Phone Call From My Dead Dad

My dad died when I was 14. But of course for a son who loved his dad, he remained alive in my dreams. I always dreamed about him talking to me like how we used to, but I realized those dreams I had were mere dreams. I knew what was real and what wasn't. I did, until just now.

Today everything changed. The moment which I thought could and would never come...had come. It came knocking on my brain's door. It was, "Hey, I'm here to tell you that anything is possible!" at me. I was driving, on my way home, when 'someone' SMS-ed me. Claiming to be my dad, he said:-

"Ini Ayah tlong isikan credit mxis RM50 ke nombo bru ayah 0128115902 Ayah lgi ada msalah kat blai plice. Lepas credit masuk bru ayah call."

In English, it means something like this, "This is dad. Please have my new number 0128115902 topped up with RM50. I got some troubles at the police station and will call you as soon as the credit's in."

Whoa! I didn't know they had telephones beyond the grave! I was like, "Wow! Dad! You finally called! After all these years? How did you get my number? What are you using? Blackberry?" and so many questions. I was shocked and laughing at the same time.

Oh come on! It's getting old already!

The part that really surprised me was that there are STILL stupid people who use a really stupid method to cheat other people, and the fact that this kind of things STILL finds its way around us means there are STILL individuals who fall for it. So question, if you of all people get cheated by this stupid scam, that makes you...?

This is hilarious, really. Anything IS possible. And I didn't even call my dad 'Ayah'.

Comic Adaptations

I first discovered my 'ability' to write when I was six, during the kindergarten year. My handwriting was so horrible that the teachers had always been complaining they couldn't understand a word I wrote. Feeling demotivated and then got motivated by that 'demotivated' feeling (I hated the feeling therefore I fought it, in order to overcome it -- get it?), I re-discovered the same ability and found a new and better style of handwriting. End of story.

Now that was a bunch of crap writing. What the fish.

Okay, seriously. I first discovered my passion in writing when I always smiled whenever my Bahasa Melayu teacher gave me an essay homework like, every week. I was like, "Hey! Why am I smiling? Oh, because I love writing essays!" But that was Bahasa Melayu essay writing. Years later, when I registered myself as a TESL student, I knew that I was going to write a lot in English. In fact, a lot more and a lot better in English. When I finally got my very own personal computer, nah, I started writing random things every day. And I'm still doing it today.

My counsellor said, "My advice is, you must never allow yourself to be 'bound' by anything that makes you write in a certain way. Because from what I see, you write freely and don't have specific forms or styles. Keep doing that." Yes, I literally write whatever I have in mind and most of the times, nonsense.

But fortunately, that 'nonsense' of mine has somehow managed to put a 'sense' in my life and poof! At least now I know that my nonsense-styled piece of writing is not entirely nonsense, at all. Muahaha!

My once written and published on this blog 'KTMB: A Love Story' has been adapted into an eight-page comic strip illustrated by Fakhrul Anour.



And our next project is on its way. That would be 'Promises' (a twelve-page comic strip).



Well, I can honestly tell you that whenever I write, it is only because of my passion. I write whatever and however I want. Maybe some of them annoy you, maybe some of them inspire you. Doesn't matter which one it is, deep in my heart I thank you for reading.

p/s: Fakhrul Anour, my friend Aimi says that her favourite is 'Edisi Khas Bahasa Melayu 3: 'Unable To Speak'' and she wants this up for the next project. What say you?

Finally, Finally And Finally

I'm gonna speak using the simplest term and language. I'm a movie goer. I love watching movies so much that the feeling I have before entering a cinema is literally one of the best feelings I've always had. And when the cinema is not available to jump in, I'd sit tight in my room watching the downloaded version of whatever movies I wanna spend my time with.

Movies give me hundreds of ideas. They teach me to see the world from various angles and I can say that whoever I am today and whatever I do now and then are practically based on my observation I got from the movies. Because other than helping us having fun, movies tackle points of view in life that we generally might have failed to see.

As I said, I've watched lots of movies and I can name a few that stay deep down in my heart as the special ones. Just to name some, among them are 'Ocean's Eleven', 'The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy', 'Inception', 'Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer', 'Snatch', 'Babel', 'Vantage Point', 'The Dark Knight', 'Kick-Ass', 'Scott Pilgrim VS. The World', 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button', 'Seven Pounds', '500 Days Of Summer', 'A Bittersweet Life', 'Oldboy', 'Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance', 'Kabhi Khushie Kabhie Gham', 'My Name Is Khan', and...okay, I could go on and on forever.

But today was special. I heard about it long time ago and the review said that it was overall a great movie. Not the best and unlikely to win multiple awards internationally, but it was said to be a turning point for its genre...and language. After a while, I finally managed to have it 100% downloaded including the subtitles. So I watched it.

The movie portrays life in general, with sublime pinches on education, passion, friendship, family, love and most importantly... human's heart and mind. The messages are delivered in pieces, one by one combined and transformed into a bigger picture of what the movie is all about. The main character is never said a genius, but he shows his level of intelligence and perception splendidly that unlike some typical descriptive movies, he doesn't have to say, "I'm a genius".

The movie starts with him complaining on how terrible 'our' education system is nowadays, that schools and collleges have been turned into pressure cookers. Students are no longer excited in learning new knowledge and they consider it a reason to race instead. Then it starts to develop into a passion-wise typed of storytelling where the protagonist shows his peers that dreams can never be achieved without passion. It literally tells the audience, teachers and parents specifically, that they can guide their students and children to the top of the world, but in the end it's the student bodies themselves will determine whether or not they want to take the shown road.

I could spend more time explaining in details about how this movie has managed to awe me in many ways, but too bad I'm not writing a review here. I just wanna say that this movie deserves attention from all levels of people. And of course, I wanna tell you that this movie explicitly describes my biggest dream. I wasn't born a genius and obviously won't be one. But there's this part of me which is dying to do what the movie's protagonist has been doing for the entire 3 hours.

I determine not someone's level of achievement by how much he's being paid or how many Ph.Ds he has got hanging on his walls. I simply look at the number of people he has successfully motivated. I just wanna be a man who inspires. I've said this too many times and I just said it again.

'3 Idiots' is not just an ordinary made-in-Bollywood film. It is a Hindi version of telling a story about how to teach your students, how to reach your dream and how to lead success towards you. Yes, I know there are other movies out there that share the same content, but this one explains it best. Except for the singing scenes, I bet you can stand spending 180 minutes of your life...learning about life. Finally.

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