Saturday, September 23, 2006

"Are you Sunni or Syiah?"

Last weekend I purposely didn’t want to go back to Dublin as it’ll be the last weekend of my rotation here, plus I’m cutting the nauseas and tiredness of the 3 hours journey by bus. (And cutting the cost of the bus fare too). So on Friday evening while having dinner with few other girls who stayed back in the apartment, the news about Pope Benedict’s controversial statements was aired on Sky News. Since all of us are Muslims, we couldn’t be more of the same minds on how displeased we are and how fuming fellow Muslims all over the world would react on his provocative statements.

It was a long conversation we had and one thing led to another. Up till a point that I realized that we were actually talking and agreeing about the very same issues; of the invasion of Palestine and Lebanon, of boycotting Israel’s and American’s products, to the many leaders of the world who’s doing their good and bad parts in this so-called war on terror. Up till a point when my rich syiah friend offered me if I want to have the list of things to be boycotted, and I said I would email her the same thing as well. Yep she’s a syiah, but our minds were locked in the very same world issues.

I still think it’s a shame that sometimes people judge other people by the differences in their faiths, when in truth you could have so many things in common that you can work your way together.

I remember seeing this patient a week ago. He was in his late 60’s, looked very well-versed and was reading a thick serious book when I met him. We chatted and I did my clerking and physical examination, then I finished by looking at his drug cardex. While I was tightening some loose ends on the history, he asked me,

“So, are you a Sunni or Syiah?”

Smiled. “Sunni.”
“Why do you asked? Do you think it makes a huge difference to you?”

“Well, it’s breaking Iraq apart for sure. They’re killing each other now.”

“It sure does. That’s because the media and people (like you) are looking at it the wrong way. Things became uglier.”

He bragged on the differences and I insisted on the common grounds. At last, he finally agreed on few similarities and I had to approve on few disparities as well.

Though I may disagree on the way my syiah friend says her prayers, or the celebrations she celebrates, or how she dresses, or even the way she love lentils and chick peas with olives and salads (and she probably wouldn’t agree on my anchovies and dried shrimp paste as well), I learn that we can’t always escape the truth but we can surely stop making further damages by finding issues we can definitely nod our heads together with. We are indeed living in a very grim world with harsh realities. Now it left to us whether we’d want to jump and drift in the same dismal current, or pick up few good things and use it to our own benefits later.

Monday, September 18, 2006

in Port Lairge

waterford
(*senget..)

I’m back in Ireland, the good green land of Shamrocks and Leprechauns. Almost half a decade being in here, all I can say is that Irish never fails to amuse me. It’s their courtesy on the roads, how they respect the pedestrians, the way they smile at you though you’re a complete stranger to them, the professionalisms they show at workplace, how courteous they are when dealing with customers in shops, the list goes on.

Having said that, I can say that I’m also amazed by how simple these people (Westeners) are leading their daily lives. Taking food as an example, it’s funny to think that they’ve been eating toast with butter and jam if not scones, or well, sausages and omelet at best, for breakfast all their lives. Let’s compare with what we, Malaysians, eat for breakfast..well, let’s not. It’s obviously incomparable. I was having my scone one morning when I realized that it’s the same bland scones I’ve been eating for breakfast for the past 4 mornings. Suddenly my taste buds yearn for section 15’s tosai rawa with teh tarik. Yummy! I honestly feel sorry for these people who are missing one huge part of life’s excitements; great scrumptious food! Why go dairy and cheesy when you have all these spices in the world that can dance tango on your tongues so elegantly? Owh food, great Malaysian food..

Well, the only thing I miss about this place is the weather honestly, and alhamdulillah the weather’s been very decent since my arrival apart from some heavy rains once in a while. The view’s still very much charming in rains notwithstanding. Well, I’m an optimist.

I traveled down south to Waterford the morning I arrived Dublin for my first final med posting. A week late from the scheduled date and still very much tired and jetlagged, I was ready for any consequences of my actions. There was no reason for being late whatsoever; I’m at the most crucial point of my medical course and the fact that I just finished my elective posting in HUKM a week prior wouldn’t sound good for a reason when they’ll soon find out the outcome of that elective (other than the fun, err not so impressive!) if looking at the amount of knowledge I’ve gained.

Nonetheless, the good side of it is that I already have the momentum of being in the hospital mood thus the change of environment wasn’t abrupt, so coping was a lil bit easy this time. And I smiled broadly when the first question I got from my consultant on the first day of ward round was interpreting an ECG, which I had done numerous times (and failed a lot of times) during the elective in HUKM. Guess the elective wasn’t bad, at all..

Last week flew very fast and I passed every awkward moments (of not knowing what to answer when being asked in class, thus cute face was made) with flying colours. This week my level of concentration dropped, so badly that I can’t do any studies once I’m back in my apartment. I miss home dearly. I miss Pia to be exact. I can imagine how depressed I’m gonna be if I were to work here for my internship later. Well, whatever it is, I’m still leaving the options open. We’ll see..

GAMBATTE SHU!

Friday, September 01, 2006

sunset at my backyard

I spent the evening showing Naqib the 4 kittens we found in our store at the backyard whence I glanced at the horizon and saw the prettiest sky I've ever seen since we moved to Bangi.

"Wah cantiknya langit, Acu nak gi amek kamera sekejap lah," I said.

Naqib looked at me as if I missed something. Unsatisfied, he said, "Lain kali cakaplah ALHAMDULILLAH!"

(tahan gelak) "Thee he he, bukan alhamdulillah la Akib, SUBHANALLAH.."

"Ala, alhamdulillah pun boley.."

Hmm

sunset

Well, big thanks to my immediate xifu who gave me a crash course on "Photography for Super-Dummies", jasamu kukenang.. If Dr Jemilah said and I quote "Volunteerism is a very sexy and definitely the in-thing nowadays", I'd like to urge her to try photography. It has definitely changed me from being a super-self obsessed person in every picture to someone who don't give a damn about being in any. I just want to take more and more pictures! Do I feel even sexier? Heck, yeah~ thee he he.

Sorry if I was being a bit overrated, I know. I started very small with my S3 IS and I keep in mind that someday I will jump into the wonderful world of DSLR. Wait till my Mastercard's tough enough to endure this expensive lifestyle (I burnt a huge hole on my Mastercard for S3 IS, duh..)

Nonetheless, my summer break is coming to an end. As I've mentioned couple of times previously, this summer break has been serving me a different flavour to the previous ones. Do I became more mature coming out of it? I think so. It has became clearer on me what I want to achieve in life and the after-life, the means of achieving them and the possible bumps on the way. I pray that Allah SWT will make things easy on me, inshaAllah.

So with my little back-to-Dublin checklist mostly ticked, I think I am quite ready to go back to the geek world of a final medical student. Though half of me is still randomly left scattered at places I've been in throughout the holidays, I think the small bit left will do just fine as a start. I will miss home, big time, but it's time to move on. (Did I say I've became more matured? Mann.) And one thing for sure I will definitely miss the serenity of the sunset view at my backyard..

Bon voyage, safe journey.

Ja~