Happy Chinese New Year

I see a similarities between Christmas and also CNY, because both also come down to the fundamental of gathering our loved ones together. Last Christmas I knew it will probably the last one most of my friends in MMU will shared together. Although some might still keep in touch but how many will still make time from busy working life is still unknown. Thus last Christmas I spend some time with few of my closest friend in MMU other than my time with my close family.

For CNY, its more to a broader spectrum for me. This time it involve the immediate family, grandparents, aunty, uncles. Not knowing what will next year bring, I am not too sure if this will be the last time that I will take the car down to hometown. 

Talking about hometown, I am not sure what to answer when people asked me that. Some will refer hometown as the place that they born, some is their kampung or where their grandparents are, and some will refer it as home, where their parents and siblings are. But for me, all of these are different places.

So let me rephrase is that this time am going back kampung, where my grandparents or to be more accurate where my grandmas are. But it will be like a drive back memory lane because I will passed by Kuala Krai where I was born and raise till standard 4 before I arrive at Wakaf Bahru where my grandmas are. 

CNY is a lot different already now compared to before. The uhm... is no longer there. Yes I do still anticipate the eve dinner or reunion dinner and then come the first day of the lunar new year, where MOST of the ang pau are collected, then what? It will b a boring spiral where everyone just watch Astro Wah Lai Thoi? 

Moving a lot and staying far have kept me away from mingling with my cousins, and of course the language barrier and the same time with the age gap. As for the older cousin, some already are married and some will go to their friends place for new year visiting, but the younger one, let just say its a bit worrying looking at their trend. Am I being too old and not cool to groove with the young ones? or I see a bleak future for them. I wish I could communicate with them, try and make them understand the importance of education. And with education, it could help their family or at least improve the living of their parents. To be brutally honest, some of my uncles work like hard, doing job that physically demanding, but as age is catching up, how long more can they carry on? I wish my little cousins could understand this. Most of them are either in middle of secondary school or finishing primary school. It never too late to clean up their act and try to improve their grades. Although I am not the best qualified to talk about grades, however I feel getting themself enroll in higher education should be a priority and right now I feel I am the closest that could relate to them. But translating this into a manner that they would understand it seems like almost impossible.

My pre CNY celebration with friends however is  not so bad. Before going back hometown for some, and for me going to continue my FYP part 2, I took or we all took a break from all that project to have some outing to Istana Budaya to watch Mahathir the Musical 2. 

Us with the Director

The girls with their hero

Northen good looks meet East Coast beauty

Yes the 'purposely fall' right Jansen?

 A musical about one of the great leader in the region regardless what is your political point of view is, his contribution is something that nobody can ever deny. Although just 5 of us watching this, I feel its a good thing because all can communicate without any being left out. It was a good night, except for the after effect of the Petai and Ikan Bakar, which is a story for another day. Happy Chinese New Year everyone, may the prosperous luck and abundance of joy hop into your life this new year. 

kenduri!

The first day of the year, lot of people are getting married due to the date of 1.1.11, a meaningful date probably saying that your are the one for me. I have an exciting news too that I received, where one of my close buddy, Amar is planning get engage to his girl friend later this year.

The first thought that come to my mind is, CONGRATULATIONS! as growing up with him since primary although we only get closer in secondary school, we always have a healthy competition to motivate each other, from exams to sports.Good time we have is during form 1 and 2 period where almost every day we played badminton right after school till late evening with another 2 friends of ours, and he used to be my partner. Now we do miss our favorite sport, badminton. 

Throughout the years although we went separate ways as he is studying in UKM and doing IT, and am in MMU doing engineering. We do still keep in touch to hang out, and of course sometimes its understandable that both are busy with our own thing.

Seeing him with his current girlfriend, I know that my friend here is really into this girl compared to other girls he dated before. In my opinion age is not really a matter when it comes to wedding or love. What matters most is the mutual feeling, and to be realistic, financial independence is also key.  Some will marry 10-20 years their senior, some dated for 10 years, and married for 6 months and break up. 

So instead of doubting a good news like a wedding, by asking question ' hey don't you think you are too young?' Am going into this, with the attitude of 'I am your man if you need anything'. He is my friend and I got his back. Congrats! Can't wait to dawn my Baju Melayu and KENDURI! and of course my role of sort of best man in the wedding need to be study, as this is a different culture.

misconceptiton

I went to a wedding today at Komplek Tabung Haji. It was my mom's colleague holding a wedding for her children. Anyways, there are only a handful of non-muslim. A lady asked, what is the population of the non over in Kelantan? Probably around 6-7 % of the total I assume.

There have been a few moment in past few days questioning about Kelantan. So here is to separate the fact and fiction.

1. There IS a CHINA-town. An area where they sell chinese food, and there is a CHINESE MARKET, where they sell non-halal goods like pork.
2. There are NO gender segregation at school during my time. Similar to the school I attended in KL, we seat the same way, mix boys and girls in class and also at the canteen.
3. Female CAN wear anything they one including shorts. Especially the non muslim. People will look or stare maybe because you are hot.

This is the top 3 thing I got asked most. Especially in the mix gender interaction. The misconception that people there follow extreme islamic law is totally false. Of course boys and girls can interact, however of course there are boundaries too. Which is also logical to prevent in-moral activities. For example my friend Amar went to the town and another friend of ours, a girl bring him around town in her bike. They travel without any problems.

Kelantan don't really have a tourist attraction in my point of view or any main one, also there are not much of working opportunity, thats why sometimes you can see there are lots of Kelantanese around KL. And when they met, regardless the race, most are like brothers and sisters.

It don't have 2 Tesco,not a Maju Jaya state, no. It certainly not. But its home for us Kelantanese. Comfort zone. Good food and also peaceful place to be. I am looking forward to spend a few days there for CNY, but certainly won't be a place for me to consider to get a job. Being proud of being a Kelantanese is one thing, but at same time we are also realistic. I wish there a little bit more development there, but at the same time I don't really want anything to change over there. 

A decade

How to start leh?Should say its been the longer hiatus I been away from blogging.  I could not find a better post than the previous one, but I got the urged to blog this time. Maybe is not the most appropriate of time as its just 6 a.m and people like Kok Jin just going to sleep, I know I have slides to do and need to compile it with the group a few hours more. 

As this semester coming to a close, certainly feels like a blink of an eye. Soon I have to say goodbye to everyone as everyone will walk their own  path. Knowing this, it makes me appreciates the moment more. Yes I know I'll be busy with my FYP even before the start, I anticipate it and it won't be a walk in the park. But I can say I am the lucky one. Having 2 supervisors, yes sometimes you get double the scrutiny, double the work, double of everything, and in between the double critics, there also be double benefit for me to improve on my work. Travelling up and down to Melaka every Friday, and trying to make time for the family on Sunday, is not cheap if you count the cost, but it feels rewarding when you feel you have a balanced between, work and personal life, although sometimes you just need time for yourself.

So 2011 came, and its a beginning of a new decade and end of another one. A decade ago my friend asked me which girl should he choose, a senior or the girl similar age to us. Am glad that I told him to choose the one with similar age to us. They are together ever since. This decade probably one of the most memorable and also I could remember most, the sweet memories of high school, and memories of university, where I leave the nest and time to fly. 

But the previous decade when I was 0-10 years old, certainly played a role in building my foundation. Yes I still remember the park that I played in and the nanny who took care of me. I wish I could see her again as I would visit her every time I went back for CNY, but news is, she left town to go back to her hometown in Segamat. I can proudly say I am a Kelantanese, without hesitance when people asked where is my hometown. There is really nothing bad about brought up in an Islamic state. If ask any of my friends they would know I am a pro-government, however I think we can take a look at Kelantan if we really want to achieve 1 Malaysia. I really miss the integration between races. Here in KL, sometimes being expose too much or having too many opinion on things, have it bad side. Back there, we just accept. My house over there is just less than 50m from the mosque, what ever time they pray, we just accept it. As a quote from the song Hijau "Apakah gunanya kematangan fikiran?, bila di jiwa kita masih lagi muda dan mentah"

But the most significant one should be the move to KL. It is just the 5 of us. Through hard time, through good time, it is just 5 of us. Nobody really did help, that makes us stronger.Raising 3 children in a metropolitan like KL is not really easy. There are lots of influence and lots of things can go wrong. Mixing with the wrong crowd, and its hard to make a U turn. I witness it myself when I see my friends today. Some I am still wondering why? Why did they not join me here.Money? There is always PTPTN. Deep down inside I just feel like it is just about the fame of joining private collage, which unfortunately they did not enroll either. But there is only So much you can do. I remember bringing them to cyberjaya open day. Ask the lecturer about the courses for them, and purchasing the form for them. 

Witnessing how hard my family struggle, I understand the situation, its hard to digest watching the play station at the game shop in mid valley. I want it, but I know my parents can't afford it. Yes I want that Nike shirt, but Nike is not cheap.There is always limitation, and if I asked for more, I am not sure if I would get it, but at the same time I know I will hurt my parents feeling because they could not afford it. To put things in perspective, Rm 10 can buy lunch for the whole family in Kelantan, over in KL, it can't even get you a Prosperity set. So with the same salary, imagine living in KL with 3 children that is growing.

But today although we are just slightly better, people look at us differently. I don't really like that. If you say you come from a small town, I could relate, if you say you are broke, I could relate.If you say you are rich I can't relate but I have richer friends. All the success of the family I should say its owed to my parents. 

This year is the year for me to work, I would like to follow my parents footstep, and leave the nest. Although the grass is not always greener on the other side, but there are whole lots of experience to gain from, for good or for bad.

What will this decade have installed for me? Work? Travel? Marriage? Kids? Only way to conclude this is,

'We propose, God dispose'