One fine Friday afternoon

One fine Friday afternoon, I found myself at the Sri Mungkal Mosque, Tanjung Ipoh for my Friday prayers. I sat almost at the same time when the khutbah was about to commence. The khatib announced that the title of the khutbah (sermon) would be “AIDS”. I was rather intrigue by the choice of subject matter to be talked about. I was keen to know the substance of it.

My verdict – not bad at all; considering I was back in my kampong. Think about the kind of crowd that the message was channelled to. I wasn’t sure how many were processing as the khatib went on. Silently I was pondering, how far we have come. Sure that we are not liberal country, but who wants that anyway. Thinking far back 20 years ago, we would not imagine the words in the like of “kissing”, “bodily fluid” etc. would stand among the Quranic verses cited as an integral part of the khutbah.

To inject a little fear, the content cited some stats, from one or two isolated cases in Malaysia in 1986, we have so far recorded 80,000 odds HIV+ people in Malaysia at present. It was simply amazing.

Suddenly I took my thought a bit further than that. I think we can use this medium to diffuse knowledge on all sorts of things that impact the society at large regardless of racial background, social status, education background and others. One that is quite close to us is technology impact on us all.

Take for an example – a khutbah around mobile phone use and abuse. That is somewhat simple but the angle can be from the misuse of it. As to date people are misusing the mobile phones to take and circulate obscene pictures using those to blackmail etc. The khutbah can be used to channel guiding principles in using mobile phones and the repercussion around the misuse. At the same time, it would be music to ears of the mobile operators if the khatib reiterate the importance of being a part of this technological shift in life to reap the benefit of it such as to communicate more efficiently.

With that, I am so looking forward to come across my next observation in life and talk about it on this blog.

Back from the long silence

I am pretty much woken up a bit today. There is a spirit in me to reconnect with the virtual world. Anyway, I have abandone this space for a while now - in the name of searching what I want in life, so to speak.

There is so much to share and there's a lot to pen down. For now I will just do a quick summary. After the emotional turbulence mid last year, I have been contemplating to relocate back to be closer to my family/friends. And today, I have found myself securing a job back in Kuala Lumpur and be a part of the citizen of Malaysia once again. There is so much I want to jot around this, but enough said - that I am back in Malaysia for good now.

There have been major milestones. The whole decision of coming back has eaten up most of me. It was not easy. But for the better of me, I needed to make that one decision. It was not easy. Breaking the news to close friends was not easy - for they are a part of my system when I was away from Malaysia. So that is that. So now I have been back for a few months and, I am a part of the system - the jam, the attitude to things, the smell, the ambiance; they all form what I am so familiar with, and I am not making any comparison but to feel blessed that my wish is granted.

Alongside with the decision to come back, I needed to prepare the roof. The house that I bought in Wangsamaju needed renovation before I could go in. Wow, that was a project that I would never forget. I learned a lot from it. What was promised to be 2 months dragged on to close to 5 months. The heartache of it all was - when the contractor threatened to leave the project when he's got 80% of the payment. That was simply madness. But thank God, there are people who are ever so willing to share the burden with me. Here I am today, the house is finished and I am so ready to move in (as a matter of fact I am supposed to be home to fix the IKEA curtain rails this evening. Let's see to that).

This feels really weird. Having to write this long as an entry after ages of hybernation. It feels good really. Along the way, I must think of the context and style of writing. Perhaps I want to take a different approach to writing. I do not know yet. As this is the first entry after years, this is good enough. Ouch, I am late - not only late for curtain fixing, but also dinner plan in Puchong. Yes, of all places, Puchong that is. ;) This is due to the fact that, a friend suggested a steak house close to Tesco. Let's see to that.