A dedication to all my teachers

I have previously noted the joy I experienced when re-connecting with old friends on Facebook. Many of these long-lost friends are those I knew during my days at boarding school in Kuantan. Most of them I have not met since we left school in 1979. We were 17-years old then, and now, some of us are making the effort to meet up again to strengthen the bond in friendship first cemented 31 years ago.

On three different occasions over the past three months or so, I met up with my MRSM Kuantan friends over dinner or tea, in what we call mini-gatherings or reunions. The most recent of these was held last Saturday at a friend's restaurant in Shah Alam. Twenty-three of the MCE'79 batch turned up, made up of 7 ladies and 16 guys. Also present was our English teacher Mr Peter Ng and our librarian Puan Faizah.

I had first thought to post a story about the friends I met during those gatherings but upon meeting Mr Peter again last week, I decided it is time I write something about my teachers, in particular, the ones who taught me English at MRSM.

We have a peculiar, if somewhat unique way of addressing our English teachers. In normal convention, when we call someone by their name, the `Mr' would be attached to the surname, and not the firstname. For instance, we would address Tom Jones as Mr Jones (and not Mr Tom). But not at MRSM Kuantan... our English teachers like Peter Ng, Stephen Ambrose, Michael Tan and Kamini Devi are addressed as Mr Peter, Mr Stephen, Mr Michael and Miss Kamini. This way, we feel closer to our teachers because we reduce the air of formality while still maintaining a measure of respect. It may not be technically correct but I agree with it wholeheartedly.

Mr Peter once headed the English Department at MRSM Kuantan. When we re-connected on Facebook, I was quite surprised that he took the time to read this blog of mine. I was doubly pleased when he said that he liked what he read... what can be more encouraging than getting praise from your old English teacher?

The other English teacher who I remember particularly well is Miss Kamini... because of her height. At six-foot plus, she was easily the tallest lady teacher we had in the whole of MRSM Kuantan. It's a pity I do not have a photograph of her because my memories of how she look is starting to fade away. A few friends have uploaded old photos of our time at school and some are pics of us with our teachers, but so far, there isn't one that includes Miss Kamini.

Apart from the academic side of teaching, the teachers at MRSM were also our homeroom advisors. A homeroom is a smaller group of students from different classes... a sort of small family of brothers and sisters with the advisor acting like a parent or big brother / big sister. That is why we feel very close to our teachers... and we know that some of our teachers are very close to us too. This can be clearly seen from the keen participation of our former teachers in many of the reunion events held by the various batches. Photographs of these gatherings are published in the FB profiles of friends and from these I can recall my cikgu-cikgu from yesteryears :- Cikgu Ramli (1st Principal), Cikgu Sharif (2nd Principal), Cikgu Idham (Geografi), Cikgu Fadhil Onn (Geografi), Cikgu Zamri (Chemistry), Ustaz Yusof (Pendidikan Agama), Cikgu Rahim (Physics) and of course, Cikgu Peter. There are certainly many more of my former teachers... some I am told, have already departed. My al-Fatihah and prayers untuk cikgu-cikgu yang telah pergi.

How do we do justice to the valuable knowledge and guidance that our teachers have imparted on us? My answer to this is, by trying to be the best person that we can be. This does not mean that we have to be successful professionals or rich entrepreneurs but simply being an honest and dedicated individual who pass on the noble values we have learned to our children and fellow human beings. The measure of this is when our old teacher whom we have not met for more than 30 years, comes to us and say, `I'm proud of you all!'. That, to me, is saying a lot.

Happy Teacher's Day to all my teachers, wherever you may be. You are the best teachers there are because you teach from your hearts and not merely from the books. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Teacher's Day greetings too are due to my K79 friends who have taken up this noble profession : Suzyanna Mokhtar, Zulika Abdullah, Siti Zaleha Md Said, Fauziah Abdul Ghani, Rohana Mustapha, Dr Adriana Ismail, Dr Khairanum Subari and Prof Shahrin Mohd. My apologies if I may have missed out anybody.
 

 Then : The English Department staff at MRSM Kuantan, late 70s. Mr Peter on leftmost of the group. Pic borrowed from K79 friend Norila Yahya's FB album.

 Now :  Mr Peter (left) with one of his students, Norhisham Kassim, an airline pilot with MAS.

Flooded prawn mee

It has been a while since I last posted about food... so let's do that now.

I'm not sure if I have translated the name of this dish correctly. In Malay it is called `mee banjir udang', the implication being that there are more prawns than noodles in one bowl of the stuff. Well... you know how people tend to exaggerate. The prawns don't quite flood the dish but there are a few large ones and fresh and juicy too.

Ada udang di sebalik mee? Ataupun ada mee di sebalik udang?

I am of course, talking about the famous prawn mee of Kuala Sepetang in Perak. Having heard of this delicacy from some friends and seen it on local TV food programmes, I couldn't resist heading out to the place although it is nearly a 40-minutes drive away from our project site in Taiping. But no distance is going to stop me from trying out something that many people claim to be so tasty. So tasty that some travellers going north are willing to make a detour and exit the highway at Changkat Jering just to have some of it.

I was told that there are many stalls that sell mee banjir udang along the road from Simpang Taiping all the way to Kuala Sepetang (formerly known as Port Weld). We stopped at a place called Warong Mak Teh, a few kilometres short of Kuala Sepetang town. The stall serves the mee udang in two sizes : biasa (normal) or besar (large). Of course I went for the large portion.

So what's my verdict? Ok, I guess... but certainly tastier that the other so-called famous mee udang of Sungai Dua in Penang. Maybe I did not stop at the correct stall. I'll try the other stalls on my next trip to Taiping before I come to a conclusive opinion. But then, someone told me to try the mee kicap in Ipoh first. Hmmm.... so many places to go and so many things to eat...

It's the end of the run...

Wak Amid is a neighbour of mine who drives a taxi for a living. His youngest son named Yusof, was a close friend of my own youngest son Imran. Two years ago, when Imran joined the Astro Run For Fun activity, Yusof  wanted to tag along too. The story of this run was one of the earliest posts in this blog and can be read here -> Fun Run.

Notice that I referred to Yusof in the past tense...  A few hours ago, I watched Wak Amid bury his son, who passed away last night. Yusof  had been in and out of hospital since the beginning of the year. He had lost his appetite and became frail and skinny. I visited the young man at the Sultan Ismail Hospital, in Pandan, Johor Bahru last weekend and was close to tears at seeing his undernourished body, much like the image of the starving children of Africa. This morning, I could not hold back the tears anymore as I watched family members give their final kisses to the boy before the white sheets of the shroud were tied up for the final time.

Doctors could not really determine the cause of his illness but officially the COD was put down as tuberculosis. Yusof Bin Amid celebrated his 13th birthday in hospital on 31 March 2010.

Ya Allah, ya tuhan kami.... kami mohon kemurahan Mu untuk mengampuni dosa-dosa insan muda ini dan ditempatkan roh beliau di kalangan orang-orang yang beriman.

Running mates - Allahyarham Yusof (L) and Imran (R). Pic taken on 23 March 2008.

Faster than CNN

In an earlier post in late February this year, I wrote about the updates posted by my nieces who are connected to me in Facebook, and about how I try to keep such news as private as possible. Even to the extent of feigning surprise when my wife tells me something that I'd already read online, as if I am the last person to know.

Well, today I reversed the process... and the effect is exactly as what I expected.

It is one of my niece's birthday today (Sunday 25 April 2010) and I dropped by her FB profile to post a birthday message on her wall. While there, I spotted an exchange of messages between my niece and some of her friends (or possibly, staff) about the rumour of a job transfer to Sabah. I later mentioned to my wife that it is the niece's special day today, and that she may want to send a congratulatory sms to the birthday girl. I also casually mentioned that the young lady may be re-posted to Sabah.

My wife was surprised and immediately texted the girl's mother. The girl's mother was doubly surprised when she texted back that she didn't know anything about this. My wife shot a look at me and asked how I know something even the girl's mother doesn't know. Well, maybe daughters don't tell their mothers everything, I said.

No... can't be! Not this niece, says the wife, with a firm shake of the head. So, go ask the young lady herself, I said.

A quick flurry of sms exchanges took place between aunt, niece and niece's mother. Finally the young lady clarified that the news of the job transfer is just office gossip... I can almost hear the sigh of relief from the mother (apparently she doesn't want the daughter to work too far away).

To my lovely niece Aliah... sorry if this old uncle of yours caused you a bit of bother by forwarding a piece of unconfirmed news. But if you do actually get that transfer, don't decline... grab the chance for a new working experience. At least then, we can find a strong reason to travel to Sabah, a place that we've been longing to go to.

By the way, Happy Birthday (yang ke berapa, ek?). May today and the next 364 days be filled with joy and good tidings.

 Birthday girl is the one on the left. This pic taken eons ago and lifted from someone's FB album.

Pirates of the carribean

Two nights ago, I had dinner with my son at Mali's Corner in Setapak, the place that serves tasty char kuey teow. While having our meal, we were repeatedly bothered by salesmen peddling pirated DVDs. Even after declining one salesman, another guy would come by a few minutes later, pushing the same stuff. I have noticed that this a normal sales tactic at most other popular makan places in KL, especially the open-air 24-hours mamak restaurants. You don't find such DVD peddlars in JB.

Out of curiosity, I asked how much a DVD cost. The reply : Biasa la boss, RM8 saje...

Heck, that's double of what I can get in JB... yes, pirated DVDs retail for only RM4 in Johor Bahru. KL folks don't seem to mind the higher price, because judging from the way these peddlars are thriving, there must be a good market for the discs.

And this has got me wondering about a business opportunity... if I buy some of these movie discs in JB for RM4 each, bring them to KL and sell them at RM6, I can undercut the sellers here by RM2 and still make the same amount in profit. That's a 50% profit, my friend! I don't have to worry about the overhead costs because I travel to and fro KL-JB every week anyway. What I do have to worry about is probably getting beaten up by the syndicates running these operations in KL.

Well... just a thought.

Talking about movies, I went out to watch one at a cineplex last night because the boredom at a lonely bachelor's pad was killing me. I had read a posting from blogger matahari the day before and decided to see Kick Ass. She gave a 5-star rating for this movie and after watching it yesterday, I must say I concur.

The movie has violence (torture, guns, knives, swords and even a bazooka) and vulgarity (cursing and swearing). Exactly the type of film you wouldn't want to bring your daughter to see... and yet the heroine in this picture is a gun-toting, knife-throwing sweet young girl who I'd love to have as my daughter.

And another thing... when do you actually get to see Nicholas Cage act in a gun-blazing movie but yet not get the top billing? Bizzare.

Kick Ass is a good movie to watch if you are pissed off about problems at work, pissed off at someone or generally in a pissed-off mood. Forget about logic and reality for a while... watch this movie about unlikely superheroes and enjoy.