terengganu: chapter 1

this is a pretty late update about my recent camp in terengganu.

a few days before the start of new semester, shuhada ask me if i want to attend a camp, as a representative of usrah institution. (then, the place was unknown) i was a bit reluctant at first, but i said yes anyway.

three days before leaving, i was informed about the said location and duration of the camp. (5 days and terengganu!) i was delighted at the prospect of getting to land my feet again in terengganu but not the 5 days! (skipping some of my first lectures? not an attractive prospect) so, i called up my president and told him i was not going. to add to my predicament of not going, i suffered from an injury during gym session the day before. (i exaggerated the pain)

however, thanks to some unknown reason (even i don't know what came into me) i later decided to attend the camp anyway. so, the same old routine of messaging the president and told him that i change my mind, again. =___="

and i didn't manage to find another member from usrah who actually wants to go until 1 day before we were supposed to depart from MMU. and the other person is thankfully, my lovely and nutty vice president kak ain.

so, on the said day, (21 january) all of the participants, around 70 people, gather at stad building before leaving. by the way, i also found out that everyone else who were joining the camp are clubs and societies presidents and their vices. i guess somebody forgot to informed me and kak ain before hand that this was a presidents' council binding camp. however, since we were already there, we just acted like one. there was a briefing session given by mr omar (stad manager) and mr bakhtiar (stad councilor) once the briefing was done, we aboard the bus. (at first, i fear that we had to take MMU buses, but thankfully, it wasn't. the nightmare of my last trip to port dickson with mmu bus still lingers in my head, the noise and everything)

hence, starts our extremely long (and extended) journey to terengganu. our camp location was besut, so we had to take the road that is usually taken when you are heading to kelantan. we had in total three stops during the journey, the first one was at genting sempah (for dinner and prayers), the second one was at some isolated petronas (which don't even sell mineral water) in a small town of which i failed to recall the name. and the third stop was in gua musang, where some of us(including me) enjoyed some super late supper or extremely early breakfast.

we finally reached our destination in besut, around 6.15am. the journey itself took almost half a day! (12 hours?) upon arrival, we were greeted by the camp commander, who later assigned all of us to our respective rooms. four in a room for guys and 3 in a room for gals. i think most of us were satisfied with our rooms since it was clean, comfortable, air-conditioned and has it's own bathroom.

our camp had officially begun. after the very very very long journey, we expected to be allowed to rest before actually starting the programme. we were wrong. soon after being assigned to our rooms, we were told to fresh up and gather in the main hall at 830 am for our first programme! complaints were heard everywhere, but we did went to the hall anyway.

much to our dismayed, we discovered that our camp was full of, none other than, talks, talks and more talks!! of course we were pissed off at the prospect of coming all the way to terengganu just to sit and listen to, erm, talks?!!

enter the turmoil period of the camp. there was so many problems that we were concerned about. the first one being the fact that all of the facilitators and emcee, deliver their speech or announcement in bahasa melayu. there was a pretty prominent numbers of international students among us, who seem to be questioning the reason they were drag all the way here just to sit and listen to people talking in a foreign language to them. after some heated debate among the student council reps and the organizer and our stad councilor, somebody came up with some 'genius' solution. oh, let us separate the international students of MMU from their local counterparts! thus, in order to 'avoid' communication problem, the organizer brought all the international students away. they told the rest of us that they would be conducting a special session with them. we were splitted into two group for the whole day!

the day was filled with session of the importance of being patriotic and internal politics. by the end of the day, we were all to weary, angry and a mix of hostile feeling towards the whole event. and to make it worse, we were still super tired from the long journey!

to be continued (sebab aku di library dan kena balik)

the class

well, i finally finished reading the class by erich segal. i took quite some time to finish it. the book was great and i'm facing frustration now. why this and why not that kind of frustration. just to add, i believe this is one of the novel that i will like to re-read again, and again and again. i don't think anyone will ever get bored with this masterpiece.

my usual advice would be, if you are planning to read the book, do not, i repeat, DO NOT read any description from wikipedia. you might as well forget about the whole idea of reading it, as in my opinion, wikipedia gave away too much information when it comes to books description. the anticipation and thrill of what is to happen will no longer be there.

the class is about the life of 5 harvard guys from class '58, starting from their childhood (sketchily mentioned, but all the important point you need to know about them were explained in details), the years they spent in harvard and after graduation. the five guys are, jason gilbert, andrew elliot, theodore lambros, george keller and daniel rossi.

my favorite part of this book are the andrew eliot's diary entries. they are, in my opinion, some of the best fractions of this book. some of my favorites are:

andrew eliot's diary, december 20, 1960

i'm getting married tomorrow. it should be very interesting.

.......

i'm sure it will be a joyous experience - especially if I can figure out how this all happened to me so quickly.

from one standpoint, i could say it was parental pressure. although in our family that doesn't exist. my father merely suggests things.

.......

matter of fact, love is one of the few subjects on which my father had such strong feelings that he actually expressed them in a four letter word. we were out fishing on the lake a few days later and i mentioned how touched i had been at ted and sara's wedding. and how they were my ideal of what a loving couple should be.

dad looked at me with eyebrow raised and said, "andrew, don't you know love is......bosh?" (the pun!!)

(about his relationship with faith)

i would describe our courtship as whirlwind-and i have no doubt that she would term it. in any case, we seem to know so many people in common that i feared the only thing that would keep us from marrying will be some kind of incest by association.

andrew eliot's diary, august 6,1970.

(about his son)

young as he is, andy already says his generation's disgusted with our involvement in Vietnam. and for some reasons he seems to blame in on me. you'd think i was personally dropping napalm on innocent civilians.

"the guy at school all say it's a Wall Street war," he says. as if i were wall street, instead of just a minor bank official.

i try to make him understand that i'm on his side. that i'd actually helped organize an important antiwar march. all he replies is. "that's a lot of crap."

when i told him not to use that sort of language, he retorts since i do, i'm a hypocrite like my whole generation. (now i'm a whole generation!)

and, finally, just a little bit of excerpt from the story of ted lambros and his wife, sara. i just love how the author shows the kind of relationship the two of them have, especially the communication between the two of them.

his son greeted him at the door. here, ted thought, is at least one guy who still thinks i'm terrific.

he kissed sara, and while she prepared dinner, went through the ritual of putting his son to bed. the high point was his off-key rendition of "nani to moro mou, nani," a Greek lullaby.

then he sat down at the kitchen table with sara and gradually removed the mental armor he had worn all day. (i like this part the best, he was so honest with the woman in his life)

"do you feel wretchedly terrible, or just terribly wretched?" she asked gently.

"well, i got through the first day of being a non-person without punching anybody or throwing myself into the Charles (river)"

"that's good," she said, smiling.

you might not get what they are actually talking about, but still, i'm including this as this is another favorite of mine from the book.

to summarize, the book are very much stories about human beings struggling to do their best in their life. fighting for what they believe in. doing what they think are the best for themselves. most importantly, trying to be happy in the midst of it all. and it was portrayed beautifully in the class by erich segal.

andrew eliot's final diary entry in the book was concluded quite truthfully;

i guess he just didn't know how to be happy.

that's the one thing they can't teach you at harvard.

setiap hari hujan

rain droplets,

fall you from the skies,

offer my heart a warmness i never knew of.

rain droplets,

fall you from the skies,

offer my heart a feeling of peace i never knew of.

rain droplets,

fall you from the skies,

offer my mind a state i never knew of.

rain droplets,

fall you from the skies,

offer my skin a chill i never knew of.

rain droplets,

fall you from the skies,

offer my eyes a beauty i never knew of.

rain droplets,

fall you from the skies,

offer my life new things i never knew of.

books books and books

this time around, i'll be writing about books! oh yes, so calling all the book worms, read ahead!

last monday, adyla and me, despite all odds, with a lot of last minute decision being made in our plan, traveled all the way to petaling jaya just in order to attend the books sale organized by big bad wolf. we wanted to travel on public transportation initially, but after some rocket science maths calculation, i found out that renting car will be a lot less burden on our pocket (and feet). thus start our journey!

being highly reliable on the google maps to find our way (and forks) to the destination, we manage to reach within 30 minutes. after arriving, we decided to fuel our energy first with some sandwiches (yeah, tips number 1 at books sale, make sure you are full, or else you will end up spending more on books and drained your bank account[s]) and next was Zuhr prayer. duty to Allah first people. always.

and this was when the thrill began. upon the arrival at the sales, the first insane thing i wanted to do is scream omg out loud, but of course, that would be insane so instead, adyla and i just drift towards the stacks (and stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks) of books calling for us since the day before. most of the books were sold for a dangerously low rm8, and i'm talking about new books, (some with slight deform, and you noticed the word 'some' right, so this was confined only to a number of books) and some are still selling in the major bookstores at retail price. the largest selections available was fiction title. sadly, there are not much choices to non-fiction, the titles available at the time we went were mostly about american politics. (not my cup of coffee) i guess all the great ones were taken.

back to the fictions, most books look boring from the surface (of the stacks), but you really have to invest your time and energy to look thoroughly, underneath, above and everywhere to find great books which was (purposely?) hidden. so after 2 hours plus plus of browsing and selecting books, the finalized purchase made by me was as follows:

• the gathering by anne enright
• the apple by michael faber
• freak of nature by phil whitaker
• the princess diaries sixsational by meg cabot (don't lol, but yeah, lol)
• only revolutions by mark z danielski
• pilgrims upon the earth by brad land
• crossword puzzle collection from the sun

(let me know if you want to read any of it) seven title, for rm50!

so next time the wolf is back, make yourself a hunter! (and make sure you hunt it down)

i'll end with something i read in 'the 48 laws of power' by robert greene, i think this will be a life time favorite for me:

law 10

infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky

p/s for kak ain: books review? insha Allah soon :)

just a quick (abs exercise) updates!

a few very very hilarious (and educational too!) websites on my list now:

maniac muslim: brother hamza definitely knows how to tell it in a very unique way!

• http://maniacmuslim.com/

keeping it halal:

• http://www.keepingithalal.com/

the oatmeal: freaking hilarious!!

• http://theoatmeal.com/

let me know your feedback! enjoy.

love,

adibah.

dear friends

yesterday, all my troubles seems so far away, now it looks though they are here to stay....john lennon in "yesterday"

dear friends, have you come across this verse in the Quran:

"Allah burdens not any soul beyond its capacity. It shall have the reward it earns, and it shall get the punishment it incurs. Our Lord, do not punish us, if we forget or fall into error; and our Lord, lay not on us a responsibility as Thou didst lay upon those before us. Our Lord, burden us not with what we have not the strength to bear; and efface our sins, and grant us forgiveness and have mercy on us; Thou art our Master; so help us Thou against the disbelieving people."

(Al Baqarah, Chapter 2 verse 287)

perhaps you have read this before. perhaps not.

we live among people. and people are troublesome. and eventually, we get mad, annoyed, angry and even grow hateful.

especially to the one who don't put much thought into their actions, words and attitude towards other. and they didn't realize their actions affects those around them in many ways.

but reflect back on the verse, for Allah promise us not to burden his slaves with something He knew we will not endure. and isn't He the All-Knower? never ever doubt this.

take it as a test on you. and maybe, it is time to stop asking 'why me?' or 'why always me?' and 'why not he/she?'

but instead ask 'why not me? i'm strong enough. i can take this. and i can do this'

we are tested in many ways from time to time. oxford dictionary define test as:

• a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something.
• a means of testing something.
• a difficult situation that reveals the strength or quality of someone or something

it is obvious that the purpose of tests and challenges are to give us strength and define us as who we are today, tomorrow and so on.

trust me, we need strength to survive in this cruel world. be it physical or emotional.

all the best.

this is an idle post

when i have ;

assignments report to write,

novels to read,

a room to clean,

laundry to wash,

papers to organize,

i wasted the whole night customizing this abandoned blog. what a waste. sigh.