So long..Farewell

I cannot believe I have reached the end of the road called ‘ student’s life’. Today officially I’m stepping out of this wonderful world. 5 ½ years of tertiary education has always been something that I dread. It seemed never ending and I was getting tired of answering people’s questions about my education. But, in a blink of eye here I am bidding painful goodbye to my dearest friends. This 5 ½ years have been thought provoking , touching years. I still remember the first time I entered this college, I felt so out of place. I thought I had made a wrong choice. I used to get annoyed with people. I could not see the positive sight of people as I examined every single person that I met. But as time pass by I learnt to understand, respect and tolerate people. There were so many conflicts too. But friends were there to open my eyes. Through these friends eyes, I learnt to see the world. The timid and shy girl was gone and I learned everything from them….makeup, gossiping, confidence, socialising..etc. Up to now, I have said goodbye to so many of them and every time I hug them, pricks of tears well in my eyes. So this is it. Once I step out of this college, I am no longer a student. I am a teacher, a daughter, a sister, a friend but not a student. The world of adults and responsibilities scares me. But I am ready to face them. To my dearest friends, thanks for all the love and so long…ciao.

P/S- To my dearest friend Venisha, I will miss you a lot. I am so sorry could not hug you goodbye. This 5 ½ years have been wonderful years in my life. We do fought a lot, shouted at each other a la Tom and Jerry couples, but I treasure the friendship. I have learned a lot from you and patience is one of it ;p. I will cherish this relationship forever and I am so sorry had I hurt your feelings in any way. Miss You Missie!

Truly 1Malaysia

Disclaimer: I am not a racist and I do not intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments. This post is purely of my humble opinion.


Ever since the new Prime Minister stepped in, 1Malaysia has become a daily term in our lives. However, how far do we understand and cherish the diversity? Is there unity in diversity as everyone claims? One of my lecturers who was giving a talk for the Kursus Induksi, stepped in said Salam 1Malaysia and said “don’t know what it means. Since everyone is using, lets use”. I think that exactly reflects most Malaysians mentality.

How far do we respect each other’s beliefs and sentiments? Few months ago, I was in my hostel room with my Malay roommate, when the Malay warden walked in. As she entered the room, the first thing that came out of her mouth was “Eh, I ada Keling kat bilik sini Kak,” (there is a Keling inside here) to the other lecturer. And quickly she realised her stinging words and apologised to me and even HUGGED me! Just to make up for what she had said. Just to shut my mouth! And she was clearly perturbed that the Malay girl is staying with 2 Indian girls. In fact, she was keeping on bugging the poor girl if she is Malay. Well, reality check..We are in Malaysia ..a country that talks about 1 Malaysia and unity in diversity.
Past few days we have been having Kursus Induksi, which boasts compulsory attendance of all civil servants. The topics were on Dasar-dasar and Malaysian policies and as clichéd everyone talked about unity, diversity, single stream schools. But what annoyed me and few friends was that the talks were used as a medium of preaching religion lessons and beliefs. I have no qualm about mentioning religious quotes but one has to be very fair when you quote examples from religious verses. Some wise lecturers asked the nons about the view expressed in their respective religions without sounding judgemental. During a session conducted by an Ustad, he was oblivious to the fact that there are Non-Muslim students in the class and started using Arabic words and quotes from Quran verses. Had he translated them, everyone would have benefited. However, to my dismay, he was not bothered about us and kept talking about particular religion. I have no idea about these types of people who cannot act fair to all. You can always take a neutral stand and address God as God instead of giving Him culturally specific names.
Not enough with this marginalisation, recently I heard from a Bumiputra girl that her brother was given a scholarship to study Mandarin in China by MARA. This particular boy has no prior knowledge in Mandarin and was given several choices by the scholarship division to pick one that appeals to him. I suppose all the Chinese in Malaysia has stopped learning Mandarin that the scholarships are given to others who have no knowledge in the field. Imagine a scholarship division calls you at home and asks you to choose an overseas course. Wow..tat’s cool. Long live Malaysia.

Complaints and Complaints

In our daily life, there might be a lot of things that we feel unhappy about. After all we are just human beings with messed up hormones. While some people choose to voice out, some people might just shout at a wall and move on. Something similar happened in my college recently.

A kind soul who could not tolerate the inconsistent and inefficient moves taken by the college in addressing issues concerning our graduation and compulsory courses, decided to draw the director's attention on those matters through a simple letter. And he/she managed to draw the attention of the whole college in fact. The director and deputy directors who prior to this was not even aware of the hustles and tussles happening in our course finally came looking for us to solve the problem before it gets severe. Though, it is very wrong for the writer to have used the word 'we' without our concern, personally i feel that was a good move. In fact, the writer has managed to grab half of the cohort members support while the rest are infuriated by the letter.

What i am not happy about this whole issue is that there are some people who feel that writing complaint letter and putting it into suggestion box is very amateurish and lacks professionalism. What is wrong in conveying one's disagreement in a proper way especially when meeting and talking to the authorities directly is impossible? If that is wrong, government would not have provided complaint boxes in government premises. Wherever we go, let it be bank, office, or school, there are complaint/suggestions boxes for the public to convey their disappointments or address any pertinent issue. In fact, i personally feel that the public should come forward to let the people know of their feelings. How are we to achieve first class mentality and first class service if we cannot even convey our difficulties and dissatisfaction?

However, i should say some good words about the deputy director of the college who was very open minded in addressing the letter. Though, she was little curious about the writer, she admitted the flaws from her side and even promised to look into the matters personally. My cohort has never ceased to surprise the lecturers and the letter is jut another feather in our caps.