and talking to knowledgeable folks.
It’s the school holidays again. The trains are empty in the morning and full in the evening, especially at Mid Valley station. This morning I came out a bit late than the usual and got to the station at 6.54am. I thought I was going to wait a bit longer for the 7.12am train. Fortunately the train arrived at 7.02am and the moment I sat down the driver announced that we were being held there to let the Intercity Express passed us. However, after a few minutes of waiting no train passed by and our train proceeded on. When we got to Kajang we were made to wait again and this time he announced that we were waiting for the Express Komuter train from Seremban instead. A few minutes later the train did pass us and I thought we were moving along immediately. Instead commuters kept coming and reopening the door into the train. I was not annoyed as while waiting for the express train a lot of my fellow commuters actually disembarked to wait and board the express. They rather stand in the packed coaches just to rush to work. I can understand probably they were in a hurry and already late. But the time difference is not that much anyway and furthermore the meaning of express in Malaysia is somewhat questionable. Express to us could be going too fast without considering safety, doing lousy job to cut cost, waiting even longer due to systems failure, and taking things for granted forgetting the basics. Well, I arrived a bit late today but I was happy to avoid another stressful beginning to a week.
On the way home I noticed in the packed coach an Indian boy, probably 7 or 8 years old, was playing with his newly bought ‘trasnformer’ toy. The family boarded at Mid Valley. The boy was in his own world playing his ‘transformer’ complete with ‘special effects’. I could see clearly the expression in his face. Engrossed in his own fantasy world free of the stressful environment around him. Sadly though this is not going to be long. His parents no doubt soon enough will introduce the stressful environment of ‘learning’ and schooling with the letter ‘A’ as the ultimate objective. I dreaded the day that the boy would be having that joyous face again. Innocent sense of wondering and discovery will be lost and replaced with endless pursuit for academic perfection. All because parents thought they knew better. Just today in the news it was reported that a group of bikers hacked a motorist to death and among them supposed to be educated people. I think we have our perspective haywired already. Reflecting on my own childhood I consider myself blessed. No, we did not have ‘transformer, then but we were creative enough to make our own toys. My parents stressed for the need to learn and acquiring knowledge and we did it by going to school, surau, paddy fields, rivers, jungle and talking to knowledgeable folks.
On The Train. Mar 7, 2005
I was at a briefing session on online database services today at Hilton Sentral, KL and as usual the occasion double up as a reunion gathering of old friends of sort for our community – information professionals. Everyone seems to know one another or at least connected to one another by the profession. Just to name a few Ariff, Fauziah, Linda (I used to teach her), AniJ, Maizan, Haslidah, Hasbullah, Noraini and Azman. That is our network both social and professional. Well, I am not going to write about that now. No, not that it is not interesting but I want to write something else about people on a train. During lunch somehow the topic moved to a discussion about me taking the train everyday to work. My friend Arif made a joke that I was the one/character in the advertisement on TV concerning social etiquettes of riding a train. You know the one that shows a character refusing to surrender his seat to a pregnant lady and eventually even to a blind man. We had a laugh talking about it especially my friends around the table making a big case of how I really look like that character. Seriously, I said there are indeed people like that on the train as I observed so many times already. Some of them actually pretend to be sleeping when they see pregnant lady boarding the train. This is rampant especially in the early morning. This is really pathetic and I am sick every time I see this. I was really pissed off once when I saw from a far a woman actually quickly offered her seat when a man sitting close by just sat and watched for others to react first.
I was on the train as usual this morning and disembarked at KL Sentral very early. As usual as well KL’s rat racers were crossing each other and sometimes bumping into each other going to work like robots. One thing I realized was how KL Sentral has developed to be a true hub for day, short and long distance travelers. With the two business hotels built business travellers began to increase in numbers. Now people in business suits walking around KL Sentral is a common sight. Still, we are a long way to go mentally.
I was on the train as usual this morning and disembarked at KL Sentral very early. As usual as well KL’s rat racers were crossing each other and sometimes bumping into each other going to work like robots. One thing I realized was how KL Sentral has developed to be a true hub for day, short and long distance travelers. With the two business hotels built business travellers began to increase in numbers. Now people in business suits walking around KL Sentral is a common sight. Still, we are a long way to go mentally.
Ipoh Again After 32 Years. 9 - 10, Oct, 1999
Most of the time, we tend to think that the most interesting places to visit and write about are other countries besides our own. I took this for granted until I took my family visiting inner Malaysia. It was eyes popping for me and I have been travelling Malaysia all these while and until I finish 'doing' the whole Malaysia I will try my best not to 'do' the other countries with my family. It is not that difficult it could mean only weekend trips for some of them.
My family seems to agree with me. I was blessed to have experience both ‘kampung’ and city life but not my children. To me I know exactly what it means and feels to plant a 'padi', 'menuai', tapping rubber, fishing the old ways, etc. I really pity my children because they can only read about them. Unless if could take them to these places and let them discover the experience themselves. Take it from me not only them but I sometimes felt relieved by the experience - to know what it is like and how some of us live. I hope, by doing that, they won’t take life for granted and be thankful and able to create a balance live.
Ipoh Again After 32 Years
I had planned to leave for Ipoh early on Oct. 9, 1999, but I was scheduled to give a lecture on web page design to teachers and students in Subang Jaya. I cannot describe how relieved I was when the organiser called the night before to say the lecture was cancelled. That meant my original plan was still a possibility.
My first encounter with the place called Ipoh is more or less 32 years ago. In 1966 my late father was a Police Field Force personnel and had just been transferred to the new Ulu Kinta Camp. However, the family flats were not ready then and my dad was ‘orang bujang’ for a while there. Not until early 1967, they were ready and the whole family moved to Ipoh. That year also coincided with my first year in school and I was enrolled into Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Tanjung Rambutan. Thank God I was there for just a term as the new school for the camp was ready by then. The Tanjung Rambutan experience is another story for another day. Ipoh was my first real big town and to 7 years old it is really big. My father took us quite frequently there and two places that I could not forget is the bus station and one restaurant that served the best mee rebus that I have ever tasted. Now I could not remember most of them and I was hoping to relive some of that during this short trip.
So, I had two reasons as to why I took my children to Ipoh that day. One, to cheer and see SDAR winning the Premier Cup for the second successive year and to see Ipoh properly as an adult. True I occasionally passed the town during our travels up north but I took them for granted.
We left Kajang at 10 am and were on the Plus highway an hour later. Since we had to be in Ipoh as early as possible I drove the van hard but careful. During the journey, I kept telling the children about Ipoh but as usual, they ignored me. Instead, they asked me to sing the SDAR song….
Where aver we goooooooooo….
people want to knowwww….
Who we areeeee…..
where we come from
So we tell them
We are SDARIAN
Mighty mighty SDARIAN
Rough tough SADRIAN
Followed by …
Den kampung senogori
Den masuk askar di Port Deksyen………
So we became one fast loud van full with SDARA family heading for Ipoh.
We stopped at the Bidor/Tapah R&R and met with four buses loaded with SDARIANs heading for Ipoh. After our ‘so-called’ lunch we hit the road again. I took the Simpang Pulai exit and paid Plus RM 23 for the liberty of using their concrete highway. I chose the exit so that we could ‘walk’ into Ipoh slowly and I could be a tour guide for my children. The first encounter was of course the cave dwellers. A short briefing followed immediately. My son could not actually believe that someone actually built his home inside a cave. We didn’t have time to stop but I will take him into one someday, Inshallah.
When I planned to stay overnight in Ipoh the first prerequisite to book a room is to make sure the hotel has a pool for my children. This is first on their list and second is food. Since I didn’t think we have a problem with the second requirement I had booked into Ipoh Causarina Parkroyal. This was the first main building we saw as we ‘walked’ into Ipoh. We duly checked-in said our prayers and off we went straight to the Ipoh Bandaran field. I tried to look around to see if I could remember anything. Sad to say I could not, everything is new to me as new as any other person who has just come to Ipoh. I can only remember the famous railway station and the bus stop. That’s it! What a sad day for me. However, one thing that I could remember vividly was there is one restaurant that served one mean ‘Mee Sop/Rebus’ I loved it so much. Anytime we were in town then I would request, rather cried, to be taken to the restaurant to eat. At one time my late ‘Mamak’ came visiting us at Ulu Kinta Camp. The next day he took us to town and the moment we stepped out of the bus I was pulling his hand towards the restaurant.
All that left were memories of the old days for me. I could not share them with my children. Of course so much has change – new buildings, shopping malls and new road systems. I was a bit disappointed when I left Ipoh that Sunday and reminded not to take things for granted.
On The Train. Mar 10, 2005
I came down from my office just after 7 pm and walked at a comfortable pace to the station. At that time I was expecting fewer people would be on the train as I was thinking of using my laptop to write my daily ‘On The Train’ piece. The Seremban train came just as I was standing waiting at my usual favorite spot. It was 7.15pm then and there weren’t many people on board. I predicted that most of them would get down either at the KL or KL Sentral stations. I was wrong. What happened instead more commuters boarded at both stations. I abandoned my intention to boot up my laptop. I decided to continue to read. It was the reverse from the norm; more people came on board at every station. It was packed even up to Kajang. I stopped reading when we reached Serdang to start to write this piece. The best thing about riding in a packed train is that you get to observe a lot of interesting characters. A lady in front of me was sleeping as if she was tucked in her own bed. So comfortable and I predicted she was going all the way to Seremban. Soon after that, I was attracted by a loud conversation coming from the end of the coach. From the tone of the voice, it is obvious to me it came from a Chinese man talking to his handphone to somebody. Amazingly most people subconsciously would yell into their handset when they were in a noisy area. It is actually just our perception – a flawed misconception of time and space. I always laugh to myself whenever I overheard such a conversation. Sometimes it was so loud that make everyone smiling and snickering of annoyance. The thing is even if you speak in a normal tone your friend or caller at the other can hear you loud enough. In that environment, you only ‘think’ that they would not be able to hear you correctly. So you yell thinking people at the other end is in the same predicament as you. Try an earpiece or hands-free the next time
On The Train. Dec 16, 2004
I purposely left the house late than usual today. Primarily because I was too tired and need more sleep. I was awake at 5.45 am but dozed off again until about 6.45am when I woke up to take a bath and get ready for work. Even my wife was surprised to see me still at home at that hour. I wanted to take the 7.30am train so that I could arrive at the Bank well before 8.30 am. So I took my own sweet time to get to the station. As I drove there I felt so fresh and energetic. When I reached the station I saw Pak Hashim, gave my salam and bought my ticket. While waiting I chatted with Pak Hashim. Well, you know with Pak Hashim, normally you’ll get either football or Penjara stories. The train came on time. While I was sitting I realized that I have not done this for quite a while. I sat looking at nothing in particular and my mind was racing. So I decided to write this piece. As I did after quite sometimes not doing this gave me a different perspective being on the commuter going to work. The normal stuff were still there, I mean the characters and their peculiarities. For the past two months I have been sleeping on the train every morning. I was tired but I think it is more because of my health which deteriorated quite a bit. One of the main reasons why I take the train to work is because I would like to improve my health and I know I have to improve by doing daily scheduled exercise. The question was I have not and I seem to have a lot of reasons, read excuses, not to do it. I know I need to be more serious and focus about this but I am and was not.
On The Train. Mar 9, 2005
I took the last train out of Kl Sentral last night and I got home slightly after midnight. This morning of course I was a bit tired and slept throughout the journey to the office. So, I guess today others were laughing and observing me doing ‘tahlil’ with my eyes closed. I presumed it would be definitely a sight to enjoy. I was a bit late going home as well. Coming back from our training center in PJ I took the 8.15pm train home. It just a normal ride and I was very pleased to know more my fellow commuters are reading and writing while going home rather than just sleeping. The gentleman sitting across was actually reading or rereading Black Beauty. The lady directly across me was writing profusely and my guess she was a student. A guy behind her was reading an article. I hope a lot more people would do this. I actually considered reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell before I decided to put it down to write this piece.
Another realization for today was that a few of my friends are taking the train to work. However, our schedules are different and we have not had the opportunity to ‘bump’ into each other. Nevertheless knowing that made me glad. I have been taking the train to work for two years already now and I still could not find a time when I did not like it. Even with the frequent incompetence of KTMB I still enjoy the train. Another thing that I really wanted to do is to take a day off, along with my trusted Nikon, to spend the whole day along the route to take photographs of commuters, train and the stations. That would be neat.
Another realization for today was that a few of my friends are taking the train to work. However, our schedules are different and we have not had the opportunity to ‘bump’ into each other. Nevertheless knowing that made me glad. I have been taking the train to work for two years already now and I still could not find a time when I did not like it. Even with the frequent incompetence of KTMB I still enjoy the train. Another thing that I really wanted to do is to take a day off, along with my trusted Nikon, to spend the whole day along the route to take photographs of commuters, train and the stations. That would be neat.
Friday, January 26, 2007
First Time at Fraser’s Hill - Part 2
Second Day – Feb. 10, 05
It was Maal Hijrah, the new Islamic calendar year for Muslims, and I woke up a bit late. After saying my prayer I put on my jogging attire and off I went jogging around Fraser’s Hill. It was a nice jog through thick fog up and down the road. I managed to complete the whole circle as it was like jogging during the Falls in Syracuse. Not that many people on the road I only met two families walking and a jogger doing yoga stand at one of the tourist stop areas. When I got back to the condo I sat down to have breakfast with the family. As I sat outside at the balcony eating I could feel the cold breeze blowing continuously. I thought it was just the morning weather but the situation persisted and dark clouds lingered on the horizon. One moment like it was going to rain and a moment later a clear sky. I thought we were going for a swim again but looking at the weather and knowing the water would be too cold for us we just stayed in until 4.30pm when we went out to check Fraser’s Hill again.
We went back to the square and ‘lepak’ there until maghrib. My daughter, Kak Cik, and I armed with our camera roamed the square for good shots. We managed a few.
Back at the condo, as usual, we cooked our dinner.
We planned to leave early the next day so everyone turn in a bit early.
Third Day – Feb 11, 05
All of us woke up or forced to wake up early. By 7.30am all of us were ready and immediately loaded out cars with the luggage. Our timing was perfect as we reached the gate it was 8 am and the green light was on for us to immediately proceed downhill. The drive down was pleasant for me. I switched off the ‘aircon’ and let the cool breeze from outside hit my face. I love zig-zagging down towards Gap at that instance as I just free the gear and let the momentum push our truck downwards.
Our plan was to make a stop at the waterfalls at Pertak to take a long cold dip. Long as in a long time coming and for a long period of time. There were two families already there when we reached the place at around 9 am. I presumed, based on their tents, one family had actually camped for the night the night before. The waterfall was one of the best in terms of setting and the depth of the water pool but as usual, I was frustrated to see pathetic Malaysian were displaying signs of immaturity. Rubbish of all sorts were strewn around the area and practically spoilt the area. I could not help but understood why Allah wrath were set upon time and time again. We basically spoilt all His gifts with our stupidity. I actually made my feeling known to my family loudly and I honestly did not mind if the rest there overheard what I said. I was basically fed up with the situation. After a few hours of swimming, we sped home.
So how do I rate Fraser’s Hill?
Well, only if I have something to write and need a quiet place with less distraction I’ll go there again. Apart from that, I do not think so. One thing I do not understand is how come they could not develop the place like Cameron Highland. I am not saying they should do a carbon copy of Cameron Highland but certainly, they could do something to bring more life to the place. A few attractions would do well for the place where at least people can relax and enjoy with their family.
It was Maal Hijrah, the new Islamic calendar year for Muslims, and I woke up a bit late. After saying my prayer I put on my jogging attire and off I went jogging around Fraser’s Hill. It was a nice jog through thick fog up and down the road. I managed to complete the whole circle as it was like jogging during the Falls in Syracuse. Not that many people on the road I only met two families walking and a jogger doing yoga stand at one of the tourist stop areas. When I got back to the condo I sat down to have breakfast with the family. As I sat outside at the balcony eating I could feel the cold breeze blowing continuously. I thought it was just the morning weather but the situation persisted and dark clouds lingered on the horizon. One moment like it was going to rain and a moment later a clear sky. I thought we were going for a swim again but looking at the weather and knowing the water would be too cold for us we just stayed in until 4.30pm when we went out to check Fraser’s Hill again.
We went back to the square and ‘lepak’ there until maghrib. My daughter, Kak Cik, and I armed with our camera roamed the square for good shots. We managed a few.
Back at the condo, as usual, we cooked our dinner.
We planned to leave early the next day so everyone turn in a bit early.
Third Day – Feb 11, 05
All of us woke up or forced to wake up early. By 7.30am all of us were ready and immediately loaded out cars with the luggage. Our timing was perfect as we reached the gate it was 8 am and the green light was on for us to immediately proceed downhill. The drive down was pleasant for me. I switched off the ‘aircon’ and let the cool breeze from outside hit my face. I love zig-zagging down towards Gap at that instance as I just free the gear and let the momentum push our truck downwards.
Our plan was to make a stop at the waterfalls at Pertak to take a long cold dip. Long as in a long time coming and for a long period of time. There were two families already there when we reached the place at around 9 am. I presumed, based on their tents, one family had actually camped for the night the night before. The waterfall was one of the best in terms of setting and the depth of the water pool but as usual, I was frustrated to see pathetic Malaysian were displaying signs of immaturity. Rubbish of all sorts were strewn around the area and practically spoilt the area. I could not help but understood why Allah wrath were set upon time and time again. We basically spoilt all His gifts with our stupidity. I actually made my feeling known to my family loudly and I honestly did not mind if the rest there overheard what I said. I was basically fed up with the situation. After a few hours of swimming, we sped home.
So how do I rate Fraser’s Hill?
Well, only if I have something to write and need a quiet place with less distraction I’ll go there again. Apart from that, I do not think so. One thing I do not understand is how come they could not develop the place like Cameron Highland. I am not saying they should do a carbon copy of Cameron Highland but certainly, they could do something to bring more life to the place. A few attractions would do well for the place where at least people can relax and enjoy with their family.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
First Time at Fraser’s Hill - Part 1
First Day – Feb 9, 05
I was really surprised to be notified immediately that my booking for Bank’s resorts at Fraser’s Hill was approved. I was just trying my luck as I did not know what to do for the long Chinese New Year long weekend. I was browsing the list of the resort the day before and one item stands out was Fraser’s Hill as I have never been there and I thought it would be good for me to check it out this time.
Ngah and family came to the house shortly after 9 am and together we left the house at almost 9.30 am for Fraser’s Hill. Along decided to stay behind as I understood he wanted to spend his holidays with his friends. I can understand that as when I was his age I did the same. I purposely took the old, it is certainly the same old route but definitely not and old road, trunk road to Kuala Kubu. So much have changed along the way but the traffic is still the same. I took the trunk road firstly trying to avoid the highway as I tend to speed on the highway as I wanted to take it slow and easy to Fraser’s Hill. Secondly, I wanted to see what sorts of developments have taken place along the way. They are a lot. And thirdly, I knew there will be a lot of traffic roadblocks along the way and it would be easier for me to be aware of them if I were to drive on the trunk road. On the highway, I could be careless. By 11.30 am we were already passing Kuala Kubu and climbing towards Fraser’s Hill. The road still winding and my family did not like it. To ease off the long winding travel I stopped at the new Hulu Selangor Dam commercially known as Splash. It was a nice photo break as well. We arrived at the Gap around 12.15pm and it was the turn for the downflow traffic from Fraser’s Hill and our turn going up would be at 1 pm. So we queue our cars on the side and waited. It was a good lesson for my children and I explained to them what was going on.
I did not expect too much from Fraser’s Hill as I knew it is just another hill resort to relax and it is not Cameron Highland. What I like about it though was the colonial feel that it projects through its old building. Somehow it manages to project a sense of nice and cosy small place. Feels like you want to be tucked at a corner somewhere within it. That’s how I felt when we approach the Fraser’s Hill gate.
My first intention when we arrived up there was to locate Pines Resorts immediately. However, my sense of direction failed me and we ended up going round and round until finally, I saw a sign says Jeriau Water Fall
and I thought the resort was along the way. I was even sure when I saw the Golf Club and Resorts signage. When we got to the entrance of the waterfall I knew I made a mistake and Pines Resort was definitely not there. However, since we were already there at the waterfall I decided to check it out and my children and their cousins decided to take a swim. The place is a bit too far for my wife to walk to from the parking lot so I drove her and my sister-in-law to Pines Resorts. Kakak, Imah and Dibah decided to follow us and I left Kak Cik and Baqir with Fatah and An at the fall. I managed to locate Pines Resort on the first try as I decided to ask somebody and when I go to the junction I saw the signage and I wondered how come I missed that before.
The three-room condo was more than enough for two families so we laboured our luggage up to the top floor (C17). Mainly it was me exercising myself going up and down carrying them. Around 4 pm I drove back to the fall to pick up the rest and when I got there they were done with swimming and ready to go. So we drove back to the condo and relax for a few hours until my wife said, ‘Don’t we want to go out and explore the place? Just a few minutes after 6pm we drove out with no definite direction. We just drove around to check the place and we passed BNM Bungalow that is so secluded that I do not want to stay there unless we have a platoon of relatives with us. There were a lot of nice holiday homes owned by corporations and a few by, no doubt, rich and famous. We actually passed the nice home of a couple featured in the newspaper not so long time ago. It was put up for sale and I stopped to have a look. I could not see much from the road but by the look of it, it is nice. But even if I have the money I would not be buying it – too secluded for my wife liking. In the end, we stopped at the town square, there is no town in Bukit Fraser anyway, and walked about taking photos at the famous clock, buying stuff and window shop. We went back to the condo just before Maghrib.
I was really surprised to be notified immediately that my booking for Bank’s resorts at Fraser’s Hill was approved. I was just trying my luck as I did not know what to do for the long Chinese New Year long weekend. I was browsing the list of the resort the day before and one item stands out was Fraser’s Hill as I have never been there and I thought it would be good for me to check it out this time.
Ngah and family came to the house shortly after 9 am and together we left the house at almost 9.30 am for Fraser’s Hill. Along decided to stay behind as I understood he wanted to spend his holidays with his friends. I can understand that as when I was his age I did the same. I purposely took the old, it is certainly the same old route but definitely not and old road, trunk road to Kuala Kubu. So much have changed along the way but the traffic is still the same. I took the trunk road firstly trying to avoid the highway as I tend to speed on the highway as I wanted to take it slow and easy to Fraser’s Hill. Secondly, I wanted to see what sorts of developments have taken place along the way. They are a lot. And thirdly, I knew there will be a lot of traffic roadblocks along the way and it would be easier for me to be aware of them if I were to drive on the trunk road. On the highway, I could be careless. By 11.30 am we were already passing Kuala Kubu and climbing towards Fraser’s Hill. The road still winding and my family did not like it. To ease off the long winding travel I stopped at the new Hulu Selangor Dam commercially known as Splash. It was a nice photo break as well. We arrived at the Gap around 12.15pm and it was the turn for the downflow traffic from Fraser’s Hill and our turn going up would be at 1 pm. So we queue our cars on the side and waited. It was a good lesson for my children and I explained to them what was going on.
I did not expect too much from Fraser’s Hill as I knew it is just another hill resort to relax and it is not Cameron Highland. What I like about it though was the colonial feel that it projects through its old building. Somehow it manages to project a sense of nice and cosy small place. Feels like you want to be tucked at a corner somewhere within it. That’s how I felt when we approach the Fraser’s Hill gate.My first intention when we arrived up there was to locate Pines Resorts immediately. However, my sense of direction failed me and we ended up going round and round until finally, I saw a sign says Jeriau Water Fall
and I thought the resort was along the way. I was even sure when I saw the Golf Club and Resorts signage. When we got to the entrance of the waterfall I knew I made a mistake and Pines Resort was definitely not there. However, since we were already there at the waterfall I decided to check it out and my children and their cousins decided to take a swim. The place is a bit too far for my wife to walk to from the parking lot so I drove her and my sister-in-law to Pines Resorts. Kakak, Imah and Dibah decided to follow us and I left Kak Cik and Baqir with Fatah and An at the fall. I managed to locate Pines Resort on the first try as I decided to ask somebody and when I go to the junction I saw the signage and I wondered how come I missed that before.
The three-room condo was more than enough for two families so we laboured our luggage up to the top floor (C17). Mainly it was me exercising myself going up and down carrying them. Around 4 pm I drove back to the fall to pick up the rest and when I got there they were done with swimming and ready to go. So we drove back to the condo and relax for a few hours until my wife said, ‘Don’t we want to go out and explore the place? Just a few minutes after 6pm we drove out with no definite direction. We just drove around to check the place and we passed BNM Bungalow that is so secluded that I do not want to stay there unless we have a platoon of relatives with us. There were a lot of nice holiday homes owned by corporations and a few by, no doubt, rich and famous. We actually passed the nice home of a couple featured in the newspaper not so long time ago. It was put up for sale and I stopped to have a look. I could not see much from the road but by the look of it, it is nice. But even if I have the money I would not be buying it – too secluded for my wife liking. In the end, we stopped at the town square, there is no town in Bukit Fraser anyway, and walked about taking photos at the famous clock, buying stuff and window shop. We went back to the condo just before Maghrib.
On The Train. Mar 11, 2005: Blink: book review
Just after Kajang on the way home, I finished reading Blink. Out of 10, I rate the book 7. The content is 7 because of the refreshing ideas and although some of them are not new, Blink brings new perspectives to the idea of decision making. I give an 8 for the style of writing as I like the way the ideas unfolded by way of stories. Factual stories. It could have been better if not for the author’s inclination towards repeating or putting too much to explain his ideas. 7 also go to the physical size of the book.
I was on an early morning neighbourhood watch this morning between 3-5am and very sleepy. The moment I sat down on the train I primed my subconscious mind to wake up at KL Sentral as I was going to PJ for a meeting. Soon enough I was ‘knocked out’ for the rest of the journey and was awake just as the train was approaching the tunnel going into the belly of KL Sentral station. Yes, I would have loved to see more people reading on the train rather than sleeping but no one knows why ones sleep on the train for sure. On the way home I was expecting another packed train as it was the start of one week school holidays. Instead, it was the opposite of yesterday. As I was so engrossed trying to finish Blink I did not see anything that happened around me which is better for everyone else on the train. :)))
Norita's Wedding and a journey of nostalgic fool
Nov. 29, 2003
Our plan was to pack everything for home and travel to Temerloh for Norita's wedding before backtracking to KL. The weather was gloomy as usual but I woke up early nonetheless. As soon as daylight broke in I resurrected my old Komander Muda kawat diRaja voices and yelled everyone up. Of course, there were few ears that were immune to this that required personal yelling sessions. After breakfast, everyone went around doing their own things – packing and collecting flowers, fruits, vegetables and such to take home to decorate, or at least trying to, our new home. It so happened that my sister, her family and my mum were also going to Temerloh to a different wedding that morning, so everyone was busy. Around 11 am we left Kg Gali Tengah, Raub after saying goodbye to everyone.
I took the Mempaga route and came out at Lanchang. On nearing Mentakab due to the continuous rain I made a pit stop at one Petronas Gas Station. As I made the turn into Temerloh - Jerantut Highway, I can call it a highway now as the road is excellently new, I was amazed by the changes. The other main reason why I persisted in going to the wedding was to take my family along this route. I could still remember vividly in 1975 or 1976 when my brother and I passed along this route to Jerantut from Kuantan. Way back then if you were going back to Raub from Kuantan you only had two options. Either you take a taxi to Temerloh and continue with the journey 'naik bas loncat- loncat' to Bentong and subsequently to Raub. The other option, which was our most frequent – the reason because my father got his travelling warrant just for this route, was to take the so-called Kuantan – Jerantut `Express' through Maran, and all the Jengka precincts complete with all the winding and river crossings all that you want. There was indeed one portion of the journey that we had to cross Pahang river on a pulled ferry. It was scary the first time but we got to enjoy it after a few times. This whole journey took us almost three quarters of the day and it could make the toughest weak when you get to Jerantut, especially if you were the type that has this travelling sickness, which was common back then due to poor transportation and road condition. I mean when you alighted at Jerantut your knees started to shake, sometimes violently, that you need support just to stand upright. As for us, we got immuned to all of these and at the age of 9, I am already a veteran of such journey.
The main consolation of travelling by buses back then was the journey really presented you with the best opportunity to look at different, sometimes remote, places. The best time was when you were travelling during fruits seasons around July – August. You could see all colours throughout the journey as well as locals selling their produce along the road. I miss all that now.
That particular journey with my brother was the first trip home on our own. The reason our parents allowed us to do that because a different bus company had just started a real express route from Kuantan to Jerantut via Termerloh along the just completed Temerloh – Jerantut trunk road passing Kerdau, Kuala Krau and all. It is still fresh in my mind when we left Kuantan in the early morning and got to Temerloh – Jerantut stretch by midmorning with the glorious sunshine glimmering within the new Express Bus. I set in front of the entrance and had a full view of the road ahead. Another advantage of sitting there was you got to see all the beautiful country girls on the road and when they got down. Really, the best part was the view of the country that I am not able to see anymore.
Now, as we moved along I can only describe the scenery to my children. I have been for a long time meant to take my family along this route and Norita's wedding invitation presented me with the opportunity, albeit until Kuala Krau. Nonetheless, it was a discovery for all of us.
Around 1 pm we reached Kuala Krau town and I missed the railway station and overshot the town. I turned back and found out that the railway station just snuck nicely on the side. A nondescript location but no doubt the centre of activities during old days as for the place like this was used to evolve around the train schedule. Also, this is another perspective of life from the other side of the train. For so many years during my younger days, Kuala Krau was just another station during my twice a year trip home. Again, looking up from the railway station is another life that you had not expected at all.
As expected finding Norita's house was quite easy-going into a turn I asked somebody in front of the mosque and soon I was parking my truck beside the gate of Sek Men Ugama Darun Naim. There were already crowd going in and out of the premise and we walked navigated by our instinct. Our instinct was right only that we had entered from the back instead of the front.
Nevertheless, we were there and it reminded me of a friend's house in Butterworth that had and address, Rumah Tepi Klinik Bidan, by no means I am commenting the state of Norita's resident but more of and association on my part. A home is still a home to someone, alien to others but the best place on earth for the resident and it is true of Norita's house. Since I could not locate any familiar faces we started to eat. While eating I observed the surrounding and sense that there was something going on and from my observation, I correctly identified Norita's father, mother and brother. I continued eating and the food was something you could not get in KL. After eating we waited for a few minutes, as I knew the pengantin was on his way and about half an hour later he still didn't show up. That was when I made a decision to leave, sorry Norita I can't wait as I was to drive back to KL immediately to beat the traffic, I met Norita's father, bersalaman, bertanya khabar dan meninggalkan pesan, sekiranya ayahanda Norita teringat. I was informed that the pangantin was stuck due to a minor accident on the road. True enough as we drove out we saw the small accident and the pengantin was standing under a yellow umbrella.
Norita, once again we are sorry for not able to wait a little bit longer as we would like to beat the heavy traffic, as well as my baby, has already gone restless in turn making everyone restless as well. Nevertheless, Selamat Pengantin Baru semoga berkekalan sehingga keanak cucu dan Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Bathin. Please send us the photos.
The Birth of Fatimah Mardhiyah
My wife delivered our fifth child on Monday, July 8, 2003 at 2.39 pm, Klinik Wanita AzZahrah, Bangi and this is my experience…..
We have just sent our daughter to school and anxiously drove to the clinic that is nearby in Bangi. The feeling of becoming a father for the fifth time did not seem to ‘sink in’ me yet. But I was thinking hard as I was driving, well within the speed limit, my standard driving speed ever since my wife was four months pregnant. The thought was, ‘probably this is going to be our last child and we have to do it properly’. I mean learning from the experience of raising four kids you bound to learn one or two and you have to do better for this one. The truth is it is not going to be that easy as it has been 8 years for both of us. Can we do this again? That was the question not very far from both of us. I was in fact more worried about my wife, as very soon she had to do the hard part with minimal help from me.
We got to the clinic five minutes to 8 am and straight away went up to the second floor to register and in ten minutes we were already in our room, Siti Umairah, to wait for the doctor. In the meantime, the nurses were making themselves useful on my wife. At 9 am Dr Fatimah came and her assessment was, because of my wife’s age, we should induce the delivery – we?, I thought I have already done my part, the reason my wife was there in the first place was due to my induction…LOL. The Dr said the contraction was minimal so we had to induce my wife by administering a pill inside her. The first one would normally take effect after three hours. If nothing happened she’d take another one and another three hours and if everything still the same after that she’ll take the final one. If that failed after another three hours it’s going to be caesarean. With that words, it brought shiver through my spine. I straight away said my silence prayers – Ya Allah please bless this one with the most wonderful experience for us.
But the Dr had to confirm whether the procedure was required and started to explore my wife. After few minutes she said there was already a 2 cm opening so it meant no induction but proceed to the labour room. What caught my attention were the sacrifice and the suffering – rather the jihad that my wife went through to deliver another human being to this world. I was silently praying for her and I could not possibly understand or felt how she felt going through all that and that was only the beginning. The first level of pain and hardship that she had to go through and more to come.
We were in the labour room on the 1st floor of the building at 9.20 am my wife was relaxed a bit and the contraction became a bit regular but not extensive. The nurse started to put my wife on drips as the water level had decreased. Not long my wife was in pain periodically due to the contractions. Seeing her like that I could only imagine, however how hard I felt it was not the same as my wife’s predicament. The pain began to be so unbearable for my wife that we decided to do an epidural procedure. I’d heard about it but I was not sure what it was. Another Dr, Dr Rohaya was called to carry out the procedure. Unfortunately, the Dr was attending to another patient so we had to wait. The long wait took it toll on me and I was suffering inside looking at my wife. To ease the pain I decided to read but I could not concentrate much.
Dr Rohaya finally came at 11.30 am and started to gently poke my wife again to find out whether she still could apply the procedure on my wife. She discovered there is still time so immediately she started on the procedure. Dr Rohaya began to explain the procedure and the effect of it and we consented. I tell you I was really worried for my wife as the procedure was just like a spinal procedure and I know how painful that is. Thanks to Allah the Dr used anaesthetics (sp betul ke ni?). Basically, the procedure started with the Dr applying the anaesthetics just next to the spine above the hip. Then, the Dr used a 6 inches catheter (spelling?) pushed it slowly inside, my jaw was clamped tight when I saw this, once the thing about a quarter through the Dr slowly pushed in a small tube for the medicine to go through and a long small tube was left hanging out of my wife’s back and connected to the drip system. The tube was nicely taped horizontally up my wife’s back and came out over her shoulder. At that moment my wife had one drip on her hand and another tube sticking out of her back. I do not know about you but seeing her like that I could not understand how some husbands could treat their wife like dirt or shit. I was humbled by that experience I took things for granted sometimes now I know I love my wife even more. In ten minutes the medicine took effect and my wife began to relax. She told me that she almost felt nothing during contraction, later that proved to be my misgiving, and we enjoyed the wait together. In the meantime the nurse monitored my wife’s contraction through the machine. We waited for almost two hours and I got bored. The labour room was not out of this world in terms of setting but it was soothing and relaxing. This was being enhanced by the Quran recital played by the nurse. Soon after we heard the azan from the nearby mosque and I have to decide whether I should go out and pray first or wait. I do not have to wait long to decide. The nurse checked my wife and informed us that the opening was already 8 cm. So I thought it took two hours for the 6 cm and I figured my wife should take another two hours to deliver. I decided to say my Zohor and went out.
After I said my prayer I walked into the labour room smiling, the door was opened so I thought my wife was still waiting. I was so eager to witness the miracle of birth and that I was overjoyed with the anticipation. But, I was in for a surprise, I was wrong as I approached the bed walked around the curtain I saw my wife was already in her position to deliver and Dr Fatimah was in the midst of stitching her up. Dr Fatimah said they had just finished and the baby was being washed in the next room. At that point in time, I was the most frustrated father in the world. I was happy that everything went well but I was really sad that I could not witness my daughter being born. My first thought was this could not be the last one and we have to have another. However, when I saw my wife in agony and very tired I cursed myself for being selfish. I looked at her and thanked Allah for everything.
Four times in my life I watched miracle happening with my own eyes and somehow this one is extra special. As I approached my daughter her eyes were already opened wide and she looked straight at me. I smiled and the joy inside of me could not be explained. I was really happy to see her and started to takbir and recite salawat into her ears. I called out her name, Fatimah Mardhiyah, and I was very sure I saw she smiled. Still grinning from ear to ear I picked her up and started to azan her. Then I told her, ‘Kenapa adik tak tunggu Abah. Adik mesti marah dekat Abah ni sebab Abah ingat boy yang keluar tapi cayang ucuk Fatimah Mardhiyah yang muncul.’ Even after four kids I was like a first time father and I love to have another go. Well, if only my wife is up for it…LOL
Holding her and smiling at her I just could not simply comprehend how some fathers could be so cruel toward their children. It is beyond me indeed. I guess they have to witness the whole thing to appreciate human being more. The public hospital should allow fathers into the delivery rooms.
I took my daughter to my wife and both of them looked wonderful and beautiful to me. I was blessed…..AllahuAkbar Alhamdulilah
That day the whole world smiled with me…………
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Zaza's Wedding, June 7, 2003
It was another wedding weekend for us and I bet for so many Malaysians as well. The only ‘nuisance’ they were all not my wedding…LOL. My wife will clobber me with this statement but then again she may just let me sleep outside. That is even worse…LOL.
Anyway, I love to go to a wedding for reasons that I want to share with you all. If you backtrack for a few years and observe how a wedding was organized in the old days you’ll know what I mean. It is a time when the whole kampong will get together and collaboratively make a wedding the most memorable for the ‘pengantin’. It is a time for the family to get together, from afar they will come to stay for a week to help up and catch-up on each other, cousins (like I used to) will discuss how ones have grown and do new things in life and also matchmaking on the part of aunties and grandmas for their sons and daughters. This normally would result in another wedding do the following year. Of course not to mention some of our own endeavors to become Romeo as we discovered (our hormone as well) some of our cousins and long relatives turn up to be a princess. A lot of your female cousins will be eyeing you as well, albeit behind curtains and while you were helping out with manly things like chopping woods and getting the tent ready. Some times it became so obvious to our uncles and aunties that everyone laughed at our antics. So rajin one buat kerja, kalau angkat kayu pun yang paling besar, kalau panjat pokok yang paling tinggi and all trying to prove that we are MAN. Especially kalau our female relatives pass by…LOL
At night soon you’ll discover which of your female cousins that really can cook and do some of the creative works preparing the pelamin and other decorative things. Childish it may seem but you can see male cousins tripping at one another to win certain hearts. The best of all, for me at least, a wedding is also the time when most ‘kampung’ beauties came out. Not once or twice I wondered where they have been hiding all the while. When I was 15 – 20 years old wedding in my kampong is something that I really looked forward too. Two reasons – Babe and Gulai Umbut Kelapa …LOL
A wedding also brings together long lost friends and the sight they were crying at seeing one another was great. Great for humanity and great to laugh at, I mean to laugh in a good way….laa! Nowadays, a wedding could be a business to certain people or business-like, especially weddings in the city, with not much feeling and emotion to go around. Also, weddings, no matter how far it is now, are accessible to most Malaysians. I mean I have been to weddings in KK, Melaka, Pahang and Ipoh in a single journey without breaking a sweat. In the old days when travelling from KL to Klang took one full day you have to really plan your wedding travels. On the part of those planning for weddings they really have to choose the right time, normally the long school holiday at the end of the year, and you can never have two weddings in a week. If not we have to go to tribal council to sort this out. If the bride or bridegroom happens to be from another state, well simply, you’ll have a preparation like the whole clan is going to Mekah. No kidding!!!! Well at least from where I came from anyway.
I have three invitations last weekend; two, Seremban and Melaka, on Saturday and one, Bangi, on Sunday. The one in Seremban came late and I said would try to attend provided I could do it on the way to Melaka. So, that Saturday morning we woke up early and departed from the house at 8 am. As usual, we stopped for breakfast first and proceeded to the Plus Highway. When we got to the highway the traffic was already quite heavy but I didn’t suspect anything worse and we drove down south. I zigzagged the truck down south and made a turn when we reached the Seri Putera/Bukit Mahkota interchange as we have planned to stop at our new house to check on the repairs that the developer was doing. The house was 70% repaired but there still works to be done before we could move in. The contractor promised me a week. At 11 am we reentered the highway and the traffic was getting worse, still I could zigzag through. However, we were confronted with our biggest fear when we got to Nilai. The three-lane highway was a crawl and my guess was until Seremban. I was right of course and we only managed to pass Senawang at 1 pm and it was too late to stop at Senawang for our first invitation. I floored the accelerator and sped our way towards Melaka.
After so many trips to Melaka, I was quite familiar with the direction to Zaza’s place and headed towards Umbai as soon as we passed ‘ Samy Velu’s’ Collection Center at Air Keroh (It was RM11.70 from Seri Putera). I tried to speed through the traffic full of holidaymakers packing the Air Keroh resorts, entertainment and visitation area. I did this not trying to be another Schumacher but because of the heat that proved to be a little bit too hot for my little Mardhiyah. We reached Zaza’s Kampong in no time and in fact, my son and daughter commented that they saw a wedding indicator that said Zarina’s wedding. I said let us pass on a bit further up to make sure. As indicated in Zaza’s plan we came to Kg Pulai’s masjid and right in between the masjid and the pusat kesihatan was a wedding celebration going on full steam. For some reasons, I could not remember Zaza’s full name and I said to my children Zaza’s name was Zainab Abd Rahman and it could not be the house at it says Zarina Abd Rahman. Of course, for once I was wrong so much so my children and my wife made a celebration out of it…LOL. Anyway, once I parked our truck in front of the masjid Nazri came to say salam. He and Huda, in fact, had just arrived themselves and stationed themselves in the masjid waiting for someone that supposes to be there earlier. (I tak nak sebut nama nanti dia marah I). Since Zaza’s place is crowded with people due to the just arrived pengantin lelaki we decided to join Nazri and Huda in the masjid to cool off. We only walked to the house after about 15 minutes of waiting. Nazri and Huda, being a true friend, decided to wait for ‘the friend’ before walking over. Zaza and her new hubby were at the main table eating, not really, more like smiling and with ‘am I suppose to do this or look like this’ look on their faces. Actually, my wife was the first to acknowledge the location of the newlywed and when I looked up to look;
Zaza was smiling and waving at me. Not wanting to disturb Zaza we sat down at a table to be served. While waiting for the food Zaza further acknowledged my presence by sending a ‘messenger’ over to present me with special ‘momento’. She, the messenger, actually asked me first whether I was Zaza’s lecturer and I said I was. Frankly speaking, the greatest recognition that anybody could give me is when they called me ‘lecturer’ or ‘teacher’. I felt honoured with that recognition. Even though I spent only about three months with you guys sharing what I know you still call me that and I am touched. I hope back then I could spend more time with all of you and I did get to share even more with those that have taken KM in their Master's programme. When we finished eating we walked into the house to meet the pengantin to say goodbye and both of them were busy sitting on the pelamin taking photographs with other guests. There they were smiling looking so grand in their light blue attire ‘mengerlip-ngerlip, nasib baik tak light and easy, at the pelamin. Our turn finally came and we placed our selves and our best smiles to be captured as Zaza’ wedding photos collection. We wished them all the best and walked out of the house towards the masjid to Jama’ our prayers. Kesian kat Nazri and Huda, they were still there waiting and in fact were still waiting when we left the masjid for home. BTW, I met Maz and her ‘tunang’ at the masjid and she gave me her premature wedding invitation which would be at the end of the year in Butterworth. InshaAllah!
I knew I was a bit tired even before we drove down to Melaka and the situation was made worse by traffic jam waiting for us on the main road. As we suspected it was due to an overturned lorry just before Pernu’s Ikan Bakar’s junction. We saw the carnage when we drove through to Zaza’s place. We were a bit lucky we were on the other side of the road as there was a longer queue for traffic coming from Melaka. My first remark was ‘kesian Nazri and Huda kena tunggu lama lagi la’ as I was very sure the friend that they were waiting for must be stuck in that queue. As for us, I made a detour at Sg Duyong for my children to visit Perigi Hang Tuah and for me to sleep…LOL.
We finally arrived home at 11 pm, 11pm! You may ask. Well, if you know me, while I am travelling I like to take full advantage of it and detour here and it is quite common. However, I am afraid they would be too boring to share with you all here
Anyway, I love to go to a wedding for reasons that I want to share with you all. If you backtrack for a few years and observe how a wedding was organized in the old days you’ll know what I mean. It is a time when the whole kampong will get together and collaboratively make a wedding the most memorable for the ‘pengantin’. It is a time for the family to get together, from afar they will come to stay for a week to help up and catch-up on each other, cousins (like I used to) will discuss how ones have grown and do new things in life and also matchmaking on the part of aunties and grandmas for their sons and daughters. This normally would result in another wedding do the following year. Of course not to mention some of our own endeavors to become Romeo as we discovered (our hormone as well) some of our cousins and long relatives turn up to be a princess. A lot of your female cousins will be eyeing you as well, albeit behind curtains and while you were helping out with manly things like chopping woods and getting the tent ready. Some times it became so obvious to our uncles and aunties that everyone laughed at our antics. So rajin one buat kerja, kalau angkat kayu pun yang paling besar, kalau panjat pokok yang paling tinggi and all trying to prove that we are MAN. Especially kalau our female relatives pass by…LOL
At night soon you’ll discover which of your female cousins that really can cook and do some of the creative works preparing the pelamin and other decorative things. Childish it may seem but you can see male cousins tripping at one another to win certain hearts. The best of all, for me at least, a wedding is also the time when most ‘kampung’ beauties came out. Not once or twice I wondered where they have been hiding all the while. When I was 15 – 20 years old wedding in my kampong is something that I really looked forward too. Two reasons – Babe and Gulai Umbut Kelapa …LOL
A wedding also brings together long lost friends and the sight they were crying at seeing one another was great. Great for humanity and great to laugh at, I mean to laugh in a good way….laa! Nowadays, a wedding could be a business to certain people or business-like, especially weddings in the city, with not much feeling and emotion to go around. Also, weddings, no matter how far it is now, are accessible to most Malaysians. I mean I have been to weddings in KK, Melaka, Pahang and Ipoh in a single journey without breaking a sweat. In the old days when travelling from KL to Klang took one full day you have to really plan your wedding travels. On the part of those planning for weddings they really have to choose the right time, normally the long school holiday at the end of the year, and you can never have two weddings in a week. If not we have to go to tribal council to sort this out. If the bride or bridegroom happens to be from another state, well simply, you’ll have a preparation like the whole clan is going to Mekah. No kidding!!!! Well at least from where I came from anyway.
I have three invitations last weekend; two, Seremban and Melaka, on Saturday and one, Bangi, on Sunday. The one in Seremban came late and I said would try to attend provided I could do it on the way to Melaka. So, that Saturday morning we woke up early and departed from the house at 8 am. As usual, we stopped for breakfast first and proceeded to the Plus Highway. When we got to the highway the traffic was already quite heavy but I didn’t suspect anything worse and we drove down south. I zigzagged the truck down south and made a turn when we reached the Seri Putera/Bukit Mahkota interchange as we have planned to stop at our new house to check on the repairs that the developer was doing. The house was 70% repaired but there still works to be done before we could move in. The contractor promised me a week. At 11 am we reentered the highway and the traffic was getting worse, still I could zigzag through. However, we were confronted with our biggest fear when we got to Nilai. The three-lane highway was a crawl and my guess was until Seremban. I was right of course and we only managed to pass Senawang at 1 pm and it was too late to stop at Senawang for our first invitation. I floored the accelerator and sped our way towards Melaka.
After so many trips to Melaka, I was quite familiar with the direction to Zaza’s place and headed towards Umbai as soon as we passed ‘ Samy Velu’s’ Collection Center at Air Keroh (It was RM11.70 from Seri Putera). I tried to speed through the traffic full of holidaymakers packing the Air Keroh resorts, entertainment and visitation area. I did this not trying to be another Schumacher but because of the heat that proved to be a little bit too hot for my little Mardhiyah. We reached Zaza’s Kampong in no time and in fact, my son and daughter commented that they saw a wedding indicator that said Zarina’s wedding. I said let us pass on a bit further up to make sure. As indicated in Zaza’s plan we came to Kg Pulai’s masjid and right in between the masjid and the pusat kesihatan was a wedding celebration going on full steam. For some reasons, I could not remember Zaza’s full name and I said to my children Zaza’s name was Zainab Abd Rahman and it could not be the house at it says Zarina Abd Rahman. Of course, for once I was wrong so much so my children and my wife made a celebration out of it…LOL. Anyway, once I parked our truck in front of the masjid Nazri came to say salam. He and Huda, in fact, had just arrived themselves and stationed themselves in the masjid waiting for someone that supposes to be there earlier. (I tak nak sebut nama nanti dia marah I). Since Zaza’s place is crowded with people due to the just arrived pengantin lelaki we decided to join Nazri and Huda in the masjid to cool off. We only walked to the house after about 15 minutes of waiting. Nazri and Huda, being a true friend, decided to wait for ‘the friend’ before walking over. Zaza and her new hubby were at the main table eating, not really, more like smiling and with ‘am I suppose to do this or look like this’ look on their faces. Actually, my wife was the first to acknowledge the location of the newlywed and when I looked up to look;
Zaza was smiling and waving at me. Not wanting to disturb Zaza we sat down at a table to be served. While waiting for the food Zaza further acknowledged my presence by sending a ‘messenger’ over to present me with special ‘momento’. She, the messenger, actually asked me first whether I was Zaza’s lecturer and I said I was. Frankly speaking, the greatest recognition that anybody could give me is when they called me ‘lecturer’ or ‘teacher’. I felt honoured with that recognition. Even though I spent only about three months with you guys sharing what I know you still call me that and I am touched. I hope back then I could spend more time with all of you and I did get to share even more with those that have taken KM in their Master's programme. When we finished eating we walked into the house to meet the pengantin to say goodbye and both of them were busy sitting on the pelamin taking photographs with other guests. There they were smiling looking so grand in their light blue attire ‘mengerlip-ngerlip, nasib baik tak light and easy, at the pelamin. Our turn finally came and we placed our selves and our best smiles to be captured as Zaza’ wedding photos collection. We wished them all the best and walked out of the house towards the masjid to Jama’ our prayers. Kesian kat Nazri and Huda, they were still there waiting and in fact were still waiting when we left the masjid for home. BTW, I met Maz and her ‘tunang’ at the masjid and she gave me her premature wedding invitation which would be at the end of the year in Butterworth. InshaAllah!I knew I was a bit tired even before we drove down to Melaka and the situation was made worse by traffic jam waiting for us on the main road. As we suspected it was due to an overturned lorry just before Pernu’s Ikan Bakar’s junction. We saw the carnage when we drove through to Zaza’s place. We were a bit lucky we were on the other side of the road as there was a longer queue for traffic coming from Melaka. My first remark was ‘kesian Nazri and Huda kena tunggu lama lagi la’ as I was very sure the friend that they were waiting for must be stuck in that queue. As for us, I made a detour at Sg Duyong for my children to visit Perigi Hang Tuah and for me to sleep…LOL.
We finally arrived home at 11 pm, 11pm! You may ask. Well, if you know me, while I am travelling I like to take full advantage of it and detour here and it is quite common. However, I am afraid they would be too boring to share with you all here
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