Salam Ramadhan Almubarak 
to all my muslim readers. 

I humbly seek your forgiveness 
for all my faults, and all the wrongs 
that I have done inadvertently, 
unknowingly to any of the readers thru my writings. 

Let us submit to Allah almighty 
during this holy month of Ramadhan and 
let just hope that our deeds during this month 
will be blessed by Allah SWT and 
may Allah SWT give us his blessings 
for us to continue with our fasting. 

Happy fasting everyone :)

EXCUSE ME....SEVEN UGLY MALAYSIANS???

I found one blog  just recently Click Here  and I was surprised that my niece's name has been mentioned as one of 'UGLY MALAYSIANS" and I was 2 years too late to know the existence of such blog with that kind of topic merely because she was one of the New York Marathon participants that has been cancelled due to Superstorm Sandy otherwise I would give my response immediately to tell them the real situation that has been told by my niece, Azuria Camalia Kamel.

I found the context of summary judgement is simply unfair - disputed issues of fact. It's super easy to criticize when you are not the one facing the difficulties and when you did not overcome the whole situation and I can't imagine the one who blogged about it is an old man who has a few grandchildren and my niece could be considered as his grandchild too. I wonder how he feels when things like that happen to his grandchildren, would he call them 'ugly malaysians'? Would he allow his grandchildren be called as 'moron'? Would he consider to put himself into other people's shoes? Some people love to criticize things that never happen to them.

What irks me the thought that she was sponsored by our government when the fact that she used her own money for the NY trip and marathon fee. Some of the commenters even called my niece and those marathon participants as 'Moron'. Excuse me, as a Chemical Engineer and graduated from one of top ten universities in the world, Imperial College London, I don't think she deserves to be called moron, same goes to the rest of the participants who come from good education background.

Those 7 participants are mostly young professional people who are very committed with their work. Some of them are working for a prestige oil & gas companies and as far as in Iraq. I don't want to give a lengthy explanation how chaotic is in Iraq because I believe everyone knows the condition. Do you think it easy for them to squeeze themselves into the schedule when the initial plan has been cancelled? Unless if you are a grandpa  who probably a pensioner , you can easily fix your own schedule while they have to get approval from their bosses for their leave application so please do not simply make your own judgement by calling them 'Ugly Malaysian' or 'Moron'.

By the way incase some people are curious whether or not these '7 ugly Malaysians" ever making any effort to volunteer as stated by Ms. Deborah Augustin, YES THEY DID!

Incase if you are curious too, whether my niece would be 'serik' for what had happened before? The Answer is "NO!" ....As an avid marathoner,  this year will be her second participation for NY Marathon.

* Serik = Daunt/Discourage

SAYING GOODBYE IS THE HARDEST THING TO DO

It's been a while since my last post and my apologies for neglecting this blog. The truth is, I have been dealing with some personal issues.  I remember expressing my worry that I wasn't ready mentally or physically for the thought of losing our loved ones.  At that point of time, my father was hospitalised.  Syukur my dad seems to be okay now. 

Ready or not, we have to face it when time comes to say goodbye, it cannot be delayed and we can't cheat DEATH.
Sooner or later everyone dies. No one is immortal and  we will have to go to our final destination.
To Allah we belong and to Him is our return.

Unfortunately my brother lost his battle for life and passed away on 7th September 2013. He has suffered a lot and hospital has been like his second home. I remember being told at one time he vomitted a  bucket of blood and we suspected he was under a black magic curse (wallahualam) .
Even if it is true I hope the person who did it to my late brother would be able to repent to God Almighty and feels regret for what he did to my late brother. My brother has left behind a wife and young children; 3 sons and 2 daughters.

 Of course with his passing, it has a big impact on me, losing him just like losing my best friend.   I remember whenever he wanted to seek for an opinion or wanted to express something, he would share it with me instead of the rest of our siblings although we lived far apart from each other.  I still remember our last conversation via facebook chat.  Every now and then, I'd constantly check and re-read that conversation thru FB msg inbox especially whenever I miss him.

Not long after my brother's passing, my grandma passed away on 7 February 2014 due to old age and she passed away at the age of 97 years old.  Of course I have a fond memory with her although I'm not very close to my grandma compare to one of my sisters because she has been raised by her.

Now both my brother and my grandma have left us to return to Allah.
Rest in Peace my brother Abdul Rahman, my late maternal & paternal grandparents

AL-FATIHAH