The Reader

Malay Tea House

Malay tea? I have heard of English and Chinese tea but Malay tea? After reading the article about 22 aromas of Malay tea in Berita Harian a few days ago,I decided to visit the restaurant and test for myself.
My choice was teh limau purut and it was great! I was given the chance to "smell " a few samples of tea and I was intoxicated by the exotic aromas.

To complement my morning tea,I asked for ketupat daun palas and rendang Tok.I love it and the ambience is as nice as the tea!It is located at the ground floor of Pasar Seni,Kuala Lumpur.More photos here.

I hope someone can make Malay Tea as a global brand like Chinese and English tea and may be a chain of Malay Tea House restaurants.

Disclaimer: I have no personal/commercial interests in this business.

One night,many years ago..

One Saturday night,I could not remember what year,my cousin and me went to ISTAC  to attend Prof Naguib al-Attas lecture.On arival,we were told by a friend that the lecture was cancelled because the Professor was "not well".And that was the last time I went to ISTAC  to attend Prof Al-Attas lecture at ISTAC.We were at Chapter 4 on the topic Psychology of Ruh.(Prolegomena to The Metaphysics of Islam).So far, I could not get another teacher to move to Chapter 5.

Only later that I got to know the real reason.And today,I came upon an article from IKIM website and tells more of what had happened.Here is the link.

Last year, I went to ISTAC  once or twice a month to attend  lectures given by Prof Wan Mohd Nor.And during my visit I saw serious deterioration of the building (due to lack of proper and adequate maintenance)  and the library was closed..What a waste.

Ya Allah,please give  guidance to  the new leadership of IIUM to put back ISTAC  to its rightful place for the sake of the ummah.Here is a link to my Flickr photos on ISTAC.

Book: Project Decisions- The Art and Science

Let me share with you an interesting book about making decision especially in managing a project.For those who are involved in project management-either a project manager or team member,I suggest you try to take a quiz about this subject here.

Our lives are in fact projects and we were by default are the project managers in a way.Everyday ,we are making decisions.The simplest one is like tonight,I have decided to take my wife to dinner and later drop in a bookshop.But at other times,I have to make a decision  whether to send my son to a boarding school or ordinary school.When my father was in a coma for three days, the doctor asked me as the eldest son: to keep my late at the hospital or to bring him home.Making decision is more complex than solving linear equations where the number of unknowns are the same the number of equations that will give us a unique answers.In real life, the answer lies within a range of possibilities.Choosing the right one is the most difficult part.A few are  strategic and many are operational.

Please be aware that in making decisions, our sentiments and prejudice come into the equations without us realising their presence.Once a decision is made and executed,we shall own the consequences of that decision.

As muslims/muslimahs,we must always seek guidance from Allah swt.InsyaAllah,we may succeed.

SDARA MELAKA TT 27/7/08

SDARA MELAKA TT 27/7/08
Originally uploaded by Adibi

This is my first time attending our Melaka Chapter of SDARA TT session.It was a great breakfast with my schoolmates-age ranging form 25+ to 60+ years old.

Let me thank  the host and everyone who come all the way from KL and Segamat.The old school ties(the pun is intended) is a powerful cable to rope everyone to come and sit on the same table for ordinary breakfast of teh tarik(TT) and fried mee.It is not the food but the meeting face to face and the conversations that matter.Most of the time,we talk about nothing but it means everything.

Station X

Below is an excerpt of a short note I wrote in April,2000 after a week trip to London.A few days ago friend sent me a link to a BBC news that highlighted the sad story of Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England.I hope the British government will take care of this icon of computer industry soon.Otherwise,I won't be able to see it:

Let me bore you to death with another interesting book story.Lately I am fascinated by a science called cryptography.It is the mathematics of it really-stuff like group theory,fuzzy logic,numeric algorithm etc.I bought a book called Station X by Michael Smith.It is the story of smart chaps at Bletchley Park where they used to crack the German military messages during WW11.One of them was Prof.Alan Turing( a revered Cambridge mathematician who invented the Analogue Engine and also the guy who invented the first programmable computer!)I bought the book on 31/3/2000 and read about the machine(called the Enigma) they used to break the German coded messages.On reading the book,I decided to see the infamous machine that helped Britain to win the war a few years earlier.To my suprise,a few days later on the 3/4/2000,I read in The Times(front page) that the machine (serial no:G 312) was stolen on 1/4/2000.What a coincidence! If I were to visit the place earlier,I may be a prime suspect?Just imagine,a middle age man from Malaysia was apprehended on suspicion of theft.The machine is missing,but he was caught with the book Station X in his over-coat!At the moment, they have not caught the thief yet.You are welcome to visit the website as mentioned above and read the latest development.

            The photo of Enigma....

Improve ourselves first,then the society..

Let me share with you the lesson we had with Ustaz Zainuddin Hashim on 20th July,2008.Below is the ayat from Surah al-Baqarah for us to ponder..

[2:44] Do ye enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (to practise it) yourselves. And yet ye study the Scripture? Will ye not understand?
[2:44] Patutkah kamu menyuruh manusia supaya berbuat kebaikan sedang kamu lupa akan diri kamu sendiri; padahal kamu semua membaca Kitab Allah, tidakkah kamu berakal?

What I have learnt is that we are too busy looking at others and forget ourselves in  doing good deeds.We talk about what others should not do and could have done,and yet we forget to look at ourselves what have done not right and what we ourselves could do.Many a time, when I attended the kuliyyah,we were told to do our muhasabah. Let's  ask ourselves how many times have we done it to correct our wrongs and do more good deeds?I am guilty as charged.

Let's resolve to improve ourselves starting today to get/earn the pleasures of our Rabb,before we keep on asking our Lord to bestow upon us more pleasures of this world.

Starbuck at GE Mall,Ampang

Starbuck at GE Mall,Ampang
Originally uploaded by Adibi

With the petrol price hike, I have to reduce my intake of cafe latte or cuppucino from Starbuck next to my house. Some how,I started to think that a cup of tall latte is about 4 litres of petrol.

While having a talk with my son tonight,I managed to sketch the nicely decorated transparent wall of the cafe. The logo and caption came from the sugar pack cover I cut and pasted in my moleskine cahier.

During afternoon, most seats are taken by patrons with pc notebooks.Power supply,music and wi-fi are free.What pulls me into the shop is more the ambient than the food and beverages.

Burnt alive in the car

When I read the news of a brother watching his younger brother burnt alive in their car two days ago, the hairs on my hands stood up 90 degrees.I simply can't imagine how he stood there watching helplessly.......

Here is the link to the video from The Star.

My small car,Myvi contains at least 30 litres of petrol. If it skids and catches fire(God forbids), there would be enough fuel to turn the car into a small ball of fire or a small bomb!One can be very careful but if the accident wants to happen,it will. My friend is a careful driver for the last 30 years but a careless lorry driver just hit him.His car turned 360 degrees and smashed into the guard rails in the middle of the road.Luckily ,there were no cars from behind at that time.Once we are on the roads,any thing can happen-either due to our own mistakes or the mistakes of others.

Every time my sons want to drive long distance,I keep on reminding to be careful when they are on the roads.And when they are travelling,I keep calling them every one or two hours to check on them.May be they got fed up with me,but I have seen enough accidents that made me scared to death.If my kids were to complain of their over cautious father,I am going to tell him that I have only three of  them and I don't want to lose any one of them.

From my observations, driving at night(after midnight especially) is more dangerous than during the day especially long distance travel.So,I advise my sons to avoid such situations.To all parents out there,let us keep our children at home before mid-night.

Now,everyone can take photos..

Putrajaya Photowalk -Tourists
Originally uploaded by Adibi

Just like the message from AirAsia..Everyone can Fly.

While walking back to my car during my photowalk with Zakirah and Hilmi at Putrajaya,I came face to face with a group of tourists.As soon as they descended form the bus on the near right,almost veryone of them whipped out a camera and started taking photos of the place and of each other.I also took the opportunity to snap a photo of them.

Fast backwards to the 60's in my kampung(village),only my cousin Abang Haron was the village "tukang pukul gambar"(photographer). Those days,photography is a business and not many can afford it as a hobby like nowadays.That is why I hardly had more than ten photos of my childhood days.

Fast forwards to now, my wife and me also can take photos using my compact point and shoot camera.But when it comes to my DSLR,I am trying harder to remember the meaning and the function of TV,AV etc.Previously, TV means television and AV means Audio Visual to me.

By the way,not everyone can be pilots,similarly not everyone with a camera can be a good photographer.

Putrajaya photowalk