Diet yang bukan diet?

Aku dan Didi telah menghadiri satu majlis dinner di Mandarin Oriental. Memang Didi adalah temanku yang paling cocok untuk pergi makan-makan. Menu malam itu merupakan Western style buffet. Namun entah mengapa, ada pula disediakan nasi putih untuk dimakan bersama-sama pelbagai hidangan barat yang ada.

Sebagaimana lazim, aku dan Didi terus menuju ke kaunter yang paling kurang sesak pada masa itu supaya kami boleh segera menikmati makanan. Akan tetapi, tidak sebagaimana lazim, Didi mengambil kuantiti yang kurang berbanding aku.

“Kau okay ke?” Aku bertanya risau.
“Biasa je…” balas Didi selamba.

Untuk course yang seterusnya, kuantiti makanan yang Didi ambil masih jauh berbeza berbanding timbunan makanan aku. Malah untuk course berikutnya, Didi telah berhenti makan lebih awal daripada aku.

“Kau diet ke?” aku mengagak.
“Takde lah! Aku dah kenyang,” pantas Didi menjawab.

Majlis hampir selesai. Semua makanan yang ada telah pun kami jamah*.
(*sila baca sebagai ‘lantak’)
Waiter yang melayani meja kami terus meletakkan set cawan di atas meja lalu bertanya dengan sopan,

“Coffee or tea, sir?”

Aku memilih teh, sementara Didi pula meminta secawan kopi. Aku terus meminta kepastian,

“Eh, kau ni tengah diet ye?”
“Mana ada. Biasa je lah, macam selalu,” Didi menegaskan.

Aku masih tak puas hati dengan jawapan Didi. Namun aku membiarkan sahaja lantas mengacau sepeket gula ke dalam teh aku. Sedang aku masih tertanya-tanya akan perubahan sikap Didi, tiba-tiba aku dapati Didi mencapai sepeket Equal untuk dibancuh ke dalam kopinya.

“Aik? Betul ke tak diet Didi oiii…??!”

Didi tergelak geli hati.

Lidah dan Hati

Suatu malam, di sebuah kedai makan di Kampung Medan.

“Esok berapa haribulan?” Ustaz bertanya.

“Dah masuk 1 haribulan dah Ustaz,” jawabku.

“InsyaAllah pertengahan bulan akan datang ni kelas mula,”

Mulutku menjawab selamba,
“Oh, iye ke?”

Padahal, dalam hati,
“Yessss!!!” *jump for joy* jump for joy* cartwheel* cartwheel* Gedebuk! (jatuh)

Aku ni memang jenis cepat excited. Sikit-sikit terlompat. Sikit-sikit melenting. Perlu modify behaviour aku tang ni. Ustaz pun ada berkata,

“Ketenangan itu adalah kunci…”

Hati perlu tenang agar segala perbuatan kita bermakna.
Kata-kata yang disertakan dengan hati adalah lebih tajam dan menusuk daripada cakap kosong.
Kata-kata yang datang dari hati akan meresap terus ke dalam jiwa pendengar.

Begitulah ikatan antara lidah dan hati…

Tapi pointnya, kelas dah nak start! Yehuuu!!!

On being ***

I hereby declare 1 Utama as a local forest reserve.

Why, you ask? Well, there are all kinds of ‘balak’ to be had there: cengal, meranti, jati… you name it. But like any other reserves, they are off limits to ‘illegal loggers’ like me. To get a license/permit, you need to be a lady and I have an extra branch sticking out of my body that renders me totally ineligible.

I cruised that shopping complex strung out between extreme excitement and total depression. Doc would half jokingly say that I was already qualified for antipsychotic therapy. Lucky me, I found the next best thing. A friend recommended it to me a long, long time ago. It really picked me up!

It is a VCD, a real story about the trials and tribulations of the team that won the Thai National Volleyball Championship in 1996. It is the story of the Iron Ladies!

“Tetsu onna da! Keredomo aitsu tachi ga… onna ja nai,”

My fellow humans, one does not put in an effort to be fag. One would never want to! You either are or you are not. This story reminded me to value what I am.

But, a buddy once said to me that people can change! He quoted,

“Allah tidak akan mengubah sesuatu kaum itu melainkan dengan usaha kaum itu sendiri!”

Ah, such words are easy for someone who is already what he is: a true blue guy. But as the saying implies, you must want to change in order to do so. How about if the reverse was true and I lay on him that very same line? Would he find it any easier to swallow, I wonder?

Change is a very difficult thing to do. Outside support alone will never be enough. It takes a really strong person to change successfully and most of us are not that strong emotionally. Look around us. How many 'questionable people' are still single? And how many are divorced? Why?

“Chigaimasuka? Dou suru?”
Am I wrong? So what do I do hmm..?

VIP Blues...

Kisah berlaku pada awal tahun 2004 ini di salah satu kaunter di ofis aku.

Beliau datang dari kejauhan sana lantas terus tertegak di depan kaunter. Para pelanggan yang sedang beratur terkebil-kebil memandang Beliau dengan penuh tandatanya.

Makcik yang mengumpul borang pesanan di kaunter terus menegur Beliau dengan sopan,
“Encik, untuk menghantar borang perlu mula beratur di sana,”

“Awak tak kenal saya siapa?” Beliau bertanya penuh hairan.

“Maaf encik,” jawab Makcik, jujur, “Memang saya tak kenal,”

Dengan nada agak marah beliau membalas,
“Sayalah XXX! sayalah YYY di ZZZ!”
(In other words, I’m Someone Important. Serve me immediately or else…)

Oh, puh-leeeez!!!

Terbayang-bayang aku akan kisah seseorang. Pernahkah anda mendengar frasa ‘Arab yang yang berikut- “Ana rabbukumul a’laa…”?

Begitukah sikap seorang kakitanga awam yang berpangkat? Bagaimana ia boleh terjadi?

Sedangkan tugas seorang kakitangan awam adalah untuk berkhidmat kepada rakyat.

To do that, you need to be humble! How else can you put yourself in the rakyat’s shoes? It’s really difficult to hear what the rakyat is telling you when you’re sitting high up in that cushy office of yours.

Jadi tolonglah kakitangan awam sekelian, betulkanlah niat bekerja anda!
Perbaikilah sikap anda!

Anime Expose- Dai itsu ka: X

What if the fate of the world lies in your hands? Do you choose to protect it or do you choose to destroy it? That is the dilemma facing Shirou Kamui.

It is not as easy a choice as you’d think.

Protect the world and its ultimate fate is left in the hands of the humans populating it. How much faith do you have that we humans would make all the right choices in conserving the earth? At the present rate of pollution and destruction, earth will be destroyed in a very short time indeed.

So why not let the world be destroyed? The earth is a resilient planet. It survived the end of the dinosaurs. It survived an Ice Age. This destruction will simply mark the end of humans only. The earth will live on and flourish once more.

Either way, the possibility of earth’s destruction is very real. That is what prompts the dream seer Kuzuki Kakyou to say,
“Mirai wa tada hitotsu…”
There is only one future…

However, to this cynical statement, Monou Kotori counters,
“Mirai wa mada kimattenai te…”
The future still hasn’t been decided…

Sahabat sekelian, masa depan di tangan kita semua. Pastikan segala yang mungkin telah diusahakan sebelum menyerah kepada takdir. Jadilah khalifah yang terbaik di bumi Allah ini.

“Sore wa ‘X’ no nerai da.”
That is the message of ‘X’.

Anime Expose- Hajimemashita: Introduction / Pendahuluan

When one has a weblog, one would wish for it to continue ‘forever’, so to speak.

A famous Malaysian blog writer who calls himself ‘Tok Rimau’ states that a good blog should be mostly short and sweet and straight to the point. I could see his point. Not all are gifted enough to hold an audience’s attention after the first or second paragraph. He refers to this excess of blog as ‘cirit-blogirit'- blog diarrhea.

However, there is also this unfortunate thing called writer’s block, blog constipation or ‘semblogit’, as I dubbed it. Thereby, ‘Anime Expose'(ah-knee-meh ex-po-say) is born!

Consider it roughage for my brain. It helps me think of ideas to bring up in my weblog. It also helps to fill my ‘at least once a week’ blog update when I run out of ideas. *grin*

Anime Expose is my personal summary of each anime series that I have seen. And boy, have I seen a lot of them! I hope you’ll enjoy it.