Hujan Renyai-renyai di State College jam 7 pagi

Aku berjalan berseorangan di kaki lima bandar State College ni. Sunyi. Sepi. Hujan renyai-renyai turun. Suasan masih lagi hening. Kira-kira aku begitulah, bandar ini hakikatnya sepi. Tanpa ruh. Tapi sebenarnya aku senang begini..senang dengan keheningan yang tenang dan menenangkan berbanding kebisingan tahap cipan.

Dulu-dulu waktu aku bekerja dengan University Police, selalu aku nampak awek-awek pulang ke bilik masing-masing sekitar waktu ini. Gaya jalan diorang pun sepesen ajer, same jek. Jalan agak terhuyung-hayang, pandangan menekur jalan dan muka agak monyok sikit. Kawan aku kata, itu "walk of shame". Mungkin puas satu malam dikerjakan atau pun mengerjakan libido sex masing-masing, yang ruginya wanita yang puasnya si jantan. Well..lantaklah..urusan masing-masing.

Random Thoughts 1: Why do we rever English so much?
I surfed a few blogs last night. Quite a number of them is owned by chics and others are by men like me. Plain and ordinary joe. As much as they were rambling through their life on blogs, they were also discussing some interesting topics. I think it should be named as monologue though because discussion should involve more than one person. Monologue would be like what I am doing now. Writing down my thoughts and simply follow along with them.

The most ubiquitous topic mentioned in the blog is English as the MOST IMPORTANT language nowadays. Many claimed that this language must be mastered by any mean necessary particularly by Malays. A few of them mentioned their personal experience meeting with other fellow malays who cannot have conversation in English. As much as I admire these people (I mean not the ones who dont want to engage in English-spoken conversation), but I also see a slight stint of 'hollier than thou' symptom here.

No doubt English is the global language nowadays. Ironically the statistic shows that the Mandarin is the most spoken language everywhere on earth. English falls on the third place. The irony is, how on earth English can become the global language? Well, I must say that the imperialism plays an important role on this matter. I remember a conversation I had with Dato Ghazali, the M'sian Ambassador to US and Dato Osman Bakar, a fellow in Georgetown University, Washington DC during a luncheon at the embassy. We were talking about the history of Chinese empire. Dato Ghazali mentioned that the Chinese people traveled around the world just to broad their horizon and perspective of the outer world. Their ships were much bigger and longer than the Portuguese or the English. The Chinese expedition was solely done in a spirit of adventure and anthropology. They respected every culture which they encountered during the expedition. However, through my personal reading, the English or the Portuguese did not share the same perspective with the Chinese on the subject matter. They believed that it was a burden imposed on them to spread to civilization to the whole world - "A White's Man Burden". 3 G was their motto at the time, Glory, Gold and Gospel.

They believed it is imperative for them at that time to make sure all other people outside the Old World to accept their ways and their culture as standard. How did they spread this? Through colonization, imperialism and merchants. Malaysians are the living examples of how colonization affected our mindset. We tend to see anything and everything from the West is superior than us.

I do not oppose the idea of learning and mastering ourselves in English. Yes, indeed English is important but its importance is no less than the importance to study other language as well. If we claim we want to succeed in the global market, we should start learning Mandarin instead of English because Mandarin is the most spoken language on earth with over 1 billion speakers around the world. Don't you think that should be our target for the future market? Oh man...with over 1 billion potential consumers, certainly it gives us a pertinent reason to study this language. China for instance is holding an extra miles compare to US when it comes to the market opportunities because it has such a enormous population to support the economy.

If we really want to conquer the world, it doesn't have to start with English. All we have to do is to empower our economy. Fortify our economic foundation, improve the political system so that it will accomodate a nice and pleasant economic policy to lure foreign investor to Malaysia and improve the education system to provide the highest quality of employees, only then we will conquer the world which is at present dominated by Western multinational companies. They will not see our weakness of speaking English as a burden to them, in fact they themselves will make effort to study our language instead in order to enable them make a business in Malaysia.

The conclusion is, do not be too fanatic about who can speak English and who cannot. It won't bring us to anywhere indeed. Do not look down to those who speak English meagerly. I believe I can speak and write English quite well but it doesn't give me an authority to sideline whoever who cannot speak English. Each of us has advantage over another given our own specialized skill. Language is just a tool, not a quality. It only gives an added advantage, that's all.

Random Thought 2: Angan-angan Romantika
He he he...pepagi yang sunyi begini selalu buatkan aku berangan. Wooo.angan-angan aku banyak woo..serius shit banyak! Hehehehe..waktu-waktu beginilah aku konon-kononnya cuba melestarikan masa dengan berangan tentang kehidupan personal aku.

Aku selalu berangan bila dah punya suri hidup nanti, aku nak jadi sama macam apa yang ayah aku buat. Papa suka masakkan breakfast untuk family pada setiap hujung minggu. Papa jugak selalu basuh baju kami sekeluarga pada waktu weekend. Kalau dia tak basuh baju pun, dia akan tolong mummy bilas kain baju and sidai kain baju di ampaian. Aku suka nasi goreng papa, semua rasa cukup. Angah lah yang second pandai buat nasi goreng dalam rumah. Kadang papa akan basuh kereta, itu pun kalau Angah tak basuh kereta papa la. Angah selalu basuh motor dia and motor papa sekali sampai berkilat.

Waktu weekend jugak papa suka keluar dengan mummy pergi jalan-jalan. Kadang-kadang saja papa nak mencuba tempat makan yang baru. Atau pun pagi-pagi lagi papa dan mummy keluar ke Pasar Borong Selayang atau pun Pasar Pudu untuk beli barang-barang dapur. Malam-malam papa dan mummy akan jalan-jalan di KL untuk lihat lampu-lampu warna-warni.

Aku selalu rasa papa aku papa yang paling romantik yang pernah aku tengok. Sekali-sekala nampak papa kongsi gelas minuman dengan mummy buatkan aku rasa malu sendiri..hehehe..Kadang kalau mummy ta habis makan nasi ke..papa yang akan habiskan. Or mungkin aku. Sogan den tengok orang tuo romantik nih! Kat mana papa belajar menda ni semua ek? Nak kata belajar sampai oversea and tengok mat salleh buat begitu begini, tak pun. Papa just pergi Sekolah Pertukangan ajer kat Tanjung Karang tu. Tapi lagak romantik papa kadang-kadang ngalahkan mat salleh although dia takde ler jalan-jalan dengan mummy sambil berpegangan tangan kan. Itu jam jugak aku lari jauh-jauh siot kalau aku ada sama kat situ..malu aku! Kah kah kahhh..

Papa aku hebat. Semua dia boleh buat. Dari memasak sampai ke menjahit, dari baiki motorsikal sampai baiki basikal, dari membajak sampai buat batas di kebun..pun dia buat. Kadang-kadang ade juga jiran-jiran buat tempahan langsir dari mummy, tapi bukan mummy yang jahit langsirnya, papa yang jahitkan. Baju-baju kat rumah selalunya papa yang gosokkan, kalau mummy penat nak gosok. Everytime aku gosok baju, mesti papa akan jeling tengok kain baju yang aku gosokkan. Kalau dia tak puas hati dengan gosokan aku, dia sendiri akan gosok kain baju tu semula.

Papa juga selalu urutkan mummy kalau mummy lenguh-lenguh badan. Tak pernah sekali pun aku dengar papa mengeluh. Cuma dia selalu nasihatkan mummy untuk selalu bersenam. Aku kalau picit badan mummy tak dan 10 minit dah mengeluh, tapi papa tak.

So, itulah role model aku. Role model untuk jadi seorang lelaki. The best companion for the spouse. Of course aku ada agenda romantik aku sendiri..no doubt la..every man has his own romantic dreams to be shared with the future spouse..me included. Well, maybe I should make my agenda as a secret, only to be shared with my wife...*wink*.