Tea Pot Incident

Warning: This post should be read with an open mind. Otherwise, one can dismiss it as it is written with an enigmatic mood.

Last Monday, a glass teapot from which we often had tea from, 'exploded' while it was left to dry near the kitchen cabinet. The teapot can be seen below with my youngest son.

At the time, the teapot has been left to dry (for sometime) in the place shown below. This shelf is embedded in the kitchen cabinet, elevated just slightly above the head level.

At the time, my other half was there nearby. As she turned her back to this drying shelf, the glass teapot 'exploded' into tiny pieces. If she had not turned, tiny glass pieces would have been blown into her face. Thank God, she did not get hurt by the 'explosion'. Tiny pieces of glass did go into our food, which was on the stove (not lit up and it was more than a metre away). We had to throw away all the food thereafter.

Why the 'explosion'? If I were to put my scientist cap on, the most likely explanation would be thermal stresses in the glass that may be just waiting its time to release the stress. Note that the teapot had no hot water in it and it was washed and left on the shelf for sometime. So in a way, there was no immediate cause that could have explained the matter.

Nevertheless, it was rather mysterious that it happened so. Alongside with other 'mysterious' events happening in our (personal) lives, I felt rather disturbed about them. Whenever such things happened (and also when I don't feel right about myself), I started to recite the long Surah Al-Baqarah as it is recommended for us to do so. The recitation itself normally takes more than two hours altogether and I often break the recitation into several parts. It can be exhausting (perhaps not being used to it).

I will not be apologetic about the matter. Indeed for muslim, we do accept the 'unseen world', which includes the realm of the beings of djinn. The only problem is that there will be a grey area between being overly superstitious and understanding it in the Qur'anic way. In the Qur'an, there is a chapter called Surah Jinn (Surah 72) and scattered in other places, the word djinn is mentioned 201 times (one can also consult https://www.qurananalysis.com/). So when it comes to the unseen world, we can only rely on what the scriptures and prophetic traditions have revealed. May Allah protect us from all forms of fitnah.

Family 'Eid Gathering

My other half and sons came back from Segamat on late Thursday evening. While waiting, do the usual chores and warmed up food that was left for us (me and my son) to eat. I also kept up reading the Qur'an to strengthen our spirits, particularly in places that are left empty. When they arrived (after a long drive), they noticed that one of our cats is missing i.e. Stephanie (the oldest in the house at present). Note the name was given due to its white appearance and when it was still a baby, it looks like Stuart Little but since it is a she, I gave her the name Stephanie instead. She was the only survivor from parvovirus infection. Apparently she was hiding under our sofa and she seemed to have lost control of her physical motion. Stephanie has grown close to my eldest son and we (my other half and eldest son) decided to send her to the vet the next morning and she was warded for observation.

Late Friday evening, my third son arrived from JB and the whole family was together again. We planned to have the family 'Eid group photo the next day. Here are the photos.

Right after the photo session, we went out to visit my brother-in-law who was in Labu at her father-in-law's place. Essentially that was our small 'Eid gathering. Tonight, my third son went back to his place since he will be at work tomorrow. My second son will return to JB tomorrow morning, hopefully after we sent our youngest back to UniKL-MFI in Bangi.

Last 10 Days of Ramadhan and Shawwal 1445

Today is already the second day of Shawwal 1445 and we have not quite celebrate 'Eid with the whole family, particularly our second son is working during 'Eid. Let me back track to the last ten days of Ramadhan 1445 when we were supposed to amplify our efforts in doing our night prayers.

Like past Ramadhans, fatigue tend to set in during the final days. Me in particular, had bad spells of bad back that I had to take pain killers. When I'm unwell, I tend to pray tarawih at home while my other half and sons go the Masjid Hussain.

Also, what adds to the fatigue is our routine of sending our son to UniKL MFI after Fajr in order to avoid the jam at Bandar Sri Putra-Southville stretch.

Not sure if we will still do this after 'Eid. Despite having paid for the hostel, it seems that he has to share with five other students in a dormitory like room. He is still hoping to get a better room (yet to have a positive answer).

When 'Eid was approaching, we had planned to go back to Segamat either on the last or second last day of Ramadhan. We had to cancel this idea on the scheduled day due to some personal problem. We decided that we will spend the night of 'Eid announcement and the 'Eid morning together.

We went to the nearby surau for our 'Eid prayers. Thereafter my other half and sons travel to Segamat to spend 'Eid with her sisters and brothers, while I stayed back in Seremban to ensure my third son has company at home. 

It seems that they have a good time in Segamat and here are some pics.

Tomorrow, God willing, my second son will come home from JB and the whole family will be back together for our small private 'Eid gathering.

Shying Away and Seeking Forgiveness

There are many times in my life, I 'saw' people trying to avoid interacting with me, often through their body language or other indications. My knee-jerk reaction will be to shy away from them. Before, many of these came from higher-ranked officers or privileged people, and in these cases I consider myself as probably not good enough to be in their company. Others can be 'seen' with looks for despise, for which I would question what have I done wrong; I will make it a point then, of avoiding them as much as I can. In some cases they can also come from students or close acquaintances themselves; probably I have done something wrong or to their dislike or maybe they just want their personal space.

In this blessed month of Ramadhan, I can only hope for forgiveness and try to be better myself. Whatever trials one is going through, they can only be very minor to those who are in Ghazza, and one should be thankful for not being tried beyond our capabilities.

اللَّهُمَّ إِنَّكَ عَفُوٌّ تُحِبُّ الْعَفْوَ فَاعْفُ عَنِّي

“O Allah, You are Forgiving and love forgiveness, so forgive me” or “O Allah, You are Pardoning and love to pardon, so pardon me.”

First Half Ramadhan Reflections

I thought I should update my blog since we have already reached the second half of Ramadhan. We started Ramadhan on Tuesday, 12 March.

Our youngest son has started his industrial training at UniKL Malaysia-France Institute just one day before Ramadhan. He has applied for accommodation there but at the moment (during Ramadhan), we decided that he should stay with us for his own convenience (iftar and sahur meals). He will moved there after Eid, God willing. Currently, me and my other half will send him to UniKL after Fajr and later in the evening, my eldest son will fetch him.

During the first half Ramadhan, I have been reflecting on two recent major events. The first is the Covid-19 pandemic. The disease had many lives loss (over 7 million according to this site). At the time, they were already predicting the forthcoming economic slowdown problems, which are still affecting us to this day. The next event is the horrible Ghazza conflict and genocide, which is going on for more than 170 days. Being a Muslim, I wondered what God is preparing us for.

By now, the death toll is more than 32,000 with unknown number buried under the rubble and more from the extreme famine. Currently the UNSC has demanded a ceasefire (with US abstaining) but with the occupying state's defiance, things are pretty uncertain where will this decision leads to. In any case, the fact that the genocide has gone this far is already mind-boggling. Because of this, I've been watching many videos on the conflict, in an attempt to understand it, more than I would want to. I also wanted to understand the mentality of those committing the genocide and watched some videos, some are too repulsive for me to watch in full. I also wanted to watch the documentary Isra3lism and temporarily it was put on YouTube but it was taken off a few hours later, probably due to copyright (only got to see the first ten minutes, paused it and later realised it was taken off).

There is also the wish to understand the mentality of those who supported the genocide. In a way, the prevailing Islamophobia (often promoted by the mainstream media) lends a platform to justify their support. I remembered having gone to Kentucky and on the day I was flying home, I tried to find a corner spot (out of everyone's way) at the airport, to do my prayers. Thereafter, the airport made the announcement of an orange alert. That was perhaps the first time I was perceived as a (possible) terrorist. At other times, I was probably viewed mostly as an inferior being with some medieval values. To get a glimpse of how some perceive muslims, just read the comments of the video of Timothy Winter (Abdul Hakim Murrad) at the Royal Institute. Of course, such perception is not limited to Muslims. So a broader platform is probably the colonialist mentality. I don't really want to go reading or watching on this subject but the unjust reality demands one to be at least aware of such mentality. In this regard, I would like to point to this video by Dr. Fatima Abdurrahman on 'telescopes' to get an idea on what this is all about (warning: it is about three hours and contain words that would have Steve Rogers say 'language').

Back at home, Islamophobic elements tend to get convoluted also with racial overtones and distrust deeply embedded within our society. The recent socks issue comes to mind. Hopefully this will die down and Ramadhan will get the wiser side of us.

Marching In

Yesterday, we had two weddings to go to. The one realised is the wedding of the youngest son of my eldest step brother in Klang (the other, we could not get back in time). The wedding was held in Laman Mazmida. My third son Izhar, who came back the night before, drove us there. The app he used showed there was a huge jam on the highway due to an accident. We took the Gamuda Cove exit and went through oil palm plantation roads (plenty of high bumps) to get there. Here are some photos that my brother shared late last night.

He also told me that Dato' Mohandass came and asked about me. Dato' Mohandass is my primary school mate in Sekolah Kebangsaan Sultan Yussuf (SYS). 

I was there from Standard 3 (or Year 3) during the time of Pn Machado. Before that, I was in Methodist English School (MES) in Tanjung Malim (I have very little memories of my time there - I have vague memories of friends named Razman and Jamaliyah). For SYS, besides Dato' Mohandass, I remembered Chang Seit Kim (a close friend whose father is also a close friend of my late father), Saiful Yazzan and Rosli Dawam (I think). being a person of lower social intelligence (there, you have it; poke fun if you like), I did not keep in contact many of them. Sometimes I do envy those who are very sociable and kept contact with past friends. Perhaps this is why I get to be easily forgotten too. I'm no snob and I'll be happy to meet friends from the past and recall all the nice memories. I guess I take the attitude of a traveller in a temporary world, taking life as it comes, not much of looking back.

Currently, I take more heed of what is going on right now. My youngest son, in the weeks to come, will go for his industrial training in UniKL. Particular worry now is his place of stay during the training. He has started to practice driving,

Elsewhere on the web, I've been listening to the interview of Kenneth O'Keefe (see here and here). Updating myself with the flour massacre. I still looked into discussions on philosophy in FB but perhaps with less interest. I still think, what we are lacking now are those who are well-proficient in sophisticated maths and perhaps this is where I can help. Much can be said but certainly much more to be done.

Excuse Me

Today I decided that I should take a rest from teaching. Perhaps it is better this way as Ramadhan is approaching. With old age, I have been slower doing things and I get tired easily. So with Ramadhan, I fear I will not be able to teach well. As it is, my students rating in XMUM was not that good and what surprised me (maybe I should not), I had poorer rating for Mathematical Methods, the subject which I find more interesting to teach than Electrodynamics. Then I realised that Mathematical Methods was taught in the afternoon (during lunch time) after Electrodynamics in the morning. Two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Thus by the afternoon, I was already quite exhausted. Of course, there was also less sleep in the night before, to prepare four hours of lecture. Certainly, I wished I had done my teaching better. I could give justifications on the less ideal situation that I'm in, but I won't. As the students say, these will be just excuses. This week, when I opened my e-mail, I saw that I have a few more reports to submit for my teaching portfolio (note this is much more detailed in comparison with UPM). There was an excel file that I could not get to work the first time (during my portfolio submission) and I had to find some details from the colleagues in XMUM for me to proceed and it needed tweaking. One of the things when you have a standard set-up for everyone, there is little room for variations in the way one does things. An easy example is that I give choices for students to pick exam questions that they are more comfortable to answer and also with continuous assessment, due to the many questions that I give them in the assignments, I used capping marks in order to help those students who could not do all of them. Both of these need workarounds for the given excel file and it took more than three days for me to do this. Finally, I submitted all reports and returned the marked exam scripts to the exam unit. So I went to campus for the last time and returned my office keys.

Another thing that came up, was that I found people are making fun of me that includes a past student. I was feeling down but maybe I shouldn't be in this age of trolls. Being older, I tend to be more sensitive these days. Sometimes people make fun of someone, looking down on him/her, because they want to feel better themselves. If so, I felt disappointed on what happened. Perhaps I have trained them wrong. For now, I have made all my blogs private (for fear of more mocking). I'm not sure when will I make them public again. I prefer to spend time alone at this stage, reflecting on things, doing work in silence. I will spend more time in the smaller room at the back, simply because it is cooler here in the afternoon. My own room gets too much sunshine, it gets terribly warm. Here is my view (perfect for working alone).

The other thing that happened this week was Aaron Bushnell setting himself on fire as a protest to the current genocide. I watched the full video and I felt a little sick and had to lie down. There has been many cases of self-immolation (a new word I have learned) in the past but they have been done as the extreme form of protest. In the case of Bushnell, some parties tried to paint him as mentally ill, perhaps trying to lessen the impact of the message that he is carrying. 

Finally I would like to close this post with this supplication: