My First Wedding

Malaysia, Land of A Thousand Holidays. We are now celebrating our second and third new years of the year. It does sound a bit weird but that is Malaysia for you. I wonder if there is an Indian, Iban, or Kadazan New Year, but we already have so many holidays that we don’t know what to do with them. I’m not complaining, as long as the paycheck clears, and I always welcome the chance to sleep and rise late. I wonder though, if it would preferable if we could accumulate all those one-day and two-day holidays throughout the year into one long year-end holiday. Barulah berbaloi to go Cuti-Cuti Malaysia and beyond.

Holidays and school breaks also mean one thing – weddings. I went to a wedding myself on Sunday. It was my first wedding, the first wedding to which I was invited personally instead of as a member of the family. The image couldn’t be more perfect: an out-of-state traditional Malay kampung wedding reception with a traditional tangga batu stilt house, kompang and silat performances, and Melayu Asli songs in the air.

I used to hate weddings. In fact I am still not all that excited with the idea of attending a wedding. There is the big crowd with strange people and children running around, and the terrible noise that is the not-so-subtle entertainment. In the past we used to have live music from the local kugiran, which has a certain charm in itself, but as the society turns more ‘Islamic’ the kugiran has mostly given way to disc jockeys playing boring nasyid songs. But the most annoying part of going to weddings is having to wait in all that heat and humidity, finding shelter under a tent or a tree, while the women-folk would go inside the house ‘for a minute’ to ‘see the bride’.

Since I just do not seem to stop going to school away from the family, I have been missing out on, or perhaps spared from, the weddings in recent years. Three of my closest cousins got married when I was in Boston. It is quite awkward to be introduced later as the just-returned-cousin-I-told-you-about. So I now have a more positive view on weddings, as an avenue for meeting and catching up with relatives and friends. It is really regrettable that while the whole family is based in the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor area, we don’t get too see each other very often.

Semi-Detached

It feels so long already since I last watched a movie. Back in Boston I could just hop on the T to the cinema practically whenever I felt like. Now it seems like there is no time at all. I can either go catch a movie in the evening, which means having to rush after dinner and Maghrib for the 9 o’clock show on a week day; or go during the weekends when there are so many people also wanting to catch a movie. And I just so hate squeezing and queuing in a crowd to buy tickets. The only consolation is that the showings are not all that great anyway, and I really hate the subtitles they have here. Not only that I find that they are distracting, but the translations are terrible too.

It doesn’t get much better at home too. Television is so boring, which reminds me why I didn’t watch much television even before I went to the States. Yes, there is Astro, but my mother has complete control over it, watching her daily dose of Malay dramas.

And this brings us to Suapi, who is now a self-confessed "Malay drama junkie". I can never even begin to imagine myself becoming one. I better not elaborate any further, lest I begin to sound like a kacang lupakan kulit. But I do occasionally enjoy the comedies and romantic comedies they show in Cerekarama on TV3.

So what now? Thanks to flat-rate broadband connection, I get to download the latest episodes of my favorite shows and watch them whenever I can find the time. So everyone is happy in the family... and may we all live happily ever after. Amen.

As an update, I’ve got myself a new mobile phone, but still haven’t contacted any of my friends. Simply said I’m just plain lazy. Talking is hard work, you know, and it ain’t cheap too. Perhaps I should call them, well, *soon*.

School's on break, so it's all quiet on the Eastern Front

Since I do not have a teaching assignment, and most probably will not have one until the new academic year begins after the middle of the year, I have become this utility employee. So I find myself chasing after files and documents, finding addresses online, helping out with clerical work etc. The boss has even sold me off as Coordinator for Practical Training. It sure sounds big. At least now I get some interesting letters delivered to my mailbox at the department other than internal memos and circulars. It sure beats sitting in my room staring at the ceiling.

New Year, Home

And so we begin yet another trip around the sun, the year 2006CE. Who knows how long have this little planet we call home orbited this big small star we call the sun. And who knows for how much longer? We can only imagine how small and insignificant we are, not just as individuals, but also as a species living on Earth, in the vast infinity of the universe. We can also only imagine how short and insignificant our small existence stands against the endless stretch of time.

So this is how I begin this new year. What is a new year anyway, but just that? Some time in the past some wise men decided that we begin counting the days and months and years from an arbitrary point in time.

Final sunset over Marsh Plaza

The end of 2005 also marked the end of my time in Boston and the United States (for now, hopefully). It just happened that they arranged my flight out of the country on December 31. I was half-hoping that there would be a special treat of some kind flying on New Year’s Eve, but it was all quiet as we crossed into 2006 over the sky of Los Angeles. Before departing I managed to see just about everyone; Prof Anwar even gave me quite a talk. A nice makcik at the United Airlines check-in counter at Logan Airport was extremely nice to have helped me save more than $600 from overweight luggage; it turned out that since September the weight limit for checked-in luggage was reduced from 70lbs to just 50lbs. Kam made a point to shake her hand.

Now I am back in Malaysia, back home in my cramped old bedroom and my cramped old bed, back at work at IIUM. The good news is that we are well into the semester so I do not have a teaching assignment. For the few coming months it would be just like before I left. I haven’t been able to get my cell phone unlocked, and so using it as an excuse for not contacting any of my friends yet. I kinda like not having a cell phone, staying out of reach, in peace; easier on the budget too. But my mother is already bugging me to get one soon, “Kalau ada apa-apa nanti” she says. Ah, so now she cannot complain that I waste money on some cool gadget, er, phone. MUAHAHA! In the meantime she makes me take her cell phone to work. Earlier today there were three calls from someone named Julianah. I don't recognize the name, most likely some school teacher, so I just watched the phone rang and buzzed till it went off.

I also cannot say that I miss Boston terribly. Maybe not yet, though I doubt it. It would be really suck to miss a place you don’t call home. I really enjoyed my stay there, would love to go back sometime, but very much happier to be back home.