my story

assalamu3aleykom and merry Thursday morning to all.

the rain has stopped.

***

Yesterday was a day i wish would just be like a small dandruff on my shoulder which i can easily wipe it off of my shoulder and go on with my life but that seems to be too comical.

it was a day full of loserness which was tiring and face-covering.

Firstly, Mercury and Lee (not real names but well known) went to this one travel agent office somewhere near The Mall to make a new international student identity card each but couldn’t do so since they lacked some requirements that i didn’t really poke myself to know what they actually were. there was also PitDaz with us but i think he didn’t want to make any card.

PitDaz, Lee, Kilimanjaro Monkey and Mercury

Then came Kilimanjaro Monkey to do the same thing and as the loserness kept on soaring through the afternoon air, it happened to be that he forgot to bring his photos, that after realizing it, all five of us then followed him to one photo shop in The Mall and got himself some new photos of his (which were more expensive than expected), that later we went to the travel agent office again to keep him company but what turned out to be so losery was that he, too, wasn’t able to make one! the reason was just the same as in the above mentioned scenario. pity pity pity…

my hunter green stethoscope

the plot of loserness continued when we took an LRT train to titiwangsa (if i’m not mistaken) and after that we had to walk for quite a distance - i mean a real quite a distance - before we could reach the Kamal store to get some medical stuffs. walking alone is no biggie but when we had to walk along the roadside of a quite-a-highway one, to me, that seemingly resembled some straying bums or just refugees or probably some PATIs having an afternoon walk after a long work in a construction site. sad sad sad…

as recommended by Leyl :)

as recommended by Rozila (Din Bujang's colleague)

The loserness point in the loserness chart went rocketing upwards so high when we were too hungry and went dining out at the kl sentral’s food court when i ordered a nasi goreng u.s.a, which i’ve been longing for long, which turned out to be a disaster to my taste buds! Perhaps whiskas is more acceptable than that awful nasi goreng! now i think that the one who made that nasi goreng u.s.a really needs to get another job somewhere in mars so that he/she could serve the aliens because his/her cook deserves an alien’s taste buds.

::felt like i was one of those mummies in the valley of the losers::

Many events filling up the the days during this festive season that i wish to put them all in My Story ; from celebrating the eid at The Zon-All Suites Residences near klcc to saying goodbye to my lovely sister-in-law. However, i am too tired to type (or lazy enough) that i just decided to let the photos do the writing and talking and immortalize those very sweet moments…

***

smile

Wake up. it’s Friday morning. It’s been a while. Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, maaf zahir dan batin to all.

selamat hari raya and happy eating!

***

it was tuesday, and it was exhausting but ok.

I n t r o. It was an indeed exhaustion that i felt like my lower limb needed some physiotherapy that day. Ihsan asked me out that day for he wanted to get a new battery for his laptop and a buffalo external hard disc. Yasir and Anep YB were with us too; they needed to get some things as well. What was more significant was that Ustaz Mat Tanta was also there! It’s been a while since i last met him. it’s been a while.

R e v v i n g  u p. From kl central, all 5 of us headed towards Low Yat to get some gadgets (i bought nothing for i needed nothing). After getting through most of the maze in the building and grabbing some needed stuffs, which were exhausting, Yasir then told us that he needed to get a pair of shoes preferably at aL-ikhsaN store, and YB too, and finally i thought of one i need for gym and me too was in need of a pair of shoes.

T i r e d. We went marching along the hallways in Sungai Wang Plaza in search of aL-ikhsaN but there was none. Totally lethargic, we then dragged our jelloid body to the adjacent BB Plaza and after a quite long walk, then we found that aL-ikhsaN. It was frustrating that not even one pair that met my taste, so that of Yasir’s and YB’s.

H u n g r y. We went back to kl central and had our lunch there except Yasir for he was fasting, and later Yasir and Ihsan went back home and the three of us, after performing Asar prayer, rushed to mid valley megamall to do some more shopping till about 9.30pm that i felt like dying and to make things better we searched for a place to sit and have some drinks.

I n  h u r r y. We hurried ourselves to kl central for we feared we would miss out the last train since last time when i went out and it was 11pm something n i did miss one that i had to get a cab home and it cost me some amount of money. Ustaz Mat and me directed ourselves to subang jaya while YB to rawang.

D e a d. Arriving home, i performed Isyak prayer and went to sleep as soon as possible, and Ustaz too, for the next day i needed to help Ustaz to get a bus ticket for him to JB. Rabbana yusahhilna…

***

Tomorrow, Ihsan asked me out too, again, to hkl for he and Yasir want to get a stethoscope each and when i asked them why can’t we just get it from pharmacies there in Alex, Yasir told me that Din Bujang told him that stethoscopes in egypt do not function well that we can’t hear heart’s murmur. is it true? got no idea.

Plus the day after tomorrow would be Radin’s open house for the Eid and also a big day for Radin’s sister - the wedding ceremony, and i already received the invitation card and can’t wait to get there and eat out loud!

actually i just realized that luncheon is also present here in Malaysia

The fasting month in Malaysia means a constant extravagant celebration of food, whether delicacies or sometimes just rubbishies, throughout the nation which comes in myriad fashions – be it the big time family breakfasting feasts, crazy bazaar Ramadhan fiesta, classy Ramadhan buffets in restaurants and hotels, seasonal in-mosque breakfasting ceremonies, sensational Kampung Baru’s signature bubur lambuk giveaway galore and all other settings in which food is the guest of honour.

And, probably, most of the time, we fail to thank Allah and say Alhamdulillah for this sort of luxurious living He bestowed us that we tend to forget the freakingly miserably tough plot of life the other Muslims at the other end of the world are getting through, and the most prominent ones out of all are those Palestinians.

***

Sheikh Abu Bakr al-3ewawidah, one of the members of The Rabitah of Paletinian Scholars (HQ in Syria) came to the mosque where I always pray at, and together with the fellows of HALUAN Palestine they shared some stories with us the audience to raise our awareness and seek for our support morally and economically, pertaining the never-ending Arab-Israeli issue, or perhaps only Palestine-Israeli issue (since the Arabian league itself and most of us Moslems are just blind and turned ourselves deaf now) that has really been disembowelling us all along.

sheikh abu bakr al-3awawidah, the one in greyish blue tux. Rabbana yukrimak~

“The Israeli soldiers (demonic animal retarded bastards ‘yucks’!- DARBY la3natullah) stroke some electric current into both of his eyes during the 1^st detainment. That’s why he’s blind now as you see. Sheikh has been in Zionist’s prison for 6 times and yet the 1^st is the worst.”

Said the representative of HALUAN when introducing Sheikh to us before he started to translate Sheikh’s speech later on. I was shocked, touched. It is different to have the bad news written on the paper and having another one just coming up in front of you. Perplexed I was.

These are some infos that Sheikh included in his speech that I could recall now, some we may have heard about:

Currently there are 5 million Palestinians stranded in their own homeland and 7 million more became refugees or reside in other countries.

During the previous war, about 1300 Palestinian casualties were reported, and to our astonishment, about 2500 (or 3500? Ay, my brain’s not good enough) Palestinian newborns were reported at the same event too, meaning how Allah took some Palestinians and returned back some more.

A total of about 1.5 million kg explosives hit the ground of Palestine which is the home of 1.5 million civilians, giving the idea that they would fairly receive 1 kg of explosives each.(Sheikh stated this, but I think that the figure is contradicted to the first one above, never mind though)

Studies have made a rough prediction that in 10 years time, Israel will undergo its twilight zone, and the cause is yet unknown. Whatever the cause is, what is more important to us right now is to ask ourselves what we are doing to help out our Palestinian brothers and sisters and to make the prediction comes true.

The Palestinian women said :

“we have sacrificed a lot; we let our husbands become martyrs in battlefield, we accept the fact that we have lost our children and shelters and clothes and food and friends and neighbours and future and all and we don’t really mind for we know Allah hath a better reason why all these things should ever occur, but what we are concerned about right now is, you Moslem women out there, what have you done to help us here? What have you contributed to overcome our misery? What efforts have you taken to bring al-Aqsa back to us all? What…”

The Jordanians and also some other people from adjacent countries have this goodwill activity of adopting a Palestinian family or child as a part of their own family. They keep on giving help and support in the form of money even though both parties never met each other and that’s touching. (Thinking that why not some datuks and datins in our country do the same thing ey? It’s a very good thing innit?…)

Listening to Sheikh made my heart murmured a while and eyes filled up with small tears that nearly dropped down my cheek, and ignited some sort of intense hatred in me against the DARBY and the £*&^&%^ Zionists.

Later came the session where the audience could ask questions directly to the Sheikh and as conservative as Malaysians always are, no one had any question until this middle-aged man raised his hand up and asked a question, and after that no other question anymore until me myself had to sort of fill up the blanks and asked a question, and then again, no more question, until the same guy had to put his hand up some more to ask another desperate question. It’s a normal scene by the way, desperate and pitiful I can say.

I asked Sheikh about the status of boycotting Israeli and its coalitions’ products, and he said that it is HARAM for us to buy and consume those products. He referred to a verse in the Holy Quran and it’s so sad that I could not remember it now (Bad brain! Bad brain!) , and he also remarked about this familiar idea; buying their products is just like buying the missiles to kill Palestinians.

The talk ended and a representative from the mosque stood up and announced the alms collected that very evening solely for Palestinians which was RM 5000 ++ that was superbly praiseworthy. What was left for me and the rest of the audience was to get ourselves into the way of helping our own people there in Palestine. Peace.

Got headache. I need coffee. But I’m fasting.

***

Yesterday was a day I couldn’t stand to even getting myself picturing it- it will bite my head off or perhaps biting my brain off slowly from the inside and rendering it like a rotten durian in a beautifully handcrafted basket giving me that total brainache that I need a neurosurgeon to fix it that coffee alone would never do.

It was because, the journey from Subang Jaya to Taman Melawati, which is supposed to be just for 30 minutes ++ using KESAS highway, turned out to be 2 hours ++! Now that I call hell! (I’m sorry to use vulgar word this Ramadhan but can’t help it…sick of it!).

We were stuck in the middle of totally congested and thrombosed traffic that my eyes could see the same metallic-brown 1^st version of SAGA queuing just in front of us for let say, an hour or so! That proves how we were stuck not only on the same road but also in the same line! So sick 1#! And trapped for hours in the car was just perfectly ugly that I felt like the world is getting tinier that I needed to squirm in between the squeezing force the world banged on me. So sick 2#!

We were glued stoically to the traffic jam that at last the Azan Maghrib was on and we just had to break the fast with only sharing a few drops of mineral water left in the bottle for we didn’t really expect to get into this kind of situation that if we did we sure had grabbed a kurma or two with us so that we could properly break the fast on our way. Sigh*

My brother suddenly said something that made me realized for the zillionth time that Malaysia is still outdated in terms of public transportation which is actually the reason for this traffic condition. Bad bus system, horrific KTM services plus no carpooling made the picture worse. UK is way better than us – I did see that there is even timetable for the arrival time of all buses at each bus stop there, and not only the existence of the timetable alone, but also they follow the timetable accordingly. If it says the bus will arrive at 5.55am, the bus will definitely show up at that specified time, honestly. I can also say that even Bangkok’s train system is much faster and more trains are available. Poor 1Malaysia, still having a hell of lousy train on the railway…

I held my thought for a second and started to ponder on what my dad told me earlier – he told me that perhaps living and working in Kelantan would be better than here in the capital, and one of the reasons is this traffic problem. Probably he’s right, and I should totally put that into consideration.

Guess nobody wants to live in hell.

sometimes breaking the fast with something chinese is just refreshing. Happy breakfasting to all muslimeen and muslimaat :)

[1] ‘Let’s have a vie ; the one who first completes reciting the whole Quran this Ramadhan wins!’

This was 3 years ago if I’m not mistaken, texted by my dear friend PQ through sms, and I failed to respond to this well that year; I failed to do so in Ramadhan during the earlier years and so the 3 years after the challenge, and now this year, I am hoping that I am not a loser anymore J biiznillah~

[2] ‘…la yana wala yamootu…’

This is the incomplete verse of zikr I heard in between the Taraweh at the mosque I currently go to every Ramadhan night here at my place, namely Al-Mukminuun Mosque USJ2. I heard this for about 3-4 times now, predicting to hear more later though, since the same 2 guys alternating the task I guess. Sometimes he mentioned it well; ‘…la yanaamu wala yamootu…’ and sometimes like the above one. Perhaps my auditory function is deteriorating …but unlikely…

[3] ‘decision’

This is the first English word (which actually can easily be translated into Malay n giving no significance of why should the khatib use the English one) I’ve ever heard in khutbah all my life, again, if I am not mistaken, which is, likely; it was from the khatib during the yesterday’s Jumaah khutbah or sermon, and later he started delivering other English words but not so many and even some full sentences, thought that it was more like an every-day casual conversation we often involved in because of the rojakness he showed in his speech, but it was refreshing J

Of course before this I’ve heard some English words like H-one-N-one (we didn’t use the Malay version of H1N1 because we are ignorant. Poor us) and other English scientific terms but those are the words that cannot be translated properly into Malay, or if translated, still, the sound would just be the same as the English counterpart.

Another shocking thing about this khatib was that he seemingly didn’t use a normal formal fully written you-must-read-it-word-by-word-even-monotonously text as the others used to do here in my place (and I believe it goes the same in all mosques in our country since the rule), because I could hardly see him bending his head down slightly to see any text in front of him or peeping somewhere for some written words. Perhaps the moment he peeped the text was the moment I blinked, heh… If it is true that he didn’t use the text, I must say that he was superb because the way he presented was so inviting and amazing that I was well alert the whole session. Kudos to him.

(plus I do think khutbah without a text would be interesting and attractive and more effective since it comes from the heart so does it go into our hearts; like in Egypt (mabrouk!), but mostly it just goes through my heart because of the language problem… sigh*)

Wishing a very blessed and blissful Ramadhan to all brothers and sisters in Islam, in the hope that we shall renew and ameliorate ourselves, in the aim of becoming good Muslims.Ameen.

~Ramadhan kareem w Allahu akram~

The Malay Ticket Girl : Your student cards look weird. So, you guys aren’t studying locally?

Raden : Yep. We are studying at Alexandria University, Egypt. We are having holiday now for 2 months something.

Sya’rani: mute*

Me : Look, it’s Arabic.

The Malay Ticket Girl : O, sorry, I don’t know how to read it, haha.

Raden : Then you don’t read al-Quran. Kantoi, huhu.

All then giggled after Raden with his big and lasery yet sincere mouth spilled those words into the conversation in an unexpected manner. I laughed because it was hilarious how Raden would be so stroppy like that. Honestly I had no heart to harm people like that verbally, heheehee…

All three of us then headed to our spot where there were also Ihsan, Budu, Baidoune and Rashid waiting for the tickets. We went to have some drinks at the nearby Food Junction before the unacceptably boringly monotonous horrific i-despise-it-like-hell Kungfu Tootsie will start showing. (don’t ever wish of watching this movie. It’s superbly the worst investment in movie-watching industry).

My three other friends from my high school, whom I haven’t met for almost 3 years and now I accidentally met three of them here in mid valley (this is a petit world indeed); Fiqry(Nottingham Uni., medicine), Amin(Uni.somewhere in Texas,engineering) and Izdihar (Uni. in France, geology) went to catch a couple of pool games first before joining us for the movie.

After the movie, we went to bowl for only 1 game and had ourselves dined at the Kenny Roger’s Roasters. Catching up with the new updates and sharing experiences and stories between us were just motivating and refreshing. I crammed the Kenny’s signature mouth-drooling chocolate muffin down my throat since I did realize that it had been a long time since I last had it; guessed I missed it a lot.

Earlier, we came across Abang Faiz in the surau(again, the world is a total petit), a senior from Cairo University with his two other friends. They were doing fine.

Saying goodbye to my Alexandria buddies, Fiqry, Amin n me hopped in Izdihar’s Skoda car n headed toward Subang Jaya since our houses are near to one another. Before that, we grabbed some Beard Bread’s famous cream puffs which were awesome, really.

sweet

It was yet another significant day out with mates. What was more significant that particular day to me, other than having the chance to meet old friends, which was heavenly, was that girl couldn’t read al-Quran. Quite shockingly that she admitted so honestly and quite unbelievably how we Malay Muslims are deteriorating in one aspect after another. nauzubillah~

Sigh*

Sometimes, people are confused when it comes to observation vs. judgment. Observation is merely a comment delivered or expressed by one when one listens or sees a current event or issue etc. Judgment on the other hand is about ultimate finalization of a given situation or issue or anything as a whole package – rendering judgment as a constitution having a higher standard and intensity than that of observation.

************************************************************

It was indeed a pleasant morning with the urban fresh air rejuvenating the beginning of my day and the merry chirpings of urban-bred tiny birds had made the morning even livelier. Still, the mild haze filling up the atmosphere of USJ 2 neighborhood interrupted the perfection of the morning, yet to only the slightest extent.

“Jom kuar”

The instant message I received from LeeIhsan on the very morning alerted me. He asked me out, but not only the two of us; there was also Aslam the best student of Section 3 would come and join us too. Aslam was at Ihsan’s place somewhere in Serdang (I guess) for they, together with Pokyan Hebat, were going to have a trip to East Malaysia the upcoming day. I was a bit excited, really, to have an outing like this, for it feels like something, something unexplained; a distinct feeling grows whenever you get to meet your friends you have been getting by for so long at another place strange to you and them; meeting them at a local, familiar place should be a good one.

We first met at KL Central and then made our way to Times Square. The moment when both of them came into picture was the moment when that unexplained feeling burst in me. Casual manly conversation and silent moments came in alternating fashion along our way to the Times Square.

There, after feeding our rumbling grumbling stomachs, we decided to catch a new movie released, yet since Ihsan n Aslam had this curfew thing going around, (huhu… no lah… they just had to be at a place somewhere I didn’t know at specified time so that Ihsan’s brother could fetch them home, or otherwise they’d just end up sleeping in a surau that night) we decided to watch Transformers at an IMAX cinema since the schedule was agreeable with their curfew. It’s my first time, and their second time watching it. Never mind though, bearing in mind Raden has watched it for 3 times in a row so far~…

Yeah, it was indeed excitingly misleading! They made it looked like this; Giza and hundred-miles away Luxor and Aswan, and thousand-miles away Petra, all four were in the same place, same area where at once Shia and the girlfriend were running in between the ancient pillars and Ramses’ sculptures in Luxor and a few seconds later they were still running, yet on the ground of Giza with the pyramids and sphinx behind them. I giggled and whispered,

“What? O please…”

It was funny to see how movie can be so obviously twisted like that and how lay people would accept it, or mostly they didn’t even realize it. I laughed… For sure Ihsan n Aslam knew why.

It’s time to go home. Heading ourselves towards the exit of the Times Square, as usual, I noticed a lot of colors moulded together forming what we always call as Malaysian community. I did realize that some colors were perfectly exhibited and others were just, like, off-color, especially the Malay bit.

“Gosh!…”

Exclaimed me silently once I realized that this one teenage girl who was wearing this very short short, I mean very, was Malay! It was like the skimpy tight whitish meany mini short short was hugging only the upper 1/5 of her thigh! She was hanging out with a couple of teenage boys in the midst of the crowd, smiling and laughing out loud. To me as a person, I got no right to judge her of course, but I get to observe at that moment and made a rough conclusion that the Malay portion of the color was becoming sicker and paler. I did try to draw Ihsan’s and Aslam’s attention to the girl yet they missed it. Good for them though; didn’t have to put another sin on their back that day. Honestly, I was speechless having to face it. Allah, help us…

___________________________________________________________

The skimpy tight whitish meany mini short short was hugging only the upper 1/5 of her thigh!

________________________________

Saying goodbye to both of them, I then dragged myself from the Imbi station to the KL Central station. On my way there, another unbelievable hue came across my vision, like some sort of dark and evil and superior spirit swooshed in front of me. It was this 99.99% Malay-looking lad with dyed hair around his twenties arrogantly walked by with a tiny necklace hanging, showing a whitish more or less plus-shaped structure, which was a cross! It wasn’t shocking if he looked like a French guy or Chinese one, but he looked almost totally Malay and that’s totally shocking! Perplexed, I tried not to think and digest it any more because it was beyond acceptance. Perhaps he was an unfortunate British to have some sort of almost-totally Malay look… (ehm… what?). What a dull hue… ya rabb ana mosh fahem…

I was then queuing in front of the KL Central ticket counter to get a ticket to Subang Jaya Station. I was at first reluctant to get into the line since it was awesomely long and winding, but I got no other choice so I was in.

Having no other thing to do then putting one very small tiny little step forward for every 3-4 minutes along the line and sighing every now and then over boredom, I then observed another unacceptable color tone in front of me. It was faintly disgustingly grey; a fairly tall Malay guy in his 30s was striving excellently to pick something out of his… nose! I could see from his look that he was so confidently picking his nose in front the public, with not only a finger of one hand, but also with another decent finger of another hand! Yuck! And rolling the thing in between his thumb and the first phalanx and tossing it away possibly to other unfortunate people’s clothes were just yuckier!

“O, come on!”

I sighed in embarrassment, having to realize that he was into public display of his nose picking affair. I would understand if he was having this bug stuck in his nostril that he needed to get it out of him, but there was not any. How impossible people can be and do and how off-color the Malay community has become, I mean a part of it.

I then left the Central with a bunch of mad and non-mad memory filling up the folders in my cerebrum.

The earlier pleasant Saturday morning was nearly perfect, the afternoon hangout with Ihsan and Aslam was a laugh, and the evening events were just ugly and blemished that I wanted to vomit and got that metabolic alkalosis. Allah blesses…

“We got a C.H.A.M. We got a P.I.O.N. We got a CHAMPION, CHAMPION, go~ Razi!”

SMILE. All I can do whenever recall this unforgettable group cheer is smile. It is simple. It is meaningful. Honestly, at first I was a bit reluctant to have a cheer for the group since a part of me said it was unnecessarily childish and verging towards ‘Ribena-kids-like syndrome’ (kanak-kanak Ribena). Not that I hate kids (I adore them) but it’s just that I hate to act like one. Later, when Faiz Abas came up with this cheer on our second meeting in a small room at the Asrama MARA one night, and the majority of the group members nodded and agreed, and me as the group leader, being democratic, too, nodded and agreed, we started to grow the cheer bit by bit in our hearts till the end of the B.O.O.M program, and at that moment, our cheer finally had proven me wrong; it’s nothing Ribena or childish about it; it’s not just a mere cheer like any cheerleading things we have seen which I believe myself they do not actually cheer but they put it as a beauty blast plus giddiness galore plus sexiness show-off plus fake fiesta which in turn initiate a gag reflex in me; our group cheer was realistically simple and meaningful when our group was nominated as the (read the words in the cavity of the rounded reddish follicle…heh) for this very first edition of B.O.O.M. Yes, the first BEST group Ar-Razi was, and CHAMPIONs we were. The cheer was then indeed a good appetizer which gave us a satisfying end. Result!

To all arRazians, bravo 3aleykum!

Shukr lillah~

Ahsan Naas has been a very popular incantation among a quite number of Egyptians, especially the elderly, once they encounter Malaysian people – just similar to the expecto petronum charm Potter used once encountering the dementors - yet Ahsan Naas is different in the sense that it warmthly welcomes the persons who receive it rather than frightening them off like Potter did to those dark, soulful Azkaban keepers.

Ahsan means ‘the best’ and Naas means ‘people’, which makes it clear to us how those particular Egyptians have this ideology glued to their minds with full undoubtable confidence saying how nice and decent and civilized and perhaps, perfect Malaysian people are. Is it a generalization? Or is it an exaggeration? Ever felt or thought or confirmed ourselves that it has been a bit overrated? Whatever the exact nature of this magic spell might be, it has, to a certain extent, reached its twilight zone.

*          *          *
Part I : Mansoura Governorate - 2008

“hayawaan da!”.

The world around me suddenly came into a halt or seemed to just moving very perfectly slowly, like in The Matrix Trilogy, indicating a crucial, significant moment was occurring. Not being like Neo who was at his cool state during moment like this, I was at total transfixion!

“Animals? What exactly did that old lady was trying to tell and show to her young daughter? Why did she give me that frightened plus disrespect plus snobbish look?”

There were no animals ( hayawaan ) or animal reservoirs or animal products around – there were just tomatoes and cauliflowers and carrots and onions and mulukheyya filling each and every niche of the market, somewhere in the outskirt of Mansoura. Cats? Horses? Even donkeys were absent that night! I was then perplexed. I was positive that the lady was obviously pointing to animals, any animals presented around the place at that very moment, so as to show it to the daughter - because she used the word da which is a pronoun meaning this or that. Then, a sudden gush of catecholamines sprinting trough my vessels in a speed of light, eliciting an arousal of underdog-like feeling; a feeling I could never translate it well into words; a feeling only a servant like Dobby would normally feel; a feeling of profound disgust interwoven with total disgrace and perfect shame and complete humiliation culminating into a feeling which was, again, untranslatable.

“@#$%^&*! Darn, she was pointing it to us!”

The devil part of inner me abruptly spoke. I wish I were Neo and the old lady were the skinny meany Smith with his sunglasses – so that we would have a fight and I will eventually win; but that’s not the case because I don’t really have that strong  fighter instinct in me… Anyhow, it was yet the worst description I’ve ever received!

Why? Why that animals incantation all of a sudden? No more magical words of Ahsan Naas? Never want nor hope nor expect for that one but at least please don’t turn it 360° and say animals. That was unacceptable. Seriously, alohamora or stupefy or even laviosa would do!

Speechless, that was all I knew. After absorbing the event for a couple of moments, me myself came into reality. Aha! I got it… Yes, of course, it was meant to be this way. The old lady was totally referring us, me and my friends, as animals (shoot I hate this incantation) because of an unforgettable event which had occurred a couple of weeks ago I heard through the grapevine myself – where there was a homicide of an unfortunate Malaysian student done by his own mate, which was unfortunately another Malaysian student, taking place in an unfortunate apartment which was unfortunately nearby this very unfortunate market stuffed with unfortunate Egyptians who had to witness the ultimate unfortunate event of Ahsan Naas. The incident did happen and was very true, transparent and clear to them the locals that they have the right to replace the incantation with a more realistic one – but not animals!

Now I understood… There was no single reason for me to be neither shocked nor astonished from the latest version of  incantation came from the old lady because she was, to a certain degree on her side, standing on a real ground. I didn’t need to fight back; I didn’t need to feel pissed off; all I need was just to accept the fact that we are not fully and holistically nice or decent or civilized or perfect people - as what those Egyptians had made the Ahsan Naas absolutely overrated. It doesn’t mean that we are not good people – it’s just that we are not as Ahsan as they thought we were. Sometimes we are good, sometimes we are bad, and some of us are good while some of us are bad. Simple. And I bet that’s the rule for any population of human beings from any country, anywhere, be it the John Gray’s Martians or Venusians, we are all the same in this particular matter.

______________________________________

We are not holistically nice or decent or civilized or perfect people –
they have made the Ahsan Naas absolutely overrated.

For sure I do need, on my side, to disagree totally with the old lady’s action because she was merely generalizing thing – she saw one tiny little thing and put it as a judgment as a whole. I hate generalization. Perhaps her old age hindered her from thinking more wisely before taking any action. Whatever she said, the other thing which was more significant to me was that the twilight of Ahsan Naas has just yet begun.

Gazing around, I realized that the locals didn’t really like our presence there since the suspicious eyes and smiles and indifferent mugs filled every corner of my eye field, so uncomfortable like I was having conjunctivitis or something. Trying not to look like we care, my friends and I then continued squeezing in between the crowd, getting some more potatoes and onions to get ready for tomorrow’s big day – Raya and Aniq’s open house!

“Behave?? You are now asking me to behave? Since when I got this mom-kid connection with you, maestro? Screw you! ”

Yes, it is a definite reality that there are certain groups of people who cannot tolerate being said or directed or ordered of what to do, at all. They think that they are perfect enough even though they know they are not even close to being, perhaps, just good.

True, no one can be perfect but everyone can practise towards perfection. Ergo, it is like a pathognomonic syndrome for this population to exert unjustified reflexes and responses and, at most of the events, buccal manifestations as above.

*       *       *

I was working out at the usual milieu one night when one of the personnel there approached me to start the conversation. After a long Egyptian-oriented friendly greeting (truly, Egyptians initial greeting will take a period of finishing up a whole bowl of indo-mie) and stuffs like that, he started his words of revulsion and I started my auditory function :

Him : You know, last night, around 10 p.m, 5 Malaysian boys came and used the SPA facilities.

Me : O really? That’s good.

Him : Nah…They made lots of trouble here you see. At first they wanted to pay only LE 50 for the whole jacuzzi, sauna and steam bath for all of them! Yes, all of them! I mean, ‘What?!’…That is just as impossible! And then they compared with the price of the same facilities they went to, somewhere in Smouha called Four Seasons. You know Four Seasons? It’s like a wellness and ‘beauty’ centre for men. The point is that, how come they compare Four Seasons with us? Four Seasons, of course, offers a cheaper price because it’s obviously a ‘beauty’ centre itself, so, anything like sauna and all would definitely be cheap. Here, we are not like that ‘beauty’ centre. We are more to gymnasium stuffs, and of course anything about gym at our place would be cheap as well. People come here to work out and after that they can have themselves relaxed in the SPA section. People normally don’t come here to just indulge themselves in the SPA alone, like what they did. So, logically, they had to pay more.

Me : hmmm… That makes sense. So, how much did they pay then?

Him : After some talking and all, they agreed to pay LE50 for each.

Me : That’s fine then. (even though I did think it was a little expensive)

Him: After that, they got changed and usedthe facilities. Fine… What was out-of-mind is that they were running here and there and dashing from one section to another, like a chaos or something disastrous was happening! It was totally unacceptable. And it wasn’t like for 1 hour - they actually spent 2 hours in the section! That was more than anyone had ever done. $%^&*@#! Ya Rabb! They were really mad. I’ve never seen people like this before!

Me : (O no…) Are you sure? 2 hours? I can say that’s a little too long. Other people might want to use them as well.

Him : YES! Defo!

Me : (Pretending like I was shocked even though I was embarrassed… honestly…)

Him : Plus one of them didn’t want to put off his t-shirt and saying he used to get into the Jacuzzi with his t-shirt. At first I said NO because nobody does that and that is basically the rule, however, since he was resistant I then told him YES. What can I do…

(the SPA sections, even the gym section, for both men and women are separated totally)

Me : ye ye..

Him : Later, they ordered some juices and sandwiches from the café. One of them was unbelievable. You know why? Because when it came to ordering, he was reluctant and wanted to have 2 small glasses of a juice with a price more expensive than if he chose 1 large, really large, glass of the same juice. I told him so, yet he shook his head NO. Fine, it was his money by the way.

Me : (I got no idea on how to respond for this… SMILE…)

Him : Then, not only they wanted to eat at the SPA section, which was clearly not normal, the worse thing was that when the sandwiches and all were served, they went like wolfing the food down their throat, as not any decent people would do. You got my point? It’s like somebody from rural areas here in our country would do. It was uncomfortable. Such a bad behavior.

Me : (O God… if only I know the truth…) Well, if it’s so, like what you’ve said, I do agree and I must say that they are bad people (this is a mere observation, not a judgment)… I really hope this will never happen again man… (O I wish it was just a made up story …)

Then a guy from the other end suddenly called his name out to get some assistance, and there the conversation stopped. He left me with a puzzle frolicking in my cerebrum - whether or not I should trust him. The only thing I know is that I need to remember to behave accordingly, anywhere at anytime and even at the smallest thing - like ordering juice!