Latest....on the Shelf

After having two pieces of spicy chicken, handful of french fries and a cup of capuccino, at the Alexandria City Centre, I felt very lazy and sleepy. Hence, I spent about 30 minutes walking through the spacious alley burning the nasty calories that I've just digested while entertaining my eyes with the competitive display of the world class brands, just to name a few; Lacoste, US Polo Association, Mont Blanc, Dunhill, etc. But, these books caught my eyes.

...WE will definitely remember U 4Ever

I was in the midst of throwing my idea in the open table of the six shareholders’ rep.'s table, when I received this sms from Nana (actually it was Sabrina’s sms forwarded by Nana); “Aunty Nana, this is Sabrina. Sab nak boarding soon. Just wanted to say goodbye, I was very sad when I went back home that night. But, I’m more happy and grateful to have known you and your family. Alhamdullillah. It’s an honour. You have a wonderful family. Nanti bila Sab nak start family, I really want tips from you two! Hi hi. Thank you, thank you and thank you. I just can’t stop thanking! We surely will miss you guys, a lot. Keep in touch. InsyaAllah. Maassalamah”.

Well….maassalamah Sab. It is really hard to say goodbye and we actually don’t want to say it. Thank you so much for all the beautiful words. Awesome! At 11:34 am Wednesday 29 July 2010, amid the hot summer Cairo, I paused for while and concentrated reading your phrases twice and believe me, it had really touched our hearts. Two years seems to be very short since we built our family hood. Let us pray to Allah swt that our comradeship will last forever until the end of time. To you and all our ‘adopted’ 2nd year Alexandria University Medical Students, wish you all the best…..you all will sure be missed by us and like I always said, put your best efforts to realize your dream and DO IT for Allah swt.

When the sun set

Amid the hot summer, the corniche or esplanade or water front was always crowded with the local and foreign vacationers alike. When the sun was about to handover its duty to the obedient Sha’ban moon, five minutes before the Maghrib prayer was on the air, and while waiting for Muhammad Asri fulfilling his appointment with Dr. Sherif at the Camp Caesar, I captured these photos.
A door knob (with a word ALLAH) of an old ‘haunted’ apartment located at the ground floor of the Dr. Amr’s clinic.

The elevator is there but for whatever reasons, it was not functioning. It was grounded on purpose, that is, to discipline the customer or the tenants (if any) to do a little exercise twice a day!...

One of the doors’ hinges – a reflection of man’s attitude - couldn't care less. Hence, no maintenance, whatsoever.

..hot but FRESH summer 2010

Sometime WE think WE r Smart?!

I got this story from my cowboy friend Tom – an Operations Director Advisor from Texas. I found it very hilarious but in a way educative, hence this sharing:

A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars and then insured them against, among other things, fire.
Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost 'in a series of small fires.' The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.
Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated never the less, that the lawyer held a policy from the company, in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable 'fire' and was obligated to pay the claim.
Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the cigars that perished in the 'fires'.
After the lawyer cashed the cheque, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!!
With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

CONFUSED.....Really!!?

Ramli Sarip aka Papa Rock is one of my favorites - a trail blazer of the Malaysian music industry of the rock genre. Most of his songs are very poetic and motivational in nature. I’d downloaded the video clip from the popular YouTube engine. Thanks to those who had voluntarily put their efforts via YouTube in sharing this nostalgic but evergreen Malaysian rock song.
The fact is that, we are now confused with the current situation at our JV set-up here in el Behera. Enjoy!!!!

Reminiscing Nek Dawok

He Turns F.I.F.T.E.E.N

15.7.2010 - marked his 15th year’s journey; staying and living in this temporary world. We do not really celebrate birthday, but the birth date itself reminded us on how near we are to the next phase of our journey.
Muhammad Asri was touched when his 4th year Medic Sisters and Brothers sponsored him the Sultana Ice Cream and Red Berry cake during his birthday. Awesome! He received few gifts and one of it was the long-board or skateboard.

Malaysia's Headline in the Egyptian News

At last the fever is over and the gold football World Cup trophy will be proudly kept by the Spanish for the next four years until 2014, were it will be flown to Brazil for another round of craze!. Felicitación España….Usted se merece el trofeo de oro – Congratulations to Spain…you deserve the gold trophy – that was what you saw and read in most of the world news today’s morning. Ironically, last Sunday, July 4, the Malaysian made a shameful headline in the front cover page of the Egyptian Gazette – Malaysian against Gambling!. The headline caught my eyes and lured me to the newspaper rack besides the concierge of the JW Marriot Mirage City, Egypt. I was late! I grabbed one and rushed to my car to catch our meeting at Maadi office. Shameful, in my opinion; this kind of thing should not happen at all for a country who subscribes to Islamic principles. What I mean, why this instigation? Why must we drag people to the street for this unhealthy activity called gambling? Gambling no matter what the intention is, should not be regarded as a source of income to feed the population. The activity itself will corrupt the spiritual bond of any community that will actually disintegrate the social relationship. When this disintegration occur, the ripple effects are severe, which will directly implicate and give adverse results to the economy. At this cancerous stage, it is too late us to cure. As the saying goes; ‘prevention is better than cure’. The guy, who had tried to suggest this pathetic idea, must repent and perhaps declare his ignorant officially to the people especially the Muslim community. Being sensible with the multiracial community and responsible for the harmony of them, fortunately, the parliament house overruled the idea.

Lens Testing

The photos above were captured using Nikon D90 fitted with AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G Lens which I bought few months ago. Still need more practice though, I am not satisfied with the ‘product’ yet.!! I called it The Malaysian Pride – Malaysian national flower. The Hibiscus rosa sinensis is abundantly available around my office at Idku, Egypt.

Creativity - Granted by Allah swt.

Allah is Great, Glory only for Allah; All the Praises and Thanks be to Allah; He is the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful; Allah – the Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creature need; He begets not, nor was He begotten; There is only One God but Allah Rabbul Jalil and Muhammad is His Messenger.
None of us is better than the other, except those who is near to Allah swt as demonstrated by the Holy Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him).
Allah swt has granted us countless of things – all the five senses; varieties of foods; brain for us to think; etc. - for us to survive and manage our journey in this temporary world, henceforth to prepare ourselves for our next phase of our journey – the life thereafter. Among others, He has bestowed us CREATIVITY. With this creativity, we were able to color and shape all sort of things for our own benefits. However, sad to mention, human being or the Muslims, more often than not, abused the gift-creativity that had been given specidically to them. Dubai or London or New York, to mention a few, are to them ‘nearer’, but a Masjid, which Allah swt said is a place He like most, and which is about 100 meters away from their house is seems to be very ‘far’ away?
They are more comfortable sipping a cup of coffee all night long talking nonsense rather than spending few minutes for solat nafil or reciting the Holy Quran el Kareem.

...when we were in Syria....

…Amir played and introduced us this song when we were about to enter the Departure Lounge of Syria International Airport. What I like most about the song is the melody.
Literally it means beautiful memories. Yes, the three and half years here in Egypt was full of beautiful memories that surely will be cherished by all of us.

Life Must Goes ON - Syria Chapter

I visited Syria two months ago and spent about 8 days in this beautiful serene piece of peaceful land. We covered almost two third of the land, right from Busra in the South; Allepo or Halap (in the local dialect) in the North; Lattakia or Lazaqiah in the North-West; Tartous in the South- West; and of course its capital city, Damascus or Dimashq in the center. Along the way, we went to many beautiful unique places, visited historical tombs and shrines of prominent people, and met many lovely, pleasant and kind Syrian of all levels. Despite their cloudy economy as compared to other Arab countries in that region, amid the global economic recession, businesses were running as usual and people seems to be not really affected or hit by the turmoil. Almost all the places that we went, were properly maintained and one could obviously see there are systems in place and appropriately enforced. Syria is not very aggressive with tourism industry. Seldom or sometime it is difficult for you to find relevant information about this lovely land in the media or internet, but what I had observed and astonished me was, most of the interesting places or touristic spots were packed with foreigners from all over the world. This is what I called ‘Baraqah’ – Blessing by Allah swt. During that 8 days, I had captured thousands of shots and below are some of those shots that I called the Faces of Syria. In my opinion, what had really made people from all corners of the world invested their time, wealth and health (many had visited Syria few times) in this place was mainly because of its decent people. I remember there was one time, we took a taxi from one of the markets to our home-stay, the taxi driver reluctant to take our money, which was only about 50 cent, simply because our friend Azmi is studying there?! We forced him to take and yet he still reluctant, but finally we just left the money on the front passenger’s seat. I was really touched with this kind attitude. The Faces of Syria is the manifestation of my positive feeling and obsession of the people of Syria. Like I’d said earlier, despite their modesty, they still put their dedicated efforts doing anything reasonable within their capability in achieving their self-esteem. How much did they make from those noble efforts – by selling ice-cream; selling cigarettes & lighters on a wheelchair; etc..?? Well, it was not about how much. It is about satisfaction. It is about being independent. It is about commitment for Allah swt and to the community. It is about being obedient to Rabbul Jalil.

Thank you very much to the people of Syria for kindly accomodating us to your beautiful country. May Allah swt Grant you His Blessing, Grace and Mercy for all the noble things that you do. To Him, what really matters is you do it for Him and only Him.

Rain Vs Tears

Team Dinner

It has been after quite sometimes we did not meet for this teambuilding dinner. Coincided with our new DCEO courtesy visit, Ayman Behery organized the delightful dinner at the Delight Restaurant Samouha, Alexandria. We had a good mix of Japanese, Thailand and Arabic cuisines. I ordered a seafood Thailand pineapple fried rice as the main dish and a bowl of salmon Arabic soup to kick off the dinner. The foods and the hospitality of the staff were remarkably excellent.

Well, that was not the evening all about. We had two main agenda – the welcoming cum ice-breaking for our new DCEO and enhancing understanding, so as to tighten the existing bond among the HR fraternity. Each one of them, except Hesham, Mohamed Kammar and Samar who were not able to join us, expressed their thoughts and shared their frank views about many things. Wan Badrul inspired them with his life and work experience, which turned them ON as if there was no ‘off’ button to stop the music? Interesting though, but I cut it short because we have another appointment elsewhere. Not to put off their boiling anxiety and killing their momentum I suggested to them to continue tomorrow at one of our meeting rooms.
Observing their characters and when I analyzed their thoughts, I would conclude that these new Egyptian generation are thirsty with new knowledge and very energetic – enthusiastic to move forward with new paradigm. Thinking outside the box - the way they at perceive things are very much different from the typical older generations who preferred to stay in their disorganized comfort zone. Somebody needs to show them the path and to guide them to achieve their dream. I always mentioned to them that it is my dream to make HR ELNG as a source of reference or a reference point for any organizations in this region to learn about HR. Yes, it is quite an ambitious dream, but if put our soul, mind and hands together, insyaAllah – God willing, the dream will come true one day.

..Pre Farewell Part II by 4th Year Medic Students

“Memories Of Alexandria 2006-2010” was the theme of the pre-farewell night organized by the fourth year Medical Students of Alexandria – our ‘nieces’ and nephews’ that had been here in Alex since September 2006, a month earlier when we first landed our feet in Egypt. During that memorable pleasant evening, accept for the Juhayna fruit juices, pumpkin pie and water melon, they brought us all kinds of foods, cakes and other Malaysian delicacies. The main dishes were the Nasi Tomato and the scrumptious Nasi Ayam. They stayed on until almost 1 am in the morning, reminiscing all the memories that we had experienced and the family-hood we that we had built together since the past three and the half years. I remembered when the first time I met Din in front of our Apartment building’s entrance. He was about to ride his bicycle after came out from Cyber Café located at the ground floor of our building. “Assalammualaikum, Uncle!” he courteously greeted me. “Waalaikumsalam warahmatullah hi wabarakatuh?” I replied astonishingly. “How are you, Uncle?…..I am Din, study in Alex University..” he continued politely. “Uncle is staying here?” The conversation went on for about 5 minutes and it was really nice meeting him then, but I had to cut it short as I was tight up with many things then. Few days later, I met Zainal for the first time at the Mustapha Kamal Masjid, 200 meters from our apartment. He greeted and introduced himself to me. “Hah…Waalaikum salam” I replied surprisingly “I think I met your friend Din the other day, is he?…do you know him?” I asked him about Din. “Yes uncle, we stay at the same apartment not far from Uncle’s place.” He confirmed kindly. I then invited him to my house, introduced my family and we had very fruitful conversation over the hot spicy Laksa Sarawak prepared by Nana. A month later, we invited both of them and the rest of their apartment mates – Zul, Pai, Atef, Muaz for evening tea. Since then we built our networking and organized many events together - promoting teamwork and the importance of leadership skills.
They are really brilliant, decent and blessed kids – blessed by Allah swt with Pentium 8 CPU. Some of them are Hafiz – someone who recites the Holy Qur’an by heart and Din is one of them. Few of them (Atef, Pai, Fadhil, & Atun) planned to get marry this year. Pai proactively invited me to share my experience – my beautiful journey along the bumpy and winding highway that I went through since 1990. I started my story by sharing them the fundamental of marriage life from the Islamic perspective. Then I continued with my exquisite wonderful love story. When I reached the third chapter on ‘how did I propose to marry Nana the only one and only wife’, afraid of missing the episode, most of them fervently pulled their ears closer. I moved on: I’ve told them, marriage is about managing your tolerance, patient, and understanding with courage, determination and perseverance. It is about managing a company, and you are the CEO of that organization, who is responsible to achieve the real success with impressive performance in the Eyes of our Great Creator the Almighty Allah swt. To cut the long story shot - to them: Congratulation and I wish you all the best – may Allah swt bestow upon you all His Grace and Mercy.
To the rest – Nik Hilmi, Nik Hanif, Ch Hanif, Zul, Johanas, Abd Rahman, Intan, Bayni, Bayti,Ifa, Zana, Saadah, Aklina & Amirah - two years to go to realize your dream. But what is more important, achieve it for Allah swt and He will grant you His Baraqah and Rahmah. Thank you very much for organizing that wonderful evening and thoughtful gifts. It was indeed touchy and we will InsyaAllah, cherish all the memories that we had together. Wish you all the best.
Last but not least, please accept our apologies for our shortcomings and till we meet again. InsyaAllah.
Beef Thailand Rendang by the boys - Che Hanif. Tomato rice was mastered by Atef, Din, Muaz, Zul and Zainal
The spicy fried chicken and the chicken rice by the girls - Zana, Amirah, Atun and Ifa.

The rest of the foods and delicacies were prepared by Intan, Bayti, Bayni, Saadah, & Aklina.

No mOre Me

This is one of my favorites. The lyric says, among others; “we braved through the strenuous journey……we’d filled our boredom with laughter …..sincerity and trust had enhanced our relationship…..but, why you become arrogant with the little success that you had achieved….please remember that, all the things in this temporary worldly world will not last forever........."

Ta'lim : Part XIX

Ai’shah Radiyallhuanha (ra) says; “once the holy Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) entered the house and I guessed from his face that something of great importance had happened to him. He did not talk to anyone, and after making ablution, entered the mosque. I stood behind the wall to hear what he said, “O Muslims! Allah swt has commanded you to call people to good deeds, and prevent them from commiting sins; otherwise a time will come when you pray to Him, He will not listen to you; you will ask your needs to Him, but He will grant them; you will demand His help against your enemies, but He will not help you.” After saying this, he came down from the pulpit.”

Abu Darda ra, who is the distinguished Companion of Prophet Muhammad saw (peace be upon him) said; “You must commant people to do good, and restrain them from evil; otherwise Allah swt will casue tyrant to rule over you, who will not respect your elders, and will not have mercy on your youngsters. Then you people will pray to Him, but He will not accept your prayer; you will ask Him for help, He will not help you; you will seek His pardon but He will not pardon you. Allah swt Himself says:
“O Believers! If you help Allah swt, then He will help you, and will make your feet firm (against your enemies).”