the short wanderer

A month before I finished high school four years ago, I started passing around a black notebook to my teachers for them to hand over their 'amanat terakhir' to me before I leave the boarding school. There's so many wise reminders that they have shared with me, but a few days ago the page with my former Vice Principal (HEA)'s signature at the bottom caught my attention. It says: Adab dan akhlak biasanya diibaratkan seperti pokok, dan kemasyhuran adalah seperti bayang-bayang. Tapi malangnya, kebiasaan orang lebih suka melihat bayang-bayang daripada melihat pokok. Fikir-fikirkanlah. Four years ago, I might have told myself: "I know what it means". But knowing its literal meaning doesn't necessarily mean that I understand the underlying message its trying to convey. Triggered with his last words "fikir-fikirkanlah",  I decided that I was too naive too understand what the two-sentence quote really mean at that moment - I might not be mature en...

No incident in life is an accident. When my best friend first gave me the book 'The Art of Letting God' by Ustaz Mizi Wahid, I somehow had the gut that it will become something I really need in the not so distant future. Only a week after that I came to realise why Allah sent me the gift through her. Being a scholar of this one particular organisation (if you know, you know) for more than three years now, I have always been convinced (by my own self if not other people) that we will be guaranteed with a job by the time we graduate from universities. Not to say that I've been working less harder than I'm supposed to all this while, but I cannot deny that part of me has always been having this assurance that the beginning of my career is kinda sorted out by the time I got my degree scroll in a few years time. But...the reality turns out to be taking a whole different path; life seems to be harsher than what we initially thought. Little did I realise I was a bit dis...

"Kalaulah aku ni komputer riba, kan best ..." Ujar Am memecah kesunyian antara dirinya dan Jo yang masih leka menghadap komputer ribanya. Suasana sekeliling mereka hakikatnya tidaklah begitu sunyi. Bangunan British Library itu sudah pun dipenuhi pengunjung seawal jam 10 pagi walaupun waktu operasinya baru sahaja bermula setengah jam sebelumnya. Perpustakaan ini bukan sahaja menjadi tempat tarikan pelancong dari luar negara, malah turut menjadi tumpuan rakyat tempatan khususnya dalam kalangan pelajar dan pekerja berikutan ruang-ruang bekerja yang disediakan di segenap kawasan bangunan tersebut. Antara pelawat-pelawat yang gemar berkunjung ke perpustakaan ini termasuklah Jo dan Am yang masing-masing merupakan penuntut di salah sebuah universiti yang terkemuka di London.  Jo mengalihkan pandangannya ke arah Am. "Kenapa kau tiba-tiba cakap macam tu?" Tanya Jo kehairanan. Am melepaskan keluhan kecil, "Tak adalah, kalau aku ni komputer riba, bila bat...