The columns have existed more than 15 years. There were many small kids growing up here or came for a visit. But, none of them had ever done this before. All of them would take the normal route, to get into the house. Not in between the columns like this girl. This girl is one year and two months old. She has started to walk less than a month before.
What happened here? She went out for a while and while trying to get back inside, she used this method. Don’t get me wrong. This picture was taken by her dad. So, she was under close supervision by her dad.
Worst case scenario? If she was stuck between the columns, we need to call the firefighter to get help and there goes the newly painted columns that I painstakingly painted during the CNY school break. Alhamdulillah, she could get through the columns in one piece.
I was in the midst of marking the examination scripts and to take a break, I googled some articles, browsed here and there before finding this thing: some non-Muslims guys (and ladies) are vlogging about their experience fasting. At first, I was thinking “Wait a minute?! Are they newly reverts? Or are they just fasting for the sake of experience of not eating for few hours?” But as I watch their videos (more than one apparently), I realise that they are really seriously doing it like a Muslim. They take sahur and do not eat from subuh until maghrib. Some have been doing it for few years. Man, I am really amazed. One of them is even praying tarawikh (I guess he is newly reverted to Islam. Alhamdulillah).
I am not saying it is a bad thing to do but I truly believe that Allah’s hidayah can be in various types and forms. Perhaps, this is one of it.
It was National Sports Day (Hari Sukan Negara) which happened to be on 13 November 2018 (Saturday). To be honest, unless I go window shopping at the mall like JPO with my sister (an annual event for us to find new shoes and whatsnot before Eid), I would never walk more than 3k steps per day. That shows how “physically active” I am (tongue in cheek remark!)
But when I was at school while undergoing my LI, I could not help myself from not involve in any of the school event. So, one of the events that I have to participate in was this National Sports Day in which we had to walk more than 3km (which equivalent to 3k steps). We were assigned to walk with a group of students based on their form so, Ita and I were assigned to walk with the Form 2 SK (girls). What I notice was the 14 years old girls walk slowly than I am. I was impatient when I have to walk slower than my normal pace, so I overtook many of them. I was supposed to be on the back row and Ita has to walk on the front but here I was overtaking everybody and Ita caught me in action. I was guilty as charge because Ita took this picture as an evidence. But, there was nothing to worry because there was form 3 at the back of this group and there were teachers walking with them as well. The students were in a good hand.
When I overtook some of the students, some of them could not help from saying “Teacher, why are you walking so fast?” (Teacher, kenapa jalan laju sangat?” I replied, “This is my NORMAL pace” They tried to copy my pace but after a while, I heard some of them started to grumble “I am tired. I give up. Teacher walks so fast” (Penat lah. Tak boleh ikut teacher jalan laju sangat“. I just laughed. They are younger than me, for obvious reason. But, unlike them, I would bare the consequences later on (which of course, they wouldn’t know about it ;P)
But still, Alhamdulillah at 40+ I can still walk more than 3k steps per day. In Sha Allah I will try to stay physically active as regular as I could.
A short pep talk that I had with my UG students after a short quiz that I gave them, left them wide awake for the rest of the class. It is quite unusual for me to begin my class with such a short pep talk about life in general. I began my pep talk with a statement:”Tidak semua orang dari kita mampu menjadi tukang penggali kubur. Walaupun nampak kurang bermakna dalam hirarki strata masyarakat, kita memerlukan mereka untuk urusan pengebumian kita sementara menunggu hari untuk dihisab segala amalan kita”.
One of them asked me why I made such statement without waiting me to explain further (yup, I have lots of impatient and lack of reflective thinking students off lately. Urghh…. what a generation gap!!!)
I tried to relate it with the topic of discussion “Individual differences in education”. I explained that not many of us can be the next Einstein, Usain Bolt or Picasso because of our ability, but as teachers, it is our responsibility to see the differences as potentials. Potentials to make a difference and contribution in our own way. If we start to view things in hierarchical order, we will value more certain things in life and devalue other things which are equally important. On of the current trend that I find among PG students is, they perceive “having a master or PhD degree will ensure better employability”. Such view is inaccurate. Years ago, I hold similar view but things changed when I met wonderful mentors along my journey of MED and PhD.
I have no issue when it comes to STEM or religious education or inclusive education, but it should be boiled down to the purpose of being created in this world. Do what we do in this life will end with the end of our lives or is there another life which is eternal and should become our main focus? Like always, I ended my pep talk with another question for them to think [gosh…. I am becoming more like Yedullah Kazmi as time passes by. He should be proud that his stupid student is still stupid and passing down some wisdom which she learns from him]
