Understanding poverty

"My Umi rationed food so we also have food at dinner too. I could take the rice with only planta and soy sauce, yes I could take that. I was irritated at the way my Umi would divide everything into small portion sfor each of us siblings. But I could deal with that. Also the quarrels and fights when my big brother would 'sapu' some of my portions too - but really, I could handle that as well. I could also shower without soap or not brushing my teeth and the bad breath in school.

But the psychological trauma of seeing my parents quarrelling over and over again angered me so much then. At times, an RM5 issue would throw the family into days of distress, pain, misery, anguish, fear and sorrow.

It was a pain that pierced right through my heart that even as I am writing this now, today, year 2009, when I am no longer living in poverty, tears are rolling and rolling and rolling down my cheeks. The tears just wouldn't stop. The brain is a funny instrument. It does not seem to know the difference between the past and the present. So the past becomes the present, just by thinking about it! God it was so tiring ... I feel tired now just thinking back!"

-Anas Zubedy in his book 'The Quran and I', recounting his childhood

I'm officially a fan of Flavia de Luce!

"Inspiration from outside one's self is like the heat in an oven. It makes passable Bath buns. But inspiration from within is like a volcano: It changes the face of the world." This quote is taken from the book 'The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag' written by Alan Bradley. I like this quote for what it is, but it doesn't really give any idea on what the book is about.

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag is the second book in the Flavia de Luce series, and I'm hooked! There's 4 books altogether now, and I will certainly look for them. This book started a bit slow, with the author style of giving every character the background story, but the pace picked up after one of the characters was murdered, which was about halfway through. Yes, it's a whodunnit. Did I mention that I love to read whodunnits? To me it's like a puzzle, where readers are supposed to guess, well, who did it. And Flavia de Luce is such a brilliant little girl! She's only 11 yet she's so good with chemistry and solving mysteries. Yes, I know she's a fictional character, but still I admire her nonetheless :)

The book is reminiscent of some of Agatha Christie's works, not because of the style of writing, but perhaps because of the place and era chosen as the background. Surprise surprise, a movie or TV movie is being made from the stories.

Rihlah Ilmiah

Jika tuan puan berminat untuk membeli buku Rihlah Ilmiah: Dari Neomodernisme ke Islamisasi Ilmu Kontemporer tulisan Professor Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, boleh dapatkannya menerusi laman web ini http://wanmohdnorwandaud.blogspot.com/

Saya telah membelinya bulan lalu, tapi masih belum membacanya. Sedikit gusar barangkali ia terlalu 'berat' bagi saya, tapi saya tidak seharusnya menilai sebelum menekuninya sendiri, bukan?