Night of Ala Bollywood Wedding

Yesterday evening I attended an Indian wedding for the very first time. The wedding reception was held at a community hall in Kerinchi. The bride's our colleague of Singh-Chinese parentage. Earlier me and some of my colleagues met at our office building and car-pooled together to the wedding venue. Once we entered the hall, the wedding ritual has already started with the groom sitting under a canopy called mandap set on the stage together with the bride's relative next to him, the priest and close family members close by observing the ceremony. At the centre of the mandap were the sacred fire and other ritual items such as coconut, flower garlands, pots of water, rice among a few, visible from where I was sitting. After the groom left the mandap it was the bride's turn to go through the ceremony with the priest and eventually both bride and groom went through the ceremony together. It was definitely a long wedding ritual and prayers because even after we have finished eating, the ceremony was still going on. Luckily we did not have to wait for the ceremony to end to eat. I was starving as I did not have anything for lunch that day.

The ceremony came to an end when the mangalsutra necklace was put around the bride's neck, the bride and groom exchanged garlands and the family members threw rice and flowers towards the bride and groom. I was in awe observing how symbolistic each ritual was and how even the family members were very much involved and have a very important part in the ceremony. The finale was for the guests to walk up to the mandap where everybody were required to take their shoes off before entering the mandap to congratulate the bride and groom and give them their wedding presents.

Flanked by some of our colleagues who were clad in beautiful sarees

Another interesting obervation was to see some of our colleagues dressed in sarees. It felt like a Bollywood wedding especially with some other guests in their beautiful sarees and mixed of Hindi and Indian songs playing in the background. If only I knew they were planning to wear sarees, I would have joined the bandwagon. So, everybody made a pack to wear sarees in the next Indian wedding which will probably be some time in June.

Background Song : Dil Ne Yeh Kaha Hai Dil Se from Dhadkan

I Have Been Tagged ! For The First Time

I was first tagged by ShahrilAley like months ago. Honestly, some of the questions were quite tough and got me to think how much do I know myself. Hope I do not have to do this again.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire :
1 ~ Pay tithe
2 ~ Give some to mum and my siblings
3 ~ Donate to the needy particularly to sekolah pondok
4 ~ Buy a piece of land and build a house in Africa
5 ~ Travel around the world starting with the exotic places

5 bad habits :
1 ~ Keep stuff which I do not actually need anymore thinking I would need them in future. Lama-lama accumulate junks.
2 ~ Not getting enough sleep
3 ~ Work too hard till sometimes misses lunch
4 ~ Often perform solat 2 in 1
5 ~ If I really really do not like someone tahap Gaban, I can't help but let my feelings show. At least, tahu where to draw the line and tak hipokrit bila kena interact.

5 things I hate doing :
1 ~ Folding clothes
2 ~ Reprimanding my niece and nephew
3 ~ The long wait to see a specialist at SJMC even with appointment
4 ~ Doing cardio on walker or stepper
5 ~ Reading manuals on how to assemble or operate things

5 things I'll never do :
1 ~ PMS
2 ~ Smoke or consume alchohol
3 ~ Keep long fingernails
4 ~ Compromise my integrity at any cost
5 ~ Emigrate to another country or give up my citizenship

5 things I regret doing :
I believe in blessing in disguise....no regrets to what I have done, didn't do or experienced in the past.

5 fave toys or thing :
1 ~ A gold ring, gift from someone 10 years ago which I wear till now
2 ~ An antic table fan bought at Jonker Street, Malacca
3 ~ An antic brooch given by late Great Grandma before she passed away
4 ~ My book collection
5 ~ A Bohemian crystal bowl, a gift from a dear friend.

5 people I choose to do this :
I choose not to tag anyone.....consider yourself lucky!

Background Song : Aku Ada Karena Kau Ada by Radja

Tagged By Zeyn

6 weirdest thing about SPK......here it goes.............

1. SPK does not eat durian but like any true Perakian, she eats tempoyak. Pelik tapi benar. Kalau buat tempoyak ikan masin lagi best especially yang my late great grandma buat!!!!!!!!!!

2. SPK geli kalau makan beansprout yang tak buang ekor. Sanggup menghabiskan masa buang ekor taugeh kalau masak masakan yang ada taugeh kat rumah. Kalau makan dekat restaurant mesti request no taugeh sebab for sure diorang guna taugeh yang tak buang ekor. Kalau ada yang masih bubuh taugeh jugak, will take time to pilih and kumpul all the taugeh tepi pinggan.

3. No matter how slow SPK eats she always end up the first to finish.......Orang lain kunyah ikut sunnah Nabi kut atau memang she's the very gelojoh one?

4. Bila kena berdiri lama, SPK tends to cross her legs. Very comfortable.

5. SPK works with papers all over her desk. Kalau tidak, mesti macam rasa otak tak jalan and tak excited nak kerja but she knows where the documents are between the piles of papers. Tapi end of the day, meja mesti clear punya...

6. Last but not least, the reason she calls herself a Serial Plant Killer - takde pokok yang survive in her hands.

A Fine Sunday

It has been a hell of a week, working late nights at the office for the last 2 weeks resulting an impulsive act of cutting my hair. Thank God my girlfriends were not there, otherwise they would have stopped me like they did in my past attempts. The initial plan was to stop at Midvalley last Wednesday after work to get some stuff but when I passed A Cut Above, like a robot or zombie, I walked into the salon and told the senior stylist that I wanted to get a haircut to a certain length and I left it to his expertise to advise the style. The end result, love it!

Just when I thought my late nights at the office was finally over, I was told last Friday evening to help prepare a proposal and presentation for a management meeting today. Aaargh....so, there I was spending my weekend at the office for a discussion and completing the presentation. In spite of that, I managed to squeeze in time for family and friends including meeting a fellow blogger for the very first time.

After spending a few hours of my Sunday morning giving the finishing touch to the proposal, I took the Putra LRT from my office to KL Sentral where we initially agreed to meet for lunch at 12.30 p.m. Got there just on time and sent him an sms that I was waiting for him at the information counter. He instead had arrived much earlier and asked to meet at Secret Recipe and looked for one wearing a white shirt. Thank God there were only a few diners at Secret Recipe and I immediately noticed a guy wearing a white shirt at one of the tables. Tak syak lagi, memanglah Dirtypap. As I extended my hand to shake his hand, I was not sure whether I should address him by his moniker but he quickly introduced himself by his real name. He gave me a souvenier specially brought from Labuan, two boxes of chocolates. Rasa segan ada jugak sebab I didn't have anything to give him in return.

Topic of our conversation circled around the normal get-to-know-each-other Q & A especially about him since Dirtypap has been keeping his identity on his blog anonymous. Undeniably, I did imagine how he would be like in person and some does fit the mental picture I had of him in a positive manner but it never crossed my mind that he works as a ........... and he gave me his business card to prove it, not that I did not believe him. Our meeting lasted for an hour as he had to catch a 2 p.m. bus to Genting. It was brief but I think it's a pleasant experience to finally got the chance to meet face-to-face and get to know him better. Hopefully it will not be the last.....

Cairo, Al-Qahirah : The Finale

I continued to visit a few more equally interesting places on my last day in Cairo. We started the day visiting Saqqara where the Steps Pyramid is situated. Unlike the Pyramids of Giza, the Steps Pyramid or also known as the unfinished pyramid, was made from smaller bricks which over time turned into dust. It's actually quite a huge complex with several temple and wall ruins around the pyramid. Mum and I decided to 'tawaf' around the pyramid where we saw entrance into the pyramid which was unfortunately closed from public due to safety reasons.

Our next stop was a complex consists of Ramses II Museum, Mummification Temple, Hathour Temple among others. It sounded misleading but the complex is actually an open museum with a lot of statues exhibited including several huge statues of Ramses II. Ramses II is one of the famous paharaohs particularly for his long reign and notably famous wife, Queen Nefertiti. We were supposed to visit other areas within the complex but decided to pass as what we will be seeing will be more statues and we had seen enough statues for the day.

We then went to Imam Syafie Mosque which is situated in between residential buildings occupied by locals. We were pre-warned by our guide not to give hand out money to the locals in the area as once you give to one, more will come and ask you for money. I guess that place was not a popular tourist spot as we were the only ones there. Imam Syafie's Mosque is merely a small mosque and the his tomb is situated in the middle of the small praying hall. We peered through the glass and wooden structure housing his tomb and could see a lot of things strewn around the tomb from papers, 'sejadahs' and cash notes. I guess some visitors just went overboard worshipping the late Imam. Another interesting about this mosque at a corner under the old worn-off carpet lies what believed to be Rasulullah s.a.w footprint.

Next, we went to another famous Islamic sites i.e. Sultan Hasan Mosque and Refa'e Mosque, located opposite the Sultan Hasan Mosque separated only by a small passage. I spent more time in Sultan Hasan Mosque admiring the beautiful ancient Islamic architecture. We were privileged that the Imam himself spent time telling us about the mosque and we could sense pride in his voice. He recited outloud the Kursi verses inscripted around the base of the dome attracting the attention of other non-Muslim tourists and 'azan' in the mosque and we could hear the call for prayer echoing in the mosque. Such a soothing feeling...The mosque is also a madrasa shared by all the four mazhabs - Hanafi, Syafie, Hanbali and Maliki with each has a separate courtyard to its own. I spent a brief moment a Refa'e Mosque famous for being the final resting place of the former Shah of Iran which is equally magnificent in its own way.

On the way to Cairo International Airport before leaving for Dubai, we stopped at Anwar Sadat's tomb and site where he was assasinated which is just across the street from his burial place. He was assasinated for signing Egypt's peace treaty with Israel while watching a military parade. His tomb is underneath a pyramid like structure and guarded by 8 - 10 guards dressed in either modern military uniform and the ancient Egyptian attire.

I left Cairo with wonderful memories not only of the places I visited but also the people I met and befriended. It is definitely an interesting and exotic place to visit with the richness of her history, culture and mysterious past.

Background Song : We Maloh By Amr Diab