Anne dan Mapley

Tadi pergi ke mapley untuk makan malam. Tak ramai, berdua saja. Bawa nasi dari luar pulak tu. So, kitorang pun duduk dan order air. Anne panjang tu pun kita panggil. Mintak teh o' ais, air kosong dan sirap ais. Lepas tu saya bangun dan pergi pula beli ayam goreng dua ketul, untuk dijadikan lauk tambahan kepada kami berdua yang beli nasi goreng ikan masin dari kawan kami.

Sambil makan, secara tiba2 bersembang hal politik. Hal Bersih, hal hak berdemo, pasal kelayakan untuk complain, dan macam2 lagi. Kemudian, terfikir satu benda. Tak lain dan tak bukan, mereka2 yang berada depan kami, yang bergerak non-stop, beruniform hijau ini.

Anne di mapley ni.

So, mari menganalisa topik hari ini. Anne.

Maksud anne ni...if i'm not wrong it means 'brother, or handsome boy'. Gitu lah kot. Anyway, di restoran mamak (mapley), pekerja2 diorang ni biasanya customer akan panggil dengan nama anne saja.

"Anne anne, order."

"Anne, anne. *masih tak dilayan*. Fu*k anne, buat2 tak dengaq"

"Anne, kira."

"Lima ringgit 30 sen? Lima ringgit sudah la ne..."

Itu antara wajib line antara customer dengan anne. Hahahaha.

Oh dah menyimpang. Sebenarnya, saya kagum dengan anne di mapley ni. In my case, anne2 Restoran Al- Fareez Maju. Kenapa?

Basically, diorang ada dua shift. Shift daylight and shift night. Kalau pagi, tak silap saya mula jam 7 sampai 7 petang. And malamnya, 7 petang sampai 7 pagi seterusnya. Jadi, ada dua team lah. Setiap team ada division masing2. Or, tugas masing2 bagi setiap individu. Tukang buat roti- dia lah yang duk tenyeh-tebar-tumbuk roti2 untuk buat roti kosong, roti telur, roti bawang, roti sardin, roti planta dan lain2. Yang tukang goreng, dialah yang goreng segala macam nasi2 dan mee2, koetoew dan maggi. Tukang tandoori- dia yang sediakan ayam tandoori, roti naan, roti capati dan lain2 roti exotic indian origin punya. Tukang air? Semua air minuman dia buat. Tukang amik order- amik order, lap meja, layan customer. Tukang kira- kira dan pegang duit.

Itu semua bagus, ada deparment dan pengkhususan. Tapi what amazes me is their hardwork and determination-never say die attitude. Mereka ni sangat rajin. Bayangkan, dari jam 7 petang sampai lah ke 5 pagi, ada saja customer datang. Yang tukang order akan non-stop ulang alik dari meja ke meja, kemudian naik turun dapur untuk amik makanan yang dah siap. Yang tukang masak, non-stop memasak.

Bila dah habis kerja, maybe around 7 dah mula makan. Kemudian most probably akan naik atas dan tidur. Mesti tidur mati punya. Maybe akan bangun semula jam 4 petang? Who knows. Oh yeah, ada sekali tu Nitti (anne tukang kira/order paling famous kat Fareez) amik order, pukul 730 petang. Muka sembap, mata sepet lagi. Sah2 baru bangun tidur.

Nitti, anne terbaik di Fareez Maju.

Plus, they don't have weekends. Even weekends diorang kerja. Macam takda offday langsung. Kagum ada, sedih pun ada. And that give me wonders- How bad is the situation in their mainland? Kalau kat sini pun sanggup kerja macam robot everyday, for (most probably) meager payment, kat sana macam mana?

Jadi, respect to all those anne. They are true heroes to me. Especially UKM students, kalau tak Fareez Maju, mesti Ameer Ali. Sinilah tempat kami makan, tempat lepak, tempat berseronok, tempat lepas stress, tempat tengok bola, tempat usya awek hot n sexy (haha). Mana2 student UKM yang masih belum pernah ke Fareez atau Ameer Ali....facepalm je la.

Stress- free time with your close friends. Priceless.

Not to forget, harga makanan juga murah. Very profitable untuk yang nak saving duit. Jadi, mari ramai2 ke Mapley. Hidup Mapley dan Anne!!

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, there was one happy community.

Komuniti itu tidaklah besar. Orangnya tidaklah ramai. Perangai dan sikap setiap orang pula lain2. Ada yang alim, ada yang syaitan, ada yang biasa2. Ada yang suka bercakap lepas, ada yang berlapik. Ada yang tegas, ada yang lemah lembut. Ada yang garang, ada yang baik. Ada yang ambil berat, ada yang abaikan saja. Pelbagai.

Mereka hidup bersama dalam keadaan yang tenang dan ceria. Selalu bersama dalam pelbagai benda. Makan bersama, bersukan bersama, beriadah bersama.

Bekerja bersama.

Bersusah bersama.

Bersenang bersama.

Bergembira bersama.

Bersedih bersama.

It all went smooth and alright for quite a long time.

But it didn't last.

One fateful event happened, one of it's member had been backstabbed by another member. From there on, things had never went cheerish and smooth. Doubts clouded every decision. Insecurity engulf every person in the community. Working together was never as satisfactory as before.

From one abyss, the community fell into another.

Sebagai satu komuniti yang ahlinya dari adam dan hawa, so with it happened the intimacy and love stories among them. Some were success, some hit the wall. Some problems were related to the relations, some were just free from it. Nevertheless, all were resolved in good manner. Kudos to those who brave and have high moral awareness in solving those problems.

However, sejarah itu berulang. Dan kadang- kadang ia berulang dengan lebih dahsyat.

Masalah yang sama berlaku. Maka seorang insan bernama Garrus ini terasa tidak sedap hati. Kalau dulu ada tok penghulu yang selesaikan masalah. Tapi itu dulu. Sekarang tuk penghulu sudah lesap meninggalkan komuniti ini demi bertapa mencari ketenangan diri. Ini tak boleh jadi.

"I have to do something. I have to repair this."

Maka Garrus berusaha menebalkan muka, menghabiskan masa mencari maklumat dan penyelesaian untuk masalah dalam komuniti itu. Garrus tahu, yang usahanya ini tidak akan disukai oleh semua ahli komuniti itu. Pasti ada yang terkecil hati. Pasti ada yang terasa. Tetapi Garrus persetankan semua itu.

Maka usaha Garrus berhasil. Tiada lagi pergaduhan. Tiada lagi salah faham. For now.

Seperti yang dijangkakan. Tidak semua yang suka. Ada yang kata Garrus terlalu keras. Terlalu direct. Terlalu penyibuk. Tetapi Garrus tidak kisah. Dia sanggup terima. All actions have their very own consequences.

And so Garrus decided. He no longer need to care much bout this community. For he is an old man in that community. He did realized that at times old people need to step down and lay low a bit. Especially when the time has come.

'Especially when the time has come'

To be honest, Garrus sendiri tidak tahu bilakah sebenarnya 'time' itu muncul. Ada masanya, dia merasakan it's time to go. Let them learn and manage themselve. But, as he let it be, it become worse as time passes by. Garrus sedar, yang dirinya cumalah orang tua biasa tiada superpower pun. Ramai lagi rakan2 dia yang lagi super. Kaidan, Ashley, Jacob, James, Mordin, Wreav are all great elders in the community. But he felt he need to move, because he can't wait for them as they are busy with other things that may defy them from these happenings in the community. Tapi...itulah.

Dengan itu Garrus decided to step back and wish them all the best.

But the best didn't happened. It became worsen.

And now, some of them in the community had put the blame on him for almost all the problems that happened. "

"Garrus awak ni perbesarkan hal kecik la"

"Garrus yang mula ajak2 buat semua ni. Kita ni atas dasar kerja, bukan bergembira"

And to some extent, they even degraded Garrus to the level of immoral bastard who doesn't deserve a soulmate. Since Garrus is outspoken, too open minded and talk dirty, so it is a danger to every human being to befriend with Garrus, let alone be his lover, they said.

Such a shocking news to Garrus, that he himself felt so flat and wasted. Such a string of strong accusations had been thrown to him, just because of his outspoken and maybe to their eyes- vulgar way of Garrus. Garrus knew that not a single person in this world is perfect. He surely has weaknesses and bad points. And he is improving himself. He knew it will be a long battle, but he keep on going. Still, he had already asked for teguran. He knew he ain't angel. He surely had done mistakes. Yet they didn't gave him one.

Nevermind.

Dengan ini hati Garrus terasa separa lega. Tiada lagi yang perlu dijaga. Tiada lagi yang perlu dipertahankan lagi. The final nail to the coffin had been put on. Dengan jangka hayatnya yang sudah uzur dan singkat, Garrus faham yang masanya sudah tiba. It's time to let go.

It's time for a rest.

Separuh lagi hati?

Terasa sedih. Kecewa.

Betrayed.

Masalah Teknologi Hebat Masa Kini

Semalam dalam pukul 11 suku camtu aku and Rohani keluar g makan kat mapley sekejap setelah amik dia kat KTM. Lapar weh, sehari penuh tak makan lagi gara2 protein drink. Anyway, kami sampai mapley dan terus duduk. Sambil2 duk sembang2 pasal event dia ke Genting awal tadi, aku perasan meja belakang aku ni macam menarik situasinya.

It's not special, just a group of 5-6 young people duduk lepak kat satu meja. They all look urban and trendy habis. Yang aweks2 2,3 orang dressing macam nak masuk club (mungkin baru balik dari club?) dan yang laki2 dress simple but still trendy. Nevermind bout that.

Tapi yang menarik tu, ada 2 aweks yang sibuk dengan smartphones/gadgets diorang. Halimah (bukan nama sebenar) sibuk dengan iPad beliau manakala Minah (bukan nama sebenar) sibuk dengan iPhone beliau.

Aku ada usya2 juga. Bukan apa pun, slide la benda tu mencari2 update FB yang best untuk komen dan like, bukak blog, bukak Twitter. Haih...

Before this I read a book named The Art of Conversation (baca separuh saja, sebab English dia terlalu British oriented, pening woi!) Ada satu paragraph yang writer tu kritik pedas punya dengan society sekarang. Dia ada tulis (lebih kurang macam ni),

" How many times we see a group of people in 4,5 people hanging out but some (if not all) of them will be busy caressing their smartphones or intelligent gadgets? When you are in a train standing next to a lone stranger, are you sensible and brave enough to start a conversation? It's a common sight to see people in a waiting situation choose to shut their mouth and put earphones into their ears and sail into their own comfortable world. "

" We lost the most basic and ancient pleasure we can have in our life- talking"

Well, agak makan dalam juga bagi aku because I done some of those actions mentioned above. Tapi kalau nak defend, guna ayat ni- "argh orang zaman sekarang tak boleh percaya. kalau baik semacam ja, ada niat jahat la tu"....

Anyway, back to Halimah and Minah.

For me it's quite irony la, keluar ramai2 lepak dekat mapley tapi last2 you bukak ipad iphone tab tablet apa bagai tu and duduk dalam dunia you sorang2. Apa guna tujuan lepak di mapley? Bersembang dan bersosial in real life kan instead of in virtual- sometimes- fake world. Kalau ingin berfacebook dan bertwitter dan blog dan macam2 lagi, no need untuk keluar lah. Okay mungkin dia bosan, atau baru gaduh dengan bf ke tapi come on...there's no need for you to put those gadgets out in front at the first place.

That's the problem. Supposedly those gadgets will make you closer to your friends but ironically it pulls you further from your (close and nearby) friends. Kawan ajak lepak dah taknak ikut, then lagi selesa duduk mengadap PC/tablet/tab dari bersembang dengan kawan2. Becoming nerdy as days past by.

No wonder la (most) gamers are nerds that look super unsociable and physically weak. Hahahaha.

That Minah and Halimah incident reminds me of anak2 orang kaya yang keluar dinner/jalan2 dengan family. Kadang2 kalau nasib baik, you can see the anak laki will have a 1.big headphone 2. stylish earphones stuck at his ears while they all satu family sedang duduk memilih menu untuk makan. I wonder, itu baru kat meja dinner. Kalau dalam kereta? Atau waktu jalan2 kat taman ke? Rebellious la konon, haha.

Oh trend sekarang juga, bagi family yang berkemampuan, ipad akan dibawa sampai ke meja restoran oleh anak2 mereka (kadang2 sampai 2,3 ipad. sorang dapat satu). Si ayah dan ibu akan meneliti menu makanan, anak2 akan main FB, Twitter, blog atau game dengan menggunakan iPad tu. Kadang2 ada yang hanya berhenti hanya time makan. Habis makan sambung main lagi. Gila. Kesian ayah tu, tujuan keluar makan ramai2 untuk bersosial dan sembang2 dengan anak. Last2 anak bersosial dan sembang2 dengan iPad. Smart.

(Don't get me wrong. I am not generalizing that all rich families are as I mentioned above. No. Just some of them were unluckily spotted by me lo. Ramai saja lagi yang bagus dan tidak seperti di atas.)

It's a bit sad, technology is acting as the double-edged sword. Mendekatkan kita dengan yang jauh, at the same time menjauhkan (kadang2 mengkurang ajarkan) kita dengan yang dekat. I have no problems with technology in fact I do melompat gembira if someone is willing to give me free iPad/iPhone/GalaxyTab/tablet tu, hahaha. Tapi penggunaannya kena control lah. Tengoklah masa dan tempat untuk guna. Be sensible and rationale.

Jangan sampai nanti bila ada someone passed away ada orang g melawat arwah sambil bawak iPad. Sampai, bagi salam, baca al-Fatihah dan lepas tu terus cari spot and duduk layan iPad tu.
Hahahahaha.

Semangat Yang Hilang (telah kembali)

Kalau dah hitam, hitam lah ia. Kalau dah gamer, gamer lah ia.

Berkali2 kata pada FB, pada Twitter, pada blog. Kata yang kononnya diri ini sudah tiada lagi jiwa gaming. Kononnya semangat gamer sudah lesap entah ke mana.

Eh tak tipu, memang dah lesap. Dalam PC ini ada about 20 games ready to be played and till today I haven't finish not even one of them, and most of them try main pun tak lagi (install pun belum). And when I say games, I mean SERIOUS GAMES. Not Mario NES, or Plants vs Zombies. What I mean is games like Batman Arkham City, Skyrim, PES, Sim City Societies, Civilization 5. Super heavy games.

So, that sacred drive to play all those games had gone AWOL. Supposedly la.

Not until baru2 ni.

When my friend bought an Xbox360 and he let me pinjam it.

It's like a dream comes true. Playing Xbox360 (or PS3) is one of my dream/impian kecik. Maka dengan peminjaman Xbox itu, segala game idaman yang hanya mampu aku lihat dan buat muka toya saja sudah mampu dimain.

Games that don't come in PC version. Castlevania-Lords of Shadows, Red Dead Redemption, Gears of War, Tekken 6, Silent Hill- Downpour. Just to name a few la.

Sometimes we can't just make assumption even though it seems 99% sure of it.

Tak sangka, semangat game dalam diri ini masih ada. Walaupun hanya certain Xbox games saja. Tapi ia masih ada.

Maybe it's in my DNA. Hahaha

Oceans

I don't know why, but this song has been haunting me since the last 3 days. Such a solemn and sad song.

Mostly about the distance felt between a husband and wife, emotionally and spiritually. Like a marriage that feels empty and dour, the emotional bond has gone away. Just like the first words heard in the intro, "It's nothing". The lyric is so simple yet meaningful and beautiful. Just enjoy the song =)

We sit in silence

A marriage license

Is all you know

All you know, all you know

We sit and chew gum

Watch television

And you know

And you know, and you know

But there's oceans between us

Light years that screen us

Oceans that drift away

Oceans that fade to grey

We sit and rot here

Resenting each year

Will you go

Will you go, will you go?

We sing the old songs

The beat box plays on

And you know

And you know, and you know

But there's oceans between us

Light years that screen us

Like oceans we drift away

[Like] oceans we fade to grey

Between us there's oceans

There's life in slow motion

Quietly we drift away

Quietly we fade to grey

Ineffective, I Say.

Selaku peminat setia Mines Shopping Complex, aku ingin berkongsi sedikit isu komplen kali ini. Komplen bukan pasal Mines, tapi tentang Mines 2.

Under construction

You all know or not, the existence of Mines 2? Mines 2 tu apa?

Haha.

Okay Mines 2 tu adalah satu bangunan baru yang didirikan betul2 sebelah dengan Mines lama.

It's a building consisting of 2 levels for shopping retail and the rest are for offices. And the shopping levels are mainly themed as "digital mall anda." Meaning, you will find all sorts of electronic devices especially for computers, gaming consoles, handphones and many more there.

Don't get the wrong idea. Mines 2 didn't disappoint me. Inside it, lots of those kedai are available.

BUT.

Ianya kosong. Boleh dibilang dengan jari saja bilangan pelanggan/customer/computer geek yang lalu lalang di situ.

Masa under construction. Sama saja. Tambah 3,4 orang lalu lalang.

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I feel pity to all those abang2 kedai yang tak habis2 panggil sesiapa saja yang lalu depan diorang untuk singgah kedai. Very sad and solemn place for business la right now...

That makes me think. Why such a failure?

As one kind of ardent fan of Mines, I can put forward some reasons. Firstly, Mines 2 is specified as the shopping mall just for electronic/ digital devices. There are some that differs, but only in minor numbers. So I can say it is 90% digital shops and 10% other shops la.

The problem is, there are still LOTS OF computer/electronic/gaming shops in Mines 1. It's like tidak sekefahaman. Now, put yourself in the customer's view. You want to buy a PC game. You can get it at 2 places- Mines (old) or Mines 2. Both places have the same price, so it's fair till now.

Unfortunately, you will surely enter Mines (old) and buy it from any shop there.

Why? Simple reasons. In Mines (old) there are lots of other attractions. Bowling, movies, restaurants, karaoke, clothes, KFC, McD, everything. In Mines 2, all you can see is lines of digital shops and one or two cafes. That's it.

Look grand, and happening

To put the blame on distance of walking, it really is not too much. Just 20 steps only the gap between Mines (old) and Mines 2. However, the above reason can be applied here again. People just too lazy to descend from 4th floor to the ground floor, then walk all the way to the entrance, go out and put another 20 steps just to buy one or two gadgets you can already buy it at the Mines (old).

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To put it in simpler words, fail lah Mines 2 ni. Tingkat atas2 tu memang kosong dan in the future orang akan masuk serta sewa pejabat2 sana, tapi customer2 tetap akan gunakan kedai di Mines (old) untuk beli barang2 digital.

One example. When I was a gaming nerd, I used to visit two gaming shops at the 4th floor in Mines lama. One is Fantastic Paradise, the other one I can't remember the name. Those shops were always full of people bustling in and out, surveying/buying/complaining/negotiating things there. However, one of them (Fantastic Paradise) moved out to Mines 2, leaving the other one alone there (kedai diorang dua ni sebelah2 saja). Now, that kedai tak tau nama tu is the final winner. Customer yang masuk dua kali ganda dari dulu. Fantastic Paradise? Mengira bilangan manusia yang lalu di depan gerai mereka.

If the management of Mines 2 want to rectify this, I think they should build a sky bridge connecting the Mines (old) and Mines 2. Let the customers walk from inside the building, not forcing them to naik turun tingkat then berjalan dalam panas (sikit saja, haha). Sky bridge, or walkway, or whatever you want to call it, just like the one at Melaka Mahkota Parade yang sambung dengan apa nama tah shopping complex sebelah kiri tu.

Another suggestion, relocate all the digital shops in Mines (old) into Mines 2. Make it a fair competition. Like it or not, customers have to walk into Mines 2 to search for gadgets and games. But ini macam harapan juga. Kedai2 besar macam Challenger mesti mengamuk, haha.

Whatever it is, the management should see and repair this situation. It really is a waste, because the interior design and spaces in Mines 2 really are great and spacious. It has the potential to be like Lowyatt, but with bigger space all around. Rugi lo...

I still visit the shops inside Mines 2, just jalan2 saja. And setiap kali lalu depan gerai2 tu, dapat la kedengaran ayat2 ni,

"bang, mari tengok ini henpon2 baru"

"bang cari apa bang?"

"lengchai, game baru, game baru?"

Kesian...

A Wish Too Far

I wish,

I can have a time stopper. Or a time slower. Or better, I can have Doraemon. Let him unleash all his wonderful gadgets. Let the time stops. Let the time slows down. Let there be no interference.

I want to go to a garden, a garden that has a lake in the middle of it. I want to go there, find a spot near the lake and lie down...read these books that I deeply want to explore. Atlas Shrugged, Epic of Hang Tuah, The Fountainhead and The Art of War.

I know such a garden exist. And I do know where it is located. Just that, I don't have quite the time. 24 hours seems like too short but hey, everyone is given equal time.

Just wait, i'll do it. I'll make it real. Lakeside reading.

I'll do it.