Ngaji Days

I was inspecting a house just now when I smell something very familiar. It's somehow like a powder with flowery smell. Very hard to describe it. One thing I know was that it's unique. I spent a couple of minutes wondering where in my past memory that smell came from. Soon after, I realised it was my Nenek ngaji's house.

Gosh. A sudden rush of memories soon followed.

Still remember the time when i got whacked with rotan on the palms 10x just because I just couldn't get the tajweed idgham bila ghunnah right!

Still remember the time when there's this guy by the name of Muhd Nur Azam bin Zainal. He's a cool guy, fun to be with. The thing is his name is the exact similar to my closest cuz. The only difference between them both is their skin colour. So I named them Azam white and Azam black. Hahahaha! Since young already my tongue was as sharp as a sword. Haha

Still remember the time when I had a massive crush on a girl in my ngaji class. She lived right across the road from nenek ngaji's block. So, I posted post-it notes on walls on the linkway from her blk to nenek ngaji's blk. The main intention was to keep her reminded of me while she made her way to ngaji class. Hahahaha! I was so cute back then! Haha. She moved when we were about 11 years old I think and I no longer 'pursue' her as she stayed quite far (at that point of time). Actually, she just moved to another part of Bedok only. HAHA!! Too funny.

Another story was when she managed to hafal Surah ad-dhuha first. And I haven't even completed half the Surah. I was in another room with all the boys together with the fierce and tormenting datuk ngaji. She was in another room with all the girls and very gentle nenek ngaji. As she was tested, I could hear her voice reciting the Surah and completed it. So here I was, alone, bursting into tears after hearing that and till now everyone thought that I lost my lidi(pointer for quran). Padehal padehal... Got a good scolding from datuk ngaji aka the tiger

There was a time when I called my fellow ngaji brethrens mat names. "Eh. Kau mat arid kau mat lazim kau mat jaiz kau mat farii kau mat thabii. Aku mat Salleh!" Hahahaha!
This was actually not for fun or to degrade my fellow brethrens. I used it for easy recollection. I was such a genius back then. However, no one accepted my point of view. They regard it as demeanour. Hah! Now in uni, I learnt that this association is good for memory recall. Best thing about this is that I learnt that myself at that age. No one taught me such things before. Therefore, I declare myself a genius back then. Did I mention it twice? Yes I did. EL OH EL

Speaking of genius, I just realised that i was quite like a tiny Einstein during those years. My achievements are quite remarkable actually. (Ok this is a bragging paragraph.) So here it goes...

1) Was consequently the top 3 student in madrasah for my whole pri and sec school years. (Guess who's the other 2 persons? Yep. One of them is my crush. HAHA)

2) I khatam-ed the Quran before primary school. 

3) Completed learning tajweed before primary 3. 

4) Hafal all Surah from al-ghaashiyah till an-nas WITH translation by 15 years old.

5) Spent most of my past time reading story books about our prophets (and playing football)

These were and are such major achievements for me! I didn't realise how smart and knowledgeable I was until a few minutes ago while writing this. Hahaha. Also, not mentioning my religious education was really up there.

What happened to me now? Shit happens I guess. Now everything with regards to that aspect has remained stagnant except for a few. Hmm... How I wish nenek ngaji is strong enough to teach again. I think she's over 100 years old already now. Still living and quite strong. Datuk ngaji also. Still visit them every hari raya. Alhamdulillah.

Ok. I'll end the post by saying a prayer for our datuk and nenek ngaji, our ustaz and ustazahs, our cikgus, our teachers, our lecturers, our gurus, our mentors, our educators. They are the one who made us who we are. They played a major role in moulding us and we are forever indebted to them.

Let's pray for their health. Let's pray they can still touch lives as long as they live. Let's pray that their rezeki will come in many folds. Let's pray that whatever they had done, they will receive barakah. Let's pray that they will be housed in the highest of highs in heaven. InsyaAllah amin.

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Why I love my job

I just want to repost what a friend of mine posted on his fb wall recently:

""There's some people with mentality that find a job which is easy; with saying "Why work so hard when you can find jobs like (job position)?"

Yes; its an easy job. The question is; what did you gain? Where's the pressure? Where is the satisfaction? Where's the appreciation?

Those who are working in a challenging and stressful environment; be it a tough labor job, even you my fellow senior citizens, you should be proud of yourselves. You have achieved something, actually many, ability to work on pressure, satisfaction when your hard work of dedicating to your job is swiftly done, and feeling grateful with your pay with your own sweat and blood. You gain that level of satisfaction and achievements than those who took the easy way out."

AND HERE's MY REPLY:

ME i am that person who you said above and I am DAMN PROUD of it.

The reason being is that I can do so much more, accomplish so much more while getting the same amount of money!

With the given ease and time at work i could free my mind to worry more about my grandparents and my parent's health. I can visit my grandparents. I can have more thinking capacity to worry about my finances. I can go further my studies. I can help the poor. I can volunteer. I can plan activities for my friends and families. I can pray five times a day with ease. I can do ibadah with ease. I can relax and drink tea. I can plan for my next trip. I can conquer south east asia. I can live my life to the fullest. I can upgrade myself. I can go for classes after classes. I still have some spare time to ask questions like, "Is it necessary for mosquitoes to even exists? Will there be an impact in the ecological system if mosquitoes were extinct?." I can even google it up and still find no credible answers.

Most importantly, I can do what i find meaning in life, what I prioritize most in life. These itself brings about challenges and pressures in their own way. To me, I feel a lot more satisfied and gratitification doing the things i find meaning in life (with my own blood and sweat) than to feel the same thing doing your work as an employee.

“Finding your path means finding out what you were put here on this earth to do. What is your life's purpose? Why were you given this gift called life? And what is the gift you give back to life?”

“When it comes to money, the only skill most people know is to work hard. They get up every day and go work for money, not taking the time to ask the question, ‘Is there another way?”

“Just know that it’s fear that keeps most people working at a job. The fear of not paying their bills. The fear of being fired. The fear of not having enough money. the fear of starting over.

That’s the price of studying to learn a profession or trade, and then working for money. Most people become a slave to money… and then get angry at their boss.”

“To spend your life living in fear, never exploring your dreams is cruel. To work hard for money, thinking that it will buy you things that will make you happy is also cruel. To wake up in the middle of the night terrified about paying bills is a horrible way to live. To live a life dictated by the size of a paycheck is not really living a life. Thinking that a job makes you secure is lying to yourself. That's cruel, and that's a trap I want you to avoid..."

― Robert T. Kiyosaki,

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Goodbye ChampiYans League

3 years ago, I created what is called, ChampiYans League, in which I personally organised a futsal event every Friday night. I created this to collectively combine all my different groups of football mates to come and play together and also to spread the awareness of playing proper futsal.

During those 3 years, we definitely had so much fun. Made so many new friends. Even stars like Izwan Mahbud and much more recently, Syarif Sleeq have grazed our pitches. Played 7 aside, 5 aside. With video recordings and all. Sometimes as much as 60 people came down! So much fun! Throughout the years, I even got known as being "budak yang main Friday night" amongst random people on the streets/field.

People may think my job is easy, but it sure as hell is not! Saying that its tough is an understatement. I have seriously grown very tired as it can get very mentally draining. Having said this, it brings about a great deal sadness to inform you that I am NOT capable of organising this consistently anymore.

However, this event can continue if I can get help from others to organise. Or if there's still demand. Cos right now, to source out for people to play every single week is soo draining. If either one of these 2 criterias are not met, I will sadly let this tradition die.

Since this is probably a life changing event for some too, to help you adapt, for the month of March and April, I will still continue organising. However, if I do not get a definite number of 4 teams by THURSDAY, I will cancel it. I will NOT ask around for more people.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who have been involved throughout the years. It surely has been an amazing journey with you guys! We will meet again soon. InsyaAllah.

For AS Capilano dudes, I think it's about time we return to BV Court. Those who wanna join us to get their regular football fix, let me know. I'll update you again.

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Poetry for the Wanderlust in me

I want to re-discover the streets and the earth beneath, strap backpacks to our backs and sleep beneath the artwork of the night skies.

I want to do everything I can on this earth. I want to float down rivers, traverse deserts, scale mountains and submerge into the seas.

Here is my account of my travels in short. Every paragraph represents different countries/states. Guess which ones they are and you'll receive a prize! Anyway they're incomplete. Try and fill in the blanks. See if you're right!

Its' mountains spew hot molten lava.
The cultures' so diverse, it has its own flavour.
We travelled for miles, cutting through valleys.
We were served with the aromatic __________.

The land of smiles brings about the land of wonder.
For most of its lands this SG boy have conquered.
This land still sparks the appetite to see.
For I continue to enjoy __________.

Scaled mountains, float through rivers.
The chill from the weather makes me shiver.
Across great waterfalls and beautiful sceneries.
I stumbled upon __________.

Hiked for countless of hours.
Through caves, valleys and the deepest of forest.
In here I found something incredible, something from a tree.
I found hanging coffins and __________.

Snorkelled with urchins, coral reefs and fishes.
The skies were blanketed by the artwork of stars that form masterpieces.
Through the sun, sand and the deep blue sea.
Nahh. In here didn't get any __________.

I have re-discovered the streets and the earth beneath. Strapped backpacks to my backs and my back is where I lay to see. A canvas of the night skies, stars aplenty.

I have floated down rivers, traversed deserts. Scaled mountains and submerged into the seas. All I can say now is that this is a poetry; to bring out the wanderlust in me.

..................

South east asia = conquered!

As you can see, its incomplete. The story's not yet been finished. The final chapter is not closed. There's still one more thing left... To fill in the blanks.

#adventuresofyanparker
#yanparkertravellogue

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Bracing the cold weather in South East Asia

Coming from Singapore, we practically experience hot and humid weather. Anything below 25°c is already cooling for us. Like sleep weather, where everyone just wanna stop what they're doing and just take a nap. Lol!

As far as my travels went, South East Asia do have pretty cold countries. Some cold enough to even get snow! Night times are mostly cool; and mountain peaks are obviously super cold. So I don't even bother going there. What I'm looking at are cold low lying places in South East Asia.

Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai, Thailand.
Once you land on its airport, a whiff of cold air just sweeps you off the ground. Prepare to withstand around 20°c-23°c daytime. Kinda like aircon weather already.

Everywhere in Laos.
Laos is surprisingly a super cold country. Probably due to its vast amounts of untouched mountaineous regions and forests. At night, it can go as low as 14°c. We went to Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane. Everywhere we went, its like aircon weather. Some places even worst.

Northern parts, Mui Ne, Vietnam
When we were in Vietnam in 2013, the weather is super cooling. There was even snow in some parts of northern Vietnam. Even in Mui ne, it was quite challenging to get from one place to another without shivering.

Sagada, Philippines
Temperatures can drop till 10°c.

Just be prepared when going to these places. Bring extra layers of clothings!

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Crazy Ride - Driving from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

By far the most craziest ride I've ever taken. The 5hr ride from luang prabang to viang vieng is so full with emotions. At times i cried out loud for help. At times i cried cos the scenery is so beautiful, it made you realise how wonderful God's creation are. I'm talking about sceneries you can only hear about in geography books. That beautiful! I've rode for many miles before. Seen plenty of wonderful places along the way. But this is something different.

We took a minivan and it scaled mountains via steep roads, passing by scenic rivers, streams and valleys. Not only that. As we rode through mountains, riding as much as its pretty cool to ride through clouds, they're blinding and pretty scary; especially when making sharp turns, gradual descent and it made the road more slippery. To add on, the roads were very windy and bendy that it messes your head and its nauseating. Not only that. Falling rocks, boulders and gravels made the journey more bumpier and less pleasant. Yes. FALLING! Literally saw rocks coming down from the steep facade of the valleys. At times the road was so damaged by these rocks, that we had to manoeuvre our way into roads so narrow that we were literally balancing on the edge! Scary indeed. Well, as of now, our ride isn't over.

InsyaAllah we will reach safely in 2 hours. Moments like these, I'll remember forever.

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Masjid talk

I've always wondered... How a person can be so diligent in performing his Muslim duties, yet have a poor attitude and character.

I've always wondered... How can one be so determined in memorising Qur'an, reading the Qur'an everyday and yet still have trouble praying 5 times a day.

I've always wondered... Why aren't there any movies about our prophets. Or our sahabats or any Islamic movies which portrays the goodness in Islam during those times.

I've always wondered... Why are there people who knows the Arabic language, lives in the Arab world, yet is not a Muslim. How can they not embrace Islam when they know and understand the beauty of the Qur'an. Why people like us who don't understand Arabic language loves Islam the same way the Arabs does?

I've always wondered... Why are there so many divisions and subdivisions of Islam.

I've always wondered... Why are there every divisions and subdivisions of Islam frown upon one another. Some go till such extent of killing one another.

I've always wondered... How, or rather why Muslims in those areas have such a difference in beliefs from us until they have the urge kill in the name of Islam. What have they been thought? Or which parts are we missing? What are they missing? What values have they been instilled upon and we did not? What values have we been instilled upon that they did not? Never have I and will I ever understand why people hate one another until going to the extent of killing.

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"O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted." - Surah Al-Hujarat

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