Life is but a dream ……

Apabila bermulanya tindakbalas kimia, komposis empat akan melepaskan berbagai jenis gas termasuk nitrogen dan karbon monoksida.

Kumpulan gas-gas itu akan mengembang dengan amat pantas pada kelajuan sekitar 26,400 kaki sesaat (8,050 m/s), dan memberi tenaga yang teramat kuat kepada persekitarannya. Dengan kadar pengembangan yang sebegini cepat hampir mustahil untuk berjaya lari dan menyelamatkan diri dari kesan letupan ini.

Macam dalam cerita Swordfish.

Especially not if you are involved in this one. Memalukan agama, bangsa dan negara saja la korang ni.

Hadrat Ali رضى الله تعالى عنه reports that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, ‘When a Muslim visits his sick Muslim brother in the morning, seventy thousand angels make doa for his forgiveness till the evening. And when he visits him in the evening, seventy thousand angels make doa for his forgiveness till the morning, and he will be granted a garden for it in Jannah.’ [Timizi, Abu Dawood]

Life’s back to normal as soon as I landed at the KLIA, after 6 days in the sub continent.

I said to Danny my fellow colleague traveling from IGI, "Syukur alhamdulillah, Dan. Seronoknya dapat balik ke Malaysia."

And suddenly I realised that how much more beautiful is our country. How fortunate to have a country like ours (well …. despite being the most unfortunate, and the most wretched by having si BODolah around).

This week besides doing the things I do at the office or out of it, I visited 2 sick persons. One is my customer who just had a heart double bypass surgery at SJMC. Know what, during the procedure his heart has to be stopped first. Thank God, he’s ok. His surgeon is the one that did Tun’s.

The other is my office mate. He is a single guy and stays alone. When on Tuesday, he did not turn up at the office, his colleagues get worried and called his sister, who said that he didn’t answer her call since Saturday. On intuition the colleague got the house keys from his sister and rush to the house and found that he was in comatose and just now at Friday 5.00 pm when saw him at SMC he’s still in the same condition.

So …. life is indeed short. Suddenly, all the things that we are pursuing day and night, become meaningless if one faces this sort of calamity.

Anyway, moral of the story is that … take life easy. Always, must be the very vasvavoom. Rileks la beb. Nak dikejar apapun sangat. Yang penting ialah iman dan amal, and off course niat yang ikhlas.

Take care dear gentle readers.

p/s: God willing I’ll get the 70k doas for forgiveness (I’m in dire need of those doas ..) from the malaikat for the bypass visit. For the 2nd visit to my comatose friend I wouldn’t be so sure as he’s not a Muslim brother (yet).

Delhi

I’ve seen this before from afar, 17 years ago.  This time, I’ve got to go in and embrace the grandiose of the Red Fort complex. Built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (he did the Taj Mahal as well) in 1639 AD, the whole structure is massive and impressive.

Imagine this. The Kota Darul Ehsan, the biggest arch in Malaysia along the Federal Highway, to be extended the whole of PJ. Plus a whole lot of palaces, mosques, pavilions, courtyards, apartments etc. within the complex.

Words simply cannot justify Lal Qila (a.k.a. the Red Fort) existence. Well, maybe they can. A Persian poet Amir Khusro couplet inscribed in the palace within the Red Fort "If there is any paradise on the face of the earth, it is this, it is this, it is this".

Gurgaon

They put me in a decent hotel at a rate of RM750 ++ per night. I said ‘decent’ because the other Malaysians travelling with us were in another hotel where they were charged for more than RM1000 ++ per night. I thot that I’ll get a personal butler with that rate, but was made to known that’s the normal rate for a 5-star here.

Anyway, with a large LCD tv screen, Queen size bed, complimentary this and that, who’s complaining. They even crisply ironed my cuff-linked shirts. And the idiot box came with a 24hr cricket channel, plus all the latest Bollywood stuffs.

It is summer time in Gurgaon. The temperature is lower than expected at just about 30 degree C. There’s some scattered shower as well. The sun rises at 5.22 am. Which means I have to say the Subuh prayer, much much earlier.

The meeting with the EPCC and the end-user went well. We hope to get this project, and I’ll will work hard for this one. I noticed that there’s a lot of nice buildings in Gurgaon. But the roads are really really bad.

There’s people everywhere. You could see the disparity gap. Beside the corporate office where we had the meeting, there’s a slum area where their loo is outside in the open.

I’ve not really travelled a lot, but I do travel more than most people. Travelling with various airlines, to various destinations.

However, the flight that took me to New Delhi Indra Gandhi International (IGI) airport was a really weird one. It was full of chaos. The buzzer to call for flight attendant assistance was buzzing non-stop. It was liken to a scene of a kapal when about to karam with full of keling on board, a.k.a. like keling karam.

And the smell, I tell you. Or was it the stench.

Pity those nice stewards and stewardess. I even spoke Malay to them, while we mengata on the situation. One time, they purposely shown the fasten-your-seat-belt sign just to have some crowd control.

Next time: Bring few surgical masks when you go on board.

KLIA, Gate H2.

I’m flying off to India (New Delhi, to exact) for some business meetings. It shall be my second visit to this sub-continent country. The first one was ages ago.

I just finished my study in the UK in Summer 1991, and decided not to come home immediately, but embarked in an epic journey throughout Indo-Pak.

Well those days life was really sweet, and carefree too. With my backpack and sleeping bag, my disheveled beard and lean body (not so now …) I was traveling to Karachi, Lahore, NWFP, Delhi, Chennai (previously Madras), etc. etc. My journey was via airplane, train, bus (really bad bus), 4WD, auto rickshaw (three wheeled scooter), bicycle and even donkey cart.

I was eating the street food (they were nice) and had diarrhoea and warded for 6 days. I had my hair cut for 2 rupees (that’s about 20 sen). Shopping at a pasar malam look-alike but which sells guns and weaponry (even mortars, which let me wonder what they are going to do with that).

I met a lot of people and they were all nice people. I personally think that most of the people in this world are nice people, unless circumstances affect them or their loved ones. Then they will react, accordingly. If, they have all their basic needs, and give them the respect and honour their rights, they should be alright. Even some of them will still be nice (especially when they know I’m from Malaysia) though I think they are relatively in dire straits.

After 17 years, I’m looking forward for this trip back to the sub-continent. Though it’s going to be just Delhi, but I think Delhi is enough. There’s a lot to see, and a lot to cherish in 6 days.

God willing, I’ll narrate it all down.

Changi Airport

I was on my way back to KL after making a day trip to my regional office for some discussions.

Actually, I started the day rather early. I woke up at 5ish in the morning. Took a shower. Prepared the things to bring along (nothing actually, except the notebook). Solat. Dressed up. A cup of Milo (or was it Tesco Chocomalt?). A peck on the cheek.

Off to Taman Jaya LRT station.

0635 hrs – Took the LRT to KL Sentral

0705 hrs – Boarded the KLIA Ekspres to KLIA (bought the tickets and exchange some Sing dollars the day before)

0735 hrs – Got in the departure lounge (I already checked-in the day before)

0755 hrs – Flight to downsouth

1000 hrs – Meeting started

1200 hrs  - Adjourned for lunch (I’ll be back late …. its Friday I said to my colleagues)

1300 hrs – Somewhere in Takashimaya looking for my new Dr Marten’s boots (dengan niat jamak…). It’s the Great Singapore Sale for heaven’s sake.

1430 hrs – Back to the office in a jiffy (unlike you ladies, we shop with purpose)

1435 hrs – Sambung discussion balik

Anyway, yeap they got the Batu Putih. And we had our mata berputih. Naik pulak minyak. I have this to say:

“LAH, HANG MEMANG BODO!”

Next week à an Indian Summer