Fabrics Of Society

Last weekend, I made a point to visit Sasana Kijang in Kuala Lumpur right after I came back from the team building session. Inside this elegant, modern architectural and tech-advanced building, it stores the Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery (MAG). This was a much delayed visit as they had started running few art exhibitions since early of the year. Luckily, it is still running until now. Here is a snapshot of the Sasana Kijang building:

Sasana Kijang at dusk. Gorgeous pic! Image taken from: kureen.wordpress.com

Seriously, I would love to elaborate more on Sasana Kijang and the galleries in it, but I will save that for another day. There are quite a number of things that you can do and worth your time coming over. Do wait for that ya in my future post! Tungguuuuuuu...

In this post, I would like to highlight or share more on the 'Pameran Benang-Benang Kehidupan" or Fabrics of Society exhibition in the Art Gallery. The exhibition was inspired from the uniqueness of fabrics and how it impacts every lives across multi cultures in Malaysia. Very interesting! The displayed artworks were produced by talented local artists since the 1960s until present.

It was raining heavily and dark outside when I was browsing through the artworks inside the gallery. Hence, most of the photos looked kinda dark since I had to rely mostly on the lighting inside the gallery. Sorry for that.

Just to share some of my personal favourite artworks:

My favourite artwork among all! A depiction of Puteri Gunung Ledang (the famous princess legend in Malaysia) by Ali Rahamad. Titled as "Puteri Gunong Ledang 12", this is definitely not the typical beautiful princess painting. I just love how different it is than usual, with the creative splatter of colours combination that livens up the feel of the overall artwork.

This is another artwork that fascinates me. One of the artworks that had my longest stare for observation.  Produced by the artist Ismail Zain, this artwork "They Are Singing Hujan Tengahari At Meridian" is certainly unique (hujan tengahari means noon rain). The reason why I stared at it longer was because I was trying to figure what it actually means! Yeah, I mean the lines illustrates the meridian lines and the bluish part is the rain. But what about the songket part?? Hmmm...I wonder. Despite the dissatisfaction for not being able to get the ultimate answer, there's something about this artwork that attracted me a lot nevertheless. I never got bored of it! Oh well, I think I'm gonna settle the answer with "Malaysian element" for the songket part. That adds to the creativity part (as well as curiosity!)

The title of this artwork directly reflects the artwork itself. This is "Nafkah" by Mohd Hoessein Enas. "Nafkah" means living or sustenance and this artwork says it all. A group of fishermen in their customised sarong, started their day very early in the morning to earn living to support their family and life. I was pretty moved by this artwork. The colours, the angle, the emotions, the hard work and effort by the artist to produce this artwork made it felt so real and touched my heart. I just love this.

I love this artwork mainly because that red colour really captured my attention. It served well as the main theme colour as well as the background for this artwork. Produced by the artist Haron Mokhtar, "Benuk I" depicts a group of locals, which are the Bidayuh people in their traditional costumes with the long houses as the background in Sarawak. In the artwork it shows that the Bidayuh people were greeting and welcoming guests to their place.

Ok I was fooled by this artwork! The fact that I was fooled by it made me love it. From far, I was like "Oh this seems like two dressed-up ladies walking with their shopping bags in the middle of autumn in one of the European countries." I got closer and then I realised it was different than what I thought. Titled as "Rubber Tapper" and produced by the artist Hussein, this artwork actually portrays two rubber tapper ladies carrying their full buckets after long, hard day at work. Shopping huh? Autumnnnn??? Very clever! *slaps forehead* Terasa bangang kejap kat dalam galeri. 

Some other artworks in the art exhibition:

Warisan II by Hamdan Hj Lias

Sehelai Batik Sejalur Tenunan by Sabri Mohd Salleh

Pertarungan/ Duel I by Amron Omar

Citrawarna Seorang Gadis Bajau dan Seekor Kuda Padi by Amiruddin Ariffin

Kukur Kelapa by Ismail Mat Hussin

Kampung Life (Baby Cot Series) by Yeong Siak Ling

Bathing Baby by Chuah Thean Teng

Wayang Kulit by Ismail Mat Hussin

Overall, I am satisfied with most of the displayed artworks at the exhibition. I think the exhibition will run until end of this year. So for those of you who are interested, do drop by at the art gallery to see more artworks.

Do wait for my other posts on the other galleries :)

Darkness And A String Of Faith

Hello readers, I realised that it has been awhile since I last wrote on my blog. My apologies, I was really occupied with other tasks that required my full attention. But I have never forgotten about this blog. I miss writing. And I miss communicating to you guys! Rindu giler ok.

Despite being surrounded with tonnes of workload, my office managed to find one good day for a team building session for the whole team. Yes people, team building. Boriiinnggggggg. It was out of KL and at one of the mild forest in Perak. Not that I was very much fond of it, but I participated anyway. "It could be fun perhaps," I tried to convince myself, very hard. My ideal team building would be a great hang out with colleagues for dinner, play some games, great laugh and get to know each other better. Best of all, assign a work project that everyone has to contribute (with no excuse to escape) and let's see how the team members together accomplish the work project. Alas, forest was the main theme for the activities (typical!) and off I went overcoming my deep procrastination of it.

I do not wish to share all activities specifically because I'm sure you guys have an idea what team building activities would normally take place in a such environment. There is only one activity that I would like to share - the 'Night Walk'.

"Ok everyone, gather around and choose a buddy to walk with," the facilitator briefed shortly to all of us. So we looked to the person next to us and were like "hey come, let's walk together". So we happily walked and chatted along the way, thinking it was just a normal night walk with group of people at night after dinner.

The facilitator brought us to a point - the gate to enter to the forest. "Alright now that everyone is here, we are going make a slight change to the plan. You are not going to walk together with your buddy now. You are going to walk alone in the woods. We are going to release one after another, each in between a 5 minutes gap or more," the facilitator briefed further.

We gulped, looking at each other with the expression "Damnit! We were tricked!". It was total darkness, no torch lights or anything provided, except for the string which was attached to trees and stretched out, making it like a route that we need to follow until the end.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you will now walk on your own and your only survival kit is the string. So whatever you do, do not miss the string. Do not let it slip out of your hand. If you do, quickly find it! That string will bring you to the end point of the entire route. So let's begin with the first person," the facilitator instructed.

OMG. We felt like running back to our home and hide ourselves. We waited anxiously for our turn and I was the 11th person in the waiting line.

So, it was finally my turn. I was given the same reminder again before I started my 'journey' in the dark. I then started walking. I was nervous at first but after a while, I could feel the serenity amidst the darkness. The quietness in the woods, echoed with the sounds of crickets added to the tranquillity. I began to enjoy my very own night walk.

That enjoyment somehow got disrupted once in a while when I heard "ehemm ehemm!" in the dark. "Apa pulak tu? Takpe lah, janji tak kacau aku," I calmed myself, comforting myself from the unknown. We were told earlier that the forest used to be the Japanese base camp during the war in Malaya and a number of Japanese army died in there. Thanks for the 'great bedtime' story, Mr Facilitator. I quickly shooed away the thought and continued walking. That is not including the thoughts of encountering 'pets' of the forest like snakes or other creepy creatures. Ok serious tak sanggup nak tulis nama-nama menatang ni.

Nevertheless, at that moment, I became braver. While thanking God for giving this lifetime opportunity, I continuously challenged myself by not giving up easily. I could have just stop in the middle and scream "help! help!" to get out from the woods immediately but no, I walked. I skidded and slid at some point because I could not see anything in the dark, but I got up and continued. "Walking alone in darkness could not be so bad," I thought.

The string. Yes, the string was like oxygen to me. I held tight to it. I was affirmed to not lose it, like how a mother wouldn't lose a sight of her baby. The string was the key to success of the whole journey. Sounds easy to you readers? No, it was not honestly. I hit trees, bushes, branches, name it. There was a time my hair clip got stuck in one of the branches that I had to stop walking and entangled my hair from it. OMG. Dugaan sungguh. And yet, I had to make sure I did not lose the string from my hand while facing these obstacles. 

There was no way for me to put hope in it. I have to put faith instead. There was no other choice. I must have faith that the string will bring me to the final destination. A safe and victorious destination where I will meet everyone again and hear the cheers and laughters of them. "God, please help me. Le me go through this quickly," I prayed inside my heart.

I walked against the darkness with the string on my hand. I began to hear familiar voices. The voices of my colleagues. My heart was pounding with excitement. "Yes! I am almost there!" I whispered happily to myself. I walked with the hope that I would reach quickly but it seemed that the route was even more winding towards the end.

Walk. Faith. Walk. Faith. Walk. Faith. *more nervous*

I finally saw a dim light from far. My heart was filled with joy. I walked fast until the end and was greeted by two trainers and the facilitator. Then, I met my other team mates who reached earlier.

"Yeay, you finally made it!" they cheered upon my arrival. I was beaming with joy. What a journey I thought. I relaxed and reflected the adventurous walk I had. 

Faith brought me to the end of the journey. Faith had led me throughout the way. And faith had actually kept me safe.

Just total darkness and a piece of string made me realised that.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that" - Martin Luther King, Jr. Image taken from: http://www.layoutsparks.com

P/S: There are few days left until the survey 'Do you believe love at first sight?' is officially closed. To those of you have not participated, it would be great if you can click your answer :) To those of you have answered, thank you for participating!

Finding Peace In Kindness

Besides my own writing, I do actually like to visit other people's blog to read their piece of mind or their life experience. I like to read what do these bloggers think of an issue, how do they feel about something, how they react to surprises or what excites them in life. I may not totally agree with their views sometimes, but hey, that makes us unique and special as a human being. Each and everyone of us have our very own thought flows and pool of emotions that match uniquely with our desires, life encounters and destiny.

I came across to this topic 'Random Acts of Kindness' (RAoK) in few blogs that I visited. There are also announcements in radio about it lately. I have heard of it and did it for sure, but reading about it made me stop and really think about it. Have I done enough RAoK lately?

Wikipedia defines RAoK as a selfless act performed by a person or people wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual person or people. It is believed that this phrase was sired by Anne Herbert, an American writer that promoted practice of kindness in general.

Back to my story, after reading about RAoK, I sat back and thought what RAoK had I done on that day? Really readers, it took me a while to figure out.

Before I started my career, RAoK was something that used to be pretty common for me. However, I realised that since I started working, I was just so engrossed with it that I lack of RAoK. I didn't have time to think about it and I didn't have time to do it. All I care was work. Work, work, work and work! Perform and deliver before deadlines.

Nevertheless, after so many years busy with work, I realised that something was amiss. A part of my inner peace was like, gone? As much as I cheer up myself by hanging out with family and friends, listening to music, watching movies and do all the fun things in general, I knew deep down that there was something else that I did not do much and did not truly comfort me.That is RAoK.

I reminisced the times before which I consistently practised RAoK. It doesn't really require money actually. Simple and cheerful greeting, asking how is the person's day, lending ears and shoulders to those who need it are actually considered as RAoK and no money is required to do that.

Upon reading the article and listening to the radio announcements, I decided to instill this RAoK strongly in me because I know for sure it had worked well for me in the past. I want that sense of peacefulness in me again and RAoK is one of the best ways to do it. 

I finally started to embrace it. A colleague of mine recently did a very well-written report and shared it with the team. My normal self would respond "Oh I saw the email, thanks but I'm kinda busy and will read the report later." Well, I decided to change that. I stopped working for a while, had a quick read on the report and responded to him "Thank you for the report and you did a good job :)" 

That colleague instantly replied "Thank you Aida :D". His reply just made me realised that how appreciative he was when someone actually acknowledges his effort. He was very happy, but more importantly, I felt really happy for making this colleague of mine happy that it increases my inner peace by 10 points! Immediately. Did I have to fork out some cash to make this person happy? No. I just spent less than 5 minutes of my time to make that happened. Did I lose anything with that very few minutes I spent? No. Instead, I feel I'm a better person with a bigger heart and have a total peace in my mind and heart. Amazing. Why didn't I continue doing this from last time??? *pinches self*

Since then, I encouraged myself to do more RAoK. I want that old self of mine that I used to be. Instead of looking empty when passing by other people, especially strangers, I acknowledge their presence by smiling to them. Guess what, they smiled back at me! From their original flat, emotionless expression earlier. Now you have two people who are unknown to each other but feel happier and better about themselves. Isn't it great? 

There are plenty of ways to do RAoK and I'm very thankful that I have been given the opportunities to practice RAoK whenever I can and able to do it. I try to make it at least once a day. Alhamdulillah, I had a chance to do it again today. I was driving and while queueing in the lane, there was this family with small children wanted to cross the other side of the road. All other cars passed by and did not give a chance to them to cross over. When it was my turn, I was like "what the heck, it's not like I'm rushing for anything". So I stopped my car and let the whole family walked across the road safely. The father smiled and waved at me signalling 'thank you'. That gesture just made my day. I can feel that I am coming back to the sense of tranquillity that I used to have. 

I remembered there was one time that I was so upset over something happened that my tears couldn't stop flowing. I was in a train at that time and was drowned with my own emotion. But I got a good surprise despite in sadness. There was this very nice lady handed me a tissue to wipe my tears. She did that as if she understood what I was going through. Honestly, I thought that was the best RAoK from a stranger to me. Unforgettable indeed.

I am smiling to myself right now. I guess life is not just about work only. Jangan asyik busy buat kerja jer ok.  Or busy buat-buat tak tau. Toleh-toleh and pandang-pandang la kiri kanan and smile. Tu pun kira buat pahala jugak :)

Let's make our world a greater place to live with RAoK.

"When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace" - The 14th Dalai Lama (1935). Image taken from createavity.com

P/S: Starting from this month, I will run fun polls (I do hope it is fun to you!) to get readers' opinion on issues, trends or just anything.  I am currently running a poll 'Do you believe love at first sight?', which you can find on the left sidebar. This poll will go on for two weeks from now. I truly appreciate if you could spent a few seconds to answer and participate in this poll. It is kinda fun to find out what do most people think of it :) thanks!