Balik Kampung and Sentuhan Kasih

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I left a comment on my buddy's blog (http://www.klazz@blogspot.com/) about a commercial on TV about Hari Raya.

Hari Raya Aidil Fitri is just around the corner and I will be going home today, Friday, 26 September 2008. Now is the time to savour the last few hours of being here and fasting here. I have always written that I was deprived of balik kampung, the Malaysian phnomenon that is, for Hari Raya in my younger days. Now, nah ambik, balik kampung kena terbang sampai sampai berbelas jam…….

Well, as I commented on my buddy's blog, it is exactly 8.10 am Friday morning where I am at and I have a 7.10 pm flight home to catch. Another 11 hours. I have got all my bags with me here at the office. Exactly 17 hours later I will be landing at KLIA. I know the meaning of balik kampung for Hari Raya now. In the commercial, it was about a mother and her son, who came home for Hari Raya. I will go see my mother before Hari Raya and I will see her during Hari Raya and I will go see her after Hari Raya....

Never has a flight been so looked forward to...

To all, Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Dzahir dan Batin..... and oh, below are photos at some of us giving away some goodies for orphans and some children from poor families where we are at, Sentuhan Kasih or lebih kuranglah, that was yesterday....

Our host's children giving away some of their very own dolls and toys...

Another scene during the program

Giving away some duit Raya...

A donor with whom must be the cutest recipient. She is 5 years old. And she smiles readily despite all the hardship that she faces very early in life.

Another view of some of the recipients. The little girl looking this way is an orphan. She and her 6-year old twin brother, nearest to camera, and four older siblings live with an uncle. Their mother died giving birth to the twins and their father died soon after. The eldest, a 16 year-old girl, works after school daily, earning about USD 35 a month. We just want to cry when we look at them......

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The Fast and The Furious

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And I’m not talking about a Japanese movie.

I am talking about the state of the solat terawih here. Imam Flash is alive and well and he is faster this year. Solats isyak, terawih, 20 rakaats, and witir, your standard 3 rakaats, throw in your solat sunat, all in 40 minutes. Adeh, my knees were creaking and back was aching.

But once in a while, the slower imam will take over. Imam Steady. I was tempted to call him Imam Rock Steady but that simply would not fit in the overall template of Ramadan.

Uh, a breath of fresh air. Steady as she goes.

Today's fasting - tired and sleepy. Weak at the thighs and my stomach feels lousy... I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry....

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Tashkent

The view from my hotel room, with the lights from within the room reflected onto the window. That there tower is a communications tower, just like our KL Tower, I reckon....

Tengah2 bulan puasa ni kena pergi jalan pulak. Aduuuhhhh...... I ni am not the paling kuat punya orang when I puasa, so, traveling bulan puasa ni, ada sikit tak suka, tapi dah terpaksa. Anyways, yes, anyways, it is to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The old silk road pit stop. I have never been there but I have some friends there, so it should be OK.

I left for Tashkent last Wednesday night and we flew in just after 1 a.m. I was pleasantly surprised. Tashkent is nice. They actually have signboards that say welcome and you do feel that they mean it. I saw a customs or immigrations officer smoking at the airport. While waiting for our transport, I saw people smoking in the waiting area and the streets. Which means that the folks here are a bit freer to do things. I like this place already. During the drive through the city, I noticed another thing – their police have sidearms. Pistols. Sepitol. Guns. In holsters, but they have them. So the government here at least trust most of their policemen.


The view from the front of our regional office. The lanes are four-wide in each direction.....

Another view from the front of the office, a tad to the left of the photo above.

The next morning simply confirmed my initial thoughts. This place is nice. I feel envious of my friends here. To top it up, I got a call from a crony, E, a partner in many wild nights in many places all over – he’s in Tashkent too. If bad girls go everywhere, news about me goes there too. The roads here are wide, all over the city. Eight lanes of roads throughout the city. Trams. Subway. And oh, it was nicknamed Moscow of the East during the existence of the USSR. The people seemed friendlier. The hotel staff are at least a million times better than the ones from the land of the you-are-giving-me-work-to-do. The name of the girl who checked me in was Sitora Saidkhodjaeva. Drats, I should have taken her photo. I don’t even have to talk about the women here. They are gorgeous, that is all you are going to get from me. The first night there, I iftared at the restaurant in the hotel and the service was superb. I don’t know what the food was but it was sea food and it was good. Seafood? This here place is landlocked tighter than anything else. Well, maybe seafood from the Aral Sea, or what’s left of it. I can’t be choosy, I was hungry. The waiter was bringing me stuff I did not order, compliments of the chef, he kept saying, compliments of the chef. Good enough for me, keep them coming.

A view from the 13 th floor, where our offices are at. We are not superstitious, obviously.

Another one from the 13th floor. Superstitious? But two earthquakes in three weeks and three in a month with one measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale. Hmmm.....

A street view of Tashkent. Notice the tram and rail lines. The roads are a bit run down but this is due to the weather....


Daewoos all around. Most of the time, all the vehicles surrounding us are Daewoos.

One word describes the roads here, Daewoo!!!!! There are so many Daewoo cars and trucks, vans and buses here you’d think that you are in Daewooland. The main reason probably is that Daewoo has a factory here. Not sure if they only assemble or actually built them here. Maybe just put them together. Terror is being in a car going through the streets Tashkent at break neck speeds well after midnight over the bumpy roads, tram tracks and everything else in a tiny Daewoo the size of a stunted Kancil driven by a Korean Uzbek named Sasha Alexander.

“Sasha, you don’t look like a Sasha Alexander to me.”

“I know, but is OK, I Sasha Alexander. I no speak Korea but I speak good Russian and manoga Uzbek….”

Well, there are many Thomas Kings or Edward Henrys in Malaysia who do not look like your typical Thomas King or Edward Henry.

Ah well, in Tashkent, I found a new drug.

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Pose - Not of the Photo Kind

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Pose, puasa, fasting, tak makan, tak minum, tak hisap rokok, tak buat benda2 yang tak senonoh yang biasa di buat. Hahahahahaha..............

I got a great start to the fasting month. On the first day, I was sending Nazzim back to his school and got mad while driving, nearly killed an old man who was driving a Wira and got into a shouting match with a d_ckhead driving another Wira. Scared the hell out of Nazzim and that first day ended with definitely definitely definitely no pahala puasa. Only lapaq aja. Lapaq ayaq and lapaq lauk. And lapaq nasi. Hentah2 dapat dosa gak. Left for Bangkok that nite - punyalah kesian @ pity, tak sempat iftar/buka/break fast kat rumah. God, the airline schedulers could be so so inconsiderate. Imagine buka puasa at the airport, so many people but so lonely - kalau puasalah, kalau tak puasa tak bukalah....

And of course, the next leg of the journey on the airline with the makanan paling tak sedap sekali dalam dunia, no problem at all lah. The stewardess came and asked me about dining (ceh, dining tu! Nasib baik bukan fine dining) onboard probably five times during the journey - finally offering me just maybe bread and coffee - itu so-called stewardess beragama Islam tu, so ignorant are the kambings of the fasting month - I was debating on whether to tell her that her food is simply lousy or wei, bulan posalah, orang posalah, tak makanlah (kalau posalah) but I decided just to ignore her and plead sleep depravity. She would not understand anyway.... nanti kang, on the second day pun nanti lapaq aja, pahala semua tak dapat nanti. Ceh, macam so far banyaklah dapat pahala posa. Hentahlah. One day we will see that big account book in the sky and we will know whether all of posa and whatever is kira or not. We'll see. Nazzim and Sofia will laugh at "we"ll see" - whenever they ask for something and if either Lina or me says that, it means dapatlah tu.

Well, nearly a week of fasting here and I must admit that I kinda fared better than when doing the same at home. No headaches, due to enough sleep. After sahur can sleep another 1.75 hours, you know? No traffic jam meh, 5 minutes to office one? Sleep early some more. So far buka at home twice and at rumah orang three times. There was supposed to be buka rumah orang a fourth time but somehow there was a mix-up, the transport was late and a pissed-off me opted to go home and eat maggi rather than arrive late. Actually it was at a local's house and I was not too crazy to eat their food and was reluctant to go and hey, presto, I got my wish, hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha................. life could be kind sometimes and we do get our wishes granted by the fairy god mother. Trust me, the maggi was better. Kira buka puasa dekat rumah orang three times only, yang satu tu tak kira, tak boleh makan pun.

No buka puasa outing here. If they have Pizza Hut or McD here, that would be nice. That would be enough. I am sick of the local fare. No pasar Ramadan here. If they have it too, it would not have the food that we need. Need, not want, but need.

The solat terawih are as fast as it was last year but the pak imam took a page out of some of the masjids back home - in the middle of the solat terawih, they would hold a tazkirah, effectively holding the people who are there at ransom. Ah well, pandai jugak psychology kominis ni..... So, they have found another way to scare people off. Well done. A Hero of the Whatever pingat to him.

Another day another dollar. Can't wait to go home for Hari Raya.

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