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Yes, I think I am becoming obsessed with this Malay Drama show. I always look forward to watching the show every day. The irony of Angkara Cinta is despite the title of the show, it is not a love story at all. At least not to me. Sure, the are several love stories in the show such as Luqman and Adira, Haqeem and Adira, Haqeem and Jijie, and Luqman and Adira again, but these love stories are just in the background and do not form the major part of the storyline. The reason I say this is because if you take away these love stories, Angkara Cinta would still stand on its own. We would still be able to see the struggle of Luqman and Haqeem, as well as, Indah and Mariani in dealing with the situations that they are in. And to me, that's what makes Angkara Cinta great and stand out relative to other Malay Drama on the television nowadays. The show also highlighted several mental health issues that are not talked about in Malaysia generally, and the Malay community specially. Malays, for ...

Many detractors of Tun Dr Mahathir blamed him for causing the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in February 2020. They blamed him for quitting his position for no apparent reasons whatsoever. To be honest, none of us (save for a select few) really know what had happened behind the curtains and behind Tun's thick skull. As long as we are not Tun himself or those select few, we are all merely speculating at best. To me, I just want to focus on what Tun had said publicly because those are on record and no one can really dispute them. Tun had repeatedly said that he had resigned because he no longer had the support of the parliament as Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). Two things here, mathematically, what Tun said about the his support from the parliament is true. Secondly, this was what Tun had said, what really went behind the scene was really up to anyone's guess. For one moment, let us just take Tun's words at their face value. The moment Tun felt that he...

We have heard the #kitamintalima campaign and more recently, a group of people from the Wangsa Maju constituency is appealing to the King for the current State of Emergency to be ended earlier than the 1 August 2021 set by the current emergency proclamation. While I appreciate the intention of these people as there are those who believe and think that the current government is incompetent in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, I cannot fully agree with the campaign being directed to the King. As a constitutional monarch, the King can only act upon the advise of the Prime Minister and there are very rare occasions where the King has the absolute power or discretion in carrying out his duties. One of the discretion that he has is in determining the who should be the Prime Minister. In this respect, he had used his discretion in February 2020. Some might argue that the King should have summoned for a parliament sitting so that the MPs can openly vote for the new Prime Minister. While that may...

 Angkara Cinta television drama was initially planned for 70 episodes before the drama series was extended to 90 episodes. Yesterday, it was announced that the show will go on to 115 episodes. This means, the final episode of Angkara Cinta would be aired on 12 April 2021, just a day before the start of Ramadhan. I now wonder whether there will be an Aidil Fitri edition of Angkara Cinta a month after that last episode. In any case, I still enjoy watching the drama series and fortunately for me, I have not found the storyline as draggy. I guess, if you have watched soap operas or telenovelas before this, it is harder for you to find the storyline as a bit too slow and too long. I do however feel that the story on Luqman's jealousy problem is a bit "been there, done that". I seriously hope that they will not dwell too much on that storyline. My criticism now is the fact that they have not resolve the Mokhzan's storyline yet, which is disappointing. I supposed, the purpos...

It has been almost a year of living with the COVID-19 pandemic and the end is far away. The pandemic had changed many ways how we live our lives, where working and schooling from home have now become the new normal. I have been working from home since March 2020 and the transition was not too difficult as I had initially anticipated. However, things changed when I decided to join a new organisation in December 2020. I will tell you that joining a new organisation under a 100% working-from-home setting is not easy. I guess it is human nature to have face-to-face connections with another human being. Joining a new organisation with new colleagues behind the computer screen is definitely not the same with the usual physical reporting to duty. And settling down is not easy too because there are a lot of stuff that need to be arranged for example, the staff access card, office laptop, setting up the virtual private network, etc. It is day 40 at the new workplace and I don't think I have...

I don't typically watch a Malay television series on my own. If I do, it is because my wife or colleagues influenced me to watch them. I don't pay attention too much on Malay television series because I usually pay more attention to the US or the UK television series. More so now, with Netflix, Malay television series just simply fall off my radar. However, it is a bit different with Angkara Cinta. For your information, the series was originally slated for 70 episodes and they just screened Episode 60 last Friday. And now, the production had decided to extend the series to 90 episodes. I guess the series is a hit now? Angkara Cinta is a story about two boys (later men) who have the same name, Luqmanul Haqeem Bin Razlan, but lived in two different worlds. As you can probably imagine, one of them was born with a silver spoon and one of them was not. In a very predictable plot, they met and their lives intertwined in ways that none of them could have imagined. Why do I continue to...

In just one more day, 2011 will draw its final curtain. And looking back over the last twelve months made me realized how far have I come this year. 2011 has always been a very personal year to me, especially since I have started to plan for my engagement ceremony since July 2010 (Yes, that's how long I've been planning my wedding). I guess the highlight of the year began with significant change in my work. It was in March 2011 where I was finally given the opportunity to cover the Airline sector after lobbying for it since I joined the department in February 2009. I'm not saying the Consumer sector was not fun, but the Airline sector has always been a dear to me since I joined the company. But I guess, the Airline sector proved to be a lot tougher to cover than I expected. I had anticipated cyclical earnings and high risk from jet fuel price volatility but, MAS gave a whole different challenge to my skills as an analyst. The next highlight for the year was my engagement ce...

Went out for dinner with some friends as a very good friend of mine came back from UK on year-end holiday in Malaysia. Last time I saw him was just after Aidil Fitri in September this year. What surprised me was at the end of the dinner, after our gossiping session at Chawan (Chatime was already closed at the time), he told me that he has something for me as a wedding gift. I was not expecting anything from him and if there was ever anything from him, I was hoping that he would be able to turn up for my wedding. Anyway, thanks for making my night Khalid. Thanks for the gift and needless to say that seeing you tonight was more than enough as a wedding gift. I still digesting the fact that you will not be around for my wedding but I hope that you'd be around when I have my first child (whenever that is. Haha). So there you go, 35 days to my wedding, and I have gotten my first gift. Thanks again. Alhamdulillah :)

I recently read a blog of someone who I had just met a w eek ago. This person is just like any ordinary person - or so I thought. It turned out that there's more to this person. When I had a conversation with him, I noticed that he has a very refreshing way of looking at things. It's not that the way he thinks is totally out of the box but, it was just plain refreshing. I'm further impressed by his manners and attitude in life. And then when I read his blog, it inspires me to revive this blog. I guess I've forgotten what blogging was all about. Blogging is all about writing on whatever that ticks you. It does not have to be long, but just enough to highlight what you believe in. So I hope that this will be the new beginning of this blog. And to this person, thank you for inspiring me to do something that I have long left behind.

I had the pleasure of attending a wedding of a very good friend of mine today. He had the solemnization ceremony on Friday and the bride’s reception on Saturday. I only have the opportunity to attend today’s reception because I was at another wedding in Ipoh yesterday. I think, the best thing about attending a wedding is when it is the wedding of your good friend. And I guess, I have never felt happier when I see the bride and groom at a wedding then I was today when I saw him and his wife for the first time at the reception. To the bride and groom, may Allah bless your marriage with lots of love and joy. I am so happy for the two of you.

Goodbye 2009 and Hello 2010. This entry may be 5 days late but I’m going to post it anyway. One year had passed, and what have I accomplished in 2009? If someone were to ask me what 2009 is to me? I would say it is a career year. I know that I started working in 2008 but for six months between August 2008 and February 2009, I was actually under Management Trainee Programme at my company. Therefore, in true meaning of being employed, I started my career as an investment analyst in 2009. It actually feels nice when people ask you what do you do? And you are able to say, “I’m an investment analyst.” In 2009, I had my first vacation using my own hard-earned money. In August, I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia for a 4-day-trip with my friends. It was actually nice to know that you pay for your holiday with your own money. 2009 ended with my 2-week vacation in Mumbai, India. I think the holiday in Mumbai is a perfect way to end 2009 as my Career Year. I had a great time there and seriously, after...

I am disgusted by the arrogance shown by the Prime Minister in his speech yesterday. He was commenting on the call for a particular minister to resign for underperforming his duties. While I am indifference as to the minister’s performance, I felt shocked that the Prime Minister’s remarks that his decisions cannot be questioned. He went on to say that as the Prime Minister, he knows what is best for the country and therefore no one can ever doubt his decisions. He also went as far as saying that as the Prime Minister, it is his to right to decide whatever he deems fit for the people. Mainstream media describe the Prime Minister’s statement as charismatic. I describe it as downright arrogant. In short, the Prime Minister is describing himself as a prophet, who is sent by God for the betterment of mankind – or in this case, the Malaysians. Therefore, people are supposed to just sit quietly and listen to whatever he is saying and obey his decree to the letter. To give the Prime Minister t...

When are they going to realize this? It does not matter who brought, stepped, and spat on the cow head. It does not matter if they are UMNO members. It does not matter if they are PKR members. It does not matter if they are PAS member. It does not matter if they are DAP, MCA, MIC members. What matters is, the media has their pictures and videos. What matters is, from those pictures and videos, we can charge them in court. What matters is that the court has to find them guilty and they have to be punished. I personally do not give a damn from which party they came from. I especially do not give a damn if they are not even residences of Section 23. But I give a damn if they are not punished for their insensitive actions. So please stop all these drama on which party was behind the whole thing because that is not even the issue at hand. Our politicians have this habit of deviating from the real issue at hand. That is one trademark – apart from corrupted – of our politicians that I despise...

Happy Merdeka Day. After 52 years of independence, we still have not moved from not respecting other races and religions. This year’s Merdeka Day was tarnished by an appalled act by some residences of a certain city in Malaysia. I can try to understand the frustration of the residences over the plan to build a Hindu Temple within the vicinity of their homes. But, does that justify their actions? I seriously do not think so, especially the Hindus are not the party to blame in this issue. The Hindus in the area has as much rights as their Muslim neighbours for a place of worship. That is one fact that no one could deny. But, it is the authority that has the power to decide where and the places of worship can and cannot be built. Of course this is a delicate matter, but an intelligent authority would definitely be able to handle this matter swiftly without this turned into a racial issue. I honestly have no solution because I have no access to population data of the area. And I certainly ...

So now we are back to square one. Deputy Prime Minister announced today that the teaching of science and maths will revert to Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia (I still don’t know what they call it these days because the keep changing it every time we have a new Information Minister). The reason for the flip-flop was because the gap between rural and urban students have widen since the introduction of the policy in 2003. Let me get this straight, is the Deputy Prime Minister trying to tell everyone that before the teaching of science and maths in English, the performance of the rural students are at par with the urban students? If that is true, I think our education system must have been the best in the world. So, basically the teaching of maths and science in English policy had ruined our education system. Hail to the government for making things right for everybody. From 2012 onwards, we would see the equal performance of both rural and urban students in public examinations. Parents w...

When Datuk Seri Nizar just shouted in the parliament on Monday, I just thought that the former Mentri Besar had just found a new low in his behaviour – even lower than the attempted hunger strike a month ago. However, when Datuk Seri Nizar said, his action in the Parliament was spontaneous, I just realize that this so-called Datuk Seri can actually go lower than any dirt can go (pardon the language). I honestly do not mind if any of our MPs would want to convey their message by wearing a badge or a headband. I can also tolerate some sub-intelligent actions by them such as shouting in the august house because that’s what our MPs do. I did have an entry in this blog labelling our MPs as monkeys. But, to actually tell the press that whatever you did in the parliament on Monday was purely spontaneous, that’s just…well…lets just not go there shall we? If its not for the hypocrisy, I would have noted his actions in the parliament as bold (though that doesn’t mean I approve it). But, since Da...

Last night I had a dream. I dreamt that I was singing this song and apparently I love this song so much! The problem is now, I don’t remember what song was that. And I have been spending all morning googling to see if I can get remotely close to that song. Sadly enough I haven’t found that song till now. Sigh. I don’t remember the title, I don’t remember who sings that song. All I have in my head is a blurred memory of that song. I guess I just have to stop and get over it already. Haha. Just like an SMS I sent to a friend of mine, earlier this week, “Sometimes, it is better to let something go, rather than holding on to something that was never really there in the first place”. I might have sung the song in my dream, when for all I know, that could well be a fictitious song in my mind. On another note, Happy Mothers’ Day to all mothers!

“Remember those walls I built?” I am pretty sure that most of us had been in this position. We opened up ourselves to other people all the while thinking that that would make us happy. So, we bring ourselves to this whole new level only to be stabbed, crushed and broken. We then turned into this bitter person and push away everyone and everything that had the guts to come near us. “Baby, they’re tumbling down, they didn’t even put up a fight, they didn’t even make a sound.” Until someone came and somehow or rather, we forgot all the pain in the past and beginning to slowly open up ourselves again. “I swear I’d never le you in,” We keep telling ourselves that if we decide to give in, we will only ended up getting hurt again. “But I never really had a doubt, standing in the light of your halo, I got my angel now.” No matter how hard we tried to resist, this person keeps coming back into our life, proving how much we are worth to them. Until we finally realize that this person is actually...

This is my current favourite song. Unfortunately, I don’t fully the understand what the song is actually about but I do think the melody and lyrics are somewhat beautiful. And I do feel that I can relate to some of the lyrics. My Love by Celine Dion. My love, we have seen it all, The endless confession, the rise and fall, As fragile as a child, But lately I’m sorry I can’t hold a smile, But I stand tall to get by, No matter how hard I try to hide, Did you know I’d take the time for you? Did you know that I would see you through? Did you know that I would play the part? I must’ve made it clear from the start, My love, can you give me strength? Somehow I forgot how to ease my pain, I know I’m right where I belong, Something for nothing never proved me wrong, But I stand tall to get by, No matter how hard I try to hide Did you know I’d take the time for you? Did you know that I would see you through? Did you know that I would play the part? I must’ve made it clear right from the start, I ...

I is very unfortunate that we, Malaysians live in this country where its politicians only want to do what they do best, politicking. The latest circus in town is the resignation of Penanti Assemblyman, which effectively means another by-election will be held within the next 60 days. I don’t mind if we have a by-election when the incumbent rep dies or found guilty in courts but, I do mind if an incumbent just resign over personal matters or just allegations. I am happy for a rep with a government position to let go their post over personal matters or allegations over something but not – definitely not – for parliamentary or state assembly seat. The reason being, you were elected – read elected – by your constituents. If you were charged in court and found guilty, by law you would automatically vacant your seats anyway. So, until proven guilty, why should you resign? And if your constituents do not like you anymore, they can always vote you off in the next election. Here is what I am sug...